OUR renewed freedom to hug reminds Gilbert MacKay, from Newton Mearns, of a university class where one of his fellow students was called Fred, while two of the lecturers were named Dr Huggin and Dr McKissack.

Meaning that sometimes it was possible to witness (though never in the back seat) Huggin and McKissack with Fred.

Inadequate insurrection

STROLLING down Sauchiehall Street, reader Cynthia Arnold spotted a teenage girl dressed in the punk fashion of spiky hair and shredded jeans.

This rough-n-tumble rebel’s sartorial majesty was topped off by a T-shirt emblazoned with one word in suitably defiant lettering, which roared: ‘DISOBEY!!!’

She also happened to have a face mask neatly attached to her face.

“Talk about mixed messages,” chuckles Cynthia.

Ship shop strop

THE Diary continues to be all at sea with our tales of voyages, both long and short. Malcolm Boyd, from Milngavie, was travelling on business to Mull by the CalMac ferry from Oban to Craignure. He was joined in the cafeteria by three ladies on a bus tour of the Highlands. As the ship departed, the group were informed that the shop was now open. On hearing this, the women eagerly rushed off… to purchase their duty-free goods.

They later returned, much deflated, grumbling that they were astonished not to find any cheap booze, as they had been on a ferry to France where there was duty-free bargains galore.

Pilfered puppet

A PHILOSOPHICAL thought from reader Julie Baldwin: “If Pinocchio was real, a corrupt joiner would have stolen him by now to use as an infinite source of free wood.”

Bum deal

A CHUM of a Kilmarnock reader was suffering from a sore eye, but couldn’t get a surgery appointment. Instead, a medical official told him to get his wife to photograph the irritated orb and e-mail the image to the doctor.

“I bet she was glad the problem wasn’t piles,” says our reader.

Road to ruin

OUR readers are a vigorous bunch, though sometimes they are confronted by information that forces them to feel the fumbling finger of Father Time tap-tapping on their shoulders.

For example, a friend of Brian Johnston, from Torrance, informed him the release date of The Beatles album Abbey Road is closer to the First World War than it is to the year 2021.

Did that make our correspondent feel old?

“Order me a stairlift and pass the Sanatogen,” shudders Brian.

Picture perfect

“THEY say the camera adds ten pounds,” notes reader Albert Fowler, “so I’ve started taking photos of my wallet.”