February 3, 2013

At the Cool Edge Café...

Untitled

... everything is clearly defined.

(You can buy that book here. And here are some compact Nikon binoculars.)

ADDED: Some commenters are saying they'd prefer binoculars with image stabilization. Here are Nikon StabilEyes Marine Binoculars. Expensive! Here are some cheaper Canon ones.

67 comments:

Panachronic said...

I purchased that exact Nikon binocular back in 1988. It was a good investment.

ricpic said...

The best and the brightest have been mocking Coolidge for almost a century and he just gets bigger and bigger.

virgil xenophon said...

Keepin' cool, huh, Ann?

campy said...

I do not choose to comment ...

Wince said...

Massachusetts never really seemed to embrace Silent Cal as one of its own who made it to be president.

Maybe because he was a Republican? Maybe because he was from Vermont, but we've got plenty of carpet-baggers like Deval Patrick and Liz Warren in high office right now.

Apropos Althouse's photo of the book at the corner edge of her desk, and perhaps a better name for it, "Coolidge Corner" I now learn is not even named after him.

Coolidge Corner is a neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts, centered around the intersection of Beacon Street and Harvard Street. The neighborhood takes its name from the Coolidge brothers' general store that opened in 1857 at that intersection at the site of today's S.S. Pierce building and that was for many years the only commercial business in north Brookline...

Near Coolidge Corner, at 83 Beals Street, is the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy. It is a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service.


See what I mean!

Fucking Kennedys.

Bob Ellison said...

Don't buy binoculars without image stabilization (IS). IS is like the difference between looking with the naked eye and looking through regular binoculars.

Mumpsimus said...

Advance proofs? I'm impressed.

Patrick said...

Campy said:

I do not choose to comment ...

Everything in this comment is wrong.

edutcher said...

How do you live in such order?

EDH said...

Massachusetts never really seemed to embrace Silent Cal as one of its own who made it to be president.

When a Depression of the 1929 variety hit the country, instead of "fixing" it the way Hoover and FDR tried, Cal just let the markets work.

Over in 6 months.

That's why.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Are the binoculars for bird, or for neighbors?

Althouse as Mrs. Siliverman.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The edition at the bottom, underneath the binoculars, is clearly in a better position.

I agree that horribly misguided books, published for no other reason than to rehabilitate infamous and failed personalities, are put to better use as furniture than as reading material.

You've got to admire Shlaesie's grit with this, though. The next thing we know, Republicans will be telling us that the Great Depression was an under-appreciated exercise in building character. And that they'd like for America to have more like it!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Massachusetts never really seemed to embrace Silent Cal as one of its own who made it to be president.

No one did.

You know the real reason why. But won't acknowledge it. Deny away! Deny at will! Deny til you see the whites of their eyes!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Coolidge. As much a point of pride for Massachusetts as John Adams!

I'm Full of Soup said...

In the 1960's the Phillies had a relief pitcher named Cal McLish whose full name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Ceasar Tuskahoma McLish.

Michael said...

Ritmo will not read the book. He knows all he needs to know about Calvin already. He learned it in his third rate public schools. Reading the book would be a waste of time especially because the author is so less accomplished than Ritmo, so much the lesser intellect. Ritmo will mock the writer and the subject because Ritmo learned that Calvin was bad. He learned this from really smart teachers who chose to teach in third rate schools.

dbp said...

"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business."

I wish every president was just like Mr. Coolidge.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That's a hell of a name!

I'm Full of Soup said...

"Republicans will be telling us that the Great Depression was an under-appreciated exercise in building character"

Well, I for one, would bet that almost any Depression era American had greater character than the average baby boomer or you Ritmo. So I kinda suspect there was some cause and effect there.

Anonymous said...

Calculator but no Robot. I get the message: square root is Enough.

Bryan C said...

Wild Coolidges only come out at sunset. They're particularly difficult to observe as they make no sound whatsoever. Beautiful plumage!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm not sure which team to root for today.

I don't like the youthful exuberance of the 49rs but neither do I like the hoopla surrounding Ray Lewis impending retirement.

The camera will be on him during the game and the announcers will pause thoughtfully and begin to praise... I just have to remember to be near the mute button.

Hagar said...

Well, Ritmo, the present administration certainly is doing it best to at least give us a pale imitation. Not as deep, as of yet anyway, but certainly as long-lasting.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

576 pages to rehabilitate the reputation of a guy famous for not much more than wearing a top hat, saying nothing, and celebrating his ride atop that nuclear bomb of a yet another housing-credit bubble before it crashed?

