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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In thinking Arabella Weir and her DD's purple protractor has no place on the R4's Today programme?

40 replies

TheWorstWitch · 08/09/2009 08:35

Terrorists being convicted, US health reform, yes.
But who cares about a mother's woes ... I can come on mumsnet for that.

OP posts:
R4 · 08/09/2009 08:41

YANBU. It also didn't make a lot of sense - it assumed that we had read her article and cared knew what she was on about.

WidowWadman · 08/09/2009 08:49

The language barrier got me again. I had to go and look up 'purple protractor' as it kind of had the sound of a euphemism to me. (blush]

girlafraid · 08/09/2009 08:52

LOL @ WW, I thought the same!

TheDullWitch · 08/09/2009 09:07

God, I thought just the same thing. Two women whittling away about NOTHING! I was momentarily ashamed to be a mother.

WowOoo · 08/09/2009 09:08

Thought the same too. Changed the station in fact.

malovitt · 08/09/2009 09:14

Not just me then!

Made no sense to me at all.

Lilymaid · 08/09/2009 09:23

AW said something like "I don't know what a protactor is for ... giggle giggle" - and they had some other woman journo in with younger children who didn't add anything to the ridiculous item.

Pyrocanthus · 08/09/2009 09:58

Switched off in despair...

policywonk · 08/09/2009 10:09

Yup. Funnily enough I was reading yesterday's Guardian as the item came on, so siddenly it felt as though Arabella Weir's daughter's protractor was receiving 24-hour, multi-platform saturation coverage. I don't like these lite items that Today has started running.

madeupsurname · 08/09/2009 10:12

I was hoping all the lite items were filler for the silly season. There have been some very cringey moments recently, although didn't hear AW this morning, thank god.

Feelingoptimistic · 08/09/2009 10:14

Ummm... What is a purple protractor????

annh · 08/09/2009 10:14

LOL at the "24-hour, multi-platform saturation coverage" for a protractor

policywonk · 08/09/2009 10:23
Grin
OtterInaSkoda · 08/09/2009 11:02

YANBU at all. Bloody shocking. Pretty much all sleb parents drive me nuts when they start whittering on about the minutiae of raising children. So geometry kit comes in different colours these days - we used to collect smelly rubbers. Big effing deal.
Lazy, lazy terrible programming. Makes Chris Moyles look like Dostoy-effing-evsky. Not that he ever had a breakfast radio show, of course. Might have been interesting

MrsMellowdrummer · 08/09/2009 11:10

YANBU. Even they seemed faintly embarrassed about how ridiculous the topic was.

Acanthus · 08/09/2009 11:11

Did you listen to woman's hour today as well? Bloody Liz Jones and some bint from the Telegraph wittering on. Bloody hell.

Poledra · 08/09/2009 11:14

I only caught the first part of Woman's Hour today (late to work ) and thought it was quite good actually (Liza Jardine talking about her breast cancer). Glad I got to work before it all went downhill.

Acanthus · 08/09/2009 11:16

Yes the breast cancer bit was good. Had to turn off after Liz Jones. She came across like a stroppy teenager.

MarthaFarquhar · 08/09/2009 11:40

LOL at Dostoy-effing-evsky. I too abandoned ship during protractor-gate. Fortunately Shaun Keavney was doing a good line in Prince and Sly and Family Stone on 6music.

PlumpRumpSoggyBaps · 08/09/2009 11:44

Does anyone remember Posh Nosh? Our Arry with Richard E Grant? She was great in that.

OtterInaSkoda · 08/09/2009 12:06

Posh Nosh was great. Arabella Weir should be ashamed of herself for this morning's crap though. But then she did do the "Does my bum look big in this?" sketches and I thought those were pretty lame..

Leln · 08/09/2009 20:05

YA most def not being unreasonable.

The worst moment was when A Weir said "of course, I have no idea what a protractor is for".

I hate it when media people think it is absolutely fine to say "science / technology / engineering / protractors, it's all foreign to me" as if that is OK. It is not OK for an educated women not to know what a protractor is for. How can we inspire our kids to take science seriously (esp girls) if we tell them something as very simple as a protractor is too complicated to make sense of.

The idea of a Today style debate by two women about protractors whilst the men discuss economy, terrorism, supreme court etc. fills me with shame.

I had no idea who the woman was and have no wish to hear anything more from her.

AtheneNoctua · 08/09/2009 20:20

I didn't really understand hy she was going on about it. What is wrong with a protractor being purple? If that interests girls in math, hey, go for it. And yes, she should have been ashamed for not knowing what a protractor is.

girlwithapearl · 08/09/2009 22:02

Spot on Leln.
What also made my blood boil is that Sarah Montague is often made to do this kind of fluffy stuff, yet her alpha male colleagues never do it seems to me.

Habbibu · 08/09/2009 22:04

Agree, Leln. That really irritated me too.

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