That's a huge milestone! Is there anything I can do to mark the occasion? There are more than 71 thousand posts on this blog, quite evenly spread out over the years and days. It's not as though I can make a top 20 best posts list.
Do I even have a favorite post from all these years? I used to say my favorite post — the post that exemplifies what I most hope will happen when I set out on a new post — was "Tattoos remind you of death." But that's from back in 2005. Surely, something in the succeeding years topped that.
I was just talking to my son John, and he urged me to include the post about "the Washington Post guy with the mustache." My post, from 2006, is here: "Of oversized things, MSM, and the internet."
John — wishing me a happy 10th bloggiversary (in 2014) — declared that it represented the "essence" of this blog.
So that gave me the idea to ask you, my dear readers, if you have some post — in there among the 71,000+ posts — that represents what you think is the best (or the essence) of this blog? I would like to learn something about what you think is the reason for doing this.
You don't have to like what you imagine is what I most want to do. Maybe you groan when I veer into tattoos-remind-you-of-death territory and wish I could give more clear answers about who should win the next election and how the Supreme Court should decide this or that case. That's okay. I'm just soliciting material for a blog post I feel I ought to write when we get to that milestone.
Posts
144 comments:
“Large boulder the size of a small boulder” certainly has some staying power for me.
I dunno Ms. Althouse. I don't really have a favorite post, although I've been a faithful reader of your blog for at least a dozen or more years. I certainly don't always agree with the positions that you take, or even the subjects you choose to explore. As always reasonable people can and do differ. That said my only request is "steady as she goes" and I hope to read your blog for many more years.
I have no idea the reason for doing this but my favourite posts were the ones when you were traveling through Utah and looking at the scenery and the posters were following along in real time looking at the buildings and scenery…real time without the video…
Before the looking as we know them and before everyone had devices Dartmouth had terminals set up at the entrances to many campus buildings where you would send…not emails but the predecessor of texts to your friends classmates and colleagues. Your account had all tour past posts. People were quite sentimental when the system was dismnantled…
I suppose for me this is a bit like that…
I've been following you for most of that time, so all the posts feel like notes from a friend. Your posts where you do a close reading of something I'd slid over without catching its import are the ones that register the strongest. Then there are the Dylan posts turning on the jukebox in my head. It also been a treat watching your photographer's eye always open to new takes. That you do this *every day* is mind blowing. Thanks.
I only arrived here in about 2015 or so; what struck me about the old posts is how few of the commenters are still active. Leaving aside your family, I think Paddy O is the only one I recognize.
As for the best or essence, I got nothing. I'm congenitally incapable of sussing out why other people do things. I either enjoy or benefit what they do or not, and don't trouble myself over much about motives.
Happy Birthday!
For me, it is not one post or the most popular post. Instead, it is the background theme of your posts. You break down language, verbiage, and reference your breaking it down with other references so that we, (your readers/ followers)
"see" your reference more fully. Parsing language is your go-to, (understandably as not only a lawyer, but a law professor.)
I mean can any of your readers here, ( who also read the comments,) ever read the word 'glean' ever the same again after reading your blog? Ha!
Plus, how many others can say that they never missed ONE DAY posting for twenty years on their blog? Not many, I bet
Well done!
No particular post comes to mind, but your close-textural-readings combined with common sense and appeals to exact dictionary definitions are always good. I am looking forward to reading your blog tomorrow and everyday.
Purpose and diligence, great job. Read your blog from when you were teaching in NYC
Happy birthdays!
That is a huge milestone, indeed. Congrads on making to 20 years!
Picking out a Top Althouse blog posts is like asking for your favorite meal or favorite moment in your family life, there are so many. It would depend on the mood. Since my mind is currently on Politics/literature I would say:
Why McCain lost me in November 2008
And
Althouse unfair to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
And
The Post where Ann Althouse takes on Ron Bailey
I am just hoping you don't stop blogging, seemed like there was a hint of that a few days back.
My favorite post was when you announced a successful restoration of your vision. I really enjoyed your photography and wish you did more.
p.s. I think I've been reading you daily almost from the beginning.
I have beenfollowing you for at least as long as you've been blogging.
No quarrls with the topics you have covered. In fact, I enjoy the variety
Michigan born, Wisconsin educated
Francis Bourgeois
As they say, 73 is the new 82.
Happy Birthday and happy upcoming blog anniversary.
The Althouse Comments persona post stemming from the right wing Dylan talk is what I consider the essence of this blog I'll soon have read for 20 years.
But this post has stuck with me for 16 years now, even though the photo is longer available, which is what made it so perfect:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/olympics-weirdly-unsexy.html
Happy Birthday.
I wonder when the first Masters or PhD thesis is written on Althouse blog content.
Then you can link to the news article on the thesis.
It'll be very meta.
Gotta say "Let's take a closer look at those breasts" has to rank in the top 10. For me at least. It was hilarious but also very telling.
Congratulations on the 20 straight years. That is something of note!
Happy Birthday! Quite a milestone.
I think your blog is more about consistency and critical reviews of news or posts from elsewhere, so it is more about your skills in critical reading than any peak point.
But you can look at the number of responses and that might give you a notion of what your reading audience reacts to. (Except for Crack MC; Crack is Whack).
The best post you ever made took New York Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner, a serial child predator, out of the United States Congress.
