The dog-loving Bond villain look-a-like and Scotland’s worst trains: things we learned this week

The things we’ve discovered in the last seven days.

1. Blood is thicker than water.

Our readers sided with the families in a row over who gets to attend a special remembrance ceremony in London to pay tribute to military personnel killed in Afghanistan.

We reported on Sunday that “Family representatives of fallen soldiers are to be invited but where the next of kin is a husband or wife, parents will be denied the right to attend unless asked as the spouse’s “plus one”. It means families who perhaps don’t get on have a difficult battle ahead.”

And it’s an issue that has enraged many of our readers, who have universally criticised the arrangements.

2. It’s going to be all about the SNP.

We revealed that “The SNP is on course to win 45 of the 59 seats in Scotland at the General Election”.

But Labour’s Jim Murphy was having none of it claiming that voters will “switch late and switch big”

How someone goes about “switching big” is something we are yet to learn, and we’ll have to wait and see if it becomes a thing in 2015.

Like selfies, or Ice Bucket Challenges…

3. Danny O’Donoghue loved a bit of The Monkees.

The Script frontman admitted a somewhat unfashionable love, only true in fairytales, for Daydream Believer when he was a youngster. We couldn’t understand what the blushing was about we’re total Monkees Believers.

4. How to spell mnemonic.

Our words blogger Steve Finan focused on mnemonics in his latest post.

The little rules of mnemonics have helped us remember tough words to spell for generations and generations.

Word checkers and quick google searches may have replaced the mnemonic for many, but we still love the old rules.

I before E, except after C!

5. The biggest problems with trains are us the passengers.

We sent our feature writer Chae Strathie on a train-ing mission to find out what it feels like to travel on the nation’s rail network. He came across smelly toilets, packed carriages, and some pretty dodgy stains…

But our undercover train user found that the staff were top drawer and that the worst things about train travel were inconsiderate users!

6. There’s a Bond villain look-a-like who wants to help home ugly dog Buddy!

We reported a fortnight ago that Buddy the lurcher had been having a hard time finding a home due to his appearance. That struck a chord with many readers and Gary Tiplady who has vowed to help Buddy out.

Gary has a 56-inch chest, and weighs 25 stone as a result of a hormonal disorder.

He was touched by Buddy’s story and is now helping the loney dog find a home.