Althouse: At the Under-the-Bridge Café...

January 26, 2013

At the Under-the-Bridge Café...

... you can skate on through.

37 comments:

Astro said...: Looking for trolls?; 1/26/13, 9:04 PM
Sydney said...: I made marshmallows today. They look like little blocks of snow.; 1/26/13, 9:12 PM
MartyH said...: What difference does it make? It's all water under the ice under the bridge...; 1/26/13, 9:13 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: An interesting discussion today, Althouse.

Our economic and political interests are diametrically opposed. No doubt on my part about this.

The system built since the 60s on the "discrimination" model kisses your ass and kicks mine. It gives you stuff and takes stuff away from me.

The "stupid" bit you did today seems to me to just be a bit of taunting on your part. Yeah, I know the system kisses your ass, Althouse. There isn't any way for me to play that system. I'm the punitive target.

Pretty easy for you to be above it all and "sensible." You get the goodies and you have political representation. I'm a complete outsider that no politician wants to represent. I accepted this long ago and devised a Lone Ranger strategy that works for me.

That's just the way it is. I like you, Althouse and I enjoy your blog, but on the most basic level we are bitter enemies.; 1/26/13, 9:26 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I will be traveling to Germany for business next month ( south-east Bavaria, closer to Salzburg than Munich). I will be there for 2 weeks, and will have the weekend free.

I don't want to do the typical American Five-Countries-In-Two-Days-Stop-And-Take-Pictures-Of-All-The-Castles-And-Cathedrals thing.

Any suggestions on what I should do/see/eat/drink?; 1/26/13, 9:40 PM
Dante said...: Regarding the smoking thing, I realize the good thing about smokers. They die younger. In this treasury report, they identify only medical costs to the government, but significantly leave out Social Security savings.

The Treasury report indicates the US and government as a whole pays $60B in smoking costs per year, but when the decrease in medical expenses is taken into account, there is a $15B payback, to the Treasury reporting the cost is $45B per year.

Yet, smokers die from 10 to 13 year earlier than do non-smokers, on average, leading to $64B savings per year to Social Security. Now, I want to know, since Smokers are paying all these extra taxes for smoking, do they get Social Security refunds for having the courtesy to not sap as much of it?

Or perhaps Social Security should pay a finders fee to the tobacco companies for each person they get hooked on the evil tobacco weed.; 1/26/13, 9:43 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/26/13, 9:43 PM
chickelit said...: Entspannende; 1/26/13, 9:43 PM
edutcher said...: Looks pretty there, but be careful, it's supposed to warm up the next couple of days.

PS Shout, Ann isn't the enemy. Granted, she's been sheltered for a long time and believes a lot of theory that used to be true (back when there were rules), but isn't anymore.

When she gets away from the university, she's going to have some big revelations in store.; 1/26/13, 9:47 PM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/26/13, 9:48 PM
Richard Dolan said...: ST, one of God's greatest gifts is the morning, when things always look better in the gathering light. At night, when ranting morphs into self-pity, it's time to give it a rest.

Another thought: I've been reading your comments for a while now, months really, and I've been wondering how you would bring the various strands together. Musician, Catholic, NYer, man of a certain 60ish age, seen a lot, worked for everything you've got, fairly conservative. Not a fan of Nanny Bloomberg or Captain Zero, no patience with Big Brother running everyone's life.

Works for me, too. But rejecting Big Brother makes us all each other's brother -- it's the part of conservatism (Catholicism too) that comes with embracing civil society rather than an all-powerful state. Big Brother-ism is the lazy, indeed cowardly, way of facing life's problems, the let-someone-else-do-it approach. So how do you work out what being each other's brother means, what it demands, as you go about daily life?

In your more thoughtful moments, you touch on that idea. Just not so much today.

Good night, pleasant dreams. Morning will be here soon enough.; 1/26/13, 9:53 PM
chickelit said...: Any suggestions on what I should do/see/eat/drink?

Eat/drink: SchniPo und Bier.

Science Museum in Munich; 1/26/13, 9:55 PM
Dante said...: ST, I read through some of the posts you wrote on regarding illegal immigration. What a lot of folks don't recognize is the concerted, bi-partisan nature at the federal level encouraging illegals.

It makes no sense to me. Sure, it's great for the ownership class, it's great for Democrat voters, but for our society? A) it won't be the same society, and B) it's going to topple the welfare state.; 1/26/13, 9:57 PM
chickelit said...: @Ignorance is Bliss: If you're Republican, you'll probably want to check out Berchtesgaden; if you're a lefty Dem, you want to see Dachau. :); 1/26/13, 9:59 PM
chickelit said...: @Ignorance: The science museum I mentioned above: link; 1/26/13, 10:04 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I know I'm just jacking around when I open reddit, and I usually click past this sort of thing, but a European guy traveled the US and wrote his impressions. Provided proof of himself (wearing the same pants, nobody mentioned that and it was my first thought. Hope he threw them away or enshrined them, but now I've gone and digressed)

In the form of q/a you can easily skip all the reddit responses and not miss a thing, but his answers to eye-rolling questions is charming. It is interesting, if that sounds so to you, best skip through and read only erin; 1/26/13, 10:07 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: SKRIN, sorry, that came out wrong. I'm a dunce.; 1/26/13, 10:08 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Still iced n. when is spring going to get here. Winter blues cabin fever. Blehhhhhhhhh; 1/26/13, 10:14 PM
Unknown said...: IiB
When my daughter went to Germany the best time she had was with a cousin who lives there. If you have friends or family who live there you get to see things you might not otherwise. It was also a wonderful break from a new place everyday. Germany was her favorite place mostly because she got to see it from a more relaxed perspective while the rest of her group raced from one place to another for those days.
Maybe you can find someone who lives there to spend time with.; 1/26/13, 10:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: It's a very dull post. There's not a good reason for making it. The page shows a baby lemon tree plant burst through the soil. That's all. And yet, I notice the page is visited every day, I see sometimes they linger and I never fail to slip into song. The Lemon Tree Song except my version is a little different because apparently my lemon tree experience was different from the writer of that song.

