February 8, 2008
DiManno Watch: No, You DiManno Edition
Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day (or so), poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. It's about time someone took out the trash.
DiManno Watch has been dormant for two months. The last article on Torontoist––three DiManno articles in one––was a little much; no-one can take that much Rosie DiManno, and it sure is easy to get carried away criticizing the woman when she writes about four articles for the Star a week. So we took a little break from reading DiManno (it was nice) and decided that DiManno Watch wasn't going to come back until there was something so bad, so awful, that it simply demanded to be addressed. Nothing short of SaumassigeSchreibmaschiene, the German word that loosely translates to "putrid garbage typewriter prose" (championed by Ryan Bigge to call out Leah McLaren) would bring it back. And Rosie DiManno has today given us SaumassigeSchreibmaschiene.
The Evidence
From the beginning of today's article on sexsomnia, the controversial sleep disorder that was used as a successful defense in a sexual assault case:
A woman wakes up with a man's penis between her legs.She doesn't know him. He doesn't know her. They part in bewilderment.
She goes to hospital for examination – painful penetration had occurred – and then to police with a complaint.
A judge decides that sexual assault had been committed, even encourages the defendant to express remorse from the witness stand. But the man, Toronto landscaper Jan Luedecke, isn't guilty because the incident happened ... while you were sleeping. That is to say, while he was sleeping.
The Verdict
6/6 DIMANNOS
What is there to say?
The big problem with Rosie DiManno's writing is that she seems to have no accurate metric for good taste. When she writes about sports, it's annoying, but not particularly insulting. But when she writes about crime––a serious thing with serious consequences––she almost always belittles or insults the victim, whether it's through taking on their voice (like she did when she spoke for a dead woman to call her murderer a bastard), or, as is most often the case, through twisting the news story into some bit of pulp fiction where human life has no value save for its ability to shock (talking about a murder in which the murderer "stuffed [his mistress's] inert body in a garbage can," or her article about Jordan Manners, which began: "His eyes were wide open but unseeing. His body shook violently, as if in convulsions. The death tremor – but Shane Walters didn't know that then").
Today's article is not much different: it begins like a really, really bad joke, and the punchline is that––surprise!––you're a rape victim (or maybe not). It's repulsive, unwarranted, and unwanted, characteristic of the utter lack of respect for human life that defines the worst of DiManno's writing. She is not Leah McLaren, vapidly talking about stuff that doesn't matter; she is Rosie DiManno, vapidly talking about stuff that does. This is putrid garbage typewriter prose of the worst kind, void of anything good, redeeming, or interesting.
And that is why this article will be the last DiManno Watch for a long time, maybe ever. We don't want to read her or talk about her or think about her anymore; she doesn't deserve our attention, or yours, and we'd prefer to leave the job of being mean and insensitive to her. The Star will continue to lose subscribers, and respect, because of her. We're done.
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I'm a bit confused by this one - it appears to express uncharacteristic restraint, especially in comparison to other media reports including, er, on this page, which mine the situation for sophmoric jokes.
Where exactly do you find a "characteristic of the utter lack of respect for human life that defines the worst of DiManno's writing"?
DiManno's not going to stop writing. Now she can sit back and say, ah-ha, another critic silenced, I can continue my merry way unmolested, even if that non-molestation occurs /while you were sleeping/...
Such a shame! This was one of the columns I actually enjoyed over here at Torontoist.
"And that is why this article will be the last DiManno Watch for a long time, maybe ever."
thank god. dedicating an entire regular column to someone you don't like the writing of was just bitter, boring, and trite, and really reflected badly on torontoist.
Topping, will you please stop writing, too?
Although this is a frivolous, bitter, and stupid column in iteself, DiManno is the worst journalist/shock-author ever. She destroys the English language and isn't helping the Star get any readers.
Just read the Globe if you want good writing, people.
Equally lame are people whose only use of their Torontoist account is to harp on particular writers. Will you ever tire, tired69?
x_the_x, re:
"it appears to express uncharacteristic restraint, especially in comparison to other media reports including, er, on this page, which mine the situation for sophmoric jokes"
I felt that it was trenchant social commentary.
Noticed that as well antiboy. Gotta love the trolls.
And that is why this article will be the last DiManno Watch for a long time, maybe ever.
It's about time.
"Equally lame are people whose only use of their Torontoist account is to harp on particular writers. Will you ever tire, tired69?" - antiboy
Heh, I guess in that sense it's a good thing David stopped writing the DiManno watch, then!
hahahaha
About time you ignore her and any other bad writer. All this column did was give her publicity she shouldn't get.
No mention that she used the title of a Sandra Bullock movie euphemistically for rape?
Agreed, DiManno's writing is in bad taste, just like Torontoist's was in jesting about the abandoned child in Toronto a few weeks ago: "someone gets a free baby". That piece went on to blame the victim as well.
Pathetic comments about tragedies like rape, murder, abuse and injustice prove that writers should stick to writing about what they know.
Hi David,
"She [DiManno] is not Leah McLaren, vapidly talking about stuff that doesn't matter; she is Rosie DiManno, vapidly talking about stuff that does." I seriously hope you don't give up writing about DiManno's ravings precisely for this reason. We NEED media criticism, especially now that The Star's Antonia Zerbisias is writing about her battles with weight instead of her previously worthwhile columns.
Don't give up on DiManno Watch! Look at the number of postings you're received already.
"Don't give up on DiManno Watch! Look at the number of postings you're received already."
Most of which are sighs of relief that this column has come to an end.
(+1)
I got my Toronto Star free this morning, but it was not worth the pain of having that awful first sentence loop in my head all morning. I figured it was a given that DiManno Watch would cover today's column, considering it's probably the worst writing I've ever seen in the Star.
this shit is hilarious!
Please keep Dimanno watch going! It is by far the best segment on the Torontoist. I can't stand her and she needs to be criticized.
by the way...just curious...was the judge in the sexomniac case a man or a woman??
The original trial judge was male, but not sure about the three appeal judges.
i guess they all ruled that you can put on a condom and not know about it!!! it's called condom walking....or do you go to bed with the condom on...just in case you get a sexomnia attack...
I feel bad for the woman and can understand her anger and frustration. However, if there's science to back up the defendant's claim, it's hard to argue that the man is not guilty. It seems that anything to do with sex will always raise an extra level of scrutiny. People clean their houses or make sandwiches while somnambulistic. Why not put on a condom? Sex is a grey area and women need protection from being assaulted, but the discussion around sexsomnia has to grow around the legal requirements to make it a valid defence, rather than tittering around that someone's fucking while asleep.
I think the worst part of the DiManno's column is that she sensationalizes the situation instead of offering thought-out commentary. I'm not sure her way of sympathizing with the victim actually does any good.
There have also been more serious cases of somnabulism linked to perscription sleeping pills. I read about one case in which a man was taking sleeping medication and one day woke up at the wheel of his car, having driven to the store to buy cookies. If driving to the store and purchasing something while entirely asleep and unaware is possible, anything is. And who's to say that it's only the side effect of perscription drugs?
I think DiMental has finally jumper the shark: http://www.aidwyc.org/news/article.192109
That article is a reprint of one that originally appeared on one of Toronto Life's blogs, Spectator. The original article is here.