Don’t worry. It’s the drinker not the drink. If you give yourself airs and graces, then you need the crockery to back it up. For the rest of us humble peons, a tin mug will do.

The post-War belief that Life Is Beautiful has reduced men to giggling imbeciles. Time was when they had inner strength and gravitas, and stared out at the world from beneath thatched brows.

Have you ever seen one of those photographs of Ernest Shackleton drinking tea out of an enamelled mug? Now I’m not gay, but my god.

[Daphne – Better still, try to imagine Ernest Shacklteton drinking tea out of an enamelled mug and telling the working-class about it on Facebook. “I like it, Ernest! Good day!!!!!!”]

In that case Dr Charles the dentist would have been more correct to write “Trust a dentist to say such things”.

Moreover he would have understood that I may have been referring to the old practice of administering nitrous oxide analgesia, popularly known as “laughing gas” as a possible cause for Bernardette’s euphoria when she was “under Jeff’s hand”.

Waqqajtni down, Baxxter. I love drinking my tea out of a mug.

[Daphne – If you drink builder’s tea, as I do (I dislike any other sort), then a mug is the only thing. For all other tea: cups and saucers, and a pot.]

Unlike you, A Chales, I sign my name in full and identify my profession. I think that is much more honest and less cowardly than commenting critically under a pseudonym. You do not need to be “a medic” to adopt that standard.

[Daphne – Dr Saliba, A. Charles is his real name and he’s often referred on this blog to his professional practice as a dentist in Zejtun. I imagine that when Anthony said ‘trust a medic to say that’, it was just a dentist teasing a doctor.]

At least half the middle-aged population of Malta must be going bonkers. Does it ever actually occur to them how ridiculous they are? I think not.

I have not found it in online edition myself; as for printed edition, you needed a magnifying glass as type size was small.
It looks like he sent The Sunday Times a draft with tracked corrections.

I cant find it either!
Why did Times Online not publish it?

[Daphne – For the obvious reason that tracked changes won’t show up.]

Well, going to the dentist and liking it is unusual enough – more noteworthy than drinking tea.

I’m assuming “taħt idejk” referred to a dentistry session.

Call Julia’s daddy.

That’s because most of the closet-exhibitionists never got much attention when in their prime. Now that they’re over forty, they are all the more desperate for it.