Althouse: "Blogress Ann Althouse, a driven woman who is no longer young, gets to the heart of the matter..."

March 12, 2013

"Blogress Ann Althouse, a driven woman who is no longer young, gets to the heart of the matter..."

Says James Taranto.

40 comments:

rhhardin said...: Link probably ought to be here.; 3/12/13, 6:10 PM
rhhardin said...: Coincidentally at Kroger today Love thought, comes with tissue.; 3/12/13, 6:12 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Thanks. It's really irritating that having a subscription causes me to get bad URLs for these purposes.; 3/12/13, 6:15 PM
Amartel said...: Is "blogress" annoying? How about professorette? Just wondering.; 3/12/13, 6:22 PM
rhhardin said...: There's blond and blonde for m and f.; 3/12/13, 6:24 PM
Chef Mojo said...: (...)a driven woman who is no longer young(...)

Oh, my.

As much as I like to read Taranto, a gentleman would not have said that, relevant to the discussion or not; feminism be damned.; 3/12/13, 6:33 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "a gentleman would not have said that"

If he'd said "no longer middle aged" it would be a problem.

No longer young is safe.; 3/12/13, 6:43 PM
Ann Althouse said...: But "driven" is actually wrong. If I were driven... this would all have come out so differently.; 3/12/13, 6:43 PM
David Davenport said...: Blogress Ann Althouse, a driven woman who is no longer young ...

I bet bet Mr. Taranto wouldn't have cracked wise like that if he didn't suffer from the delusion that he is still -- almost, just barely -- part of the younger generation.

Also, the status of being a mere "blogress"-- whereas the much bigger time Mr. T. has a print gig -- still, for the time being -- and makes some TV appearances.

"Driven woman" -- crabby old crone

Re the part in the NY Timese piece about the closet Muslim occupying the White House holding up the oil pipeline, he's reportedly also prventing American firms from exporting and liquified natural gas to other countries.

This makes sense if one assumes that King O.'s trying to help his fellow potentates in the Middle East and certain Democrat investors by keeping the world market price of oil and natural gas high.; 3/12/13, 6:47 PM
rcocean said...: Driven? I thought you were the one who drove all across the country?

Driven, what an odd word choice.

Driving Miss Althouse.; 3/12/13, 6:48 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/12/13, 6:50 PM
rcocean said...: It sounds as if she ought to take out a want ad for an executive assistant instead."

Ha. Great line. Sadly, you'll find some White Knight sap who'll do it.; 3/12/13, 6:52 PM
Michael K said...: I don't believe that Obama is trying to destroy this country. I only have trouble understanding what he would do differently if he were.; 3/12/13, 6:54 PM
Barry Dauphin said...: Maybe Rosenberg should hire Kramer's executive assistant form Kramerica, Inc.; 3/12/13, 6:57 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: He has an unusual style of using the words of a post or headline for irony, or ironic effect, or for ironing, I don't know what, maybe just iron. It's interesting. Because it's clever to connect the previous paragraph by segue. And it oddly comes off better in print than it does in interviews or panel participation.; 3/12/13, 6:59 PM
Baron Zemo said...: That was pretty nasty Mr. Taranto.

Well played my friend, well played.; 3/12/13, 7:05 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: The age thing--

I think he was simply referring to the wisdom of having lived a couple-three decades longer than those silly girls at Slate.; 3/12/13, 7:07 PM
edutcher said...: Yes, but she is very young at heart.

And that's what really counts.

Amartel said...

Is "blogress" annoying? How about professorette? Just wondering.

Nothing wrong with blogress unless you have a problem with the idea women are different from men.

As for the feminine of professor, one source suggests "Professora", which has a rather elegant sound to it.; 3/12/13, 7:20 PM
Unknown said...: "a driven woman who is no longer young"

I heard the music from the bicycle ride of the witch in the Wizard of Oz play in my head when I read that.
James is a snarky guy.; 3/12/13, 7:23 PM
Mark said...: "No longer young"

Better than the immature crones graduating from Womyn's Studies programs.; 3/12/13, 7:41 PM
Mark said...: Youth is wasted on the young. At least some young.; 3/12/13, 7:42 PM
dwick said...: I hope this isn't the beginning of Ann emulating Rush Limbaugh monitoring (and then mentioning in his program) every media outlet's mention of his name... and then claiming he doesn't want to make the show about him.; 3/12/13, 7:48 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Professor is a borrowed Latin word, and the correct Latin feminine would be profestrix, formed like the equally Latinate 'aviatrix' and 'dominatrix'. Not that the form ever occurs in Latin literature - the Romans had professores, but no profestrices - but that's what they would have called them if they had existed. It's purely coincidental that strix is not only the ending of profestrix but the Latin word for screech owl. You could always use the Italian plural, which is 'professoressa'.; 3/12/13, 7:50 PM
John henry said...: I am no longer young either.

But I think both you and I are young at heart where it really counts.

John Henry; 3/12/13, 7:53 PM
John henry said...: This song says it all. Forever young by the inimitable Joan Baez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgWfhVimp-c

John Henry; 3/12/13, 7:56 PM
edutcher said...: Dr Weevil said...

