An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Certain administrative and technical adjustments are about to be made to this website which may result in a short interruption to our normal service starting tomorrow.
If this should occur, don't worry – the online Spurtle will return shortly.
In the meantime, you can also find us in the usual printed form; or truncated in Twitter: @thespurtle; on the phone Tel. 558 8574; and we're contactable by email – spurtle@hotmail.co.uk.
It may seem a long way off, but now's the time to start preparing for National Wear Red Day on 25 February.
As part of National Heart Month, the day is a fund-raising event for the British Heart Foundation. Staggeringly simple, all you have to do is wear red.
Free collection kits can be ordered from bhf.org.uk/red or Tel. 0845 241 0976.
All quiet on the Broughton Front, although three local applications have just been granted. The first three links below are to Spurtle's most recent coverage.
Owing to the combination of inclement weather conditions (howling blizzards) and unfavourable local circumstances (howling wolves chasing Spurtle paperboys up and down Broughton Street), there is every chance that some delays may occur in this morning's distribution of the December issue.
We apologise for any inconvenience and respectfully point out that it's a miracle there are any copies out there at all.
Further online stories will continue to be posted to this site during the next few hours and days.
The 'latest' minutes of the NTBCC's October meeting, and an agenda for its forthcoming 6 December meeting, are now available as pdfs in Extras.
Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz's regular advice surgeries will operate normally this month, except for 24 and 31 December when they are cancelled.
Surgeries will resume on Friday 7 January 2011 at 4:00pm in Stockbridge Library, and at 5:00pm in the constituency office at 5 Croall Place, Leith Walk. Appointments will also normally be available at other times on Friday.
Mr Lazarowicz plans holding surgeries on a regular basis at other community locations in the constituency in 2011. Times and locations will be advertised locally and on his website.
December is upon us and Snowmaggedon is in full swing, but with our intrepid Council working around the clock to clear the roads there’s no reason to stay indoors!
Patricia Mackie was born and raised in Bellevue Terrace, attended James Gillespie’s when it was still an all-girls school (‘Jean Brodie and all that’), and left Edinburgh on getting married. She departed Scotland altogether in 1978 when she moved first to Canada, then the Caribbean, then Norfolk.
December's issue of the Spurtle will be printed tonight in time for delivery to local pubs, clubs, shops, newsagents, hairdressers, galleries, nightspots, dayspots, cafés, greengrocers, fishmongers, schools, surgeries and sundry street corners.
Fans of traditional Scottish fiddle music, and those interested in taking up the instrument in January 2011, are welcome to attend the Pilrig Fiddlers' End of Year Concert tomorrow (26 November).
Performances by all levels – from Absolute Beginners to Advanced Level 2 – will start at 4:00pm in Pilrig Church Hall (Pilrig Street).
Those attending can meet the group's guides and leaders – Eilidh Steel and Morag Brown – over mince pies, tea and coffee afterwards.