Althouse: At the Stairway Café...

February 20, 2012

At the Stairway Café...

... come in here for a landing.

53 comments:

David said...: Before you land, check to be sure you put on underpants if you are wearing a skirt.; 2/20/12, 8:52 PM
Charlie said...: How come we never got to see Warren Buffet's secretary's tax bill? And does he really pay her only $60k? How come no one has followed up on this?; 2/20/12, 8:53 PM
edutcher said...: Also make sure wheels are down and locked or it's gonna be a bumpy night.; 2/20/12, 9:04 PM
Meade said...: Someone else mentioned this somewhere yesterday but it's worth repeating: on the new (and hateful) word verification, you only have to type in the letters of the more difficult word - the wavy one with black on white and white on black. The other blurry (and sometimes Greek) word can be ignored.

Thanks for your patience. None of this is our doing (including the phrase about proving your non-robotity) and I encourage you send your hate email to Blogger/Google. Who know? - they might even read it.; 2/20/12, 9:13 PM
Irene said...: Thanks, Meade!; 2/20/12, 9:24 PM
Anonymous said...: I am still sad about the almost victory that is now denied by Santorum and Newt.

Why cannot the voters visualize:

- Santorum (a 1912 man who has primitive views on women/minorities and who home schools his kids because he is afraid of evolution) debating the cool, calculated, billion dollar Obama.

- Newt (a fat man who has married three times and who opposes others to marry who depends on a Las Vegas gambler for his PAC money) debating the cool, calculated, billion dollar Obama.

I mean, GOP, are you really so dense?

Why don't you like to win the election?

I give up. I wish there was another GOP party (such as GOP +) that I could join.

I am so sad. Help me, Jesus.; 2/20/12, 9:28 PM
Phil 314 said...: Escher-like; 2/20/12, 9:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Why cannot the GOP stars today (Paul Ryan from MN, Rob Portman from OH and Christie from NJ) simply tell Newt and Rick to buzz off. You cannot win and you will drag the party down by your backward views (Santorum) and multiple affairs/ethics (Newt).

Why cannot the GOP leaders say that these two men will destroy the other candidates running across the country.

GOP will lose not only the White House, but also the House and lose more seats in Senate.

Why cannot someone from GOP really dress down Rick and Newt?

There is no time left. We need to do something. NOW.; 2/20/12, 9:42 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: America's Politico said...

Newt (a fat man who has married three times...)

You have to start using different criteria. Remember, by that standard Bill Clinton has been married just once.; 2/20/12, 9:45 PM
Carnifex said...: AP you're getting tiresome. Running out of talking points and reduced to ad hominim? I noticed none of you defended Moochies extravagant vacations after I posted the number, where, and the costs.

I had appreciated you wit before, but really, I think you are either off your game or ill.; 2/20/12, 9:49 PM
edutcher said...: Meade, maybe it's just as well.

After all, it's been 4 or 5 days and we've actually had some intelligent conversations here. If doing the anniversary waltz with the new WV is the price of keeping the thread hijackers away, I can only speak for myself, but life here seems a lot more, well, civilized.

Y(and spouse's)MMV.; 2/20/12, 9:51 PM
William said...: It is an article of faith among greens that nuclear power is inherenty too dangerous to be used safely. Well, to give them some credit, a huge portion of Japan almost became uninhabitable in the aftermath of the tsunami. But my problem is this: if nuclear power is so inherently dangerous, what about nuclear bombs? The left feels that since containment worked with the Soviets, it should also work with Iran. Maybe, maybe not. Still, I have the sense that Iranian mullahs, Pakistani generals, and North Korean boy dictators are more volatile than the plant at Three Mile Island. Why do nuclear plants inspire such suspicion and third world nuclear bombs inspire such sanguinity among the left?; 2/20/12, 10:12 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: None of this is our doing (including the phrase about proving your non-robotity)..

