Althouse |
- At the Sunrise Café...
- "He was not only the greatest of baseball writers; he had also lived long enough to see Babe Ruth, of the Yankees, at one end of his life and..."
- "Someone needs to say it: Not everything's about you.... And it's okay to ask questions about something that's very new and involves children."
- "How L.A. became a fridge-less aberration is one of the region’s more mysterious, least delightful eccentricities..."
- I haven't used my "Hillary's in trouble" tag in a while.
- Pelicans.
- "If YOU can't connect with most modern day music, THIS is probably why."
- "In my 30 year career, including the entire MeToo era, there’s nothing to report, but, as soon as I say I intend to restore free speech to Twitter & vote Republican, suddenly there is…"
- "In the first week after the new rules we literally had customers with calculators out. It was a real novelty. And for the first two to three weeks..."
- 50 years ago today: "ROME, MAY 21—Michelangelo's Pieta, one of the world's most celebrated sculptures, was severely damaged today when a man attacked it with a hammer in St. Peter's Basilica."
- Pelican sunrise.
- At the Sunrise Café...
- I've picked out 6 TikTok selections for you this evening. Let me know what you like best.
- "In July 2020, as social justice protests roiled the nation, Joshua Katz, a Princeton classics professor, wrote... that some faculty proposals to combat racism at Princeton would foment 'civil war on campus'..."
- "Whatever you think of Ms. Heard’s actions, or whether you choose to believe her, this is a good old-fashioned public pillorying — only memes have replaced the stones...."
- "The Biden administration is probably breathing a sigh of relief because they weren’t ready for the rule to be lifted."
- "Former CEO Kevin Johnson acknowledged that dairy products are Starbucks’s largest source of carbon dioxide emissions and that switching to plant milk is 'a big part of the solution.'"
- "It was a fraudulent firing from the beginning.... Just because George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy, doesn’t mean the social mob gets to go around demanding people get fired just because they are offended by controversial comments."
- "[T]he age of puberty in girls has dropped by about three months per decade since the 1970s...."
- "The circus as your grandparents or even their parents remember it, fell victim to changing times."
- "It has often been suggested that as [Bob] Dylan assembled his distinctive persona while climbing to international fame, he borrowed some of it, including a certain attitude and a caustic streak..."
| Posted: 21 May 2022 05:10 PM PDT  ... you can write about whatever you want. Here's a panorama version that includes the moon (and the moon's shattered reflection in the water)(click and click again for a good enlargement):  |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 05:00 PM PDT "... Shohei Ohtani, of the Angels, at the other. Age conferred authority. When Roger covered the Yanks in their late-nineties heyday, Joe Torre, the team's heavy-lidded chief, would sometimes interrupt one of his avuncular soliloquies to a clutch of young reporters and look to him for affirmation: 'Roger, am I getting that right?' Sitting in his office, Roger, much like Torre, held court, telling stories about playing Ping-Pong with James Thurber, editing William Trevor and Donald Barthelme, and watching ballgames with the Romanian-born artist Saul Steinberg, who would put on a flannel Milwaukee Braves uniform before sitting down in front of the TV.... Roger died on Friday. He was a hundred and one.... His father, Ernest Angell, was a Harvard-trained lawyer who went on to lead the American Civil Liberties Union. His mother, born Katharine Sergeant, was educated at Bryn Mawr and became this magazine's first fiction editor, a close editorial partner to Harold Ross. After divorcing Ernest Angell, she married another founding eminence at the magazine, E. B. White. Mrs. White, as she was known at the office, neglected to tell Roger the news of her wedding; Roger, who was nine at the time, heard about it only a couple of days later, through a relative who had read about it in Walter Winchell's newspaper column.... Eventually, Roger led the fiction department; he was, as he often said, 'doing my mother's job in my mother's office.'