Mixed-up lunch
This week, journalists and editors were invited by the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji for a Press Lunch at the Westin Dragonara Resort in St Julian’s. For some strange (and incomprehensible) reason, the editor and the entire newsroom of a Sunday paper (which consists of two journalists) turned up at the Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort and were told that there was no official function being held in the hotel. The three ‘stooges’ then decided to part company and seek their repast elsewhere only to learn later, from the invitation lying on their desks that the lunch was held at the Westin. Now what do the Westin and the Radisson have in common, except for being in the so called ‘Golden Mile’ in St Julian’s?
Defilers too?
In the midst of the controversy surrounding certain statements by Nationalist Party officials on Alternattiva Demokratika and abortion, newsrooms received a press statement on the speech AD chairperson Harry Vassallo gave to party activists a week ago today. Dr Vassallo was quoted as saying: “Alternattiva Demokratika’s reply to the calumnies broadcast on NET TV on it’s (sic) coverage of the PN General Council will be defiling (sic) of judicial proceedings agaist (sic) the NET TV representative and against Mer (sic) Tonio Fenech and Mr Simon Bussutil (sic) for their deliberate attempt to harm AD by deceiving the listening public”. Apart from the atrocious spelling mistakes, one would have also expected AD to pay more attention to certain details before sending its press releases lest it be accused of other sins apart from abortion...
Flee from Glenn...
Like most of the other contenders for the EP elections, Labour candidate Glenn Bedingfield is also using the Internet to promote his electoral campaign. “As part of his campaign Glenn Bedingfield is meeting people all over the island,” we read on his website: “Last week he was in Zurrieq where he met people at the flee (sic) market, many of whom spoke to the Labour candidate about many problems the country is facing, mainly unemployment.” Oh, so Glenn has gone to the flee market instead of the flea market. Seems that Glenn has mixed up his flee(a)s!
No Love Lost (3)
Oh, so we did not have to wait long before getting Round Three of the “No Love Lost” telenovela between Marie Benoit, the features editor of Our Esteemed Newspaper, and the Nationalist Party.
Of what was Our Dear Marie guilty, according to the Dizzy (or “Stordut” as he calls himself in Maltese) guy who writes in the Nats’ weekly paper il-mument? Treason? Increasing the budget deficit? Calling the President Eddie instead of the self-bestowed Edward?
No... Mr Dizzy claimed that, in her editorial of First magazine on 16 May, Our Dear Marie’s reference to Labour leader Alfred Sant’s appearance on the previous Friday’s Xarabank showed that “kollox kien mahdum bizzilla” (“everything was planned to coincide”).
How could Our Dear Marie have known in advance that Dr Sant was going to appear on Xarabank once her magazine was printed before the programme was broadcast, Mr Dizzy asked?
Well, MediaWatch has learnt that the segment featuring Our Dear Marie was taped well in advance of the live broadcast on Friday, hence Our Dear Marie was able to know that Dr Sant would be featuring in that programme before the magazine went to print.
I’m so dizzy...
We have to say that Mr Dizzy in il-mument must have a special affinity for The Malta Independent on Sunday and its sister daily paper. Well, we got one mention in last Sunday week’s article for Our Dear Marie, which doubled up to two mentions a week later, one for Raphael Vassallo, who was basically accused of being a mercenary for Alternattiva, and another for Matthew Xuereb, who fell foul of Mr Dizzy’s expert knowledge of the sea and everything pertaining to water.
Meanwhile, the Media Grapevine has it that the rest of the staff at The Malta Independent is considering legal action against Mr Dizzy... this time for not mentioning them in his column. Well, maybe he can make up for it this weekend... (Speaking of this weekend, MediaWatch would like to take the opportunity to wish His Dizziness the best of luck in next Saturday’s European Parliament elections....)
Are you well-covered?
