April 16, 2008...7:59 pm
Cactus Kate makes cry from heart over “slummy mummy” Deborah Hill Cone
Cactus Kate, in a txted cry from the heart (from Samoa, which she is visiting for work after her recent Wellington visit) has urged me to “share the love” and beg journalist Deborah Hill Cone to stop writing drivel.
DHC was once the best writer, by far, on the National Business Review. She left for motherhood, which she now seems to write about in the business pages of the Herald. Her piece entitled The delights of sluttish living, which appears to be about the joys of being a “slummy mummy” lazing about the house, moved Cactus to apoplexy.
“What the HELL has happened to Deborah Hill Cone?” Cactus asks on her blog today. “Has she been kidnapped by Plunket Aliens, brainwashed by Alternative TV and are we making do with this imposter? A once fabulous columnist/dreamer/writer/journalist/commentator: the closest any paid full-time female journalist has come to combining sexiness with business and making it interesting and titillating for the masses, DHC of late has become something of a mutation of a Women’s Weekly Agony Aunt from the 1970s.”
In case I missed it (I didn’t, Cactus) Cactus txted me tonight announcing she had started a “bring back the real Deborah Hill Cone” campaign for election year. “Share the love,” the txt said. “Writing about messy houses is so unbecoming.”
Cactus, I think DHC might be taking the piss out of herself with those articles. But in case I’m wrong, I’m happy to support your campaign.
6 Comments
April 17, 2008 at 10:17 am
Remind me Poneke when I turn to a life of cat burglary that I don’t tell you.
That’s my DP payrise AND my DHC campaign that you have ruined now!
[Poneke says: Pardon? Your DHC campaign is on your blog and you txted me last night asking me to share it with others!!!! What kind of bubbly were you on that makes you forget that?!?]
April 17, 2008 at 11:50 am
What kind of bubbly were you on that makes you forget that?!?
I think the kind you top up with tequila can have that effect …
April 17, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I don’t have deep or wide experience with Cone’s writing. I gave up on the NBR as being run by a pack of loons long ago. Graeme Hunt? No thanks.
I do recall her abortive stewardship of the media column in the Listener a couple of years ago when I still had a sub to it. She was absolutely dreadful, one column in particular was some fairly base gossip and entirely not what I had been expecting from a column about the media. She didn’t last more than a few weeks in the role. Now when I see her name on a by-line it’s a flag for my eyes to move on. Maybe I’ve misjudged her……..though thinking back, I don’t think so.
April 17, 2008 at 3:55 pm
ooohhh….The best campaign Poneke are ones that no one knows are actual campaigns.
I bet you were the kind of guy at school who when one of your male friends asked you to go find out if a girl liked him or not, would simply shout out “X wants to shag you”.
April 17, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Oh dear, I really thought Poneke was female…
April 17, 2008 at 4:36 pm
“I bet you were the kind of guy at school who when one of your male friends asked you to go find out if a girl liked him or not, would simply shout out “X wants to shag you”.”
Hmm.
I had a mate who did that. Despite it all, we’re still good mates. But I did - almost literally - throttle him at the time.
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