Thursday, March 01, 2007

Yum-Raarrgh

It is officially Yummy Mummies and Tigers Week in the blogosphere:

1. Rafael Behr* has a highly amusing definitive guide to 'Yummy Mummy lit', a genre whose existence I had hitherto only dimly surmised. I don't think I really need to know any more about it now.

2. Spin has a fabulous deconstruction of some self-congratulating yummy mummy's bleatings in the Guardian.

3. Tim has some pictures of some lovely tiger cubs**.

Yummy Mummies and tigers are so hot right now.


* A rare and admirable example of a national newspaper journalist who properly understands this blogging lark, and who doesn't go on about it, either.

** Apparently there are monkeys in these pictures as well, but I am notoriously monkey-blind and therefore cannot see them.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only does he understand blogging, he's referenced "Winnie the Pooh" in his blog header thingy (I don't really understand blogging!)

I have a couple of hours free this afternoon - perhaps I could write one of those yummy mummy novels. How hard can it be?

Anonymous said...

Brilliant, with one small oversight - the obligitory trip to the zoo not to look at Sumatran tigers

realdoc said...

Baby animals are big in general this week. Did you see GSE's adorable baby panda?
It's enough to make you go soft in the head which would be helpful when reading yummy mummy lit.
I was pondering a novel of this sort set in the Midlands and featuring a mother who was attractive but a bit thick....Brummy dummy yummy mummy anyone?

patroclus said...

Brummy dummy yummy mummy: funny.

Anonymous said...

a while back this stuff was called modern women's writing in our local WH Smiths. I resisted the urge to break into a packet of stick it notes and write the word 'crap' on the top one and stick it on the aforementioned sign. They know me in there.....

I sigh deeply about Yummy Mummies. I'm more a yucky mummy - my role model is the lovely Waynetta Slob. I drool over the Boden catalogue, outfitters to the yummy mummy, and never find anything I like or suits me.

Should I get a life, as they say....

Tim F said...

In 1997, when the first conspiracy theories about the Diana crash began to surface, I concocted the idea that the whole thing was caused by the car skidding in some excrement from an extinct bird, placed there by a Liverpudlian comedian as an anti-art prank. All together now: "DI AND DODI DIE IN DODDY DADA DODO DOODOO!!!"

And they're orangs, not monkeys, so nerr.

Billy said...

But who would win in a fight between a yummy mummy and a tiger?

(this is a stupid question, isn't it?)

Arabella said...

So sorry to hear about the monkey blindness.
I read the article-link at Spinsterella and there hasn't been that much groaning in this house since my last period.
Thought my West Midlands antenna was buzzing today!

Spinsterella said...

Um thanks P - more of an incoherent rant really.

Billy, Yummy Mummies v Big Tigers? Excellent idea.

All those hopelessly misguided articles in the papers about blogging - I've always wondered, don't they know about Raphael Baer/Andrew Collins/Our very own Tim Footman?

miss-cellany said...

Just wanted to pop over here to say hello. I found your comment, and it made me smile.

Not only that, there really is a party going on out here and it looks like a lot of fun. There was I stuck in a bed-sit of a blog, only talking to people I knew, and there is a whole palace of new people to visit..

I much prefer tigers to Yummy Mummys and think I should take one (a tiger) to The School Gates tomorrow. I get strange looks as it is, so a tiger would a) give them something more interesting to talk about, other than how shocking it is that some mothers appear without lipstick and mascara at The Gates, and b) could inspire a whole new genre of modern women's writing...

cello said...

There is a well-known children's book called 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' which is set-readng for Yummy Mummies and their hid(eous) kiddies. I'd do one of those Amazon linky things if I could be arsed.

patroclus said...

Spin: I don't think they *want* to know. I think they're frightened, because to them, blogs are like zombie versions of 'proper' journalism, converging out of nowhere in massive, groaning hordes to attack them.

I do like the zombie analogy.

Miss-Cellany: Hello! Indeed there are, millions of us. Have a look at some of the blogs on my blogroll there too, they are all lovely.

Cello: Your wish is my command, and bonus points for so elegantly uniting this week's two leitmotifs!

Billy said...

I used to have a copy of "The Tiger That Came to Tea". Two things stood out for me:

1. The tiger drank all the water in the tap. Quite a feat, I thought at the time, even with water shortages.

2. At the end, they went and had fish and chips. What a treat!

LC said...

More Monkey/Tiger crossover wackyness here.

Do I win a fiver?

frangelita said...

I think there should be more posts about yummy mummies and tigers. V disappointed there is yet no picture of the two together.

Billy said...

I'm going to do a yummy mummy tiger post RIGHT NOW.

Well, after my lunch.

miss-cellany said...

The tiger also drank all the beer in the fridge...

How long before the yummies edit that bit out I wonder?

ScroobiousScrivener said...

Mr Behr's desk is quite close to mine - I've been hearing a lot about this yummy mummy lark (mostly along the lines of "why me, dear god why me", which nobody has quite been able to answer). And hence eagerly awaiting his actual article. Who knew there was a bloggity preview?

Well, you did apparently, so good on yer.

patroclus said...

I know *all*, much in the same manner as Ryan from the O.C. Although with me it doesn't usually lead to a punch-up on the beach.

I find it quite heartwarming that two people from my 'cyberspace' blogroll actually sit in the same office in real life. I'm looking forward to the article too. Hope it makes it into the flimsy 'overseas edition' of the Observer.

Konrad said...

Hurrah, I found your blog again!!! You haven't told me that your homepage moved. But there you are! I hope you are doing fine. See You!! Konrad

Konrad said...

By the way. Your post reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes!

FirstNations said...

notice how seldom you see a tiger AND a yummy mummy in the same room at the same time?
food for thought.

rach said...

It's always struck me that the daddy in 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' is an extremely gullible man. He gets home to discover that all his beer has disappeared, there's no food in the house or water in the taps, and his wife/life partner/significant other and small daughter are hallucinating about tigers. Suspicious or what?Anyway, what's a chap to do? Take everyone out to a cafe for chips, icecream and beer of course, before instructing wife/life partner/significant other to buy a box of tiger food, in case of future emergencies. Can just imagine trying to find that in the supermarket...

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Long time no blog. Hope everything's OK over there.