November 12, 2017

"You know people look glum when they're reading."/"Yeah. Good reason not to read."

IMG_1625

This is a café, so talk about anything you want, and buy whatever you want using The Althouse Amazon Portal. We were just looking at Oliberte Ngola boots. And — I am not kidding — Testosterone men's Ball Of Fire boots.

116 comments:

Ralph L said...

Meade's wearing a cap indoors? I know it's cold in WI but that's too much.

Saint Croix said...

Read a great book yesterday. The Walls Are Talking. Abby Johnson, who used to direct a Planned Parenthood clinic down in Texas, has put together a collection of stories from various people who worked in the abortion industry. Incredible journalism, highly recommended.

Ann Althouse said...

Meade's wearing a cap indoors?"

He pretty much always has a cap on.

Bob R said...

Medium foot privilege.

Michael K said...

I read Caro's biography of Johnson via Audible and am now working on "The Lion Gate" by Pressler about the Six Day War and "Hue 1968" about the battle of Hue. Both on audible. I've read "The Lion's Gate" but my wife likes the Audible version. When she's in the car, that is what we listen to. We drove to LA and back last week. Lots of time to listen to books.

I gave my son, a copy of Pressler's "Killing Rommel" which is excellent.

I'm also reading the "Outlander" series on my Kindle. Books are distributed between my car ( Audible), the living room where I have Pepys diary, and the bedroom with the Kindle. I was reading his account of the 1666 London Fire between parts of the SC-Colorado game before we left for the opera.

Pruning trees today. I'm taking a break right now.

Comanche Voter said...

Testosterone boots? Well you know what they say about men with small feet. I wear a size 15 E myself and that brand of shoes doesn't have anything big enough to fit me.

But to get to the main part of your post, I don't believe that people always look glum when they are reading. My wife frequently laughs out loud when she reads something she thinks is funny. I tend toward the glum side myself when reading, but it's mainly because I prefer to read history rather than novels.

Michael K said...

I laughed out loud when reading Derbyshires's "We're Doomed" a few years ago.

NRO hurt themselves badly when they fired him.

rehajm said...

One vote for Ball Of Fire.

rehajm said...

I know it's cold in WI but that's too much.

I'm conflicted with the convention given the informality of modern society. It's one thing to pull for an introduction or on the 18th green but removing my trucker hat at the barbecue joint seems a contradiction.

Sebastian said...

"People look glum" Pierre Bayard tells us it's better not to read anyway, picking some books out of many that distort our vue d'ensemble.

tim in vermont said...

You overdid the Dutch angle if you were trying to make Meade look demented.

Howard said...

Even Bum Phillips took off his cowboy hat in the AstroDome.

13x6E have to shop Hitchcock only. http://www.wideshoes.com/

Those suede boots with the zipper are actually estrogen boots. Wear 'em to a job site is a gaur n tee getting flipped over in the Andy Gump.

jwl said...

Melissa Kite - Sorry for touching your knee Michael Fallon – I exploited you to get ahead:

This one goes out to all the male MPs I’ve taken to lunch. I want to apologise to each and every one of you. Some of you know who you are and what went on. Some of you were so tipsy you may not have been fully aware of how shockingly you were being exploited.

I estimate there are dozens, if not hundreds, of you whom I’ve taken to lunch, dinner and drinks during my time as a political correspondent.

Look, it was a long time ago and I’m practically an old lady now, in media years. I’ve no need to keep up the pretence that I was a blameless naïf in my 20s and 30s when I was an ambitious young lobby hack. I want to make my confession. I want to explain why I did it.

I took advantage of men to get ahead, and because I enjoyed it ......

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/sorry-for-touching-your-knee-michael-fallon-i-exploited-you-to-get-ahead/

ALP said...

The glum reader was certainly not reading anything by David Sedaris. Impossible to read Sedaris and look glum at the same time.

dreams said...

Lets take another look at the age-old problem of men exploiting young women.

"On November 13, 1894, “The Lion of White Hall,” 84-year old Cassius M. Clay married 15-year old Dora Richardson at his Madison County estate. The wedding became one of the most memorable stories in Kentucky history. The Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Transcript carried front page news accounts while publications across the country shared the news of Clay and his “child-wife.”"

https://www.jpinews.com/2017/11/09/my-kentucky-cassius-m-clays-child-wife-dora/

chickelit said...

And — I am not kidding — Testosterone men's Ball Of Fire boots.

