# Ancient Web: Mil Millington Turned Domestic Arguments into a 2001 Web Sensation Mil Millington's 2001 Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About website chronicled petty household disputes, led to a Guardian column, and inspired a 2002 novel. 2026-10-07 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: Mil Millington Turned Domestic Arguments into a 2001 Web Sensation](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Mil Millington discovered that almost anything in a shared household could become a dispute: slicing a kiwi fruit, loading the washing, or failing to break a two-finger Kit-Kat into individual fingers. [Original site address: Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About](http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com/) — the original address could not be read during this review. Contemporary [Guardian columns](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/familyandrelationships1) preserve his style and examples. The project began as a section of Millington's personal website in 2001. He wrote comic accounts of everyday disagreements with Margret, his German partner, filtering their mutual exasperation through escalating exaggeration. It was self-publishing whose subject was neither breaking news nor computer expertise. It was the argument over how to put the kitchen back together. ## A small web joke found a newspaper audience By April 21, 2001, [The Guardian was publishing his columns](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/familyandrelationships1). That inaugural surviving piece lists disputes about toothpaste spots, kitchen doors, washing, and chocolate bars. Later installments turn an oven glove crocheted with holes into a domestic emergency, or make a simple question about what someone is doing last far too long. The column's [October 19, 2002 farewell](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/oct/19/familyandrelationships) notes that his novel, also called *Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About*, was appearing from Hodder & Stoughton. The book is fiction featuring fictional counterparts, not a literal transcript of the website. A [February 2003 contemporary blog recommendation](https://www.bruceb.com/2003/02/494-2/) still points back to the website and describes the publication of the novel. That is independent period evidence for the page's readership and its transition into print, though not a measurable audience total. The humor is not always gentle; the columnist exaggerates his frustration for effect, and readers should not treat every dramatic exchange as documentary testimony. What matters historically is the publishing path: an amateur homepage could reach newspaper editors and then a book publisher without first belonging to a social-media platform. The original domain's current inaccessibility is part of the story. A successful early internet project may leave much more accessible evidence in newspaper archives than on the site that started it. [Read the 2001 Guardian introduction](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/familyandrelationships1) and [the final 2002 installment](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/oct/19/familyandrelationships). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#webhumor](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/webhumor/), [#earlyblogs](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/earlyblogs/), [#britishwriting](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/britishwriting/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-mil-millington-turned-domestic-arguments-into-a-2001-web-sensation/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-07T13:07:32+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:03:57.820654+00:00 Description: Contemporary columns and reviews preserve the rise of a small, sharply funny personal site about arguments with the author's German partner.