It happened when you elevated my comment to the front page of the blog. I pointed out that yfrog (where Mr. Weiner was posting his Weiner photographs and sending them to minors) had the IP address from which they were uploaded. And I suggested that the FBI could easily compare Mr. Weiner's IP address at his New York apartment that he shared with Hillary Clinton's lover Huma Abedin, to that IP address which uploaded the obscene photos from. They could get to the bottom of that in minutes. If they wanted to (which the FBI did not want).
This was at the same time that he was demanding an FBI investigation into whoever "hacked" his accounts. Which I knew was a lie and which I knew the FBI knew was a lie and which you also knew was a lie.
He resigned the next day. Bravo, Ann.
And now you routinely delete my comments.
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
I don’t have a favorite post, but I do have a favorite “era”: The Meade/ Althouse courtship period. Also, you used to use an avatar then which looked cartoon animated and you wore a worried expression. Back then, comments were “live”. The back and forth got very chatty at times.
I think I’ve been commenting here more or less continuously since 2006 or so.
No particular post, but your general Althousian strict language analysis which is often peppered with cites to the OED.
Four different ones do come to mind.
1. The one with you and Bucky down at the Student Union next to Lake Mendota.
2. The guy who said, “That’s a crazy head of hair you got there lady.”
3. The CO wedding post with Meade.
4. Your take down of the Madison politician who called Meade “Larry.”
And, of course, any post with cruel neutrality!!
Whatever razzes your berries! Twenty years is quite the milestone.
Have fun!
"represents what you think is the best (or the essence) of this blog"
My perspective probably differs from yours, in the sense that I care little for the aesthetics of the blog or the artistic sensibility it displays, though I appreciate the difference as such.
For me, the essence of the blog is the sheer continuity of it, the virtual stream of attentive consciousness, accompanied by a chorus of slightly dissonant commentary. There's nothing like it.
For me, the best of it, the items I most enjoy, are the fiskings, Althouse calling BS, line by line. No one's better at it.
One of the thing about this blog is the basketball/jazz element to it.
Ann brings the ball down the court and starts the play with a pass. The commenters then improvise and play off of each other. Sometimes slips into the comments and calls another play. More improvisation by the commenters. No one single play or even style of play. Different topics: photography, movies, law, literature, politics, music etc.
Nothing like it in the world!
Congratulations on 20 years and Happy Birthday!
As a class, I enjoy your fiskings.
In my basketball analogy, Ann is the point guard. I’m a power forward. Meade is the Athletic director.
I remember the post you made from Colorado announcing your marriage, after you and Mead had snuck away and climbed a mountain.
Your posts on the Wisconsin Capitol insurrection were also memorable and I think important.
And speaking of your Utah trip I of course, always love any mention of my heritage and ancestors, such as when you looked into the history of Orderville Utah, and the bluejeans rebellion which led to the end of their attempts to live in a pure, voluntary socialist, communal society, or what the latter-day saints call the United Order.
Anytime you’re fisking a snooty New York Times or Washington Post writer is a good day for me.
As I’ve said, it’s the intellectual honesty that’s kept me here for these many years. That and our apparent mutual love of early Zappa.
Your blog is the diary of a 13 yo girl, but begun four decades later in the full flower of her intellectual, emotional, and professional maturity; shared willingly with all and any who value such things. Along the way -- and I've been here since April or May of '04 -- we've learnt a lot from each other, alway guided gently and well by the good professor.
Your law posts are still my favorites, but wonderfully enriched by the counter-point melodies of your personal life.
Thank you.
Top 20 recurring themes? May Shorts and Dylan and whatnot? May a representative entry for each?
Or maybe top 20 themes like the Great Gatsby.
Congratulations, Professor Althouse. Happy Birthday. Age is just another number. This is the best blog. Have been visiting it since the beginning. I like your observations on politics. Sometimes I wish you were a columnist at NYT or WashPost. This way more and more people around the world would be better informed.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-are-letters-nig-on-childs-pajamas.html
I dug the Gatsby Project posts
This comment will probably be a waste of your valuable time, as I won't be choosing from among the 70-odd thousand posts, but - I just love the thoroughfares and alleys you lead us down, according to your own desires of the moment. Thank you for twenty entertaining and informative years - both to you and to your commenters!
Haven't you noticed? I blog every day, every day for almost three years.
12/24/2006
For some reason, it seems the days - of - Muridae were much further back than 2018-2019.
My favorites are the geographic/geologic blogs of Wisconsin/Michigan
I don't know if there is one type of post I come here for. I kind of come here for the medley. One post from a while back that I do remember was I think from 2008 and it was the Democrat primary. It was about an ad run by Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama. It showed, I think a young child sleeping, and then the phone was ringing in the middle of the night. The premise of the ad was who do you want answering that middle of the night phone call, Hillary, the seasoned Veteran, or Barack the newbie. I think there was a kerfuffle about the pajamas the child was wearing, because it had some words written on it, including Night, but there was a brief shot where because of the folds of the cloth only the first 3 letters of that word were seen.
Reading comments on those old posts reminds me of death
Happy Birthday, and thank you for your blog posts. And living in Arkansas, I particularly like how happy I feel when you show your winter pictures.
Happy birthday and happy blogging anniversary. I have been a regular reader of this blog for a decade and an occasional reader for longer. Thank you for the fine content. Now, when is the next "men in shorts" post?
Happy birthday. Miles to go….