Delegates attending the congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens last week were rather surprised when they found a condom in the official material given to them for the congress. The condom was wrapped in a coloured wrapper with the slogan “HIV/AIDS: Giving it the coverage it deserves”. Another message on the back of the wrapper was: “Journalists are not immune to HIV/AIDS. Have safe sex and protect yourself and your partners”. MediaWatch has been provided with one of these condoms and we are publishing a photo of it. Everbody knows that journalists make a lot of contacts in their job, but that was not quite what we had in mind...
Hold to the right Rod(erick)!
Former Qormi mayor Roderick Galdes was sworn in as a Member of Parliament on Monday. He filled the seat vacated by John Attard Montalto who resigned after he was elected MEP. The date of the swearing-in was given on the website of the House of Representatives (http://parliament.gov.mt). However the name accompanying the photo of Roderick Galdes on the website read “Roderick Pace”, who is the leader of the European Movement (Malta). Was this a Freudian slip perhaps, or maybe wishful thinking? Many thanks to a reader of MediaWatch for pointing this one out...
Eco-panic?
The press conference announcing the eco-tax rates was scheduled to be held on Wednesday at 9.30am at the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment. George Pullicino, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, and Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, were going to address the press. However, in the dead of night, the Department of Information sent an e-mail to newsrooms informing them that the press conference was going to be held at 9am in Castille, and that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was going to address the press conference as well. Well, since not all editors are at their desks at 2.10am, and most of them assign coverages to their reporters the previous night, a number of journalists ended up hanging around at the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment for about half-an-hour till somebody told them that the press conference had been re-scheduled for half an hour earlier at the Auberge de Castille!
So the poor hacks had to hurriedly trek all the way from Barriera Wharf to the Prime Minister's office. By the time they arrived the press conference was practically over. What led the Office of the Prime Minister to decide so late at night that Dr Gonzi should also address the press conference? Was this some eco-panic attack? Some of the media monkeys who had to go through such early-morning torture told MediaWatch it was understandable that the Prime Minister might want to address such an important press conference himself, but wisdom should have dictated that the press conference be rescheduled to a later time rather than earlier, so that all media organisations would have been able to reassign the coverage.
Stordut finally wakes up!
MediaWatch is pleased to announce that at last its nemesis, Stordut, at il-mument, has finally gotten over his perennial dizziness and has realised, after 13 weeks, that there is this column in The Malta Independent on Sunday. However, it seems that one month after the European Parliament elections, the mere mention of Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) in a newspaper still evokes reactions from the Nationalists akin to those of a bull being shown a red rag. If not, why else dedicate a substantial part of your column to examine MediaWatch's analysis of Stordut's semantic treatise about raspberries and AD? However, MediaWatch does not deal only with Stordut and AD; our nets are cast much wider. It seems that Stordut's ego is so inflated he has not even understood the basic notions of satire! Well, well, as to the identity of the MediaWatch legion of writers, we can only say: “We are not Mickey Mouse!”
PM's press conference
The Communications Office in the Office of the Prime Minister had this to say about last week's item in Media Watch concerning the Prime Minister's monthly press conference:
"There was a comment in The Malta Independent on Sunday regarding the decision we took to remove all audio equipment during the Prime Minister's media briefing. Basically, what we did was set up a different workaround, where all those who wanted to have the Prime Minister recorded would only need to 'plug-in' their audio equipment to a central location (there are eight available slots), thereby removing the unsightly microphones and equipment from the Prime Minister's desk. We had advised all those present of this arrangement two days before. In fact PBS, NET and Super One made use of this facility. The whole recording was also put on-line two hours later, that is, enough time for any 'clips' to be extracted from the briefing. I honestly cannot understand your 'connection' to Iraq in this matter. It sends the message of censorship which really is not the case since all the facilities previously available are still there (and better). I would therefore ask you to correct this inaccurate understanding of what we have done and advised everyone beforehand about it. Naturally, we are always open to any suggestions (which we get in abundance) about the setting.”
Somebody boobied!
