October 6, 2008

"The usual Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism."

Ann Bartow agrees with something I said -- and quotes it in full -- after "extracting" it from this "much longer" post supposedly "larded with the usual Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism." She offers no reasons for why that description applies to the rest of my post. She just hurls the insult. So, to respond in kind, let me say: Lame! Pathetic! Unscrupulous!

IN THE COMMENTS: Some object to the insult to me, but Electric Citizen objects to the insult to lard:
Lard o'mercy.

Every baker knows that despite lard's heavy reputation (it is pig fat, after all), nothing makes a flakier or better-tasting pie crust. Lard also makes the lightest and tastiest fried chicken: buttermilk, secret spices and ancient cast-iron skillets are all well and good, but the key to fried chicken greatness is lard.
Michael H. is all:
Electric Citizen - One of my earliest childhood memories was of my father's mother, a German immigrant, making doughnuts in her kitchen. She would make the dough, let it rise, roll it out, and use two glasses to punch out doughnut shapes (one for the doughnut, a smaller on for the hole).

She'd drop the doughnuts into a vat of hot lard atop her old gas stove. After a few moments, she'd turn the half-cooked doughnuts over with wooden dowels, then a minute later spear the hot doughnuts and drop them onto a plate. She'd sprinkle them with sugar, and as soon as they had cooled just enough to be picked up by small fingers, my cousins and I would each grab one and run to the porch.

The aroma of the doughnuts cooking in hot lard, and the melt-in-my-mouth sweetness of the fresh doughnuts has been so indelible imprinted that I cannot to this day, some 60 years later, smell doughnuts without recalling fond memories of my grandmother.

(Of course, she couldn't blog, so she never realized her full potential as a woman).
And suddenly, everyone is reminiscing about grandmas and cooking with lard.

Well, not everyone. Plenty are still going after Bartow. (And -- how unfair! -- there are zero comments chez Bartow.)

Ruth Anne says Bartow has used the old device of "insulting upward," which will get you traffic, but -- boo hoo! -- still no comments. I wonder why.

Henry said:
Can we assume from Ann Bartow's statement that what she doesn't quote she finds offensive? If so, here's what offends her (all quotes and emphasis from Ann's original post):

1. "It's unlikely that female lawprofs have a special disadvantage."

2. "You have 'disproportionate child care responsibilities' and you're a law professor and that's not your choice? Do something about it!"

3. Agreement! At least until Ann writes: "Stop whining, blaming others, looking for protectors, and blog... if you want to."

The inverse of these comments is that female law professors are at a special disadvantage, they're stuck with the kids, and they can't do anything about it.

In short, fish really do need bicycles and society is to blame.
Jdeeripper said:
Bartow also failed to explain what the hell "misogynistic exceptionalism" means.

Althouse is as exceptionally misogynistic?

Althouse thinks she is an exceptional woman and not like the other inferior women?

Althouse thinks she is so exceptional that only other people can be misogynistic not her?

I think she made the comment because 1. she didn't read the post in full and 2. she is winking to the other feminists that she knows Althouse is a traitor but she still wants to link to a post she partly agrees with.
Lurker80 said:
I find it interesting that Bartow linked to the whole Feministing scandal from 2006 as evidence that you are in part responsible for attacks against feminists. Amazing. As if feminists are not allowed to criticize each other. (Unless it's about Palin, because of course she's not a "real" feminist.)

Her link does bring back memories, though. I first learned of your blog through the Feministing controversy back when I was trying to determine whether I was a feminist at all. I'm so grateful that I stumbled upon this blog and learned that feminism is a broader category than Feministing and BitchPhD would have you believe.
Wurly said:
Margaret Thatcher? Misogynistic exceptionalism.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick? Misogynistic exceptionalism.

Sarah Palin? Misogynistic exceptionalism.

Basically, its a woman who succeeds on a foundation other than victimhood. That, in modern feminism's mind is "exceptional". The example that the "exceptional" woman sets--that you can succeed on your own terms without claiming the identity of a victim--sets back the cause of feminism, and is therefore misogynistic, because only modern feminism can speak for women. That's why Ann fits the category. Watch out Ann, I hear next week's Newsweek has a column explaining why you aren't really a woman.
Joan said:
I think Bartow thinks it's fair to call Ann misogynistic (anti-women) because as so many have noted already, Ann doesn't play along with the women-as-victim story.

I confess, I had to look up exceptionalism, and now I'm really stumped as to what Bartow means, because exceptionalism means (if I'm getting this right) that normal rules don't apply because you're special, that is, exceptional.

