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Original poster

Tim Dowling, for example, is a twat

488 replies

Robespierre · 17/05/2009 16:28

..who writes moderately entertaining columns about his personal life in The Guardian. Yesterday's was about the perils of self-googling, and in particular of an episode of self-googling which returned the text 'Tim Dowling for example is a twat'

Where did he find that humbling line?? On mumsnet of course!

In the article he claims to have given up self-googling, but we know that isn't true, don't we.

Shall we give him a few more personal insights? I think he is less of a twat than Jon Ronson and he doesn't have a whiney voice.

OP posts:
HostChris2 · 19/05/2009 14:48

"I haven't touched a scrapbook in MONTHS"

Yeah, yeah, but some day soon you'll be found passed-out, covered with glitter and pritt-stick stains, muttering about treasured memories.

(Thanks pol.)

morningpaper · 19/05/2009 14:53

Actually, now I think about it, I did paint the shed floor this afternoon and then

TOSSED GLITTER ON IT

just to see the effect, mind

It needs another coat, so it was purely experimental

HostChris2 · 19/05/2009 14:56

...then, truly, you transcend gender. Especially by saying 'purely experimental' in a gruffly male manner and then crying.

Ponymum · 19/05/2009 14:58

morningpaper - A "shed"? Really? That's what you call it, do you?

'Fess up, it's really one of those cute little garden studio mumsy things advertised in the back of Country Living isn't it?

"Shed"?

morningpaper · 19/05/2009 15:02

It is a REAL MAN'S SHED

but I have been transforming it into a summerhouse type affair

So I have removed my BIG MANLY TOOLS into the coal cellar (which is painted cerise btw)

And have removed the side panel of the shed and turned that into french doors

MissM · 19/05/2009 15:03

Lucy M is very realistic about babies tho isn't she. I loved her agony aunt reply about a new mother looking as if she's all there and joining in the conversation but actually is asleep and will be for the next 18 years. Boy I could sooooo relate to that.

Do you think it was the real Tim and Mrs Tim?

Ponymum · 19/05/2009 15:10

My theory is that both Mr and Mrs Tim were on this thread today... although not necessarily under the names you might think. Just a theory.

HostChris2 · 19/05/2009 15:11

Your shed has become a zummerhouse; your manly tools have been removed and entrapped in ze womb-like space of ze 'coal cellar'; and ze panel has been sawn away and converted into ze feminine aperture.

How long have you been acting out zeese savage castration rituals, MP? How long have you enslaved ze prit stick in the pursuit of ze feminine?

Bleatblurt · 19/05/2009 15:14

It's a pink shed with gingham curtains at the window. We know.

DaDaDa · 19/05/2009 15:15

I like Tim Dowling's column. It makes me chuckle; not many things do that.

His wife seems almost as much of a harridan as mine. I can never persuade DW to read it though (I think she thinks he's a twat).

Hassled · 19/05/2009 15:18

Dammit, I missed the Dowlings. If they were indeed the Dowlings.

And I won't have a word said about Lucy Mangan. There's nothing wrong with a long sentence as long as the grammar is impeccable. Her agony column in the Guardian is the best thing in the paper.

Hassled · 19/05/2009 15:19

MP - you painted your coal cellar CERISE??? That's so last year.

morningpaper · 19/05/2009 15:29

At one stage it had a disco ball in it too

It is known as the 'gay cellar'

cyteen · 19/05/2009 15:37

Sorry, not read all thread but must simply add

Zoe Williams, for example, is a twat.

You're also a hack of the highest (lowest?) order, if you're reading

Maiakins · 19/05/2009 15:51

I don't think Tim Dowling is that much of a twat ... certainly not the twat I'd name if I needed an example. And definitely not any much more of a twat than my DH! A harmless, lovable twat, if anything. I like his columns and I think his wife comes across well. I'm sure I would like her if I met her!

Latootle · 19/05/2009 16:43

surely it is easier to say who isn't one these days?

smee · 19/05/2009 20:13

Zoe Williams hasn't yet sunk to twatdom, but she's not as good since having a child. Maybe the madness of a second will lurch her back to form

smee · 19/05/2009 20:14

Is MP a goth then? Cerise in a coal cellar

morningpaper · 19/05/2009 20:22

No if I was a goth I would keep some sort of dead cattle in there

I have painted the shed floor a second time and left a light dusting of glitter

no so you'd notice, just a teeny glimmer

smee · 19/05/2009 21:43

'some sort of dead cattle' - that means you've debated options. Do I detect black eye liner? Just a smattering amidst the glitter...?

MissM · 19/05/2009 22:28

I agree with Cyteen. Especially that 'oopsy, guess what, I'm pregnant again! I thought the gym wasn't making a difference. Silly me' column.

AnybodyHomeMcFly · 19/05/2009 22:32

Like the Freudian post HostChris2

ronshar · 20/05/2009 10:02

Is Zoe Williams the Guardian writer who was bitching about children being pulled from private school and joining the local state school? She even listed the order in which they should be made to go to the bottom of the lists. Lovely lady. Especially when she went to some of the most exclusive private schools in the country.
Isnt that called pulling the ladder up behind you???
If that was her then I def think she is a Twat.
If it wasnt then I apologise.

MissM · 20/05/2009 11:43

Yep, that's her.

Tinker · 20/05/2009 17:30

Rachel Cook, for example, is a twat. She was the child-hater going on about how little time there is to read all teh books she wanted.

Apologies if she's already been twatted. Similarly, the next one but not reason not to twat her again:

Polly Vernon, for example, is a twat.