"Thirteen years ago, I happened to be at my folks for New Year's."

"Both my Dad and my significant other were asleep in couches and Mom and I were sitting drinking and gossiping." The subject of re...

A conversation for the end of the year.

At the New Year Café...

... say hello from 2013, if you're out there on the globe somewhere where it's next year . If you're still waiting in 2012 with ...

How to read a book a day for a year.

Choose short/easy/audio books. Actually, I read a book a day and have for years — but it's an audiobook, and most of this reading is don...

"Long before Erika Menendez was charged with pushing a stranger to his death under an oncoming train at a Queens elevated station..."

"... she had years of contact with New York City’s mental health and law enforcement establishments." She was treated by the psych...

Up for 2 hours... still waiting for the sunrise.

I love mornings!

"It is shockingly inexpensive to travel within Turkey by plane."

"Take this segment: from Istanbul to Izmir (about an hour flying time) on Atlas Jet, it's $25 (without additional discounts). For t...

"What do a cake, a runner, a rainbow and a kalashnikov have in common."

"10 Contested African Images of 2012."

Baz Luhrmann's "Gatsby."

If you loved "Moulin Rouge," as I did, you may find the new trailer thrilling: I was literally thrilled. And I'm very skeptic...

What's Happening to Hillary? Only a clod would say the clot is a plot!

Here are Senators Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein, interviewed by Chris Wallace (yesterday, on "Fox News Sunday"): WALLACE: S...

Obama seems amenable to the NRA idea of armed guards in schools.

On today's "Meet the Press" : David Gregory asked him what he thought of having "armed guards at every school in the coun...

At the Sunroom Café...

... we can wait out the winter.

Fiscal cliffhanging on their every word.

Are you?

On "Meet the Press" today, Obama mostly came across as the moderate, pragmatic politician I like.

Now, I'm not a sucker for mere posing, and in fact, I get suspicious when I hear what are simply assertions of pragmatism : But genera...

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."

"Please. Shut up."

"What I learned about beauty from my 56 hours in jail."

I hope you learned not to do that duck-lips thing with your mouth that you did in the "Self-portrait from the day before the incident....

"Impractical Accessories."

There's some great stuff in this slideshow, but attention must be paid to the 10th image, shoes designed by Iris Schieferstein, with th...

"Treating OWS as 'potential criminal and terrorist threat' was exactly the right thing to do."

"No one knew whether these protests were going to stay peaceful or not. OWS certainly wanted it to turn into a phenomenon of national c...

"[I]ncredibly articulate and human... charmingly personal while at the same time substantively deep."

Who can it be?!

The notion that technology is the reason the murder rate has fallen by half.

"A deranged woman who told cops she detests Muslims broke into a maniacal fit of laughter as she was charged with a hate crime Saturday..."

"... three days after she allegedly shoved an Indian immigrant to his death in front of a Queens train." “Tell your client this is...

Finally, after all these years, not since the 90s, we will have a name for our decade!

I just realized that with the arrival of 2013, a great void will be filled. There will be an end to the lack of a name for the decade. With ...

A couple of books.

I was just asking for some ideas for a conversation about end-of-the-year things, and now I've had the conversation, which I'll be ...

Blogging, paying attention to each day as it happens, makes it hard to assess a whole year.

So I'll feel better once we've crossed over into the new year. All this year end business is a drag to me. I used to do these year-e...

A euphemism for "aging": "evolving."

Example: One of my wise [yoga] teachers told us that after 50, she began to cross off the list poses that she no longer felt made sense for ...

"France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75% upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013..."

"... in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit....

"Boyfriend Bears is a non-profit organization that encourages pre-teen and teenage girls to live a life of purity."

"Our bears serve as a reminder that we promote purity to be a lifestyle. Boyfriend Bears provides the opportunity for girls to make a s...

"'It’s wrong to stop girls from going out' of the house... but there’s little choice because the city is so unsafe for women."

"Revulsion and anger over the rape have galvanized India, where women regularly face sexual harassment and assault, and where neither t...

Growing old tests your atheism.

"Live your life."

"Animal activists have been attacking our family, our company, and our employees for decades because they oppose animals in circuses."

"These defendants attempted to destroy our family-owned business with a hired plaintiff who made statements that the court did not beli...

"Madam, this dress is so sexy it’ll give your husband ideas."