Rat Cafe from Oct 2016
I think it's an overall experience and best evaulated that way rather than by some individual post or series of posts on a particular topic, however, I found the post on December 8, 2020 titled "John Lennon died at age 40, 40 years ago today. I did this blog post 12 years ago, linking to both of my parents' memories..." to be memorable and representative of the best of what this blog offers.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/12/john-lennon-died-at-age-40-40-years-ago.html#more
Happy birthday and congratulations on 20 years! My favorite post:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/06/i-told-you-i-was-going-to-do-something.html
Happy birthday Professor!
May your day be one of joy and happiness.
And snow.
Sorry, can't really do anything about that, so might as well enjoy it.
The best blog post of yours was the post showing the fraud and corruption of the UW Hospital staff engaging in to help the fraud and corruption of the Wisconsin teacher unions by forging fake doctor sick notes.
In this one moment we saw the unholy trinity of of leftist illegality: Big Med, Big Ed, and Big Labor.
May they all fester, rot, and burn three times over.
Let's talk about breasts.
Given the longevity of your blog, and the eccentricity of it, there’s nothing I could point to as the quintessential post. For me, it’s opening the blog every day and seeing what’s on your radar. Sometimes it’s blech to me personally yet most times there’s a few nuggets that make me think I’m a little bit more grown for the reading here, whether I like it or not. It’s you, foremost, and also your commentariat. It’s a great place to be and to be broadened, that you’ve built. Congratulations on building something very much worth-their-while to a ton of people.
So I don’t think this can boil down to any one post. Rather, it’s the lot. It’s an on-going conversation, really, with no end in sight, thankfully.
Professor, I haven’t been here for 20 years but it might be 19 or 18 years or whenever the Powerline guys recommended your blog all those years ago when they were listing “good blogs” to follow. In the time I’ve been online your blog and Powerline have stood the test of time. You’ve been a part of my daily routine and I thank you for being so steadfast is your postings.
Kate, Loveland OH
Happy Birthday and many happy returns! Your blog is a treasure. I may not be interested in every item, but I certainly need to check in every day to see what you are up to! Thanks.
Rats
Boulders
Men in (cargo) shorts
Meade
MOST of the commenters.
Happy Birthday, Ann!
THANKS FOR BLOGGING!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy Birthday! And congratulations on your blog anniversary.
I have no favorite post; I do, however, chuckle when I read 'glean' anywhere. I also think fondly of the mice drawings.
The heart of this blog's appeal is its willingness to honestly and calmly and critically see current events, so I'd say pick something that exemplifies that in a microcosm. I don't know what that would be, but it doesn't have to be about something major or even important. Indeed, it should probably be about something unimportant that you picked up on that nobody else noticed or cared about -- hence a microcosm of what you do.
With all sincerity, please accept my congratulations and admiration for this occasion. Yours is the second blog I read every day; the myriad topics, the comments, and the occasional blowups with we reader is what makes this blog so interesting. Not every day is a winner, but that is not a criticism. If and when you decide to "retire" from Althouse, I hope you realize you have accomplished what few people have done -- kept a cadre of professional readers/commenters entertained enough to make your creative output a daily (in my case) or a frequent visitor stop along the internet highway.
I have only followed you for, say, less than a decade, brought here by Instapundit --- but I find your blog (in complementum) worth several minutes of my day (and at different times) in terms of investment.
I specifically enjoy your forays into etymology.
I hope you continue with this "hobby" of yours.
And, by the way, Happy Birthday!
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Happy Birthday, Ann. And pre-celebration congratulations on 20 years doing this blog. And putting up with all of us. Man...that's a load. The blog milestone is truly amazing. Is there anyone else out there who has blogged every day for 20 years, multiple posts each day??
I'm going to need to think about what might have been a 'favorite' post. Honestly, I'll need to think about it for a day, then post something. But I'm thinking I don't have a favorite post, just a favorite blogger and host. I honestly don't recall how long ago I started reading Althouse, and then how long it was before I started adding my two cents in the comments. I know I'm not as engaged as I used to be, but then, I'm retired now and it seems I'm busier than ever. (How does that happen?) But comment or not, I still read it at some point, every day. Without fail.
I have to believe that some of how and what I think about is affected by this blog and your commenters every day. By the way, your commenters are an amazing bunch of people. You have some very bright people following you. And Chuck. (sorry Chuck...low hanging fruit). But seriously, it's fun to watch how loyal (addicted?) your commenters are. It's a collective. A commune of sorts. Probably better to call it a family- with all the warts and disagreements found in any typical family. Some of the arguments get heated, but everyone is back the next day taking on the next subjects.
Anyway...congratulations. And Happy Birthday. You're another year wiser.
I have read you since 2004. Why?
For one thing, no one else even pretends to cover insect politics.
Congratulations.
Happy birthday! I loved the read-through of the Great Gatsby and I love the sunrises. There are posts at times where I think "there's that sweet, sweet cruel neutrality" but I don't remember specifics of them.
What I liked the best was the series of posts about the insurrection at the Capitol. Not the US Capitol, but the one in Madison. It was an exposé of the ugliness to come in following years, from protesters chaining themselves to the gallery rails during legislative sessions, to Occupy Madison, and eventually, serial riots up and down State Street. I remember one protester trying to take either your phone or Meade's, sort of a precursor to the Antifa 'cameras not allowed' rule. Brava!
