Talk of the Town: You don’t have to be nuts to work here..

City councillors received support, of a kind, from an unexpected quarter this week when travel bible Conde Nast published a list of advertising campaigns that stank even more than Marketing Edinburgh’s controversial £300,000 effort.

Among the campaigns to be panned were Leavenworth, Washington (“He’s a nut cracker, so bring the nuts”); Panama (“It Will Never Leave You”); and Israel (“Size doesn’t matter”).

Fitting company for “Incredinburgh”?

Cubs are the conkerers

THE national horse chestnut shortage is continuing to hit conkers fans hard after a competition in the Capital came close to being cancelled this month.

Following news that the sixth Scottish conker championships were nearly called off, one group of Edinburgh youngsters were almost left swinging into thin air only weeks into efforts to organise a competition for their local cub pack.

But this story has a happy ending after Green councillor Gavin Corbett put out an appeal on Twitter and, within hours, was contacted by an individual willing to donate his own 50-conker stash so the 107 Pentland Cubs’ competition could go ahead.

Mr Corbett said: “I like the thought that, even though the kids have access to lots of sophisticated electronic equipment, they can still enjoy a good, old-fashioned game of conkers.”

Strong-arm tactics

ONE thing sadly lacking in modern life is the sight of the traditional circus strongman.

But thanks to Power Plate Training Academy Studio EH1, in Coates Crescent, the city may be soon flooded with muscular, moustached types.

As part of its Movember charity challenge clients are being invited to bring along a friend for a month of free training – as long as that friend is in possession of a soup strainer.

However, it does specify that the friend should be male, so no need to abandon the hair removal regime this time, ladies . . .

Geography lesson

CAPITAL teen singing sensation Nina Nesbitt has told Twitter followers of an interesting geography lesson she picked up on a city-bound train.

She wrote: “‘I can’t believe Scotland is a actually country, it’s not really is it?’ says the guy on a busy train to Edinburgh WHAAAAAT WHAAAAT.”