hoolet issue 39

Winter 2003

Chris Johnstone Intro.
Private Passions
Five Things I wish I'd known before becoming RCGP Chairman
Mornings are Broken
A Minestone Model of Medicine - Clarifying the Soup
Profile - Gordon Crosby
Challenging Times
Life is Brief
Whats New? Management Changes
Revalidation Materials available from RCGP Scotland
Did You Know?
The Bluffers Guide to Appraisal - The Dos and Donts of Appraisal
Neighbour meets Norton
Ten Years From Now
Anniversaries & Predictions
Notice Board
 

A History of Hoolets

By Chris Johnstone
Contact the author by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

Thirteen years ago several fresh faced GPs sat on their Faculty Board and wanted to do something to make the College more attractive to younger members and to publicise the College in a better way. And to see their names in print. With the guidance of a wonderful printer and designer and with help from lots of friends they produced a newsletter called Rocket. 13 issues later the rest of Scotland was clamouring for it. Rocket went nationwide, but first it needed a new name reflecting its national status. After an exhaustive search and a huge competition two GPs, Ken McLean and Somerled Fergusson, spookily came up with the same name at the same time. hoolet was christened. 10 years later you hold the 39th issue of this little bit of vanity publishing in your hands as you sit in the smallest room in the house. It would have been the 40th issue, but we missed one when the drug companies went into freefall along with the stock market after Sept 11th.

A hoolet is a small Scottish owl, appropriate for the Scottish wing of a UK institution with an owl on its crest. The first copies of Rocket had a College owl with an eyepatch and a crutch, but this was removed in due deference to owls. The owl is symbol of wisdom and little hoolet came to represent a little knowledge. Owls becme important in hoolet’s history as GPs started sending in owls from all over Scotland and then the UK and then from all over the world. We have had owls sent from all five continents, but our favourite came from. Moray Grigor and can be seen on page 14 of this issue.

Spookily, again, hoolet is not the first magazine called hoolet to be produced around Paisley. In the last century but one a radical left wing publication was self-published of the same name. It tried to shame the prevailing staid culture with biting wit and satire. It faded away without a trace.

Hoolets have been around for a long time. Robert Burns, another man who liked to see his name in print, mentions them in his poem The Keeking Glass reprinted here. 

Hoolets was the nickname given to the canal boats travelling from Glasgow to Edinburgh., As it was cheaper they carried a cargo of coal during darkness. Their two gas lanterns at the front gave them the impression of of night owls gliding the countryside. hoolets was also the nickname given to Lanarkshire miners as they came out the pit. As they removed their protective glasses, their white eyes against their coal blackened faces made them very owlish. On a dusky evening as the pit emptied, flocks of hoolets could made out in the gloom flying back to their fireside, families and zinc bathtubs. There is still a line of Cottages near Motherwell called Hoolet’s Row.

So hoolets have an honourable history which we are proud to carry forward. This hoolet has been made possible by the goodwill, generosity and free time of hundreds of people. We have produced over 1000 pages of articles, reports, bad jokes and cartoons from over 200 contributors. No-one got paid. We would like to thank everyone over the years who has contributed to hoolet and made it what it is today. I would also like to apologise to everyone who I forgot to reply to or to whom I owe money or champagne. Ten years later some of the faces are less fresh, and some, indeed, have petrified, though they still sit on the same faculty boards, still Waiting for the Miracle to Come, pondering their bood pressures, but not giving a toss about cholesterol levels. Most of us smoke less.

I look forward to the next ten years and to receiving articles from all of you who have yet to write for hoolet. Get typing now. Write about Scottish medicine for hoolet and your Nation.

Special thanks go to Robin Downie, Dave Snadden, Blair Smith, Somerled Fergusson, Michael Simpson, Paul Jackson, Dave Clark, Alex Thain, Peter Murchie, Pete Davies, Niall Cameron, Louise Hallam, Rob Hendry, Mac De Souza, everyone at Hannah Grafix and all the Chairmen of Scottish Council who are legally responsible for all that we print.

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