October 29, 2007

What I miss when I'm "off-blog Althouse."

I've been on my little weekend jaunt to Stuart, Florida, absorbing sun instead of my usual nourishment of on-line news, so I'm just now noticing the Sunday Frank Rich column about Rudy Giuliani. I hope it's not too late to talk about it.

And I will talk about it in a minute, but first I want to say....

Blogging makes everything feel so transitory! If you don't notice a story in the first 12 hours, it seems utterly passé. I prefer hanging out on line, where I can see — or feel that I see — the world unfolding. It flows by continuously, and one thing or another catches my attention and sets me off writing again. It's my way of life. I love being in that flow, and whenever I step outside it and go off into the world as a character I like to call "off-blog Althouse," I miss some things that I'd have liked to engage with. And you get pictures of Dorito dust in the cup-holders of my rental car instead of why David Savage's attack on Clarence Thomas is claptrap. (Here, read what Patterico says.)

As I was perambulating the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro this weekend, there were many times when I wished I had my laptop so I could do some research and write about various things. Without even a camera — they won't let you have a camera — it was hard, really hard being off-blog Althouse. Do you want to know what I think of a golf course lined with McMansions? Do you want to hear my 1,000 thoughts about the sun, my skin, and the lack of shade? And speaking of skin, what is it about golf and white people? The most popular player is black, but the spectators are white, white, white. Yet no shade on the McMansioned-lined golf course!

That's just a tiny glimpse of the thought processes of off-blog Althouse.

Enough.

Next post.

34 comments:

Gedaliya said...
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Gedaliya said...
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AllenS said...

His mother is from Thailand, not the Philippines.

Gedaliya said...

Oops. Thanks much for the correction.

Gedaliya said...

The most popular player is black...

Is he? What is "black"? After all, Tiger is 50% black, 50% Thai. How is a person's "blackness" determined? Why is Tiger "black" instead of "Thai"?

I've always thought this was an interesting question. Most of the Jim Crowe laws were based on some interpretation of Hypodescent, which became very messy very soon.

The entire concept of "race" is, to me, very murky, and is fraught with difficulties, especially when it is used to determine practical applications, such as "affirmative action."

I probably won't live to see that day that "race" is as quaint as some of the terms that used to be employed to classify it, such as "mulatto," "octoroon," and "quadroon," but I suspect that day is not long off.

I wish it would get here sooner.

Note: This comment was corrected after Allens pointed out that I had incorrectly stated that Tiger's mother was Filipino. She is Thai.

AllenS said...

I've talked to people who have seen Tiger Woods, and they say he looks more oriental than black.

AllenS said...
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Cyrus Pinkerton said...

The Patterico "pontification" is a joke. It's an extremely poorly reasoned attack on the David Savage article based on a misrepresentation of Savage's analysis. Why would anyone cite Patterico's slop as a serious rebuttal to Savage's piece?

MadisonMan said...

Can't you post to the blog with the iPhone?

Meade said...
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Meade said...

AllenS: Do you mean "Asian?" "Oriental" is a rug.

I couldn't agree more with Gedaliya. The use of the terms "black" and "white" to describe human beings is ludicrous and it simply forms a linguistic basis for the psychological disease of racism. Especially when the terms are used as nouns.

Why have educated enlightened Americans put up with it for so long? They should blush with the embarrassment of their own covert racism.

"Melatonin-impaired" is more precise language and better describes those individuals who for lack of adequate hormone levels can't safely bear direct sunlight for more than fifteen minutes. "White" describes snow; "black," coal. Self-identifying "whites" would do us all a favor by simply calling themselves "colorless."

Speaking of shade, the skins of all beings of the human race are shades of red and brown. They form no logical basis for discrimination of any sort except for suggesting safe periods of exposure to the sun.

(/Monday morning rant)

AllenS said...

Meade--

Checking my Webster's College Dictionary, I'm sticking with oriental. Notice the lower case o. Oriental rug is a separate entry. Used with an upper case O.

AllenS said...

Adjective vs. noun.

ricpic said...

You went to Florida without a big straw hat?! You'll fry.

Joaquin said...

You are shocked that there are large homes on a golf course???
The most desired real estate for homes are:
1. Oceanfront
2. Golf course
3. waterfront

froggyprager said...

