Is it just me or is The Observer a load of shite these days?

[moondog]

I refer in particular to irritating posed photos in 'Food' magazine,the tripe that is rehashed endlessly in the 'Woman' one and their fixation into turning their journalists into 'personalities' (ie Mariella Frostybum,Kathryn Phlegm,Polyfilla
Vernon and that irritating Scot-Euan O'Fergusan-Doonray wotsit.)

Yaaaawn.....

Lynn Barber is fantastic, I have a collection of her interviews called Demon Barber, great stuff.

I have The heart shaped bullet by Katherine Flett, seem to remember liking it at the time but it was along time ago. Can't be arsed reading Euan Ferguson and don't much care for Chrissy Iley either.

I only buy it when it's a food week or a woman week, but I agree Sunday's food magazine was really crap, except for the interview with the guy from Badly Drawn Boy -I nearly PMSL when I read about him getting "scraps and pea wet" from the chippie. Also, I quite like Euan Ferguson . But on balance, I think it's gone downhill, and if I can read Nigel Slater and Mariella whatshername on-line, then I'll stop buying it too.

oh yes, oliver james comes across as being unbearably smug (though I have to admit, some of the stuff he writes about mental health can be quite interesting) - he's plugging his new book (affluenza) so no doubt he's going to appear everywhere arrghh over the next few months!

Lynn Barber still good. And I like Barbara Ellen more and more lately - she always makes me laugh. Nigel Slater okay but far too carniverous for my liking. Maybe those three could start their own paper and leave the Flett and old skinny-thighs to their own devices - downing cocktails, watching telly and reminding each other how sparklingly ORIGINAL they are, dahling.

Pmsl at Kathryn Flett on the plane, desperate to see if anybody had recognised her!

Barbara makes me laugh too.
Not in a good way however.

It's bloody smug of Oliver James to lecture the great unwashed about the dangers of affluenza when he is no doubt rolling in it (and being the son of someone famous can't have hindered him either...)

has he got famous parents?

Barbara Ellen looks like a sort of Cubist painting with bits all over the place. Surely she could find a better pic. I don't read her column. In fact I don't read anyone's column. They're all so ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.... Hasn't the world moved on a bit?

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I like the Observer reasonably well. Should give the Independent another change. Euan Ferguson bores me and annoys me in equal doses, is the worst thing about the paper, imo.

Food was bad on Sunday, I agree.

And the fashion and decor stuff is rubbish, but then, I'm not generally a fan ...

Oh yes, Observer Woman is appalling.

Can't believe no-one on this thread has mentioned the Dr John Briffa stuff in the Observer where he goes through a celebrity's shopping basket and tells them why every single item in it is a load of crap.
Eg, if they say 'I eat one piece of Green and Blacks chocolate a month' he says 'Ooh, chocolate's very bad for you, it would be better if you ate carob instead', though no doubt if they said they ate carob he would say 'Very high in sugar, you should eat an organic Brussels Sprout for a treat instead'. This month he has got it in for fruit juice - not much better than squash, apparently

Completely agree about the celeb food thingy, i think that doctor is transfering his guilt and actually he eats cake all day

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Oh, my favourite Dr John Briffa was a month or so ago, the subject was Patrick Moore,who seems to have managed to get to a very ripe old age despite obviously only eating shite(professional opinion of Dr J.B)He had things like "a cup of pg tips,with milk and one sugar",and really he could improve his health and live to a fine age if only he'd swap to that redbush filth and a teaspoon of manuka honey(£15 a jar)....

Briffa on Sunday on someone's shopping basket

'Baked macaroni cheese
I can see why John might want to indulge in some nostalgic eating from time to time. However, from a nutritional perspective, I have to say that a dish made out of refined wheat and cheese sauce is utter shite.'

Ah, the finesse of his prose...

lol Kathy at that analysis of Briffa, the big killjoy.

Patrick Moore is 84. Enough said, I think!

lol at Briffa. The Food is normally good - but I've felt it's been going downhill for a few issues now. There's not as much substance to it as there used to be. Either they've run out of ideas or it's run its time and they need to come up with something else.

I thought when Woman first came out, it sounded ludicrous. I mean it's not as though they'll ever release Man is it.

Kathy,yes you are sooooo right!
Briffa dismisses everything but oats and protein.
I love the inevitability of him sneerng at everything too.
Ha ha,how could I have forgotten???

Meant to add, Nick Cohen is good though. Unusually among journalists, he seems able to have an independent original thought and turn it into a well written article.

I think he is one of the best journalists in any paper, and so almost worth ploughing through pages of shallow celebrity nonsense for.

Has anyone in the Broadsheets considered that in this country, celebrities are not really reknowned for their intellectual depth. Why would you pack a broadsheet with them?

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I get the Observer because I can't imagine getting anything else, despite the fact it always annoys me. It seems to be written by and therefore about a club of certain types of London people and bears little relation to me.
I used to really like a tv reviewer. I think his surname was something like Parker and then his reviews disappeared. I'd like a bigger and more varied travel section. I've never been skiing or on Safari and don't wish to, so less space devoted to those 2 would be good.

I agree puffling. I thought the travel supplement this week just summed up the point. 'Disappearing world' - a list of 10 places that won't exist in 20 years time because of global warming.

Then a small box at the side explaining the apparent contradiction between mourning the loss of the world at the hands of global warming and getting a long haul flight to go and see the very things that are going to disappear.

Not to mention the complete irrelevance to most people of going on a holiday costing about 5k per family. I know there is always an element of aspiration, but this was just fatuous.

Nearly all our newspapers seem to incorporate a 'tabloid' style to a greater or lesser extent compared to those in Spain, France Italy etc. There they seem to differentiate quite clearly between rags and broadsheets. I suppose then you could get into a discussion about our national characters and how that's reflected in our media.

I agree with Cloudhopper about the contradictory nature of the Travel article last Sunday- listing places that are going to disappear because of global warming then a glib comment saying 'ripping up passports and not flying isn't going to solve the problem of global warming'.. er well it actually will help.

Yeah, the travel sections drive me mad too - the Observer is no worse than the other papers, though.
However I don't specially want the papers to run features on our favourite Lake District campsites as they'd end up getting overcrowded and put the prices up, so I am happy for them to carry on creating the fiction that everyone stays in posh hotels and goes skiing.

I like Pruni's idea that they will be embarrassed when they look back at all the celebrity stuff. I certainly hope so.