... In 1962, he and the magazine's editor, William Shawn, discussed the idea of his writing about baseball...." Writes David Remnick in "Remembering Roger Angell, Hall of Famer/In the course of a well-lived century, he established himself as the most exacting of editors, the most agile of stylists, a mentor to generations of writers, and baseball's finest, fondest chronicler" (The New Yorker). |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 10:42 AM PDT |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 10:24 AM PDT "... along with absurdly long street parking signs or frigid days at the beach in June.... California law does not require refrigerators to be included in rental units, instead classifying them as 'amenities' that aren't necessary to meet habitability standards. 'It's like a hot tub'.... Buying and maintaining a refrigerator became an extra expense that landlords just didn't want.... When they broke... tenants would complain that they had just gone to the grocery store and demand reimbursement. 'It was always the liability of food....'... But legal reasons alone do not explain Southern California's relative dearth of refrigerators. Other large states like Florida and Texas do not require fridges either, but they come standard with apartments... Ingrid Gould Ellen, faculty director at the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, posited that the economic concept of 'multiple equilibria' might be at play. Basically, the idea is that small things that happen in the early creation of a market proliferate and become entrenched: In the 1950s, say, a few big L.A. landlords don't provide Frigidaires as the appliances are becoming essential, others follow suit and a trend is born. 'No one is going to want to rent a home without a refrigerator if all other homes have them,' Ellen said. 'But if the norm is that rentals don't offer refrigerators, then a separate market will develop.'" From "Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery" (L.A. Times). |
| I haven't used my "Hillary's in trouble" tag in a while. Posted: 21 May 2022 10:09 AM PDT
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| Posted: 21 May 2022 08:20 AM PDT At 5:29 this morning on Lake Mendota:
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| "If YOU can't connect with most modern day music, THIS is probably why." Posted: 21 May 2022 07:48 AM PDT |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 07:15 AM PDT Said Elon Musk, quoted in "Elon Musk calls claims of sexual misconduct 'politically motivated'" (WaPo).
The top-rated comment over there is: "Musk is starting to sound an awful lot like Trump." And, yes, he is: He's a master of the tweet. But don't worry. He can't run for President. We are securely safe from the foreign-born man following the Trump path to power. And Musk himself is safe from that temptation (and from our suspicion). That door is closed. Of course, if the allegations are true, that's very bad. But what I'd like to know is how many men are inhibited from coming out as conservative — or just anti-Democrat — because they know there are or could be allegations like this held in reserve. How much control is achieved by this method of only going after political enemies? We can't get all the allegations out, because some men are protected, protected by their own political pretense. By the way, do you think there's anything odd about Elon Musk's genitalia, or is this a rhetorical trick to make us think he has a means of refuting his accuser? Remember when Michael Jackson was subjected to a bodily search to see if his accuser had accurately described his penis? |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 06:42 AM PDT "... people would opt for the lighter dishes. For instance, orders for our mother butter chicken dish fell but orders for our lower-calorie agra chicken dish rose. But after about three weeks everyone got fatigued with it and we are now back to normal. It hasn't made any difference to sales at all." Said restaurant owner Nisha Katona, quoted in a London Times article about the calorie counts that have been required in the U.K. since last month. The article cites a study of American restaurants with calorie counts that "in the first month, diners opted for dishes with an average of 60 fewer calories but after a year, the average reduction had fallen to 23 calories." And, we're told, the main difference is that people are taking more time to figure out what to order. And here's another article on fatness in the London Times today: "Ancients believed in survival of the fattest/For most of human history food was precious and plumpness was something to be proud of, but then fashions changed" by Ben Macintyre: Thrifty genotypes among the hunter-gatherers, who could store fat efficiently, were favoured by evolution.... The traditional desirability of excess flesh was reflected in social habits, politics, literature and arts, from Rubens to Shakespeare to Dickens. Scrooge is thin, in contrast to Joe in The Pickwick Papers, "a wonderfully fat boy". So! Socrates danced every morning?
