We cannot make any comment on what happened up to the point that this first clip was shot as we have neither been able to speak to fotofan001 nor get Multrees Walk’s side of the story yet.

Again, without knowing what transpired between the first and second clip, we do not wish to make any commentary.

We have tried calling Multrees Walk, though there was nobody available for comment today. We have emailed them and will faithfully update this post with any comments they may have.

In the interest of fairness if any of our readers knows Fotofan, or how to contact him, we would of course offer him the opportunity to comment too.

What say Edinburgh’s Photographers?

Are you a photographer in Edinburgh? We would also be delighted to hear your opinion on this. Are there restrictions on where you are allowed to take photos? Have you been asked to delete photos by security staff? Please leave comments and let us know!

[EDIT 15th October 2010]

We have been given this link to a text file on photographers rights – it’s from the photography blog PetaPixel.

We have yet to get a comment from Multrees Walk.

[image credit]

ReelScotland have the trailer, I must say it looks hilarious!

Well worth a look in any case.

Just in case you’ve not heard and are reading this frustratedly trying to get to work: His Expensively Holiness Der Papst is in town today at a cost of somewhere between 10 and 20 million of our lovely Scottish Pounds. Estimates vary wildly and the actual cost may never be known as costs of travel disruption will be rough estimations at best.

Granted there are some people it delights, and some it disgusts, but most people are engorged with total and utter apathy.

Well, we tend to veer toward apathy here, but we managed to bother ourselves just enough to think of the numbers a little.

If we assume Scotland’s population to be 5million and Scotland to have 2.3million households, then irrespective of how many million it actually ends up costing, the following is ALL FACT

For every £1 Million it costs, each Scottish household could get 43.4 pence

For £11 Million Jamie Oliver could feed each Scottish household one meal

For £20 Million every Scot could get a sandwich and a coffee on the train

For £40 Million we could build an eleventh of a parliament

For £100 Million we could all go radge on Buckfast

Any other good ideas to spend our lovely Scottish Pounds on? Let us know in the comments, we’ll try to find suitable pictures for each sugegstion so we can commemorate this day appropriately…

We are lucky enough to have been given a “muckle wheen” of invites to the NEW digg.

In true generous Scottish spirit, we want to share these to our friends and followers. Simply click the button below to gain access to the all NEW digg.

We look forward to seeing you there and hope you will enjoy the NEW digg.com feel free to follow (and digg) us there.

Once you have access to new.digg.com you will likely also get more invites, if you’d like to you can post the invite codes here in the comments to spread the love… there’s no requirement to do it though :)

And last but not least, thank you for all your continued support of EdinburghSeasons!!

How It Started

Drawing of Burke and Hare via Wikipedia

The two men met in 1827 when Burke and his female companion became tenants in a somewhat sleazy boarding house owned by Hare’s wife. The two couples hit it off. One can just imagine the two guys sharing beers after a hard day at work—kicking back and shooting the breeze. They had a lot in common. Both were laborers and had immigrated to Edinburgh from Ireland. Both had found life a pretty hardscrabble affair and were looking for a way up and out. They must have had dreams, but their ticket to the good life turned out to be suffocating unsuspecting victims in Hare’s boarding house and delivering the cadavers to one Dr. Knox, a prominent physician and anatomist who paid cash and asked no questions. It was a cool gig until they got a little too cocky and got caught. The hours were good and the money wasn’t bad either.
They fell into the business accidentally when an elderly tenant died owing £4 back rent. Burke and Hare decided to steal the body out of the casket and sell it for the back rent. It seemed only fair. They substituted tanners bark for the corpse, sealed the coffin, and hustled the body off to Dr. Knox. In case you are wondering why a prominent doctor would stoop to paying for cadavers, I should note that Edinburgh was and still is, for that matter, a world famous center for medical education and research. In the early nineteenth century, medical students and researchers were flocking there for education and intellectual and scientific stimulation. Cadavers for dissection were in great demand but supply was limited; the only legal source of cadavers being the dead bodies of criminals. It was just the old economic law of supply and demand.

Burke and Hare had an entrepreneurial streak. The pay for corpses was so good that they decided to manufacture a few, using the boarding house to lure in their victims for the kill. Their first actual murder was another elderly lodger. Soon, with the help of their female consorts they were luring victims to the boarding house and dispatching them after plying them with booze, or in the case of the lame and the halt, simply overpowering them. Suffocation was their favorite method of dispatch. They concentrated on the vulnerable—an old lady and her grandson, a blind boy, a prostitute, even a cousin of Burke’s mistress. Success made them bold and careless. They should have stuck to vagrants and transients who would not be recognized or missed. They went too far when they killed a crippled, mentally retarded boy called “ Daft Jamie” who was well known in the district and whose disappearance was definitely noticed. Several of Knox’s anatomy students recognized the youngster’s body when it was being dissected in anatomy class and suspicions were aroused. The end was near.

