Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

mel c is sporty

good on her.

Mel B of Harehills can stay in LA forever for my liking, or move back to Leeds!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/24/millionaire-retired-30s-kristy-shen-bryce-leung-fire?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1563950418

Today, at the grand old age of 36 and 37, respectively, Shen and Leung are reveling in their “retirement” (to use the term on two people so pulsating with youth seems disingenuous).

it's a feelgood piece

Leung, meanwhile, says he was recently diagnosed as “obnoxiously happy” by a doctor. He is so convinced by the power of Fire that he thinks it could even have political ramifications. “[Donald] Trump’s rise to power was caused by economic fear, Brexit was caused by economic fear … If everybody was FI [financially independent], Trump wouldn’t have got elected.”

only a really poor doctor would have misdiagnosed such a clear case of terminal smugness as that one.

jfc why did i read that?

cos it's such a graun classic!

has to be a misquote, right? If everybody was *on* fire, Trump wouldn't have gotten elected.

Read the Guardian every morning to see what's pulsating with the youth

somewhere between physically sick with depression and violent heat-sapped rage now

Their journey to Fire started fairly conventionally – they were saving for a deposit to buy a house. But the more they saved, the more house prices went up and the less sure about getting on the property ladder they became. By 2012, after seven years of saving, they had C$500,000

feeling like a right chump for not saving c$71,428.57 a year rn

it's only £43,513.74 ffs!

leaving aside the impossibility of saving that amount per year I'm confused to how this is supposed to work anyway. They've calculated their expenses as $40k a year and saved 25x that amount. so they think they are going to die in their 50s, and that there will be no inflation in those 25 years? idgi

i'm feeling bad about all the money I've pissed away on booze, scratch-cards and football betting. I could saved up almost a quarter the amount for a one way ticket to fucking switzerland!

no it's fine they have INVESTMENTS and three BACKUP PLANS

also being dead in 15 years or so is probably a fate that we can all expect to enjoy so good on 'em i hope they make the most of it before the climate apocalypse occurs

Since retiring she is so much happier – at one point, her job made her so miserable she was on anxiety and depression medication

Here's hoping she gets her old job back.

lool!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/13/quiz-identify-these-pop-superstars

I got 8/15, of which at least three were wild guesses.

I got 8/15, of which at least three were wild guesses.

Exact same for me, wild guesses and all!

I don't watch TV at all and am not surrounded by teenagers, so that probably doesn't help.

I got 10. Disappointed tbh!

10/15 too - 8 guesses - living in Scotland, Lewis Capaldi is inescapable, and I learned about Billie Eilish from good old ILM

I don't know anything about modern pop music I'm just good with faces tbh.

7/15, mostly thanks to ilm, too. Kept clicking on Freya Ridings only to realise she'd already been pictured d'oh

Trenchant cultural commentary: modern pop music is all about faces anyway.

xp

don't know any of these fuckers. Does that Rag'n'Bone Man have a partner called Trap'n'Cart?

i got like 5 of these but are they mostly UK stars? feel like i'd do better w/ US ones.

Yeah, it's very skewed towards UK pop culture. I doubt anyone's heard of, say, Dua Lipa in North America.

I got "15/15: are you using facial recognition software?"

A few were educated guesses

Never even heard of most of these

RIP ILM

I think dua lipa is probably the best known in the US of the british acts mentioned here

You're right, 'New Rules' reached the top 10 stateside.

Even I know Dua Lipa.

Kept clicking on Freya Ridings only to realise she'd already been pictured d'oh

Lol me too! "Ok, the first three guesses were wrong, surely *this* one is Freya ... "

They should do the same thing with, like, Imagine Dragons and the Lumineers and Coldplay and Cage the Elephant and stuff.

9/15, though 4 were guesses. I knew Mabel as I saw her on the One Show last week and said to my wife that she looked like a young Neneh Cherry. Detective skills definitely up to scratch.

12/15, only a couple of guesses. I'm still with it.

7/15

that should be the floor, honestly, because I don’t pay any attention to this nonsense (except for dua lipa, she was on graham norton once when we actually sat through the music segment)

the picture of Jess Glynne looks nothing like any other picture I've seen of her before

8/15 and lol

11/15 but if I hadn't watched a few hours of this year's Glastonbury it might be half that.

7 and i know nothing.

I can live with not being as down in the streets wiv the kids as the Graun.

9/15, feels about right

(and I actually missed Dua lol)

My 12-year old daughter got 4, my 14-year old and her friend got 12.

12/15. I still occasionally dive into the Popjustice forum.

I got 10. Guessed a lot, though some of them aren't really guesses. Jax Jones really looks like somebody who is named Jax Jones, for instance

3/15

Is there really a pop star just called Dave?

between getting 3/15 on this, not having heard of most of the people in the nunns book about corbyn, and not having heard of most of the people sheffield united signed this summer, i think it's safe to say i am truly out of the loop when it comes to the UK.

Yes.
https://youtu.be/e1vlLJCr9Lo