What is the essece of this blog?
The eclectic subjects.
Some commentors vast range of knowledge of historical and political lore.
Happy Birthday! I've been a reader for 20 years and have greatly enjoyed it. Thank you!
I’ll just add another congratulations and Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, Professor, and happy (early) blog-iversary! You’ve been an invaluable part of every day since I started reading you back in the egg-salad sandwich challenge era. I appreciate your curiosity about culture and humanity and politics and language, but my favorite posts are all of those marked with your tag “I’m skeptical”. It’s such a pithy phrase that shows how important it is to think for oneself. Thank you!
Happy birthday, Dr and congratulation on 20 years!
Thanks very much for your blog. It gives us all a chance to enjoy hanging out with an attractive woman with a lively mind and far ranging interests. Your interest in life makes life more interesting even to those, like me, who have lost interest in the spectacle. Thanks again for the thousand points of light. Perhaps they're just firefly lights in the gloaming, but they give some savor to the passing moment.
Like skeptical voter and many other commenters, it isn’t a post or two that springs to mind— but the aggregate faithfulness to your vocation that is inspiring. Sometimes you blog on a theme…i wish I could think of a concrete example because it happened recently— and the subject matter is loathesome. But I’m so grateful you’re dragging your ass through reading about it so I don’t have to. You have guts and grit that I will never have. Somehow you have not become cynical or jaded. You convey enthusiasm for each day with your unique and irreplaceable sunrises. You value your community, and we show up each and every day. You’re one in a million, Althouse.
Happy BDay and Blogday!
I've been reading Althouse.blogspot.com consistently for close to the 20 years you've been writing the blog, though only commenting recently and occasionally.
(I've spent probably the past 30 minutes trying to express this next statement without it sounding like an obnoxious backhanded compliment, because that's not what it's meant to be)
I haven't kept coming back for two decades because I particularly agree or disagree with your points of view, but because it seems to me that you don't particularly care about convincing your readers to agree with your points of view. (That's the part that I fear sounds like a backhanded compliment when it's actually a sincere compliment).
Almost all writers of commentary or journalism try to change their readers' minds. Indeed, I think that most people would wonder what the point of commentary was if it didn't try to change minds. But in the end that turns out to be a kind of manipulation, even exploitation: the education or entertainment provided ends up having a hook hidden inside--sure, enjoy what I write, but at some point you owe me an opinion change.
Now that's not a big deal and is just the price of reading commentary, and I don't get all worked up when authors constantly try to leverage their relationships with their readers. It's how the system works.
But I appreciate IMMENSELY that the Althouse blog DOESN'T work that way, which, as best I can tell, makes it unique. And THAT is even more of an amazing achievement than posting daily for 20 years (not to mention suffering a few truly obnoxious commenters and what I'd guess has been annoying social pressure in the real world to make your 'platform' serve others' ends).
THANK YOU for creating something interesting and worthwhile and distinctive. Maybe the best compliment I can give is to say that I believe the time I've spent reading close to 71,000 posts and innumerable comments has been well spent.
You write for you. That is clear. You let strangers in. Unsure why. Your sense that it keeps you grounded? Just don't know.
You share what interests you. So many topics, genres, hot takes. I can never say its the same old stuff. I guess that's why I stop by. I don't have any suggestions. Because you are already successful in what you are doing. Happy Birthday, and thank you for putting yourself out there.
Happy birthday Ms. Althouse and thank you for your blog. Every day I visit and come away better for it.
Happy Birthday and Blogiversary Ann. I’ve been reading every day since about 2008, and sporadically posting through those years. My favorite day on this blog was the day you created a thread to directly address a comment that I made in one of your photo posts, and created a Rt41Rebel tag. I felt like I had won an award. I boasted about it to my GF and she looked at me like I was nuts.
I do enjoy posts about your dislike of Men in Shorts.
I would mention the set of posts when people were breaking into the Wisconsin capital building and you had video of it at a time when mainstream media was denying that anything was happening.
What I like best in the sunrise pictures - there's a sensibility there and it's important that the same mind allows free speech on her blog.
I liked the discussions of the spring fashion shows.
I liked the takedowns of NYT articles showing how a kind of rot had set in back in the day when the NYT was still considered well researched and well-written.
I like reading the articles and comments and finding words, books, videos, movie reviews, fashions, prevailing attitudes toward politics that I would never have found on my own since I have strong preferences of my own that probably would locked out all these other items based on their presence in bigoted venues. I feel that this has prevented monoculture in me.
I'll wait until the Big Day (20th Anniversary).
Meanwhile, mentally sorting through Jessica Velenti Boobs [aka BreastGate, my very first intro to Althouse in 2006]; yellow stockings/red shoes or was it Red Stockings/yellow shoes???; "Where's Meade"??? [ref Co Wedding]; Christian Heg statue; Madison Man/Meade recommendations for my 2016 visit to Madison. . .really too many to prioritize. Glad I have 2 days to figure it out.
The post that affected me most was the one before your cataract surgery. It was about how we unconsciously avoid things that remind us of our infirmities. It was well-written and insightful. It brings tears to my eyes to remember it.
My favorite part of Althouse Blog is that it has never become an echo chamber of one political view or another. Sometimes it seems like there is a "hive" mentality of the commentators, but there is not the need to be assimilated by the Borg, which happens way too often on other blogs. This blog allows and even welcomes those who do not want to be assimilated. To me that is its strength, not a weakness. Carry on my friend.
