When Spurtle repeated a publicist's local angle on a visiting performer last week (Breaking news, 2.8.13), we did so with a healthy dollop of scepticism. Donal O'Kelly, we thought, was probably not spending his every waking hour offstage in Broughton.
How wrong we were. The photographic evidence shows him 'looking very much at home' and cheerful, possibly because he is the winner of a Scotsman Fringe First Award for Fionnuala and Skeffly, in which his solo performances have won rave reviews such as this from Joyce Macmillan.
Our complimentary tickets to the two Hill Street Theatre shows have now been allocated.
Actors of all abilities can rely on Broughton for questionable advice. Witness the latest Villeneuve A-board with its unhelpful suggestion for how to calm first-night jitters and shorten a career on the boards.
Theatre-goers, too, may doubt their sobriety on the approach to St Stephen's Church along Fettes Row. Various slight architectural departures from the vertical add a queasy element to the scene, and may explain any irregularities in the smooth running of Europe's longest clock pendulum. The new owner of the listed building remains a mystery – even to some of the Church Commissioners, according to one St Stephen's insider.
Speaking of mysteries, who can identify the central Broughton detail below?
And who can explain the baffling complexity of this graffiti tag, repeated four times on the workmen's hut in Bellevue Crescent. We rather admire it, as tags go, but think it woefully impractical for a quick getaway – rather like the item above.
Do you have any summery snapshots or random observations of Broughton this weekend? If so, please share them by email spurtle@hotmail.co.uk on Facebook Broughton Spurtle or Twitter @theSpurtle