August 25, 2012

At the Alpine Café...

Untitled

... we notice the small things too.

36 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Photo taken on the Beartooth Highway, on a mountaintop.

Scott said...

Nice photo.

I'm in the Newark airport, on my way to Denver; then tomorrow driving north to Hot Springs, SD to encamp while visiting the in-laws on the Pine Ridge reservation.

AA, what camera are you using? My Olympus Stylus 3000 finally kicked the bucket, and I need to get another camera while in Denver. Any recommendations?

ricpic said...

Wow, judging by the vegetation I was going to say Mexico. Doesn't look like northern latitudes that's for sure.

Ann Althouse said...

@Scott That picture, like many of our pics, was done with a Panasonic Lumix. Here's the current model that closest to (and better and cheaper than) what we have.

We've bought the same camera twice. I wrecked the first one while dropping it on the marble floor at the Wisconsin Capitol. My clumsiness was caused by the confusion of going through the security check that they put up because of the protesters, so it was one more place where I paid a price for covering the protests.

Chip Ahoy said...

How nice.

To be with someone who doesn't mind stopping. It took three trips to Hawaii to get someone to finally stop so I could go into a pineapple patch. Then thirty seconds was enough to satisfy that.

And I passed hundreds of incredible scenes because we were speeding down the mountain to get back, like everyone else. I was actually too afraid even to ask. For instance, I would never again see that combination of fog and Aspen trees and pine a strange and mysterious scene I cannot forget but to request us all to pull out of the race down, then back in, just to take a picture was out of the question. I'd be yelled at or pressured to hurry or whatever it was each time that made it impossible. Which causes my tender hearted self to wonder why, and to conclude, next time this comes up have your solution ready, "Stop the goddamn car and let me take a couple fucking pictures you tired-ass douchebags," ought to do it, don't you think?

Scott said...

@AA: Thank you.

I had a Lumix that I liked quite a bit once, but one day I put it in my pocket and pulled off the zoom lever which was behind the shutter button. Maybe they have improved the design since then. I'll have a look at another Lumix when I arrive in Denver.

rhhardin said...

On a bike you can stop for anything.

There are thousands of commute things.

pm317 said...

Chip Ahoy, speak up next time. I have the same urge to stop and look at every nook and cranny and not wonder later what I missed.. it is a recent trend and I don't understand why I feel that. It all happened after my Alaska trip in 2010 when I realized how beautiful the earth and the sky were, everywhere. Last year when we were in India visiting the centuries old Ajantha/Ellora caves, I dragged my husband everywhere -- he is a good sport. He is enjoying my new found zeal.

Dante said...

Ann, I take it this is a general forum question area.

My question to you is regarding the Romney quotation: "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where we were born and raised" and your analysis.

Question number 1): Supposedly this was an ad-hoc comment. Do you think Romney thought it through as you did, and it was prepared?

2) I see nothing wrong with your analysis of how a thinking person might interpret what he said, but do you think even 1/10000 people would dig into the meaning the way you did?

3) If people do not dig into the meaning as you did, do you think it affects them?

ricpic said...

...we were speeding down the mountain to get back...

I don't know which mountain that was but it doesn't really matter, people speed everywhere. Everytime I drive through Yellowstone or Grand Tetons National Parks people are speeding through. Thankfully there are frequent turnoffs. But I often wonder to myself, why, why are they speeding through these astounding places? Oh well, I gave up on figgering out the human race a long time ago.

Irene said...

That photo makes me want to sing "Edelweiss."

pm317 said...

BTW, the Matterhorn picture (you improved, thank you) came because of that new found zeal. We had dinner and were ready to head out to retire at the hotel. But no, I said we will take a walk in the 'residential' not touristy streets of Zermatt and lo and behold, I got views of Matterhorn I would not have otherwise seen.

Dante said...

OH, and my questions are not meant to have any snark at all. I'm quite curious about the whole "unconscious" thing in terms of affecting people's opinions.

Palladian said...

Bear teeth used to be used to burnish gold leaf to a mirror-like lustre.

There's many a medieval Virgin and Child that have had a bear tooth massage.

Ann Althouse said...

@Dante Most of this stuff goes on at the subconscious level. Analyzing it, as I did, is a way to toughen yourself to the manipulations. So I think that what I'm observing is mostly what goes on ONLY if people aren't stopping to think about it.

As Instapundit says, the MSM are carrying the meme for Romney precisely because they -- in their endless effort to be optimistic about Obama -- don't see the way it helps Romney.

Ann Althouse said...

@Chip Getting the photos is a big purpose of the trip.

One of the things that's been important to me is to see quirky photo ops as we zip back and to take the trouble to stop for a pictures. The really scenic stuff you assume you'll stop for and there are often signs preparing you for view and special well-paved overlooks.

