Sunday, July 24, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

At the Clay Pot Café...

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 11:01 AM PDT

IMG_1841

... you can talk about anything.

I've got 6 TikToks to amuse you for 10 minutes this afternoon. Let me know what you like.

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 10:57 AM PDT

1. The baby emu shows you all its tricks.

2. Maybe I'd cook a potato like this.

3. A kid with amazing bike skills.

4. An actress with amazing cupcake-eating skills.

5. The hangry baby consumes mass quantities.

6. What it's like to go hiking with an L.A. man — the scintillating conversation will blow your mind.

"Whether or not to take a spouse’s name is a personal decision. But the personal is political — now more than ever, and especially for celebrities."

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 10:10 AM PDT

"Like every star, or every mortal with an Instagram account, Ms. Affleck has constructed a persona for public consumption. She has used her platforms to tell the tale of the upward trajectory of a strong, independent woman, a woman who has gone from backup dancer to global superstar. Her brand is intense competence and hard-core self-sufficiency — 'in control and loving it,' as she sings in 'Jenny From the Block.' Whoever Jennifer Affleck is in her private life, J. Lo is a woman who might love a man but doesn't need one. Imagine if, in her newsletter, she had said, 'I love my husband. Right now, though, women are under attack, and I won't participate in a tradition that's historically rooted in women relinquishing their identities and their legal standing. I'm giving my husband my heart, but I'm keeping my name.' Imagine if Ben Affleck had become Ben Lopez."

I'm reading "Why It Matters That J-Lo Is Now J-Aff" by Jennifer Weiner (NYT). 

What the Jennifer Lopez newsletter did say was: "Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things — and worth waiting for... With love, Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck." 

You know, I'm not convinced she's going to call herself Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck going forward. I think that's an alternative name that she's using for effect there, and, like "J. Lo," it's another nickname. She embraces it, and she embraces other things too. Why limit her? About love, she says it's "maybe the best of things." Maybe! I'd say Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck is a great name, maybe the best of names, but she's got other names too. 

Am I the only one who saw "Mrs. Jennifer Affleck" as rather unkind to the other Mrs. Jennifer Affleck, Jennifer Garner (Ben's first wife)?

Martha Stewart kept peacocks and there were also 6 "large and aggressive" coyotes. "Let's Get It On," indeed.

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 06:42 AM PDT


This is a metaphor, but for what?

6 coyotes killed 6 peafowl, and there are still more peafowl chez Martha. 

Martha knows the Marvin Gaye anthem to sexuality pairs horribly with predation, but it's the video she has of the proud Blue Boy, who is no more.


IN THE COMMENTS: Wince quotes Martha's "RIP beautiful BlueBoy" and links to "Well, he made it. Blue Boy is dead":

Rouge droplet?

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 06:52 AM PDT

I'm trying to read "Astronauts should not masturbate in zero gravity, NASA scientist says" (NY Post):
Astronauts have been warned against masturbating in space over fears female astronauts could get impregnated by stray fluids. There are strict guidelines over "alone-time" onboard in zero gravity. 
Scientists have warned even the slightest rouge droplet could cause chaos on board.

Rouge droplet? In space, is semen red? No, it's just the kind of typo spell-checkers don't catch, the funniest ones, the ones that are other words, like "rouge" for "rogue."

Conan O'Brien was interviewing a NASA engineer, who said, "Three female astronauts can be impregnated by the same man on the same session … it finds its way." 

"Rogue" is an interesting word. As used above, it means — according to the OED — "Without control or discipline; behaving abnormally or dangerously; erratic, unpredictable" or "Aberrant, anomalous; misplaced, occurring (esp. in isolation) at an unexpected place or time."

The oldest meaning of "rogue," now archaic, is " An idle vagrant, a vagabond; one of a group or class of such people." It also means "A dishonest, unprincipled person; a rascal, a scoundrel." Perhaps if you were making a cartoon character out of a sperm cell, you'd pick those characteristics.

A nicer sort of "rogue" is "A mischievous person, esp. a child; a person whose behaviour one disapproves of but who is nonetheless likeable or attractive. Frequently as a playful term of reproof or reproach or as a term of endearment." That can be the other cartoon sperm cell's sidekick.

