August 21, 2008

Hey, James Wolcott called me a peeing intellectual nobility.

And he doesn't even link. The fiend!

But he's mainly pissed — to coin a phrase — at Maureen Dowd: "How can she poison what they've already polluted?"

Now, now, Jim. Urine isn't poison. Why so squeamish?

62 comments:

Peter V. Bella said...

“Let’s consider what happens when major Dems are relentlessly demonized… And Mark Penn gets special mention too…
You see Penn is the latest major Dem demon."




What he is really saying is that Dowd and other pundits are doing to Penn what has been done to Karl Rove. It is wrong to demonize Penn because he is a Democrat and it is right and proper to criticize Rove because he is a Republican. Penn has done as much, if not more harm than Rove has only been accused of, on behalf of the Clintons. Does Wolcott really expect that Penn would come through unscathed?

"The Democratic brand isn't Maureen Dowd's concern, nor should it be, but it's perplexing that a paper as gay-friendly as the Times permits her ongoing sissification of male politicians for the sin of failing to live up to the sterling standards of the Rat Pack."

That paragraph makes me wonder if Wolcott is not actually downtownlad.

TJ said...

I know you're kidding about the link, and are probably thrilled by the mention, but it's a little rich on the same day you declined to link to an article you quoted from so heavily.

Unknown said...

I hope you're peeing. And in any case being a "peeing intellectual nobility" is better than being a peeing intellectual lightweight.

Triangle Man said...

At least he didn't say that you looked like the piss boy.

Host with the Most said...

James Wolcott is a very talented writer. It's just that what he writes no longer shows his talent.

Him use big words and clever phrases to show him intellectually angry and superior.

Him try hard.

Him sound stupid.

James "yawn" Wolc . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzz

paul a'barge said...

Don't you think he meant "preening"? Not that you are, of course. But it would be like Alcott to blow a word like that. No pun intended, of course. I mean, not that Walcott blows or anything. Well, maybe chunks. I mean Walcott blows chunks, of course.

Peter V. Bella said...

I went to the Daily Howler link Fallows provided and came up with these gems:

…that this hapless newspaper has allowed this to go on so long.

That was the one, clear true statement. The NYT is a hapless newspaper.

This morning, an abortion-driven attack is being launched against Obama’s character. And guess what? It’s relatively easy to get voters to believe that Obama’s a big phony liar because so many other Big Dems have been portrayed in that manner.

What’s his point?

By way of contrast, it’s relatively easy to redefine Obama. Every other Big Dem was a phony. Why wouldn’t he be the same?

Well, DUH!

I can’t wait to see what Dowd writes next.

reader_iam said...

Anything to get her off the op-ed page of the Times, where her imaginary conversations and malicious projections sully the crystal waters of insight and reason, the oasis of measured reflection, into which William Safire, John Tierney, A. M. Rosenthal, William Kristol, Ann Althouse, and other intellectual nobilities have peed.

Paul: Nah, "pee" is the imagery of choice.

reader_iam said...

A diverse bunch around that urinal, btw.

Peter V. Bella said...

He grouped you in some great company. A real distinguished group of pissers. Or is it a real pisser of a distinguished group?

I believe Fallows peeing inellectual nobility means he hates people pissing on his Parade; or Vanity Fair.

reader_iam said...

Interesting that Wolcott chose "nobilities" over "nobles." Betcha it wasn't an accident.

blake said...

I don't understand reader's quote.

Is he singling out those people as having sullied (sully-ed?) the otherwise pristine reflections that appear in the NYT?

Shouldn't the Times have indoor plumbing?

Palladian said...

James Wolcott is a marginally smarter Glenn Greenwald. That is not a compliment.

Remember when Wolcott wrote this charming passage?:

"I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong--Mother Nature's fist of fury, Gaia's stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own."

I'm sure the displaced, disrupted folks that survived Katrina will be pleased to read it.

This is what happens to atheists who can't actually let go of the concept of God. They start writing "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Gaia".

Joe M. said...

Professor:

into which ... Ann Althouse, and other intellectual nobilities have peed. How can she poison what they've already polluted? By giving each column that extra special dash of dementia.

The urine seems to result in pollution, not poison. It takes Dowd's special brand of dementia to poison in this guy's construction. So your response ("Urine isn't poison") doesn't seem to fit the charge.

Best,
Joe M.

UWS guy said...

I don't think (according to my dictionary) that an individual can be a "nobilities".

"Althouse and other nobilities." I don't think makes logical sense.

it's synonym would be aristocracy.

"Althouse and other aristocracy." seems pretty clumsy.


Unless he meant to say "no ability" and his space bar is stuck from his cheeto-stained fingers...

TitusHereComesBrenda said...

I love James Wolcott.

So NYC. So fabulous.

P_J said...

Wolcott know of what he speaks, being so stranger to pissing on others (and) himself.