Who is not au courant with Malta's geography? Whoever wrote the caption for the the picture for the month of July in the European People's Party's desk calendar that's who! It is the Vittoriosa sea front not the Senglea waterfront on that picture. That's what being the largest party in the European Parliament does to you!Stuck with George!
Last Sunday’s foreign affairs piece by Anthony Manduca in The Sunday Times dealt with the choice of John Edwards as the Democratic candidate for vice-president of the United States of America. At one point, Mr Manduca mentions how George Bush Sr had won the election in 1988 despite having a worse running mate than the Democratic challenger of the time. According to Mr Manduca, the Democratic presidential candidate for the 1988 election was a certain “George Dukakis”... Well, well, it seems that Mr Manduca got mixed up in his Georges, since the guy was actually called Michael. But it was quite easy to get confused considering all the Georges mentioned in the article...
More eco-panic...
This time the eco-panic award goes to Alternattiva Demokratika for sending an email on Wednesday afternoon announcing a press conference about the proposed eco-tax two minutes before it was scheduled to start! MediaWatch has learnt that the press conference had already been postponed, but for some reason or another, the emails were sent by mistake.
In fact, a few minutes later, a new invitation for a press conference on Friday was sent. However, the time on the invitation read “14:00am”... Is this some kind of new “eco-friendly” timing system or else the latest lapsus by Green Party officials in their press releases?
A new MP?
It seems that there is another new MP in the House of Representatives... Media hacks listening to last Monday evening’s sitting of Parliament (poor guys!) could hear Speaker Anton Tabone asking a certain “Roderick Agius” to table his question. Well, the hacks observed, NET TV journalist Karl Stagno Navarra’s political ambitions for the European Parliament are well-documented. However, we did not know that his colleague Roderick Agius harboured similar ambitions for the national one... But the conspiracy theories and conjectures were soon laid to rest when Speaker Anton Tabone corrected himself and called on Roderick Galdes to ask his parliamentary question...
Surprise coverages...
Journalists in newsrooms were rather surprised last Wednesday morning to receive phone calls from two different ministries inquiring whether they would be attending their respective coverages. However, these coverages had not been included in the list issued by the Department of Information the previous day, and the poor media hacks had no choice but to go out to these press conferences on the double and hope they would make it in time. Were there some communication problems between the DOI and the relevant ministries?
Groping Gonz
The Opposition has accused Nationalist Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s government of various political sins since he took over last March, but has now gone one step further. A caricature in last Sunday’s Labour weekly paper Kullhadd gives the impression that Dr Gonzi was reaching out, ehm, to grab a female of the species! MediaWatch is publishing this caricature so that you can judge first-hand whether we are right or not...no groping is allowed, though!
Wot, a “cityscan” ?
A rather dated parliamentary report in Tuesday’s In-Nazzjon (p.11) quoted Health Minister Louis Deguara saying that the government was negotiating the importation of new “cityscans”. Was this some kind of revolutionary equipment that would monitor pollution in our cities and remove it? We tried the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, The Collins Gem Dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and even the D.U.P.E. (Dictionary of Useless Political English), to find out what this word really means but to no avail... However, medical boffins told MediaWatch that In-Nazzjon was actually referring to “CT scans” but obviously did not get their spelling right!
Double take
A picture of President ‘Edward’ Fenech Adami holding a pistol up in the air and firing a shot to launch the Delicata Wine Festival last Friday week l (It-Torca, 8 August, p. 4) raised the eyebrow of many a person. Dyed-in-the-wool newsroom hacks told MediaWatch that there were other gun-toting Heads of State who have fired pistols in the air in public over the years. They pointed out a photo of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein taking aim at an unidentified target in the middle of the desert with a pistol...
Gimme Five!
