Malta’s Zapatero hits the stage in a pink tie
Now maybe some bright geneticist can answer the question that rings in the ears of Maltese women: why do Maltese men have disproportionately short legs? This is not about being short in general, but about the legs being too short for the body, whatever the man’s height. This leaves you with the impression, when suits are worn, of a jacket hovering at a strangely short distance from the shoes, causing you to wonder where the knees are – as, infamously, with Alfred Sant and now with Joseph! Joseph! And for God’s sake, chaps – there are tailors about, you know. There’s a very good one called Constantino in Sliema Road, Gzira, opposite Azzopardi’s fish shop. You take your trousers there, and you say the magic words ‘Please shorten these’ and then a week later, you pick them up. I just CAN’T STAND that ‘long curtains bunched up on the floor’ look. It’s like holding up a placard that says ‘My legs are too short for these trousers.’ Or, let’s be positive: ‘These trousers are too long for my legs.’
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We hit the big time baby. The Big Tajmmm
You forgot again. ”never trust a man in brown shoes”!
and funny ties
and smug looks
and……….
ok people help me out here !
Since appearence is now being given such importance, as if it was the be all and the end all, has anyone taken a look at David Casa`s website. Would you agree with me that the guy has an uncanny resemblance to Alfred Sant, wig and all?
http://www.davidcasa.eu
Talking about ties, is it just me or are red ties out of fashion in the Labour fold? I mean just look at the YouTube clip Daphne posted above. Not a red tie in sight, and they were all the rage up till a few weeks ago.
Compare this victory speech to Joseph’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtL-1V3OZ0c
@ Albert
…well maybe. The thing is that for me Simon Busuttil is a zillion times better!
I’m not a geneticist, but the occurence of short legs should have occured for one of two reasons; Either it gave a survival benefit in the past, although I can’t see why really, at least not without making a vicious remark about cave-dwellers. The other reason would be it being a preference for the local women, resulting in a higher number of offspring for short legged men. Perhaps nothing worth doing a survey on, even though the result could have been quite fun. Perhaps Daphnes reluctance to short-legged men puts her in the minority…
Funnily enough, I do have fairly long legs, but still tend to find trousers which are in general too long in Malta and as a result actually take them to the very tailor mentioned in the post. So the people to blaim is actually the local clothes retailers :)
[Moderator – There is actually a direct link between height and quality of life: The Height Gap – Why Europeans are getting taller and taller-and Americans aren’t.]
Is the length of legs sex-linked? Because if males tend to have short legs, then their daughters should not be much different!
@Pat
True, most trousers around are too long for Maltese. But aren’t we short when compared to the Nordics? Haven’t you ever seen an EU meeting where the Maltese representatives look a bit dwarfish?
[Moderator – I’ve seen a photo of Gorg Borg Olivier standing next to Prince Philip and he looks hilarious. Here it is. There’s a similar photo of Eddie Fenech Adami at some European Union summit or other.]
SB: Is the length of legs sex-linked? Because if males tend to have short legs, then their daughters should not be much different!
@SB: Please revise your genetics. The very fact that a gene is sex-liked will mean that it shows up in men, whilst women are carriers who will not show up the trait. The daughters of a man with a sex-linked trait will all be asymptomatic carriers, unless their mother is also a carrier for the trait.
I have no idea whether short-leggedness is a sex-liked trait.
My father, who is not short by Maltese standards, is famously always obliged to go for the “short-and-portly”-cut suits when on his shopping sprees. It is a family joke which we giggle at with much hilarity when we know that he is within earshot.
The problem is that Maltese men are short. Period. And the fact that the jackets reach to just above the shoes, Daphne please note, proves that it’s not only short legs they’re afflicted with, but short bodies too.
SB: “True, most trousers around are too long for Maltese. But aren’t we short when compared to the Nordics? Haven’t you ever seen an EU meeting where the Maltese representatives look a bit dwarfish?”
Well, point being I’m not Maltese, but Nordic, so shouldn’t find the trousers so long. That’s what I found funny, as I find the trousers here being longer than in northern Europe, while the legs tend to be shorter. I might be wrong in that observation though.
Hi Daphne, tiftakarni? Jien nidħol kexxun fil-profil li fassalt milux dwar min jogħġbu Joe Muscat, l-aktar għall-fatt li jien ukoll Alternattivist, 30-xi ħaġa u separat.
