While doing my dreaded driving I had Gaga on to drive me nuttier. No, not the woman singer but a local radio station which spews out such inane stuff I'm just hooked to it. Yes I know it's mad but ask anyone who smokes whether cigarettes are good and he sputters a few silly things as gaga as my radio preferences.

Back to gaga. Now you silly readers all know where I get my inanely sad traits and ideas. I won't mention proper radio names for fear of being asked for an endorsement of their wares. It's one of those with loads of ads which all go the same sad way. It's a short, snappy conversation between two people, usually nagged husband and wife eagerly washing her floors and cooking her brodu. Sometimes it's two friends. Anyway today I don't want to bore you with what the ads do to your brain-crushing or purchasing practices. Or what they talk about or their finesse. No, let's leave that for another time. So watch this space for more from gagaland.

What got my goat even more than the actual ads was the presenter's odd comments. First of all he laughs out loud at all his own jokes. And his laughter is more akin to a hyena gone high on stilts. But the worst offence was that he kept saying: "Thanks God". Now forgive me for saying this, even if my English is hardly the Oxford type or typical of the Queen, but please dear good God, let's not plunge to such depths.

When the presenter uttered the tenth Thanks God I muttered: Thanks God it isn't Christmas cos otherwise he'd be regaling us with that other Maltese word that really takes the proverbial biscuit—the Christmas Father. So if according to Maltese lexicographers and purists Christmas Father is an accepted term in our language is Thanks God acceptable too?

I have no idea how to turn Thanks God into the Maltese version (as in futbol for football and onlajn for online) but if any of you could oblige and send me the proper Maltese version I'd repeat over and over again 'Thanks God for such reliable, loyal readers'.