Gawker: valleywag, penelope trunk

Preparing for the Worst

Ryan Tate — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:26:41 EST

Chris Lehmann went shopping for end-times food with end-times people; Kevin Smith prepped his readers for more ass talk; and Evan Williams tried to adjust your movie expectations. The Twitterati braced.

Evan Williams invented Twitter, and now he's invented the ultimate Twitter review, in which you don't even need to watch the movie in question.

Political writer Chris Lehmann got a preview screening of the post apocalypse. In line at the supermarket, naturally.

Director Kevin Smith, hopeless romantic.

Advice columnist Penelope Trunk was dreaming of a White (Lie) Hannukkah.

"No really, have another. It's deductible!"

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

Twittering By Dictaphone

Ryan Tate — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:35:52 EDT

Harvey Pekar is Twittering via surrogate, an advice columnist is complimenting herself via email archive and a radio producer is turning a movie theater into her own personal catwalk. The Twitterati are doing a little role playing.

Comic-book writer Harvey Pekar is now Twittering, in the most Pekaresque way possible.

Advice columnist Penelope Trunk is an email-address autocomplete disaster waiting to happen.

Science writer Clive Thompson's reaction to a sophisticated robot hand was definitely not a childlike sense of wonder.

Patty Rodriguez, writer for Ryan Seacrest, isn't going to just any old movie, and she's not dressing that way either.

The Chicago Tribune's Rex Huppke became a cautionary tale on when a kid should not be a kid.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

Beating Back the Twitter-Mad Media

Ryan Tate — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:36:19 EDT

After microblogging a bank robbery, Annemarie Dooling discovered her real enemy was the news media; Penelope Trunk fact-checked her former client, Time Inc. and a New Republic writer afflicted the comfortable... in a bar. The Twitterati weren't having it.

Annemarie Dooling, who was collected enough to tweet a bank robbery, found her nerves were no match for the press.

Eve Fairbanks of the New Republic found plagiarism in the darnedest place.

Penelope Trunk, the advice columnist, told the shameful truth about her little hometown.

MSNBC Web maven Will Femia could hardly believe his ears.

Arianna Huffington finally got around to linking that column on the power of rapid communication.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

The Twitterati Give Their Divorce Lawyer a Porn Name

Owen Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:33:27 EDT

The problem with Twitterati isn't so much oversharing as undercaring. Laurel Touby's apartment woes, Lockhart Steele's porn name, and Penelope Trunk's divorce bill are as good as the media elite's tweets get!

Boa-bedecked media horror Laurel Touby was stymied in her real-estate quest by husband Jon Fine's raging metrosexuality.

Bicoastal tech execuwrangler Brooke Hammerling outed Gawker alumnus Lockhart Steele as a non-porn star.

TechPresident blog blowhard Micah Sifry waxed Foucauldian.

Brazen divorcist Penelope Trunk contemplated barter.

Technology Review Twitterer-in-chief Jason Pontin thought about the poor, but only for 140 characters.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

The Twitterati Toss Their BlackBerry at Maureen Dowd

Owen Thomas — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:48:43 EDT

Dispatches from the land of Twitteronia: Penelope Trunk and Brooke Hammerling wrestled with their relationships, while Jason Pontin and Chris Lehmann wrestled with the facts. These are the fights Twitter always wins:

Bicoastal tech PR maven Brooke Hammerling broke up with her BlackBerry.

Technology Review Twitterer-in-chief Jason Pontin let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Blogger Penelope Trunk abbreviated her relationship.

Former Condé Nast dealmaker Kourosh Karimkhany had an encounter with celebrity San Francisco crazy dude Frank Chu.

Chris Lehmann, better known as Mr. Ana Marie Cox, confused Elizabeth Edwards with Maureen Dowd.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

The Twitterati, Now Lazier Than Ever!

Owen Thomas — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:40:00 EDT

Why hit the phones when you can just do your work on Twitter? Jason Pontin, Caroline Waxler, and a Washington Post reporter show us how to tweetsource your way to more free time:

Brazen Careerist blogger Penelope Trunk thought about sex and clean boxes.

Fortune contributor Caroline Waxler, formerly an editor at Henry Blodget's Business Insider, contemplated downward mobility.

Wired's Danny Dumas saved a Washington Post reporter the trouble of finding an actual source.

Freelance editor Todd Lappin crowdsourced his geek inquiries.

Technology Review editor Jason Pontin tried to fill up a lonely letters page.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

Blogger-hating flack tangles with Penelope Trunk

Owen Thomas — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:00:55 EDT

My inbox is full of people asking who Mike Cherico is. The short version: He's a "dudeblogger" who was fired from Glamour magazine for bragging about womanizing. (Wasn't that what he was hired to do?) But what really entertains me is what happened after self-important PR guy Scott Swords spammed every blogger on the planet with an unsolicited press release decrying Cherico's evil ways. One of the recipients: Former Yahoo columnist Penelope Trunk, who cut the barely literate Swords to ribbons. The release, and Trunk's email exchange, after the jump.

Canned Career Columnist: "Take That Career Drive And Direct It Toward Mating!"

Moe — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:30:00 EST

Last we heard from Penelope Trunk, she was a Yahoo! Finance career columnist in the midst of being unceremoniously sacked for the women's ghetto of the company's "Lifestyle" channels. We were deeply saddened, as we often agreed with her advice, like the time she said that if you want a better job, "Don't work hard! Work out!". Well, THANK GOD PRINT ISN'T DEAD. Because Penelope has resurfaced in the pages of the Boston Globe with some urgent advice for her old "Brazen Careerist" followers: freeze your eggs, get them tested for "premature aging" and: "If you are past your early twenties, and you're single and want to have children,you need to find a partner now. Take that career drive and direct it toward mating - your ovaries will not last longer than your career." Oh, Penelope. Spoken like the scorned woman you... are! But here's the thing.

Working for a man is probably the only thing less fun than working for The Man. Both are probably going to end badly. But look: You're still trying, penning inflammatory columns to try and ramp up the Google Analytics score so you can get back into the career columnist game that just months ago left you abandoned and alone. Glad to see you've still got all that audacious hope! But here's the reality: look around. How many people do you really expect to die fully satisfied with their lives? One? Three? Now, what about the ones who are freezing their eggs. Do they probably have the worst odds of all of them? Yeah, like we discussed last week, a recession is coming. Everyone just needs to lower their standards. Life is pain! XOM

Want To Have A Baby? Now's The Time [Boston Globe]
Earlier: Want A Better Job? Stop Working Right Now And Get Your Nails Did

Yahoo cans female finance columnist, tells her to try "lifestyles"

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:53:32 EST

Yahoo career-advice columnist Penelope Trunk took on a familiar topic today: "How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo.)" Her boss, she said, told her the column didn't pull in a high enough CPM — the rate advertisers pay. Stock talk draws pricier ads than job advice. So far, all business. But then came the gratuitous insult: When Trunk asked if there were any other opportunities at Yahoo for her, the Yahoos recommended she try Lifestyles, a Yahoo division for food, horoscopes, and the like.

The scene was all too familiar for Trunk. When Trunk's column for Business 2.0 was canceled, her editor there suggested that Trunk, then pregnant with her first child, try writing for Working Mother instead.