A photograph taken for a very specific reason.

At the Mystery Photo Café...

... what are you puzzling over?

My child, the advanced moralist.

"[Y]our child may wonder why you have twice the home you need. Kevin Salwen and his wife were so taken by their daughter’s conviction in this particular matter that their family of four decided to sell their 6,500-square-foot home. They bought a new one less than half the size and are giving away about $850,000, more than the price difference between the homes."

It's a conundrum of pride!

What should you learn from your child's moralistic inquiries?
	How to reach a higher standard of morality.
	How to talk about substantive issues with a child.
	How to resist being shaken from your own decisions about how to live.
	How to be proud of yourself AND your seemingly brilliant offspring.
pollcode.com free polls

ADDED: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Mystery photo.

Taken by me, today. What is it?

Why is there Arabic writing on the Google map of Montgomery, Alabama...

... just above the Lagoon Park Golf Course. And why does it disappear when you try to zoom in?

Let's read "The Lifelong Single Gay Virgin."

This is another episode in a NY Magazine series, presenting, each week, a 7-days diary from a different anonymous individual. (I assume these are not fiction. Am I wrong?)

We're told the diarist is "27 years old, male, single, Upper West Side, gay":

DAY ONE
6:30 a.m.: Consume oatmeal, orange juice, and coffee while watching Remains of the Day. Anthony Hopkins manages to inadvertently seduce Emma Thompson despite being a sociopath. What am I doing wrong?

Ha. Answer: Life isn't a movie. Imagine how different it would be if it was. Little random details would pay off big a few days/scenes later. Deja vu! I said Life isn't a movie to someone... yesterday. Ah, yes! A neighbor was describing her fight against gypsy moth caterpillars. Once she poisoned a tree full of them, and zillions of them fell to the ground and were writhing and bloody looking. (The juice that oozes out of them looks like human blood.) Later, she went out to clear the carcasses off the walkway, and they were all gone. She had a vision of them off somewhere gathering strength and plotting their revenge. Actually, her neighbor had swept the walk. But if it were a movie, the enraged caterpillars would be back — enlarged and superstrong as a result of the poison, Toxic Avenger-style — ready for human blood.

Back to the virgin:

7 a.m.: Lest anyone forget, Christopher Reeve was devastatingly handsome. Super. Smoking. Hot. Playing a principled American congressman doesn't hurt, either.

8:30 a.m.: Commute to nonprofit job. No one on my trains are cute enough to tear me away from my crossword puzzle. Thomas Edison's middle name: Alva....

Ah! This is exceedingly charming. Have you never experienced extended virginity/celibacy? I'd say this captures the vibe brilliantly. Was Thomas Edison — little Alvy — ever cute?

Maybe. In 1879.

DAY TWO

5:30 a.m.: Commute to Penn Station. Dear day laborers who crowd the early morning trains, please touch me with your rough, dirty, work-worn hands. Much obliged.

7:30 a.m.: Business trip to New Jersey. This state is worse than I remembered. My penis is inverting....

6:30 p.m.: Call non-boyfriend and tell him not to visit. He is upset. I feel like a jerk. Perhaps I am a jerk.

8 p.m.: I wonder if being single forever is the curse that everyone says it is. I'm single, have always been single. I used to think that despite a dearth in sexual partners and romantic relationships, I was genuinely happy. But now I think that because of a dearth in sexual partners and romantic relationships, I'm genuinely happy.

And that is the dangerous thought. But what is more seductive than dangerous thoughts? Did you recoil from that idea as from a bloody, enraged gypsy moth caterpillar? Did you shrink from it like a penis reacting to New Jersey? Do you immediately assume this young man is deluded and pathetic? He could be right. What would the world be like if he were right? Take a moment to imagine it. Did you imagine the world we are in? If not, why not?

A socialist, an atheist, and a Muslim.

Ah! I've unwittingly written a "Jeopardy"-style answer. Now, you tell me the question!

ADDED: You could also take it as a Karnak answer.

WE HAVE A WINNER: Irene says: "Which affiliation do most Americans agree would disqualify a person from nomination to the US Supreme Court?"

Yes, there is a new poll about replacing Justice Stevens, and in one part of it, Americans are asked if they would be "comfortable" with various sorts of nominees. Here's the PDF of the results. A socialist, an atheist, and a Muslim are the 3 types of nominees that a majority of Americans would not be "comfortable" with. 64% were uncomfortable with the socialist (though Democrats were split 47/47%). 58% were uncomfortable with an atheist, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans. And 53% were uncomfortable with a Muslim (though only 45% of Democrats had a problem). Interestingly, in contrast to the socialist, libertarians did pretty well. 57% were comfortable, including 53% of Democrats. The poll also asked about Mormons and Christians who take the Bible literally. Both of those types did quite will, with 65% and 62%, respectively, feeling comfortable.