I appreciate your honest comments about being off-blog. It seems that to keep your blog up as you do you must be very focused (obsessed) with online news and blogging about everything. I enjoy reading it and appreciate your efforts. You comb the net for interesting things so I don’t have to. It seems that off-blog/ off-line time is very valuable and healthy. Honestly, how many hours a day do you spend reading blogs and news online, reading comments on your blog, posting to your blog, etc.?

On FL, I often go down to a similar area in LF and am shocked (coming from Madison) by the lack of shade, huge homes, manufactured landscapes, pace of new construction, etc. I don't know how you could live their year round with kids in the sun. I need to use a lot of compact florescent flashbulbs to make up for the energy used to run the AC in a 5000 sf home in LF.

John Stodder said...

Of all things I imagine you doing "off-blog," going to Florida to watch a PGA golf match would've been near the bottom.

I can more easily imagine you deer-hunting.

Have you ever blogged about golf?

Joaquin said...

"I don't know how you could live there (FLA) year round with kids in the sun."

Newsflash 4 froggyfraper: It's being done all through the South, the Southwest, and California. It's actually quite nice.

What I don't get is how people can live in a place where snow/ice covers the ground for over 5 month of the year. Talk about suicide watch!

Ruth Anne Adams said...

I've always thought of "off-blog Althouse" as a what, but you write about it like it's a who.

How many personas are there, Althouse?

froggyprager said...

Dax- I know many people live there. Let me be more clear, I go to SOUTH Florida in spring and winter with my kids each year and it is usually nice weather but can be too hot in the sun for much of the day. Without shade, I don't see how you could hang out outside from 10 to 4 at all, sports, in the park, etc. This heat lasts for 6 months easy. I went to college in Atlanta and that did not seems nearly as bad. A couple of hot months but bearable. Of course you can spend your days inside all day with AC but that is not how I want to live all the time. Winter is tough and you can only go sledding a couple of times until it gets old.

Ann Althouse said...

MadisonMan said.."Can't you post to the blog with the iPhone?"

Yes, but you are not allowed to have a phone. Plus, if you are following an individual player, as opposed to staying put somewhere, you have to keep walking to keep up. You can't sit down and do something else.

AllenS said..."Checking my Webster's College Dictionary, I'm sticking with oriental. Notice the lower case o. Oriental rug is a separate entry. Used with an upper case O."

If people don't want to be called oriental (which just means eastern, I think), I can't imagine why you wouldn't just accept that. It's irrelevant what's in the dictionary.

dax said..."You are shocked that there are large homes on a golf course???"

No, I'm shocked that a PGA tour event is on a golf course that isn't more aesthetically pleasing. I know they build suburban neighborhoods around golf courses, but these are not the great golf courses of the world. These are real estate projects. If I go to a tour event, I expect to see a beautiful golf course, and the houses are not acceptable aesthetically.

froggyprager said..."I appreciate your honest comments about being off-blog... It seems that off-blog/ off-line time is very valuable and healthy...."

Not trudging around in the hot, glaring sun on a shadeless golf course. I love walking around interesting places like New York City or -- look at some of my photos -- a scenic landscape, especially if I can have my camera and, if it's hot, have access either to my car or a restaurant or something.

John Stodder said..."Of all things I imagine you doing "off-blog," going to Florida to watch a PGA golf match would've been near the bottom."

I only do it because my nephew is one of the players. My sister and brother-in-law were also there, so it was a family thing.

"Have you ever blogged about golf?"

Yes, but only because it was related to my nephew.

Ruth Anne Adams said..."I've always thought of "off-blog Althouse" as a what, but you write about it like it's a who. How many personas are there, Althouse?"

This blog is called Althouse, and when I'm writing here, I'm on-blog Althouse, but I never say that, because it's obvious that I'm here. When I started using tags, I made up the label "off-blog Althouse" to refer to my life doing anything other than blogging. Off-blog Althouse does many things, some of which are referred to here, usually only obliquely.

Ann Althouse said...

By the way, I've never played golf and I'm not even good at being a spectator. In fact, I suck at being a spectator.

ìgbàlonígbàńlò said...

One of the most interesting questions I've had to answer from 'melanin-impaired' friends around these parts is whether we 'melanin-overloaded' folks get sunburned. Apparently some do but since I grew up not too far from a desert(in the tropics) and never knew a person that complained about such, I always thought the question didn't make sense.