Sorry, I've got better things to do. And better things to read. Shales is an obvious and rather predictable propagandist. Find something even more outrageously damaging to the Republican reputation to rehabilitate, and maybe I'll be interested. Such as, "The Tender Loving E-Mails of Representative Mark Foley". "The Delicate Concern for Constitutional Republicanism of Richard Nixon".

Yeah, those I'd read.

Bob Ellison said...

Former Senator Evan Bayh on Fox News Sunday this morning, RE: different policy proposals on immigration: "There are some areas where the concentric circles overlap here." He was thinking of a Venn diagram, not concentric circles. He chose a phrase that sounds really intellectual, but comes out stupid.

Look for that phrase to join "lowest common denominator" in modern argument. People use the latter when they really mean "greatest common factor". Much as people say "semi-automatic" when they mean to imply "fully automatic" and "debt" when they mean "deficit" (and vice versa).

Mark Twain said, "Use the right word, not its second cousin." Bayh and other talking heads should try also to deploy analogy more accurately rather than spew crappy pseudo-intellectual catch phrases that sometimes really mean the opposite of what the speaker intends.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well, I for one, would bet that almost any Depression era American had greater character than the average baby boomer or you Ritmo. So I kinda suspect there was some cause and effect there.

The starkest admission yet by a conservative that economic depressions are good!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

So A.J...

Does this mean that I now have you on record as being pro-depression?

How many other conservative Republicans do you speak for?

I'm Full of Soup said...

I just bought the book too. Even at age 60, I try to learn new things unlike Ritmo who has not changed his negative opinion of America and the world in probably 25 years.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'm being too harsh on Coolidge, anyway. I'm sure the book is interesting. And Coolidge certainly deserves more leeway for merely innovating the financial disasters from which subsequent Republicans made the much bigger mistake of refusing to learn.

Family Man Cal! Humble Public Servant!

Much more admirable than Financial Disaster Innovator. Yes, he should be remembered for those other things, too.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well, A.J., be sure to tell me what you end up learning from it.

Probably about as much as I'd learn from an episode of Prairie Home Companion. Good stories, good fun, good and humble times. Where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the kids are, you know, above-average.

Nice and congenial and mildly entertaining, humble stuff. Good for learning and better than that hard-scrabble historical analysis gobbledygook!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh, and I forgot to use the word "folksy" in there. The best way to learn. Folksy-learning.

There are good uses for folksy things. Like when you're a kid and you git (intentional spelling) to visit little recreated villages in the winter made of log cabins and they involve you in such traditional activities as candlestick making and the pouring of lead cast bullets for muskets. Cool stuff.

And then have some apple cider, maybe even donuts - should the technology-on-display allow for it. Mmmmm.... Donuts!

Simple times. Good times.

Times when we didn't have to worry about all the problems the liberals created for us.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Thanks Ritmo for proving my point about you.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I like the things you like, too, A.J.

I just separate my entertainment about the lore of life in the old days from what we can actually learn about how to keep the most powerful country of today successful and relevant.

Sorry if that offends you.

Tim said...

Six hours, 26 minutes until kick-off.

#QuestForSix.

GO NINERS!

Anonymous said...

Robot already has binoculars built inside. Robot Binoculars can see around corners. He can see you right now.

bleh said...

It's amusing when poorly educated incurious morons regurgitate the "FDR saved us" party line about Coolidge. It's easier than thinking and reading.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

In your face product placement.

Why don't you and Meade get some billboards to wear advertising even more commercial product opportunities for people to buy crud from Amazon. Put labels on everything in your house this is a good one That way you can link every item in your house and world to Amazon. It might be kind of harsh to label the toilet paper, but HEY....everyone has to make sacrifices.

Tim said...

Oops.

I posted before reading the thread.

I missed that it had already been polluted by a troll.

My bad.

Please don't feed the troll.

Once fed, trolls shit on threads.

Otherwise, yes Lem, the media attention paid to a plead-down murderer is obscene.

#QuestForSix.

GO NINERS!

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ritmo- you don't offend me. I just don't like you or how you think or what you believe. You are a typical far left, resentful, innumerate Lib who wants the 50 states run by credentialed but ill-informed pols in Washington DC. You actually think people like Obama and Sebelius have the experience and brains to re-do one sixth of our economy. You see no problem with the Dept of Agriculture publishing a 160 page report mandating what kind of snacks can be sold in schools.

Basically, you are a big believer in central planning and don't mind that it inevitably limits our choices and takes away our freedoms.

Ann Althouse said...

