GROUND ZERO
From the. . . . comes a (‘rL'JUVL‘ cprosmn: gympliit lll m-Ix.
FEST THUMBS UP
Re: Letters (503)
Further to the letter from your Paisley-based reader bemoaning the amount of Edinburgh pages over the last
. I think your coverage over the Edinburgh Festival period is spot~on — giVing your readers everywhere a coniprehensive and entertaining insight of the world's biggest festival of its kind.
We should think of the event as national — not just as Ediiil'mrgh's.
I'm more than happy to have dOuble. treble or quadruple the pages related to the event because. although based in Glasgow. I spend many satisfying hours on the Festival trail.
Well done again for keeping us so informed!
Peter Samson Glasgow
month.
FEST THUMBS DOWN Re: Letters (503)
I agree with Carol M of Paisley that The List tends to become Festival-biased at this time of year. I doubt that many of your readers have interests in all sections of the magazine and not everybody is entranced by the Edinburgh Festival. least of all Edinburgh residents. A lot of what passes for ‘art‘ at the Festival is self-indulgent. pretentious wank. Or as Jim Taggart would say. 'Art With a capital F'.
Value is a subjective concept but during the Festival the value of The List in monetary terms is reduced by two-thirds. due to the reduction in size of the ‘main’ magazine. and the weekly publishing schedule at the usual price.
For the 2005 Edinburgh Festival I w0uld like to see The List carry on as usual, ie fortnightly. and a weekly special should be produced for the Festival fans. This will take some planning but it is well within your capabilities. if you start early enough. Now would be good. Gavin Wallace By email
2 THE LIST 9—23 Sep 200.:
Letters
The List,
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or The List at the CCA
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or email editor@list.co.uk
FEST: THUMB OUT Re: Letters (503)
I'm from Glasgow but. unlike the letter writer from last issue. I like the Festival — if you can‘t be bothered to get on a train or bus for an hour you don't deserve to have fun. But while some of the shows are great. the organisation really gets on my nerves. First I had to queue at the Fringe office to get tickets because no one had told me there was an online booking tent and later that day when I went to the Assembly Rooms I ended up waiting for 15 minutes in the rain because the last show overran and then we got herded around like sheep. l was told I couldn‘t even wait in the bar and have a drink. I know the Festival's a big event and needs some organisation. but Christ. they could use a bit more.
Simon Marsh
Mount Florida
DOG DAYS
Why is the anti-dog feeling so rife in our city? Edinburgh is in thrall to discriminatory bodies conspiring relentlessly against the humble dog.
Recently. I had cause to linger briefly in the doorway of the Central Library. shettering from the deluge and waiting for a friend to emerge. I had by my side a gentle Spaniel. l was consequently driven from the threshold by a jealous doorman in a manner more appropriate for defending one's children from a host of deeply contagious bearers of an obscure and incurable disease. ‘This is a library!‘ he declared. aghast. in his defence. as if I had mistaken it for a pungent swathe of water meadow.
This same meek Spaniel has become an innocent conspirator in a plot to deprive me of sustenance. Public houses. it seems. cannot bear the burden of both a dog and a sandWich. Why? Will the presence in the vicinity of my dog mysteriously infect those eating Iasagne? Will her dogness seep into the kitchen.
lay low the sous-chef and insidioust spread itself over the lemon meringue pie? Is my dog less hygenic a dining companion than the obese and unctuOus man sliding from his seat in pursuit of his fumbled Regal King Size after his seventh pint of SpeCial?
Pubs tend to encourage drinking and we are not yet averse to smoking. Are we to believe these amusements to be less harmful than the miasma of a sleepy spaniel?
Citylink buses don't allow dogs either.
Claudia Massie
GUIDE DOG DO lt come to my attention that a small sub—section of society is persistently contravening the laws regarding the disposal of dog dirt.
Those towed by a guide dog apparently believe themselves
to be above this law that £i(I(?(ill£ii(%I\ goxems the rest ot us. I understand that in the case of a genuinely blind person the collection and disposal of the mattei may. be more complicated. but the dogs should be trained to assist.
Little childien are. after all. as likely to be infected or blinded by guide dogs' mess as normal (logs. The health of our children is surer more important than the political correctness which would seem to prevent addressing this issue to the relevant parties. Marjorie Beresford Edinburgh So everyone who '5; vrsua/ly impaired ‘be/ieves they 're above the law'. and 'the rest of us' are innocent? Hnirn. You're trying to get a rise out of us. We've passed your letter on to the Daily Mail.
LETTER OF THE FORTNIGHT
SWEATY PANTERS
collective. uncontrollable urges to bare one‘s pasty legs and fling oneself, gasping. along the pathways of Edinburgh's Meadows? What if everyone started blasting through the streets in small groups? What then. eh?
Gillian Sherwood Edinburgh
I write in an appeal for information about a maddening phenomenon that has been occurring on our usually peaceful Meadows. I have counted three separate instances. The situation that I refer to is that of four or five groups of men and women. each in their 208 and 30s. wearing shorts and panting. running up and down the pathways of the Meadows. Now. when I say running I mean really going for it — whizzing up and down and back again. All red faces and wheeZing lungs. As a lone traverser of the pathways of the Meadows on a midweek evening - tired after a hard day tapping out a dissertation that doesn't seem to want to be tapped. the last thing I want to experience is groups of sweating people repeatedly running — nay hurtling — towards me without the least hint of an explanation. Here's the call: who are you running. people? I know that Olympics fever abounds but need this result in
TWO BOTTLES OF
An ideal drink l‘oi~ any occasion
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