I kept trying to ask them to visualize living in 40 degrees Celsius midday temps and doing a lot of walking in that sun and turning back the question as a, "would such folks be susceptible to sunburn?"

Anonymous said...

What have I told you Ann,

You are addicted to your blog. You get your jollies from your blog (aside from your lesbian interludes at Park Slope soirees with Hillary Clinton, Ellen Degeneres...). You,
because of feminist nonsense, have been denied the pleasure, satisfac- tion, contentment, fulfilment, joy... (and, of course, the problems and sorrows of such) of love, marraige,child-bearing-and-
rearing... In essence you are not a real woman, not a full woman. And I do so pity you and all your fellow (?) confused feminists/ lesbians...
Ah, the follies that feminism is responsible for, the pains, the sufferings, the anguish, the emp- tiness.. I truely grieve for you, Ann, you and all your sisters - equally deluded as they are. And I grieve for the human race as a whole, as well.
For it is also a fact that your loneliness, your emptiness, the ache inside you will only get worse as you age. And I will pray for you and all your equally deluded sisters.
All the best.

Tom

J. Cricket said...

With your site meter, your groupies, and your ADHD, you have lost the ability to enjoy life on its own. That is, "off-blog," as you call it. If you can't brag about it, or otherwise show off to others, what's the point?

That is so sad. Thanks for the honesty, though. This is the most honest post you ever put up. It explains so much. Much more than you can see.

And of course you suck at being a spectator. The event is not about you -- oh, it must be torture having all that attention on others!!

Ann Althouse said...

Tom, how do you figure I don't have children? I have two sons. It's very well established.

Gedaliya said...

Ann...

Why do you respond to that nutcase?

John Stodder said...

In fact, I suck at being a spectator.

How to suck at being a spectator at a golf match.

1)Make any noise at all prior to the ball being struck.

2)Fail to wear plaid pants.

3)Fail to hold the vast quantities of liquor you've consumed. This isn't the NFL where you get to act drunk when you're drunk.

4)Ask your host if you can leave early to beat the traffic.

5) Say the word "steroids."

Anonymous said...

To Ann and Gedaliya,

You, Ann, are beginning to see -just a little bit- something about me, who and what I am ( see my blog
jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com -for more ) and what is -unsought on my part- mine.
You Gedaliya are yet childish, selfish, spoiled...
As for you, Ann, my wife and I have been maried for 36 (37 ?) years. And we have two fine boys,
both near 30. And all of this is attributable to the fact that my wife is a real woman, unlike so many of today's women who -like Gedaliya- are near terminally confused by feminism.
You do not mention whether you are married or not, whether you ever were... So I can make no firm conclusions. However -in light of the masculine femininity of so many women today (including you, Ann)-
let me speculate. Perhaps you're divorced... ?
You have lots of money...but you're empty inside and terrified about the kind of world your sons... are being left to live in. And you're even more worried about and confused for your grandchildren
present or yet to come. And you subconsciously realize that all your worries are because of the nonsense that feminism has foisted on the world. Unfortunately, you have no way to articulate these inner demons haunting you -just like they haunt all women.
Funny thing is that I can and do articulate all your deepest fears and anxieties.

Tom

Anonymous said...

Oh, and by the way, Ann,

Before anyone else tells you, I love to sing...tenor, baritone... And, by the way, Dennis Day was a cousin... on my father's side. And my mother went to Juillard School of Music in NYC, sang on the radio...

Tom

blogging cockroach said...
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blogging cockroach said...

gedaliya
you asked why professor althouse responded to that nutcase
around here of course the nutcase category
pretty much extends to about 2/3 of the commenters
so that's a very imprecise question
but of course i know the one you mean
who writes prescription drug warning pamphlets
and credit card agreements for comments
and is dennis day's cousin

i think the answer is that either
althouse is trying to cultivate a troll garden
or she wants to get on the arthur godfrey show
not quite realizing it's been off the air for 48 years

Ann Althouse said...

Tom, you seem to be intelligen. Why don't you think through what you're writing? Edit. Make it a lot shorter. Take out everything wacky. And don't repeat material from old posts or stuff unrelated to my post. You are capable of raising your game, so do it.

Meade said...

See, Tom - she's clearly head over heels for you? Practically swooning. Now is your chance, big guy. Seize your moment. Do what she says (in a, you know, prefeminism sort of way) and I'll be damned surprised if wedding bells aren't soon ringing around this joint.