"How Friedrich Engels’ Radical Lover Helped Him Father Socialism."

That's a headline. What are you picturing? I asked Meade, and he had the same misimpression I had: So Friedrich Engels was gay.

What portal of cultural change did we just pass through that, upon hearing a man had a lover, we pictured another man? It came more readily to mind that a man had a male lover than that a woman was involved in the Marx-Engels intellectual project.

But the article — at Smithsonian — doesn't portray the "radical lover" as much intellectual help. Slogging through it, I see that Mary Burns's help came in the form of house and sex work. (Engels didn't believe in marriage.) The article pushes us to perceive intellectual contribution in her connecting him to the lives of those in extreme poverty.

Had the headline suggested that kind of help, we'd surely have pictured a woman.

As it is, the headline's "father" metaphor invites us to picture sexual interaction that produces a pregnancy. Within that metaphor, Engels ought to be the female partner, since he's the one who goes through the equivalent of pregnancy and childbirth. The intellectual work product is the baby. Even though pregnancy requires man-woman sex, if we visualize Engels as the pregnant one, we expect a male partner.

I got to that article via Joe Malchow at Power Line, who gives his post a sharper headline: "Friedrich Engels Was an Entitled Jerk."

Hello, from New Hampshire.

I'm here to do a little panel discussion at the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College. I'll be hobnobbing -- what the hell is hobnobbing? why am I writing like this? -- with Laura Clawson of Daily Kos, Brendan Nyhan of Spinsanity, John Hinderaker of Power Line, Roger Simon of Pajamas Media, Joe Malchow of Dartblog, and Andrew Seal of the Little Green Blog. The subject is politics and blogging. I'm representing the moderate position, and Hinderaker is moderating. Any advice?

I'm glad I paid for the WiFi in the airports, even though I only had a short time, because the abortion case came out. Still haven't read it. I could have read it on the plane, but instead I listened to a podcast and fell asleep. I arrived in Manchester, which is a good way away from my destination Hanover. The rental car turned out to be an SUV. I've never driven an SUV or particularly wanted to, but it seemed okay. It's not the relationship to the road that I'm used to, but it wasn't hard to adapt to being up high -- though I didn't get over my annoyance at the people who say they love SUVs because they like being up high.

The 90 minute drive was scenic, with mountains popping up toward the end. The road dipped briefly into Vermont and then back into New Hampshire with the entrance to Hanover marked by an impressive bridge studded with orbs that reminded me of this:



Not that I'm morbid! In fact, I am happily ensconced in the hotel and flagrantly blogging in the restaurant.

A panel next week at Dartmouth.

If you're in the area, you might be interested in attending. If not, you can bet I'll blog about it.

"Mass Communication for the Masses: The Power of Weblogs"

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

4:30 PM – 3 Rockefeller Hall

Panelists will share their thoughts on the power of blogs in creating communities, influencing local and national politics, and the role they think that blogs will play in the 2008 election. Finally, they will discuss the conflict between weblogs and main stream media.

PANELISTS

ANN ALTHOUSE, Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin

Visit Ann's blog at http://althouse.blogspot.com/

LAURA CLAWSON, Mellon Fellow, Sociology Department, Dartmouth College and Contributing Editor, Daily Kos

Visit Laura's blog at http://misslaura.dailykos.com/

BRENDAN NYHAN, Co-founder, Spinsanity and co-author, All the President's Spin

Visit Brendan's blog at http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/

JOHN HINDERAKER '71, Partner, Faegre & Benson, LLP

Visit John's blog at http://www.powerlineblog.com/

ROGER SIMON '64, Founder/CEO, Pajamas Media

Visit Roger's blogs at http://rogerlsimon.com/ and at http://pajamasmedia.com/

JOE MALCHOW, Dartmouth '08

Visit Joe's blog at http://dartblog.com/

ANDREW SEAL, Dartmouth '07

Visit Andrews's blog at http://thelittlegreenblog.blogspot.com/