Paper Monitor
12:42 UK time, Friday, 20 April 2012
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
At first glance it looks like a classic of the Daily Mail's favourite genre, a headline so comprehensive there's no need to read on. But yet...
"I still shudder to recall the day my three-year-old son told my boss: 'Dad's on the loo'"
There is something buttock-clenchingly compelling about this piece by former Westminster lobby correspondent Tom Utley (not least of which is the question "which boss?" - surely not... Paul Dacre?).
"Perhaps only a fellow stuffed-shirt Englishman will understand fully why I found that little speech so excruciatingly embarrassing - and why the blood still rises to my cheeks as I type it out, 25 years on."
(He doesn't reveal the identity of said boss, who apparently responded with a contemptuous chuckle.)
So why is Utley revisiting this trauma?
A new study suggests that revealing our true selves to our friends and family is likely to make us happier, but "authentic self-expression" may damage our careers. So people often employ dramatically different personae according to their social setting.
Utley cites "preacher of hellfire" Ian Paisley.
"My most surprising glimpse of the man came when a colleague rang to speak to him and overheard him addressing his wife tenderly as 'Mammy'."
And when it comes to revealing real personalities, our pooch predilection also give us away, according to a study and the Daily Telegraph.
Psychologist Lane Workman has found that :
- corgi owners (the Queen, Chris Evans) are likely to be extroverts
- owners of gun dogs (Gwyneth Paltrow and cocker spaniel-owning Kate Middleton) are intelligent, agreeable and conscientious
- and terriers are for those with "low emotional stability" but who make pleasant company
"I don't know [terrier owner] Simon Cowell," says Dr Woodman. "But it may be that if you know him personally that he is a nice chap to have around."
(Amateur psychologists may wish to note that the Mail Online illustrated its article with photos of Duchess of Cambridge + cocker spaniel and Geri Halliwell + shih-tzu - but a Pugh cartoon instead of a photo in its newspaper - while the Telegraph opted for the Queen + corgi online but Kate + cocker spaniel in its print version.)
The 
