November 6, 2005

Taking specific requests from Jonah Goldberg.

See? And I'm tempted to also put up my favorite line from one of the commenters, one "Icepick": "Your worst nightmare: an artist with a law degree!"

UPDATE: Should I keep the new quote? (The old one was "Althouse is cool.") I'm getting cold feet for two reasons: 1. Even though I didn't personally proclaim myself a genius, the act of putting the quote in the title box is mine and is a bit much, and 2. It gives ongoing, weird prominence to Margaret Cho (which she might even object to). As to #1, you might have the same objection to "divine," but that seems more playful, and there's something about the two words in combination that might cross the line from playful to delusional.

28 comments:

XWL said...

I hate her politics (Cho) but I love her act, go figure.

The show recently announced about her life on FOX will probably suck, she plays her mother and they will probably cast some rail thin Chinese girl to play her as a 12 year old (avoiding the weighty problems that plagued her first attempt at sitcom stardom). Plus given that her mother ran a bookstore in SF there will be gay stereotypes a plenty flitting about.

Saw her at UC Riverside of all places, it was only a few months after 9/11/01 so she hadn't loaded up on anti-Bush material yet.

(and she was stilling telling her joke about her 'enthusiastic' support of the people cleaning up ground zero, along with an extended set on the joys hydrocolonotherapy)

chuck b. said...

xwl said, "The show recently announced about her life on FOX will probably suck"

Or, it'll be great but get cancelled after a few weeks.

Ann Althouse said...

LarryK: I just recorded a podcast, before reading your question, and I say something responsive to that at the very end. I'll have it up soon. Highly recommended!

But, to answer your question here nevertheless, I definitely see myself as an artist with a law degree. I see all this blogging and podcasting as an art project, and I feel that I strangely and amusingly wandered out of art and into law and that it never quite made enough sense until I started blogging, at which point it all came together and seemed fated.

Maybe your friend needs a blog.

vbspurs said...

I hate her politics (Cho) but I love her act, go figure.

Early Margaret Cho was, as the kids say, da bomb.

Her skit of her grandmother calling her by her Korean name (Moran), and shouting it at her, MORAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNN, from a distance is minimalist comedy brilliance.

Or her grocery-shop owning mother perusing the gay porn. "Is this about THE gay?".

And who can forget her take on the Sally Struthers infomercials.

(Speaking with deep Korean village girl accent)

"I so poor, I went to market today, and sold my finger."

Maybe doesn't translate well on paper, but it's oh so hilarious out loud.

The show recently announced about her life on FOX will probably suck,

Oh FOX?? Good Lord. Mind you, Fox News and Fox are two different species -- rather like Disney and ABC.

Anyway, speaking of ABC, didn't she already do her lifestory on a short-lived TV series there?

It was dire.


she plays her mother

Good, because the witch they had as her mother was nothing like her autobiographical references to her mother on the stand-up.

and they will probably cast some rail thin Chinese girl to play her as a 12 year old (avoiding the weighty problems that plagued her first attempt at sitcom stardom).

Erm, yes.

Plus given that her mother ran a bookstore in SF there will be gay stereotypes a plenty flitting about.

I heard that Cho is now bi. And when I say "now" I mean, I only just heard of that.

Saw her at UC Riverside of all places, it was only a few months after 9/11/01 so she hadn't loaded up on anti-Bush material yet.

That's about when I started to slow down on my Cho-watching.

Her latest special, which got limited distribution to some art houses, was I was told even by her very close political affiliates, absolutely vitriolic and almost dementedly anti-Bush.

It's targeted towards her biggest audience now: as her mother would say, the gay.

(and she was stilling telling her joke about her 'enthusiastic' support of the people cleaning up ground zero, along with an extended set on the joys hydrocolonotherapy)

Good times.

Cheers,
Victoria

reader_iam said...

I laughed out loud when I read The Corner and saw Jonah's post suggesting a new quote. But I must say I was surprised when I came over here and saw that you had, in fact, adopted the new quote "up top."

Since you have now asked in your update, I had the same reaction as you're now having. Can you ask Jonah to try again? Because while it might be good to replace his old quote, I don't like the new one in terms of THIS function.

I definitely love Icepick's quote--thought it was brilliant at the time and still do. Not only does the quote itself perfectly distill your 'tude, but I think it would be SO excellent to include a quote from a commenter, in addition to other "famous" bloggers. And it would symbolize the lovely egalitarianism implicit in your fostering of your commenting "community."

That's my 29 cents' worth, anyway.

reader_iam said...

And no, in this case the "29" is NOT one of my typos ....

Icepick said...

FWIW, I liked the old Goldberg quote better. But as I stated in a previous comment (Good luck finding it!), that the first one reminded me of Beavis & Butt-head's usage: "Explosions are cool"; "Pantera is cool"; etc.

However, the current one isn't that bad. You'll just have to be WAY over the top about it if you want to call yourself a genius: write several posts a week proclaiming how brilliant you've been, blog complete nonsense with utter sincerity, etc. Basically, a few times a week, you need to be Huffington's Toast version of Ann Althouse, instead of Althouse.blogspot.com's version of Ann Althouse. Blogging as performance art, which it closely resembles anyway!

vbspurs said...

I just saw the update about the new quote.

One vote for "Take it off".

Althouse is cool, or even Icepick's lovely remark (that is, if you don't mind blog-slumming and putting a non-famous person as part of your masthead compliments), are both much better.

P.S.: Wait, we're voting right?

Cheers,
Victoria

Icepick said...

LarryK, I'm surprised you asked that question. It seemed clear to me since shortly after I started reading Ann's blog that she sees the artist as being very close to the core of her being. Not that she doesn't take the lawyer and professor gig seriously, just that that isn't as close to the core. I might be totally whacked on this issue (as on so many others), but that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it!