I'd like your opinion on Updike, Margaret Thatcher, compared with the noses of civil servants.
But that's just me. But do include Nixon.
And for goodness sake, find Inga. She lives in Madison, right? We worry about her.
On August 24, 2010, Anne remembered the 50th anniversary of the Sterling Hall bombing, and I saved a copy of a comment from Michael Haz:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/three-years-of-intense-protest-activity.html
"Three years of intense protest activity at the University of Wisconsin reached terrible superlatives on August 24th of this year."
Michael Haz said...
I was there when it happened, asleep in an apartment about eight blocks east of Sterling Hall.
The blast threw me out of bed. I scrambled into the dark hallway and ran into others; we all thought that a bomb had been detonated in the basement of our building. We ran apartment-to-apartment making certain everyone was awake and okay. Then we helped the grad students get their notes, manuscript drafts, computer data cards, etc. out of their apartments in into cars for safekeeping.
We heard the approaching sirens of emergency vehicles and were astonished when they went past rather than stopping. It slowly dawned that the explosion hadn't been in our building, but was somewhere on campus.
More and more emergency vehicles raced past. They were heading in the direction of the (old) University Hospital. A neighbor said, "My God, did a boiler at the hospital explode?" We got dressed and ran toward the hospital, partly from curiosity, and partly to offer help evacuating patients from the hospital.
The street was filled with glass three blocks away. We got to Sterling Hall, which was across a narrow street from the hospital, and saw that its front had been blown off. One side of the hospital had been severely damaged; its windows were gone. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged and buildings several blocks away lost their windows. There was a crater where the explosion had occurred.
My roommate asked a fireman "What happened?" He answered, "It was a bomb." That answer was shocking. How could it have been a bomb? You mean someone did this on purpose? How can that be? the peace movement isn't about bombs, it's about peace?!
A cordon was set up and we were pushed back. Standing near a fire truck so I could hear its radio I heard a fireman report finding one body in Sterling Hall. Stunned, I stood for a few more minutes then walked back to my apartment.
Two days later I cut my shoulder-length hair and notified my landlord that I wouldn't remain as a tenant for the fall term.
I was done with UW and Madison, except for completing my studies. I rented and apartment west of Middleton and commuted, spending as little time on campus as possible. I didn't attend my graduation.
The anti-war movement was a sham; a cover for violent anarchists. It wasn't actually anti-war; it was mostly anti-draft, and nothing more. It was over-indulged white males who didn't want to be conscripted. It would never have happened if there hadn't been a draft.
I don't have a romantic version of the late 60s in my head. I lived through it, it was horrible. Sure, the music was good, the weed was abundant, "liberated" coeds eschewed underwear, and contraceptive sex had no risk. It was still an awful time.
Karleton Armstrong was lucky. He should still be rotting in prison.
You wear it well Ann (or Althouse as I think you prefer to be addressed).
. . . a little out of time but I don't mind.
HB
I'll say the sunrise photos. It's not really the images, although some are very beautiful. It's the consistency, the routine, the dedication to the process. Some mornings, if I'm up at a certain time, I'll think, "Althouse won't add any new posts now because she's out with the sunrise." There's a Homerian satisfaction to it.
Blogging, like life, is accretive. It's impossible to say that one text string, or one moment,stood out.
For centuries, 73 year old people have sat, quietly perceiving the vast cavalcade of folly passing them, utterly unable to make themselves heard. You have found an outlet for the playfulness and wisdom you can offer, and the generosity to share it with a bunch of internet randos.
May the next 20 years be even better than the last.
My favorite series of posts came in 2008 when you were in Brooklyn. You regularly posted photos of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn Heights (I had moved out two years earlier). Eventually you photographed the Henry Miller house, which was where I had lived. It was so fun to see someone from Wisconsin, who I had been following for years, publish a picture of my old home.
Happy Birthday, Ann.
Read the comments first, and I can't add anything to what Temujin wrote. Congratulations on the 20 year mark...and Happiest of Birthdays to you!
The kerfuffle over Jessica Valenti's boobs was a good one. Ann caused a fair number of heads to explode.
Best thing about this blog is that we get to see a ‘60s/‘70s liberal/feminist’s take on the current left. Not too many other places allow this sort of thing. Bill Maher? RFKJr? Rogan?
All too often, the MSM and even the rightie media are caught in the paradigm that there are only two ways to view the world. You have been showing another way, and giving voice to those with still other, different, ways, for all these years.
Thanks.
JSM
Thank you for the daily posts. First stop on internet every single day.
Is there anything I can do to mark the occasion?
Yes, sit down in a comfortable place. Take a few deep breaths and then contemplate the enormity of what you have accomplished and the number of lives you have touched. Then get up and start blogging again.
So that gave me the idea to ask you, my dear readers, if you have some post — in there among the 71,000+ posts — that represents what you think is the best (or the essence) of this blog?
I've always enjoyed your posts about Bob Dylan, it was one such post that led me to your blog in 2004. The most memorable post was the one from September 7, 2005 called "So what exactly did Scorsese do?". It wasn't the post itself that was special, but a comment by Althouse which asserted;
To be a great artist is inherently right wing. A great artist like Dylan or Picasso may have some superficial, naive, lefty things to say, but underneath, where it counts, there is a strong individual, taking responsibility for his place in the world and focusing on that
That comment represents what I like best about Althouse. A thought provoking idea and then a focused, well articulated reasoning for the idea. As often is the case for the best discussions at Althouse, the comment was in repsonse to other comments that veered from the topic raised by the post.
