- I saw a retweet this morning that said something along the lines of, “Let TOWIE [The Only Way is Essex] now stand for The Only Way is Ennis, and give young women a true role model.” I agree so very much. I haven’t really been looking intently, but I haven’t seen a great deal of inane celebrity coverage over the past week and a bit. If only this could remain the status quo, and media coverage focused on great humans achieving great and extraordinary things, rather than those who delight in being extraordinarily egregious for a living.
- The Olympics has also set the bar pretty high for things worth getting sentimental about. Laura Trott’s squeaky celebrations, Mo Farah’s daughter running on to grab her dad, Helen Jenkins looking crestfallen after the triathlon; the whole gamut of joy tears to heartbreak tears. There’s no statistical evidence to support this claim, but it often feels as if the internet has really skewed the priorities of sentimentality: weeping at pictures of slow loris, Kane’s arcade, effing “giraffe bread”. My heart is made from iron anyway, but I’d much rather save my involuntary tears for incidences of formidable human effort— whether resulting in victory or dismay— than untempered schmaltz.
Hopefully there’s nothing optimistic about this late third addition: more Clare Balding on TV, please.
