Althouse: At the Winter Rye Inn...

October 21, 2009

At the Winter Rye Inn...

... you may reveal one more day of growth.

56 comments:

kentuckyliz said...: My growth today was in the form of learning. I went to some really good pre-conference workshops.

It's good to see my colleagues...but it strikes fear in my heart to see how few people are here this year. I hate the recession. I'm ready for Obama's utopia, anytime he wants to roll it out. Let's immanentize the eschaton.; 10/21/09, 11:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Ooh, there was a bat in the house tonight. For the first time since I got the house bat-proofed over 10 years ago.

I screamed and hid under a blanket, and Meade stunned it, got it into a plastic container, and dispatched it into the freezer.

I love marriage.; 10/21/09, 11:42 PM
JAL said...: Big bugs and bats.

It surprises me what a wimp you can be Professor.

You take on Sullivan, and hide under a blanket over a bat who took a wrong turn.

And Meade. What to say of Meade? Someone should call PETA!

Actually, when we had a bat in the house one time (long ago and literally far away) we used our batminton (sic) rackets to smack it down. I think we threw it out the door (pre rabid bat fears) but maybe not. My Meade might have done it in.

Quickly, not coldly.

wv fersteds
what kindergarteners call; 10/21/09, 11:49 PM
Peter Hoh said...: What sort of humor would you like served with your rye?; 10/22/09, 12:00 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I dealt with the bats myself when I had to. I'm just saying that it's nice to be able to be the one who screams and hides under a blanket.; 10/22/09, 12:09 AM
Dustin said...: Bats in the house?

Good grief, that sounds filthy.

In the freezer would not be acceptable to me. I'm probably just a sissy in this way.

I did not grow today. Too busy dealing with everyone else's problems. Wah wah wah, but everyone is dying or falling apart these days.; 10/22/09, 12:25 AM
chickelit said...: Why to the freezer?

Reminds me of Mengelian experiments I used to do as a child: I would take live ants and put them in the freezer until their motion froze; then I would thaw them and watch them come back to life. Sometimes, if I waited too long, they wouldn't revive (presumably because their cells lysed irreversibly. My experiments ended when my mother complained about finding dead ants in her freezer.; 10/22/09, 12:41 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: I have a friend who is 6'5", possibly 6'4" on a short day, who is rough as hell. He thinks that in the comics when a woman jumps on a chair to evade a mouse and the mouse is drawn running around the room with the letters across the panel,

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

That's the sound the mouse is making not the woman on the chair. Is that stupid or what?; 10/22/09, 12:43 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: But speaking of ants: Ants on a log.; 10/22/09, 12:48 AM
chickelit said...: Aw come on Chip-those Chia pets just ate their legs off!

trompe l'oeil my foot!; 10/22/09, 1:02 AM
blake said...: I figured most here were on the decay side.; 10/22/09, 3:03 AM
Unknown said...: JAL said...

Big bugs and bats.

It surprises me what a wimp you can be Professor.

No, she's a girl. Girls do stuff like that. (I can't believe you call yourself a pussy for that).

WV "reigotip" What you must do when your igo's tip falls off.

You can't make these up.; 10/22/09, 6:45 AM
Howard said...: I like bats, voracious bug-eaters that they are.

My method, discovered by accident years ago, is to put the tennis racket up where they run into it on one of their circuits around the room. Sooner or later, they will roost on the racket, whereupon I carry them to the front door and give them a flip out into the night.; 10/22/09, 6:47 AM
bearbee said...: @ Howard, excellent technique!; 10/22/09, 7:00 AM
KCFleming said...: We had a couple from Japan over for dinner one night, and I ran upstairs to get something, when I saw a bat clinging to the wall.

Crap. So I went and grabbed a massive textbook and swung like mighty Casey ---BOOM--, down it went. But it began to skitter, so BOOM I struck it again, and a third time for good measure.

I came back downstairs and the couple stared wide-eyed. The wife smiled and said, You kill something?

Ever the host.; 10/22/09, 7:03 AM
Bissage said...: The issue was whether it’s better to put a bat in the freezer or in the microwave. My research led me to this fascinating tidbit: the “Bat Bomb.”

That, in turn, led me to ponder bat sex.

But soon, I ran out of time, so I had to run on home.; 10/22/09, 7:08 AM
KCFleming said...: "...it's nice to be able to be the one who screams and hides under a blanket"

That's one of the sweetest things I have read in quite awhile.; 10/22/09, 7:19 AM
bearing said...: That's one of the sweetest things I have read in quite awhile.

Agreed.; 10/22/09, 7:38 AM
Largo said...: My research led me to this fascinating tidbit: the “Bat Bomb.”

Fascinating indeed. Thanks, Bissage!; 10/22/09, 7:57 AM
TMink said...: We had a squirrel in the house the other day. So I can add "squirrel catcher" to my resume. I was present when a bat was dispatched, but I did not deliver the final blow, so Meade's accomplishment escapes me.

Trey; 10/22/09, 8:33 AM
rhhardin said...: Batless sunrise.; 10/22/09, 8:44 AM
rhhardin said...: A mouse flitted by a few months ago, so I put out a Havahart trap and peanut butter.

It caught a mouse a day for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly no more mice.

They were converted into field mice, where they live mostly on telephone wire insulation in the field mouse houses that the phone company puts up.; 10/22/09, 8:59 AM
TMink said...: Also, I cannot think of rye without thinking of ergot poisoning.

Trey; 10/22/09, 8:59 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Do you put them in the freezer so you can enjoy your bats later?

How do you serve them? Do you split the duties with Meade dispatching and cleaning the bats and you cooking them up?; 10/22/09, 8:59 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/09, 9:01 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/09, 9:02 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/09, 9:02 AM
KCFleming said...: When I was 17, it was a very good year. For bats anyway. One night I had to kill three.