I think it is grammatically incorrect to use a negative modifier like "misogynistic" with "exceptionalism", which implies special treatment due to superiority. It's a contradiction in terms, unless Bartow means to say that it is Ann herself who wields her exceptionalism to further her misogynistic goals.

I've been reading here since the early days, and have never found Ann misogynistic although she does occasionally over-react to blogospheric slights. Labeling her with exceptionalism is a gross exaggeration, if that was Bartow's intention.

Does that represent Bartow's best work? That alone could explain why there are few prominent women law prof bloggers. If you came across Bartow first, you'd think, "Ick, who wants to read this?" and never click on her blog again. To be a successful blogger, it's not enough to have opinions, you have to express them clearly and support them as well. It also helps a lot if you don't whine.
Pogo said...
Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!

Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you don't whine loud enough
You'll be called ferocious
Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lass
My mother said I was too weak
And the ceiling it was glass
But then one day I learned a word
That saved my pretty ass
The biggest word I ever heard
And I stuff it in my bra:

Oooohhhh, Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!!
UPDATE: Bartow finally got a comment, savaging me for writing "Women are ... prone to"... but oops... I didn't write that. Bartow omitted quotation marks or indenting to show that I quoted a phrase from the article I was writing about. Let's see if Bartow takes the trouble to correct her lone commenter. If not... pathetic, lame, unscrupulous.... And I want an apology for making it look like I wrote something I didn't write. And the person I was quoting was only laying down the conventional argument. Sigh.

126 comments:

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Can we make the use of adjetives non-gratuitious? i.e. can we charge people every time they use an adjetive without any way of backing it up?

Just an idea. It may even solve the current financial crisis.

Anonymous said...

Theory #4: No one wants to risk being mistaken for Ann Bartow.

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

Does she offer any explanation about why such a phrase describes you and your posts in the first place? Or is that just "common knowledge"?

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

She just hurls the insult.

WAAAAAAAH!

Ann Althouse said...

I didn't whine, Doyle. I hurled back.

Anonymous said...

Why is the quantity of female lawprof bloggers a feminist issue?

Are they being denied an opportunity to blog because of some sort of bias? And if so, by whom?

Maybe the female lawprofs who want to blog are, and those who wish not to, aren't.

Or is there going to be a Title IX for female lawprof bloggers.

Synova said...

I wish... I wish that Ann Bartow would understand the degree to which feminists themselves are hostile to other women and maybe get a clue to why this statement of hers...

She is right that the Internet is a nasty, hostile place, especially for women, (even more especially for feminists, thanks in part to Ann Althouse) and you kind of have to accept that if you are going to blog.

... bugs me so much. Firstly, that the internet is more hostile to women than men (and I've been kicking around it for about as long as it's been... cut my teeth on usenet news, which is no place for a shrinking violet). I really have no way to reconcile the idea that the internet is anything but uniformly savage. Open your "mouth" on the internet and there are any number of people willing to tell you how wrong you are, often rudely.

To say that it's harder, not just for women, but for feminist women, begs the question of how Ann Bartow knows what it's like for men or for non-feminist women. And more than that... if she's never been on the outside of feminism, can she be aware of what it's like to be on the receiving end of feminist hostility?

I don't think so.

TMink said...

Interesting, Ms. Bartow found you talking her language on number three because it is the most victim oriented of the offerings.

When you speak about choice and responsibility, she can't feel you.

Trey

Anonymous said...

Hey Ann, give the poor dear a break. After many years of searching she finally found a fish to pedal her bicycle. She discovered, to her horror, that she hates everything about it: the fish, the bicycle, the smell...

Revenant said...

Bartow is a good example of why feminists are irrelevant to the national discourse.

Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
George M. Spencer said...

Lard o'mercy.

Every baker knows that despite lard's heavy reputation (it is pig fat, after all), nothing makes a flakier or better-tasting pie crust. Lard also makes the lightest and tastiest fried chicken: buttermilk, secret spices and ancient cast-iron skillets are all well and good, but the key to fried chicken greatness is lard.

Unknown said...

Why does she pay so much attention to you? Well I think I know the answer and its not flattering to her, a law professor". And really isn't the whole feminist thing these days just a place to hide intellectual laziness?

Henry said...

Can we assume from Ann Bartow's statement that what she doesn't quote she finds offensive? If so, here's what offends her (all quotes and emphasis from Ann's original post):

1. "It's unlikely that female lawprofs have a special disadvantage."

2. "You have "disproportionate child care responsibilities" and you're a law professor and that's not your choice? Do something about it!"

