Peter Rhodes: The mother of What?

WHAT is it about lavatories that gets you lot writing? From a bulging postbag, my eye was caught by the email from a reader claiming to have found a mixed-sex lavatory in France. To be precise, in Toulouse.

ANOTHER reader swears he spotted this headline sweeping across his screen on BBC News: “Virgin trains drivers to strike at Easter.” Try saying it a few times.

A NON-sequitur is a statement that does not logically follow from the previous statement, and is best avoided. I found this curious example in my BT email: “Your Drafts folder is empty. Why not take a look at some great videos from BT Yahoo?”

WITH the local-council elections approaching, Philip Collins wrote a column for the Times in favour of making voting compulsory, as it is in Australia. Down Under, legally-enforced voting produced a turnout of 93.3 per cent in its 2013 federal elections, compared with Britian's dismal 66 per cent in our 2015 general election. And yet, whatever the Aussies may do, is it not rather un-English to drag people down to their local polling station if they would rather be watching telly? The blame for low turnouts rests on the lack of real difference between UK political parties, especially in local elections. Give the people a real choice, and a system that makes every vote count, and you'd see a much higher turnout. In last year's EU referendum, for example, the turnout was a healthy 72 per cent, proving that the best way to encourage voting is to make elections not compulsory but compelling.

I DON'T want to start a big-bomb competition with the Yanks but let's put this MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) device, dropped in Afghanistan last week, into perspective. It weighs 21,600 lbs and can spoil your whole day. Yet more than 70 years ago the RAF, using the technology of slide rules and piston engines, was successfully dropping Grand Slam bombs weighing 22,000lbs and ripping Hitler's infrastructure to pieces. Admittedly, science has moved on and the new US bomb may be more precise and powerful than the old Grand Slam. But the profound and undeniable difference is that in 1945 the British bomber crews dropping these formidable weapons knew they were fighting a war that could be won.

MORE on Cornish Detectives, the game I invented to keep kids occupied on the long trek to Bodmin and all points west. Using the names of neighbouring Cornish villages, the aim is to create characters for a crime drama. New arrivals at the nick include PC Scredda Greensplat, Inspector Luxulyan Rescorla and the crime-prevention officer, Sgt Roche Lockengate. Great county, great names.

OUR trip to Cornwall has the distinction of being the only holiday for many years when I didn't have a single glass of wine at dinner. The rise of so-called artisan ciders is producing some truly great stuff. I was surprised to see how many brands are now available online, although one producer's boast that his cider can be “delivered to your home or work,” is worth running past the boss. Productivity is not always improved by a delivery of bottled sunshine.