It seems that former president Guido de Marco, now that he is out of office, has more time for less sedate pastimes. Moles at L’Orangerie told MediaWatch that Prof. de Marco has demonstrated quite an aptitude for dancing. They pointed out a photograph that appeared in The Times last Thursday (p.15) where the former president is seen showing off his dancing prowess to Spanish Ambassador Maria Rosa Boceta.FT website flops
Our colleagues at The Guardian reported that The Financial Times’s website crashed last weekend after publishing a report on the interview with Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page on the eve of their company’s flotation on the New York Stock Exchange. What seems to have brought so much traffic to the FT.com site was an image of the front page of the magazine in which the interview was published... Playboy! It must surely have provided a great distraction for those bored business boffins in the mid-August lull... Indeed, parts of the website were still undergoing “essential maintenance” as late as Monday...
Teeth at the gallows
A foreign news item in last Sunday’s Kullhadd newspaper said that an Indian man had been executed by hanging, on his birthday, having been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old student 14 years ago. However, the hacks at Kullhadd got their spelling wrong because they said that the man was hanged “f’gheluq snienu” rather than “f’gheluq sninu”, thus mistaking “sninu” (“his years”) with “snienu” (“his teeth”). It seems that it was the sub-editor at Kullhadd who lost his teeth on this one, because the mistake was in both the title and in the report.
Gonzi’s Macina blues
During his interview on Radio 101 yesterday, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he was passing from near the Macina area and was shocked at seen the initials “Malta Labour Party” still emblazoned on the building, describing them as an eyesore. However, old hacks noted that the Labour Party stopped using Il-Macina as its headquarters since the mid-nineties, when the National Labour Centre in Hamrun was opened, and Il-Macina was returned to the government. So if around nine years had to pass before the government realised that there were still the initials on Il-Macina, let alone how many more years will have to pass before it gets all its property in order, these hacks told MediaWatch...
Confusing Times…
Media hacks reading The Sunday Times last week and then The Times next day, were rather amused by two contrasting reports on the influx of foreign workers in Malta as a result of Malta’s EU accession. In The Sunday Times (22 August, p.5), a report entitled “No significant change in number of EU nationals seeking work in Malta” by Brussels correspondent Ivan Camilleri, stated that “despite the fear that after EU accession Malta would be swamped by Sicilians and East Europeans looking for new work opportunities in Malta, preliminary statistics obtained by The Sunday Times indicate a complete opposite picture. Ironically, it seems that the number of EU citizens applying to work in Malta is declining.” On the following day however, The Times (23 August, pp.20-21), carried a report entitled “Diving centres fear foreign ‘intruders’”, which gave a rather different picture. “Temporary dive centres opened in summer by foreigners are one of the reasons contributing to a decline in business for the main centres that stick to regulations, according to Agnes Upton, of Maltaacqua (sic) of St Paul’s Bay,” the report stated.
GWU’s “Juniour” English
A press release issued by the General Workers’ Union (GWU) on Monday about the dismissal of a number of workers from the Edible Oil factory told us that the union asked for a meeting with the management to discuss the current situation in the company. Among the people who attended on behalf of the GWU, was section secretary Joe Grima, shop steward Charles Balzan and “Josef Bugeja, Juniour (sic) Secretary”. It seems that the level of English of somebody at the GWU is so junior that he or she does not even know how to spell the word correctly!
Storyteller of the Year
Following extensive consultations with media hacks and the legions of PR gurus in the Maltese Islands, MediaWatch has decided to bestow Minister for Tourism Francis Zammit Dimech with the honour of “Storyteller of the Year”. Our adjudicating panel was impressed with the excellent storytelling capabilities of the multi-talented minister over the years, which culminated in last Tuesday’s memorable performance at the You and The Tourist activity. Dr Zammit Dimech managed to mesmerise the children in a Peter-Pan-like manner, telling them about the importance of taking care of tourists who visit Malta (see picture)…
Quote for balloon inside pic:
Not even they believe me that the number of tourists in Malta is rising…
Dr Sant gets the wrong librarian
It seems that even politicians who are known for their academic and literary competence sometimes make mistakes. The latest one was none other than Leader of the Opposition Alfred Sant. In his column in It-Torca a week ago of 22 August (p.9), Dr Sant wrote about the death of former university librarian, Father Tony “Bisazza”. In his appreciation, Dr Sant says that he had known him since he first attended university in the 1960s. He describes him as “a gentle and intellectual person, calm and warm, to whom you could speak without any reservation”. Alas, it seems that the inexorable passage of time has had the better of Dr Sant, since the former university librarian was called Father Tony Sapienza…
No Business Weekly?