Madankollu, twil sitt piedi u erba’ pulzieri…taħseb li issa nkun nista’ ngħaddi mill-għarbiel soċjo-ġenetiku tiegħek?
Umilment,
Mark
[Moderator – X’antipatija ta’ bniedem.]
Is the tiny queen of England of Maltese extraction then? Remember anyone , when she was invitd to make a speech at the Whitehouse and what the audience saw was a talking hat and nothing much else ?
[Moderator – She’s actually taller than Gorg Borg Olivier in most photos with him. Old age has made her shorter, I suppose.]
Takes one to know one….
Napoleon was a short guy and he conquered a large part of Europe. It is not your height that makes you a good leader, but your ideas and willpower.
[Moderator – Napoleon also led a quarter of a million French soldiers to their death without even engaging in battle.]
@Moggy
You have misunderstood me. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. What I was trying to say is that since short-leggedness is NOT a sex-linked trait, if Maltese males have short legs, their female offsprings should have short legs as well!
@Mark Vella
Hi Madonna Mark what an antipatku!!! Next time write in English
@Albert Farrugia – David Casa doesn’t lead a political party and nor is he trying to become prime minister. And yes, I don’t think men should wear wigs.
You don’t need a geneticist to answer you, Daphne. We’re short-arsed tubby untermensch, that’s what. No one will admit it because we’ve been trained not to be racists.
@Charles Cauchi – and I’ll bet you anything that Barack Obama didn’t refer to Mrs Obama on stage with the US equivalent of ‘lil din’ (this one), as Joseph Muscat referred to Mrs Muscat who was sitting behind him. Lil din! God, how crass.
Madonna qisu Dun Zaren, qassis li kien idejjaqna nhar ta hadd ghax kien jitkelem hekk, u priedka ta kwarta kien jaghmilha tlett kwarti u jzewwaqa b’xi hrafa ukoll. All that walking about and poses, and the many many many dramatic pauses…… he looked like some kind of television evangelist bible basher from the deepest part of USA’s bible belt. I half expected him to ask the audience if they had been “sajved in Jesous Kerisst”.
And what about the shiny Nylon Pink Tie ? I saw a similar one on a TV evangelist in a James Bond film some time ago. Where the hell do people buy such Elvis Presley style ties? Did you notice the multi coloured striped tie he went to meet Gonzi with? It looked like something a particularly nasty Rastafarian Jamaican would wear to impress some black mama. I thought for a moment li “rega gie il-Karnival”. If he doesnt have much stoffa as a leader, and believe me, this “I love you you love me, lets all be happy ” business is a rather ominous pointer to the future, at least, he can invest some money in getting some ideas on dress sense. Not that I consult Yves S.L regularly myself, but then again I don’t lead parties do I? So I feel safe throwing stones here, secure in the knowledge that Joe is as satrtorially challenged as I am. I was watching all this remotely in Greece, and, much as i despise the dubious charms of Athens, all this hullaballoo made me wish I stayed there this morning.
P.S. I solved the long-trouser problem by wearing a kilt. Och aye me laddie!
@Pat, the trousers you’re talking about are the ones that are made to be worn trailing on the ground (yuk) over very high platforms. I always wonder who they’re made for though: in high heels I’m six feet tall and they still drag on the ground. I have a hilarious photograph of my youngest sister, who is about 5′, holding a pair against her and they come up to her neck – the ‘neckster’ look.
I will try writing in English, because it is easier as there are no silly diacritic marks…in fact I agree with Daphne’s endorsement of Peppi Azzopardi’s linguistic theories, as expounded on a recent Bondiplus…
…who needs the għ, anyway?
Of course I remember you, Mark Vella – you’re the man who Mona Farrugia used to describe as Lesser Half in her restaurant columns, when she was married to you. Now she’s married to somebody else, which would make you, under our ridiculous annulment system, not separated but…..mever married. Sorry, but you’re the one who brought up the subject. I must say that you’re the only very tall man I know who has a very short man complex.
@Mario Debono
Well, if you can´t appreciate Athens and Greek style,you are the least entitled to pass comments about anything visual.
Well, they do say that small men have big personalities and in general, I find this to be quite true.
@DCG re Mark
Well done! As the expression goes “you cut him down to size”! :)
X’hammallagni! U int tghajjar lil-Laburisti li hamalli! Jien lil dan Mark ma nafux izda mhux sew li toqghod tikxef il-hajja privata tieghu quddiem kulhadd.
