Talk of the Twon: Getting all Hoth and bothered

WHILE the rest of the country has been crippled by the snow, the Capital has emerged relatively unscathed from the big chill.

The gently flurry of snow which blanketed the city over the weekend seemed more a cause for celebration, with snowman fanatics scurrying to their gardens and parks to try their hand at recreating this year’s most popular Christmas ad.

Not content with a snowman, however, was the lad spotted in Princes Street Gardens with his “wee man” out in the snow.

Far from being a risky bit of exposure, however, this was the work of an enterprising snapper keen to re-create the icy wastelands of Star Wars using nothing but a miniature figurine and a few inches of powdered snow.

A real broth of a lad

NICKNAMES can often vary from the cruel to the inspired, and one lad must surely feel his belongs firmly in the latter category. Word reaches Talk of the Town that a local has picked up the catchy nickname “two soups” – because his name is Campbell Baxter.

Turning gamekeeper

HACKERS are the modern-day scourge of law-enforcement, with skills enabling them to break into the world’s most secure networks and wreak chaos.

Now students at Edinburgh Napier University are to show their skills at code-cracking as part of a UK challenge to find a job in cyber security. The Capital team will no doubt dream of following in the footsteps of the 14-year old hacker who, in 1970, crashed a US computer network with a home-made virus – then went on to found Microsoft.

Shortage left Burns plans in ribbons

PREPARATIONS for Burns Night are getting into full swing and leading to a few unexpected problems.

MSP Kezia Dugdale was flabbergasted to find John Lewis had run out of tartan ribbon – a vital decoration for any Burns supper. Ms Dugdale spoke of “utter panic” at the department store, although John lewis later assured customers it had plenty of of the decorative ribbon left.