3. Agreement! At least until Ann writes: "Stop whining, blaming others, looking for protectors, and blog... if you want to."

The inverse of these comments is that female law professors are at a special disadvantage, they're stuck with the kids, and they can't do anything about it.

In short, fish really do need bicycles and society is to blame.

Anonymous said...

Electric Citizen - One of my earliest childhood memories was of my father's mother, a German immigrant, making doughnuts in her kitchen. She would make the dough, let it rise, roll it out, and use two glasses to punch out doughnut shapes (one for the doughnut, a smaller on for the hole).

She'd drop the doughnuts into a vat of hot lard atop her old gas stove. After a few moments, she'd turn the half-cooked doughnuts over with wooden dowels, then a minute later spear the hot doughnuts and drop them onto a plate. She'd sprinkle them with sugar, and as soon as they had cooled just enough to be picked up by small fingers, my cousins and I would each grab one and run to the porch.

The aroma of the doughnuts cooking in hot lard, and the melt-in-my-mouth sweetness of the fresh doughnuts has been so indelible imprinted that I cannot to this day, some 60 years later, smell doughnuts without recalling fond memories of my grandmother.

(Of course, she couldn't blog, so she never realized her full potential as a woman).

save_the_rustbelt said...

Reading a little more of Ms. Bartow's blog.

"White Privilege Filtered Through Male Privilege"

This is an angry woman (womyn?).

Glad I married an old fashioned gyrl.

RHSwan said...

Michael_H
There is actually starting to be a serious push to apply Title IX to the sciences. There are influential people think the primary reason there are more men than women in the sciences is because of sexual discrimination.

Anonymous said...

supposedly "larded with the usual Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism." She offers no reasons for why that description applies to the rest of my post.

Bartow also failed to explain what the hell "misogynistic exceptionalism" means.

Althouse is as exceptionally misogynistic?

Althouse thinks she is an exceptional woman and not like the other inferior women?

Althouse thinks she is so exceptional that only other people can be misogynistic not her?

I think she made the comment because 1. she didn't read the post in full and 2. she is winking to the other feminists that she knows Althouse is a traitor but she still wants to link to a post she partly agrees with.

Elizabeth said...

I find it interesting that Bartow linked to the whole Feministing scandal from 2006 as evidence that you are in part responsible for attacks against feminists. Amazing. As if feminists are not allowed to criticize each other. (Unless it's about Palin, because of course she's not a "real" feminist.)

Her link does bring back memories, though. I first learned of your blog through the Feministing controversy back when I was trying to determine whether I was a feminist at all. I'm so grateful that I stumbled upon this blog and learned that feminism is a broader category than Feministing and BitchPhD would have you believe.

Henry said...

jdeeripper wrote: Bartow also failed to explain what the hell "misogynistic exceptionalism" means.

I think it's fairly clear when you look at what Bartow didn't quote -- basically anything in which Ann asserted the women can make their own choices.

Ann bespouses an intellectual brand of rugged individualism. To deep thinkers like Bartow individualism is mysogyny.

Trooper York said...
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Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I'm Full of Soup said...

Damn that breast Feministing thing was in 2006 - two years ago already! Will they ever forgive you? As if you cared heh.

George M. Spencer said...

Michael--

Mmmmm......homemade doughnuts....I've cooked them a few times.....very messy....but, oh, man..mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Nutmeg is essential. Not sure about the ginger. Recipe here.

Mmmmmmm.

goesh said...

I don't see a connection either between quantity of women law bloggers and feminism.

Anonymous said...

Trooper - I know exactly how you feel. My Dad's folks came over from Germany and were dirt poor. They grew and made everything, including wines, whiskey, and brandies. Grandma's remedy for any torso-located malady was a gulp of blackberry brandy and a nap. I napped a lot.

Grandma, to the day she died, never set foot in a grocery store. She made her own soap, cured her own meats, canned fruit and some vegetables, kept other vegetables and herbs in a root cellar. I remember being chased around the back yard by headless chickens as she would kill them for the evening meal.

My earliest family job when I was three was to put the growler into my wagon and pull it to the Roedel's Bar at the corner where old man Roedel would take the quarter out of my hand, fill the growler with beer and send me back home where my Dad and uncles were playing cards.

Grandma was like Mother Theresa, same face, same eyes, same kindness, same forgiveness. Everyone should have a grandmother like that.

Anonymous said...

Anagram for Ann Bartow:

Bra Want On

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

Sorry, I just now realized how odd it is to post about doughnuts and Grandmothers when the topic is "The usual Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism."

I need some blackberry brandy and a nap.

Unknown said...

