Althouse: "I am not a traveler. I hate it.... Also I cannot go on airlines because people stare at me, you have to be touched by people. I hate that...I hate bespoke because I hate to be touched by strangers."

April 24, 2015

"I am not a traveler. I hate it.... Also I cannot go on airlines because people stare at me, you have to be touched by people. I hate that...I hate bespoke because I hate to be touched by strangers."

From "A Comprehensive List Of Everything Karl Lagerfeld Hates."

"I hate intellectual conversation with intellectuals because I only care about my opinion, but I like to read very abstract constructions of the mind.... I hate rich people when they try to be communists or socialists. I think it’s obscene.... I hate sloppy footwear. What I hate most is flip-flops. I am physically allergic to flip-flops.... And I hate to wear suspenders. I have the feeling I'm wearing a bra...."

To me, the list makes the argument for allowing yourself to use that terrible word "hate." Did your mom teach you not to say "hate"? Do you have friends/relatives in your life who stand ready to meet your deployment of the word with some fussy chiding like "Oh, 'hate' is a very strong word" or "Hate?! Do you really mean hate?"? I hate that.

58 comments:

cold pizza said...: I hate intolerant people. And the Dutch. --CP; 4/24/15, 11:40 AM
mccullough said...: Does he share your antipathy of men in shorts?; 4/24/15, 11:40 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Mr. Lagerfeld's use of the word "hate" makes him sound frivolous.; 4/24/15, 11:42 AM
Sigivald said...: I'd say I hate Karl Lagerfeld, but I don't.

I think he's a giant freak (in a purely descriptive sense; I like freaks qua freaks), and don't care much for his designs and find his personal fashion sense baffling (which is relevant because it's his public persona).

But plainly the man lives his life more or less exactly how he wants, and doesn't harm anyone else doing so, and I respect that.; 4/24/15, 11:46 AM
Quaestor said...: I hate rich people when they try to be communists or socialists. I think it’s obscene...

Lagerfeld is a busy, busy man.; 4/24/15, 11:50 AM
Mary Beth said...: But chocolate sculptures of your boyfriend are always good.; 4/24/15, 11:50 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Mr. Lagerfeld's use of the word "hate" makes him sound frivolous."

And he uses frivolity to become profound.

I love that.; 4/24/15, 11:54 AM
Sebastian said...: "What I hate most is flip-flops"

Right. AA should aim her ire lower.; 4/24/15, 12:08 PM
kzookitty said...: Wearing suspenders reminds me of all the times I'd wear mommy's underwear. She hated that! I hate it when I wear orange shorts and the other guys on the team give me that look.
Who is this guy, anyway? Would he hate it that I'd never heard of him before?
kzookitty; 4/24/15, 12:09 PM
Etienne said...: I'm often questioning when I should say adore about something or someone, instead of love.

Oh, I want to say it, but if it's too early I will be laughed at, too late I will lose the power of the word.

Is this the perfect time? Oh, I angst over the timing.

It's a conundrum... Probably the same with hate; 4/24/15, 12:22 PM
Amexpat said...: My grandfather, who like Richard Nixon, used to get upset when I said I hated Nixon. His stock reply, said with a growl, was, "only dogs hate".; 4/24/15, 12:39 PM
Amexpat said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/24/15, 12:39 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I didn't know anything about Lagerfeld before reading this, and now I like him. I don't think my footwear choices would lead him to like me back.; 4/24/15, 12:47 PM
Kevin Walsh said...: My father told me to never use teh word 'hate.' So i dislike several things quite strenuously.; 4/24/15, 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...: At least he knows better than to wear shorts.

http://www3.pictures.stylebistro.com/fp/Baptiste+Giabiconi+Jeans+Jean+Shorts+sYPiH7n2ajHl.jpg; 4/24/15, 1:06 PM
Mikec said...: I like this guy. Too bad that he would be kicked off the UWM faculty unless he also hated conservatives.; 4/24/15, 1:07 PM
Mitch H. said...: Amexpat, had your grandfather never met a cat? They're basically fur sandwiches full of hate and self-interest.; 4/24/15, 1:11 PM
traditionalguy said...: The history of the Georgia Tech/ Georgia football game was aptly titled Good Old Fashioned Hate.; 4/24/15, 1:38 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I discourage the use of 'hate' because it's imprecise. I tell my children to use more descriptive words for the things they find maddening, frustrating, tragic, irritating, tacky, vile, obstructive, etc.

Same with 'love.' One doesn't 'love' peanut butter cups. One delights in, enjoys very much, etc.

