Althouse & Meade

The intra-blog love story I've been following in real time, Althouse and Meade, went public in a big way this weekend with a feature story in the New York Times. From personal experience, I knew that Althouse was a teacher. Until the Times article, however, I didn't know Meade's occupation. So, after learning he's a 'garden designer and estate caretaker', this image sprang to mind.

Congratulations Mrs. Krabappel and Groundskeeper Willie! May you have a long run and a good life in Springfield.

The Power of Blog

Earlier today, I emailed my BlogFather, Hugh Hewitt, about the inside-Althouse news that she is engaged to be married. I wrote to Hugh:

Another feature of blogs: find true love. Uber-bloggress Ann Althouse teased, teased, teased her readers but announced today on her blog [natch!] that she and long-time commenter, Meade, are engaged to be married. Tentative date: August 1, 2009. First date was only a couple months ago. My theory, which I twittered a long time go: reading and commenting on someone's blog eliminates the need for the first 48 dates. Anyway, I thought you'd find peculiar delight in that bit o' news.

He encouraged me to post and I am happy to oblige.

Personal to A &M: As Wisconsin is a marital property state, I urge you in the strongest terms possible from one who received a law degree from one of Wisconsin's most venerable law schools to consult, hire and use separate counsel to draft a pre-nuptial agreement. It is nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the love, but has everything to do with making sure the offspring's portions are kept unentangled. And best wishes.

ADDED: And, since I saw the shamelss plug for a dress from Trooper's Lee Lee's Valise, I'm gonna' put the plug in now for the best wedding photographer in the world, my brother. You could do much worse than a Pulitzer-nominated former photojournalist who wrote the book on wedding photography. Oh, and he's also a blogger. And if you have the wedding in early August, that should be well before his next baby arrives in mid-September.

Long May It Wave

Happy Flag Day!

ADDED: Here's Althouse's "Most Right Wing Photo" which I misremembered as her usual Flag Day pic, but it's not. She posts it on the 4th of July.

Pun o' the Day

It all began at the Cherry Esplanade...

Shocking New Hillary Ad

I'm still trying to get used to the idea that NC's primary matters to anyone outside of my county. Here's the ad I heard tonight that made me stop and look at it. Hey! I lived in Fayetteville! I served at Fort Bragg! I work in Winston-Salem! I got the notice that my local schools are failing the No Child Left Behind standards for two consecutive years [which was 'the straw that broke the camel's back' in our decision to homeschool.]

Could it be? Might she really be talking to me?



Not bloody likely. But kudos to her campaign for getting me to watch it.

UPDATE: Hillary's probably not talking to me. But you know what's better than that? Althouse is linking to me.

"Truly, You Have a Dizzying Intellect"

For some reason, this classic scene sprang to mind today. And Wallace Shawn as a lisping Sicilian? Brilliant.

And cyber-hugs to one of my favorites, Meade.

Happy Birthday, Ann Althouse!

One of my favorite bloggers, and my favorite prof-blogger, is having a birthday tomorrow. What do you get the blogger who has everything? Links! Here's my favorite post of hers from recent memory. It was her photos and title that got me thinking of my old Army days. The conversation in the comments was lively and went in a direction even she probably didn't anticipate.

Many happy returns, Professor Althouse!

UPDATE: The good professor links to this, and insulting upwards takes a nice turn. Those of you with blogs, don't forget to link to your favorite Althouse post[s] on your blog. This includes you, Glenn Reynolds!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Instapundit succumbs to my powerful suggestion.

Clinton v. Lazio Debate

Harder to find than hen's teeth, I found this video of the Rick Lazio/Hillary Clinton senatorial debate, circa 2000.




I couldn't find the original un-commented-upon video anywhere else. Some are suspicious of a conspiracy afoot. I think Clinton doesn't want to have a wide review of her 2000 debate performance because it is unflattering to her: she hammered a little poofball and then won because "he invaded her personal space." It just doesn't quite read that way to me anymore.

Just for Posterity

Seeing as this blog is the cyber equivalent of a Post-it on my life,

I just wanted to pixilate that on September 21, 2007, I was on the Medved show's Open Mind Friday begging him ["For the love of Hubbard"] to never again let Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes on his show. [Sheesh! What an indefatigable windbag!]

Also: Confession, 9/30/07.

Althouse: A Good Egg

Don't be shell-shocked. Uberblogger Ann Althouse took on the fraternity challenge we [her readers] gave her and ate an egg salad sandwich [once on camera at least] for $200.

I had an investment in her performance art. Maybe it's a little too inside Althouse, but I laughed a lot. Ya' wanna see someone eat mad? Rage against the mayo? Go see it. It's art.