I would have expected far better from you. No extended kudos here!
Why don’t you just give JM a chance? His manner and speech have been very conciliatory and genuine. Are you afraid of him by any chance? Is the PN overconfidence starting to get slightly rattled?
@ Adrian Borg: I don’t want to cut Mark Vella down to size. There are few enough men around who are 6’+ as it is. We need to hang on to all those we have.
Barely a week has passed since JM took over. From what I can see, he is striking the right chords with the floaters. I have already heard of people who would never consider voting AS now saying that they would trust JM. JM speaks a lot and a politician’s mettle is tested by his actions as well. If his future actions are consistent with his words, I think that JM will be giving LG a very good run for his money. It seems that everyone is waiting with his videocam to catch JM’s first gaffe. Is it a question of if or of when? Only time will tell.
Gerald, I’ve already explained elsewhere that I’m not afraid of him, but afraid of the mess he can make. For God’s sake, man – you don’t give people a chance at running the country because you never know, they might be good. You give them a chance at running a candy stall.
Mary Borg is back, I see, in full Mary Whitehouse mode.
I wonder whether all these attacks simply wash over Dr. Joseph like water off a duck’s back or whether it’s more that at 34 the poodle is already a rhino. I mean imagine having your hair-style, accent, beard, facial expressions, trousers, shoes, watch, ties, singing poses, preference in names, short fat legs and so on and so fifth scrutinized so closely every single ruddy day. Does the guy think – ‘Ah, who gives a fuck it, it’s just Daphne after all?’. Or does he occasionally think ‘Oh fuck, I really made a tit of myself there. She’s got a point, I’m off to buy a new pair of chinos?’
Just wondering.
H. P. Baxter: Maltese men are not a race.
@DF – he doesn’t care what I think because he knows I’m not going to vote for him. He’s intelligent enough to know that it’s only worth bothering about the ones with whom you’ve got a chance. If he came round soft-soaping me, I’d just treat him like those people who occasionally try to sell me a religion. Alfred Sant didn’t care what I thought or wrote either, for the same reason. His bad luck was that lots of people agreed with me. Somebody has to say it: Joseph Muscat is a walking cheese festival. I can’t wait for the day when he tells me, as he has already told a broadcaster friend who was reviled by Labour until now, that I am welcome in his ‘dar’ – to which my reply will be, ‘That may be so, but you’re not welcome in mine.’ I have the memory of an elephant, and to me he’s still the atrocious Charlon-Gouder-style prat reporter from Super One. It was only three years ago, for heaven’s sake. I think all those of you who’ve forgotten this are suffering from collective amnesia.
@Daphne
Ah so Mark Vella is THAT Mark Vella! Should have guessed who he was from that crass remark in Maltese… thanks for the info BTW.. hsibt li Moaning Mona ghadha qed titqanna bih!
And sorry, but I’m unimpressed by today’s blog entries; I thought that you would start expounding on JM’s known vision for the future of MLP… what? you don’t know what it is?? ;-)
Ok Daphne, you’re not afraid of him. But why are you saying that he’ll make a mess?
Prosit u grazzi, Daphne…reazzjoni prevedibbli…
@ Corrine: I am a race unto myself then. The only Maltese untermann.
@DCG
Did he invite Lou to his ‘dar’?
Tony Pace – Garfield (a ginger pussycat) stuck to his chin
@SB: no, but the Bondiplus team sent to film the spontaneous mass rally at Labour HQ were greeted by delegati welcoming them loudly into their ‘home’, taking the hint from Joseph! Joseph! like a bunch of headless chickens.
Daphne Caruana Galizia Tuesday, 10 June 1513hrs
@Albert Farrugia – David Casa doesn’t lead a political party and nor is he trying to become prime minister. And yes, I don’t think men should wear wigs.
One cannot discard the possibility though that at times, wearing a wig may be an essential element in the long-term management of certain medical conditions resulting directly from the absence of hair on the head.
Sybil, how can a medical condition be the result of hair-loss? If anything, it would be the other way round. But what difference does it make if a man goes bald naturally or because of a medical condition? Bald men are normal and acceptable; wig-wearing men are not. Bald women are not normal, which is why it is more than acceptable but essential for bald women to wear wigs. If a man can’t face the world with his bald head intact, then he has what the Americans call issues.