Thanks Ruth Anne, you answered my first question, I guess its obvious although I've never understood why people will seek attention, even if that reveals themselves to be an idiot.

Trooper York said...
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The Counterfactualist said...

I cunt stand Ann Bartow.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Triangle Man said...

Perhaps someone could provide me with an example of obvious "misogynistic exceptionalism" from some other source that I could use to help guide my search for it in the original Althouse post. I couldn't find it on my own.

Swifty Quick said...

Before I can fully appreciate the insult I have to know what misogynistic exceptionalism is. I don't.

Chip Ahoy said...

Bartow is 100% of correct. Althouse does make the internet a more hostile place. Why, I get my feelings hurt all the time.

Ha ha ha ha ha. I'm such a liar. ¡Mira, mis pantalones estan en fuego!

rhhardin said...

Misogynist means not following the PC line about anything involving women.

It's intended as an insult.

Stamping of tiny foot is out.

blogging cockroach said...

chip
por que hablamos espanol
around here all of a sudden
i mean i learned my spanish
from jose the cuban cockroach
next door and from those
columbian dudes down in central sq
ist es der einfluss der sr elcubanitokc
ou pour le main....
oops
see what you ve done
i only have 960 brain cells
and my brain gets flipped
into foreign language mode
y todas las linguas that i ve
heard start getting mixed up
so pretty soon i go into germanish
or franish etc
bye
gotta go reboot

Anonymous said...
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Trooper York said...
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Roger J. said...
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former law student said...

Ann never seemed misogynistic to me. Although she did throw Jessica V's boobs under the bus. (I just liked the way that sounded. Rather, they stood proud under the gaze of Billy Jeff.)

Bartow also failed to explain what the hell "misogynistic exceptionalism" means.

Sarah Palin said that American exceptionalism meant we were a shining city on a hill. Therefore, "misogynistic exceptionalism" means a shining bosom on a hill, or perhaps a gleaming Presidential gaze upon a certain hillock.

Grandma, to the day she died, never set foot in a grocery store.

While I respect the sentiment behind this, I suspect she went to the grocery to buy sugar for the doughnuts, and perhaps even coffee and tea, unless the family lived in Hawaii.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

FLS said While I respect the sentiment behind this, I suspect she went to the grocery to buy sugar for the doughnuts, and perhaps even coffee and tea, unless the family lived in Hawaii.

FLS - I think you're right about the sugar. I know that she ground her own flour from wheat purchased from a local farmer and stored in the basement. Grandpa used some of it to make beer. The nutmeg in the doughnuts would have been purchased from the Watkins man on his neighborhood route. The lard came from the pigs slaughtered in the back yard. She never drank coffee or tea as they were unaffordable luxuries, although she'd drink them as a guest in someone else's house if they were offered.

Joan said...

Grandma was like Mother Theresa, same face, same eyes, same kindness, same forgiveness. Everyone should have a grandmother like that.

I had one, too, although I have to go on everyone else's stories about her, because she died when I was very young. It never occurred to me how much like Mother Theresa she was until I read that comment.

As for misogynistic exceptionalism, well: I think Bartow thinks it's fair to call Ann misogynistic (anti-women) because as so many have noted already, Ann doesn't play along with the women-as-victim story.

I confess, I had to look up exceptionalism, and now I'm really stumped as to what Bartow means, because exceptionalism means (if I'm getting this right) that normal rules don't apply because you're special, that is, exceptional.

I think it is grammatically incorrect to use a negative modifier like "misogynistic" with "exceptionalism", which implies special treatment due to superiority. It's a contradiction in terms, unless Bartow means to say that it is Ann herself who weilds her exceptionalism to further her misogynistic goals.

I've been reading here since the early days, and have never found Ann misogynistic although she does occasionally over-react to blogospheric slights. Labelling her with exceptionalism is a gross exaggeration, if that was Bartow's intention.

Does that represent Bartow's best work? That alone could explain why there are few prominent women law prof bloggers. If you came across Bartow first, you'd think, "Ick, who wants to read this?" and never click on her blog again. To be a successful blogger, it's not enough to have opinions, you have to express them clearly and support them as well. It also helps a lot if you don't whine.

KCFleming said...

Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!

Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you don't whine loud enough
You'll be called ferocious
Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lass
My mother said I was too weak
And the ceiling it was glass
But then one day I learned a word
That saved my pretty ass
The biggest word I ever heard
And I stuff it in my bra:

Oooohhhh, Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious!!

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MadisonMan said...

The only grandparent I knew died when I was 13. She taught me how to play Canasta and cribbage. Sadly, I've forgotten all about Canasta, except something about 50, 90 and 120 to go down.