Answers to questions:

1. The robot's not there because the robot is part of my deskscape and that's Meade's desk.

2. The only arranging of the scene that I did (other than framing the shot) was to turn a piece of paper over because I didn't want it to be read.

3. The binoculars were purchased for attending concerts, but they are kept on the desk for looking at birds and small mammals and for checking out the progress of the garden in the springtime.

Aridog said...

Bob Ellison said...

Don't buy binoculars without image stabilization (IS).

Image Stabilized binoculars are my next toy purchase. If you bought some, what model and brand were they....I assume you did you due diligence.

I've just begun checking them out and so far price level seems to be you get what you pay for, dearly. I'd like 20X, or at least 14X.

Chip S. said...

O Ritmo Segundo said...
576 pages to rehabilitate the reputation of a guy famous for not much more than wearing a top hat...

Wrong.

It was Woodrow Wilson who showed up everywhere in a top hat. Coolidge is famous for wearing this.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Ritmo- you don't offend me. I just don't like you or how you think or what you believe.

Of course not and of course you do. You have no idea what I think or believe.

But FOX and Limbaugh told you to fixate on a narrative about centralization so uphold it you must.

I don't give a shit which government does what, as long as it works.

You don't. Therefore, you blame others for when the federal government fails at doing the things that, for the sake of political expediency, it was prevented from doing.

And apropos of Michael's silly comment, if I should waste my time reading 576 pages devoted to telling me how Coolidge's role as a "family" man precedes his role in injecting steroids into an unregulated economy, then certainly someone who's paid to make sure kids aren't poisoned, fat or made hyperglycemic can stand to read a 160-page report on the subject.

Get real, man.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Good point, Chip. Top hats, I take it, were common attire for important and probably even unimportant people wanting to appear important back in that day. I was just trying to think of something remarkable to say about Coolidge, of which I am sure there is not much.

But then, if there were, I'm sure it would make conservatives less interested in lionizing him.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"I don't care which government does what".

Shorter Ritmo "all our govts know best".

"Crickets Crickets" Ritmo explains what govt does well.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

She might as well have just synthesize her two books into one:

Coolidge: The Common Man

Redirect the concern for the unemployed she alerted us to in her first book to the presidential person who needs it the most.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Still bitterly clinging to that narrative, I see, A.J.

Yep.

Unlike what you said earlier, when it comes to the half or more of America or the world who are not conservative, you don't have anything to learn at all.

Be proud of yourself for pretending to know everything and never changing your opinion about that.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"Therefore, you blame others for when the federal government fails at doing the things that, for the sake of political expediency, it was prevented from doing. "

Hard to unravel that sentence - I guess you mean "if only govt had unlimited power to do whatever the current officeholders wanted to do".

Your examples would inlcude Katrina, Sandy, enforcing our borders, making sure soc sec system is not a Ponzi scheme, preventing the housing bubble which enabled the college tuition bubble? Stuff like that?


Chip S. said...

Coolidge observed it, Clinton lived it.

William said...

You don't answer the obvious question. Why is it necessary to have two books? I can understand one in case the battery on the Kindle fails, but two seems like conspicuous consumption.....I admire Calvin Coolidge, but from what I know about him (not much), he doesn't seem to have lead the kind of life that would inspire much reader interest.

Aridog said...

Althouse said ...

Some commenters are saying they'd prefer binoculars with image stabilization. Here are Nikon StabilEyes Marine Binoculars. Expensive!

No, "expensive" is this beauty by Fraser Optics for $5,558.00.

I can't justify Fraser models (all over $5K) in terms of reasonable cost IS binos for my frequency of use...to replace my 8x42 binos and 20X spotting scope...it'll have to be Canon or Nikon.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You can guess and unravel all you want, A.J. I mean, when you invent the ability to place the word "unlimited" where it never existed, then it doesn't leave much room for observing what words are really there.

A.J. has the unlimited power to make up and attribute to people things they never said.

It's quite a power.

Any other quotes you'd like to just make up and pull out of thin air today? Maybe just have the courtesy to give me some warning before you do. When you lie like that, it has a way of putting people on edge.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Was there seriously a presidential inspiration for that, Chip? That's kind of funny. And it makes sense.

Did they ever find out if the opposite is true in females?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I guess that's why so many of the check-out aisle magazines give advice to women on how to make sex more interesting. Spice it up! Yeah, whatever.

If more women bothered to actually be more interesting then that would help tremendously.

kentuckyliz said...

The binoculars are for monitoring the neighborhood dog supply, to pick out which dog they are going to alienate from its owners' affections next.