My mom screamed and screamed, convinced they were aiming straight for her hair, to nest and lay eggs. We had 4 tennis rackets in the house, even though no one played tennis.

And yes, Clarice, the moms have stopped screaming.; 10/22/09, 9:02 AM
KCFleming said...: Oopsy.

Above: why I am not a surgeon.; 10/22/09, 9:03 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: Three men of the cloth were discussing problems with bats in their respective houses of worship.

The priest says, "We made a novena and all the faithful lit candles, but the bats came back."

The minister says, "We had a revival meeting and lifted up our concerns to the Lord, but the bats came back."

The rabbi says, "I gave them all the bats Bar Mitzvah and I never saw them in the synagogue again."; 10/22/09, 9:04 AM
KCFleming said...: Wouldn't some get a Bat Mitzvah?

ba dum bum; 10/22/09, 9:09 AM
ricpic said...: The photograph brings Dylan Thomas's great line to mind:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower...; 10/22/09, 9:10 AM
ricpic said...: I used to have an outdoor lap pool, back when I was flush, and the bats would flit back and forth from one end to the other catching the bugs that hovered over the pool. Real cool at dusk.; 10/22/09, 9:18 AM
David said...: The bat thing is just a way that women make us men feel manly. We had one in our cottage in Wisconsin this summer. Wife cowered in the bedroom. Dog went bark-bark-bark-bark. I tried to capture it or move it out the door. Unfortunately I killed the poor thing in my attempt. I felt terrible. How manly is that?; 10/22/09, 9:20 AM
ricpic said...: Hlaty's joke is true: 90% of Jews never come back to synagogue after Bar Mitzvah...or Bat Mitzvah (that's really what it's called, Bar Mitzvah for girls).; 10/22/09, 9:31 AM
Triangle Man said...: I screamed and hid under a blanket

Althouse rang forth with a mighty battle cry while making a strategic retreat, enabling Meade to make a flanking maneuver.; 10/22/09, 9:37 AM
Triangle Man said...: My mom screamed and screamed, convinced they were aiming straight for her hair, to nest and lay eggs.

You could have just calmly explained to her that, as mammals, bats give birth to live young. Problem solved.; 10/22/09, 9:39 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I was inspecting an old building by climbing up the fire escape and a bat flew at me during the day. It was like a fifties movie bat on a rubber string. All slow motion and fake looking, but it was real and just dazed by the sunlight. I almost fell off the fire escape.

As for the winter rye, I just made a batch of all grain beer with chestnuts. The grain was nostly lightly toasted 2 row barley malt, with some vienna and crystal malt. Then about 8 lbs of chestnuts toasted and ground up in the food processor. Hops were just bittering galena, no aroma hops. I did cheat on the all grain and add three lbs of honey too. Specific gravity suggests an alcohol level of about 8%, but I suspect it will actually come in around 5.5 and 6%.; 10/22/09, 9:39 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I had a pet iguana that got lost in the house. A few months later my mom screamed when the iguana was found on the sholder of one of her dresses, mummified.

She threw the dress out.; 10/22/09, 9:41 AM
KCFleming said...: "You could have just calmly explained to her that, as mammals, bats give birth to live young. "

Heh.
The limbic system cannot be reasoned with.; 10/22/09, 9:46 AM
Meade said...: chickenlittle said...
"Why to the freezer? "

In a disposable plastic container.

Many zoos use hypothermia to euthanize small mammals.; 10/22/09, 10:11 AM
KCFleming said...: Obamacare should buy some really big freezers.; 10/22/09, 10:23 AM
chickelit said...: That's chilling speech there Pogo.

Thanks Meade. I knew you're always looking out for the little guy.; 10/22/09, 10:29 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: It's good to know that Meade is willing to go to bat for his Althouse.; 10/22/09, 11:04 AM
Unknown said...: Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

It's good to know that Meade is willing to go to bat for his Althouse.

God will get you for that.

WV "frist" Alpha RINO.; 10/22/09, 11:17 AM
Largo said...: Also, I cannot think of rye without thinking of ergot poisoning.

Possibly fun, but probably not. (Erowid); 10/22/09, 11:48 AM
chickelit said...: Also, I cannot think of rye without thinking of ergot poisoning.

Paging Owsley; 10/22/09, 12:49 PM
TMink said...: "The limbic system cannot be reasoned with."

True dat.

Trey; 10/22/09, 1:47 PM
TMink said...: I have a live Hendrix tune where he says "Oh Owlsley, can you hear me now?" just as he starts the solo.

Trey; 10/22/09, 1:48 PM
chickelit said...: @Trey: I've heard that to!
Ever wonder what he's up to now? Link

wv: "Palliph" --the leader of a Palliphate; 10/22/09, 2:15 PM
TMink said...: Interesting, I did not know that the Owl had become the Bear. But then I have never been up to date on the latest Deadhead gossip. I only recently heard that Bob is gay. 8)

Trey; 10/22/09, 3:06 PM
rhhardin said...: Soybeans while ye may.; 10/22/09, 3:16 PM
chickelit said...: @Trey:

Not a deadhead either.

But Owsley is an interesting guy-read his wiki page sometime.; 10/22/09, 3:18 PM
MamaM said...: "Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect, and border, and salute each other. . ." Rilke; 10/22/09, 4:24 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Obamacare should buy some really big freezers."

To Alaska, all you old folks.; 10/22/09, 9:59 PM
BJM said...: @ triangle man

Althouse rang forth with a mighty battle cry while making a strategic retreat, enabling Meade to make a flanking maneuver..

Hmmmm...

*trying to keep mental imagery focused on bat*

Nuck nuck nuck (WV x 3); 10/22/09, 10:36 PM

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