John Gibson: The lights bring back the memory

Six thousand lights on the St Columba’s Christmas tree in Charlotte Square and Sir Tom Farmer switched them on for what seemed like as many people shivering in the Square’s garden on Monday.

Tom made a salient point talking to me post switch-on: “A nice, moving event because this is a tree of memories. Each light rekindles memories of someone who was loved and cared for at St Columba’s, by relatives and staff.

“There’s a song, recorded by Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong among others, titled The Song Is Ended with a line that says ‘the melody lingers on’ and, with this tree in mind, I’d dare substitute ‘memory’ with ‘melody’.’’

A crowd of six thousand? That’s more than Hibernian owner Sir Tom’s team pull at Easter Road on a Saturday. “Don’t be saying that,” warned Tom, who can take a joke.

Bristle do nicely

I’m told by my artful correspondent in London that black market tickets for the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery have been changing hands on the internet at 15 times their value. To you sir, that’ll be £250.

Why get stung when you can see Leonardo’s Mona Lisa for the price of a plate of pasta at the Jolly in Elm Row, or just pop your head round the ristorante’s door?

Moustached, she smiles at every customer.

Afterwords . .

. . . Astounding. Dave Brubeck was 91 on Tuesday. Take another five Dave.