A Titanic error of judgment

TOMORROW is Good Friday. More than 50 years ago, a classmate of mine asked our keen and usually knowledgeable RE teacher what could possibly be good about the Friday marking the crucifixion of Jesus? He got no sensible answer and in the half-century since then I have never seen a convincing explanation. The origin of “Good Friday” is apparently still up for debate.

OUR sensible cousins the Germans have no such dilemma. They call tomorrow Karfreitag – “Sorrowful Friday.” It's a pity that when our Victorian forbears were eagerly adopting Prince Albert's German version of Christmas, they didn't adopt this useful word, too.

STILL on religion, Easter eggs and suchlike, a reader points out that there is no such person as the Archbishop of Cadbury.

MEANWHILE, the latest Supreme Court ruling says you can't take kids out of school for term-time holidays – but you can remove them for “religious observance.” I am delighted to launch The Church of the Blessed Walt. A strict requirement of this faith is a two-week pilgrimage each year, in term time, to The Sacred Towers of Eurodisney.

NOW that the judges have come down like a ton of wigs on Jon Platt, the dad who dared to take his daughter to Florida in term time, can we expect a similar crusade against those traveller and gipsy families whose kids drift in and out of education, racking up some of the worst literacy and health levels in the Western world? Thought not.

I REFERRED yesterday to the radio reporter's cry “Oh, the humanity!”as he watched the airship Hindenburg crash in flames, killing 36 people. Today, that three-word exclamation of pure horror is used by clever dicks to sneer, with comic effect, at some issue they reckon is trivial or overblown. I'm sure the dead and bereaved of the Hindenburg tragedy would be thrilled to know the commentary on their agony is now used for cheap laughs.

IT raises the question, how soon after a tragedy can you laugh about it? If the infamous Smirnoff vodka advert is any guide, 65 years is not long enough, Titanic sank in 1912 with the loss of 1,200 lives. In 1977 Smirnoff produced an image of a woman floating in a life belt marked “S S Titanic” with the company's sales pitch: “Well, they said anything could happen!” After a barrage of complaints about poor taste, Titanic's name was removed. Hindenburg exploded in 1937 – 80 years ago. Maybe it's still a little too soon for “Oh, the humanity!”

AS the issue of gender-sensitive and inclusive language rages in some universities, old rules still apply in that antidote to political correctness, the building site. A builder writes to remind me that it is still possible for the foreman to slip out of the man cage and fall in a manhole. And the workforce, even if it contains women, is always “the men.” Mind you, he points out that sites are routinely equipped with male and female toilets, “so I suppose that's progress.”

I'M not sure. The latest development in loos is the gender-neutral lavatory where men and women queue to use the same cubicles. They are said to be very common in London. Another excellent reason for living in the provinces.