Last Thursday’s newspaper reviews on Super One Radio, Television Malta and Campus FM did not feature our sister newspaper The Malta Business Weekly. On the other hand, Radio 101 did feature TMBW in its newspaper analysis. However, a fortnight before, Television Malta did feature The Malta Business Weekly in its newspaper review. Why is TMBW not featured at all by a number of broadcasters and only featured on an irregular basis by others?
Of Green “Pubic” Procurement and the EU…
An e-mail sent to newsrooms by the European Commission Representation in Malta brought more than a smile to the faces of weary hacks on a boring, hot, humid Thursday afternoon at the end of August. The e-mail referred to the “newly published Handbook on Green Pubic (sic) Procurement”! Er, yes, that’s the word, you prudes! The much-feared typo – the bane of English-language journalism – had hit once again (see picture)! So there is yet another example of how this sinful European Union is eroding this country’s Roman Catholic fibre woven over two millenia…
What is “Gun Shot Resedue”?
A story in Friday’s l-orizzont (p.6), referring to the latest developments following police investigations into the death of an old man in Lija, said the police were now expecting the results of the “GSR (Gun Shot Resedue)” (sic) test. Media hacks asked MediaWatch whether this was some kind of new test being used by the police for the first time. However, after extensive inquiries, it was established that this was yet another case of a misspelt word as the journalist was actually referring to gunshot residue… Get your dictionaries out, guys!
If you have spotted anything unusual while watching television or reading the papers, send us an e-mail on [email protected] We will be glad to hear your comments and suggestions.
Follow the leader...
Where the General Workers’ Union (GWU) leads, the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) usually follows... even in spelling mistakes! A press release issued last Wednesday by assistant secretary general Joseph Grillo about the collective agreement at the Malta Freeport had around 12 spelling mistakes... yes, t-w-e-l-v-e spelling mistakes. Among the gems of the Maltese language discovered by MediaWatch in this press release, there were the words “flmikien” (sic), “Cometee” (sic), “fostom” (sic), “jghamlu” (sic) and “hadiema” (sic). Mikiel Anton Vassalli, Dun Karm Psaila and Guzeí Aquilina must be turning in their respective graves at such atrocious usage of l-Ilsien li Tatek Ommok...
Wrong direction
An ADT billboard near the Lija roundabout has “Aghddi” instead of “Ghaddi”. It may be pointing in the right geographical direction but certainly not in the right direction as far as the language is concerned.
Of lusty men and Fr Colin...
Readers of last Sunday’s It-Torca were quite amused to see the main heading in Fr Colin Apap’s “agony aunt” column – Il-guvni jrid aktar sess (The boyfriend wants more sex). A 24-year-old woman writing with the nom-de-plume Tfajla Serja (A Serious Girl) tells Fr Colin that she likes her boyfriend a lot because he is polite, charming, and good company. “The problem though,” the girl tells Fr Colin, “is that he wants to have sex with me almost every time we meet and this is annoying me... what can I tell him or do to show him that I love him not just because of the sex?” Well, Fr Colin takes up almost two-thirds of a page with a long-winded non-explanation instead of telling her the naked truth, that is, that she should immediately dump this sex maniac...