In horticulture, a "rogue" is "A plant or seedling in a crop that is considered inferior, or exhibits variation from the parental or standard type." And "rogue" is also used for a "wayward, unmanageable, or lazy horse" and to designate "a large wild animal living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies." More ideas for my (undrawn) comic strip about sperm cells.

ADDED: Checking my archive, I see I've looked into the meaning of "rogue" at least twice before.

In 2009, I wrote about Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" and said "Why 'rogue' and not 'maverick'? 'Maverick,' of course, was John McCain's word, which Palin adopted and used in her speeches as she ran alongside him.... Both words are applied to animals, and here the difference is good for Palin. The maverick animal is unbranded or motherless — unowned. This is a fate that falls upon the poor creature. The 'rogue' is specifically a horse that resists being controlled by others. It is exhibiting its own will, and not the victim of happenstance. Now, fate touched Palin when McCain choose her, and she did get into trouble when she exhibited will, and the maverick's people called her 'rogue'...."

What makes a nation a "rogue"? A "rogue" was, originally, "An idle vagrant, a vagabond; one of a group or class of such people." (I'm using the unlinkable OED....) These days, a "rogue" is "A dishonest, unprincipled person; a rascal, a scoundrel." Or "A mischievous person, esp. a child; a person whose behaviour one disapproves of but who is nonetheless likeable or attractive. Frequently as a playful term of reproof or reproach or as a term of endearment." Playful. Endearment. Oh, North Korea, you rogue!

The stunning ignorance of Matt Gaetz — smugly palming off completely sexist bad comedy. Does he think he's Andrew Dice Clay... in the 80s?

Posted: 24 Jul 2022 10:31 AM PDT

At least "look like a thumb" is an original image. But he's using a very old idea about feminists: They're the women who are so unattractive that they can't succeed in the traditional feminine way, which is by partnering with a man. And it's creepy to use the words "Nobody wants to impregnate you" when the format of your humor suggests that you're trying to say "Nobody wants to fuck you."

I'd like to hear some real stand-up comedians — Joe Rogan? — lambaste him for adopting the style of a stand-up comedian and doing it so badly and not getting real-life feedback because he's not in a comedy club with real people in the audience. He's in the political arena where no one tells him how bad it is.

Why would a politician want to disrespect unattractive people? A large percentage of voters are either unattractive, believe (or fear) they're unattractive, or feel empathy toward people who are — or fear they are — unattractive. I just defined a huge category! I'm going to guess that it includes 90% of voters. So Matt Gaetz is just such an idiot. It's almost funny.

IN THE COMMENTS: tim maguire said:
"Looks like a thumb" was a phrase used to describe Kenneth Parcells (played by Jack McBrayer character) on 30 Rock.
I said:
I'm seeing a lot of examples of "looks like a thumb" on line. Don't know if "30 Rock" came first. Everything I'm seeing, though, refers to men. I presume the men are bald (and maybe with fat necks or undefined chins).

So I withdraw the (tiny) credit I gave Gaetz for originality. And I'm going to add a demerit for using the description on a woman when it's more about how men look. Here's a photograph that was viral on the internet — circa 2014 — of a man who really does look like a thumb. And here, from 2016, is "People Who Look Like Thumbs: Do They Really Exist?" There's a lot of japery, posing at an angle that emphasizes thumbliness (which you will never confuse with comeliness).

MORE IN THE COMMENTS: JPS said: 

Actually Gaetz both stole and inverted an old line from George Carlin: 

"Have you ever noticed that most of the women who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?"

Not endorsing the line by quoting it. Carlin was brilliant. He could also be a nasty piece of work sometimes.

Ah, yes. I remember that.  It was in his 1996 show, "Back in Town." I remember watching that at the time and thinking he was basically telling an old, sexist joke. 