The post also gave me (commenting as "Hamsun56" then) the opportunity to engage in some interesting tangential back and forth. Althouse has been very generous to so many to use her blog to express their views and interact with others.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/09/so-what-exactly-did-scorsese-do.html#c112792822975605103
Happy Birthday and Congratulations! Thank you for 20 years of quality blogging.
I don’t have a favourite post, but I have a favourite genre of posts—the one thing you do that I really enjoy that no other blog I know does is the close reading of a prominent story or speech, where you really look at the language choices made, look into the history of the words used, and tease out the multiple meanings, both intended and unintended (the unintended are the funnest, of course).
I read this blog mostly for the careful analysis of language as it is used to manipulate our understanding of events, and I appreciate that you try insofar as possible to keep a neutral point of view and let the facts presented speak for themselves. I don’t know of any other blog or account like this, but to be honest, I stopped looking for one a while ago.
I think that this blog has changed my thinking the way a great book can. It’s a shame that it’s essentially ephemeral, but for now, it’s the best. The point seems to be “let’s apply a careful way of thinking to the events of the day.”
Double congratulations, Professor! So many intriguing posts over the years.
Who can hear the name Althouse without thinking about breasts and shorts? But really, the answer for me has to be the thorough fisking of mostly left-wing articles performed with cruel neutrality.
Prof Drout said it better than I did.
Possibly the post that really got me thinking about how thoroughly the media manipulates our perceptions of people and events in subtle ways that have nothing to do with reporting the facts was the “Dutch angle,” post. This was where any remaining respect I had for the New York Times disappeared. It was more than simple biased reporting that could be accounted for when reading it, but it was designed to bypass one’s intellect and work on the subconscious mind. So many people are victims of this manipulation, and don’t realize it, but if it works on readers of your blog, it’s on them.
Happy Birthday Ann! My husband introduced me to your blog about 5 years ago and I became an instant fan.
It was 20 years ago today
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
Happy Birthday! Not really belated, because I wrote a Happy Birthday the day before yet still missed the day.
I checked my own tag to see if there was a moment among them, and really I didn't think any of them fit as a favorite. I'm honored to have a tag but bashful about being front-paged. Perhaps this one is my favorite amongst the tagged.
There are several other posts I really remember. The one that I'm most grateful isn't necessarily a favorite, a singular post, or representative of the blog. It is the firsthand reporting of the teacher protest at the Wisconsin capital. Blogs are a primary source for news to me, but mostly blogs are commentary of the news. Those posts on the teacher protest were providing an insight which I miss from major media and why I have tuned them out of my life. I enjoyed the coverage at the time and didn't realize then how much it would shape my opinion of the more recent protests of 2020 and January 6th. Thank you.
Happy Birthday to you and congratulations on 20 (!!!!!) years of blogging.
My favorite posts are the pictures of the sunrise. As you once pointed out there are several types of sunrise but I treasure all of them.
Now that you have been doing it a few years (and even had a Top 10 list one year) there is a wonderful seasonality to it too..
I live in Chicago but come to Madison pretty often, always around triathlon training or spectating. So when I see the wintery lake I think that I've swum in there and as summer progresses I see the sunrises approaching what they often look like in early September when the ironman happens. I send many of them to my daughter who also loves the Madison triathlons. You pics build excitement on a daily basis as the race approaches..
Thank you for sharing the gift of the sunrise with us every day!
P.S. You used to post a lot of your sketches too and I think you ar a wonderful artist (sketcher?).
Ann Althouse is one of America’s greatest public intellectuals. I put Ann in the same category as the late Rush Limbaugh. Rush was a regular reader and spoke about the Althouse blog on his radio show (“Ann Althouse lives in Wisconsin.
She’s had a blog for a long time.”).
No surprise that Rush was an Althouse fan.
Ann and Rush share the same birthday. Ann is still with us and, for that, I saw happy birthday and many more.
I can't think of a favorite blog post of yours, but I began reading your blog at about the end of February 2011, when you were blogging about protestors occupying the Wisconsin state capitol building. Since then, I have read your blog practically every day.
I turned 71 about two weeks ago.
Happy birthday and blogging anniversary. Thanks for introducing me to the Criterion Channel.
Mazel Tov!! Been reading you every day for almost the entire time...wouldn't miss it.
Happy Birthday. What an incredible accomplishment. As someone who has been here silently, or once in a blue moon not so silently, for twenty years I applaud you. Please keep writing for another twenty!
Happy birthday, Professor! I don't really have favorite posts to cite; the reason I've been coming to read you for the past 13-14 years is that I'm likely to learn something from the visit every time. Thank you.
I can't pull up a single post from your many thousands, but I wish you a very happy birthday (and day after) and thank you for your close reading, your willingness to call us out on our bullshit, and the fact that the welcome mat is still out despite all the reasons to pull it off the front porch.
Here's to many more. G A G Bb.
Happy Birthday and happy RMD year (my husband turns 73 in 2024).