Zippered sides are not manly. At all. Sorry.

Big Mike said...

That's not a UW-Mad cap on Meade. It isn't Minnesota, is it? Please tell me it's not Minnesota.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Althouse Can Tell Meade Has A Hat On Always

Um, wait a minute..

Big Mike said...

Both adult sons were visiting so I took them and the wife to see "Thor:Ragnarok" last night. Alternates between extremely violent CGI and attempts at being funny. Wish I'd saved my money.

tim in vermont said...

Wideshoes.com! Thank you thank you thank you!

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Alternate view: "Thor:Ragnarok" is a pitch perfect movie, well scripted and almost perfectly cast (Blanchett is not up to it, but she is mainly a McGuffin anyway). Watch the whole cast react to what should be a throwaway, the "snake" story. Great stuff.

tim in vermont said...

Any movie with a "McGuffin" is not well scripted by definition.

Big Mike said...

There's a credible meme running around out there that Donna Brazile has destroyed what little chance Hillary Clinton had of making herself the 2020 nominee for a rematch -- why this time Hillary would even visit Wisconsin, no doubt!

Donna Brazile had to know that many old friends will turn on her, she'll be a target for people in the media who feel that she's a turncoat. But I get where she's coming from. I just wish the GOP had people willing to take that sort of personal risk for the good of their party the way she's willing to risk friendship and standing to improve Democrat chances three years hence.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Any movie with a "McGuffin" is not well scripted by definition.

Well, "Casablanca" does ok..

tcrosse said...

Any movie with a "McGuffin" is not well scripted by definition.

Hitchcock would disagree.

Michael K said...

84-year old Cassius M. Clay married 15-year old Dora Richardson at his Madison County estate.

Lavoisier married his wife when she was13. He was the greatest chemist in history and she was his assistant. After the fools of the Revolution Guillotined him, she kept his papers and recovered others. She defended his reputation until she died.

I could not be interested in 17 year old girls at 32 because they had no conversation but she was probably the exception at 13.

rehajm said...

There's a credible meme running around out there that Donna Brazile has destroyed what little chance Hillary Clinton had of making herself the 2020 nominee for a rematch

SNL is pushing them all over the edge. Go Kamala! starts next week...

stevew said...

Seems to me there is a good chance Donna Brazile has set herself up for thanks and congratulations from many of the party faithful. Other than the blindly loyal HRC crowd, which I judge to be small, don't most Democrats understand and accept that Hillary is a terrible candidate for POTUS? She was terrible in '08 and worse in '16. In 2020 she will be ancient and competing against a couple of young, energetic, healthy, and reliably liberal candidates. Plus I think having lost to DJT once she is quite likely to do so again.

Smart Dems want her gone, and Donna Brazile has stepped up to facilitate just that.

-sw

Ann Althouse said...

That's actually my hat, which I bought when we went to a Milwaukee Brewers game. I rarely wear it, and I happen to need a man's extra large, so it works for him too.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"My wife frequently laughs out loud when she reads something she thinks is funny."

Not when she's alone. She only does that to start a conversation with you. Laughing is social.

"I could not be interested in 17 year old girls at 32 because they had no conversation but she was probably the exception at 13."

One of the great ills of current society is women expecting to marry men around their own age. We should be like the Chinese, or like a commenter in another thread said they are, or were --work hard at least until we're old enough, wise enough, and financially secure enough to marry. The reward for success, if we achieve it, should be to get the best wife we can, no matter our age or hers. And yes, part of a wife's worth is her youth. It wouldn't do any good to expect most women to work, save, and invest until they accumulate enough money to raise a family; that could take till after menopause.

Men are different than women, am I right?

chickelit said...

Men are different than women, am I right?

I thought egg-banking changed all that.

Aussie Pundit said...

I feel the need to point out the obvious: Regardless of how they look, reading doesn't as a general rule make people 'glum'.

People 'look glum' when reading for the same reason they look glum when driving a car, watching TV, and sitting on a park bench. They're occupied by their own inner life and aren't engaging with you or the rest of the world.
There's no need to waste muscle energy on non-verbal communication in those situations, so we usually don't.

chickelit said...

There's no need to waste muscle energy on non-verbal communication in those situations, so we usually don't.

People's "resting face" comes out.

Imagine if every laptop had a spy camera watching us. Mine is taped over.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"My wife frequently laughs out loud when she reads something she thinks is funny."