I kind of figure that.

garage has never been asked to prove anything by the professor before ;)

wv dednoth : Please prove you're not a robot; 2/20/12, 10:20 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: That's a very good question William.; 2/20/12, 10:25 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Intellectual consistency is judge mental.. in this case.

kudos for the use of the word sanguinity.; 2/20/12, 10:35 PM
Ralph L said...: I can't see a suspended walkway without thinking of that one that collapsed years ago, and then I saw this:

come in here for a landing; 2/20/12, 10:44 PM
Penny said...: "Going DOWN"; 2/20/12, 10:46 PM
Penny said...: "Lobby!"; 2/20/12, 10:47 PM
KCFleming said...: Since the non-wavy text is not part of WV and is a scanned word image that was found unreadable by OCR, I wonder if Google is using our free labor to have the OCR machines learn what we see when those images come up.

That's why I've been entering variations of f**kyougoogle.; 2/20/12, 11:15 PM
KCFleming said...: Darrel's got me all freaked out that I'm gonna go to jail because I saw Henry Darger's work at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and then looked up his images on the internet.; 2/20/12, 11:18 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Manny is baaaaaack.

They are paying him nothing.. $500,000.00 nothing.; 2/20/12, 11:35 PM
Saint Croix said...: You know why I like Althouse? She's a troublemaker.

The other thing that's cool about Althouse? She's here every fucking day. I say fuck in tribute to Althouse. No days off. Christmas? She's here. Dog died? She's here. She's in a coma? She's here. In rain, in sunshine, in snow. No vacay for Althouse. She never gets bored. She's the Iron Lady of blogging.

I get bored, I go away, I come back. She's here! She's always here!

Cal Ripken is a punk compared to Ann Althouse. Cal Ripken takes winters off. Lazy ass!

Coal miners are going to be singing songs about you, Ann Althouse. About how you never, ever quit.; 2/20/12, 11:47 PM
Saint Croix said...: Darrel's got me all freaked out that I'm gonna go to jail because I saw Henry Darger's work at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and then looked up his images on the internet.

Seeing as how Darger only draws naked girls and he doesn't know what a naked girl looks like, I think you're safe.

That movie about him was sad, did you see that? That's a guy who should have had a dog.; 2/20/12, 11:50 PM
Carnifex said...: If Obama and his cohort are so intent on shredding the Constitution, by what right do they claim to lead us?

By what right do they expect protection from us if they do not respect our protection from them?

Is it hubris? Is it a belief? A belief in their own superiority? Why should I respect any mans rights that won't respect my rights? Because I'm a better man? That's naive, and dangerous. God didn't make men equal, Samuel Colt did.

Why don't the men who are sworn to follow and protect the Constitution , do so? And when he doesn't, why don't the Congress and Judiciary call him to account? Is it because they feel the same way? Are we truly a nation of criminals? Should we, as citizens, allow this degradation of our rights? At what point do we take arms up again? How much do we take before we say "ENOUGH!"?

And when we do say enough, will any body care? Will anybody be left?

The NDSS may allow the president to jail Americans indefinitely, without charges, just on his say so. He promises not to do it, and his defenders say that he can't do it. So why would he have to assure us he won't? Its happened before. Ask the Japanese Americans from WWII. Americans have been shot by federal authorities without provocation.

The Senate just passed an amendment to a spending bill, 99-0 with one abstebtion. The amendment outlaws the federal government from selling weapons to criminals, unless every effort is used to keep track of the weapon. The president wants this amendment removed. "Not needed" he says. I say his actions speak louder than words. I also say a lot of people are ready to answer his actions with reactions. I pray our country can survive it.; 2/20/12, 11:57 PM
KCFleming said...: Haven't yet seen the film.

Sad story it is.

