(Sandra Loh has taken to calling her family "whiteish," in the context of being middle class; I think we should simply use "middle class," but that's me. Of course, what she really meant was "nonblack," modern America having been magically distilled into two main ethnic groups.)
I know it causes the tallish (and even the medium-ish) women I know a great deal of pain that they aren't "petite."
On the other hand, they probably haven't been mugged as much as I have, and they probably don't need help reaching things on high shelves. Furthermore, if their sisters-in-law decide that a good place for the microwave is on top of the refrigerator, they don't need to drag a chair into the kitchen just to heat up some coffee.
I just make the tall person stand on the penultimate step on a staircase, though I don't know how that would come off from a man who happened to be the shorter party.
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One article I read on the topic of tall women related that their trouble finding a taller man led some of them to realize that the man's height really wasn't that important. As a result, they focused on other things and found men with whom they are now quite happy.
And it goes without saying, but we're all the same height in bed.
Posted by: John at April 15, 2008 05:11 AM (G0SV/)
2their trouble finding a taller man led some of them to realize that the man's height really wasn't that important
Yes, yes. All well and good.
How long did it take for them to figure this out?
For the most part, as much as I adore tall women, I'd never ask one out. Gee, I'd love to go out with you, but you're just not tall enough. I need that ding on my ego like a fish needs a bicycle...
Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at April 15, 2008 06:39 AM (1hM1d)
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Unless they live in a small village somewhere, tall women can find all the taller partners they need. The tall women I knew wanted a significantly taller partner so that the height issue would be forever moot. It also brings them back to their safety zone, to the time and place where they lived with their tall mothers and even taller father and brothers. People who fit the norm can never understand the problems that exist in the two tails of the bell curve. And every tall woman I knew had stories about the hell they went through growing up--with most of their problems coming from their normal "sisters" in the random world of neighborhood schools.
Imagine what kids would say today when they saw that your father was significantly shorter than your mother. Would you want to put your kids through that? Of course not. Nether do the tall women. If you can't imagine, think 'stepladder."
By the way, I'm 6'1/4" and I'm excluded from that world.
If you do live in the two tails, build your own personal environment to suit your needs. That what thinking people do instead of purchasing indulgences like "carbon credits" or cursing tjhe darkness.
Posted by: Darrell at April 15, 2008 07:57 PM (RTlWe)
To Twitter, or Not to Twitter?
Is this, BTW, related to the issue of whether I should have those little icons below each post that enables people to send them to the folks at delicious, or Technorati, or Boing Boingmdash;whatever the latest "Clubby portal" is to one's favorite news, long articles, and blog entries.
Please let me know. I'm skeptical.
Esmay and Hackbarth both think I should join the army pf tweety birds; in all honesty, Hackbarth warned me to approach Twitter with a sober mindset, which he must realize I've never done at any point in my life—not for any new project or endeavor.
Should I be scared of Tweety Bird?
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So. Has Anyone Noticed that Canada Has a Troubled Relationship with Free Speech?
That's largely because of Richard Warman, who is now suingFive Feet of Fury,Small Dead Animals, Ezra Levant, and the folks at Free Dominion. As you might suppose, Warman has been involved with the Human Rights Commission up there; they are the ones who've made Mark Steyn's life so . . . interesting.
What an evil man. I'm hoping to see a single defense fund put together for these folks, but in the meantime, let's hit their tip jars. Hard.
Via Protein Wisdom and The Nose on Your Face (the latter site is selling Ezra Levant T-shirts, which are now being reissued to help the Free Speech Five with their defenses . . . er, defences [I may lapse into commonwealth English now and then for the next few months, as a sign of solidarity with our Canadian brethren]).
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Polygamy in science fiction or in the mind of the crazy guy I met this weekend (flying cars! robot slaves! gay/straight/bi polygamy for everyone!) is sold as a feminist, respectful, harmonious arrangement among equals. Maybe some day it can be.
Even on Big Love, the three wives look pretty happy... and I've read articles by polygamous wives that claim it works for them. But these are urban, educated women with solid identities of their own.
What goes on in these compounds with semi-educated, sheltered, manipulated girls who've been provided with no options or alternative world views breaks my heart.
Posted by: Rin at April 10, 2008 09:56 AM (f8xXa)
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Exactly. Just as there is a difference between prostitution in developed countries versus prostitution in, say, Southeast Asia /other developing regions / slave operations in this country (just as the locked compounds wherein immigrants are held against their will and separated by society--for garment work, etc.).