Not when she's alone. She only does that to start a conversation with you. Laughing is social.


I frequently laugh out loud when reading. And when watching movies alone.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

People looking glum? That's preferable to people looking strange when you're a stranger.

Of course, you can look both glum and strange, which pretty much covers everyone you see in a public library.

Hagar said...

Genghis Khan admonished his sons and grandsons to impregnate as many women as possible, which is one motivation for "sex" - the drive to perpetuate yourself. With the Kennedys and Clinton maybe just obnoxious randiness.
But the stuff we have been reading about lately is aberrant sex if sex at all - sick stuff.

Sprezzatura said...

"Zippered sides are not manly. At all. Sorry."

Indeed.

And it's almost always a mistake to have more than one fastening system that covers the same chasm on any shoes/boots.

Years ago I bought a pair of Gucci boots that have laces and buckles over the laces. They're the exception that proves the rule. [Makes me wonder where those things are. Someone probably donated them sans my noticing/caring.]


Anywho, reading always makes a person look like a nerd. Reading is for nerds. Reading = nerds = losers. NotReading = DJT = winner.

Duh.

Sprezzatura said...

"Of course, you can look both glum and strange, which pretty much covers everyone you see in a public library."

Library = Nerditorium (and it's a place for bums to masturbate to internet porn).

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

Rubio's zippered boots were not manly and he paid a price for that.

Crimso said...

Michael K:
How do you feel about Audible when maps are critical? There are a number of books I'd listen to, but don't want to have to pull up maps on a computer to follow the action. For that reason I've mainly stayed away from the military history on Audible unless, of course, maps aren't necessary. Just finished "The Arms of Krupp," and Boehmer's rich German pronunciation was both a positive and a negative.

"He was the greatest chemist in history"

A pretty solid assessment, but Fischer? Krebs? Boltzmann (though a physicist)?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Not when she's alone. She only does that to start a conversation with you. Laughing is social.”

That’s baloney. I laugh out loud when by myself, reading something funny or when I’m reading comments here in the comments sections.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Lavoisier's widow wound up marrying her first husband's rival, Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford): She must have experienced a little friction herself.

Fernandinande said...

Michael K pontificated...
Pruning trees today. I'm taking a break right now.


There was another guy who took a break from some minor yard-work, but he didn't think it was interesting enough to mention on the internet.

Boy, was he mistaken!

Michael K said...

"How do you feel about Audible when maps are critical? "

No, I don't even like Kindle maps. The "Lion's Gate" is a series of first person narratives of the war by soldiers who fought, Maps aren't really part of the story.

I read a lot of books on the Civil War and I have a whole atlas of Civil War battles.

I mostly read novels on Kindle and spent a lot of hours listening to the Johnson biography which is about 80 hours. Now, when commuting, I am listening to "Hue 1968." "Lion's Gate" which i have read in the hardcover version, is for my wife. We've done some round trips to CA by car the last couple of months and she likes to listen to the audio books. The drive is about 7 hours.

Michael K said...

"Boy, was he mistaken!"

Some people are really tiresome.

Howard said...

I feel your pain, Tim. Hammer toes covered in blisters become a thing of the past.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hagar said...

Come to think of it, I do not remember any women at all complaining about Jack or Bobby, and even Teddy I believe it was reporters who heard about some of his activities and not the women themselves.

Sprezzatura said...

"Rubio's zippered boots were not manly and he paid a price for that."

There are some differences and some similarities re Rub v Mead re zippered boots, and such.

When Rubio sips from a small cup w/ a handle he probably (unlike Meade) has his pinky out while grasping the appendage. But, Meade is simpatico re little R re appendage grabbing (i.e. both choose to use that gal handle, rather than directly directing the vessel to their visage).

Different strokes fer different folks.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“There was another guy who took a break from some minor yard-work, but he didn't think it was interesting enough to mention on the internet.”

Chuckling...out loud...by myself.

JML said...

The other day Rush was hypothesizing that Brazile was trying to knock the Clinton's totally out of power to set the stage for Michelle O to run.

stever said...

I'm looking forward to the Biden/McAuliffe 2020 faceoff. Some people think that's a good idea.

wild chicken said...

Someone here at Althouse got me reading Anthony Trollope a year ago, and I am still at it. I'm lost somewhere in the Barsetshire novels, and it's like some long everlasting life I'm afraid to finish.

I realize he charged by the page but I like it.



