I am without words
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October 29, 2010 at 9:28pm
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Maybe Chris Said makes sugar, and we don’t know about it.
Maybe Chris Said has a secret sugar refinery in Gozo, and was accused of building it without a permit.
Pur´ger`y
n. 1. The part of a sugarhouse where the molasses is drained off from the sugar.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
I would find anyone guilty on the ‘good taste principle’ of removing molasses from sugar. It is extraordinarily annoying that I have to pay more for my unrefined, and far more delicious sugar, after all it is cheaper to produce as it bypasses this outrage on the way to my baking. It just shows that The Times is prepared to go to any lengths to be wrong.
epic
Daphne, it is OK if you are without words. At this point, what I would like to hear is what the PL has to say.
The Times seem to be having a bad day. Founded?
‘Sexual abuse allegations founded, church tells victims
The victims of past sexual abuse by priests at St Joseph’s Home, Sta Venera, have been notified by the local church that their allegations were founded.’
Maybe to them it’s the opposite of “unfounded”.
There is nothing wrong with the English usage here. This is a commonly used word to mean that the legal argument was established as sound on good evidence. Or something similar. The gist here is that the allegations were founded as opposed to unfounded. They were sound.
There is no such word, the usage here as the opposite of unfounded is nonexistent. They would have had to continue the sentence saying the allegations were founded on something for the usage to be correct. It’s like saying someone looks shevelled as opposed to dishevelled or to mantle something as the opposite of dismantle.
The use of the adjective ” founded” is good. It is the adjectival form of “found” which means based on sound evidence, in this case.
‘founded’ is a transitive verb and it is perfectly correct to use it in this context.
Well…it is testimony to the level of journalism which The Times offers nowadays. Their online edition is not much different to the content of the newspaper.
Perjury is English. Is purgery the Maltese? Please excuse my ignorance of Maltese.
[Daphne – Maltese: pergur, with a soft G]
or “spergur”?
sperġur. And if you write it properly (with a “ġ”), there would be no need to specify what kind of “G” it is.
It is spergur in Maltese.
Erm…its ”perjury” not purgery. X’kisra.
Maybe they got confused with purgatory!
So he’s not an enema of the people.
Nice one: ‘laugh out loud while alone nice’. Some malapropisms are a joy. But unless under the affluence of alcohol others can be a bit of purgery.
You’re here AND on the Independent?
Tom Waits once quipped: with friends like these, who needs enemas.
OH
MY
GOD!
At least the farce is over and the juduciary did right by Chris, just a shame the proofreaders took a day off at The Times!
It seems no one’s got it! Perhaps now he’s out of PURG-ato-ERY.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
The plaintiff Mr. Xuereb filed at the Victoria Police Station a report of perjury, false testimony under oath against Dr. Chris Said. The police stated that there was no ground for legal procedures against Chris.
This was also the position of the Attorney General. Now we have the Court in Gozo declaring Chris Said not guilty of perjury.
Having all these facts and all these high institutions pointing in favour of Dr. Chris Said and against the plaintiff may I ask on what grounds did Magistrate or Judge Mallia order the Attorney General and the Police to proceed with something they had both previously stated it had no grounds?
Wasn’t that waste of time and money, and unnecessary hardship for Dr. Said and his family? Isn’t a magistrate/judge accountable for his deeds and action? Or being a magistrate/judge means he could get away with anything?
[Daphne – We’ve been through this already. It turns out that Judge Mallia was correct in taking the decision he did, because the law and procedure left him with no choice but to do so.]
Has it occurred to you that, since the police had already declined to prosecute, they had a vested interest in “being proved right” and might not have put up as strong a case as they might have done against Said?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (I hope I got that right).