Political Images

Althouse ably live-blogged the Democratic debate. She posted this screen shot of the Senators Clinton and Obama.

For some reason, known only to my subconscious mind, I thought of this TV moment of Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte breaking barriers.

Horse Feathers for the Professor

Althouse was vlogging again and this time she answered my question about what always gets a laugh. Here is a few minutes from The Marx Brothers' "Horse Feathers" where Groucho sings Whatever It Is, I'm Against It.


And this one guaranteed to get a chuckle [the bit she referenced begins around 3:00 into the video]:




Too bad I'm not getting graded.

Heavenly Discourse

This post over at Althouse turned into a little dialogue about heaven. In the comments, Althouse asked me:

Why does God assume everyone will love Heaven? What if you get there and find it's not to your particular taste? From the descriptions I've heard, it's boring -- even in normal human life span terms. How can it be suitable for eternity? If the answer is that God will reshape our minds and force us to love it, isn't that a rejection of our humanity?

And I replied:

Remember the other day when you wrote about an old dream where you discovered all creation followed 5 specific forms and you woke up happy that you knew something eternal and profound? And then you forgot what you dreamed? The waking happy was heaven-esque...complete knowledge of Truth and Beauty.

I trust what scripture says that "eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love Him." A God who took the time to create about 40 thousand kinds of beetles is a God who is into details [think your flower pictures and the task of painting it which would take days and diligence, focus and talent]. The greatest creature, we are told, is humanity. There is not a part about you that is not known completely by God. Your tastes? He delights in them! The things you find funny? He laughs with them! The sorrows you bear? He knows them, and by knowing them, shares them, and will, upon request, lighten them or grant strength to endure them. This God of great detail wastes nothing. Why, then, does the average human being use only 10% of brain capacity? I believe that other 90-odd percent, give or take, is for the eternal journey we're about to have. Haven't you thought 'when I get to Heaven, I want to know x...'? I want to meet my ancestors. I want to have cappucino with St. Anthony. I want to talk with the Blessed Mother. In eternity, there's time to do it all. And if I arrive there and God hands me a toilet brush, so be it! I'd rather serve in Heaven than reign in hell. For anyone who loves this life, you already have a window of what will accompany you to the other side...love.

She posts so often that some of the good stuff from days past gets buried by today's good stuff.

Sunday Funnies

The following story was posted by Eli Blake as a comment over at Althouse the other day, and it still makes me chuckle.

A man lived next to a family that had a little girl, and she had a pet rabbit that she kept in a hutch in her back yard.

The man next door had a dog, which had several times gotten into the neighbor's yard and dug up flowers or otherwise made a mess, so the father of the neighboring family had come over once or twice and told the man that he had to restrain his dog and in no uncertain terms made it clear that his dog was not welcome there, and if it kept coming over the neighbor might call animal control.

One day, the neighbor family was gone someplace, and the man's dog came into the house with something in his mouth. The man took it and discovered it was the neighbor's rabbit, covered with dirt but otherwise still intact. He figured that the dog must have figured out a way to open the rabbit cage and killed the rabbit and dragged it home through the mud and dirt.

Not wanting to incur the wrath of the neighbors again, he hit on a plan. He carefully washed off the rabbit and airdried its coat so that it looked liked it had just been groomed, sneaked into the neighbor's yard (where the door of the hutch was still open) and carefully laid the rabbit inside and closed the door, so that when the little girl found it she'd assume that it had died of natural causes.

A little while later the family got home, and not long after he heard the girl yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs. He figured his plan had worked.

Then a few minutes later he heard a knock at his door, and the father was standing there. He asked the man directly whether he had noticed anyone prowling around in his yard.

"uh,...no," answered the man.

"That's too bad," said the father, "I just wonder what kind of a sicko would take the time to dig up a little girl's dead rabbit that we had just buried this morning, clean it up and put it back in the cage."

I told him that would've been hilarious even if it weren't true.

Is There a Sturgeon in the House Althouse?

I'm just fishin' to see if this will show up as a link over at Althouse. And seeing if that strikeout command works, too.

UPDATE: It appears to have worked. And it took only a couple minutes.

Catfight! Flame Wars! Girls Gone Wild!

I'll play right into Althouse's evil plan and link to the current dust-up in the blogosphere. Here I am unwinding from my Monday's work, and I look at the latest post at Althouse. I heard her podcast yesterday which obliquely alluded to the dust-up that she knew would ensue [or at least it sounded "obliquely" to me because the sound level on her podcasts range from low to inaudible]. Sure enough. There's a comment thread that's rehashing an old blogwar.

