Talk of the Town: He’s swanned off

IT is a temptation for many parents – to boot teenagers out of the family home and get them to stand on their own two feet.

But Union Canal visitors will be saddened to hear one of the five cygnets who have made Fountainbridge their home has already been giving his marching orders – by his sisters. “The fifth cygnet – a male – was chased away by a couple of the other female cygnets,” said a spokeswoman for British Waterways. The outcast has now moved to another section of the waterway to go it alone. Good luck to him.

Pond life and death

HARD as it is to believe for a girl who spend her time flying around battling monsters, Doctor Who star Karen Gillan has a death wish.

The former Telford College student has said she wants her alter ego Amy Pond killed off. The 23-year-old actress said: “I think killing Amy off could be done if you tackled it right. I want people to remember the Amy Pond era of Doctor Who as a good one. I don’t want her to pop up again.”

Will she change her mind in years to come, when a return to the Tardis perhaps looks more enticing? Only time will tell.

Jimmy will clear up

THERE’S no harm in being prepared for a big freeze this winter – and now there’s a salty solution to seasonal woes that comes with the ringing endorsement of snooker legend Jimmy White, a man who knows how to effect a good clearance.

Pure White is being launched by the snooker star at Road Expo Scotland, at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Showground, tomorrow. The new retail range of de-icing and anti-icing salt is aimed at helping householders stay ahead of the weather, and to demonstrate its effectiveness Jimmy White will not, as you might expect, be using it to clear his drive, but will instead be accepting challenges at a pool table from visitors to the event and demonstrating trick shots.

Academics tap a rich vein

IT might not be the most academic of studies, but it’s certainly the perfect topic for Hallowe’en.

Several of Edinburgh University’s brightest social scientists are to speak in London this week to discuss how vampires are portrayed in contemporary pop culture.

Being an academic discussion Topics range from the light-hearted “Edward Cullen Is A Controlling And Abusive Boyfriend: Twilight And The Discourse Of Control And Coercion In Heterosexual Relationships” to the more serious “Vampire In The Mirror: The Psychoanalysis Of Immortal Narcissism”.

Sounds fang-tastic.