Professor is a borrowed Latin word, and the correct Latin feminine would be profestrix, formed like the equally Latinate 'aviatrix' and 'dominatrix'.

But those are both words ending in, "tor", rather than, "sor", and I couldn't see "professrix".

Closest I could get is, "professrice" (from the French, "doctrice"), but that also sounds weird.

Take your word, Doc, but, if anybody comes up with something better...; 3/12/13, 8:04 PM
Bob R said...: Saying you are not driven is like couple with a combined half a million dollar income insisting that they aren't rich. Your history indicates that you have far more drive and ambition than the average person. The fact that this has placed you in the company of people with even more drive does not invalidate the judgement of a larger perspective.; 3/12/13, 8:48 PM
Birches said...: I read it yesterday, thought it was witty AND complimentary.

The young, driven women were both in their 20s. I can't find how not being in your 20s anymore isn't complimentary . . .; 3/12/13, 9:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, children, before you take shots at Taranto for what he said, GO READ IT.; 3/12/13, 9:43 PM
David Davenport said...: Nothing wrong with blogress unless you have a problem with the idea women are different from men.

As for the feminine of professor, one source suggests "Professora", which has a rather elegant sound to it.

Women are different from men: implying: women think differently from men : inference: Professorae of fields such as Mechanical Engineering probably wouldn't be up to the job.

///////////////

Driving Miss Althouse

Or Professora A. and Mr. Meade as the forgotten silent movie star and her chauffeur in a remake of Sunset Boulevard.

The pictures just got smaller!; 3/12/13, 10:22 PM
Æthelflæd said...: Just go back to "magister" and "magistra". Problem solved.; 3/12/13, 10:46 PM
rcommal said...: Personally, I would find it more impressive to see Taranto note (of course in appropriate circumstances and, also of course, appropriately on point) as follows: "a young woman who is no longer driven because the heart of the matter has nothing to do with it."

No doubt that's just me. Of course.; 3/12/13, 11:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama said something like that about Led Zeppelin when he gave them the Kennedy Center Award. (Googles...)

"Tonight, we honor Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young, and showing us that some guys who are not completely youthful can still rock."

I think his speechwriters were trying to be nice, but it is truly an awkward phrase. It could have been completely left out. Stupid, really.; 3/13/13, 12:01 AM
rcommal said...: Also, of course Althouse is a driven person. What a sweet jumpin' jiffy of impressive insights, sweeties!

God. It can always get worse, and so it does.

***

(At the same time, of course: Congratulations, Althouse.); 3/13/13, 12:09 AM
MayBee said...: Surely we are all pretty good judges of when we are no longer young. It can only offend the delusional.; 3/13/13, 2:34 AM
Nathan Alexander said...: Hm.

First of all, I think the description is accurate in context.

"Driven" isn't Mr. Taranto's description, it is Slate's...and "driven" means "careerist".

Ms. Althouse's history is that when young and feminist, she married, had children, studied law, and divorced, became a law professor, and started a popular blog (although I don't think it is widely known exactly when the divorce happened, nor why).

Having already achieved a high pinnacle of career success, she then met Meade, and married for love and companionship. At that point, she was no longer young, no longer a feminist (in the current sense...she still supports abortion, SSM, voted for Obama and strongly considered voting for him a 2nd time) and wasn't looking for an executive assistant to help her in achieving the feminist dream of having it all.

So her wisdom is what the young, driven girls need...but probably will not be able to comprehend until they end up with the exact same hindsight that you achieve only by living out mistakes and successes.

Wisdom comes with experiencing life. You often don't get it until you can't really apply it anymore.; 3/13/13, 6:52 AM
Amartel said...: There's nothing wrong with being "driven." That just means extra-determined. Is a "driven" man bad? No, it's a neutral description; could go either way.; 3/13/13, 11:19 AM
TML said...: I actually had dinner with Taranto the other night in NYC. Interesting story. I whimsically emailed him 3 hours before and he happened to be free and agreed to meet for dinner. Now, he knew me not at all beyond a few tweets and an email about a piece he wrote. We met him (a friend of mine who's also a JT fan came along) at Keens and had a wonderful evening. He's a scary smart cat with a funny self-deprecatingly awesome faux inflated self opinion. Obvious he likes to command a room. And he can pull it off, believe me. Althouse was mentioned during the meal. He's a fan. No doubt. I believe blogress is quite-not-at-all meant to be insulting. Much to his credit that he agreed to meet strangers for dinner. IMHO. I enjoyed hearing him talk. I'll bet he and AA would be a great pair to have to dinner.; 3/13/13, 11:21 AM
TML said...: As long as I'm dreaming, here's my dinner table for 10: me, AA, Steyn, Mickey Kaus, Breitbart (PBUH), Reynolds, WRM, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Bjorn Lomborg and Taranto.

I reserve the right to modify this at will; 3/13/13, 11:35 AM
lge said...: "No longer young"???!? This was the most unkindest cut of all.

Slanders, sir. ...[T]hough I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.; 3/13/13, 11:59 AM