Last Friday I had lunch in Utrecht Central Station (thank you: reasonably priced, good food and friendly service). From the table where I was sitting I had a good look at the Hispeed Lounge (should be Hi Speed lounge when spelled correctly), a smallish kind of room with two tv-sets going full blast: a small screen and a big flat screen, that showed only ads for non available high speed trains in the Netherlands. Those trains have not been delivered from the Italian factory and apart from that, there seems, for ages now, to be something wrong with the safety or the signals on the line. In the main hall of the station I discovered a huge ornament and when I write huge, I mean huge, wishing me “a happy X-mas’’. Why “happy” and not “merry” as the English speaking world uses, why X-mas and not Christmas? I remember the big campaign in the US against using X-mas. The slogan was “Don’t take Christ out off Christmas”. Of course some fools still use X-mas , but not the majority. Above all there is a Dutch urge to disconnect oneself from the mother tongue: why not “Vrolijk Kerstfeest?” (Ik schreef deze regels in het Engels in de valse hoop dat dit blog door een van de idioten van de Nederlandse Spoorwegen gelezen wordt)
