That last post really needed
the tag "mirror." How did I come so far without a tag for mirror? I made one, then had 22+ years of the blog to search to add the tag retrospectively. It was easy to search for the word "mirror," but hard to separate the posts that deserved the tag — the ones referring to the object, a mirror — from the ones that did not — the ones using "mirror" as a dying metaphor (ideas "mirror" other ideas and so forth). And then there's the drudgery of adding the tag and republishing. But in the end, there's the fun of clicking on the tag and peering into the kaleidoscope.
There was,
also in 2008, the convex mirror I loved and wanted to buy:
"It's expensive — over $1800 — but as I thought about possibly buying it, I realized what I wanted it for was to take pictures, and therefore what I really should buy is a fisheye lens for my Nikon D50." So I got that fisheye lens. If you're nostalgic for those days, click the tag
"fisheye."
There was this advice about dolphins,
in 2014: "People, can you just leave the dolphins alone? They don't want to swim with you, despite the 'expression' you see on their faces. The love you think you are experiencing is nothing more than self-love. Stay home, save your money, and
stare in a mirror until you get a deep, accurate assessment of how true your self-love is. Is there a fixed smile on
your face? I hope not, but if there is, it's not because you share the spirit of the dolphin. The dolphin is 'smiling' because nature played a dirty trick on him, drawing idiot humans into his domain. Get out.
Leave the dolphin alone."
There was the mystery of what a monkey sees in a mirror, back in 2005: "What's in the monkey's mind when he looks in a mirror? Higher minds -- human beings, great apes, dolphins -- figure out, when they are looking in a mirror, that they are seeing themselves. Other animals, it's long been thought, think they're seeing a stranger. But a new study shows that the monkey occupies a middle position, where it doesn't see itself, but it doesn't see a stranger either. The monkey sees a 'Puzzling Other.'"
In 2024, I had Grok outline a book for me. It was titled "Through the Glass/Exploring Mirrors as Portals to Other worlds."
I was surprised to see that, back in 2013, I'd contributed to my long-running men-in-shorts theme with this stark advice: "Take a good look at yourself in the mirror when you've got your shorts on. Ask yourself if I were a woman, would I fuck me?"
There was this good question, in 2013: "If someone holds up a mirror and you say 'I look like an idiot,' is the mirror-holder calling you an idiot?"
There was the sunset in my rear-view mirror as I drove 500 miles to see Meade in 2009:
Posts
22 comments:
Nothing on the Star Trek mirror universe? CC, JSM
Re-reading every prior post that hits on “mirror” and making a list (or a ranking or criteria score) of recommended posts to which to apply the tag sounds like a great use of agentic AI.
With Codex Computer Use of Claude in Chrome it could even do the “ the drudgery of adding the tag and republishing”
*Codex Computer Use **or** Claude in Chrome (they’re two different things; no edit button on comments?)
Glad to see your thread on mirrors. I've been wondering for a long time: are Democrats actually able to see themselves in a mirror? It certainly doesn't seem like it when they constantly describe others as having characteristics exactly the same as theirs, but they're unable to see it. Or are they born with the a mirror-image deficiency syndrome, you know, like vampires?
Through the looking glass, objects are closer than they appear, is a metaphor for the excoriation of pride and prejudice.
I like the scene in Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood when Leonardo DiCaprio's character tells himself in the mirror that if he doesn't nail his lines in the coming scene that he will blow his brains out. Both sides of the scene have mirrors.
The Guardian wants you to know that it completely understands the mental processes and psychology of dolphins. And it knows for sure that they want you to gtfo.
If the dolphins react violently when you pet them, perhaps they really like human contact, but they just really hate you in particular.
OMG, I hadn’t thought of Maxine Weiss in forever. Jeez! She really went to town in that comments thread. I do wonder whatever happened to Peter Ho, though. Nice to see a Ruthie comment. Fun post; nice walk down memory lane (well, the post, not the Maxine part in the comments).
Now off to read the other included links.
There’s Bruce Hayden with a fine comment on the monkey post; he’s always been great.
And I really did LOL at Althouse’s handling the C ack Emcee in the Dolphin post. Classic and excellent! Loved the imagery.
Mirroring Memories, that’s me today, I guess.
""Take a good look at yourself in the mirror when you've got your shorts on. Ask yourself if I were a woman, would I fuck me?""
Yes.
There's bears, and then there's bears.
"Re-reading every prior post that hits on “mirror” and making a list (or a ranking or criteria score) of recommended posts to which to apply the tag sounds like a great use of agentic AI."
I did use AI after I'd done it my usual way, but just to go over what didn't yet have a "mirror" tag. It complained about access to my blog, which is completely accessible as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I think it's better for me to look at the posts with the word "mirror" and to decide if the mirror tag belongs.
"There was the sunset in my rear-view mirror as I drove 500 miles to see Meade in 2009:"
But I would drive five hundred miles
And I would drive five hundred more
Just to be the woman who drove a thousand
Miles to fall down at your door...
"There was this advice about dolphins, in 2014: "People, can you just leave the dolphins alone? They don't want to swim with you, despite the 'expression' you see on their faces."
Except sometimes they do.
In a previous life, I was surfing at Hermosa Beach. Beautiful day, marred by the nearly complete absence of waves.
Noticing a pod of porpoises about a mile off shore heading north I picked what looked like a good intercept and paddled out.
When I got about a hundred yards away, they disappeared. I figured they'd come up again well beyond me and head on their way.
Nope. They put on a show for me, then headed on their way.
The most relevant question in your post assumes that men have a clue what women want when looking at a possible object of desire. At this point of my life, I am gobsmacked to know that the answer would have been "yes" much more often than I had ever considered. This has brought me to the place I am today, and in retrospect it was definitely all for the best that I had no clue.
I am a man happy with his place in life. No opportunity comes without a cost.
Cracked Rear View?
Honey, your life is a Hootie and the Blowfish album.
Doesn't it seem dangerous to get out of work at 2:40 and then undertake a 500-mile drive? That felt like exactly the right thing to do in 2009.
The younger you are, the more you take risks. I was excited to drive through Nebraska with what looked like tornadoes in the distance. I would take my eyes off the road while driving. No more of that now. Maybe love makes one younger and take more risks.
I don’t think of that as dangerous, Althouse. At least not necessarily so.
In any case, dangerous or not, it was the right thing to do, as the love story played out. : )
Someone is going pirate that second photo for a bootleg 13th Floor Elevators album cover.
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