I have been reading your blog for years and loved listening when you would post a vlog - or a 'talking head' segments. I started reading right around the time that you and Meade married, it was lovely to follow. I enjoyed and appreciated your coverage of ACT 10 here in Madison. I never understood your problem with men wearing shorts - but now I always chuckle when I see someone wearing them.
its nice to see posts from many sides of the political spectrum put up for all to se although it does seem dominated by right leaning and right radical commentors who call names and look at "others" as not valid because they veer from the pack.Props for putting in the work for a 1/3 of your life that aint easy.Happy birthday have a blessed and productive day and eat cake.
haven't kept coming back for two decades because I particularly agree or disagree with your points of view, but because it seems to me that you don't particularly care about convincing your readers to agree with your points of view. (That's the part that I fear sounds like a backhanded compliment when it's actually a sincere compliment).
What M Drout said.
You are the best, Althouse.
Not only a very Happy Birthday for this, your 73rd, but sincerest wishes for many more to come and that you continue to have the energy and interest to blog.
I'm a sucker for the posts when you take apart the pretentious use of language. I always smile a little now when a tv panelist uses the word "garner".
Happy birthday and blogging anniversary. I didn’t read your first post, but I became a faithful reader early on. Thank you for 20 years of consistent posting of eclectic topics. That’s what I like best, the variety of the material, your beautiful photos and that you never fail to post everyday. Very remarkable! I tried commenting yesterday but received an error message.
Congratulations.
Dave
No insult to Rush. But I think Althouse is a little more intellectual than that. Some of my favorite bits are when she takes down other bloggers.
As a UW grad working in SE Asia 20+ years ago I followed your blog and appearances on Bloggingheads regularly. Your presence online provided a welcome reminder of home. As for my favorite episodes in your series I would say it was your sharing of how you and Meade came to become MeadeHouse. I guess the word is freudenfreude.
Congrats on 20 years Ann, I really enjoy your work and visit here everyday.
Happy birthday!
Congrats. I discovered your blog during the Act 10 insurrection and have been reading almost daily ever since. I like almost all your regular blogging subjects (except for the ones about fashion). But my favorites are the daily sunrise pictures.
Happy birthday (a little late). I scanned the comments and saw many cute posts I would have mentioned, but none that I saw mentioned Zeus. What a good dog.
I’ve been a daily reader for decades. I love the comments. I said that once and Cook said, what a sad comment or something similarly snarky. And I thought, I read your comments TOO!
Early on there was a header, Politics and the Aversion to Politics, that drew me in. The whole marriage story arc, with the photo of the ring and the wedding in Colorado, that was all touching. There was a post more recently highlighting three Enlightenment values, reason, individualism, and one other that I've forgotten (maybe toleration?). This blog embodies Enlightenment values. I liked the Tik Tok videos, but then they went away. I liked when we emailed comments in, a personal touch, but probably not sustainable. I like how Montaigne pops in from time to time. And always, the nature photos, the sunrises, and Lake Mendota.
Aside from Happy Birthday, and Happy Anniversary, the only thing I can think to say is that I'm very grateful for the effort and the integrity that you put into these blogging efforts, and also, for your openness. I look forward to reading your blog and its comments on a daily basis.
As for my favorite post, and maybe someone has already said this, but my favorite Althouse post is always the 'next one'.
Congratulations Ann on your successful “retirement” endeavor. I see you as the perfect teacher, blending both the arts and science in your blogging, attracting a wide variety of readers/commenters who identify with your posts. You blend your thoughts like a symphony and encourage your reader to listen or approach the dance floor and engage your ideas with others. I read daily and consider your blog my extended education as I’ve learned from you and also from the variety of comments. I’m certain your readership contains people with PhDs to those who are worried about getting their farm animals fed and each has something thoughtful to offer that helps expand our own perspectives..a true melting pot of ideas. Thank you.
And to Unknown(Kate in Loveland, OH) I live right up the road.
Don't think I've been here the whole 20 years, but it's been a long time. Do you have those posts from month one?
Might be interesting to see if you recognize any commenter names
Happy birthday and congratulations! You have eclectic interests, and your blog is an internet treasure.
Or you could go Brit on us and look at your tags for commenter names. I know I've been "Mentioned in Dispatches" a few times
I don't have a favorite, but I occasionally post a link on Facebook to posts I think are noteworthy. In a moment of serendipity, Facebook has reminded me today is that anniversary of such a post:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-i-put-adsense-ads-back-on-blog-self.html?fbclid=IwAR19A8dmu0XRZYn1CLTVjeuII9lvjCJPJxzwgbg2Hw6qj6tiYIKp9c-5zGU
It's the post about turning Adsense back on, posted in 2021. I found it to be very insightful about the role and future of blogging, the dangers of hostile commenters and how to deal with them. It's a good example of what makes your blog unique and valuable to me.
Congratulations and thank you.
I am grateful that you not only post items of unusual interest, but that you regularly post excerpts from and links to leftmedia stuff. It's important to me to know how they enable the lunacy and to read your comments on their efforts.
Finally, it is for, the most part, interesting and fun to offer and read comments here. Even in heated moments the comments are usually more civil than those on other sites - left and right. I attribute that to regard for our hostess.
Thanks again.
Please consider the source, Njall.
Reading the comments brought back so many great posts:
The triumph over failing eyesight
the posts about Althouse's father, mother, etc.
The stay in NYC
the coverage of the Protests in Madison
The great photographs
etc.
