June 20, 2007

For some, onion rings. Others do better with the calamari.

At first, I think it's amusing:

Eating the fried calamari at Vespaio

But the photograph shows, I'm suspicious... even, contemptuous:

Eating the fried calamari at Vespaio

I seem game enough:

Eating the fried calamari at Vespaio

Later, I'll say it was just wonderful, but the photograph shows, I was forcing myself, and I really couldn't stand it:

Eating the fried calamari at Vespaio

82 comments:

Maxine Weiss said...

You hair is getting longer !!

No more haircuts. Please. Just let it grow.

Maxine Weiss said...

Oh, nevermind. Just remembering the good ol' days.

Ann Althouse said...

I save some pictures for the right occasion. Sorry to disappoint you.

Revenant said...

How could anyone not love fried calamari?

Anonymous said...

I just got back from the Farmer's Market with squid tentacles, and now am not so sure...

Maybe they'd be fine with battered and lard-fried carrot sticks smothered in salt.

Anonymous said...

Some calamari is good; some not so good. The best I ever had was at an Irish pub located at the bottom of some ski slopes in British Columbia.

Anonymous said...

The best calamari is in Croatia.

marklewin said...

What I find most salient about the series of pictures is that you never let go of your wine glass.

Ann Althouse said...

Yeah, I'm gripping that wine glass in a strange way. Maybe I never drink wine, but I just pose for pictures holding glasses of the stuff.

stoqboy said...

Were you thinking of Instaputz when you ordered?

marklewin said...

Ann Althouse said...
Yeah, I'm gripping that wine glass in a strange way. Maybe I never drink wine, but I just pose for pictures holding glasses of the stuff.


I don't know.......for me, the glass, the hand, the eyes..... it just did not evoke images or memories of an amateur.

Gideon said...

You know what your problem is? You're not funny. Or at least you're not funny in this medium. This is why you post things, believing them to be satirical, and get very harsh responses.

It reminds me of my father's friends Michael and Jim. Michael could tell jokes , and no matter what they were, or who the butt of the joke was, everyone would laugh. Jim would try to tell the same jokes, but fewer people would laugh and everyone, including those laughing, would be calling Jim an asshole in their heads.

tjl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chris said...

So, do you ever actually, you know, work?

Zeb Quinn said...

You know what your problem is? You're not funny. Or at least you're not funny in this medium. This is why you post things, believing them to be satirical, and get very harsh responses.

No, that's not it. I'm thinking that, when you get right down to it, Althouse is in the nature of a troll. She knows what'll push their buttons, so she posts it, and then here they come.

Simon said...

Per Palladian's comment yesterday, this post will prompt several anti-Althousiana to wish they were a piece of calamari.

Bissage said...

(1) That first picture, . . ., that first picture, . . ., I, . . ., I, . . ., those fishy whiskers, . . ., I, . . .I, . . .

okay

Here’s a clue for you all, the walrus was, . . ., uh, . . ., Althouse???!!!

(2) Gol’ dang, ya’ll, . . ., just, . . ., gol’ DANG!!!

(3) BTW, color me unsophisticated, but calamari is bait. Don't try to tell me different. Once upon a fishing trip, I used it to catch a Monkfish.

(4) No matter. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

(5) Me? I’m off to practice my James Mason impersonation: “Don’t say she aspirated vomitus. Say she threw up in her mask. Say it. . . . Gooooooood

(6) [S]urlygrad, . . ., (may I be so familiar?), . . ., you don’t know me, but I knew your father, . . ., and Michael, . . ., and Jim, . . ., and, well, . . ., let’s just say that, well, . . ., I met them all in Paris, . . ., back in ’62, . . ., and they were all wearing dresses, and, . . ., and they rubbed my dingus with calamari, . . ., and, I, . . ., I , . . ., I smelled the whiskey on their breath. Then they took me. They took me, with the stink of filthy roadhouse whiskey on their breath, and I liked it. I LIKED IT.!!!

(7) I’VE GOT PARSLEY IN MY RED SAUCE!!!

(8) * * BRRIIIIIIINNNGGG * *

Anonymous said...