Burke and Hare’s last victim, one Marjory Campbell Docherty, was the one that did them in (to coin a phrase.) A lodger searching for a missing stocking under a bed found instead the lady’s corpse and went off to notify police. Burke, Hare, and the two women were caught red handed. The jig was up. Hare and his wife turned crown’s evidence in exchange for immunity and provided the court with all the gory details, proving once again the truth of the old saw about there being no honor among thieves.

How It Ended

Pretty much sums it up…

Banter between neighbours is healthy in most cases, we certainly hope that this was meant in the same light hearted manner!

Pleased to meet you, meat to please you

This Halal butcher’s van is often seen out and about in the Leith area. By the looks of things quite a few graffiti taggers have been “pleased to meet” the van too…

Well done to Najaf Halal Meats for keeping us entertained on the roads of Edinburgh!

John Cleese is just one of the comedy giants discovered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

[Image credit: Lord Biro]

Graham Chapman & John Cleese

Graham Chapman & John Cleese later went on to become founding members of Monty Python. They first performed in Edinburgh in the early 1960s with a revue by the name of A Clump of Plinths. Chapman died in 1989 aged just 48 and fittingly it was John Cleese who read his hilarious eulogy. Here we have a clip from Monty Python’s Flying Circus to commemorate these two great comedy legends who gained initial notoriety at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson the lovable rubber faced creator of Mr. Bean, co-creator of (and actor in) Blackadder also got his first critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976. Atkinson’s facial expressions are often better at conveying a message than words ever could, his comic timing is impeccable as the following clip shows:

Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie

Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie are without doubt two globally loved actors and comedians. Fry & Laurie won the very first Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of 1981 (as part of Cambridge Footlights along with Tony Slattery, Emma Thompson, Penny Dwyer and Paul Shearer). They have performed together often in such series as The Young Ones, Blackadder, A bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves & Wooster.

Hugh Laurie is now best known for his central role in House while Stephen Fry hosts the incredibly successful quiz show QI.

The clip that follows shows their comedic genius in A bit of Fry & Laurie

Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan also won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1992. In Britain he’s possibly most loved for the characters Paul Calf and Alan Partridge, whilst our American readers are more likely to know him from films such as Night at the Museum or Tropic Thunder. The clip we have selected to share with you is his first TV appearance in the role of student-bashing, heavy-drinking, smoking and swearing super star Paul Calf.

The League Of Gentlemen

The League of Gentlemen started as a stage show in 1994, in 1997 they too won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In the same year their show aired on BBC Radio 4 before getting televised in 1999. The League of Gentlemen is a dark comedy based around the village of Royston Vasey which is home to some very strange characters indeed…

Rory Bremner

Rory Bremner is the only one of our comedy legends to have both been born in Edinburgh and to have made it big at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Best known in the UK for his satirical impressions of politicians and celebrities, Bremner is a master of mimicry. His command of foreign languages may not be so well known though, in this clip he does an impression of George W. Bush in French:

Al Murray

Al Murray is yet another Perrier Award winner in our collection here, though he was short listed in 1996, 1997, 1998 before finally winning the prestigious award in 1999. He is famed for the xenophopic character The Pub Landlord who takes no prisoners in his quest to make certain everyone understands the greatness of Great Britain. In this clip he takes on America…

Rich Hall

Rich Hall is an American comedian who has a great following in the UK, appearing in his own shows as well as numerous panel shows. Hall also won the Perrier Award in 2000 and was short listed in 1996 along with Al Murray. Hall is distinguished as having won the most number of times on Stephen Fry’s quiz show QI. He has spent many years in London and, as he tells in this clip, has met the Queen:

Just what is the lemur saying?

So readers and visitors, we throw the challenge open to you to tell us what you think the lemur might be saying.

2 Tickets To See The Lemur Live

The best caption for this photo will win 2 tickets to Edinburgh Zoo. To enter simply leave a comment below with your lemur caption in it. The winner will be selected on 31st July 2009 at 15:00 BST.

Prizes

The winner of the lemur caption competition will receive 2 tickets to Edinburgh Zoo & their caption will be featured in an article on EdinburghSeasons.

Lemur Legislation

• The winner will be selected by the photographer Scott Liddell and / or EdinburghSeasons.
• Entries will be judged on wit, humour & originality.
• All entries may be published by EdinburghSeasons.
• The judges decision is final.

Keep it clean
Have fun
Good luck!

In the right hand column, under “Recent Posts” there are now two new boxes. The first of these boxes is our facebook fan page box, this shows you the people in our facebook fan page. The second box is our Google Friend Connect.

What Are These Boxes For?

That’s a very good question! Basically these services make it easier for you to connect with us and your friends.

Over time we will introduce more features with these services enabling our readers, friends and fans to interact more deeply with EdinburghSeasons and each other. For the moment they serve as a way for you to meet the other people who read and visit EdinburghSeasons. If you are on facebook you can join our fan page, or if you have a Google account you can join EdinburghSeasons using it too.

It is all free and without any hassle, after all first and foremost we want you to enjoy the site!

If you have any questions, comments or indeed concerns please feel free to leave a comment – we will answer everyone :)