All I can say is that you my first stop of the day. Thanks
God I'm late to this party! Big Thanks for 20 years of must-have content. I literally try to not ever skip a day. This then marks about the 20th year of me not getting around to writing the article "All My Favorite Bloggers are Lawyers" (mostly because one of my faves* has always been James Lileks who was only married to a lawyer, and once I started making exceptions to that title I get distracted).
One of my favorites was you opining on Jessica Valenti for thrusting her breasts at (near?) President Clinton. When you heat up on a topic you sometimes have a knack for humorous, sort of PJ O'Rourke-ish, humor.
But my favorite running theme throughout the life of this blog is language and how people use, abuse, misuse and evolve by force of will our wonderful American brand of English. That was the Althouse way to talk politics and many of the tags bear out that theme; civility bullshit is iconic among the apt speech-based tags.
Writers of fiction and prose often talk about how a work has "the writer's voice." There is a definite voice to Althouse that has stayed true to form over the years. Half that time (roughly) we've also had the alter ego voce of Meade that both shares characteristics of the blog's voice and stands a little apart. Like a character who peeks out from behind the curtain to comment to a crowded theatre, not detracting from the main event but enriching the experience of the audience.
It all coalesces into a great reader experience for this reader/commenter. I appreciate the dedication and almost overwhelming amount of content Althouse generates. The other commenters make me laugh, gawk and once in a great while think. On anniversaries like this I wonder what became of Inga, Laslo, Chip Ahoy and others. Are they lurking out there, silently taking it in? Will I do the same one day when I find I am just too lazy to write any more? Who knows. For sure I am thoroughly enjoying it today, at least as much as I did back in ought-four, when it started.
*For the record my roster of lawyer/lawprof blogs to visit daily are Instapundit, Althouse, PowerLine Blog, whatever Lileks calls his mostly daily blog from Bleat to Diner (and his awesome Galleries!), Hugh Hewitt (less so since his show moved to 3 AM in my home market), and the non lawprofs: Hot Air before Michelle Malkin sold it, Daily Dish back in the day before Excitable Andy went too far nuts (we used to correspond by email occasionally pre-9/11), and AsparagusGirl in the first year or so after 9/11.
Happy birthday!
I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon your blog. A mention in Reason magazine, maybe the WSJ? I am incredibly impressed by your discipline and your ability to post literally every single day! I post to my blog about once a year, if that, LOL.
Favorite posts -- I miss your attempts at drawing rats. I enjoy the photography, get a sense of what it's like elsewhere in North America. Also, nice to see inside the mind of a law prof. Engineer and business guy by training here, so it's nice to get a different view of the world (not just in the photographic sense). I've taken the MCAT, GRE, GMAT ... just missing the LSAT. Maybe I should take the LSAT just because, go to law school online, see if your thinking is common in the world of law.
HBD, and congrats!
A very shallow dive into the archives led me to this gem, Is Obama a Gasbag? , in which Althouse scorned O's apparently then-novel deployment of the "Speech I dislike is violence" trope.
It's Althouse the cool analyst at her best, challenging the airy '60s leftism of Althouse the hippie chick.
Also, the post about clipping articles out of the newspaper and leaving them on the dining table for family to find, read, and discuss later. That sums up the blog pretty well.
Also, the post about clipping articles out of the newspaper and leaving them on the dining table for family to find, read, and discuss later. That sums up the blog pretty well.
Happy birthday, Professor! I’m about three weeks behind you. 1951 was a good year. Last birthday, I started counting my years in dozens. This year I’ll be six dozen +1.
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday Althouse! Thank you for almost 20 years of daily blogging. I’ve been along for the ride most of those years. I love your range of posts … from provocative to whimsical. All great prompts for great commentary. I’ve carved out minutes of my life for you and the commentariat every day! Whoa, not sure what that means! Keep up the Dylan, the sunrises, the political insights, all of it! Thank you.
Ann, Thank you for all your posts. A classy blog. Well done.
Been here for almost the whole ride! Thank you for all the laughs and food for thought! My favorite themes are the ordinariness of DJT, men in shorts, language and hypocrisy, the rationality of single income families, and the blessing of habit and routine (and the relief when holidays are over). My least favorite era was the credulous early days of Covid (the only period of time, for about a year, where I stopped reading). Overall I’m very grateful for you sharing your time and energy with me over the years.
This is hugh.
The 20th Century had two great diarist who had written daily or almost daily for decades. Both were great observers from the early 20th Century to between-the-wars and beyond. Anne Morrow Lindbergh is one. She was as popular as any blogger today.
The other, a lady not much to my artistic preferences, still illuminated virtually every important modern European writer and artist for decades and had pretty good insights about them, and the horrors of Old Europe dissolving into war and New Modernism then also dissolving into war. Anais Nin -- yes she did some silly porn, but her life's work was the diaries. There's an amazing photo of her, a tiny woman, sitting on a vast mountain of her original diaries stored in a bank vault.
I hope somewhere you are keeping archival bound editions of this blog. Not that I'm comparing you to Anais Nin, though she was more brave and serious and intelligent than most people know of her. But this blog will be the Anne Morrow or Anais Nin equivalent from the early 21st Century.
No pressure.
Can't believe I wrote this: "I do, however, chuckle when I read 'glean' anywhere. " Grrr. I meant 'garner'! And it's true. Whenever I see 'garner' I chuckle.
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