Talk of the Town: Wordsters railing against the trams

TALK of the Town knows more than a few expletives that could be justifiably ascribed to our city’s jinxed tram proposals.

But one hyperlocal news site has opened the allegorical floodgates by inviting suggestions for a portmanteau word for the project.

They kicked off with their own offerings: tramasco (tram + fiasco), trambles (tram + shambles) and trout (tram + a curtailed route).

Among the entries, which included “tramageddon” and “tramdemonium”, TOTT agreed that the most accurate submission was not a portmanteau at all but a salient analogy.

@AlanDRutland said the trams project had been “like an optimist falling off a 30-storey building: no scream, but at each floor a voice is heard saying, ‘Okay so far’”.

Referees’ Black looks in bid to tackle foul play

HEARTS midfielder Ian Black has built a reputation as one of the SPL’s toughest tacklers.

So there was no surprise at the Jambo’s training ground yesterday during a visit of referees that he featured in numerous examples of what did or did not constitute a fair challenge.

On Twitter, his team-mate Ryan McGowan joked: “Most of the clips shown were of our very own Ian ‘Lord Farquar’ Black! Surprising I know!”

It’s the Doctor . . say ‘aah’

IT’S not often that former Doctor Who star David Tennant is lost for words.

But the Bathgate-born actor has been forced to pull out of a West End show after losing his voice.

Tennant has so far missed two performances of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

However, the actor has his biggest performance yet coming up at the end of the year as he plans to tie the knot with fiancée Georgia Moffett.

The couple have planned a “secret” ceremony on Hogmanay.

Let’s hope he gets his voice back by then.

Scots prefer it gold-plated

NEW research shows that drivers in Edinburgh are some of the most likely in Britain to splash their hard-earned cash on a personalised number plate.

The study, conducted by insurer elephant.co.uk, found that of the top ten postcodes where the number plates are popular, eight of them are in Scotland – and most are attached to Ferraris and Bentleys.

What we’d like to know is where these people are keeping their pots of gold? Add parking fees and pesky traffic wardens to the mix and driving in the Capital really can cost two arms and a leg.