Reader_Iam, commenting is just a form of guerilla blogging: call us blogillas or bloguerillas. This is especially true for those of us without blogs, or very tiny blogs. Power to the Peeps, G!

reader_iam said...

Icepick: How about "blogistas"? To me, it implies the "guerilla" context and a touch of subversiveness, along with a good dose of caffeine (because it also brings to mind "barista," as in Starbucks jockey). Which we all often seem to be employing. BIG smile!

Ann Althouse said...

Okay, I'm trying it with Icepick's quote for a while.

Icepick said...

He shoots! He scores!

reader_iam said...

Yes, the more I think about it, the more I like it:

"I am an Althouse blogista."

Has a ring to it ...

Icepick said...

Not sure about blogista, although it defintely has a ring to it. But I'd be constantly looking oveer my shoulder for G. Gordon Liddy. You know: "Ears. Althouse blogista ears."

Icepick said...

Damn, I got bumped before I could get a screen shot! Dang.

LarryK, I hate the idea of thinking my job is closest to the core of my being! Or anywhere close, for that matter. Still, point taken.

And you really shouldn't mess with a guy whose full name is Stabmasta Icepick. (Props to those who know what I'm paying homage to.)

reader_iam said...

Icepick: Regarding Liddy, LOL. Off and on for a half-hour now.

I loved your idea about a name for us; it's just that the particular suggestions disquieted me, and in thinking it over, I know why. For some reason, they brought to mind both "Godzilla" and "Barbarella," the former of which is a tad disturbing (though amusing) and the latter of which I find outright distressing. And then I found my mind drifting to the movie "Gorillas in the Mist," and the unfortunate fate of the brilliant, eccentric and ultimately misguided Dian Fossey. And then I thought about Ann ruminating in one of her podcasts about the guy obsessed with bears, who thought he had truly transcended the species gap and ended up eaten (along with his girlfriend) for his trouble. And then ...

Lord, I need to lay off the espresso ...

Icepick said...

Reader_Iam, I'm glad you got the Liddy reference! Obscure cultural references tend to fly right by people who didn't live the same life.

And really, you need to keep drinking the espresso, at least until the Kool-Aid is ready.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

So now Jonah gets nothing? The guy who made "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" a common phrase? C'mon, Professor Althouse.

If you go back to "Althouse is cool. --Jonah Goldberg", it will add an artistic symmetry to the masthead. And it makes the number of quotes an odd number which looks better on mastheads and flowers petals.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

D'oh! I meant "flower petals" and not "flowers petals". Profuse apologies.

vbspurs said...

Okay, I'm trying it with Icepick's quote for a while.

Good on you, Ann, good on you.

It takes a special blogger, not to say a special woman to do what you did.

If say, Glenn does it one day, we can say putting a reader's comment on your masthead is Althousesque.

P.S.: Ruth Anne, I know what you're saying, but what Ann did speaks volumes about her 'just folks' nature. Methinks, she can revert to honouring Jonah later.

Cheers,
Victoria

vbspurs said...

(because it also brings to mind "barista," as in Starbucks jockey).

Heh! I was just about to post that upon reading it, too, reader_Iam.

I have a barista. Anyone want a squirt?

Cheers,
Victoria

TBMD said...

Ok, I'll confess - I don't have the readership numbers to warrant being taken seriously on this topic, but why not a contest? Seems like that's the dark undercurrent of Jonah's recent post - and possibly a source of your discomfort on the topic.

If everybody starts pimping their post titles to make your title bar, would that be a good thing?

At the end of the day, I had to manufacture my own blurbs, so perhaps this is envy speaking...

Icepick said...

Okay, thanks Ann. I thought you had taken it down earlier, as it didn't show up once, but now it's back. I've saved a page view for posterity's sake!

Reader_Iam, Victoria, my wife has told me that the term 'blogista' is off limits. It's too close to the term 'Buffista', which is a term used by one group of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans/cult-members. I don't want to tick those guys off, because my wife is one of them. She could kill me in my sleep!

reader_iam said...

Icepick: Oh, with due respect to your wife (she married you, after all--and I'm being sincere, based on what I've read of your comments over the months), but "buff" and "blog" just don't overlap with me, not linguistically, aesthetically, aurally, or in meaning. Way different, methinks. (It goes without saying that reasonable people can disagree, I hope.) The "ista" part, that which we've been debating, is just the suffix, though not without import or implication, as I've previously indicated.

Icepick's wife: Rock on! I'm not myself Buffy-passionate, but a few of my very favorite people in the world are. And very grateful for them, am I.

Icepick said...

Reader_Iam, I agree with you regarding the Buff v Blog thing. I was a little taken aback by my wife's reaction, in fact.

Icepick said...

Reader_Iam, I have forgotten my manners. Thank you for the kind words regarding my wife. I don't know what she was thinking when she married me, but it's worked out pretty well.

And as for reasonable people being able to disagree, I have to quote one of my wife's favorite lines: "People?! I ... ain't ... people!" No one who has played as much chess and studied as much math as I have can be considered reasonable!

vbspurs said...

What happened, Ann? Got cold feet?

I see that the masthead is reduced minimalistically to two fabu quotes about yourself.

But since you only Republished Index, and not the whole blog, each individual post's page shows the original four, including Icepick's quote.

I'm guessing it was a compromise.

Cheers,
Victoria

Ann Althouse said...

Victoria: It just rubbed me the wrong way for a couple reasons, one of which is that it gave to much prominence to Cho! And I can't control the post pages. They seem to just preserve what was there at the time of the original post. Look at my really old pages.