Oso Negro said...


Blogger Michael K said...

I could not be interested in 17 year old girls at 32 because they had no conversation but she was probably the exception at 13.


If it's intellectual stimulation you want, there are always books.

Hagar said...

Michelle is a princess of "the organization;" not a politician.

tcrosse said...

Michelle is a princess of "the organization;" not a politician.

Likewise Barack.

rehajm said...

I happen to need a man's extra large, so it works for him too.

That’s a huge noggin’

Michael K said...

"If it's intellectual stimulation you want, there are always books."

Books get you in a lot less trouble.

The last time I was interested in 17 year old girls I was 17.

Meade said...

The boots I plan to buy. Made in Wisconsin.

"M" on my cap is for Milwaukee.

Sprezzatura said...

Meade, I dunno about those for you.

Sure, those boots go pretty far re screaming 'poser who's buying a costume they don't need, cause they're tryin' to compensate.'

But, yur still leaving chips on the table. Go all in:

https://workboot.com/collections/logger/products/viberg-105t


And, don't forget to grab a Sthil 88, w/ a 60" bar. [FTR, I have one of those.]

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

If Don Fagan found he couldn't talk at all to 19, I can't imagine 17 would be any improvement.

Mary Beth said...

"My wife frequently laughs out loud when she reads something she thinks is funny."

Not when she's alone. She only does that to start a conversation with you. Laughing is social.


I laugh out loud more when I'm reading by myself than when I'm reading around other people. I don't want to have to stop reading to explain to others what I was laughing about. Also, people look at you strangely when you are sitting there laughing to yourself for an extended period of time. I learned this when I made the mistake of reading a Discworld book while traveling. The flight attendants probably thought I had been smoking something that had "an overwhelmingly sweet and lemony aroma, like a lemon-lime soda on a sunny day".

Hagar said...

Mchelle is from South Chicago; Barack is from the Annenberg Foundation.

Big Mike said...

@Meade, I’m just happy it’s not Minnesota.

Quaestor said...

I was intrigued by the Balls of Fire boots because of the zipper/straps/lacings combination which reminded me of typical paddock boots. Looking around Amazon for paddock boots I blundered into this: A fool and his money...

Big Mike said...

Anyone who believes that Michelle Obama would be a competent President of the United States is demonstrating the soft bigotry of low expectations.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"I laugh out loud more when I'm reading by myself than when I'm reading around other people"


So do I. I'm enjoying Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" right now. I didn't expect it to be laugh out loud funny but it is.

Saint Croix said...

Ball of Fire is a great movie, by the way. Howard Hawks, off a screenplay by Billy Wilder. Modern update of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Gary Cooper is Snow White. Barbara Stanwyck is the ball of fire. Funny stuff.

traditionalguy said...

I have learned that laughing out loud while reading Althouse comments when my wife is in the room demands that I share it. And if it is a Laslo character, that will require a disclaimer. No, of course that's not funny, dear.

Sprezzatura said...

"Anyone who believes that Michelle Obama would be a competent President of the United States is demonstrating the soft bigotry of low expectations."

Shorter Big M: 'Rs really F-ed up in 16.'

Sprezzatura said...

BTW Big M,

Did you vote for this lowering of expectations (i.e. the dude who tweets like a child and has meetings where his side leaks that he's lame and/or a F-ing moron)?

Sprezzatura said...

Cog dis is really cool. IMHO.

John henry said...

I used to listen to a lot of Books-On-Tape back in the 80s and 90s. I was on a book every 3 weeks plan. Never could make the switch to CDs, I liked having 45 minute chunks. With a CD I could never find my place again.

I've tried a couple books on Audible and didn't care much for them. They seem way overproduced/overacted.

I have no problem with history or biography, or novels. I tried a couple of more thinky books, like Thomas Sowell, Hayek and some others. I had trouble because with this kind of book in audio I find myself needing to stop and think, reread passages, look up other stuff in the books and so on.

I just finished Moby Dick from Librivox.org (The Gutenberg of audio books) I was very surprised. Most of the book was about whales and whaling. The drama of Ahab and the White whale seemed like a long short story padded with general whaling info to get a full book. I did enjoy it, just not what I expected from having watched the movie 55 years ago.

Just started relistening to American Senator by Anthony Trollope. 2nd or 3rd time I've listened to it. From Librivox.

I love Trollope and just started rewatching The Pallisers, downloaded from YouTube. Last week I watched The Barchester Chronicles, the week before Can you Forgive her and before that The Way we Live Now with David Suchet. All originally Masterpiece Theatre presentations that I have in a CD box set.

Currently reading, allin the Kindle app on my tablet:

No Simple Victory (About WWII, pretty good)

Free Air by Sinclair Lewis. About the 4th time I've read it. ("Swastikas" are a plot point. It was written in 1919)

I am working on War and Peace. I had watched the 20 part series with Anthony Hopkins last summer and loved it. (Download from Youtube) Figured I would take a peek at the book. I was turned off of Russian novels in HS and college. This is amazingly good for the most part but does have stretches where I get bogged down. So I read a bit then put it aside a bit.

Maria has me doing a lot of reading because there is not much else to do. I've worked my way through my collection of Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake and George Higgins. Also about a dozen John LeCarre novels.

Also rereading "The Physics of NASCAR"

Started Astoria by Washington Irving about Astor and the fur trade in the pacific northwest. I'll get back to it eventually.

Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An economic and Technological history.

I probably have 50-75 samples on my Kindle app. Anytime someone mentions a book that I might, possibly, like, I download and read the sample. A number of them I delete fairly quickly. The rest I keep for when I am looking for something new to read. A few I read the sample and, because they really hook me, I buy immediately.

I can't remember the last book I read on paper. I doubt I have read more than 2-3 since my son gave me a Kindle 6-7 years ago. If I ever meet Jeff Bezos I'm going to kiss him on the nose for inventing the Kindle.

I am going to have to get a mirror to see if I look glum when reading.

John Henry

wild chicken said...

John henry, that must have been you who got me reading trollope? If so, thank you.

Will check out American senator..

Sprezzatura said...

"If I ever meet Jeff Bezos I'm going to kiss him on the nose for inventing the Kindle."

Give Alexa a smooch, the message gets home.

Sprezzatura said...

BTW, now that Alexa is workin' w/ sonos and all the lighting/enviro stuff, normal folks can get sorta close to home automation that, not too long ago, has cost not-normal folks well past a hundred grand or several hundreds.

Cool!


Big Mike said...

@anti-de, I would have crawled five miles over broken glass to vote against Hillary Clinton. I'm far from alone in my assessment of the Democrats' candidate. If they wanted normal human beings to vote for their candidate they should have started with a member of the species h. sapiens.

Answer your question?

Sprezzatura said...

But, obviously, F-ing w/ these coastal elites is good for 'Murica.

Coal!

Comanche Voter said...

Getting back to my wife who laughs out loud when reading; she is frequently two or three rooms away from me when she reads something that strikes her as funny. So she laughs.


Now she may come in and see me if there is something outrageous that say Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama has done. Then she wants to start a conversation and tell me what awful people those folks are. As for me, I figured that out long ago and don't really want or need to hear the particulars of their latest escapade. OTOH after fifty plus years of marriage,you sigh to yourself and "listen" as in appearing to hear what is said

I like it better when she laughs--no explanation or explication needed.

William said...

Trollope would finish one five hundred page novel and then immediately turn his attention to starting in on the next five hundred page novel. There are writers like that.

Big Mike said...

@anti-de, hey! Thanks. I live next door to West Virginia. Coal!

BTW, it says something about Hillary Clinton's lack of political savvy that she went to West Virginia and was proud of having killed jobs in the coal industry. Wellesley must have been hard up for students, that they not only matriculated her but graduated her.

William said...

I just watched part of Casablanca. Did you ever notice that there's a distinctly Nazi way of holding a cigarette. They hold it between the pads of their thumb and first finger. I don't know why this is so, but it's an extremely obnoxious way of holding a cigarette. Humphrey Bogart was a guy who really knew how to smoke a cigarette. He inhales deeply and takes exquisite enjoyment from each puff. Shame about him dying so young.

Sprezzatura said...

"Wellesley must have been hard up for students, that they not only matriculated her but graduated her."

I dunno, the Wellesly vibe seems sorta dike-y. Seems like an HRC fit.

IMHO.

William said...

I'm reading Robert Payne's biography of Lenin. If you want glum reading, there's nothing better than Russian history. Massacres, famines, bleak winters, catastrophic wars, and then things get worse.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"But, obviously, F-ing w/ these coastal elites is good for 'Murica."

Where did this "'Murica" thing come from? I realize it's a term snots use to make fun of deplorables but I've traveled in the South and in other rural parts of the country and I've never heard anybody pronounce America "'Murica." What regional accent is that supposed to be?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

God TV sucks. I hadn't watched broadcast TV, other than the Super Bowl, for several years but I am now stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere and I started watching. God it sucks. It is hard to credit that I put up with this crap for several decades, more or less happily. It makes me wonder what other ridiculous crap I put up with for the lack of a better alternative.

Sprezzatura said...

"What regional accent is that supposed to be?"

It's shorthand for folks who think that coal is the future and tech is shit. AKA DJT voter.

Do you have mirrors in your house?

Andrew Shimmin said...

A Study Of Reading Habits
Philip Larkin

When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.

Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my cloak and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.

Michael K said...

Little de sitter twerp says

Shorter Big M: 'Rs really F-ed up in 16.'

Why don't you leave and take Hillary with you.? I'm sure you'd be happy.,

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"It's shorthand for folks who think that coal is the future and tech is shit. AKA DJT voter."


However, it's asinine because nobody actually says "'Murica" unless they're speaking with a mouthful of saltwater taffy.

However,you are predictably drawn to the asinine though, so....

Howard said...

Thanks Andrew! Never heard of Larkin before.

Big Mike said...

@exiledonmainstreet, it's called "othering." The cure is to be laughed at. And I've been laughing my ass off so much my waist is going to be three inches wider than my hips.

Howard said...

BM: Fraking killed coal, but it must feel real good to blame the nasty boogieman Hitlary and not technology and economics.
http://www.macrotrends.net/2478/natural-gas-prices-historical-chart

rhhardin said...

British expert analyzes the 2016 Trump election (video or mp3) Gresham Lecture

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-2016-us-president-election-one-year-on

Foreign analysis is usually good for being bad.

n.n said...

Clinton's ... proud of having killed jobs in the coal industry

To be replaced by the non-renewable, environmentally disruptive, intermittent energy production of the gray (a.k.a. "green") blight.

Fortunately, cooler heads are prevailing, prophecies of catastrophes future discarded to the misconceptions of a liberal era, and we are now pursuing a rational characterization for a basket of technologies, with each producer and converter, including gray technologies (e.g. windmills, photovoltaics), selected for purpose and fitness. Maybe. The bitter clingers from the establishment, left, right, and center, are still hunting babies at the progressive fringe, so the future is far from viable.

Sprezzatura said...

"it's called "othering."

As in other species? I.e., "other" than h. sapiens?

Hard to get more other than that = max lulz.


Right Exile, I'm drawn to asinine.

Ha.

n.n said...

The Walls Are Talking. Abby Johnson, who used to direct a Planned Parenthood clinic

Yes. They need to tell the story of public and popular indoctrination into the Pro-Choice Church. A story of denying women's agency, fathers' birthrights, children's lives, and normalization of wicked solutions to hard problems (e.g. sexual liberation, social progress, Mengele markets) at a time when mother and child are uniquely vulnerable.

The walls. The floorboards. The tell-tale hearts beat ever louder.

That said, this is positive progress to realizing a conservation of principles that will contribute to a future free of progressive diversity (e.g. color discrimination) and selective-child policy.

Sebastian said...

"It makes me wonder what other ridiculous crap I put up with for the lack of a better alternative." Like hanging out with conservatives around here? As you say, no better alternative . . .

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

News from Chicago: Man shoots himself in the penis when he tries to rob a hot dog joint.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-far-south-side-robber-shoots-self-20171102-story.html

I don't think many criminals take Gun Safety classes.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

God TV sucks. I hadn't watched broadcast TV, other than the Super Bowl, for several years but I am now stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere and I started watching. God it sucks. It is hard to credit that I put up with this crap for several decades, more or less happily. It makes me wonder what other ridiculous crap I put up with for the lack of a better alternative.

I agree. It's so, so bad. I rarely watch TV, and when I do it's one old show or another on Netflix that I keep an eye on while I do other things. Haven't known how to work broadcast TV since before this century (don't you now need some special antenna for over the air TV now? I have no idea) and dropped cable 6ish years ago. I am continually astounded when I am stuck in a doctor's waiting room or something at how incredibly shitty current TV is; what a drooling idiot you have to be to be entertained by that garbage.

Frankly, movies too ~ took my teenage metalhead to experience This Is Spinal Tap at Alamo Drafthouse last night; we had a fabulous time but good Lord, the previews. There is some vile piece of garbage coming out called Cock Blockers that I cannot remotely understand anyone enjoying, but several people in the theater were guffawing at the "jokes" in the preview. I don't get it. It's one step up from Ass as explored in that great piece of prophecy, Idiocracy.

Patrick said...

It's been years since I've been to a movie except with my kids, and I watch very little TV, even less sports than maybe 5 years ago, and even then it was mostly Green Bay Packers. We don't have cable TV, so I'm spared all of the MSNBC/CNN/FOX stuff. I started watching How I Met Your Mother last year, but only got through 3 seasons before I noticed Netflix was removing it, so I went directly to the last season. I watched a few shows in syndication on TV and had a rough time getting through it due to the commercial interruptions. When I have the time, I read, but TV and the movies are a waste, and that's before I knew that most people in Hollywood are pigs. 'Course we've known that for awhile, haven't we?

Andrew Shimmin said...

You're welcome, Howard. I spent a good part of yesterday chickening out of posting Deceptions ( https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MrVHfddoFgMJ:https://allpoetry.com/poem/8495693-Deceptions-by-Philip-Larkin+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us ) in the Louis CK thread.

walter said...

Blogger Ann Althouse said...
Meade's wearing a cap indoors?"
He pretty much always has a cap on.
--
Flyover fashion, Ralph..

Ralph L said...

I dropped cable 5 years ago, so my 90 y.o. father watches a lot of ION network crime shows: 3 flavors of L&O, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods (he doesn't like Psych), on all day until 3 am 7 days a week. He liked American Sports Network, which showed months old, second or third tier college sports, but two nearby channels dropped it for a sports blather network.

Amazon Prime had a poor selection without paying for extra channels. PBS Passport is really annoying: only trailers/previews for many of the shows I want to watch. I may try Netflix in December.

We watched a show tonight about Civil War era songs from Tennessee's Public TV which was worth seeing. Unexpectedly, most of them were Yankee songs.

HT said...

Roy Moore thinks no one in the US is more investigated than he is. This is clearly wrong. He has up to now been a statewide candidate/politician/judge. Nationally, the scrutiny for political candidates is of a much greater magnitude. Sorry Roy, you are not entitled to make that claim.

Ann Althouse said...

@Andrew Shimmin

Thanks for the Philip Larkin poem. That was great (and completely on topic (even though it's a café and there's no pressure to stay on topic)).

"The women I clubbed with sex!/I broke them up like meringues."

That guy could never be a senator. (Even though he's only talking about the stupid books he read, why should we believe him and not the women?)

Ann Althouse said...

"The boots I plan to buy. Made in Wisconsin."

I notice they are marked with "EH" which stands for "electrical hazard." That's a pretty funny way to convey the message that they resist electrical hazards. I was worried they were some kind of shocker boots. He's got electric boots, a mohair suit, you know, I read it in a magazine.

Robert Cook said...

There's no good reason not to read.

Robert Cook said...

"I just watched part of Casablanca. Did you ever notice that there's a distinctly Nazi way of holding a cigarette. They hold it between the pads of their thumb and first finger. I don't know why this is so, but it's an extremely obnoxious way of holding a cigarette."

How do you know this is a "Nazi way" of holding a cigarette? Perhaps they actor and/or director of CASABLANCA came up with that way of holding it for the movie. Or perhaps it was a European way of holding cigs at the time.

Robert Cook said...

"Anyone who believes that Michelle Obama would be a competent President of the United States is demonstrating the soft bigotry of low expectations."

Well, given our last five or six Presidents,low expectations are the only ones likely to be met. There's no reason to assume Michelle Obama couldn't at least match their performance.

Ralph L said...

Or perhaps it was a European way of holding cigs at the time.

Every American knows you use the index and middle fingers so you can hold a champagne glass/beer can and still eat or shake hands without the cigarette in your mouth. That's about the only image I have left of my HS headmaster.

Jose_K said...

Sammy Sosa ,according to the DR press, has , or they said years ago, vitiligo

Meade said...

"There's no good reason not to read."

Bummer.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Nationally, the scrutiny for political candidates is of a much greater magnitude. Sorry Roy, you are not entitled to make that claim.

11/13/17, 5:51 AM

I don't like Moore very much, but he was a controversial judge and so I think he has probably been investigated a great deal, although not more than anybody else in the US. That would be Trump.