Hermaphrodite battle tots with butterfly wings?; 2/21/12, 12:01 AM
Palladian said...: Sunday dinner this week: Pâté Pantin aux épinards, forestière.; 2/21/12, 12:13 AM
Saint Croix said...: Realms of the Unreal. Here's what I wrote in my book:

"Interesting doc about this insane artist who wants to save all the naked girls. And he’s never had sex with anybody, so he doesn’t know what naked girls look like. And he just keeps writing and writing and writing and drawing and drawing and drawing and writing and writing and writing. And the Catholic church wouldn’t let him adopt any children. Which is probably a good idea. All those battles he was having to save the naked children. Oh my God. And yet he doesn’t actually know what naked children look like. So he’s an innocent guy, but kinda unhinged, too. You feel sorry for him; he’s so isolated. But he’s so unbalanced you know in real life you wouldn’t want to hang out with him. He’s a guy who really should have had a dog."

nine attempts on the wv and then I realized I actually had a "tag is not closed."; 2/21/12, 12:19 AM
Penny said...: "Come in for a landing".

You must be the unhappy, overworked, unionized, air traffic controller?

Pleased to meet you!; 2/21/12, 1:25 AM
Alex said...: Lot's of glass, I'd assume it's Apple inspired.; 2/21/12, 1:36 AM
Penny said...: Or maybe Gorilla glass?

Corning's vaulted "failure".; 2/21/12, 2:12 AM
Penny said...: Here's what I see.

Escher... blinking.

Right before he worked his mathematical genius, and well before Steely Dan told him to smile for the cameras.; 2/21/12, 2:38 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: I just saw this.

Oyako means mother and child, hence, chicken and egg.

Ha ha ha the hence part kills me.; 2/21/12, 3:28 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Oh Penny, your Escher comment just now reminded me. My interest was captured by bird who was blowing my mind all over the place. On channel 200 something. She was supporting government involvement in something most would regard as nongovernmental. She was artistic and she dressed artistically, her discussion was convoluted and her hair was frizzy. Everything about her matched up, her face, her hair, her clothes, her discussion, all matching in artistic confusion. The elements seemed carefully chosen, but most remarkably, the best match up of all, the overarching visual reality that embraced the subject was an oversized poster of the Escher stairway. Chosen by her.; 2/21/12, 3:38 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: The word grace is very elegant

so use that movement for the word elegant instead of for the word grace.

The word elegant is very fancy

so use that movement for the word fancy instead of for the word elegant

The word fancy is also very fancy so use that same fancy movement for fancy.

Pro tip: Avoid using the word fancy. There is no situation where making that movement can be good.

But what to do for the word grace, since grace is elegant? Clean, or excuse, forgive, is the concept of grace and they all look alike because you're cleaning the slate and that's a very graceful thing to do.

Or.

You can step out like a model and show a snippet of gracefully movement, if that's possible. You see how elegant the word grace is, you don't have to actually lift your arm up to depict grace in movement if that's the type of grace you mean.; 2/21/12, 4:10 AM
Penny said...: Chip?

My cup runneth over.; 2/21/12, 5:13 AM
Penny said...: Not that you're the maid.

Still, what to do with the detritus?; 2/21/12, 5:18 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: A stairway designed by someone who's never had to move furniture.; 2/21/12, 6:07 AM
Toad Trend said...: Don't make the mistake of buying the king size bed without getting the double box spring.; 2/21/12, 6:47 AM
Robert Cook said...: Saint Croix,

I don't think there is any suggestion at all that Darger was insane. He was withdrawn and had few or no friends and apparently no family. To compensate, he lived in a vivid dream world of his own making, and which he put down on paper when he was not working as (I believe) a janitor. His impressive industry served to make his dream world more real to him, but was also probably simply a way to pass the time, there being few of the diversions during his time that we have available today to help us forget our lives have no meaning and we're going to die.; 2/21/12, 7:05 AM
KCFleming said...: "to help us forget our lives have no meaning and we're going to die"

This encapsulates why leftism became a religion, attempting to create a heaven on earth.; 2/21/12, 7:31 AM
Jose_K said...: Racism:

http://www.thetennisspace.com/top-10/exclusive-the-worst-offenders-in-womens-tennis/
Durocher strikes again; 2/21/12, 7:34 AM
Jose_K said...: the robot socialist mormon rich debating the calculated Obama; 2/21/12, 7:36 AM
Saint Croix said...: hey Robert, yeah, that was sloppy. I throw around the "insane" word a lot when describing artists. I'm an artist, so I don't mean it as a term of opprobrium. A lot of great art is made by people who are in the grip of something bigger than they are. It's a type of madness but it's not insanity in the legal sense of the word.