I have concluded after today that there is a large contingent of people in the world who go to websites exactly in order to get themselves all hissy and pissed off.

Weird.

I have also determined that Ann Althouse likes to fuck with these people's minds.

Unknown said...

"Don't suppose you have any idea
what the damn thing is, huh?"
"You guys have really come up with
somethin'."

Ann Althouse said...

Seven: That's sort of true, but this time it was just so incredibly easy. I knew it was going to be too easy, yet it turned out to be even easier. What fun is that? I want to find more exquisitely devious ways to get to people. Where was the foreplay... where was the cuddling...

George M. Spencer said...

squid love

http://teetsy.com/products/show/62

XWL said...

I predict a huge increase in Japanese traffic to this site.

Personally, I enjoy fried calamari, and even squid when you can still tell it's squid, maybe it was the wine choice that clashed.

Anonymous said...

What is the difference among calamari, octopus, and squid?

Hoosier Daddy said...

How could anyone not love fried calamari?

I can't imagine myself. Off to Florida for a week and will be eating more than my share of it.

Heineken, calimari, toss in some oysters, cracked crab, sunsets on the beach with a good book and cigar...it just doesn't get any better.

Be safe folks.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
steve simels said...

Wow, what a great photo-essay.

How anybody ever got the impression that Ann is a batshit insane drunken narcissist with a wildly inflated sense of her own importance is beyond me!

Anonymous said...

I think you are really trying too hard, Steve.

Palladian said...

"a batshit insane drunken narcissist with a wildly inflated sense of her own importance is beyond me!"

mmm, sounds like a certain blonde senator from New York...

Unknown said...

Seven said:
I have concluded after today that there is a large contingent of people in the world who go to websites exactly in order to get themselves all hissy and pissed off.

You're sadly mistaken, Seven. No one was "hissy and pissed off." More like "incredibly amused" and "laughing our socks off."

You really need to learn the difference between amused and pissed.

You may be an Ann loyalist. More power to you. But for most of the world, Ann is a joke.

You want me to be honest? I look forward to these little episodes. They are such great entertainment. I can't wait until the next one. I wish Ann would write posts like that every day.

She's not a serious blogger, she's not intellectual, she says nothing substantial.

She's merely a clown. And clowns make me laugh.

Call me a kid at heart.

Palladian said...

BTW: Is batshit really any more insane than any other type of guano? Is this some sort of rabies reference?

Palladian said...

"You may be an Ann loyalist. More power to you. But for most of the world, Ann is a joke. "

Well, for most of the world gay rights is a joke and feminism is a joke and democracy is a joke and Picasso is a joke. What's your point? That the "in" crowd doesn't like Althouse? Who the fuck cares? Some people enjoy reading this blog. Some don't. Some, like you and the regular trolls, pretend that you don't but secretly get a stiffy as the page loads. You're the ones acting like drunks. You hate coming here, but you just can't help it! You have to quaff from this well daily or go mad! Drink! Drink deeply!

Anonymous said...

Verso -- Your post reeks of jolly amusement.

KCFleming said...

Re: "Call me a kid at heart."

Strange, Verso, but your comments don't suggest you're having fun. They suggest bile, anger, and rage.They suggest a frontal lobe a few neurons short of full executive function, driven by impulse and id. More a teenager, all sneer and unwarranted self-importance, desperate for group approval.

A joke? No, I think not. I think she points out the obvious dents, tears, and flaws in the liberal facade, and at your core you agree, and know she hit it dead center.

And it freakin' kills you. Hence the swarming, the lemming-like follower posts devoid of comment, just all oh, snap!.

KCFleming said...

Dang it.

Yes, pass the calamari. I will eat it here and there. In a box, with a fox.

Steve said...

Ann: "Where was the foreplay... where was the cuddling..."

OMG I want to date you.

Adrian said...

the faces you make - are you rejecting communion, defying death? perhaps it would seem so, to a newcomer, but we regulars know the deeper truth - if you listen to the althouse podcasts backwards, you hear a voice saying, 'ann is dead.'

garry said...

Which one is the fried cephalopod?

