the Guardian sets a new record

I mean, I know the Guardian has a reputation for being read by humourless prigs. But my goodness they’ve outdone themselves here.  It’s worse than the football comments about whose club is most conspired against by referees! It makes an STW thread about climate change look like a children’s tea party!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/02/why-i-quit-stress-dinner-friends-wellbeing

I’m pretty punctual, but I am seriously considering changing my ways just to make sure I don’t have to encounter this lot!

I am always exactly on time.
Years back we had an ex sergeant major start at my garage.
He wanted to cycle in so I arranged to meet him.
He was never on time. I have never been so disappointed by anyone.

Not sure what the problem is…someone decided to stop being late for everything?  Good.  Being late suggests you think your time is more valuable than mine. People who are consistently late really annoy me.

Being late suggests you think your time is more valuable than mine.

This. So much this.

Not sure what the problem is…

Me neither. Someone accidentally discovers being on time is better than being late.

I’m late sometimes, not because I think my time is more important though. I usually roll in with some hilarious quip like “a wizard is never late” and we get a few beers in and crack on because people I choose to hang out with are not uptight about such things.

Me neither. Someone accidentally discovers being on time is better than being late.

Yes – someone goes ‘oh, being on time is better than being late’, and the response is 2,000 people saying, and I quote, “LATE PEOPLE ARE WORSE THAN HITLER!!11one”

I just don’t get it. If my mate is late to the pub, I do Wordle, read STW, and enjoy a few mins to myself. Ok, if he didn’t turn up at all I’d be hacked off, but other than that, I really don’t see a need to get worked up.

I’ve read the article and I cannot see the issue.

Someone has recognised how their own time optimism impacts their lives and the lives of their friends. Good for them.

Few minutes here and there no one cares about. I have friends who are perpetually 30-60 minutes late for everything. In the pub I’ll just take my kindle and have a quiet beer. Out riding I’ll just go do some riding before they get there.

Grates a bit as I often have a fairly hard finish time so things get cut short.

I feel like this could be quite a good read for some people.

I am a stickler for being on time, and have spent an annoying amount of time doing an extra lap of the street or sitting in my car or something because I am too paranoid and get there early. Rather that the the opposite.

My OH, bless her, is shocking at time keeping. She is always late to things by 10 mins or so, and I have to remind her that sending a text to say so is good manners. Luckily her pals are just as useless at it and everyone arrives like 15 mins late. Drives me bonkers.

When a few mates and I arrange to go out usually goes something like this:

One of us: What time are we getting in town?

M1: Well my bus gets me in town about 6:30.

Me: Ok I’ll get the train that gets in at 6 rather than 7 then.

M2: I can get in about 6 as well, let me know where you are.

The others: thumbs up emoji.

No one is late as no time was actually set!

Meh:

Helene Rosenthal lives in New York City and writes about families, friendships and relationships

TLDR: Someone without any real challenges, problems or what half the planet would consider a “proper job” has a minor realisation about time management and shares their insight…

I stopped reading the article long before the end as there was nothing in it of any interest to me, and I got bored.

Do you have to read the whole article to understand why it is a valid attack on the Guardian?

the Guardian has a reputation for being read by humourless prigs.

I wasn’t aware, although I’m not an avid Guardian reader myself. What do fun-loving self-deprecating folk read?

I’ve had friends who were habitually late – very late. It made cinema, theatre, gigs etc a nightmare as you’d be waiting around for then, missing the best seats and so on. Or waiting for ages to order food on a restaurant. Sometimes they’d eventually contact me to say the weren’t coming at all. Sorry, but my sympathy for your lack of commitment and organisation only goes so far. They just stopped getting invites.

Not sure what the problem is

is the OP not referring to the comments about the article (and the people who make them!), rather than the article itself?

Not that I can be arsed to plough through them!!

Does the Guardian have a Daily Mail style readers comment addition to their articles? I did not know that.

I have a very good friend who is persistently early, does my  head in. “No I am not at home right now because you said 1.30pm not 1.10pm”

Being a bit prone to lateness, and possibly a humourless prig, I found it interesting. It’s not meant to be a heavyweight article.

I wonder what the right wing equivalent is – moaning about cyclists on pavements or something?

Someone without any real challenges, problems or what half the planet would consider a “proper job

this was quite revealing

is the OP not referring to the comments about the article

Dunno…I never read comments made against newspaper articles, so didn’t here either.

I must admit I didn’t know the Guardian had a reputation for being read by humourless prigs.

What is needed ish. If you are meeting In a pub for a drink and lateness isn’t an issue the say see you at 7ish.

If time is critical state an exact time slightly early of when you want to meet.

The disturbing thing was the ads for Adrian Chiles live.

Do you have to read the whole article to understand why it is a valid attack on the Guardian?

You can skip the article altogether!  There’s nowt wrong with the article itself, apart from being midly dull.

I wasn’t aware, although I’m not an avid Guardian reader myself. What do fun-loving self-deprecating folk read?

No idea – I only read the Graun!  And Private Eye.  I’d imagine fun-loving people steer clear of the news altogether…

I think sane people stay clear of the comments altogether. They certainly go crazy whenever the article mentions a bicycle. This is all news media comments as far as I can tell, not exclusively a Guardian issue

You can call me anything you want, just don’t call me late for lunch.

Thing is, it’s not just The Guardian, papers and magazines the world over are full of nonsense like this. I guess it gets clicks so we’re stuck with it. There’s a Twitter account called New York Times Pitchbot which is meant to be a parody but is sometimes hard to distinguish from real “news” content.

https://x.com/DougJBalloon/status/1830257719040934336

I am always exactly on time.

Same.

Controversial counter-opinion, I dislike people being early.  If I say “movie night at mine, see you at 7” don’t arrive at 6:40 because I’ll still be in the shower.

