I'm glad Suzy saw it too. JM seemed so pointless; just go away, woman! be quiet!
dire how she kept saying HE'S MY BOYawful !!!
he's probably a tosser too, the Boy
the Max Gogarty line above is so funny !!
the really odd thing about the Review people is how many of them I have met.
MorleyHarrisMyersonChurchwell
oh, OK, that's only 4. it feels like more.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:32 (fifteen years ago) link
wow I didn't know it was possible, now, to post that many times
maybe Kermode could be worst of all tho?
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:33 (fifteen years ago) link
There's something really horrible about having this breezy, artful magazine style of writing applied to the writer's own anguish.
I have deliberately tried to strike my son, to punch him until he hurts. Who have I become? What happens to make anyone do that? And yet, later that day, we find him sitting in the park outside, strumming a guitar with his sister.
I apologise (as though I could ever say enough). He smiles and says it is OK (and that's why I love him).
Wait, you love him because he allows you not to feel like an asshole on the same day you hit him?
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Sitting in the park with his guitar - is there no end to his depravity?
― Say what you like Professor Words (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:48 (fifteen years ago) link
You saw what happened to Doherty.
― Mylene Cockfarmer (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:49 (fifteen years ago) link
He mistreated a cat too.
Skim read the article; sounds like the whole family are bunch of narcissistic cunts, up to and including the cat.
― chap, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Next stop, Ian Brady
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I just mentioned this to my own mother and she's pretty LOL WTF about the whole thing too, says that on Newsnight JM kept on absolving herself by claiming to have never once mentioned him by name. And now she's handed me yesterday's Times where Libby Purves has proffered a hearty response.
― they probably drink corporate water (country matters), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I love how this kid's increasing rebelliousness and perversity is entirely blamed on weed.
No, she told us, the cannabis isn't a symptom, it's the cause. That's when we put it together.
"That's when we finally had something outside ourselves to blame all this poor communication on."
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:53 (fifteen years ago) link
"The problem, I suspect, was that Julie Myerson is a compulsive writer and that once lovely phrases begin forming in her head her self-control evaporates. Perhaps it is her equivalent of a really good spliff."
― they probably drink corporate water (country matters), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
To be fair I do know of people for whom skunk has caused enormous problems. I also know people who smoke it pretty much every day and lead perfectly normal lives.
― chap, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"The problem, I suspect, was that Julie Myerson is a compulsive writer"
Can we do something to help her to overcome this embarassing compulsion?
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:59 (fifteen years ago) link
buy enough of her books that she never needs to write again
― they probably drink corporate water (country matters), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I also know people who smoke it pretty much every day and lead perfectly normal lives.
If frightening hapless codgers and mugging 10 year olds for their mobiles phones is normal, yes
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought it was 10 year olds who mugged people
but I agree with you, I hate muggers.
I don't like Julie M either and it sounds like her narcissism and carelessness have finally landed her like a beached shark.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:09 (fifteen years ago) link
"i actually know someone who likes the smell of skunk."http://marykcarman.blogspot.com/2008/04/hop-on-mexican-train.html
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:10 (fifteen years ago) link
can someone else post nice pictures of skunks? Pictures don't always work for me.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:11 (fifteen years ago) link
A bleached shark, judging by her hair colour in that old photo
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:11 (fifteen years ago) link
the generalising abt drugs on this thread - abt their effects, the stupidity or o/wise of ppl who take them, their availability in se london etc - seems as bad as a bad guardian writer (eg toynbee)
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:12 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.heroicfineart.com/catalog/images/ClassicPepe%5B1%5D
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:13 (fifteen years ago) link
from her introduction to the book, explaining to her son why she wrote it: "Don't worry, it's not so much about you - or at least it is - but it's more about me really." lol self-awareness.
― joe, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:28 (fifteen years ago) link
More interesting if it had been about the cat
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:30 (fifteen years ago) link
... or is that the sequel?
The cat gets a paint stripe down back. Pepe le Pew falls in love w/it.
― Mylene Cockfarmer (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Myerson family's ongoing struggle with skunk etc
― Free the Northampton 1 (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:35 (fifteen years ago) link
as a side point.. is kicking your druggy kid onto the street to fend for himself really supposed to be the thing to do and the way to stop him falling into further drugs/crimes/south londonness??
― \∫Öζ/.... argh oh noes! (ken c), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 15:52 (fifteen years ago) link
seems counter intuitive to me
― \∫Öζ/.... argh oh noes! (ken c), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
oh wait i see that's the whole point of the book?
― \∫Öζ/.... argh oh noes! (ken c), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
And it gets worse: Family section Guardian editors have just outed Myerson as author of two-year Living With Teenagers column. Which was written anonymously until the kids cottoned on a year or so ago. Just how much money has she made over her kids'...exploits?
― We Need To Talk About Kevin Smith (suzy), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 19:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Family section Guardian editors have just outed Myerson as author of two-year Living With Teenagers column
Ho, wow, that makes sense. God, to finally have a focal point for the loathing that column inspired in me is quite bizarre.
Seriously, though, this woman is an unmitigated fucking cock and I intend to spend the rest of my life ignoring her, because she's too absurd to even consider taking seriously.
― Atoms are "balls" (grimly fiendish), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 21:25 (fifteen years ago) link
That's pretty much true.
Surprised anyone has ever read anything in Guardian Family section. I don't have a Family, but don't have time to read it. Does anyone with a Family have time to read it? Then again I don't really like Families.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 00:41 (fifteen years ago) link
you are v. strange.
― Blackout Crew are the Beatles of donk (jim), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 00:42 (fifteen years ago) link
On Myerson, I was surprised but impressed that the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts, former No. 10 head of policy Matthew Taylor, took time out in his latest blog entry to comment:
(by the way, has anyone yet written the inevitable Goody-Myerson comparison: on the one hand the ignorant untalented, lumpen Goody who is enduring media intrusion in her dying hours in order to provide financial security for her children, on the other, the fragrant, highly intelligent, middle-class Myerson who seems to be encouraging media intrusion into her family in order that she can sell more books, sorry that should read ‘expose the scourge of skunk’).
in an unexpected aside from his thinking on Public Service Reform...
― Bob Six, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 07:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Just what does 'fragrant' mean in this context?
― We Need To Talk About Kevin Smith (suzy), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 08:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Middle class + also hott.
― Lord Byron Lived Here, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:13 (fifteen years ago) link
locus classicus being 'the fragrant mary archer'
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:17 (fifteen years ago) link
lumpen?
― cozwn, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:31 (fifteen years ago) link
as in lumpen-proletariat?
― horses that are on fire (c sharp major), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought it was a cancer ref
― cozwn, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:37 (fifteen years ago) link
next instalmenthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/10/family-julie-myerson
― cozwn, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Since the identity of the children in Living With Teenagers is now known, we have removed the columns from the Guardian website to protect their privacy.
― Mylene Cockfarmer (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:12 (fifteen years ago) link
someone was probably canny enough to archive them yesterday when this was dropping
― cozwn, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:15 (fifteen years ago) link
This blog post is OTMFM:
http://potlatch.typepad.com/weblog/2009/03/julie-myerson-vs-hannah-arendt.html
― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:35 (fifteen years ago) link
"She's the literary equivalent of a flasher at a cricket match, and she deserves to get rugby tackled by a steward then evicted."
V good.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Hope that happens IRL.
― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Must stop abbreviating!
i have read a few things about this but am not getting how it is different from other misery-memoir situations. is it that she's saying her son is an abusive bastard, rather than, as is more usual, her father? idk, people writing about their fucked-up family is not a new thing.
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 10:41 (fifteen years ago) link