A lot of art is sublimated sexuality, I think. You're not creating kids. So you're creating art.

What makes Darger's art creepy (to me) is that it's so sexualized, and it involves children. And yet he doesn't know anything. So he's innocent.

I don't think he was "passing the time." I think he was in the grip of an obsession. He wanted to save the children from all the ugly sex impulses in the world. Or something. I don't know. It's freaky. And he was so isolated, he didn't get any feedback from anybody.

Maybe that's the key to getting your art in a museum. No feedback! No knowledge! Pure innocence of the isolated ignorant! Mixed in with weird sex impulses.

Also, I've heard being dead helps. I don't know, he's having more success than I am.; 2/21/12, 7:50 AM
Hagar said...: Art like this cries out for a good bombing strike.; 2/21/12, 8:08 AM
KCFleming said...: Awesome posts, St. Croix.; 2/21/12, 8:29 AM
Saint Croix said...: hey Jose,

Was Venus as rude as her sister?

I went to wikipedia and found out that Venus Williams single-handedly pushed Wimbledon to pay the women as much as the men.

She published this in the London Times in 2006:

I feel so strongly that Wimbledon's stance devalues the principle of meritocracy and diminishes the years of hard work that women on the tour have put into becoming professional tennis players.

I believe that athletes – especially female athletes in the world's leading sport for women – should serve as role models. The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling. My fear is that Wimbledon is loudly and clearly sending the opposite message....

Wimbledon has argued that women's tennis is worth less for a variety of reasons; it says, for example, that because men play a best of five sets game they work harder for their prize money.

This argument just doesn’t make sense; first of all, women players would be happy to play five sets matches in grand slam tournaments....

Secondly, tennis is unique in the world of professional sports. No other sport has men and women competing for a grand slam championship on the same stage, at the same time. So in the eyes of the general public the men's and women's games have the same value.

Third, ... we enjoy huge and equal celebrity and are paid for the value we deliver to broadcasters and spectators, not the amount of time we spend on the stage. And, for the record, the ladies’ final at Wimbledon in 2005 lasted 45 minutes longer than the men's....

In response, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of Parliament publicly endorsed Williams's arguments.

Under enormous pressure, Wimbledon announced in February 2007 that it would award equal prize money to all competitors in all rounds, and the French Open followed suit a day later.

Hooray for the rude!; 2/21/12, 8:32 AM
Saint Croix said...: hey thanks, Pogo. I got the day off again today.

Actually I find out today if we will have more work, or if I'm back to looking for another job.; 2/21/12, 8:41 AM
Crimso said...: Don't want to brag, but got another Insty mention today! I feel like Navin R. Johnson when the new phone books came out! I'm somebody now!; 2/21/12, 10:05 AM
Rusty said...: William.
The technology for the nuclear reactors both here and in japan is over 40 years old. There are newer and much safer designs. CANDU,pebble bed and thorium reactors are all much safer than the older designs.
I personally like thorium because there is no chance of a runaway reactor and associated radioactive waste.; 2/21/12, 10:31 AM
Saint Croix said...: According to Gallup, unemployment is 9%.

And 10% of Americans looking for work can only find part-time work.

19%. Ugh.; 2/21/12, 12:18 PM
Saint Croix said...: Here's the actual Gallup report, that previous link is to commentary.; 2/21/12, 12:23 PM
Toad Trend said...: Here is yet another measure of the unemployment rate for anyone that cares to entertain it.; 2/21/12, 1:43 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: My favorite part about your Pantin Simone Beck are the dots and the holes. Those are very thoughtful dots and holes.; 2/21/12, 4:22 PM

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