The Irish weekend papers in general, the Tribune in specific

What has happened to the Sunday Tribune.  There has been some horrid sort of makeover, making it look a bit more like the Independent, yet still trying to retain some intellectual cache.  It neither reaches the Indo's depth of trashiness (which I like and my husband abhors) nor really informs on any level -- rather just rehashes what's been said earlier in the week.  

They have this young, featured lifestyle columnist named Una Mullally.  I don't get her.  She has a weekly column in the insubstantial magazine, and it's usually a re-hash of what she'd read on Jezebel and other such blogs during the week.  Just a reordering of what's being discussed on line with no further insight.  No, forgive me, her take on things is more smug, snarkier than most.  I guess that's her original slant on the news.

Now the Sunday Tribune has also taken to publishing photos of their columnists next to their articles.  A woman named Clair Byrne, who is the most babe-like of the group, gets a massive photo, a full 1/3 of the length of a page of the paper.  Conor McMorrow, the political correspondent, has a tiny picture, and doesn't look too happy in it.  The aforementioned Ms. Mullally's photo is the most concerning.  In it, she is dressed like a clown, sans white face and red circles on cheeks.  She has on a purple shirt and black and white striped jumper and the effect is genuinely clown-like.  She was saddled with a bad stylist, was my first thought, and perhaps they'll change the photo down the line.  However this week I saw how wrong I was.

Ms. Mullally wrote a 2 page article on her experience wearing black lipstick.  Yes.  Two pages.  In the weekend magazine.  Seemingly black lipstick in in vogue, so she thought she would wear it and see how people reacted to her in the streets.  Yes, this really took up two pages.  In short, people laughed and otherwise acted shocked or at least did double takes.  Ms. Mullally concludes that the lipstick was making people react to her like this.  However she did not take into consideration what she was wearing.  Yes, clown clothes again.  Underneath a tiny leather bomber jacket she is wearing what looks like an oversized warm-up jacket with primary colored stars.  Just something a clown might wear out jogging.  It's accessorized with a blindingly shiny gold bag -- oversized, with more than enough room for a wig, a fake nose, perhaps a pair of shoes with really big toe boxes.  Of course the photos don't show her feet, so I can just imagine what sort of treats lurk at the end of her legs.  Glittery purple Doc Martens?  Maybe red, high heeled boots decorated with white straps and diamante buckles.  A girl can dream, can't she?