"Why, does a brain come with it?"

"It’s almost always a mistake to read only a first-rate writer’s masterpieces."

"A great deal of Fussell’s best, most perceptive and, frankly, most hilarious work arrived in books like 'Class: A Guide Through th...

"Don’t trade up..."

That's a rule that "starts out as a bit of simple, practical instruction — don’t back out of a social engagement just because a sna...

"It's bubbly time, Jerry."

A truly charming and funny encounter.

The deaths of 2012.

Wikipedia provides a very extensive, day-by-day lis t of the names of the notables who departed this year. Many others died too. Do you have...

Things done in 2012.

1. Eating ribs in Muskogee. 2. Caught a lost dog. 3. ... Blog project begun. Not completed.

A map depicting each country in the world with the single word that appears most often...

... on that country's "History of..." page in Wikipedia (excluding the country's own name along with some list of common ...

At the Photo-Free Café...

... it's an open thread. Enjoy!

"Senate Republicans refuse to confirm Kerry until Hillary testifies about Benghazi."

I approve!

"Gregory had no intent to commit a crime; he was committing journalism instead."

"Gun owners often say they want the government to leave them alone; why then are some clamoring for Gregory to be prosecuted?" Ask...

What does the NPR article "Assessing Hillary Clinton's Legacy" say about Benghazi?

Only this: Clinton also played a key role in the international action in Libya. So far, she has avoided much of the criticism over the attac...

"Britney Spears... just wasn’t crazy enough."

You have to understand what your job is.

"A Madison police officer will face no criminal charges after fatally shooting a man who had mistakenly entered the wrong residence..."

"... struggled with the homeowner, then charged at the officer and reached toward his gun, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne ...

Travel to Istanbul for a mustache implant.

It's a big "beauty tourism" trend. “Both in Turkey and in Arab countries facial hair is associated with masculinity, and its l...

Why didn't EPA adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson fulfill "high hopes of sweeping action to address climate change"?

Maybe you can find clues in the NYT article about her departure. I note: After his re-election, and a campaign in which global warming was ...

"So why is compromise so hard in the House?"

"Some commentators, especially liberals, attribute it to what they say is the irrationality of Republican members of Congress." Bu...

I finally figured out what David Gregory displaying that prop reminds me of.

Yesterday, I was asking: Why was that prop so important to David Gregory? If possession of that high-capacity magazine was a crime, and the...

"Tired of being stopped at airports? Can you do without all the hassles of unreasonable arrests?"

"Had it up to here )) skeet (( *cut at the neck* with all those intolerable fines and inconsistently applied regulations and restrictio...

South African president Jacob Zuma said owning a dog is part of "white culture."

He said that loving dogs more than people shows a “lack of humanity” and an effort to “emulate whiteness.” He's gotten some criticism f...

What going off the "fiscal cliff" will cost you...

... in increased taxes.

Common Cause v. Biden, challenging the Senate filibuster, was "a nostalgic evocation of the old days of public law litigation."

Observes Garrett Epps. The federal courts have become almost implacably hostile to this kind of reform lawsuit, and those who bring them kno...

Why was that prop so important to David Gregory?

"Yeah, asking for permission is pretty damning when you ignore what you are told directly from the law enforcement authority and do it ...

"Isn’t there something creepy about Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz having... 'asked his Washington-area employees to write "Come Together" on each customer cup today, tomorrow and Friday, as a gesture to urge leaders to resolve the fiscal cliff'?"

Asks Mickey Kaus. Did Schultz take a poll of his employees–sorry, “partners,” he calls them–before ordering pressuring asking them to join i...

"[W]e estimate the elasticity of homicide with respect to gun prevalence as between +0.1 and + 0.3."

Some numbers.

What is Drudge trying to say about Sonia Sotomayor?

This is at the top of the right-hand column at Drudge this morning: Now, as we saw last night , what Justice Sotomayor did was deny an emer...

"15 Things Overachievers Do."

Penelope Trunk's list is — in typical Trunk style — highly provocative, full of surprising details and counterintuitiveness. 2. They us...

"Are gun owners now going to be stigmatized like sex offenders?"

Asks TalkLeft. I think it's an attempt at intimidation. I wonder if any of those whose addresses were published are immediate family mem...

Going Galt means different things to different people.

