“It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate, loaded down with goodies, billions for oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney. … You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one,” he said, gesturing toward Obama. “You know who voted against it? Me.”

[Daphne – That’s an ironic use of the name, Uncle Fester – like your use of the honorific ‘uncle’.]

[Daphne – How about ‘Yaaaaassssssss! Ghidli hi.’]

Regarding the Italian bit, I can back what you said. When my family arrived in Malta, we used to speak Italian and little English. (We then took a course, which really helped our pronunciation. In fact we now speak English.) Anyway, we used to speak in Italian and of course, we used the polite form. You know what? When I referred to someone with the polite form, hence LEI, I usually used to get eerie looks. They would then say “are you really Italian? No, because your Italian s*cks. You keep on referring to me as a woman while you can clearly see I’m a man.” My mum too agreed to whatever you said, as she witnessed it herself. In fact she never uses Italian anymore here because people just think they use impeccable Italian whilst in reality they can’t form a decent sentence. (Which is a pity, as Italian is her language after all hehe) It’s not because they don’t know Italian, really, but because they seriously think they know the language and thus they feel like correcting anyone with the little they know. (Basta jaraw it-televixin hey!) Many are all but humble.

By the way, when studying Maltese, I was always told to say “televixin” as that is the right word for it, while “televizjoni” is not anymore appropriate. I was told that we now prefer the English translation, as –ixin now replaces –ision. And I was told that for the Maltese A’ Level, so I take it they know their stuff. So why is it that on TV, presenters persist with “telvizjoni”? Did they ever study Maltese? Or am I wrong? If I am, please do correct me.

Archbishop Cremona’s use of “hi” towards Lou Bondi was intentional and not a slip of the tongue. The archbishop was insinuating that he was superior to Lou Bondi, adding credence to his argument. The use of the word “hi” towards Lou Bondi in this situation was therefore condescending and rude, but not unusual for this archbishop, who seems to be very good at smiling at someone and demeaning the same person in the same breath.

However, please note that it is not true that Italians always address unknown persons in the third person. During my stays in Sicily I am rarely addressed with Lei. Young people (less than ~30yrs) are usually addressed tu. In turn, under thirties rarely use Lei with their contemporaries, even with strangers.

[Daphne – Please don’t mention Sicily. The place is full of people who can best be described using the H word, like Malta.]