Also, I remind them, as someone should Mr. L, that no one really cares about all the petty things you 'hate.' Only small-minded, immature, tiresome people keep lists of annoyances. Pleasant people just ignore the small things that vex them and have more interesting things to talk about.; 4/24/15, 2:00 PM
Howard said...: I hate high button-up collars
I hate neckties
I hate gray-haired ponytails on men
I hate high fashion
I hate homos who love skinny women

I love living, breathing, undulating, curvacious flesh sculptures of women; 4/24/15, 2:06 PM
Anonymous said...: I can only feel sorry for someone who has all these intense, raging emotional responses about small, minor annoyances. If Mr. Lagerfeld would decide today that the glass is, and always will be, half full. then his glass would be half full the remainder of his days.; 4/24/15, 2:20 PM
Julie C said...: The Fug Girls do great send ups of Uncle Karl. They'll take a picture of him with some random celebrity and post an imaginary conversation. That's exactly the way I imagine him speaking. He's wonderful.

He has managed to both retain the classic chicness of the Chanel brand while bringing it into the 21st century and keeping it relevant. That's a tall order. Just ask the House of Dior.; 4/24/15, 2:26 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

One doesn't 'love' peanut butter cups. One delights in, enjoys very much, etc.

I suspect Lazlo will be along shortly to describe, in detail, how Scarlett Johansson does, in fact love peanut butter cups.; 4/24/15, 2:32 PM
The Bergall said...: Well I'd like to get Gwyneth Paltrow's opinion on this....(sic); 4/24/15, 2:33 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: I prefer the word "Love". But then I'm a survivor of the 60's a juxtapositioned decade of war and hate and love so extreme it beggars rational description. What did the Beatles (John) sing on Rubber Soul? "In the beginning it was misunderstood, now I've heard it and the word is good. Say the word..." Not to mention I love my slaps and jams for all day beach blanket bingo parties.; 4/24/15, 2:38 PM
Nonapod said...: Was Jacobim Mugatu based on this guys?; 4/24/15, 2:40 PM
Mark said...: the list makes the argument for allowing yourself to use that terrible word "hate."

I know people who use the word "hate" all the time. They use the word because they are thinking hate and because they use it all the time, it is pretty clear that they are filled with hate.

Of course, need I tell you that these people full of hate and rage are also rather political and that they are invariably on the left?

They will hate and rage about this and that, including raging about hate, pointing the finger of hate at those who rarely use the word and rarely think in terms of hate. You would almost think that they get a special, perverse pleasure in stewing in their hate, but within that perversity, it is really just more and more loathing.

What a miserable existence -- which they all too often want to impose on the rest of us.; 4/24/15, 2:55 PM
Fernandinande said...: I hate people who hate hate.; 4/24/15, 3:02 PM
victoria said...: wierdo; 4/24/15, 3:15 PM
victoria said...: I save the word "hate" for truly despicable people (only 1, Floyd Hubbell)... and Brussel sprouts,Kale and Quinoa

Vicki From Pasadena; 4/24/15, 3:22 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: victoria:

How can you hate Brussels sprouts?? Halve or quarter them and roast them up nice and crispy with salt and pepper and maybe a touch of garlic and they are wonderful! I have a bag sitting in my refrigerator even as I type, waiting for me to roast them up tonight.; 4/24/15, 3:42 PM
m stone said...: Lagerfeld: "...I hate nothing more than my own past."

I suspect a common target of hate. Self-defeating and cancerous.

But, apparently, Lagerfeld is profound. Some comfort.; 4/24/15, 3:45 PM
Craig Landon said...: I can't remember the things I hate, since I think of them so seldom. Wasted energy.; 4/24/15, 3:51 PM
Craig Landon said...: ...Whatever they are.; 4/24/15, 3:52 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Most people define their culture by identifying and classifying the things they hate.

This tendency is especially strong among folks under the age of 20. It's as though they have a two-column spreadsheet in their brains: Republicans, hate; rule of law, hate; Justin Bieber, hate hate HATE.; 4/24/15, 4:05 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Most complainers are boring, but a creative complainer is entertaining in conversation.; 4/24/15, 4:12 PM
robother said...: Chacun a son hain.; 4/24/15, 4:32 PM
Jaq said...: He reminds me of one time I was flying across the Pacific in coach, of course, and a passenger from first class was walking his toddler around telling him everything was "Dirty, dirty dirty dirty."

Somehow he circled through the kitchen area and back up the other row. I always wondered what the point was, to get exercise, or to explain how dirty everything and everybody was in coach.; 4/24/15, 5:18 PM
Titus said...: I hate traveling too. I traveled all over the world for work and then extended stay vacs.

I don't take vacations. I hate the whole plane thing-there are so many fat Americans and they make me sick.

I do travel to Wisconsin a couple times a year and I almost always next to a fat family eating Mcdonald's food-gross.

I do long weekends locally-Fire Island; Ptown; Ogunquit; Vermont, The Berkshires and the White Mountains.

tits.; 4/24/15, 5:19 PM
Njall said...: There's a medieval Scottish Gaelic poem entitled "I Hate", an idiosyncratic list of things the anonymous poet hated, my favorite lines being "a good man with a bad wife" and "going to Ireland in the West, since Brian and Conn are no more".; 4/24/15, 6:24 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Well dang me, but I don't have much use for the word "hate". It's been so bastardized that it has lost as much meaning as the word "rape" on college campuses these days. Who knows what "hate" is, other than a word used loosely by primping poncing politically correct posturers on the progressive barricades?