But what we cannot do is try to solve either problem by infantalizing grown women. Even if we feel that an adult woman has been infantalized/enslaved by her culture (which could be the offshoot sects from fundamentalist Mormonism, or certain strains of Islamism, with the woman-as-property mindset and a culture that encourages "honor kilings" of rape victims, or of young ladies who were seen in the presence of a non-related male).
The law cannot make these distinctions; all we can do is rescue the minors who live in compounds on which THE LAW IS BEING ACTIVELY BROKEN. Children, we have a right and a responsibility to protect. Women HAVE to be on their own, or we will have philosophically thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
There are no battered women's shelters in some Muslim-dominated countries, but they are swamped, in England, with women escaping abusive Islamic households.
As you know, I was in an open "marriage," and I would have been fit to tied if the State had infantalized me by attempting a "rescue."
But we can do a lot without going all "nanny state": for instance, all of the areas in the Southwest that host a lot of these quasi-Mormon sects (Arizona and New Mexico, especially--as well as Texas and Oklahoma) should have lots of battered women's shelters, and public advertising campaigns that explain that abuse does not have to be physical--it can also be verbal and psychological.
And, yes: I do believe we must legalize polygamy / polyandrous arrangements among consenting adults, precisely BECAUSE that will help society to weed out the abuse of underage girls that goes on now, while all of these sects are forced to live further underground than would otherwise be the case.
We cannot regulate something that we have forbidden to begin with.
Posted by: Attila Girl at April 10, 2008 02:50 PM (Hgnbj)
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Odd, that some feminist positions have an apparent side effect of infantilizing women. Some pro-choice arguments, for example, take the tone that women should be free to get out from under any mistakes or undesirable circumstances in which they find themselves. Now, I'm pro-choice (reluctantly, and more pro-birth control than anything else), but I don't want to argue that women, the poor little dears, shouldn't or can't be expected to live responsibly and cautiously, just like grownups. You know, men.
I have mixed feelings about first-world prostitution, the (more or less?) "chosen" prostitution of intelligent women (like those on Cat House, the Showtime show, where they seem to have options and to feel fine with their choices). I don't want to make decisions for other women, but I wish they made other decisions for themselves... and I'd like to be surer that they know there are other decisions to be made.
As for polygamy and open marriage, I am ok with the idea on paper, but I've seen it fail more often than I've seen it succeed, and I know for sure it's not for me! Still, if it's truly chosen, and safe, and respectful, among adults in possession of the facts, condoms, and options, I don't want to be the one to forbid it.
In oldentimes Philadelphia (where my father was raised) the name for a brothel was a "disorderly house" and the name for a slut was "a girl who danced with gentlemen to whom she had not been properly introduced."
Sometimes, in order to fight oppression, you gotta call a spade a spade.
I, of course, am glad to say that I have never seen a spade.
Posted by: Rin at April 11, 2008 12:42 PM (bSHZa)
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I had some direct dealings with these people a few years ago. They had a construction company based out of Colorado City, AZ that won a couple of contracts with my employer.
It was a peculiar and creepy thing to see some of the very young "women" (girls actually) that sometimes came around to the job site occasionally where their "husbands" were working.
Posted by: Desert Cat at April 11, 2008 08:55 PM (DIr0W)
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Eeek. This is a legitimate use of state and Federal dollars: find out where it's happening. If it's all among consenting adults, the DAs should "lose track of the paperwork," and "forget to prosecute." If involves the underaged, throw the book at 'em.
But do not cofuse the two.
Posted by: Attila Girl at April 11, 2008 09:47 PM (Hgnbj)
Dudes of the World, Unite!
You have nothing to lose but . . . the chicks.
Via Insty, who cooks. Cooks, I tell you. Every now and then, that "men who cook" grass looks . . . moss green.
Then A the H makes a brilliant joke, and finds a dead rat in a trap somewhere that has to be disposed of. It isn't that I am unwilling to handle this task. It simply is that I haven't had to in this particular partnership—18 years down the line—and that's been fine with me.
I'm getting used to the idea that dead rats just get dispatched quickly somehow (from a pellet gun, I believe) and then are taken somewhere with healthy populations of coyotes and wild cats. Then they disappear. Poof!
Whose side am I on?—you know: truth, beauty. Shit like that.
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Who wouldn't want a Hello Kitty headstone?
Although some people do go too far--
http://www.youknow.com/watch?v=rqwMi3PmQG0
substitute "youknow" with the real name.
Fluffy's in a mood.
Posted by: Darrell at April 10, 2008 09:59 PM (d3j5t)
Christopher Buckley, on His Dad's Legacy.
I've always wished that Christopher Buckley would write more in his own voice, rather than in the comic style he uses to such great effect.