Everytime she visited, she brought crullers from the Bay Bakery on Silver Spring in WFB. Man, I love crullers.

KCFleming said...

Agreed Trooper.

My dad's mom was the best woman I ever knew. She was maybe 4 foot ten tops but tough as nails. She raised 7 sons and 3 daughters. The boys were big men, one weighed 300lbs at 5'10" in high school, They were fighting Irish, all of them, getting in scraps and beating the hell out of each other when no one else would fight.

But grandma ruled them like God hisself. No one dared cross grandma. But she also had a smile and a laugh that melted stone.

When I was in college I sat with her during some break I was on, and told her about school in the nicey-nice way I used in front of my other grandma, who was a bit on the frail side and anxious like a frightened bird. But grandma F. said, "What the hell is this crap? I'm not listening to you pretty things up. Come now, what's going on at school?"

So I told her. God I loved that woman.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
former law student said...

I mean everybody loves their mom but there is a special place in everyone's heart for grandma.

Yes and no. My mother's mother was hell on wheels, controlling and judgmental. My mother moved a thousand miles away as soon as she could. She could really cook though.

KCFleming said...

My grandma made sugar pie. It was supposed to be apple pie, and I am sure it had apples in it. But it must have been a 5 lb bag of sugar per pie. Nothing quit like it, when you're seven.

my other grandma made 'butter dogs'. Ick. You do NOT want to know. She made 'em, and we et 'em, but lord almighty they was bad.

MadisonMan said...

I don't know if I ever ate anything my Grandmother ever cooked. I must have -- we visited her. But all I remember from the visits food-wise is walking to the drug store a couple blocks away and getting a milk shake! (That would be Fitzgerald's, also on Silver Spring in WFB).

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Ohh Ooh.. Cooking!!!

I just made the best apple pie yesterday using lard in the pie crust. I always use lard, unless I'm making a tart then I use butter.

Lard does make the very best pie crust. Larding a roast (using a larding needle) is also a technique that is really good especially if the meat is on the lean side like venison.

If you live in an area that has a lot of Hispanics its not unusual to see lard in the grocery store in huge bucket containers.

Lard does have an undeserved bad rap. It's great in cooking. Not so much in legistating.

Ann Althouse said...

My grandma made chicken and dumplings.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Speaking of Grandmothers. My dad's Mom was really unusual. Rich, bohemian, artistic, lived in Mexico for years as a legal resident from the mid 40's through the late 60's. She knew Che Guevarra on the 'cocktail' circut in Mexico City when he was just a doctor. Was very surprised and amused when he became a revolutionary icon. LOL

I remember my grandmother making us shirred eggs and creamed chicken livers.

Once we went shopping in the little village where they had a summer home, they had an apartment in Mexico City. We bought live chickens and fresh vegetables. The vendor killed and cleaned the chicken right in front of us and we put the groceries in a basket that was lowered down in the well to keep cool to cook later that day. No refrigeration or electricity.

George M. Spencer said...

My Momma was flattenin' lard with her red-enameled rollin' pin when the fishhead broke the window, the rubber eye erect and precisely detailed.

A rolling pin is a cylindrical food preparation utensil used to shape and flatten dough.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If you live in an area that has a lot of Hispanics its not unusual to see lard in the grocery store in huge bucket containers.

Chicharron,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicharr%C3%B3n

Anonymous said...

Grandma taught me how to make noodles. She'd pour a pile of flour onto an oilcloth covering her kitchen table. Into the center would go salt and eggs and a few drops of water. She'd push the flour into the center repeatedly until the dough was exactly how she wanted it.

Then she'd cut the dough into pieces and, one at at time, attack them with an old, worn, wood roller. She'd flour the oil cloth and stretch the dough thinner and thinner until it covered nearly the entire table.

When it was fully rolled out, shed cut it into strips, by hand, with a sharp knife. Hundreds of strips. The strips were hung on hangers until they dried, then dropped into boiling salted water.

The hot, fresh noodles went into the bottom of bowls, then covered with goulash or soup that hat been cooking for hours. I loved chicken foot soup, until I turned 5 and figured out what chicken foots were.

Now my wife, of similar ancestry, makes stock with chicken feet. It's wonderful.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Chicharron

Yum. There's a guy in our town who has a 'moblie' food cart and makes pork Chicharrones once every two weeks. You have to put in an order to get them if you want them. Fresh hot and dripping with grease and salt!! Puts those cardboard pork rinds you get packaged in the store to shame.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm not sure if I remember correctly but I think my grandparents used lard to light a lamp.