Revenant said...

narcissist with a wildly inflated sense of her own importance

Anyone get the feeling that simels doesn't actually know what "narcissist" means? That phrase above basically parses out as "narcissistic narcissist".

Isn't it interesting how fast the "Ann's a narcissist" meme spread through the moonbatosphere? One blog tossed out the word and two days later every leftie troll this side of Glenn Greenwald is plugging it into his copy of "Mad-Lib Insults for Dummies".

dave™© said...

I want to find more exquisitely devious ways to get to people.

The funniest part of this latest meltdown is watching Blithering Misogynist Idiot try to convince herself that exposing her batshit insane idiocy to the world was ALL PART OF HER PLAN!!!

dave™© said...

Isn't it interesting how fast the "Ann's a narcissist" meme spread through the moonbatosphere? One blog tossed out the word and two days later every leftie troll this side of Glenn Greenwald is plugging it into his copy of "Mad-Lib Insults for Dummies".

It's called "common sense" - no conspiracy theory needed.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, DaveTM. There's wine in the photos. Hello. Dave! Wine.

Are you sure you are okay?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Theo -- You bring up a good point. I would argue that there is a decent chance that Hillary Clinton has read the original post and also that she found it pretty amusing. Certainly, Bill Clinton would find it amusing.

These Clintons, for all their intense personal failings, are nit indecent people. The flying monkeys who have descended are really nutty, though.

Nothing is funny to them. The personal is political. The psychological is political. The onion ring is political.

Thank God we used to have DaveTM to keep us sane. But, as I say, even his posts have really let me down lately.

Unknown said...

Palladian said:
Some people enjoy reading this blog.
Yes! That's me! I looove reading this blog. After the Garance episode, this became one of the first blogs I check in the morning, and keep checking throughout the day. Because, let's be real here for a minute, these episodes are very entertaining. I think you probably find them entertaining from your viewpoint, and I know I find them entertaining from mine.

And I'm completely serious: I love it when Ann starts one of these fights.

Also: Do you realize you contradicted yourself with the following?

Palladian said:
Some, like you and the regular trolls, pretend that you don't but secretly get a stiffy as the page loads. ... You hate coming here, but you just can't help it!

So which is it? Do I secretly "get a stiffy," or "hate coming here"?

I'll answer for you:

I love coming here, and I love watching Ann make a fool out of herself. I'm not a friend of Ann's. I don't consider her a good person, or intellectual, or honest, or fair or reasonable. I think she's nasty, and mean, and stupid. So I love it when she shoots herself in her foot.

It's really sad that her commenters have to come running to her defense, making excuses for her irrational behavior. You're like the poor children of an alcoholic mother, being forced at too young an age to be the grown up trying to protect the parent from herself.

In any event, feel free to unload on me, or other "trolls." I'm just some anonymous commenter from the Internets. No matter what I say, I'm not destroying my reputation like Ann is.

Anonymous said...

You could blog, Verso. I note that you have three blogs. Two of them rip off James Lileks's name. And you have posted nothing on them.

But, really. Let's be serious for a moment. Enough with all your jolly amusement. Are you or are you not the same person who left in a huff and swore never to return just a few days ago?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ethan said...

Ann Althouse has saaaaaweet titties!

Anonymous said...

I suggest we fill a squirt gun with Cakebread for Ethan, a rank or two up in that army. He has a funny blog, but just had to fly in with a sexist comment.

Anonymous said...

Ethan can't be sexist. He's a leftist.

Anonymous said...

Seven, it's hard to categorize them all! I just can't keep on defending this corner armed with nothing more than Chardonnay!

Help! Someone get some cheap Sauvignon Blanc and start filling those squirt guns!

Unknown said...

seven said:

You could blog, Verso. I note that you have three blogs. Two of them rip off James Lileks's name. And you have posted nothing on them.

You probably won't believe this, and I don't blame you if you don't, but the honest truth is that only one of those three blogs is mine. When Blogger 2.0 was rolled out and we had to log in using an email address, I suddenly found myself the pround new owner of 2 blogs that I have nothing to do with. I have no idea how it happened. I don't suppose anyone is too upset that I have acquired their blogs, since they have never posted to them.

