Sir, - Mr Tom Humphries, in his Locker Room (sic) column (August 25th) chose to insult Ms Michelle de Bruin yet again. He also insulted Mr Chalkie White. Mr Humphries objected to Mr White's appointment as swimming correspondent for the Irish Independent because Mr White is "not a journalist".
Both Mr Humphries and Mr White write for newspapers. It must require more than just writing copy to be a journalist. Does Mr Humphries distinguish himself from Mr White by his possession of an elegant prose style? I should hope not. The Locker Room of Mr Humphries contains much soiled and smelly cliche: subjects are "thorny", he returns "with a heavy heart," people "go on the record," correspondence is "channelled," things "start anew," a lady is invited to: "Come back Janet all is forgiven."
Mr Humphries's enemies are not expedient: they are "expediency driven." They produce "medal gush," whatever that is. Locker Room sentences often contain no verbs, and sometimes even lack nouns: eg "And on," "Yawn," "No," and "Yes." One sentence is held together by five uses of the word "and." A paragraph commences: "Wow! Revelation!"
What is even more irritating than the pubescent prose of Mr Humphries is his rudeness to a lady. He has often been snide about Ms de Bruin. Now he refers to her as "Michelle de Bruin/ Smith" and describes her as a "hardworking but mediocre swimmer of 26 and diminutive stature . . ." If Ms de Bruin is mediocre, Mr Humphries is an embarrassment to his colleagues (journalists or not). - Yours, etc., PETER LUARD,
Kilmainham, Dublin 8.