Clean energy.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother and my wife's maternal grandmother both lived well into their late 80s, despite enjoying a breakfast we know will kill us by age 45.

At the end of the breakfast, after everyone had been fed and the men gone off toe work, Grandma would cut a thick slice of bread and fry it in the bacon grease that remained in the pan. She'd brown one side, then the other. She'd put in on her plate and sprinkle both sides with salt and black pepper and eat it as her breakfast.

I tried it once years later, after she had passed on and I was in my 30s. It was at the same time indescribably delicious and frighteningly unhealthy. How the grandmas lived into their 80s, I don't know.

Donna B. said...

My grandma made fried pies for us and butter roll from the leftover pie dough.

Cocoa must have inexpensive in those days, because when there wasn't fresh fruit or she'd used up the canned stuff, she'd make chocolate fried pies.

ohmy... yum.

With leftover dough, she'd spread butter and sugar on it, then roll it up, pour milk on it and bake it.

And she made chocolate gravy for breakfast too.

George M. Spencer said...

Let's talk chitterlings!

Offal great.

Smart entrepreneur.

Anonymous said...

Ann, I apologize for moving this thread off topic. I know that feminism is important to you, and you posted Ann Bartow's writings to provoke a conversation on the matter.

I'll make an attempt to move thing back on topic:

Ann Bartow's problem is that she probably didn't have a good grandmother. Ditto Amanda Marcotte.

George M. Spencer said...

Prof. Bartow's bio.

I didn't know they had laws in South Carolina much less a school in which to teach them.

Anonymous said...

Whoa! I've got a label! Thank you! That puts me in the Green Berets of the Althouse bloggertariat. I'm in the Special Ops Division. Hoo-ah!

MadisonMan said...

Bissage got a label and then Poof! He vanished. I'm only around because I'm at an undisclosed location. So Michael_H: be careful!

Chip Ahoy said...

Ha ha ha ha. Pogo wins!

*dances the Misogynistic exceptionalism expialidocious dance*

Woot!

*twirls my partner*

This prolonged discussion on Misogynistic exceptionalism has vexed me greatly, in a way that could be relieved only by immediately cutting up two whole chickens and pan frying them both.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bleeper said...

Bartovian Haiku:

Non-gratuitious
Exceptionalism is
Misogynistic

Trooper York said...
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Trooper York said...
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bleeper said...

Nice South Carolina stereotyping, Electric whatever. You need to get out more. See the country. Provincialism paralizes one's ability to think.

former law student said...

I am sorry about your grandma former law student. Everybody should have a grandma who loves them. Who cooks for them and makes a fuss over them when they come to visit.

I guess you would call it tough love today.

The difference between my grandmother and trooper's was like the difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God.

George M. Spencer said...

bleeper--

I have no manners.

I'm from the North.

North Carolina.

walter neff said...

You know I was willing to think about Barack Obama until I saw how he treated his grandmother. I mean the woman took him in and raised him while his mom was banging some new foriegn guy and the first thing he does calls her a "typical white woman" and "throws her under the bus." Who does that to his grandmother. Its a shandeh un a charpeh

blake said...

Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism =
The Maniacal Policing Sites Misty Noxious ?

I got nothin'. Great thread, tho'.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann Althouse said...

"Ann, I apologize for moving this thread off topic..."

Not at all. It was nice.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Professor Bartow.. in practice specialized in patent litigation.

Isn't patent litigation a backwater of law?

Ron Popeil vrs Jack La Lannes.... juicy litigation ;)

bleeper said...

In that case, all is forgiven. I understand the antipathy between the North and South (Carolinas). I hear there was a border skirmish between them and the South Carolinians threw hand grenades at the North Carolinians. They, in turn, pulled out the pins and threw the grenades back.

Anonymous said...

Grandma had her first television for exactly 20 minutes. My dad and uncles bought it for her sometime in the mid-50s. They carried it up the stairs, put it on a table in the living room, hooked to some rabbit ears and turned it on.

They found a western for her to watch. She watched for a time and then began crying uncontrollably because the cowboys were killing Indians. She thought it was real, had no idea that it was make believe.

Months later, after her sisters convinced her it was make believe, she allowed the television back in her front room. But no more westerns. All she would watch was Lawrence Welk and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. And Saturday morning cartoons with her grand children while she fed us toast covered with butter, cinnamon and honey.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MadisonMan said...

trooper, I don't have many memories 'cause she lived in Milwaukee and I grew up in PA.

She did buy me my first stock, however. And my first real piece of artwork -- it's hanging right in front of me in my living room. It's from Paris in 1968, a drawing.