Lemon tree very pretty
and the lemon
flower ...
I don't know about.
'cause the lemon tree so pretty
isn't old enough
for that.
And your thorns hardly scratch me
'cause those thorns
aren't so woody
but they will be
not so many
but still watch out
Lemon tree very pretty and your lemon leaves are split.
they look sor-or-or-or-ort of like they are trying
to be two leaves
But but they're not.
Lemon tree you're unstable
You grow bendy
Like a whip.
When will you ever start branching?
that I wonder
So I go "snip"

My dummkopf older brother told me to stop using the phrase "that's all" it denotes something stupid and lazy or something. Hang on.

This is what he says,

One suggestion. The web site says "That's all", several times. It promotes boring, not simplicity and efficiency. Spice it up a bit: the description, that is. (pun intended)

Why? The site is nothing. Quit bossing me around. Nobody asked him anything. See? That's why I don't listen anymore.; 1/26/13, 10:39 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: OK, it's Saturday night.

Time for funny stuff, like this Honest Movies trailer for Lord of the Rings.

I'm watching SNL and hoping that they take on Hillary "What's the Difference" Clinton. Is tonight a new SNL or a rerun?; 1/26/13, 10:57 PM
AHL said...: Montreal was out of the negative fahrenheit numbers today. It almost felt tropical at 10 degrees. I was able to bike again and it felt amazing.

Shouting Thomas: I like your voice a lot! Great songs!; 1/26/13, 11:14 PM
PianoLessons said...: Great photo Ann - we were skating at Tenney Park today. I wished I brought a camera - so glad you did :-); 1/27/13, 12:37 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm watching SNL and hoping that they take on Hillary "What's the Difference" Clinton.

I was going to say you will go blind waiting... but then I realise, that could also mean SNL went through with it, in a sharp wild brace that came suddenly into the air.

But fear not... word of it would have reached the Clintons... causing it to be pulled... and the real show, our show, could begin.; 1/27/13, 1:17 AM
SCOTTtheBADGER said...: The photo makes me think of the late '60's TV movie Hans Brinker, at the point where the lads are skating to Amsterdam, and they get their first look at the skyline through the arch of a bridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfuGS7YPSww

Starting at about the 4:30 mark.; 1/27/13, 2:04 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I was half sleep because it annoyed me that I tunes was repeating the same song over and over... until I realised what was happening... the weekly backup was trying to start and somehow iTunes was preventing it... so it started a loop.

But that's a good thing sometimes... to be in the loop, I'm in the loop, shes out of the loop... but I too digress.

The song that kept playing over and over was Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam... yellow jam and iTunes caught in a Fitzgerald loop.; 1/27/13, 2:22 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Omg vinepeek.com is awesome. 6 second uploads of random crap continuously streaming. I just saw a little kid try solo Twister and crash into his face. And young citizens of Japan are strange.; 1/27/13, 2:23 AM
Penny said...: Where I came from, skating on thin ice was "preparatory".

The reward? Cocoa!; 1/27/13, 5:21 AM
Bob_R said...: Chip - I thought the Reditt post was great. It was a good suggestion to just go through and read his responses. Unfortunately, I think his friends are going to be disappointed when they visit the US. Few people are as generous, positive, and fun-loving as this guy. He'd probably have fun if you plopped him down with a den of pirates, thieves, and cutthroats - at least until they killed him.; 1/27/13, 5:24 AM
Bob_R said...: Another story on a pro-US attitude from a European - I was drinking with a native Italian who had a job at Texas A&M. He said, "I have to return to Italy regularly to eat, but I love living in a country where you can go out at midnight and find a store that will sell you a quart of ice cream, a pint of whiskey, and a shot gun." (Some Europeans understand the second amendment.); 1/27/13, 5:28 AM
Michael K said...: "I don't want to do the typical American Five-Countries-In-Two-Days-Stop-And-Take-Pictures-Of-All-The-Castles-And-Cathedrals thing.

Any suggestions on what I should do/see/eat/drink?"

It's a little early in the season to go outside the city. I like the little bar in Old Salzburg where Faust met the devil.; 1/27/13, 6:29 AM
traditionalguy said...: We thought about you guys while driving home last night from the granddaughter's birthday party. We had NPR on and the Prairie Home Companion announced that it was being broadcast "live from the Overture Center in Madison Wisconsin."

Keillor just loves Madison because to him it's a socialist heaven where the children grow up learning to pronounce and spell Isthmus. He also kept up an insider joke about how passionate Wisconsin sports fans are compared to Minnesota sports fans who could care less who wins. Another insider joke was about how hard it is to find a Catholic in Wisconsin. Is that right?; 1/27/13, 6:38 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/27/13, 6:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Snow globe.; 1/27/13, 7:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Blogger Chip Ahoy said...

"I know I'm just jacking around when I open reddit, and I usually click past this sort of thing, but a European guy traveled the US and wrote his impressions. Provided proof of himself (wearing the same pants, nobody mentioned that and it was my first though...."
__________________________________

Thanks for the link. A fascinating little read.; 1/27/13, 8:21 AM
Aridog said...: Dante said...

... it's going to topple the welfare state.

Sounds like the Cloward-Piven strategy implemented to me. A nice communist state will take its place, no worries.; 1/27/13, 8:33 AM
kentuckyliz said...: There's lots of Catholics in WI.; 1/27/13, 11:30 AM