| On March 12 2001 I posted a short writeup entitled 'Fluffragette', which essentially consists of a definition of a term coined by a British newspaper columnist named Cherri Gilham. In the writeup I describe Gilham as a 'journalist'... with the word journalist placed in single quotes.
It seems I bruised Cherri's ego, though in my defense it does appear to be an extremely large target. My guess is that she was doing an internet search for her own name, and decided to try Google... and as you probably know, E2 is indexed on Google. In any case, on May 22 2001, to my astonishment and extreme amusement, I received the following e-mail:
Hello there
I note on a website called Everything that you refer to fluffragette being a word coined by 'journalist' Cherri Gilham. Why you found the need to parenthasise my occupation is questionable. I am indeed Cherri Gilham. I am also, indeed, a journalist, bonafide, for my sins, (Member of Chartered Institute of Journalists), and am also a writer. Let me correct you also in that it wasn't down to thingamejig in the Independent who brought the word into the public consciousness or whatever prattle you were spouting. I had acres of coverage in most UK newspapers, plus bundles of TV & other such shit.(Not solicited, I hasten to add). I write in the Mail & the Observer, amazingly in a journalistic context and am considered, amongst my peers, (apparently) a bit of alright in the writing department.
So there.
Check out my website, why not
Cheers, Cherri Gilham
www.hotgossip.co.uk
(Cherri's Secret Diary)
I did consider writing back to Cherri, if only to point on that she both misspelled and misused the word parenthesise (parenthesize, in the U.S.), but on balance decided not to bother. For the record, I did check out the website she mentioned. It is not actually her website at all, but it does contain an article by her, which basically consists of a jokily written advertisement for "Marcus's new club nite". Apparently, "they'll be having a different fun vibe every week." And who exactly is Marcus? It's her son. Ah yes, 'journalism' at its best.
Note: the Mail mentioned in the e-mail is the British Daily Mail newspaper. I recommend a look at fondue's writeup under that title if you wish to gauge the strength of negative emotion which this publication engenders among some people in the UK.
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