Mom has one of her dresser drawers, and one of the things I like to do when I'm home is open it, because it smells just like I remember her.

Anonymous said...

You too? I know it doesn't happen, but after years of being tolds that the electricity will leak out of the sockets, I still unplug things around the house. Pisses off family members who want instant-on everything. I've taken to covering my actions by mumbling things about 'living green'.

Troop, have you watched the great movie Avalon? The Thanksgiving scene hits really close to home.

MadisonMan said...

One thing I learned recently: My grandmother thought my Mom was foolish to have kids #3 and #4 (I'm #4)! But I never knew that from my Grandmother's actions.

vbspurs said...

Ann Bartow wrote:

She is right that the Internet is a nasty, hostile place, especially for women,

On the off-chance Miss Bartow will read this reply, I'll address my rebuttal to her here.

Professor Bartow, you are right that the internet is a hostile place, but what makes your point overdramatic is that you concentrate on women having the hardest time.

It strikes me that you say that because you view the world through a female prism, because I can assure you that children and teens have a harder time online than any adult woman who is a law professor can imagine.

(even more especially for feminists,

I don't agree with your overemphasis on women in your first point, but I think this second one is true.

Feminists have a hard time because you wish to have your cake and eat it too.

Feministss often tell other women what is a valid feminist point of view, and woe-betide anyone, male or female, who strays far from the movement's goals.

I give you as piece of evidence Number 1:

thanks in part to Ann Althouse)

Now, tell me, was this targeting of Ann Althouse really necessary? Because it comes off as bitter and jealous.

and you kind of have to accept that if you are going to blog.

Yeah, you kinda have to accept that life is tough, and that there are no Constitutional stopgaps to civil interaction online.

It's a dog-eat-dog world, out there.

Think about that next time you wish to fling insults. The enemies you make have modems for voices, and whose faces are a monitor.

The internet is about as disembodied of gender as you can get in this world.

Cheers,
Victoria

bleeper said...

All this talk of lard takes me back. We used to buy it in 5 gallon tins. Used properly, it makes the best possible pastry and pie crusts and cookies. Nothing else comes close.

My mother was not much of a cook, but could bake like nobody's business. It was the lard, I am convinced.

My father grew fat as he grew old. Ate lard and bacon and eggs and smoked unfiltered Camels. Drank, never exercised, and lived to be 72.

I should be so lucky, or else I better start smoking or something. Some donuts sound good right about now. The ones from the donut shop down on the boardwalk in Bethany beach - hot out of the grease, with sugar and cinnamon - heaven on earth.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
George M. Spencer said...

bleeper--

There is an interesting story in today's NY Times. About some Christian movie starring Kirk Cameron. Opened the same week as Spike Lee's movie, which got a lot of press. This Kirk Cameron movie got no press. The story is about how the movie has legs and is making big bucks. To Hollywood's surprise.

Then, deep on page C6, the story says the movie is based on some Christian novel. According to the mainstream sales figures (Nielsen), the book has sold 6,000 copies. Not including sales through Wal-Mart. The publisher says 600,000 copies are in print.

David53 said...

We called my grandmother Flossie because that was her name. My grandfather was called Vernon and my other grandmother was Momo. They owned a fabric shop together. Flossie and Momo sold the fabric while Vernon took care of the books. Vernon showed me how to make a squirrel trap and told me how he used to fish with dynamite. Then we would go home and eat fried catfish and have watermelon for dessert.

vbspurs said...

Lard? Sorry. I got nothing. No grandma recipes, no Crisco anecdotes, no sweet potato pie and shut yo mouth.

I'm lardless.

David said...

Why is this Bartow woman always referring to women being prone?

Is there something about a prone woman that moves her?

blake said...

By contrast, Michael_H, my great-grandmother believed everything on TV was a show, including the moon-landing.

Which, perhaps, is understandable given that she had spent some time in her youth shooting at Indians her own self (and vice-versa).

Prarie life to moon landing in a single lifetime.

We'll never see a jump like that again, I'd bet.

Anonymous said...

Vics, if ever we meet, I'll make doughnuts for you using Grandma's recipe. Including the lard. That'll be as good as being adopted.

You'll need to go up a size, pantalones-wise, shortly thereafter.

vbspurs said...

Vics, if ever we meet, I'll make doughnuts for you using Grandma's recipe. Including the lard. That'll be as good as being adopted.

Aww, I appreciate that, Michael_H. It'll be an honour to dunk my doughnuts with you.

You'll need to go up a size, pantalones-wise, shortly thereafter.