But notice there's a big difference between Gaetz's joke and Carlin's — and I don't mean that Carlin's was a quarter century earlier and I don't mean Carlin's forthright "fuck" and Gaetz's creepy "impregnate." Carlin did not say why you wouldn't want to have sex with those women. Gaetz was explicit that he was talking about looks. Carlin might have been referring to personality, to intelligence, to religion, or to the way they speak and behave (as well as to looks).

Now, Carlin really couldn't harp on looks, because his looks weren't too good. Gaetz, on the other hand, probably believes he's good looking. Of course, that makes him more of schmuck.

Sunrise.

Posted: 23 Jul 2022 03:17 PM PDT

5:20 a.m., showing the waning crescent moon:

IMG_1808

5:44:

IMG_1827X

6:00:

IMG_1835X

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"How much political damage did Trump actually do to himself?"

Posted: 23 Jul 2022 02:52 PM PDT

Asks John Cassidy in "How Much Damage Are the January 6th Hearings Doing to Trump? Even as Republican support for another Trump Presidential bid appears to be slipping, he can't be counted out" (The New Yorker).

As you can guess from the concession in the title — "he can't be counted out" — the answer to the question is not much:
[T]he televised hearings... have certainly had some impact, surveys show....
[T]he polling data, on closer inspection, confirm that Trump and his twisted views retain a disturbing amount of support.... [M]ore than half of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen. According to the Real Clear Politics poll average, which combines the results of individual surveys, Trump's over-all favorability rating has only dropped about two percentage points since this summer's televised hearings began.... [T]he figure remains within the same narrow range where it resided during most of Trump's Presidency.... 
As for the 2024 general election, a number of surveys carried out this month have shown a putative Trump-Biden rematch falling within the margin of error. A new Emerson College poll, which came out on Friday, has Trump at forty-six per cent and Biden at forty-three per cent.... 

Cassidy puzzles over Trump's support and doesn't really have any method of gathering evidence:

... Trump still has his maga movement—part nativist revival, part personality cult—and the vast majority of elected Republicans are still too frightened of him and his followers to cross him publicly. 
Last weekend, I took a long drive through upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, and it was easy to see where this fear comes from. The small towns and back roads were festooned with "Trump 2020" signs that had the last zero covered over and replaced with a "4." Other signs said "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Trump."...

Did he stop and talk to the people or just read the signs? How does he know the Trump supporters are nativists and personality cultists? He also purports to know that Trump was lying when he said he thought the election was stolen. How does he know all this? 

Notice how little distance he got away from New York City — "upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania." 

He doesn't consider that the reason opinion hasn't changed may be because the Committee's one-sidedness and unfairness repelled Trump supporters from the start. Repelled others too. Repelled me, and I have never been a Trump supporter. I read the write-ups, but mainly to see if they've made any headway showing that Trump knew he had lost the election and thought he was fomenting an insurrection.

I think the answer is no. Did I miss something?

"Bill Schutt, the author of 'Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History,' says that fictional plots about eating human flesh are as old as literature itself."

Posted: 23 Jul 2022 11:34 AM PDT

"Pointing to examples that include the man-eating Cyclops in Homer's 'Odyssey,' he said the taboo has artistically been used to horrify for centuries. 'When you take something that is so horrible and put it through this lens of fictionalization,' he said, 'we get charged up about it, but we know we're safe.' At least most of the time: Mr. Schutt only made it halfway through Hulu's 'Fresh' before he had to stop the movie. 'It was almost too well done,' he said. [Photo caption: 'In 'Fresh,' a woman becomes charmed by a man she meets at a grocery store, whom she later discovers is involved in an underground human flesh trade.']"

I just found 8 TikToks for your mid-Saturday enjoyment. 2 of them made me cry. Let me know what you think.

Posted: 23 Jul 2022 11:22 AM PDT

 1. Grab a banana and dance.

2. How to go downstairs in a wheelchair. 

3. What exactly is your skin color?

4. The oldest car in the world.

5. Two young boys get a little puppy dog.

6. The organist at the Salisbury Cathedral hears a tourist singing and, unseen, plays in accompaniment. 

7. A woman describes her own life in Victorian times — brushing mud off skirts, darning socks, and hearing the drunkards singing in the streets.

8. The uncanny power of classical music.
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