Sat 30 June 2007 - Dumped… by Virginia
“DANIEL Bowen you are so dumped. We are like so over. I’m not even going to send you a text or an email. You can just work it out for yourself. You’re finished.”
– Virginia Haussegger in The Canberra Times. No, really.
Go read it. My thoughts later. My thoughts here.
June 30th, 2007 at 12:38pm
“The bulk of Australians are no longer white, Anglo, English-speaking Christians who are married-with-kids”
… and Daniel is a half-Chinese Weak Agnostic who is divorced. It’s funny how people make assumptions.
June 30th, 2007 at 1:06pm
Wow! I think she’s just proved that you’re still the average Australian. With your ethnic background you’re definitely diverse. The fact that there are many different types of average is exactly what she misses in her article.
June 30th, 2007 at 5:17pm
I thought her article was very funny. I invite any newspaper columnist (preferably National but I won’t quibble) to take the piss out of me in print. But I agree it is over between you two.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:02pm
Somewhat unrelated to the article topic, but I had imagined the Canberra Times had journalists with a better knowledge of English. She “poured” over your daily musings, did she? Only when she was pouring scorn on them! Sheesh.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:40pm
First thing I thought was, “um isn’t he part-Chinese, and divorced?” My impression at the end was “What’s got the bug up her butt to attack him?” I realize that maybe it’s just made up anger, but it comes off as shrill, and not very much friendly vibes. Whatever, I’ve been reading, and will keep on reading.
Idle comment: I bet this rates as the most commented blog entry in your history Daniel, when we’re done. (The readers I mean)
June 30th, 2007 at 8:02pm
Wow, isn’t it nice to be noticed! heh heh. I’m thankful you are you. Plus she’s wrong, we are *ALL* the ‘average Australian’! Yay! \o/
Sounds like some poor psudo-journalist in a small-time rag had a slow-news-day and googled your blog and thought ‘there’s a nice filler-story I can give to my editor’. My reaction is to give her the literary brush-off! heh heh
We love ya! Yay! \o/
Cyalayta
Mal
June 30th, 2007 at 10:08pm
Daniel,
I am so sorry you had to read about being dumped in the paper. Where has due consideration and etiquette gone to - surely she could have told you face to face!
But seriously - like Mal says - you’ve been “googled” and woven into her story on the census - which is sort of clever but she didn’t need to bludgeon you about your use of “average” in your title.
Anyhow - think of all the extra traffic you will get - remember the only worst thing than people talking about you is people not talking about you.
Keep up your good work - I really enjoy dipping into your thoughts every now and then.
Rob(ert)
June 30th, 2007 at 10:14pm
Just like most relationships these days, not even the coutesy to face up to the person to end the realtionship, if Virginia whats to know average, then she has done what countless singles have done to others these last past few years. Dumped by a website! Don’t worry daniel, I’ll stick by you; and looks like others will too.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:46pm
Tongue in cheek. Bet her work isn’t in the National Library though…
June 30th, 2007 at 10:46pm
Just for the heck of it I googled “Virginia H ” - lots of stuff there and some of it interesting.
Rob(ert)
June 30th, 2007 at 11:20pm
It *could* have been an ok article - amusing even. It just wasn’t. Poorly executed I think.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:58am
… must be hard to know how, or indeed whether, to respond …
Did she ever comment, or was she just a ‘lurker’? If she was just a lurker, then I say pour forth with a comeback!
Anyway, what with that and the transport commenting, you must be the most in the news person I know!
July 1st, 2007 at 1:02am
… and to defend that comment about you being the most in the news person I know, I should say for the record that I know a lot of Historians/colleagues who are often called on for public opinion, and it seems like you’re in the news more than any individual one of them!
July 1st, 2007 at 5:12am
It looks as though Virginia’s Google search took on a life of its own, and she got carried away. But now you’re in a serious conundrum
July 1st, 2007 at 5:14am
Ack. I think Safari ate the end of my previous message:
But now you’re in a serious conundrum - how can you remain an “average Australian” after having a Canberra Times article written about you?
- ozz
July 1st, 2007 at 10:43am
Methinks she never read your blog at all, she only seems to refer to the most recent posts. Unless you have evidence to prove otherwise.
Anyway, as we know, the average Australian is a collingwood footballer who mixes company with future killers and gets away with it!
July 1st, 2007 at 12:29pm
That’s frootloop territory, that.
July 1st, 2007 at 4:05pm
Three points:
* In age you are almost exactly ‘average’.
* It looks as if she didn’t read: http://www.danielbowen.com/2004/08/12/diary-faq or if she did she didn’t get it.
* The distinction between ‘the’ and ‘an’ is lost on her when she wrote:
‘You profess to be the “average Australian”.’ But note the judicious use of quotation marks to convey one message to the readers while making it unchallengable when parsed. Sneaky!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:10pm
If I were you… I’d be kinda pissed. I’m not saying that because I enjoy reading your blog and all (’cause I do), that’s just a terribly written article and the fact that your good name is associated with it is offensive in itself.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:27am
Hahaha, that’s hilarious, and flattering in a backhanded kind of a way. She’s obviously not really attacking your blog (or if she is, she’s also attacking every personal blog in existence), nor debating whether or not you’re an average Australian, but rather suggesting that according to the census figures, there’s no such thing as an average Australian.
That said, I seriously think you should e-mail her begging for a reconciliation.
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:06am
I’m just disappointed Alfred E Neumann hasn’t weighed in on the debate. Surely this is his specialty - sticking up for the oppressed (average) man on the street. I shudder to think how amusing Virginia H’s article would’ve been without you and your, er, diatribe to take the urine out of Daniel.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:40pm
Paul, I hear Alfred is a Canberra local, too…
July 5th, 2007 at 12:02am
Wow, she dissed you good and proper. Or did she? I have heard her for a long time in media as a serious journalist and I can see where she is going with her post and she makes her point, but why did she feel she could be so personally offensive?
August 26th, 2007 at 6:52pm
As far as I’m concerned you are a LEGEND and Virginia can go jump ! (This sort of journalism is so personal and potentially hurtful I think it’s unforgivable !)