I know how long things take.  Going out, I’ll think “ablutions, 15 minutes, dressed another 5, feed the cats will be 5 minutes, it’s a half-hour journey, call it an hour that I need to allow when starting to get ready.”  There’s 5 minutes of slack in there which will allow for unexpected temporary traffic lights or if I suddenly get taken badly for a poo.

My partner on the other hand adds buffers at every step.  An hour’s prep and journey she winds up allowing three hours for, then starts helicoptering at me at 2 hours 59.  She’ll sit there “ready to go” with her coat on for half an hour, then when we have to leave at 6:30 I’ll be at the door with keys in my hand at 6:29 and she’ll suddenly realise she has to look for her sunglasses or something.

Then when we are late because after sitting there sweating passive-aggressively for 30 minutes she decides she wants to try on three different pairs of boots, I cop the blame at the other end because “Alan is always late.”

Blah blah blah blah blah blah

the Guardian has a reputation for being read by humourless prigs

I’m intrigued by this. I probably read the guardian more than other papers but it’s the first time I’ve heard it.

It’s all a question of taste , but I’m usually tickled by something in there. Stewart Lee usually gets a snigger or two, YMMV of course

I probably read the guardian more than other papers but it’s the first time I’ve heard it.

Really? Have you honestly never heard the jokes about the yoghurt weaving, sandal wearing, tofu-bothering, po-faced, militant lesbian, eco-campaigning lentil activist (etc) Guardian readers??

It’s been the standard insult from the likes of J Clarkson, R Littlejohn, P Morgan et al since at least the 90s, and probably before.

Here is the stereotype in parliament, 2001. And, oh look, here’s Cruella being as original as ever.

I don’t know how far back it goes, but Orwell rants about lefty “fruit juice drinking, sandal wearing nudists, pacifists and feminists” in 1937. Back then, I believe these people read the Herald rather than the grauniad, but the stereotype was there already!

Editing to post his full rant from ‘…Wigan Pier’, as it is quite funny, and probably the earliest accusation of ‘champagne socialism’ i’ve seen (despite accusing these people of really being teetotal):

The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years’ time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage and been converted to Roman Catholicism or, still more typically, a prim little man with a white-collar job, usually a secret teetotaller and often with vegetarian leanings, with a history of Non-conformity behind him, and, above all, with a social position which he has no intention of forfeiting. This last type is surprisingly common in Socialist parties of every shade; it has perhaps been taken over en bloc from the old Liberal Party.

In addition to this there is the horrible–the really disquieting–prevalence of cranks wherever Socialists are gathered together. One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ’Socialism’ and ’Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ’Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.

I thought this was going to be about the fact that the Guardian (which I read every day) publishes a food supplement every Saturday, yet in all the decades I’ve been getting it, it has yet to have a single recipe in it that I’d want to cook

Its all some cobblers involving kale or tofu and loads of other ingredients I’ve never even heard of, with an accompanying story about how they discovered it while on a yoga retreat in Uzbekistan.

They also publish a weekly article by Adrian Chiles that is so brain-dead and banal that it would insult the intelligence of most inanimate objects

I’m always on time or slighty early (ask my ex girlfirend lol!)

But seriously, there’s casual meet ups, when people are cycling, bussing or training to a city or something, so it’s a given that the ‘on time’ window is pretty wide, and communication… we’ve moved from pub A to Pub B, ring me when you are here etc.

What really drives me nuts is one of my ex-friends would say yes, I’ll come to the poker night (starting at say 7pm) and then not turn up or text.. then an hour later  “I’m on my way, buy me in and just keep checking me out of every hand”

Not reason for the lateness other than purely being insolent… then they will start moaning that its a £10 buy in rather than a £5 buy in…

Oh just Eff off, why even say you are comming if you are going to turn up 3/4s of the way through?

 Have you honestly never heard the jokes about the yoghurt weaving, sandal wearing, tofu-bothering, po-faced, militant lesbian, eco-campaigning lentil activist (etc) Guardian readers?

Is very different to “humourless prigs” I think

standard insult from the likes of J Clarkson, R Littlejohn, P Morgan et al since at least the 90s, and probably before.

who?

They also publish a weekly article by Adrian Chiles that is so brain-dead and banal that it would insult the intelligence of most inanimate objects

True, but balanced by the brilliance of Tim Dowling,

Clarkson was the host of a popular television show called ‘Top Gear’. Bit of a niche reference, sorry

Controversial counter-opinion, I dislike people being early.

Urgh, my father in law is exactly like this. If he needs to be somewhere 2 minutes away he’ll leave 5 minutes early. If he has to be somewhere an hour away he’ll be an hour early.

Literally does nothing on the last day of a holiday if he’s travelling because what’s the point, would rather just leave. Regardless of when he needs to leave by.

I don’t get it. But then I’m the type that gets there on time and gets accused of being late because everyone else elected to arrive half an hour before me. Shift handovers got to the point that I arrived half an hour before the start of my shift and still had some grumpy **** complaining because everyone else decided unilaterally that they should turn up 50 minutes before shift start (despite not being allowed on plant without a start of shift brief).

Clarkson was the host of a popular television show called ‘Top Gear’

Some say he’s a bit of a twerp, but I don’t really know

balanced by the brilliance of Tim Dowling

Grab this pair of binoculars,look away to the horizon and you might just catch a glint of brilliance.

This is how far Tim Dowling is away from it. {insert banjo player joke here}

😉 🙂

They also publish a weekly article by Adrian Chiles that is so brain-dead and banal that it would insult the intelligence of most inanimate objects

I concur, however he did once manage an incredibly poignant and personal piece about the death of his father which was very moving. He could have packed up then and been considered a literary giant. Alas, he did not.