Peter V. Bella said...

Welcome to the pissing contest!

vbspurs said...

I thought it read, "Alexander Woolcott called me a peeing intellectual nobility."

I peed a little.

Cheers,
Victoria

garage mahal said...

Haha. Wolcott and Somerby in one link. Delicious. Nobody exposes the gender fruitcake Dowd like Somerby.

Finally a link worth reading. Thanks Ann!

former law student said...

"Althouse and other nobilities." I don't think makes logical sense.

Reminds me of the famous Agnew/Safire(?)line: nattering nabobs of negativism. Should be Althouse and other nobles (noblepeople?).

Anonymous said...
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AlgonquinS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

Titus is into piss.

TitusHereComesBrenda said...

Wolcott is a NYC landmark and diva. Althouse should be happy that he even mentioned her.

She is in the big leagues now. NYC big leagues. How much more diva than that can you be?

We are not talking about some middle america poster who noone knows. We are talking about a Vanity Fair writer.

Hello, totally diva. Vanity Fair rules

Palladian said...

Has James Wolcott ever pissed in your mouth, Titus?

AlgonquinS said...

Wolcott is jealous of Althouse because she is an optimist, while Wolcott is a pissimist.

Some day I'll learn to spell.

Anonymous said...

Will we have to start calling you "Lady Althouse" now that you're a Peer of the Realm?

UWS guy said...

Stravinsky "The Right of Spring."

That's what you were thinking of Ann.

Host with the Most said...

Palladian,

This is what happens to atheists who can't actually let go of the concept of God. They start writing "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Gaia".

Comment of the month (if not the year)

I bow to your lucidity.

Chip Ahoy said...

Ha ha ha ha ha. X -3

The best thing about that link is the side story on Christopher Hitchen's self-improvement program. A three-part deal. He's at his self-deprecating best. "Skin harvested from battlefield casualties." Now, there's a graphic for you. There a photo of his "before" teeth. OMG. Nearly fainted. And another of him on an exercise machine that was "reassuringly expensive" as an old ad goes, but prevents him from accessing the liquor cabinet. I found it interesting his final moment of smoking, the one where he knew was absolute, was in Madison. Interesting article, I would not have found it had you not linked to the bore with a bug up his bum, Wolcott. So, thanks for that.

Chip Ahoy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joan said...

I'd never heard of Somerby before. This quote floored me: In the past dozen years, Major Dems have been relentlessly demonized—and Big Reps like McCain have been turned into saints. (Until he finally destroyed the known world, George W. Bush was “plain-spoken,” “a different kind of Republican.”)

"Destroyed the known world"?

We're seeing it more and more now. People who are living on an entirely different plane of reality than the rest of us.

rhhardin said...

I keep thinking Wolcott is some contemporary of Coleridge.

Maybe I'll place it in an off moment.

Ursine drinking would be a bear-shake or something. The champagne of bottled bears.

Fen said...

Does this mean the Left is done with hyperbole? Since Bush has destroyed the known world, what else is there? Alpha Centari?

rhhardin said...

Ah. John Wolcott poem

Ann Althouse said...

Trevor Jackson said.. "I know you're kidding about the link, and are probably thrilled by the mention, but it's a little rich on the same day you declined to link to an article you quoted from so heavily"

Oh, please. I simply forgot to do a link and put it in when I saw my mistake.

Ann Althouse said...

UWS guy, no, I was right. Read this:

"Nijinsky's first choreographic effort, Prelude a l'apresmidi d'un Faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun) was the most controversial performance of the Ballet Russe in 1912, signaling the beginning of a shift towards modernism. In the ballet, Nijinsky completely fulfilled Diaghilev's expectations of a revolutionary and provocative dance. The plot centers on a faun who unsuccessfully flirts with nymphs. When the nymphs run away, leaving behind a scarf belonging to one among them, the faun plays with the scarf ending the ballet with simulated masturbation. Nijinsky's performance as the faun was powerful, virile, and even animalistic, according to some observers, who were mostly shocked by the ballet's overt sexuality, which went far beyond the subtler eroticism of Fokin ballets like Cleopatre and Scheherezade."

Ann Althouse said...

But I should have said Debussy.

knox said...

Vanity Fair is a boomer rag. Boring.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Urine luck today!

Ralph L said...

How many of that group of nobilities are sitzpinklers?

Peter V. Bella said...

blake said...
Shouldn't the Times have indoor plumbing?

They used to. But since Al Gore talked to the publisher, a fellow traveler, the Times eschews all indoor plumbing. It has to do with the Global Warming, environmental preservation of water, toxic sludge thingy.

Anonymous said...

James Wolcott is miffed because more people read Althouse than read him.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Urine certainly isn't poisonous (under most circumstances), but most people don't consider it all that pleasant to be around these days - unless, perhaps, they're into watersports. Maybe someone kinky like losergrrl could enlighten us on that.