Valerie and “the other side of the coin”
Writing in Tuesday’s edition of our sister newspaper The Malta Independent, Valerie Borg (aka the loud-mouthed peroxide blonde of Xarabank fame) – who works at St Luke’s Hospital – gives us, as she aptly describes it, “the other side of the coin” at the Outpatients Department. It is an interesting letter which makes for some rather amusing reading at times. “We get patients who do their best to imitate Sharon Stone in her birthday suit, probably hoping their favourite doctor might make a pass at them; others smell like a swordfish that has been defrosting in the kitchen for a whole century,” Valerie tells us. Although Valerie’s complaints are understandable, her outburst in the press does not rank so high in terms of patient courtesy. Any other nominees for the “Worker of the Year” award this time?
It’s all Greek
We do tend to come down rather heavily on people who appear on our local TV stations and commit blunders. How’s this for comparison: during the one and only running commentary on RAI 2 on the marathon race from Marathon to Athens, one commentator said the original Athenian who ran all the way from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the invading Persians and drop dead was Leonidas, while another commentator more correctly said his name was Philippides. Fortunately, Italian pride was saved by Baldini’s brilliant win.Church officials, The Times and possession
A reader wrote in: Please refer to The Sunday Times page 48 , dated 12 September 2004, under the heading “ST JOSEPH ARCHCONFRATERNITY CEREMONY”.
A notice of an induction ceremony of the new officials of the said Archconfraternity says;
“New officials of the Archconfraternity of St Joseph for the term 2004-2007 will receive their titles in a ceremony..............”
Rector, Secretary, Treasurer and so on are not titles but offices, and these offices are not received, but either conferred or inducted.
“Cerimonja tal-Pusses” in English is called Induction Ceremony.
Quick on the draw?
The Internet makes for quick, efficient communication, it is said.
Weeell, it depends.
At 4.30pm yesterday Dive reported the fatal accident which took place at the Regional Road at 2.30am – yes, that’s right, 14 hours later.
And Maltamedia did not even got around to reporting it by then – it did it later.
Karl Stagno Navarra got around to putting it up at 3.30pm on MaltaRightNow, the newest boy on the block. Perhaps, as his editorial hinted, he had to put in a spot of baby-sitting before. (Congratulations, Karl).
Meanwhile, neither CNN nor BBC had Karl’s second story of an attempt on the life of Russian President Putin. That’s a world-exclusive for you.Fr Colin and self-handling
Well, well, it seems that Fr Colin has had yet again another tough nut to crack in his “agony aunt” column of last Sunday’s It-Torca.. A woman writing under the nom de plume purezza (“purity”) tells Fr Colin about her dilemma when it comes to confessing that she masturbates.
“I am afraid to write in a newspaper about my serious problem. I am not an evil girl but I have a problem with masturbation. I had stopped for some time but sometimes I fall into temptation,” she told Fr Colin.
“I go to Mass everyday and I also take Holy Communion but I do not go to confess this problem because I am very afraid.
“I ask Christ to help me everyday. Please tell me what I should do.
“Should I go to confession? Did I commit a grievous sin? I am trying to give up this habit and I am managing to do so but I am afraid that my fear of confession will make me go to Hell.
“I am afraid that the priest will ask me a lot of embarrassing questions and I will not know how to reply. Sometimes, after I have confessed I feel worse because I did not know how to reply to his questions. Thanks a lot and forgive me if I wrote at length but I am very afraid of being judged by other people,” the anxious woman told Fr Colin...
Well, what was his reply? “I sincerely believe that it is no problem at all. Besides, the more you are “obsessed” with this problem, the more of a problem it becomes. This is a very normal experience everybody goes through and it is up to us to find a balance in our lives,” Fr Colin told her...
PN, the government spotted en masse at Fahrenheit 9/11
The premiere of Michael Moore’s controversial movie Fahrenheit 9/11 – which takes more than a dig at US President George W Bush – held at the Eden Century Cinemas yesterday week drew a large crowd. Among those spotted by MediaWatch at the premiere, were Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo and his wife, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment George Pullicino, accompanied by his wife, NET TV journalist Lourdes Pullicino, and Nationalist Party (PN) general secretary Joe Saliba and his wife. Media boffins were wondering whether this massive presence of exponents from the PN and the government showed that they were rather keen to draw on some of the brilliant political and oratory skills displayed by George W. and his administration during Fahrenheit 9/11...
