VIZ magazine has never been required reading in the Spectator household.

Spectator's no prude, readers should understand. It is just that after initial brilliance its humour quickly lost its novelty and descended into clich-ridden rudeness. Brands of satire seem to have a definite shelf-life, or is just Spectator getting old?

Whatever, the idea that a piece of artwork first published in the now notorious Viz should find a place in the excellent collections at the National Railway Museum at York seems somewhat bizarre.

The poster attacking one of Britain's best known seaside towns has been bought by the museum. It features a beach littered with dead dogs and broken bottles, along with an X-rated caption about Skegness.

The poster is meant to be a pastiche of the famous John Hassall tourist advertisement of 1908, which had the slogan "Skegness is so Bracing". A copy of the John Hassall picture, now worth thousands, is already in the museum's collection.

Curator of pictorial collections Beverley Cole explained the museum's latest acquisition. "Since the original "Skegness is so Bracing" was produced for the Great Northern Railway, it has been copied and redrawn hundreds of times - the first satirical version appeared in Punch not long after its launch.

"Over the years, each version has reflected the times and the NRM collects representative examples of these. The Viz poster is indeed a sign of the times and draws attention to concerns about the environment, held by many people in Britain today."

Museum staff must now decide whether a censored version of the poster should be displayed.

Gender confusion

MASHAM in general, and the Black Sheep brewery in particular, were hosts at the weekend to sword dance teams from across England. Being an off-comed-'un would explain the confusion of a teenager opening the door leading to the brewery lavatories and finding herself confronted by a door labelled "tups". "What am I?" she bleated plaintively and was turned and shepherded to the door labelled "ewes".

Her confusion, however, was probably less than that of the elderly resident, leaning on his stick in the market place on Saturday lunchtime, who followed, slack-jawed, the progress of a figure in dress, headscarf - and full beard. He was his team's "character" and his presence and antics would have gained the team marks in the afternoon's competitions.