And besides if you are truly going to "hate" something in the correct and original meaning of the word, you're going to use up a lot of energy. On Brussels sprouts? Give me a break.

Now I do have contempt for some people--uses a lot less energy, can be applied like a laser beam, and focuses on those who truly deserve it. But would I waste an ounce of energy "hating" them. Nope. I'm not a prissy posturing putz. Leave it to the progressives to "hate".; 4/24/15, 6:41 PM
Titus said...: I just had a wonderful interaction with a fellow dog owner. The streets are bustling tonight. Fab peeps everywhere!

I took the rare clumber, age 15, out for a walk. He has been on a strict diet and doing excellent! We met a fab couple-him wearing Obey, she wearing Cargo. They had a white german shepherd puppy-very rare

I told them my 15 year old clumber is old but still likes to smell ass. The man, with the puppy, said, doesn't everyone like to smell ass at any age! We all laughed.

But then it got weird.....they started asking me where I live and what I was doing tonight. I think they wanted a three way. They were hot and I would of definitely done the guy. But I could not bare seeing or smelling the cute girl's pussy.

Sorry!; 4/24/15, 7:38 PM
David said...: Not a bad list. Karl and I have a lot of overlap.

Sweatpants are fine if you actually plan to sweat.; 4/24/15, 7:55 PM
Anonymous said...: I have a book titled "14,000 Things to be Happy About."

Now I can have its companion.; 4/24/15, 8:11 PM
Moneyrunner said...: I got the frivolous profound. I hope everyone else did.

Smelling ass.; 4/24/15, 9:06 PM
rcommal said...: ""I am not a traveler. I hate it.... Also I cannot go on airlines because people stare at me, you have to be touched by people. I hate that...I hate bespoke because I hate to be touched by strangers.""

Althouse has been telling this to us, and about us, in quite specific ways, for more than a decade.

What's wrong with you all, that you don't get it? Probably because, overall, Althouse got it right, from the git-go.; 4/25/15, 12:42 AM
dustbunny said...: I like the guy, a true elititist eccentric with a finely developed aesthetic in a world of commercialized, conformist taste. But I love my flip-flops.; 4/25/15, 1:43 AM
Mark Caplan said...: Nurturing hate is a mortal sin (Galatians 5:20). This is why in our culture it was once taboo to say you hated something -- it could bring on the Evil Eye. Or why many Americans weep for Dzokhar Tsarnaev and want his life spared. They are bad Americans but good Christians who love their enemy.; 4/25/15, 3:53 AM
Meade said...: "But I could not bare seeing or smelling the cute girl's pussy. Sorry!"

Sorry is not good enough. You deserve to be shunned and boycotted for your prejudice and pussy hate.

Hater.; 4/25/15, 7:41 AM
jr565 said...: I too hate rich people pretending to be socialists. Which Is why I can't abide most democrats.; 4/25/15, 1:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Top Lagerfeld off with a narrow-brimmed fedora and you've got yourself a Blues Brother.; 4/25/15, 1:27 PM
ken in tx said...: Suspenders here, probably means what Americans call garters. British suspenders hold up socks or stockings. What we call suspenders, they call braces.; 4/25/15, 1:42 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Suspenders here, probably means what Americans call garters. British suspenders hold up socks or stockings. What we call suspenders, they call braces."

I doubt it. Why would something on the legs feel like a bra? It's the straps over the shoulders holding a band around you middle that would be like a bra.

And Lagerfeld isn't British. He's German.; 4/25/15, 2:00 PM
docweasel said...: I hate protestors, but I don't know how to express my dislike publicly :(; 4/25/15, 2:39 PM
JorgXMcKie said...: I hate the haters who hate on those who even mildly disagree with them and therefore ascribe them as haters. So, I really hate such hypocrites.; 4/25/15, 4:07 PM
David R. Graham said...: Hate is a legitimate emotion in certain circumstances, which can be enumerated. So are anger, fear, envy. My father never forbid me the word. Maybe my mother, I do not remember. Does not matter. Hate is a legitimate word -- all are, really -- having legitimate usage in exactly the sense commonly and linguistically assigned to and meant by it. I hate puritans for their pontifical sanctimony.; 4/25/15, 4:10 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I had to fly today. The 5am flight sounds much more appealing when you're booking it than it does when your alarm goes off at 2:30 the morning of.

When I checked into my hotel, I was informed that free drinks and hors d'oeuvres would be served in a room at 5:30. I think it was referred to as a gathering. I did not attend the Hotel Strangers Gathering.; 4/25/15, 11:52 PM
rcommal said...: It's the straps over the shoulders holding a band around you middle that would be like a bra.

I dunno. From time to time over the years, I've pondered the similarity between brassiere and jockstrap--or, if you will, bra and jock.; 4/26/15, 11:03 PM