Miriam Dalli’s mould
People watching the telethon organised by the Labour Party on Super One television last Tuesday, heard an interesting exchange between presenter Etienne St John and Loreto Dalli, father of Super One journalist Miriam Dalli. At one point, Mr St John asked Mr Dalli: “Where have you put the mould you used to cast Miriam?” Mr Dalli smiled, then gave a very witty reply: “I think you have come too late.”
PN treasurer botches up Independence
lottery draw
Last Monday’s draw of the PN’s Independence lottery was hit by a mysterious hitch this year. In fact, PN treasurer Peter Darmanin was in for a rather nasty surprise this time.After the first prize was drawn, the catch on the door of the huge urn somehow slipped open and tickets started flying out. This mayhem lasted for around 10 to 15 minutes, as the tickets that had flown out were collected and put back in the urn. More tickets were spotted just as the lottery was going to continue and the door had to be re-opened two more times to put the tickets back in. Finally, as punters at the Granaries were getting rather hot under the collar, the draw for the second prize finally took place... Old hands told MediaWatch that this hopefully is not the way the Nationalist government manages public finances
The Russian “Sixth Fleet”
Had it been 20 years ago, it would probably have created an almighty diplomatic problem. As it is, it caused smiles and some laughter. On Wednesday, when President Edward Fenech Adami was making some concluding remarks at the Russian song and dance show put on by visiting Ensemble of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, he somehow found himself thanking “the Sixth Fleet”. Well, the concert was indeed called From Russia with Love, but that was taking things a bit too far.
Famous Last Words
From The Times’ editorial on Friday, commenting on Police Commissioner John Rizzo’s press conference: “He was also indignant about how lightly scantily-dressed prostitutes loitering in places like Gzira, Msida and Marsa were getting off in court.” It seems that no place is free from sexual debauchery these days... Perhaps Fr Colin can help...Scanning papers upside down
The person on PBS who scanned the papers on Sunday 26 September, a new person by the sound of him, got the main story in The Malta Independent on Sunday the wrong way round.
While the story stated, even in the heading, that Maltese-Libyan relations “are getting cooler and cooler”, the scanner summarised it, for the benefit of Maltese viewers who can’t read English headings, saying that Maltese-Libyan relations are getting better and better.
Beam me up, Scotty
Viewers who tuned in for the 6pm News in Brief on Monday evening could see that the PBS machine which handles the titles was in some kind of a jam. In fact, it had jammed and they could hear the frantic voice of the newscaster, Reno Bugeja, urging someone to “reboot” it.
Heat-providing milk
People just out of bed and having their cornflakes just cannot believe their bleary eyes when they focus on the Benna milk carton.
For the blurb makes a rather quaint claim for milk: that it provides the consumer with, wait for it, the “heat” and energy that a person requires.
Perhaps the blurb should have read sahha (health in Maltese) rather than shana (heat in Maltese).Rearing to go
The Chief Executive Officer of the new company bringing a pay-TV operation to Malta as an alternative to cable, was yesterday reported in the The Times that he was “rearing to go”. Presumably the service will be better than the English.
Nuns rave in Lourdes
Maltese nuns with black veils were described as having a whale of a time in a Lourdes bars by last Sunday’s Sunday Times (UK) magazine. Keep your veil on, gals, the magazine’s article wrote about British teenagers and priests dancing on the tables and showed a picture of the Westminster Cardinal doing a karaoke.
Flash clash at PBS
“Minister clashes with PBS chairman”, said the bold black box on the front page of MaltaToday last Sunday with instructions to turn to page 2. The clash was of a very short duration. By the time you turned to page 2 to find out what it was all about, the clash is over and there is no mention of it.