I watched '24' tonight and my heart was racing. But presidents being revived from medically induced comas to slap-down megalomaniacal vice-presidents from launching nuclear weapons against mid-East targets was mild compared to the real blogging-as-art-form over at Althouse.

Word Parcels

With the power of bloggerly suggestion, I have been dreaming more lately. Make that, I've been remembering more of my dreams. Today, I had a blissful nap that lasted about 2 hours and was interrupted about 6 times. I remember dreaming that Ann Althouse was debuting her new book about blogging and it was called "Word Parcels." The cover was hot pink and had a flower imagery all over the cover [I'm thinking Georgia O'Keefe]. I woke up and wondered, "Did she really write a book? Let's google it and find out." She had not.

I suspect it's a confluence of these factors: RLC for the dreaming, Amba for the thoughts on writing, Lileks for the annoucement of a newly-finished book, Althouse for the sheer volume of bloggerly goodness and the clearly feminine/feminist? imagery on my imagined cover and me for stewing them all together into this little word parcel. Did I mention that I'm making beef stew for dinner in the crock pot?

Simon Sez

I had a lot of fun over at the coffeehouse of Althouse today. One of the regular commenters, Simon, called in to a radio show on which Althouse was a guest. He unmasked himself as a British ex-pat.

[UPDATE: For the record, Simon is in full allegiance to the United States of America as a citizen in good standing.]

His old avatar was a picture of Antonin Scalia as a shogun warrior. Now I had to rethink that and immediately came up with a little character that Mike Meyers used to do on Saturday Night Live. He was a little English boy who used to do his "show" from a bubble bath and he would do his little "drawrings" with his "pruney" hands. It was sweet and funny. But that video's been yanked from YouTube.

So here's another British Simon to view:



And then I went on another Simon tangent:



And here's another:



Wow. Gotta' love the cowbell.

When (My) Worlds Collide

Today, while waiting on hold to speak with Michael Medved about the religious implications to Alito's nomination, he mentioned an article written by Ann Althouse in the New York Times Op-Ed. He described her as "liberal" law professor. As a faithful visitor of the Althouse blog, I know that she wouldn't describer herself thusly. After the commercial break, I told Michael I was her student [20 years ago, like that would matter] and that I believe she would characterize herself as a moderate. Proof? She voted for Bush last go-round. Medved conceded the point with his classic, "fair enough."

We went on to discuss the role, if any, Alito's religion had in his selection by Bush or in the potential challenges he would face because of it. If approved by the Senate, he will be the 5th Catholic to currently sit on the court, a first ever that the Catholics would be in the majority on the high court. Michael asked if that would bother me. I replied, "as a Catholic, I'd have to say 'no'." End of my call.

To close the loop, I searched an appropriate post at Althouse to mention the call and found that some liberals had called her a "conservative" because of the same Op-Ed, and then, committed a cardinal sin....FAILED TO LINK! Another Althouse commenter and blogger in his own right at Poliblogger held up the bloggy mirror. And now we have a glimpse at infinity.

Michael Medved & Mother's Milk

During his second hour today, Medved was discussing the "lactivists" who staged a "nurse-in" outside ABC studios to protest comments Barbara Walters made on The View. I called in to politely disagree with Michael. Michael, whose wife avidly nursed their three children a total of 9 years, said he supported breastfeeding, but not so much in public, and definitely with much modesty and discretion. I agree that nursing in public should be modestly done. There is a nice line of clothing, Motherwear, that allows for such modesty. I even offered that I wish I could've comfortably nursed in public [I couldn't because I felt really clutzy without my home environs]. However, in this situation, nursing a child on a plane, I told him that I believe the woman did the "least worst" thing given the situation. On an airplane, what was she to do? Go to the lavatory and tie that up for 20 minutes? I suggested that I couldn't believe Barbara was flying coach and that it was possible that she, an adoptive mother, might've been uncomfortable about the whole idea of breastfeeding and not the passing glimpse of her female neighbor's exposed breast. I don't like nursing mamas to get "all activist", but I think there's a cultural disconnect in America when it comes to breastfeeding. There seems to be a whole generation of women who were encouraged not to nurse. I grew up never seeing anyone nurse a baby. I don't like the "flaunters", but I also think a nursing, contented baby is far preferable to a screaming tot. This is a difficult issue because it stirs up a lot of feelings in many people. Politeness is always in vogue and we should attempt to be discreet, modest and unobtrusive in all our public encounters. The discussion on this subject was quite interesting over at Althouse.