I understand it was used by ancient Romans to launder their clothes.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that you can drink your own urine a few times but that it will become poisonous after awhile as it's less water and more other stuff.

Asante Samuel said...

I think Mr Wolcott called you a polluter. A check for $11.33 to Carbonfund.org should relieve your guilt. And apparently he has a problem with fags and sissies. But the rest of his rant is lifted from another angry website, a website where extra credit is given for using the word demonized seven times in fifty words. Might I suggest an editor?

Psychopathia sexualis dementia in politicians? That might cost more than $11.33.

Hahahaha. Racial denigration? gender trashing? Obamaniacs use code words like these when they are really, foot-stamping-ly angry.
Can anyone find the coded code word in de nig ration? A true progressive would instinctively use a less provocative word, or at least apologize for it tomorrow. We will see.

And, did the Wolcott forget the Rat Pack, male and female members, were all Democrats? Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, Angie Dickenson and Judy Garland? They all man up better than Sen. Metrosexual.

What a poorly written column.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that you can drink your own urine a few times but that it will become poisonous after awhile as it's less water and more other stuff.

seven machos must be the science guy around here. thanks for the tip--i sure wouldn't want to get into any of that other stuff!

blake said...

Nijinsky's performance as the faun was powerful, virile, and even animalistic, according to some observers, who were mostly shocked by the ballet's overt sexuality, which went far beyond the subtler eroticism of Fokin ballets like Cleopatre and Scheherezade."

Rumor has it that N stuffed his leotard for that performance.

Anonymous said...

Urine luck today!

hey, speaking of urine, did anyone else read about mccain's incontinence problem?

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

I didn't hear about that. But according to some, he's been having some problems getting around lately - and luckily found a nice young man to help him take care of that.

Joan said...

Fen:Does this mean the Left is done with hyperbole?

If only!

vbspurs said...

Actually, re-reading the Diva post, maybe not. "noone". The real Titus wouldn't have made two errors like that.

Palladian said...

Victoria, the "real Titus" (inasmuch as a fictional character can be real) has always been stupid. His posts are replete with poor spelling, grammatical errors, improper punctuation, random capitalization. He's like downtownlad's Id.

Anonymous said...

His posts are replete with poor spelling, grammatical errors, improper punctuation, random capitalization.

meow!

blake said...

That's always struck me as odd about Titus. The aggressively incorrect use of "of", like "should of" rather than "should've"--every single time.

However, I see "him" as kind of the "Jay and Silent Bob" of Althouse. (Maybe Troop's the "Silent Bob" to his "Jay".) He brings the absurdity that (I think, helpfully) deflates a lot of the ridiculously turgid threads.

Heh. I said "turgid".

Fen said...

Bonus points to Blake for "turgid"

knox said...

He's like downtownlad's Id.

Interesting, because I think he IS downtownlad. Think about it: they're never in the same thread at the same time; they studiously, totally (and remarkably) ignore each other's existence...

But I think someone else theorized once that he's Maxine, so what do I know.

reader_iam said...

Hmmm.

[Thinking out loud]

Titus is the anti-turgid; Trooper is the anti-overwrought.

Or is it the other way around?

I should tell you that "turgid and overwrought" is a longstanding, inside joke 'round here and amongst friends. My husband, for example, uses it as shorthand for the work of Baron Andrew Lloyd Webber and extends it to certain (and significant numbers of) experts and pundits of all types. I'll leave it at that, knowing as I do that you all can extrapolate with the best of 'em.

Cyrus Pinkerton said...

I've never bought into Roger J.'s theory that there are only six (or is it seven?) people who are responsible for the entirety of the comments at Althouse. However, after seeing this comment by Palladian

Has James Wolcott ever pissed in your mouth, Titus?

I decided to phone Host with the Most's brother, a clinical psychologist and all-around smart guy. His opinion is that Palladian is Titus, and comments like this

...the "real Titus" (inasmuch as a fictional character can be real) has always been stupid

are indicative of autophobia.

Who am I to disagree with this diagnosis?

vbspurs said...

Victoria, the "real Titus" (inasmuch as a fictional character can be real) has always been stupid.

I disagree. Uncultured. Shallow. Wisconsin Dairy Maid Escaped To The Big City...yes.

But not stupid.

His posts are replete with poor spelling, grammatical errors, improper punctuation, random capitalization. He's like downtownlad's Id.

Possibly.

But it's too simple to figure it out by IP and a couple of other checks. Ann knows how. If she doesn't, I can teach her.

Cheers,
Victoria

wyo sis said...

I couldn't finish either article. I lost interest after reading the indicated points. So, this Wolcott person is an "intellectual" I take it? And, Titus is not? They're distinguished by their variously sophisticated uses of urine to make a point?