MANY admired his artistry on the pitch. Now George Best is being celebrated in art at a new gallery in York.

Greg McGee and his partner Ails Denholm have opened The ArtSpace in Tower Street, opposite Clifford's Tower, and their feature exhibition is centred on Northern "flawed genius".

"We have elements of Lennon, Gascoigne - even Frankie Howerd," said Ails.

Centre stage is the Bestie image. It was created by the York artist known as Dexter, and shows a wall daubed with the words George Best Man Utd 71.

But before the York Pride squad dash out with a mop to clean up the graffiti, we should point out that the slogan was created with nothing more scarring than flour and water.

"It's one of a series of pieces recreating examples of cultural and iconographic graffiti from the Sixties and Seventies," said Ails. "Applied using a mixture of flour and water they are intended to fade and be worn away by rain. The words disappear as do the people they seek to remind us of."

Also involved in the exhibition are rising stars Siobhan White and Betty Twist. Siobhan won the annual travel bursary set up by Alan Stuttle in memory of his daughter Caroline, murdered while on a backpacking holiday.

SOME people are dead unlucky.

"Your recent mention of headstones triggered a memory that I thought I would share with you," emails Chris Neumann, of Holme-on-Spalding Moor.

"On mum's headstone we instructed the stonemason to produce 'She was thine'.

"When we saw it the idiot had left off the 'e' and it read 'She was thin'. He was given a roasting for his error and told to correct the missing E.

"When it was delivered it read 'E! She was thin'.

"I am in court next week for not paying his bill..."

MORE words of waste wisdom have arrived on the Diary's desk, regarding the woman who found a rat in her wheelie bin the other day. They come courtesy of the duchess of dusting, Mrs Dee Tritus.

"I do wish people were not so quick to criticise the council over their imaginative waste reduction scheme.

"The lady in the Press the other night needs to think positively about City of York Council's 'Adopt A Rat' scheme. "A bit of lateral thinking is needed. A rat in every grey wheelie bin will surely eat through enough rubbish to ensure that the bin has adequate capacity for the fortnightly collection - as well as reducing the tonnage sent to landfill."

As Mrs DT says, "Everyone's a winner."

Updated: 10:43 Monday, December 05, 2005