If I say something like "That would have made a good photo," Meade is likely to turn the car around and go back to it, so sometimes I have to say "but don't go back."

Palladian said...

I see nothing wrong with your analysis of how a thinking person might interpret what he said, but do you think even 1/10000 people would dig into the meaning the way you did?

No, that's why people come here!

Dante said...

Ann,

I see the point. He starts off with "We were born and raised here," and then reminds people of Obama to make the contrast really to "raised," and by implication Romney is one of us, but not so sure about Obama.

I can see how the contrast would embed itself into psyche by appealing to ancient hard wired feelings about "group". The "joke" part of it helps to draw the contrast, and also throws off the analysis as the conscious mind wanders off to think about birthers.

It seems risky, as there are a lot of people put off by the whole "birth" question.

Well, thanks for the explanation.

Why can't people simply talk about the truths?

rhhardin said...

Robert Frost stopped to photograph the woods.

Dante said...

Palladian

do you think even 1/10000 people would dig into the meaning the way you did?

No, that's why people come here!


Yes, I enjoy many of Ann's insights, as well of those who comment.

However, I also think at times she underestimates that her background gives a very unique view into the world, and expects everyone to "get it." Like when she recently was wondering whether she ought to continue posting, because some people didn't understand the implications of Sarah Palin's fashion choice.

pm317 said...

Ann Althouse said...

@Chip Getting the photos is a big purpose of the trip.
----------------

Has there been a moment though when you felt, no I don't want to take a picture -- let me have this all for myself? There was one for me in the Grand Tetons, but of course I am just a garden variety photographer.

Palladian said...

Guess the mystery subject of some of my recent drawings...

edutcher said...

You really loved it that there was a mesa on top of that mountain.

Ann Althouse said...

@Scott That picture, like many of our pics, was done with a Panasonic Lumix. Here's the current model that closest to (and better and cheaper than) what we have.

We've bought the same camera twice. I wrecked the first one while dropping it on the marble floor at the Wisconsin Capitol. My clumsiness was caused by the confusion of going through the security check that they put up because of the protesters, so it was one more place where I paid a price for covering the protests.


In the cause of Truth, Madame; always a good one.

Alex said...

Ann Althouse... lawyer, law professor, blogger and now professional nature photographer. She has found her true calling!

Dante said...

Ann Althouse... lawyer, law professor, blogger and now professional nature photographer. She has found her true calling!

Let us not forget she has a degree in fine art. I looked up her background when she was getting snippy with people for not seeing what was so obvious to her in a number of posts a week or two ago, and the fine art degree explained it, for me at least.

pm317 said...

What about that new anti-Obama movie which is surprising the Hollywood people? I must say I don't like Dinesh D'Souza at all, but the trailer looks good.

Aridog said...

@Chip Ahoy...

Which causes my tender hearted self to wonder why, and to conclude, next time this comes up have your solution ready, "Stop the goddamn car and let me take a couple fucking pictures you tired-ass douchebags," ought to do it, don't you think?

Abso-f'ing-lutely. We've never met, but you pass the road trip with camera(s) test.

One of my best friends lives in Montana just north of Yellowstone. When we're together, a couple times a year, the unspoken mutual pledge is to stop and be happy when either of us wants to just stop and be happy, and perhaps take a picture or two. Norm has managed to spend an hour and 1/2 on a couple lily pads...beating his 1 hour and 10 minute stop at a little bubbling mud geyser ... one of many, but THE one he wanted.

madAsHell said...

RIP Neil Armstrong

Paddy O said...

Spent the morning going to the "Wheelmobile" where Wheel of Fortune looks for new contestants.

My wife got called up and was her usual interesting and charming self... so, fingers crossed that she'll get picked to go on the show!

madAsHell said...

I can understand ignoring Marvin Hamlisch, but Neil Armstrong?

I'm fairly certain that you have lots of engineering/math/physics types that comment here. They need to grieve too!!

Sorun said...

Flying saucers or dead pixels? They're whatever you want them to be.

Funny and sad: I have a 28 year-old nephew who will reliably fall in the flying saucer camp.

wyo sis said...

PaddyO
Good luck to your wife.
I hope she wins big time.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

What I noticed was the Echinacea, predominantly a prairie plant. Just one, and obviously not happy up there amongst the lupines.

tiger said...

Nice to see I'm not the only photographer to have pictures washed out by too much light. :)

Paddy O said...

wyo sis, thanks!

Synova said...

I got George R. R. Martin to sign the cover of my Game of Thrones DVD set today. Also, the official Game of Thrones cook book.

:-)

I got books signed by Brandon Sanderson, Steve Stirling, Victor Milan, MLN Hanover (otherwise known as Daniel Abraham), and Loretta Hall signed her book for me, "Out of This World: New Mexico's Contributions to Space Travel."