Breaking news

A frequent Twitter correspondent to the Spurtle, @dOSsDaz, has been racking his brains recently trying to remember what a local street artist's designs remind him of.

The Glasgow-based Iona Pub Partnership (which runs the 5-storey GHQ at 4 Picardy Place) seeks to erect a security fence on Broughton Street (Ref. 11/02616/FUL).

There's no point in re-inventing the wheel: CEC media staff have issued a perfectly decent press release which we reproduce almost in full below.

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VOTERS are being reminded that polling stations will be open this Thursday 18 August for the Edinburgh City Centre by-election.

The Festival is a time of feverish activity for all kinds of local businesses, not least Chariot Media who were working overtime yesterday afternoon to prepare, maintain and repair some of their 36-strong fleet of cycle rickshaws.

For much of the year, the rickshaws come out mainly at weekends in the evenings, but over the summer demand swells as visitors to the city sit back and take in eyefuls of scenery, earfuls of information or lungfuls of carbon monoxide depending on the route and traffic conditions.

We reviewed Philip Braham's exhibition Still. here a few days ago, and mentioned in passing the haunted quality of many of the paintings.

Now, it appears, Union Gallery co-owner Alison Auldjo is experiencing an odd chill of her own as she stands in front of the uncannily familiar figure in 'Bluebell Woods'.

Not for the first time, Spurtle raised the vexed issue of the effects supermarkets have on our town and city centres earlier this month (Issue 197). It prompted a thoughtful response in our Letters column, and a question on the topic was asked at last week's by-election hustings.