August 11, 2005

My Instapunditry.

Today, so far:

1. Looking at Terry Teachout's diary.

2. Remembering Barbara Bel Geddes.

3. Calling attention to Sheila O'Malley.

4. Wondering why unborn lamb fur is a special problem.

5. Loving some drawings.

6. Displaying a little bloggy obsession.

Feel free to comment on any of that stuff here. I'm thinking #4 is the most commentable topic, but it's your call.

17 comments:

pastorshaun said...

I'm curious to see if Glenn asks you back after approaching the day's news a la foot. ;O)

Ann Althouse said...

Karl: That was on my "possibly bloggable" list along with the David Brooks op-ed. I may get around to it.

I'm Full of Soup said...

O'Malley's was most interesting to me. And reinforces my opinion that much of the best writing is found on the blogosphere and not in the MSM.

goesh said...

4.) Ewe have to wonder what really motivates people to buy such things.

goesh said...

4.) No doubt such garments would be a shear delight to wear, but at no bahgain that's for sure

goesh said...

I think they are just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of PETA and get them off their backs, and of course fleecing the consumer in the process.

goesh said...

Let's give credit where credit is due. The advertisements for this product are discreet and at least the seller is not trying to Ram the product down the throat of the consumer.

ploopusgirl said...

Um, Goesh? Think you could condense that obnoxiousness into one post? I love the way you mock the Boston accent too!! Very chahming!!

Freeman Hunt said...

Don't horn in, Poopus. Haven't you herd puns are funny?

Goesh, you made me laugh out loud at work.

goesh said...

- oh flock you, poopusgirl! Next you will be condemning my comments on photography. I'm not the type of fellow you want to flock with when it comes to having wars of words. I am wagging my tongue at you..... Nyah!

Freeman Hunt said...

Maybe after she has a chance to ruminate on the issue a bit, she won't mind that kind of yakking.

goesh said...

LOL Freeman, she probably hoofed it right out of here after that no-punches-held bleating she just took!

chuck b. said...

Okay, I'll bite on 4.

Except I could only read half the article because I got bored. Ann, I rely on you to read the NYT so I don't have to. :) More chunky quotes please!

Still, this early sentence made me laugh: "The fashion industry says the texture - sleek and suedelike, subtly ridged or deeply wrinkled - meets an emerging taste for quiet luxury because it does not look like fur." To that I can only say, "But y'are, Blanche, y'are!"

People--specifically women--want to wear fur that doesn't look like fur because they want their luxury to be quiet. Huh? Translation: women want to wear fur without being criticized for it.

I think someone's trying to have it both ways. Is it the women who buy the stuff, or the designers who sell it?

goesh said...

Chuck, Talk about fodder for debate! It is udderly astounding the lengths some people will go to in order to look good, eh? You may well get pelted by some women in light of that one remark you made however.

chuck b. said...

Is it pedantic or even relevant to point out that embryos and fetuses are not the same thing? There may not be a bright line difference, but the embryo comes before the fetus.

What's the name of this fetal lamb skin leather? Azkeban? No, that's Harry Potter. Whatever--I can't be bothered clicking the NYT article again. Azkeban harvesters would have little use for the "skin" of a lamb embryo. In fact they wouldn't be able to find any since embryos don't have skin.

Similarly, like many a, um, what's the aliterative epithet for political moderates? muddled middle? muddy middle? (where is my brain tonight, and who am I to be questioning someone else's diction?), "slicing up" human embryos bothers me much less than "slicing up" human fetuses.

Joseph Angier said...

re #2 on your Instapundit list ... RIP Barbara Bel Geddes. Unlike your other reader, I only slightly disagree with that "quintessentially non-sexy" judgement. I went back to Elia Kazan's autobiography for the best assessment of her appeal. Allowing for his somewhat creepy attitude towards women, he was the Method director nonpareil, never more so than when he describes why he cast her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:
"[Tennessee Williams] hadn't wanted Barbara in the role of the Cat; I'd rather forced her on him. She was not the kind of actress he liked; she was the kind of actress I liked. I'd known her when she was a plump young girl, and I had a theory - which you are free to ignore - that when a girl is fat in her early and middle teens and slims down later, she is left with an uncertainty about her appeal to boys, and what often results is a strong sexual appetite, intensified by the continuing anxiety of believing herself undesirable. ... My impression [is that it] did apply to Miss Bel Geddes. I knew how much a working sexual relationship meant to this young woman and that in every basic way she resembled Maggie the Cat. I trusted my knowledge of her own nature and life and therefore cast her. In general, actors or actresses must have the part in accumulation of their past. Their life's experience is the director's material."

I was way too young to have seen this production on Broadway, but think of the sexual subtleties we missed by having the "quintessentially sexy" Elizabeth Taylor cast in the movie version.
RIP Barbara Bel Geddes indeed,

Ann Althouse said...

Joseph: Fascinating! Elizabeth Taylor is distractingly beautiful, isn't she? So's Paul Newman.