As for the third blog, which is mine, I only created it (about 3 years ago) because I saw a story on the news about how "anyone can start a blog in minutes" at Blogger.com. I did it just to see how it was done.

Unknown said...

seven said:

But, really. Let's be serious for a moment. Enough with all your jolly amusement. Are you or are you not the same person who left in a huff and swore never to return just a few days ago?

No, that wasn't me. You must have me confused with someone else. I would never swear off Althouse's blog.

Anonymous said...

Verso has turned on a dime and now sounds reasonable, like a person who would be interesting to talk to. More like this, please.

Unknown said...

Seven:

Correction: I just checked my "verso" profile and, it turns out, NONE of those 3 blogs belongs to me. The blog I started 3 years ago isn't listed. I have no idea where those blogs came from or who they belong to.

Palladian said...

"So which is it? Do I secretly "get a stiffy," or "hate coming here"?"

I thought your type prided themselves on "nuance"? It's both, of course. I've met quite a few closeted gay men/sexually confused straight in my life who both got their rocks off with guys and loathed doing it. It's the nature of mental conflicts.

Nuance, my boy!

So what's the Recto of Verso like? No one will ever know: he's no page-turner, that's for sure.

Palladian said...

And forget about the blogger profile thing. For a while, mine listed a blog that wasn't mine and a blog that I abandoned 5 years ago. Google likes to adopt children (in this case, Blogger) and then abandon them.

reader_iam said...

The 'nets can suck, can't they? Especially the blogosphere parts.

Can happen to anyone. Something to think about. Thank God for people willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

Ahem. AHEM!

Anonymous said...

Seven, it was the Sutter Home in the box! See, I told you Chardonnay is the best defense! Even the cheap stuff has a good effect.

But Althouse will still have to heave that bucket of Pinot Grigio on the Wicked Witch (whoever she is) when the time comes. I'm guessing she'll melt, but who knows? Maybe she'll recall the flying monkeys and reveal herself as Athena. She was just testing us. We will all then be free to have discussions worthy of philosophers. And no more cheap white wine. Nectar of the gods will be our drink.

Until then, I'm eying that last bottle of Chateau Neuf de Pape in the rack. But not for a squirt gun.

Unknown said...

I have to agree. Nasty, mean and stupid.

Entertaining in that I like to see nasty, mean and stupid people make fools of themselves.

TKM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

"I have to agree. Nasty, mean and stupid.

Entertaining in that I like to see nasty, mean and stupid people make fools of themselves."

I agree, dave, which the nasty commenters have done in spades.

BTW, dave©™ is so going to sue you.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

Lady, just ask Bill Clinton out already and be done with it.

Paco Wové said...

Well, Ms. A., you of course may blog as you like, and you do seem to derive great personal amusement out of yanking some people's chains. I only wish to point out that as a reader, the screens upon screens of moonbat rage that fill your comments when you do engage in said chain-yanking are not, in the end, particularly interesting reads.

In fact, the more brutal your chain-yanking, the more stupid, repetitive, and incoherent the comments, so I just start ignoring the posts and comments altogether. As a result, for me posts like this are a net negative.

Simon said...

Palladian said...
"'a batshit insane drunken narcissist with a wildly inflated sense of her own importance is beyond me!' mmm, sounds like a certain blonde senator from New York..."

That's a despicable lie. How dare you. That is simply not true - Chuck Schumer is not blonde.

Jacqui said...

How is it that Calamari has become such a volitle subject? Not even the calamari, but you eating the calamari.

I aspire to one day be the kind of woman everyone wants to attack for the most ridiculous of reasons. Kudos to you!

Drew W said...

With their every overwrought insult (upon overwrought insult), these Alt-trolls make their professed distain for their hostess less and less credible. Or interesting, certainly.

But this interested me: After I saw that first photo, I assumed Prof. Althouse was doing an improvised imitation of Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama.

For my part, it's been years since I stuck breadsticks up my nose to impersonate Wally Walrus.

Okay, years might be a slight exaggeration.

Chip Ahoy said...

These are great. I'm curious who took the pictures.

Please tell us this wasn't the first time you've eaten fried calamari.

