September 17, 2018

"Why did the WaPo state that the incident occurred in her 'late teens' when summarizing the therapist notes, but farther down in the story state that she was 15 and Kavenaugh was 17? Is 15 a 'late teen'?"

Asks NYC JournoList in the comments to my Kavanaugh post "Does it smell funny in here?" I just added an important 5-point statement to that post, so I hope you read that, though it's hidden away in update position on the old post. But it's this "late teens" question that I want to break out into a new post.

The term "late teens" appears in this sentence:
Notes from an individual therapy session the following year, when [Christine Blasey Ford] was being treated for what she says have been long-term effects of the incident, show Ford described a “rape attempt” in her late teens.
Is that just WaPo phrase or is that the phrase in the therapist's notes? The therapist's notes — from 2012 — are presented as corroborating Ford's story, but if she's saying she was 15 and the therapist's notes say "late teens," then the answer to NYC JournoList's question may be that WaPo was allowing us to see a discrepancy in the corroborating evidence but not calling too much attention to it.

But then why isn't "late teens" in quotes (like "rape attempt")? Maybe the therapist's notes have a specific age, and it really is late teens, and if we knew the actual number, Kavanaugh wouldn't be 17 but 18 or 19 or 20. Which is it?! Kavanaugh would look worse if he were older, but he also wouldn't be in high school any longer, which would conflict with other aspects of Ford's story.
After so many years, Ford said, she does not remember some key details of the incident. She said she believes it occurred in the summer of 1982, when she was 15, around the end of her sophomore year at the all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda. Kavanaugh would have been 17 at the end of his junior year at Georgetown Prep.
IN THE COMMENTS: EDH said...
Is 15 a 'late teen'?

No. In the parlance of Roe, 'late teen' would imply the third teen trimester, 18 thru 19.

At 15, Ford was in her second teen trimester.

It's all there in the constitution, if you look hard enough at the penumbras!

212 comments:

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mockturtle said...

Not yet. The lawyer, Debra Katz a U Wisconsin law school grad, says Its not her job to verify the accuser's claims.

My SIL has a polygraph business and most of his clients are attorneys checking their clients' stories.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

If Kavanaugh did it, I applaud him. What straight red-blooded teen male or lesbian wouldn't? We could fill all positions of importance with neuters like Ronan Farrow (whatever it identifies as) but is that what we want?

Robert Cook said...

"The teen years are 13 to 19.

The middle number is 16.

The early teens are 13-15.

The late teens are 17-19.

9/17/18, 9:42 AM"


Or, one could say that the "teens" is really the "tens," 11 through 20, the decade between one's first 10 years and one's 20s. So 11-14 would be the early teens, 15 and 16 the middle teens, and 17 through 20 the late teens.

Robert Cook said...

"Shouting Thomas is turning into the male equivalent of Titania McGrath. Very funny!"

Except...from my quick glance at your link, I assume Titania is the female equivalent of the Steven Colbert from the Colbert Report...aping a persona opposite her own to mock it for satiric effect. Shouting Thomas' has never been anything other than completely sincere. He means every word of it!

Robert Cook said...

"A teenager is someone who is in their TEENS. See how that is done?"

A teenager is someone in their second 10 decade of life--from 11 to 20, as I pointed out above.

I assume the person asserting one's teen years ended at 18 was thinking that, as a legal adult at that age, (though, oddly, a legal adult who cannot legally purchase alcohol), one is no longer a "teenager," i.e., he views "teenagers" as being those no longer children, as such, but not yet legal adults. He sees being "teen-aged" as a legal designation, with age 18 demarcating the boundary between one's non-adult and adult years.

Michael K said...

He sees being "teen-aged" as a legal designation, with age 18 demarcating the boundary between one's non-adult and adult years.

Keep trying Robert.

The issue was "early teen." If she told the therapist an inconvenient time, what year in other words, she will change it just like she changed the story about how many boys.

Gk1 said...

I'm waiting for Haven Monahan to step forward and corroborate this story. I remember how incredibly sure the media was on the truthiness of the UVA Rape account. Hmmm interesting.

HT said...

The Post has gotten extremely bad at copy editing. That is the first thought that should occur when questioning an article's syntax, word choice, etc...I think there was a mass firing of their copy editors. It's shameful.

Ann Althouse said...

“Except...from my quick glance at your link, I assume Titania is the female equivalent of the Steven Colbert from the Colbert Report...aping a persona opposite her own to mock it for satiric effect. Shouting Thomas' has never been anything other than completely sincere. He means every word of it!”

I meant what I said. ST sounds like he’s doing satire.

Phil 314 said...

ST, get back on your meds.

Martin said...

The shrink's notes are not corroboration, they are from the same source. At best they lend more credence to the accusation because she mentioned it to somebody before the last few weeks.

Tinderbox said...

There is no "trimester" of teenhood. There are seven teenage years comprising ages 13-19, of which 16 is the median. Age 15 would be early or mid-teens depending on how you sector the seven years.

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