[Daphne – Excuse me, but did you read the reports of the case? Did you actually understand them? Oh, I forget – you vote Labour. By definition, you can’t read things and understand them. There is nothing that remotely constitutes perjury in mistakenly saying in court that a sitting took place in the evening instead of the afternoon, or the other way round. Perjury is lying with malicious intent to pervert the course of justice. This mistake had no effect on the course of justice – therefore, even if by a great stretch of the imagination it was a deliberate lie, it still could not be said to constitute perjury. An example of perjury is Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera saying in court that Michael Cassar sent her drinks in a restaurant, though she will now no doubt try to say that she made a mistake because her memory is befuddled – even though she had perfect recall about which A-levels I took 30 years ago at St Aloysius College, something I barely remember myself.]
The police had nothing to prove, you gibbering idiot. The offence of perjury is instantaneous and the facts of the statement under oath are laid bare to the court which has taken cognisance of the case.
There is no ‘strong case’ to make, you fool. The person either lied and lied knowingly or he didn’t AND in so doing perverted the course of justice. If any of these elements is missing then the offence simply does not subsist.
Dan mhux kaz iehor ta’ metodologija Laburista moderna. Chris Said bniedem intelligenti, onest, u jahdem bis-serjeta’ ghall-pajjiz. Pero’ dawn il-Laburisti moderni, u li jixtiequ hafna gid lill-pajjiz, raw x’jivvintaw biex ihamguh.
Dawn in-nies ghalhekk biss tajbin. Pero’ ninsab konvint li Dr. Justyne Caruana ma’ kelliex x’taqsam ma’ dan il-kaz. Dik mara moderna u qalba tajba u thobb lil-Maltin u l-Ghawdxin kollha.
Dik specjali mhux bhal maggoranza tal-Laburisti. Nahseb li hi moderna bhal Joseph, Anglu, u Toni Abela. U biex nghid kollox qatt ma’ smajta tajjar lin-Nazzjonalisti u oltre minn hekk thobb hafna lill-gurnalisti.
“I missed Roy hugely after he passed away in early January 2003” -Tony Blair- The Journey (kindle edition, location 10003)
purgery n. (2010) 1. Place on earth, where individuals often are purged from their sins, or are persecuted because of the sins of others. Origin in Malta. Commonly confused because of identical phonology (in the absence of literacy or because of the use of parallel languages with opposing systems of written representations of phonemes) with an aspect of jurisprudence, sometimes involving juries, but always involving judges, as in perjury (latin per + jurare), meaning to swear in opposition to (the truth).
I think this is great. At least us that picked up English as a second language doesn’t have to feel that bad when we can’t spell things right.
I am very happy and pleased that Chris Said was deservedly found not guilty. My only wish now is that all court cases are decided with the same haste.
Beyond rock bottom. Seems like a job for the ‘Fenix 2’.
Int bis-serjeta?
what’s wrong with that headline?
It is a well known fact all over Gozo that Chris Said’s secret ambition was to be a confectioner, a profession worse than that of an MP.
Pur´ger`y
The part of a sugarhouse where the molasses is drained off from the sugar.
I cannot believe this is what The Times printed on their poster – purgery instead of perjury. If so, it is true that The Times has lowered its standards. Where was the proofreader?
The night editor, I suppose, is really worried. I am amazed.
Then again, nobody has ever been found guilty of ‘purgery’. Or may be the Times forgot to buy the spell-checker for their new printing equipment.
Seriously though . . .
Noun: purgery (plural purgeries)
1.A part of a sugarhouse where molasses is drained from sugar.
2.An eggcorn [and Times of Malta] misspelling of “perjury”.
http://www.dictionary.com
Clearly The Times requires purgery of its proofreading department (if any).
I was amount by how quickly this case was decided. Definitely a 2 speed justice system.
I meant I was surprised.
Is The Times published in English or in another language?
Only one word: shame.
Don’t know if it’s just me but the standards of that newspaper have gone from good to low to lower to lowest in these last 35 years or so.
Cannot believe the standard The Times has sunk to.
‘Without words’?
Makes a nice first…
Mistakes do happen – I know, I have been through this in years gone by
What was he supposed to have purged?
X’PURG(K)ERIJA!!
I don’t get why you are without words?
