My anecdotal research has concluded that messy homes are the number one situations that are compared to Beirut. If it’s on the Internet, its got to be true, right? Well, Twitter did not disappoint yesterday. Let’s begin with Claire Allan (@ClaireAllan).
According to Claire’s own website (www.claireallan.com), she is an “author, journalist, columnist, Wonder Woman wannabe” and yesterday she decided to provide Twittersphere with some insight to home management:
Twitter my advice for this week is NEVER, EVER decide it’s a good idea to swap your two children’s bedrooms… My house looks like beirut
— Claire Allan (@ClaireAllan) January 27, 2014
Having only recently converted the toy room in my house to a bedroom for our second child (he’ll be here in under 30 days!!), I perfectly understand the chaos and mess leading up to the conversion. Despite that, I never once thought “oh my house is starting to look like London (during the riots)“. With that, I sent Claire a Looks Like Beirut certificate:
Interesting advice @ClaireAllan Out of curiosity, what exactly does a Beirut house look like? #LooksLikeBeirut pic.twitter.com/FC7APiUdAd
— Jad Aoun (@LebanonNewsURS) January 27, 2014
Claire was quick to respond with a statement which bordered on irony…
@LebanonNewsURS How big is the chip on your shoulder?
— Claire Allan (@ClaireAllan) January 27, 2014
…and required an adequate response:
@ClaireAllan Not very though I might ask you the same question.
— Jad Aoun (@LebanonNewsURS) January 27, 2014
Never got a response back from Claire but I do believe she got the point.
Update: August 28, 2014
Seven months after our Twitter conservation, I received an email apology from Claire Allan:
Hi,
I wanted to follow up on a Twitter exchange we had earlier this year over what wasa throwaway comment ‘looks like Beirut’ in a tweet about the state of my house.The comment was not meant to offend anyone – but having taken time today to educate myself on what you are trying to achieve I realise that whether or not it was my intention that it was offensive.Coming from Northern Ireland and living in a city itself transformed over the last 20 years I realise the inappropriate nature of my words and the importance of accepting how cities can move on.