On reading Ranier Fsadni’s charming feature, ‘Crazy apple, zest of lemon’, instinctively my mind flashed back some 71 years in time when my Ħamrun primary school teacher was preparing us for the Lyceum entrance exam in 1943.

Among many other bits of preciously quaint information, he told us that brinġiel in English translates to mad apples.

I felt rather surprised but, like the whole class, left it at that.

My teacher was the late Miss Marie Donnarumma. An excellent teacher, she was half Sicilian and was, therefore, well-versed in the Italian language.

Fsadni, in attributing melanzane, our brinġiel, as a variation of mele insane, hit the target spot on and, at last, solved one of my youthful enigmas.

I would like to thank him.

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