A friend caught me doing my best goldfish impression; we were watching a discussion programme while cutting out tiny patterns from paper lace doilies (long story!).
It so happened that the previous day, I had met the person who was holding forth on a particular topic. And the person's point of view then had been diametrically opposite to what was being said on television.
Now, this is not the first time something similar has happened to me - which is why I shudder to think that there are people ready to convert their Facebook or Twitter messages into a booklet.
Alas, sometimes, the public persona of someone is at odds with his private sentiments - and that is why, besides what I have explained above, I sometimes get people saying things 'in public' to me and then apologising in private, saying they had misinterpreted or misread my columns or comments.
• Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Easyjet has apologised for "trivialising the genocidal massacre of Jews" in their in-flight magazine. The 250,000 copies of the issue, which contained photographs of models in designer wear, posing in the Field of Stelae Holocaust memorial in Berlin, were all withdrawn. This place is run by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which issued a statement to the effect that it "...does not permit commercial shoots (and) grants permission only to projects which are related to the memorial, the Holocaust or some aspect of commemoration."
On its part, the airline was "appalled by this insensitive and inconsiderate photo-shoot, the aim of which was to highlight some of Berlin's iconic landmarks and certainly no offence was meant".
It would seem that there are still countries that take the respect due to the dead very, very seriously, and do not treat it as a palaver created by columnists with nothing better to do. However, the term used here was 'inappropriate' rather than 'bad taste'.
• Meanwhile, it has been brought to my attention that there actually is a place where one may send comments to Xarabank, thus avoiding the hanging telephone line syndrome see: www.xarabank.com.
I suppose I have only myself to blame, then, since I did not use this form, for not receiving a reply to the two questions I posed. One was about the cruise ship that never was, and the other was about the Simshar tragedy.
• I happened to be looking at some blogs and sites pertaining to local media production houses and personalities, and frankly I wondered what makes people think we want to read what they had for breakfast, and with whom they had their latest altercation, and where they will be spending Christmas.
It was pure happenstance that I hit upon the website of the relatively new company 24seven media (www.24sevenmedia.net) and discovered a wealth of information which could be useful to many - but since I am not anyone's public relations officer I will not elaborate further. Suffice to say, however, that Tonio Bonello and Julia Farrugia both have an impressive track record in the local media, and that there is a section dedicated to vacancies in the audio/visual media fields.
• Meanwhile, there will be an information meeting for all those interested in benefitting from the Malta Film Fund 2009 sponsorships. This will be held on Thursday at the Vassalli Hall, Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m.
Anyone wishing to participate should send a confirmation e-mail to filmfund@gov.mt; guidelines and applications are downloadable from www.maltafilmfund.gov.mt.
• The fuss and bother associated with the selection of the Maltese Eurovision entry is just around the corner. Phase one of the festival, held from Wednesday to Friday, involves all the entries being sung live. The jury will then select 36 entries for phase two, and the process will be repeated, in front of a different jury, on December 7.
It is these 36 songs that will be included - as originally promised - in L-Isfida. These will take a six-song-long chunk out of the programme from December 9 up to January 13. Through the jury's and the public's votes, we will be getting 20 finalists, who will then battle it out on the night.
• I have often wondered whether parents give names like Enya or, heaven help them, Britney, to children in the hope that they will become singers when they grow up. Be that as it may, the lovely Enya Magri, who recently won the Verdinote International Festival, also did us proud in this year's edition of Zecchino D'Oro with Castelli the Sabbia (Sandcastles).
Our young female participants in the Junior Eurovision Sing Contest, Francesca and Michaela, also gave a creditable performance of Double Trouble at the Junior Eurovision held this year in Kiev, Ukraine.
Neither song won - but I am happy to say that we did not hear most of the clap-trap that follows each 'adult' song festival. There must be a moral there somewhere.
• The presenter with the predilection for mangling Maltese strikes again. This time, she said that cats and dogs ifaqqsu (hatch). It may be too much to expect her to know the correct term for 'have kittens', but I would expect her to at least be aware of the vernacular for 'give birth'.
television@timesofmalta.com