I can haz all yer dawgz.

Anonymous said...

The Robot is kept away from the Binoculars: this is good.

Anonymous said...

Separate work-spaces: I will update my drawings.

In future photos it would be beneficial to have a compass on the table. This would help provide a sense of vector location that will improve the drawings.

Aridog said...

I profusely apologize for even momentarily interrupting a classic @Ritmo keyboard diarrhea thread. 32% of all posts so far...e.g., 18/57x100%..amazing.

Yawn.

Oh, yes...just for Ritmo...

God Bless

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well Ari - the classic "yes man" is a man of few words. But alas, that is not me. Althouse already has enough Ed McMahons.

dbp said...

Chip S., thanks for the reminder of that Cooledge story, I remember seeing it before but it is always good:

"Bermant (1976) has given an amusing, if somewhat apochryphal, account of the origin of the term 'Coolidge Effect'. The story goes that President and Mrs Coolidge were visiting a government farm in Kentucky one day and after arrival were taken off on separate tours. When Mrs Coolidge passed the chicken pens she paused to ask her guide how often the rooster could be expected to perform his duty. 'Dozens of times a day' was her guide's reply. She was most impressed by this and said, 'Please tell that to the President.' When the President was duly informed of the rooster's performance he was initially dumbfounded. Then a thought occurred to him. 'Was this with the same hen each time?' he inquired. 'Oh no, Mr President, a different one each time' was his host's reply. The President nodded slowly, smiled and said, ''Tell that to Mrs Coolidge!'

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ritmo -trying to get you on the record so I will ask again what I asked earlier:

You actually think people like Obama and Sebelius have the experience and brains to re-do one sixth of our economy?

You see no problem with the Dept of Agriculture publishing a 160 page report mandating what kind of snacks can be sold in schools?

Basically, you are a big believer in central planning and don't mind that it inevitably limits our choices and takes away our freedoms?

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Althouse--2 advance copies? I ordered the book two weeks ago, and it won't be shipped until 2/12--Lincoln's birthday!

My mother grew up in an area (Eastern Kentucky) where she says people didn't really notice the depression, because things didn't change that much for them. That's from a woman who started teaching in 1 and 2-room schoolhouses, and who made more money picking blackberries one summer than she made in a month of teaching. She also says that if there had been poverty programs back then, she wouldn't have had the incentive to work her way through college and become a teacher. And she was a good one, as many of her former students tell me.

Toy

Ann Althouse said...

"William said...
You don't answer the obvious question. Why is it necessary to have two books? I can understand one in case the battery on the Kindle fails, but two seems like conspicuous consumption.....I admire Calvin Coolidge, but from what I know about him (not much), he doesn't seem to have lead the kind of life that would inspire much reader interest."

Both were sent to me gratis.

Bob Ellison said...

Aridog, sorry for the late response (which I'm guessing you'll never see, but here goes). I don't really know that much about the different brands, but I own a Canon set like this one (an older model):

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-10x30-Stabilization-Binoculars-Batteries/dp/B00004THDC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359986960&sr=8-1&keywords=canon+binoculars+image+stabilization

My eyes aren't fine enough to appreciate differences in lens quality, but these sure work well, and the IS is fantastic. I really don't think it's worth spending much more. The sweet spot is in the <$1000 range (these are about $420). My mother is a birder, and when I handed her this set, she put away the huge, heavy set she was using and never went back. (Well, she got one for herself, that is.)

Canon makes higher-powered versions, too.

Bob Ellison said...

Ah, I see that the Professor linked to that same set in an update. I hope you'll use that link if you go for them. You won't be sorry!

Reviewers who give <5 stars probably usually either didn't know you have to hold the IS button down, or inserted the batteries incorrectly.

Aridog said...

Bob Ellison ... nope, I saw your comment. I tend to agree that Canon is the best choice among widely available (thus reasonably priced)brands. That's based upon my experience listening to professional photographers on which IS system, Nikon or Canon, works best.

The Fraser version ($5K+) looks remarkably like the late 1960's military version used by tank commanders and were 20X and extremely stable. Back then the devices were classified and cost in excess of $20K though DoD. Never the less, $5K is too much for my budget versus the frequency of use....so a high power Canon version looks like the way to go. I'd really like 20X or maybe 18X if possible, so I've got to got shopping and see if that is possible.

Thanks for the response.

Mitch H. said...

Damnit, I had that book on order last year, and they cancelled the order along with the solicitation. Here we go again... since you actually have a copy, I take it the book got out of the printers this time.