Althouse: My city's website is a tangle of bare, tanned limbs and jorts.

July 5, 2015

My city's website is a tangle of bare, tanned limbs and jorts.

Here's the banner at the official City of Madison website right now:

Click to enlarge.

29 comments:

PB said...: I always get a kick out of surveys that don't have a selection that fits how I would respond. But hey! They generate statistics! You can't argue with statistics, they've got numbers!; 7/5/15, 9:05 AM
Michael K said...: It's amusing to see the reaction to some warm weather after the usual winter. At Dartmouth, when the temp got to 40, shorts would appear, mostly on girls. By 60 degrees, sunbathing.; 7/5/15, 9:13 AM
George said...: It doesn't make much sense--what does it have to do with Madison?; 7/5/15, 9:14 AM
dbp said...: I flat out love the photograph!; 7/5/15, 9:21 AM
Original Mike said...: I had to look up "jorts".; 7/5/15, 9:21 AM
sane_voter said...: Those limbs aren't really tangled. No orgy is happening there. Is that really the message Madison wants to send?; 7/5/15, 9:28 AM
Phil 314 said...: Picture taken by a man in a trench coat.; 7/5/15, 9:32 AM
Doug said...: Even the best bloggers sometimes stretch too far. What's wrong, did the internet run out of gay marriage affirmations?; 7/5/15, 9:37 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: George said...
It doesn't make much sense--what does it have to do with Madison?

It is quite monochromatic, so there is that.; 7/5/15, 9:38 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Those limbs aren't really tangled."

Why, it's a virtual spaghetti plate of limbs!; 7/5/15, 9:47 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Picture taken by a man in a trench coat."

I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat...; 7/5/15, 9:51 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @Doug

Did you lose your way to Instapundit?; 7/5/15, 9:51 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: Isn't the citizen's notorious 'aversion to shorts' actually an 'aversion to men in shorts'? most of those legs surely being female?; 7/5/15, 9:59 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Come on Ann. It may be a virtual sphagetti plate of limbs, but they are not entwined. And as a Southern Californian, used to seeing people with a healthy tan, (on people who, by the age of 70 will have skin like well tanned leather) those "tanned limbs" in the photo elicit nothing but a "meh" from me.; 7/5/15, 10:02 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Marc Puckett said...
...most of those legs surely being female?

How could you possible know that most of the legs are female without asking the people involved? And even if you asked, you would only know if they were female at that particular moment in time.; 7/5/15, 10:03 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: Ah, yes, Ignorance is Bliss, sorry; je m'accuse. Wonder what an appropriate penance would be?; 7/5/15, 10:11 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Isn't the citizen's notorious 'aversion to shorts' actually an 'aversion to men in shorts'? most of those legs surely being female?"

That's why I gave it the "women in shorts" tag. You can click on it to find out what I've said.

If you lived in Madison, you'd see an unbelivable number of women in jorts -- really short jorts. If an older woman criticizes young women for their clothes, especially for wearing clothes that can only be worn while young, it tends not to go well for the older woman, so that holds me back. I have better "privilege" for criticizing men. Or to put that another way, I'm more directly interested in the attractiveness of men and I think what I'm offering men isn't so much criticism but good advice on how to be attractive to a woman. You don't have to do that, but if you want that, or if you think you might, that's my offer. Take it or leave it. Your body, yourself.; 7/5/15, 10:13 AM
john said...: It sends two messages:

Even pasty-skinned Wisconsinites can recover from winter,
and,
there are no blacks in Madison.; 7/5/15, 10:13 AM
CWJ said...: Photo gone. Althouse claims another scalp. Now it's facepainted red wig womnan framed by baloons.; 7/5/15, 10:24 AM
Doug said...: Nope, found my way to Instapundit just fine. Lots of great links on technology, the election, and of course, Amazon shopping there. I stop here for the outrage.; 7/5/15, 10:33 AM
n.n said...: A diversity of limbs and torsos, but not enough color. It succeeds to promote a narrow band of class diversity, but it suggests intolerance of color diversity. This may trigger a reaction from the social complex, and force the DOJ to intervene in order to correct this glaring indicator of prejudice.; 7/5/15, 10:46 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: I didn't notice the tag, tsk. For the record, I agree with the Althousian shorts position. On the other hand, here in the People's Republic of Eugene, with the University of Oregon, the 'hippy', and the fitness-as-religion populations, it's challenging not to allow one's sensibilies to be degraded into accepting the normalcy of 'men inappropriately in shorts'.; 7/5/15, 10:50 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: I think it's trying to overcome the stereotype of cold by implying that it is so nice and warm right now that everyone is running around Madison half-clothed. Sort of like a Florida beach. Also that everyone in Madison is young, so the experience is supposed to be like spring break in Florida. This implies that this is not true.

Resorting to weather.com to confirm the first part of this suspicion, I discover that while temperatures are liveable right now, you guys are going to endure three days this week with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. Transport a few Georgians up there, and they'd enjoy the first six-twelve hours but would end the three days swathed in whatever warm clothing they could find.; 7/5/15, 12:02 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Highs in the 70's? The Midwest sounds like Eden right now compared to the relentless heat we're experiencing. I haven't lived in the Midwest since I was 7. Do the fireflies still come out if it's cool?; 7/5/15, 1:13 PM
Phil 314 said...: "I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat..."

It always comes back to Dylan.

Well I see your Dylan and raise you a Jethro Tull:

Sitting on a park bench
Eyeing little girls
With bad intent.; 7/5/15, 2:40 PM
Big Mike said...: I wanted to vote for "only if there's nothing more interesting about Madison than college students in shorts."; 7/5/15, 2:54 PM
Original Mike said...: "you guys are going to endure three days this week with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. "

Endure? Wow.; 7/5/15, 3:00 PM
Paco Wové said...: "Do the fireflies still come out if it's cool?"

I don't know about the "cool" part, but the fireflies are out every night right now.; 7/5/15, 5:59 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: During Bonanza commercial breaks we'd run out into the Illinois summer dusk and capture some fireflies to put into jars with nail holes punched into the lids. Large parts of my childhood were such classic Americana that they don't even seem real now.; 7/5/15, 7:59 PM