But what dance did he do? I consult the text ("Symposium" by Xenophon): At this point the boy performed a dance, eliciting from Socrates the remark, "Did you notice that, handsome as the boy is, he appears even handsomer in the poses of the dance than when he is at rest?" |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 06:11 AM PDT "Hundreds of Whitsunday worshipers, pilgrims and tourists watched in horror as a young man with long reddish hair and a beard pushed into the side chapel to the right of the main entrance to St. Peter's, where the Pieta is on display over, an altar. He climbed over a marble balustrade, went up the stairs to the platform on which the sculpture rests, pulled out a hammer from under a raincoat he had over his arm and started battering the marble, shouting, 'I'm Jesus Christ.' The blows shattered the left arm of the figure of the Virgin Mary in the marble group and also chipped the nose, the left eye and the veil covering the hair... The assailant, who was identified as Laszlo Toth, 33 years old, of Sydney, Australia, was able to strike four or five hammer blows amid the gasps and shouts of the crowd before an Italian fireman ran up to him and pulled him down by his hair.... A Vatican spokesman said later that Mr. Toth had told Archbishop Benelli in English: 'If you kill me, so much the better, because I'll go straight to heaven.' The Hungarian‐born Mr. Toth had been living in Rome for some time and had acquired some notoriety for bizarre conduct. In an interview last November, II Messaggero of Rome presented him as a 'local character of sorts,' quoting Mr. Toth as saying that he was a geologist and had left Australia two years ago to return to Europe because 'I have seven mysteries to reveal.'" The NYT reported, 50 years ago. We're told that Pope Paul inspected the damage, knelt and prayed in front of it, and was overheard saying "Also most serious moral damage."  In the 1970s, Novello started to write letters to famous people under the pen name of Lazlo Toth (after Laszlo Toth, a deranged man who vandalized Michelangelo's Pietà in Rome). The letters, written to suggest a serious but misinformed and obtuse correspondent, were designed to tweak the noses of politicians and corporations. Many of them received serious responses; Novello sometimes continued the charade correspondence at length, with humorous results. The letters and responses were published in the books The Lazlo Letters, Citizen Lazlo!, and From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters. Here's the Wikipedia article for Lazlo Toth, the vandal:
The correct spelling of the name is Laszlo Toth.
Toth is on Wikipedia's "List of people claimed to be Jesus." ALSO: The comics artist Steve Ditko is not obscure — he's best known for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange — but he has an obscure comic called "Laszlo's Hammer." His Wikipedia article doesn't even mention "Laszlo's Hammer." It does mention this other pretty obscure — obscure to me — thing "Mr. A" — "a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism." And we're told "Ditko largely declined to give interviews, saying he preferred to communicate through his work." Well, good. Make art. Here's some more about "Mr. A":
Why must they all fight crime? Did Ayn Rand fight crime? |
| Posted: 21 May 2022 03:59 AM PDT Just now, at 5:28, 3 pelicans! |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 05:28 PM PDT  ... you can talk about whatever you want. |
| I've picked out 6 TikTok selections for you this evening. Let me know what you like best. Posted: 20 May 2022 05:23 PM PDT 2. He feels like he's the yellow moon emoji. 3. A list of "cool things you can say." 5. Watch this one if you want to be persuaded to do 60 squats a day. 6. Watch this one if you care about Harry Nilsson. |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 06:10 PM PDT "... and denounced a student group, the Black Justice League, as 'a small local terrorist organization' because of its tactics in pushing for institutional changes. The remarks [were]... reviled by some... and lionized by others.... And they sent up a flare that led to scrutiny of other aspects of his life, including his conduct with female students. In the latest fallout from that debate, Princeton's president has recommended dismissing Dr. Katz... for what a university report says was his failure to be totally forthcoming about a sexual relationship with a student 15 years ago.... Princeton already knew about her. The university had started an investigation after it learned of the relationship in late 2017, about ten years after it happened, and Dr. Katz confessed to a consensual affair. He was quietly suspended without pay for a year.... The woman in the sexual relationship did not cooperate