It isn't as good as I anticipated; it's even better. Thank you, Christopher. Thank you, National Review. Thank you, Vodkapundit.
Image via National Review, in the Christopher Buckley story linked above, "My Old Man and the Sea."
Yes. It's Another Quote From Harvey.
Glenn's new camera hasn't just overcome time and space—but any objections!
The entire thing is here, and it looks pretty accurate (others from Harvey in Wiki appear off by a word or two—and the punctuation leaves a bit to be desired.)
Oh, yes! Yes. Yes—these things always work out just the way Harvey says they will. He is very, very versatile. Did I tell you he could stop clocks? Well, you've heard the expression 'his face would stop a clock'? Well, Harvey can look at your clock and stop it. And you can go anywhere you like—with anyone you like—and stay as long as you like. And when you get back, not one minute will have ticked by . . . You see, science has overcome time and space. Well, Harvey has overcome not only time and space, but any objections.
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And Here I Thought a Flag . . .
was just a piece of fabric. It turns out it's something more delicate than that: gossamer-thin. Not strong, like silk. More . . . organic. Not sturdy, like wool.
I wish we'd stop making Old Glory out of toilet paper. I really would. What on Earth was Betsy Ross thinking, setting a precedent like that?
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Stacy, Oh Stacy . . .
has some kind of paid writing gig, the filthy whore. I didn't know those were even still out there:
Okay, I completed the first five paragraphs of my "real writing" assignment, so now it's time to goof off some more by reading Little Miss Atilla's suggestion to stressed-out, overweight bloggers:
Hint: have your readers send you gin, instead of snacks. That'll help.
Easy on the gin, Sweetheart. We know what happens when you get into the gin. If only we had pictures . . .
Speaking of pictures, Fausta has pictures of stressed-out bloggers living it up at a blog conference in New Jersey. OK, maybe they weren't "living it up." It's New Jersey, after all.
Just because you don't have pictures doesn't mean they don't exist, Robert Stacy. In point of fact, there are pictures of Mrs. Goldstein and me talking about good, old-fashioned feminism in Santa Barbara at the YAF Conference. I believe after my second dirty martini I uttered the phrase "forty-nine-percent majority" in reference to those of the dude-ish persuasion, and Ace of Spades has never let me forget that one. But why was he eavesdropping on girl talk, anyway?
Oh, and here—for everyone else—is the link to Fausta's blog, and the pix from the aforementioned East Coast blogstravaganza. (Body count: zero. Extraordinary, no?)
Help! I'm Being Oppressed!
And—unlike those whose blogs are actually read—I'm not even getting paid. That's double the oppression, in my book.
Stacy gets a kick out of the capitalistic exploitation suffered by us poor beleaguered information workers (and they are especially concerned about us at The New York Times, which is bleeding jobs because of New Media):
Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.
Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.
Karl at Protein Wisdom is concerned about the reports of weight gain among bloggers. (Hint: have your readers send you gin, instead of snacks. That'll help.)
I'm gonna die laughing . . . Or, die blogging. Definitely the way to go—with a smile on my face.
BlogNet News News!
The Cotillion update page therein now contains MK Ham (goodness knows how we'd managed to omit her, but I'm not complaining, since I tend to leave the hard lifting to others in this arena) and new Cotillionite Nice Deb.
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I'm Going to Go Michelle Malkin One Better.
Instead of turning the blog completely off, I'm going to stop writing anything intelligent here for the next month . . .
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Come on, be honest. I know you're really hiding out here:
http://www.qsleeper.com/quantum.html
BTW, it's completely self-contained, and doesn't cost much less than a new condo.
Posted by: Liberal Art at April 02, 2008 02:48 PM (V+knw)
Not Bad.
I would, however, prefer that Gmail were sending astral projections of me back in time to keep my appointments and social engagements after I sleep in, forget, or become distracted by shiny objects/the internet.
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If that's up tomorrow I'll believe it. In the mean time I suspect an April fool's joke.
Posted by: Desert Cat at April 01, 2008 03:47 PM (Q8AsJ)
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if it's real, it's creepy! and cynical, and manipulative, and calculating, and gross....
and not in a good way.
Posted by: Rin at April 01, 2008 04:12 PM (pzH6j)
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Come on: it's Google. It's the first of April. They always roll out a "new product" this time of year.
Yes, they are evil. But not that kind of evil.
Posted by: Attila Girl at April 01, 2008 04:23 PM (BYH4x)
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Why am I always at least partially suckered by April Fools' Pranks?
It's NOT because I'm a librul. I'm just charmingly optimistic and trusting.
oh, shut up, wench! ;-)