Maybe you had better buy yourself a dictionary and look up the meaning of “purgery”.
Ilni nghid li t-Times m’ghadhiex li kienet f’zoghziti, meta kienet tkun haga rari, ANZI rarissima, li kont issib zbalji ortografici jew teknici fiha. Illum morna ghall-kwantita (fih ‘l fuq minn 100 pagna!!) u ttraskurajna l-KWALITA.
they meant ‘PERJURY’?
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Purgery
Perhaps this is what they meant:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Purgery
I think you meant to say “DID THEY MEAN “perjury”? The Times seems to be having a bad influence here.
Fire the culprit!
Forgive me for digressing but I am also without words at the latest one about hunting and the EU Commission.
Please re-publish this pic when The Times next boast about being Malta’s leading newspaper.
Why is it that you are tongue tied?
[Daphne – Please don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed the glaring error (which is then turned into a malapropism) in the use of ‘to purge’ instead of ‘to perjure’.]
Zorro, take off your mask it’s obstructing your vision.
http://vincentdebono.wordpress.com/about/
This is a joke, right?
[Daphne – Wrong.]
I have read a couple of your articles and can relate to them vary well. I am happy to see someone with eyes wide open and the ability to express their views so well in writing.
I was born and raised in Canada by Maltese parents. The funny thing is your emotions, thoughts and opinions are so similiar to mine. I am not sure if we are related. But if not our hearts and minds are set in the same direction. Reply if you can.
Thank you for your columns.
Caesar
[Daphne – No we are not related. Caruana is my husband’s surname. I would think that lots of people think the same way, but very few of them write about it so we never get to know.]
Most people stay silent. No risk, no pain. The Catholic Church and Big Brother (Government) are both powers supposed to be taking care of us, we think. But who are they really taking care of? From a fan from the Snowy White Canada.
Still doesn’t beat the ‘phone cutting’ fireworks factory blooper in my opinion. Although of course this one’s more ‘in yer face’..
At last, I can make out why Daphne is speechless. Writing purgery instead of perjury is a very grave sin.
My mind did not register the error, but now you point it out!
Ok, so does that mean that “Il-Qorti ma sabitx lil Said hati ta’ porkerija”?
[Daphne – No, the court found Chris Said not guilty of having given somebody a porga.]
Yes, and lies are porgated in purgeatory. No wonder Chris Said felt like a martyr.
Kellu jitqanzah hafna qabel ma inqatet il-kaz.
It seems you are not the only one.
One of the few (if not the only posts) with no comments from either side of the political divide.
Sorry to break the silence!
[Daphne – I was out all day.]
Are they doing it deliberately or are they complete morons?
Shall I dare ask why?
This belongs in a LOLcat photo. Just Google images Lol cat- you’ll see what I mean.
How could you not see this?
It is plainly an attempt to fight Mltastra on its own turf.
Get the competition going, I say.
All animals are …… but some animals are …….than others
The Times is becoming almost as bad as Malta Today
Dejjem rajtu helu lil Chris Said…mela issa naf ghaliex
Somebody who is not familiar with Maltese surnames might read it thus: Court declares Chris said “Not guilty of purgery”
Says a lot about the general level of education on the island.
Not as much as Facebook does, mind you!
I wonder if anyone above has a clue of the immense pressure the night editor (who prepares the poster) undergoes in his work. Time is his prime enemy.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Augur is often incorrectly used as the English translation for the Maltese ‘awgura’, as in Mr So and So augured the other so and so a merry Christmas.
The signs that Times’ standards are slipping have been there for the past two/three years but this poster malfunction is a whopper.
As for timesofmalta.com, give up all hope: completely trashy comments are uploaded of the sort that you never see on the online versions of the London broadsheets.
Another mistake.
‘The police said the first accident happened at around 1.20 a.m. The man, a 37-year-old from Zejtun, was injured when he lost control of his Skoda Favorit. He was on his own.’ He was on his own !?!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101031/local/three-men-injured-in-traffic-accident
Vergogna