Once in an open-air cafe in Miami I ordered a bowl of calamari soup for breakfast, which isn't all that odd in Miami. The bowl was larger than I expected. A man sitting at the counter next to me asked how it was. I told him great but a bit too much -- halfway through the whole thing began looking like a bowl full of condoms and sphincters. He looked down at the remainders in my bowl and laughed so hard he actually slid off his stool.

Unknown said...

Palladian said..."Well, for most of the world gay rights is a joke and feminism is a joke and democracy is a joke and Picasso is a joke."

what fucking world do YOU live in?

Unknown said...

Jacqui said..."I aspire to one day be the kind of woman everyone wants to attack for the most ridiculous of reasons. Kudos to you!"

c'mon, jacqui...you can suck harder than that.

give it another try...this time with feeling.

Unknown said...

Virtually Actual said..."Ann: "Where was the foreplay... where was the cuddling...OMG I want to date you."

i suggest you give masturbation a shot first...there's no telling what this woman looks like naked...and rev, being the honest to goodness narcissist that he is...swears by it.

*at least pogo and fen-fen have each other...you, know...for "cuddling."

Anonymous said...

Shit! When I proposed defending this place against the flying monkeys with Super Soakers full of bad Chardonnay, I forgot the biggest flying monkey of them all!

Quick! Get a fire hose and about 50 gallons of Cape May New Jersey Rosé!

I know, I know. It was the White Wine Defense. But in this case, nothing but the worst will do.

Man the pumps!

Ann Althouse said...

Jacqui, I'm glad I can be an inspiration.

Chip, my son Chris took the pictures (at Vespaio in Austin, TX). And, no, it's not the first time I've eating calamari, but the picture reveals to me that I don't like them as much as I'd thought.

luckoldson: 'Virtually Actual said..."Ann: "Where was the foreplay... where was the cuddling...OMG I want to date you." i suggest you give masturbation a shot first...there's no telling what this woman looks like naked." w

We were talking about a mind fuck. Do you know what your brain looks like naked? Mine is fabulous.

Unknown said...

ann,
oh.

Sigivald said...

I'm with Jacqui on this one. I don't even understand what Dave(copyright), Surly, and Verso are on about. Especially Dave.

(And, seriously, "most of the world", Verso? Uh, no. Most of the world doesn't even know this blog exists, or who Ann is. Those who do, I don't think you can speak for meaningfully.

Perhaps most of the "progressives" think that. Maybe.)

Seven: Squid and calamari are the same thing; the latter is just marketing. Octopus is a different cephalopod, but also delicious.

Revenant said...

Octopus, in my experience, tends to be a lot chewier than squid. That might just be a difference in preparation, though, since I've mostly had squid in "fried calamari" form and have mostly had octopus as sushi (not sure if it was cooked or not).

Anonymous said...

And, for God's sake, please don't drink Cape May New Jersey Rosé with it.

Unknown said...

Calamari is disappointing 9 times out of 10, in my expereince.

Palladian said...

"Palladian said..."Well, for most of the world gay rights is a joke and feminism is a joke and democracy is a joke and Picasso is a joke."

what fucking world do YOU live in?"

Well, if you live in a world where the majority of people support those things and think they're not a joke (or worse) then I envy you. On pretty much every other metric, however, I'm thankful I don't live in your world.

Anonymous said...

At last we have a snappy collective name for that horde of ankle-biters who seem to swarm around here. I trust the Althouse Squid Squad to alert us to any further cases of seafood-related evil on the part of our deep-sea diva. (Wine! Calamari! O tempura! O morays!)

Unknown said...

"Palladian said..."Well, for most of the world gay rights is a joke and feminism is a joke and democracy is a joke and Picasso is a joke."

i repeat: what fucking world do YOU live in??

Anonymous said...

The Dr. Seuss world is the best fun, luckyoldsonny. "Yes, pass the calamari. I will eat it here and there. In a box, with a fox."

Live a little. Be dangerous. And rhyme once in a while, for gosh sakes. I love it, myself.

Anonymous said...

Ann Althouse: Luck Old Son ::

Mike Tyson: Peter McNeely