"You cook breakfast. I'll blog it."

It's the 1-year anniversary of this deliciously intriguing blog post (which ultimately got quoted in the NYT).



Now, a year later, Meade cooking breakfast while I blog is a way of life in the house we call Meadhouse. The bee on the knob of the tea kettle now has one broken wing, but everything else is beautifully whole.

Now that at long last no one cares, Carly Simon reveals that the "you" who probably thought that song was about him was...

... David Geffen.

(Via Throwing Things.)

A mystery illustration.

From this morning's email, this is one of a set of 4 illustrations for a law school conference. What is the theme? (If you've already see the brochure/poster, don't give it away.)

UPDATE: Here's the conference announcement.

The Delahunt/Amy Bishop connection.

So the news comes out that the University of Alabama-Huntsville biology professor, charged with murdering 3 colleagues, shot her brother to death, back in 1986, and the District Attorney's office made the decision not to file charges. The District Attorney was William Delahunt, who has been a member of Congress since 1996.

[Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier] said Bishop was being booked into jail when then-Chief Polio, or someone on his behalf, called and ordered the booking process stopped. Bishop was then released to her mother.

Frazier said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1987. "I don't want to use the word 'cover-up,' but this does not look good," he said.

“I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop," Frazier said. "The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.”...

In an interview at his home Saturday, Polio, 87, told the Globe: "There was no cover-up." 

And the next thing you know, Delahunt says he may not run for reelection.

"This is a sacred place."

Spoken by a musician in a concert. Where was he?

ADDED: Guess first, but as the answer now appears in the comments, I'll link to my source of the quote.

"I'm going to boycott Althouse until she gives us another clue to this puzzle."

Says Peter Hoh in the Whole Foods boycott post, referring to this photograph puzzle (with added clue). Here's a big clue:



That man is Sam Rushing, of Ouray, Colorado.

What is it?

A photo puzzle.

ADDED: A clue:

"What other kind of too-narrow focus provides, for one and all, a diagnostic name for itself?"

"If you're ethnocentric, does your culture include a folk dance acknowledging the limitations of your outlook? Is there a beeper that goes off when you get too technocentric? If you're iconocentric, where's the visual image that's going to tell you that you are?"

I'll tell you who's saying that and what he's talking about after you bandy the question around a while.

ADDED: The quote is from "Alphabet Juice," by Roy Blount Jr., and he's talking about the word "logocentric."

"It's time to stand up with the President and fight back against this disastrous brand of old-style politics."

How did Jim DeMint get so much attention by saying "Waterloo"?

ADDED: From Salon's Joan Walsh:

I know Obama has a nearly impossible task, dealing with Blue Dog Democrats and crazy Republicans -- from Wild Bill Kristol, chickenhawk, telling the GOP to "go for the kill" and do whatever it takes to defeat Obama on healthcare, to Sen. Jim DeMint's similarly sinister prediction that if Republicans defeat Obama on healthcare "it will break him." GOP zealots are clearly more interested in killing or breaking President Obama -- politically, of course; I don't think they are assassins, personally -- than helping Americans get the healthcare they need. It's a little creepy, but once you've watched a crazy "birther" hector moderate Republican Mike Castle about Obama's birth certificate and other related delusions -- well, then nothing Republicans do can surprise you.

The Democrats have dumped a drastic, complicated health care bill on us and they are ramming it through before we can even figure it out. That's what matters, not the fact that the party out of power is squawking about it.

Mystery video clip.

Context to be provided later.

ADDED: Here's the context. The clip is in the first few minutes.

See it?

ADDED: As a few of you have seen, there's a groundhog. You may remember that a few days ago, there were 2 coyotes in the yard here (in Ohio) and they were gnawing on a groundhog. Yesterday, I saw a few groundhogs in the yard and running into that spooky old garage. Today, we were walking down in the meadow at dusk, and, just after Holly (the dog) chased after a deer, we saw a coyote in the tall grass. It was keeping an eye on us. Were there pups somewhere? Were there coyotes all over the place in that grass? We made our way back to the house. Would a beast suddenly lunge at our backs? No, we're here. Unscathed.

Mystery image.

What is it?

ANSWER: Palladian got it right off. It's an extreme closeup from the photograph in the Main Street Café post. Here's a medium closeup that shows the whole distorted image in the coffee pot: