Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind, I can recall a time when the sight of that white dome thrilled me. As a teenager, working for a New York congressman, I felt privileged to walk the same marble corridors where some of America’s most revered leaders had walked.I swear that when I read that, I thought the "white dome" was the bald head of the white man she was working for. I don't know how many more sentences I had to read before I realized the "white dome" was the Capitol building.
I read the sentence out loud to Meade, to see if he got tripped up in the same way. First, he heard "white dome" as "Whitedom" (which I guess is the dominion of white people). I read it again with better enunciation, and even though he did (he admitted later) know it meant the Capitol, he said, because he knows my mind so well, "I think of the heads of 7 bald men." That is, he knew I pictured a bald head, and he was teasing me about my oft-stated remedy for the hiccups. (It works. Try it. Think of the heads of 7 bald men.)
But enough about my mind. How about Maureen Dowd's mind? Meade got stuck on the first phrase, "Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind..." Soon, he was singing "In the dim recesses of Maureen Dowd's mind..." to the tune of The Grateful Deads' "Attics of My Life":
Here are the lyrics, in case you want to write your own parody:
In the attics of my life2 more verses at the link, to Genius, where there's only one annotation, on the line I bold-faced, above:
Full of cloudy dreams unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear
You sang to me
I have spent my life
Seeking all that's still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to me...
You fill to the full with most beautiful splendor those souls who close their eyes that they may seeIN THE COMMENTS: Angle-Dyne said:
St. Denis’s Prayer: A fourteenth-century poem from Saint Denis’s The Cloud of Unknowing.
Nobody knows who wrote The Cloud of Unknowing, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't St. Denis.I said:
Thanks. I was wondering about that. I've read "The Cloud of Unknowing" — one of the greatest books ever — and when I read it it was anonymous. Somehow I was ready to believed that they'd tracked down the author!The link in the Genius annotation goes to a page that identifies the unknown author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" as having also written "The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis." That seems to be the source of the confusion.
ADDED: I think the problem is that there's one book with "The Cloud of Unknowing" that also has "The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis" and the text of the St. Denis prayer, which is properly quoted above. Did Saint Denis actually write those words? I don't know. But I did look up St. Denis, and I have a better understanding of the illustration:
Denis is the most famous cephalophore in Christian legend, with a popular story claiming that the decapitated bishop picked up his head and walked several miles while preaching a sermon on repentance....A cephalophore is what it sounds like — someone who carries his own severed head. You never hear about that happening anymore, but people used to say it did:
A cephalophore (from the Greek for "head-carrier") is a saint who is generally depicted carrying his or her own head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading....
[T]he folklorist Émile Nourry counted no less than 134 examples of cephalophory in French hagiographic literature alone....
Aristotle is at pains to discredit the stories of talking heads and to establish the physical impossibility, with the windpipe severed from the lung. "Moreover," he adds, "among the barbarians, where heads are chopped off with great rapidity, nothing of the kind has ever occurred."
Posts
152 comments:
“What American gender politics has done to my mind.“
So it’s having the intended effect?
"What American gender politics has done to my mind."
The "gender politics" is just lefty warfare by other means. It is aided and abetted by the "cruelly neutral" Althouses.
What gender politics has done to your mind is a form of self-harm. Except that, in the process, you are effing with the rest of us.
There's the unknowing, and the known unknowing, the unknowing we know, then there's the unknown unknowing, the unknowing we don't know....
"A fourteenth-century poem from Saint Denis’s The Cloud of Unknowing."
Nobody knows who wrote The Cloud of Unknowing, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't St. Denis.
Male and female sex. Masculine and feminine gender. And a transitional spectrum of physical and behavioral attributes.
The Class of ‘68 - with Bill and Hillary at the top of the class - brought us to this place.
Every time I read the name “Maureen Dowd”, I think of that 16 year old pizza delivery boy,
Democrats allowed witnesses supportive of Thomas to appear in the early hours of Monday before the vote--something like 2AM Chicago time, if I recall. MoDo must not have bothered to stay up. Nobody would say it was clear cut for Hill if she had watched. Hill was the fibber. And Dowd is either that dumb or a liar.
Is a bald head a phallic symbol?
Thank god we have an unsubstantiated allegation of sexual assault nearly four decades ago to argue over while we're spending ourselves into economic collapse.
"Nobody knows who wrote The Cloud of Unknowing, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't St. Denis."
Thanks. I was wondering about that. I've read "The Cloud of Unknowing" — one of the greatest books ever — and when I read it it was anonymous. Somehow I was ready to believed that they'd tracked down the author!
A spoon of peanut butter alao works on hiccups. It does not, however, leave you with the image of Patrick Stewart or Dwayne Johnson.
(eaglebeak)
Author of The Cloud of Unknowing remains Anonymous. Written in Middle English in second half of 14th century, so contemporaneous with Chaucer (who died in 1400) and William Langland (died c. 1386), author of Piers Plowman--not bad company.
Anyone who reads Maureeen Dowd anymore is already confused.
It's nice to take a stroll on Rue St. Denis in Montréal. See it before it gets crowded with American Liberals who fled the country.
Thank god we have an unsubstantiated allegation of sexual assault nearly four decades ago to argue over while we're spending ourselves into economic collapse.
"How long ago?"
"Thirty-some years."
"Any police or hospital reports from the time?"
"Nope."
"NEXT!"
Dowd, “the merciless pummeling of a woman who dares to obstruct the glide path of a conservative Supreme Court nominee.”
Me,”ignoring the credible and documented claims of a woman who dares to obstruct the glide path of a liberal Minnesota AG candidate.”
David Begley... Exactly my thoughts. Carville watched that $100 bill while Bill dragged it.
A great white dome.
"The Attics of my Life" is a Zen koan. Empty like an orange.
I read this headline as an Althouse mea culpa. It seems pretty clear today that American gender politics has done something to your mind. It's disappointing, of course, but no one's perfect.
"A spoon of peanut butter alao works on hiccups."
In the 1970s, we used a spoonful of sugar. It worked, but, like peanut butter, has calories. So try the no-cal bald men first.
Sex confusion and gender dysfunction has manifested as a heat seeking missile searching for a target.
"What gender politics has done to your mind is a form of self-harm. Except that, in the process, you are effing with the rest of us."
You're the one reading the blog. Stop blaming others.
My awareness of how words affect my mind is a subject I choose to write about. It is not hurting me, but completely wholesome. I am defending myself. I noticed how I experienced the words "white dome" in the moment and it hit the zone of what I want to write about. I'm saying there's so much talk about old white men these days that I thought that's what MD was referring to and I found it funny and slightly disturbing.
"Is a bald head a phallic symbol?"
Yes. Well known.
I remember discussion of that in an article in a mainstream magazine in the 60s about why women liked the advertising mascot Mr. Clean.
If you have to ask, it's really a sign that we've become so much more prissy and repressed in recent times. Sad!
The one absolutely foolproof cure for hiccups, taught me by a blind bartender, is a teaspoon of lemon juice. Vinegar also does the trick. Works every time.
Yancey Ward said...
"A great white dome."
Hey! I clicked on that link AFTER I wrote the above comment on Mr. Clean.
“That is, he knew I pictured a bald head, and he was teasing me about my oft-stated remedy for the hiccups. (It works. Try it. Think of the heads of 7 bald men.)”
What is that even supposed to mean besides that you’ve fetishized your favorite male put-down? Male pattern baldness is inherited and, by the way, affects black men as well.
I can think of a few generic turnoffs which typify older white females: blue hair, bingo wings, caked on make up that would cause even a sailor like John McCain so swear.
"You're the one reading the blog. Stop blaming others."
Actually, ma'am, I was referring to the way gender politics is messing up the country. Your own predilections, though they unfortunately contribute to the mess, are the least of it, and the blog has offsetting virtues in any case.
"My awareness of how words affect my mind is a subject I choose to write about. It is not hurting me, but completely wholesome."
OK then. "What x has done to my mind" had a slightly negative ring to it, but I'm pleased you declare it wholesome.
"I read this headline as an Althouse mea culpa."
You misread me. I'm proud of my awareness of the workings of the mind... to the extent that I have it, which is enough to write this pst, which I am proud of.
In my day, white boys were taught that real men were good at ignoring noise and trivialities. Apparently cuckservatives were taught soap opera hysteria instead. Women, like minorities have gotten fucked over. Things are changing. Change is messy. Deal with it.
All your thinking you must do with your mind, which has in it whatever has come your way, some of which you've actively sought out and some of which has been foisted upon you. You do what you can with it, even playing with the misconceptions and wild associations. What a thing to have to play with! I'm quite enjoying what I have. How about you?
Aristotle is at pains to discredit the stories of talking heads "...nothing of the kind has ever occurred."
Hey Aristotle, Stop Making Sense.
... and Althouse has provided a large padded safespace with aroma therapy and quiet assurances... yet still you people complain to her that she is not being empathetic enough to your fucked idiotology. Priceless.
"If you have to ask, it's really a sign that we've become so much more prissy and repressed in recent times. Sad!"
I was just hoping to put a smile on your face with that comment.
Thanks Fernandistein, that Movie was Once in a Lifetime Great!
And you may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself
In another part of the world
And you may find yourself
Behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go to?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say yourself, "My God! What have I done?"
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again in to the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Look where my hand was
Time isn't holding up
Time isn't after us
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Once in a lifetime
Letting the days go by
Letting the days go by
Songwriters: Brian Eno / Christopher Frantz / David Byrne / Jerry Harrison / Tina Weymouth
Once in a Lifetime lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group
Feedback
"What is that even supposed to mean besides that you’ve fetishized your favorite male put-down?"
Thanks for reminding me to add the "bald" tag so anyone can check if I put down bald men. I never noticed I did that. I thought MD did that with the words "white dome," but I was wrong.
I don't know where "fetishized" comes from here.. The hiccups cure is one that I've learned from other people and have talked about it on the occasions of actually needing the cure and finding it amusing that it works. Why does it work?
I'm amused.
You, on the other hand, sound rather sour.
I can get through an althouse post in about 1/4 the time it takes me to read b/c I totally skip all the meandering and whimsical musing about words and expressions that seem to fill the posts since retirement (hers, not mine). It’s a form of speed reading.
As a hydrogeologist, that is my favorite rock(!) song of all time
My hiccup remedy is light couple of matches and then put them in shallow cup of water, then drink water. I assume it is sulphur but it work for me past twenty years.
In 1978, getting "dome" from a girl was "loads" of fun.
Thanks to Meade for bringing up that song - had completely forgotten it, which is weird because it completely knocked me out when it was first out - guess it went down in the flood of all the amazing music coming out around then
"Is a bald head a phallic symbol?"
Yes. Well known.
I'll buy that. I've always been attracted to bald men. Not all bald men, of course...
If you have to ask, it's really a sign that we've become so much more prissy and repressed in recent times. Sad!
I wonder if Jessica Valenti thought people were being prissy and repressed, or perhaps priggish, when she was being attacked for standing provocatively next to Bill Clinton?
Mo Dowd probably could benefit from a good shagging. Two obstacles though: (1) she is surrounded by wimpy DC beta males who, by definition, couldn't give her a good shagging and (2) at age 66, well, the bloom is off the rose.
Hey, I don't make the rules.
@Althouse: I’m confused about why you choose 7 bald men as your visual cure. It seems akin to visualizing your audience to be naked as a cure for nervousness. This works because most people are hideous when naked. Explain your mechanics of why it works for you. Why not something arbitrary like seven swans a swimming?
And I stand by my suspicion that you visualize “white domes” in a negative way. It’s related to your shorts fetish.
I remember discussion of that in an article in a mainstream magazine in the 60s about why women liked the advertising mascot Mr. Clean.
One could never ask for more evidence than an article in a mainstream 1960s magazine.
Well, maybe...
[why women liked "Mr. Clean"] -> 732,000 (fake) results.
[why women liked "Mr. Clean" "phallic"] -> 25,800 (fake) results.
[why women liked "Mr. Clean" "phallic symbol"] -> 262 (fake) results. Only 77 real results.
Even
["Mr. Clean" "phallic symbol"] (only 87 real results) doesn't seem to return any results about Mr. Clean's bald head being a phallic symbol - they refer to missiles, trees, something in the Vatican, a banana ... probably posted by someone calling himself "Mr. Clean".
Aristotle may have been correct: "...nothing of the kind has ever occurred."
Equal in rights and complementary in Nature. Stand on natural and moral principles, and don't join the mob(s), no matter the secular incentives.
Sometimes a cigar is just a big brown dick in the mouths of republican assholes.
Aristotle, ever the buzz kill.
The Asian point of view of course is that old bald heads are inherently valuable and deserve respect and deference. These things are evolved customs based on ancient experience. Its quite remarkable how uniform this is among very different Asian cultures. The Chinese mother-in-law's power is mirrored in the Filipino pre-Christian custom of bowing to elders and pressing the forehead to their hand. Much like kissing a Bishops ring.
Dowd's education (formal or otherwise) determines her attitude and feelings. This is a very modern way of evaluating matters of public policy. What does such behavior (if true, all such things are suspicions at best) have to do with judgement in great matters? Does it matter, on the field of Agincourt, that Henry V was once Prince Hal? Does it matter how Arthur Wellesley treated his mistresses?
From another set of personal and collective histories Dowds feelings seem absurd.
We are dealing here with truly great matters. Dowd doesn't do scale or perspective.
Aristotle walks into a bar and the bartender says "What does every man not want to get, yet once he has it he doesn't want to lose it?"
Howard's boyfriend has gotten to the keyboard again.
They like to paint with broad sweeping strokes, thus the progress of diversity (i.e. color judgments), political congruence (i.e. selective exclusion), warlock trials (e.g. presumptions of guilt), and abortion rites (e.g. cruel and unusual punishment, summary judgments). Liberalism is divergent and often generational. Progressivism is monotonic and unqualified. Pro-Choice, selective and opportunistic, is two choices too late. #TimesUp #MeToo #HateLovesAbortion
Dowd's problem is that she's not funny in her columns. She's good in interviews.
On the subject of feelings - there is a modern tendency to worship them.
There is a modern tendency to treat feelings, or assertions of feelings, as arguments. Indeed, as argument-ending arguments.
This is corrupt. Feelings are likely to be mistaken, false, evil, deceptive (sublimated or displaced), and indeed lied about. When dealing with inherently honest matters, like the physical world, feelings are useless.
“Sometimes a cigar is just a big brown dick in the mouths of republican assholes.”
Heh. That reminds me of a half remembered joke about a guy leaning his butt out a train window to take dump. Two guys are watching the train pass by and one says “did you see that face”? The other guy says “Did you see the cigar he was smoking?”
"What does every man not want to get, yet once he has it he doesn't want to lose it?"
The consensus is a fetus, offspring, baby. My guess is that there are more men and women who welcome life without #Labels, #Judgment, or #TimesUp ("viability").
Yul Brenner, Telly Savalas. Still trying to get to seven.
And Aristotle says, "The law, for the law is reason, free from passion, and though no man wishes the law to encumber himself, he does not wish to live without the law."
And the bartender says, "No, dummy, it's a bald head."
And Aristotle responds "I hope, sir, that you are either a wild beast or a god to delight in your solitude, because I'm going over to Mulligan's in South Joisey where the bartenders aren't a bunch of smartasses."
what happened to "One Free Grope" ?
Feminists today might consider giving men enough grope to hang themselves
Feelings paint our perception of reality, but are not independently reproducible. Thus beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The demand for empathy is myopic, and counterproductive to sharing experiences and rendering aid.
My MoDo story.
During the sparring between Gingrich and President Pantless, MoDo wrote an article about Republicans...and she added an ellipse.
She removed several PARAGRAPHS of context which made their non crazy assertion into something, on it's face, indefensible and crazy sounding.
Sort of like when Katie Couric interviewed Gun Rights advocates and did dishonest editing.
MODO JOJO opened took my press virginity by showing how blatantly dishonest a so called journalist could be in advocating for a position.
I think the problem is that there's one book with "The Cloud of Unknowing" that also has "The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis"
And, while we busy being theological pedants, I'd just like to point out that the Saint Denis in the mystical theology referred to above is not the head-carrying martyred bishop of Paris, but rather Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. (lived 5th-6th C).
Here's the relevant passage:
It was subsequently in the area of mysticism that Dionysius, especially his portrayal of the via negativa, was particularly influential. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries his fundamental themes were hugely influential on thinkers such as Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, John of Ruusbroec, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing (who made an expanded Middle English translation of Dionysius' Mystical Theology), Jean Gerson, Nicholas of Cusa, Denis the Carthusian, Julian of Norwich and Harphius Herp. His influence can also be traced in the Spanish Carmelite thought of the sixteenth century among Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross.
white dome?
You know that a bald eagle isn't bald, don't you.
I just recalled that my shiny new avatar is from an old advertisement for an anti-baldness head-sucker:
"Science says many are Unnecessarily BALD.
Simple Vacuum Helmet Creating a Sensation."
Ah dear old Mo Do. There are a lot of dim recesses in her mind. Indeed "dimness" is prevalent in much of what she writes.
But to be fair, I've always thought (well for at least the last 20 years or so) of Maureen Dowd as an aging cougar sitting at the end of the bar in the Oak Room hoping somebody will notice her. She's all made up, skirt is short, legs are still lookin' pretty good etc. And nobody bites. If she is now 66 (as an earlier poster asserts) it's probable that the act doesn't work so well.
And cougars in the Oak Room can be dangerous. Just ask John Edwards about Rieille Hunter. He met her there. During that first meeting she spouted a lot of astrology. I have to say that, for a successful trial lawyer, that boy's not too smart. You meet a strange woman in a bar--even a fancy bar like the Oak Room. She starts spouting astrology, you make a polite excuse,go to the exit and run like heck as fast as you can.
Steve Harvey and Howie Mandel. Two big nopes if I want bald men in my thoughts. Can I include Sean Connery?
Isn't it funny but I can't remember the last time I had hiccups. It's been DECADES.
Is this an ailment which only inflicts young people? Then again, I do a LOT of lemon juice, so maybe that is my defense.
Looking at WebMD for the causes of hiccups:
Eating too much or too quickly (Do that)
Feeling nervous or excited (not so much these days)
Drinking carbonated beverages or too much alcohol (I should be hiccupping for MONTHS if this were true)
Stress (Do death defying stunts cause this? Nary a hic)
A sudden change in temperature (Ohio. Nuff said)
Swallowing air while sucking on candy or chewing gum (Ah!)
As a kid, I did candy and chewing gum. Now, not so much. So perhaps that is the key.
Hiccups have been for more interesting than MoDo JoJo has been for decades.
> I'll buy that. I've always been attracted to bald men. Not all bald men, of course...
I've been thinking it is about time to just shave the top, there isn't much left up there.
Althouse professes amusement.
Althouse sounds deranged.
It's a look into the mind of the slightly less radical campus attitudes.
Althouse has checks on her derangement like rule of law.
Imagine how bad it is without the checks.
1. St. Denis' halo emanates from the stump of his neck.
2. Christine Blasey Ford is a professor of psychology.
3. Maurine Dowd.
Lunacy doth reign.
A Pooch Helper
Looking at WebMD for the causes of hiccups:
If you do all those things at the same time, they cancel each other out, as in the "Three Stooges Syndrome".
... Dim Recesses in NYT minds, what gender relations have done to minds .... both concepts seem to run immediately with that whole "blowing through the jasmine of my mind" ...
It is possible "Summer Breeze" (Seals & Croft) would be on a mixed tape cassette, playing on a loud stereo at a drunken teenage swimming party That Night That Summer at That Place in Possibly '82.
Likely such a cassette was made by a sibling several years older, and left on the bureau when they moved out to New York in '77 because they were sitting round doing nothing, and everyone had had enough. Somebody in the early 80s gang liked to play it cause it had Rock Me Gently. Everyone else groaned, but put up with it, because that guy always a car to get around. Let him have his Andy Kim.
But "Summer Breeze" was too much. "Turn that off!!" would be the shouts from all sides.
It's a horrible song.
"White Dome" is close to "White Room" which should be on anyone's tape, whatever Summer it may be, whatever Year it is, whatever House you find yourself in.
Ford should testify at the hearing with a heavy black veil, like in a Trollope novel.
Because it was a shameful episode, and all so very, very awful and difficult for her. Or something.
"In Rastafarianism, a baldhead refers to anyone who conforms to common Western standards of hair styling. This is because the short, clean-cut look is often representative (in their eyes) of someone who has adopted a colonial, materialistic and spiritually-bankrupt worldview."
"I have never seen the image of a bald head Jesus yet.
He is a humble and dreadlocked Nazarene man,
look in yourselves and try to understand
Why you've never seen the image of a bald head Jesus yet."
- Bunny Wailer (Baldhead Jesus)"
Like we should take cultural cues from a guy named “Bunny”.
The one absolutely foolproof cure for hiccups, taught me by a blind bartender, is a teaspoon of lemon juice. Vinegar also does the trick. Works every time.
I am reminded of Jack Vance's cure for clacking knees as described in his Lyonesse trilogy. Pretty sure that would work for hiccups too..
Sun's coming up. Like a big bald head
Poking up over the grocery store
It's Sharkey's day. It's Sharkey's day today
Sharkey wakes up and Sharkey says:
There was this man... And there was this road...
And if only I could remember these dreams..
I know they're trying to tell me...something
Ooooeee. Strange dreams. (Strange dreams). Oh yeah
And Sharkey says:
I turn around, it's fear
I turn around again And it's love
Oh yeah. Strange dreams
And the little girls sing: Oooeee Sharkey
And the manager says: Mr. Sharkey? He's not at his desk right now. Could I take a message?
And the little girls sing: Oooeee Sharkey. He's Mister Heartbreak
They sing: Oooeee Sharkey. Yeah. He's Mister Heartbreak
And Sharkey says: All of nature talks to me
If I could just figure out what it was trying to tell me. Listen!
Trees are swinging in the breeze. They're talking to me
Insects are rubbing their legs together
They're all talking. They're talking to me. And short animals--
They're bucking up on their hind legs. Talking. Talking to me
Hey! Look out! Bugs are crawling up my legs!
You know? I'd rather see this on TV. Tones it down
And Sharkey says:
I turn around, it's fear
I turn around again, and it's love
Nobody knows me. Nobody knows my name
"Is a bald head a phallic symbol?"
The phallic symbolism is influential to both men and women for the same and different reasons and with different perspectives. For both men and women, it's the image of their baby, with a dearth of hair, emerging from her mother's vagina... pussy... hat. I mean, hole... front hole. The "big bang" (not conception, but birth) of human evolution is a powerful symbol in our minds.
SJWs act like SCOTUS members are supposed to be some immaculately perfect elite choir boys and girls. Up until the mid 20th century, they were mostly just the Presidents favorite drinking buddies.
So you think the name "Bunny" is funny, Чикелит? I can't imagine what sort of mind thinks like that. Sad.
All these bald guys like Bezos make me think our alien overlords have finally arrived.
Spartacus and Ellison can take refuge under their Domes of Color
not so Kavanaugh, with the Pasty Patriarchal Pate
Thanks for keeping that joke alive, Freddie. I have the original bookmarked. :)
And LOL at the rabbit photo in your link.
“not so Kavanaugh, with the Pasty Patriarchal Pate”
Are you implying that Kavanaugh wears a rug? If true, that should reallly disqualify the man.
I see that even Dershowitz is outing some rage over CBF’s demands.
I have the original bookmarked. :)
I have it in a text file in case I need it after the internets burn down.
True story!
White Dome? My guess is that you never worked inside the beltway
I don't always agree with Dershowitz, but he isn't a hack. He has principles and I believe he is appalled at some of the stuff the Democrats are doing.
And LOL at the rabbit photo in your link.
I'm surprised you could see it - blogger.com inserted some blogger stuff and screwed up the link.
http://bunyaboy.blogspot.com/2016/07/funny-bunny-monday-memeday_25.html
Feminists are from Venus and male chauvinists are from Mars.
Most men and women are conceived, born, and evolve on Earth, and do what humans do, guides by natural functions and moderated by moral imperatives.
"Is a bald head a phallic symbol?"
“Yes. Well known.
I'll buy that. I've always been attracted to bald men. Not all bald men, of course...”
My partner has a weird relationship with baldness and bald men. Her father proudly had a full, thick, head of hair into his 90s. When he met her ex husband, the first thing that her father said was that he was going bald (apparently, some 30+ years later he has a fringe, which is more problematic than his brothers and father could say), and that he was a grease monkey. She responded that she liked bald men, and her husband made a lot more money than her father, since he owned the largest independent service center in the city (with better than a half dozen technicians working for him). Oh, and he (her ex) is bigger than you. Now, she comments, on occasion, that I am thinning in the back a little. I am not bothered because I haven’t thinned as much as my father, next brother, and grandfathers had, and women cutting my hair continue to complement it, even now, as I approach 70. I think that in reality, she was affected by her father’s vanity about his hair, and that baldness does bother her more than she will ever admit. Interesting, in a woman who values rationality over emotionality, she never realized, until I pointed it out to her, that the three men that she was ever really involved with (two former husbands and me) all had dark mustaches - just like her father did. Except my mustache is no longer dark, while her fater’s, even at 90, was dark. I suspect though that the reason mine was acceptable, was that it was dark almost 20 years ago when we got together. Whenever she complains, I offer to dye it, but refuse to also do my hair, since I still get compliments about its color from women. Somehow, she can’t see herself with a guy with a full dark mustache and almost white hair. Her choice.
This is your brain. This is your brain with sexual confusion and gender dysfunction. This is your brain with political congruence. This is your brain with secular ethics. This is what's left of your brain after scalpel and sedition. Reconcile, early, and often.
"Let me tell you something: My father was a very big man. All his life, he wore a black mustache. When it was no longer black, he used a small brush, such as ladies use for eyes. Mascara."
Not the worst film. (Comfort of Strangers) Thanks Mr Hayden for the account of hair and moustaches. It chimed.
Your story - and the film - also does make one think about how the wills and ways of one generation imbue themselves in the next, both macro and micro.
“The one absolutely foolproof cure for hiccups, taught me by a blind bartender, is a teaspoon of lemon juice. Vinegar also does the trick. Works every time.”
Thanks for the suggestions. My partner gets horrible hiccups. They often last a full day, but rarely longer. It appears to be genetic - her father would have them for several days at a time, and his father suffered too. They are where she got her classic French features, so hope that she doesn’t follow them with serious esophagus and throat problems, but suspect that the hiccups may indicate otherwise. I also think that they were the source of her photographic memory too (her father read and memorized the dictionary by the time he started high school). In any case, getting back to hiccups, she has attacks maybe once a month, and is miserable the entire time (and, thus, so am I). She claims to have tried everything: Standing on her head? Check. Peanut butter? Check. Drinking water? Check. Etc.
Apparently cuckservatives were taught soap opera hysteria instead.
I haven't noticed anybody but your lefty allies getting hysterical.
Sparticus?
Kamala the night visitor to Willie ?
I heard mustache rides cure hiccups.
It's not a cure for the prissy and priggish however.
When I downloaded an edition of "The Cloud of Unknowing" by Anonymous, I was asked if I wanted to follow the author.
“Thanks Mr Hayden for the account of hair and moustaches.”
I should add that the picture to the right shows the top of my mustache back when it was a bit darker. There was a period maybe back last year, I think, when I was claiming that Inga was a mad cat lady, because of the photo she was using (combined with her political views), and she reciprocated by commenting about hair in my nose. Maybe, but that is mostly mustache.
The cause of hiccups is a sudden and recurring diaphragm resonance. Try reducing the resonance by reaching for the sky, thereby reducing the tension and pressure that may force the condition.
“I heard mustache rides cure hiccups.
It's not a cure for the prissy and priggish however.”
If it cures her hiccups, no one will be complaining from this end.
Let us know.
A cure for hiccups I've used is holding my breath and drinking a glass of water,
Pope Pius XII had them for years.
A final remedy is Thorazine. That is also the best treatment for sea sickness or air sickness.
Bruce, my son is like that. If he gets the hiccups once, they will come back over and over the rest of the day.
This caused a bit ofma problem in the Marines, especially when deployed. The medical folks there gave him Baclofen, a muscle relaxant. It stopped the hiccups, but he was just as useless on the drug. He said it made him feel weird and spacey, something you did not want a 2-ton truck driver with an IED jeep attached to the front of the truck
Since discharge, he has never taken it again. His hiccup incidents are a lot less frequent in the past few years, but he has no idea why.
I also remember an episode of ER where they diagnosed a man with hiccups as having HIV that apparently affected his diaphragm.
Odd.
The "phallic symbol" concept is Freudian bullshit. Freud made it up out of thin air. It's like voodoo: you have to believe in it for it to have any real-world validity. A trombone is just a trombone, just like a cigar is just a cigar.
The confusion arose because Cloud of Unknowing was inspired by the work of Pseudo-Dionysus. Pseudo-Dionysus (Dennis) wrote in the ancient pseudonymous tradition whereby the writer wrote as if he were some more famous person. In this case, Dionysus the Areopagite, a Greek whom the Bible (Acts) mentions as having been converted by Saint Paul. The plot was further complicated because the middle ages conflated three Dennises: Dionysus the Areopagite, Pseudo-Dionysus and Saint Denis. Many in the middle ages, always eager to fill in the gaps in a story with mythology, simply chose to believe that Dionysis was the author. One of the many things Peter Abelard did to make himself unpopular was to expose this mythology for what it was.
The only things that can avoid phallic description are equilateral triangles, squares, pentagons, etc. (Equilateral polygons in which circles represent an infinite number of sides?)
What a stupid way to see things. You could just see that some things need designs that are longer in one dimension than another. It's about function. People who see phalluses everywhere have been conditioned to do so. Those people should ask themselves why they were manipulated in this way. Ask what the people who taught you to be absurd gained from so teaching you.
Pine trees are growing vertically to compete for light with other trees. Pine trees don't care about your fixation on human anatomy.
Blogger Michael K said...
Apparently cuckservatives were taught soap opera hysteria instead.
I haven't noticed anybody but your lefty allies getting hysterical.
Sparticus?
Kamala the night visitor to Willie ?
10,000 comments from your ideological brothers and sisters here on Althouse is evidence enough for me, Doc. Shows how "you people" are so easily triggered by nonsense. At least Sparticus and Kamala have valid reasons: it their job to stir up shit. What your excuse?
phallic symbolism is the hairy root of man, the tool maker. it's how we fuck with the universe.
thats why cuckservatives hate Elon Musk: he has the biggest, most powerful dick that goes all the way to Mars
Penis goes in. Child comes out. Two phallic symbols for the ages. Both are attacked by female chauvinists and the politically congruent.
https://works.bepress.com/rumah-herbal/
http://toko-bose.com/page/4/
Poo poo pa doo, that's MoDo!
FREUD: "My Dear, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
MONICA: "_________________________________________"
Alert: Tiger is winning at East Lake. That is a big deal.
"I didn’t sleep the week of the Hill-Thomas hearings."
One doesn't need to spend a nanosecond in Med School or glance at a Med Book to know that sentence (in and article largely about lying) is one-hundred percent bovine excreta.
Besides, Clarence Thomas was accused of "speaking" improperly but Bill Clinton was creditably accused of violent rape by Juanita Broaddrick and I bet no one at the New York Times lost any sleep over that.
OT, in case Freeman Hunt shows up:
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/09/21/long-beach-state-statue-1849-gold-rush-indigenous/
The slope is slippery.
"What American gender politics has done to my mind."
1 : a thick porridge made with cornmeal boiled in water or milk
2 : something soft and spongy or shapeless
3 : weak sentimentality : DRIVEL
A final remedy is Thorazine. That is also the best treatment for sea sickness or air sickness.
Works good for many types of nausea, it's handy for psychotic episodes too;
Maybe some people here should try some?
Juanita Broaddrick credibly accused Bill Clinton of rape. She had to answer why she didn't call the Arkansas police. But she didn't stay silent - soon after, she told her friend Norma Rogers about the rape, and showed Rogers her swollen lip (from Bill's bite).
Democrat politicians ignored this and/or belittled Broaddrick.
Until Dem politicians address Juanita Broaddrick's credible charges of real rape, there is no reason to listen to them.
@Althouse, gender politics consists of a collection of hot buttons and dog whistles that reduce certain otherwise intelligent females from h. sapiens to repeating "Men are bad, women never lie" again and again.
Absolutely nothing. I practice a separation of sex, gender, and politics. Maria, Christine, Sarah are women, but not a female (sex) or even feminine (gender) bloc.
Men and women are equal in rights and complementary in Nature. The latter is significant when dating, thinking about fetuses/offspring/babies, and placing women in harm's way in other than existential circumstances.
Who in God’s name reads this stream-of-consciousness gibberish and mistakes it for genuine insight?
Tradguy notes: Alert: Tiger is winning at East Lake. That is a big deal.
Just caught the last few holes. Great day in golf!
Too bad Tiger didn't win the FedEx Cup on top of the Tour Championship.
Geez, Althouse. Is it so hard to talk about the truth of the moment that you have to pirouette round the matter so aimlessly?
There is Only One Gender of one side of politics that has gone off the rails, and their leadership is failing all of us with their tompoopery.
Let's face it, the Women's Movement/Democratic Party leadership has blown it, "leading" with the lowest forms of demagoguery, collusion, and mendacity. As a woman, it humbles and saddens me.
These women need to lose. They need to learn and study from the highest laws of Good Men before they get our vote again.
At least Sparticus and Kamala have valid reasons: it their job to stir up shit. What your excuse?
If you think intelligent comment is "shit" you have problems I can't help with.
Have you considered why you come to a libertarian web site and troll ?
I started to read the article thinking it was Matty Dowd the swampy deep stater.
It surprised me I thought for a few paragraphs "duh Maureen is dumb as rocks but writes better than this traiterous Commie Matty..
Nope it was big Mo.
Her facts matter and the process gone through, including many witnesses promised but never shown, only shows Mo was more right, about everything past and future, not just the simple present, than the system could not only produce but allow to exist.
So join the sisterhood because Thomas assaulted that woman so hard she was forcex to follow him around for years professionally. Only a true bully forces the victim to keep moving after themselves begging for work from themselves bully-wise.
"Stop blaming others."
-the author of "What American gender politics has done to my mind."
surprise:
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/09/23/surprise-kavanaugh-set-to-present-evidence-to-help-clear-his-name-but-its-already-being-questioned-by-journos-libs/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget
“But enough about my mind. How about Maureen Dowd's mind?”
It’s not just your mind that immediately thought of a white bald head. That’s the first thing that sprung into my mind when I read her piece last night and I thought, “how weird”, before reading further and realizing she was referring to the Capital dome.
Huh. Royal ass Inga had a thought. It was a wrong thought.
I did not see that coming.
I swear that when I read that, I thought the "white dome" was the bald head of the white man she was working for.
A Rorschach without the blot.
Althouse should stop smoking whatever she's been smoking.
I had a sister worked in a senate office. I visited pretty often, lived in DC for a couple years. I find it interesting that some don't get the reference right off.
"I swear that when I read that, I thought the "white dome" was the bald head of the white man she was working for."
No surprise. When everything political is seen through the lens of race and gender this is what you get.
MoDo writes:
"It has been almost exactly 27 years since the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, and we are still defensively explaining — including to our troglodyte president — why women do not always tell the authorities about verbal and physical sexual assaults, why they bury episodes or try to maneuver past them."
Hell, we can stipulate that young Christine Blasey had reasons for not raising a fuss. She wanted to be popular (and in fact became a cheerleader) at a school where the student body, with the wink-wink nudge-nudge of the alleged adults, glorified drinking until passed out and promiscuity. If young Christine Blasey had complained then whoever hosted the party would have lost face and Christine would have never been invited to another party, never made cheerleader, would be a despised nobody until she graduated or quit.
But MoDo is tossing out a non sequitur. The problem is not that she didn't go to the police (despite Trump's misguided tweet); it's that there literally is no evidence that the incident, even if we stipulate that it might well have taken place, involved a young Judge Kavanaugh. None. Christine Blasey Ford names possible witnesses, mostly men, who were there. They all deny it, but, y'know, the patriarchy. But Christine Blasey Ford's girlfriends join in saying, no, it didn't happen. Whoops.
I didn't believe Anita Hill. I don't believe Christine Blasey Ford.
And I don't believe Ann Althouse.
The divide is not by gender. Left women are the vanguard of the Left, because women have more power and tools at their disposal in an arsenal of victimhood. Those tools are designed to target men most effectively in our current culture, so they are used the most.
Another woman has come forward. A little, or a lot, alcohol turns this man into a monster. This is way beyond being a sexual initiator. This isn't hysteria. I'm sorry, but it's so over for Kavanaugh. His conservatism and good deeds were just a thin veneer and fake.
Modern victim classes are too removed from the actual victims of past discrimination and oppression so that they either don't realize or don't care that they are just repeating and emulating the perpetrators of the past.
As hard as it is to believe, Kavanaugh reportedly has social calendars from 1982 that show no such party despite recording other events at the same time. He was often out of town according to them.
Well they have a location this time, but eye witnesses that this event happened three years later.
No eye witnesses, or other confirmation, I think that was from the Weinstein file.
Blogger Michael K said...
Have you considered why you come to a libertarian web site and troll ? You ain't no libertarian. I am a Life Long Libertarian (El Cubed) Libertairians are not racist sexist homophobic warmongering republicans like you, Dad.
"All your thinking you must do with your mind"
Not us men according to current politics, and not just some men, but every single one can be evil at the drop of a hat.
Regarding the recently beheaded remaining aware, France conducted experiments on the heads of those who died at the guillotine, and noted that the decapitated head remained aware and responsive for around 30 seconds after being severed.
For hiccups: raise a glass high and take ten swallows of liquid (water presumably best) without stopping.
For Howard: have you ever wondered what would happen if you went a day of your life without abusing people?
For Spiros: nothing. Your remarks are not worth dignifying with a reply.
For Althouse: re Modo's "Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind," this nicely dovetails with the windmills of yours. What you are is flighty.
The hiccups advice, by the way, is from an opera singer. I therefore regard it as a trade secret. It has worked every time I have used it or seen it used.
As for Kavanaugh, the easiest way to get to the truth of the allegations is this:
Confirm him immediately.
Then, if the complaints continue, and are investigated, and something turns up, there may be something to it.
If they all shut up and go away, we'll know it was b*******, which it is.
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