John Gibson: This can't be the Archie I know and love

Published on Thursday 15 October 2009 09:50

CAN it possibly be true? Archie MacPherson consorting with gangsters. The heavy mob. (I'm reading in the papers).. Bundles of notes involved.

I'm picturing him wearing a light blue fedora, in a long, light blue overcoat, chomping on a big fat cigar at the wheel of a light blue limo.

Certainly not the Archie I knew and loved. We go back a long way, to even before his three-year stint as Edinburgh Uni rector in the Eighties.

A whole new ball game and the revelations in his autobiography confirm, once and for all, that it is a game of two haufs.

On and on . .

Fingers on buzzers. How often has Chariots of Fire been on TV? Is it 12, 22 or 32 times? And Ice Cold in Alex, The Comancheros, Titanic, Krakatoa East of Java, High Anxiety, Jungle Book, The Glenn Miller Story, The Caine Mutiny, Highlander, The Red Shoes, Conan the Barbarian, Guns at Batasi, etc, etc, etc.

Biding my time

Words stuck in my memory, from novelist of repute Anthony Powell in The Acceptance: "He fell in love with himself at first sight and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful."

Which could well apply to an Edinburgher who is no stranger to the political spectrum. A regular reader, he well knows who I'm talking about. Biding my time till the general election before splashing him here in block caps, again quoting Anthony Powell (no relation to Sandy Powell).

Gord knows

Off the ball? . . . here's wee Gordon Strachan timely talking: "I do believe that if you're not a decent man, you can't be a decent footballer."

I do believe there's every chance he'll come to eat his words. See you later, regurgitator.

Afterwords . .

. . . from Joan Rivers, who's never stuck for them: "I'm an outsider. You don't want to be too close to the people you make fun of. You cannot make a joke about Mrs Obama, then go to the White House. You have to make the choice. Except I'm never invited, so I have no choice."