My heart skips as my thighs go into depression.

Peter V. Bella said...

Since we are discussing cooking and AA’s fascination with prickly balls.

Anonymous said...

Blake, You're right! My mom's dad, who lived to be nearly 95, said that the greatest thing that happened in his lifetime was that he listened to the radio report of the Wright Brothers first flight at Kittyhawk in his crystal set as a young boy, and watched the first landing on the moon as an old man.

Me? I got to use the first edition of MS DOS as a young man, and when I'm an old man the damn Windows OS thing will probably still crash.

bleeper said...

I was expecting a link to the SNL public radio send-up of the holiday rum balls made by Kurt Schwetty. Funny bit.

Anonymous said...

Aww, I appreciate that, Michael_H. It'll be an honour to dunk my doughnuts with you.

Be careful what you say. Trooper is still nearby and he'll want to dunk your donuts too.

blake said...

Michael_H--

Well, the cure for that is to boot up a live CD like Knoppix and plug it into your Windows machine.

Even if you decide to go back to Windows, it's just refreshing to realize you don't have to be slave it. Innovations are occurring, people are still having fun out there.

When I was very young, the house was littered with punch cards with coffee rings on 'em. I took my dad with me to Fry's the other day to pick up a 2GB flash drive for $10.

He just shakes his head in disbelief.

bleeper said...

There was no radio broadcast of the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk.

MadisonMan said...

My wife's grandmother, on the other hand, was a real piece of work. She loathed my father-in-law and generally made life miserable for my mother-in-law (her only kid).

As a consequence, I have the world's best mother-in-law. I'm very lucky.

Anonymous said...

Blake, He heard the report in December, 1903. It was based on a telegraph report, read on a radio broadcast.

bleeper said...

I can find no reference to a transmission of human speech by radio prior to 1906. The flight was in 1903. Please correct me and fill in the blanks - what radio station, in what city and so on...

Anonymous said...

Sorry Bleeper, it's my Grandfather's recollection and I'll not debate it with you.

bleeper said...

Not asking for a debate, just sayin' it didn't happen as he recalled it. No problem with that. Human memory is a dicey thing.

blake said...

That's bleeper debating, not Blake.

I'm on sandy soil when it comes to lyin' ancestors. My great-grandfather used to tell kids he was the Lone Ranger, then bribe them with ice cream to keep the secret.

He was also fond of saying he was the lone survivor of the Alamo.

Asante Samuel said...

Sorry I'm late, I had to see a woman about a horse.

Nothing personal AA, but I long for the day when the shortage will be, not of law bloggers, male, female or metrosexual, but of lawyers themselves.

Get a real fucking job. Make something, do something productive.

Ann Althouse said...

Is blogging productive? Is there such a thing as a writer?

Daddio said...

Sounds like she took a page out of Time magazine's playbook. If only I still had Photoshop. I'd make Ann a nice cover with the headline,"Why Some Women Hate Ann Althouse."

Trumpit said...

That was so funny, Pogo! I have to admit it was good.

former law student said...

Ann Althouse said...

Is blogging productive? Is there such a thing as a writer?


To answer the first question: Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson's law still holds true, I believe:

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money. by Samuel Johnson

To answer the second: "Internet content provider," is what I believe a blogger is.

Trumpit said...

"Get a real fucking job. Make something, do something productive."

Yeah, like that dick who was CEO of Lehman Brothers who "earned" $500,000,000 between 2000 and 2005. Then "his" company failed with his helping hand. Thay were giving themselves golden parachutes until the ending while asking Uncle Sam to bail out their company. The greedy rich are the problem, and they must be dealt with appropriately like we do with an axe murderer.

Btw, when you need a lawyer to sue somebody, who are you going to call? Rotor Rooter?

AllenS said...

My grandmother, and two of her sisters, were addicted to bingo. The only vice at the time.

PartnerT said...

[high achieving lawyer/mom finally gets fed up. deletes althouse from blogroll. life is too short, posts are too snarky and "cruel neutrality" is too . . . self-indulgent and divorced from reality.]

bleeper said...

Trumpit - you really hate it when people get money don't you. Don't worry, socialism will soon level the playing field and we will all be living in a basement, as you do. But most of us won't have to listen to our mommy yelling at us. You are just lucky that way.

rhhardin said...

And I want an apology for making it look like I wrote something I didn't write.

Nothing is more womanish that asking for an apology.

Peter Hoh said...

Pogo, I bow to your superior skill at writing humorous lyrics. Great song!

RR Ryan said...

Pogo-thank you, thank you, thank you.