with the original Princeton investigation. But after [a student newspaper report on Dr. Katz], she filed a formal complaint that led the administration to open a new investigation, which it said was looking at new issues rather than revisiting old violations.... Dr. Katz's wife, Solveig Gold, said he had lost many friends over the controversy.... Ms. Gold, 27, who is finishing her Ph.D. in classics at the University of Cambridge, graduated from Princeton in 2017. She said that she had been his student, but that there was no romantic relationship between them at the time. They married in July 2021." Obviously, it is terribly wrong to fire him for his writings, and it seems that the sexual material is being used as a cover. Sexual harassment is an important matter, but that's all the more reason not to use it dishonestly. There may be some new information about the 15-year-old case, but the matter was dealt with at the time. Would the University going back to other old cases and fire tenured professors? The answer can't be — only when it hates what they are writing. |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 04:10 PM PDT "[T]his trial could function as a case study in contrived stereotypes used to discredit women, even if you believe there is some truth behind Mr. Depp's claims. Ms. Heard has been portrayed as mentally unstable, hysterical, a gold digger, a temptress who brought home other paramours at all hours of the night, a freeloader who moved her friends into Mr. Depp's many houses, an attention-seeker with an unquenchable need for drama and of course an untrustworthy liar — textbook undermining strategies, each with its own sexist implications.... Whether you believe Ms. Heard or not, watching a woman excoriated in public has been popular entertainment since the Middle Ages. Somehow, Ms. Heard seems to have become a stand-in for every evil, lying woman getting her comeuppance — alpha queen bees in high school, the girl who slept with your boyfriend or girlfriend, every manipulative ex. She is Eve, she is Medusa, she is Lady Macbeth. She evokes vamps and vampires, wicked stepmothers, witches.... This trial seems to have exposed some of the rhetorical weaknesses of #MeToo. 'Believe women'... had somehow morphed into 'believe all women'... The intent of that early slogan was, in part, to encourage the public to treat women who speak up with basic dignity and respect, however messy and imperfect they or their stories may be...." |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 05:28 PM PDT Said Wayne Cornelius, "director emeritus of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California," San Diego, quoted in "Judge Orders Government to Continue Migrant Expulsions on Border" (NYT).
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| Posted: 20 May 2022 08:51 AM PDT "Yet despite knowing that cow's milk is responsible for three times the emissions of plant milks, the corporation still slaps an undue fee of up to 80 cents on eco-friendly choices. If you're thinking the company is merely passing on its additional cost to the consumer, think again. According to PETA's research, it costs Starbucks a few pennies extra to use vegan milk in a drink — but it charges you 10 times the cost or more. To me, the reasoning is obvious. About 40 percent of U.S. adults now purchase nondairy milk (mostly almond), oat milk sales shot up 95 percent in the 52-week period ending in early September, and around half of Gen Zers say they're dropping dairy. Making conscientious people pay more is profitable. But for any company with the reach and resources of Starbucks to profiteer in the face of a global calamity … well, it brings to mind the greedy Gordon Gekko.... ...Starbucks says it wants 'to inspire and nurture the human spirit.'... End the vegan upcharge." From "I glued my hand to a Starbucks counter. Here's why" by James Cromwell (WaPo). Here's my May 11th post about the protest. As I said there, I think Starbucks should redo the prices so that drinks with cow's milk and vegetarian milk substitutes are the same price. I would not have known about this issue if it had not been for Cromwell's glued-hand protest, but I do still disapprove of that kind of behavior. There are worse protests, but I think Cromwell, et al., can do better. I note that he didn't explain the connection between glue — or hands — and his cause, so there's nothing especially significant about glued hands. |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 06:47 AM PDT Said Charles Negy, quoted in "University Must Reinstate Professor Who Tweeted About 'Black Privilege'/An arbitrator found that the University of Central Florida failed to show 'just cause' last year when it fired Charles Negy, a tenured professor whose comments generated outrage on campus" (NYT). The university said: "U.C.F. stands by the actions taken following a thorough investigation that found repeated misconduct in Professor Negy's classroom, including imposing his views about religion, sex and race. However, we are obligated to follow the arbitrator's ruling." What did Negy say? We're given 2 tweets:
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| "[T]he age of puberty in girls has dropped by about three months per decade since the 1970s...." Posted: 20 May 2022 06:33 AM PDT "Girls who go through puberty early are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and other psychological problems, compared with peers who hit puberty later. Girls who get their periods earlier may also be at a higher risk of developing breast or uterine cancer in adulthood. No one knows what risk factor — or more likely, what combination of factors — is driving the age decline or why there are stark race- and sex-based differences.... 'Obesity can't explain all of this,' [said pediatric endocrinologist Natalie Shaw]. 'It's just happened too quickly.'... Sexual abuse in early childhood has been linked to earlier puberty onset. Causal arrows are difficult to draw, however. Stress and trauma could prompt earlier development, or, as Dr. [Marcia] Herman-Giddens hypothesized decades ago, girls who physically develop earlier could be more vulnerable to abuse. Girls whose mothers have a history of mood disorders also seem more likely to reach puberty early, as are girls who do not live with their biological fathers. Lifestyle factors like a lack of physical activity have also been linked to changes in pubertal timing. And during the pandemic, pediatric endocrinologists from across the world noticed that referrals were increasing for earlier puberty in girls.... [S]ome experts argue that the age threshold for alarm should be lowered.... But lowering the age cutoff remains controversial... 'It might be normal in the sense of what the data are showing,' Dr. Herman-Giddens said, 'but I don't think it's normal, for lack of a better word, for what nature intended.'" Take note: The phrase "what nature intended" is still in circulation. |
| "The circus as your grandparents or even their parents remember it, fell victim to changing times." Posted: 20 May 2022 06:08 AM PDT "Feld Entertainment, which owns the [Ringling Brothers] circus, discovered today's audiences did not want to see animals performing. And today's kids do not laugh at corny clown acts.... Now the plan is to up the game with human feats that dazzle, astonish, bewilder, while, at the same time, engaging audiences with interactive social media. At times, even during the show....The producers who are bringing the Ringling back to this stage is also the same group of producers who do Disney On Ice, Monster Jam, Sesame Street Live. So they kind of think that they've figured the audience out.... And it will not be our parent's circus. It'll very different, guys." From "Ringling Brothers Eyes Comeback With Animal-Free Circus Show Transcript." This sad transcript made me think of that famous Steve Jobs quote:
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| Posted: 20 May 2022 05:50 AM PDT "... from [Bob] Neuwirth. 'The whole hipster shuck and jive — that was pure Neuwirth,' Bob Spitz wrote in 'Dylan: A Biography' (1989). 'So were the deadly put-downs, the wipeout grins and innuendos. Neuwirth had mastered those little twists long before Bob Dylan made them famous and conveyed them to his best friend with altruistic grace.' Mr. Neuwirth, Mr. Spitz suggested, could have ridden those same qualities to Dylanesque fame. 'Bobby Neuwirth was the Bob Most Likely to Succeed,' he wrote, 'a wellspring of enormous potential. He possessed all the elements, except for one — nerve.' Mr. Dylan, in his book 'Chronicles: Volume One' (2004), had his own description of Mr. Neuwirth: 'Like Kerouac had immortalized Neal Cassady in 'On the Road,' somebody should have immortalized Neuwirth. He was that kind of character. He could talk to anybody until they felt like all their intelligence was gone. With his tongue, he ripped and slashed and could make anybody uneasy, also could talk his way out of anything. Nobody knew what to make of him.'" Neuwirth, we're told, taught Janis Joplin the Kris Kristofferson song "Me & Bobby McGee," and he co-wrote "Mercedes Benz" with her. ADDED: Spitz's use of the words "hipster shuck and jive" undercuts the argument that Neuwirth created this style of personal presentation. This obituary shows the New York Times carrying on the long tradition of making black people invisible. From the Wikipedia article "Shuckin' and jivin'":
From the Wikipedia article "Hipster (1940s subculture)":
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