Observes Roy Edroso , reading Will Spencer : [W]e've seen folks Go Galt by leaving lousy tips , by alerting local merchants that they p...

"A well-known Capitol protester was charged Wednesday with receiving stolen property for allegedly keeping a State Capitol police officer's jacket..."

We've reached a very late stage in the Wisconsin protests, which begin in February 2011: The jacket belonged to Officer Tammy Torstenso...

"Audience Participation Cues for the My Dinner with Andre Midnight Screening."

When those "Rocky Horror" events leave you feeling empty and questioning your very existence, it's time to move on to the Andr...

At the 10 Commandments of Love Café...

... take happiness with the heartaches and go through life wearing a smile.

"Antidepressants to treat grief?"

"Psychiatry panelists with ties to drug industry say yes."

"The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block the Obama administration's contraception mandate from taking effect."

"Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request for an emergency injunction that would have shielded employers from the mandate." Opin...

"150 years ago, on December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hung in Mankato, Minnesota."

"It was the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The men were hung after being convicted by a U.S. military commission for participa...

The 100 Best Lists of All Time.

#1 is the periodic table of the elements and #2 is the Bill of Rights. I'll leave it to you to guess what #3 must be, with the addition...

"Should drowsy driving be prosecuted like drunken driving..."

"... or is nodding off at the wheel simply an accident – like hitting a patch of ice?"

George Will on religion and politics.

This is a great presentation. I heard it on satellite radio as I was driving the other day and recommended it to Meade, who noticed it on C...

"NBC's David Gregory, the subject of a now-popular police investigation..."

Politico's Dylan Byers seems to think the deliberate flouting of D.C. gun laws — committing a crime, knowingly, right there on network ...

Emily Yoffe asserts that I attacked her "as a tool of the racial and ethnic preference lobby."

She stands by her ethical advice to someone , but quite aside from my problem with that ethical advice, I'd like to say that it's un...

"Where's Hillary?"

Is she hiding or truly ill?

"Putting kids together and sorting by age also created that dysfunctional creature, the 'teenager.'"

"Once, teen-agers weren’t so much a demographic as adults-in-training." They worked, did farm chores, watched children and general...

The Tuber and The Turpitude.

The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association invokes the moral turpitude clause in its contract with Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton...

Polyamory on the march.

"It's all based on a really high degree of love and trust," says the wife. I love the look on the face of the moderator at 1:5...

"Boy, I can't think of a better Christmas present than to read about these vile unpleasant asocial deluded individuals suffering..."

"... all locked together in a big metal box. Schadenfreude to the max."

My post title "Buttons offed" made one reader picture "2 hands clasping the lapels of their own jacket and ripping them apart to reveal not a blouse but 2 voluptuous naked breasts."

"Buttons offed, pop pop, that's the image that happens" — says commenter Chip Ahoy , prompting Dr Weevil to say "Photosho...

Forbes, ranking the "Best States for Business," finds "a clear separation between right-to-work states and those that are not."

"All but one of the top 10 states have right-to-work laws on the books (No. 5 Colorado is the exception). Of the bottom 10 states, No. ...

Tracking down Tawana Brawley in pursuit of a $429,000 in damages (and interest) for defamation that occurred in 1987.

"In all these years, she’s never told the truth about this hoax or paid me a cent," said Steven Pagones , the former Dutchess Coun...

"I witnessed light sexual play among officers, a lot of e-cigarette vaping, and a whole lot of officers laughing and clowning in regard to some of your nude images, dear passengers."

What goes on in those sealed rooms where TSA agents look at X-ray images of passengers in screening machines? The agents are isolated where...

"I still have to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best: killing people."

Wrote William Spengler Jr., 62, after ambushing and killing 2 firefighters who arrived at a fire he set. “There was no motive in the note. T...

"If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization."

"Thousands people here who are under the persicution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever....

"We know what the future of the Internet's going to be."

"It's going to be a great, big video platform." And here I thought it was all about the return to reading and writing.

The Bnei Menashe — one of the "lost tribes" — immigrate from India to Israel.

BBC reports: "The members of this tribe have never forgotten where they came from and we are excited to be able to help them come back,...

Buttons offed.

I finally figured out how to rid this blog of those damned "share" buttons. It's not that I'm against sharing — on Christm...

"The governor knew what he had to do. He confiscated their sports equipment..."

"... telling them that if they insisted on celebrating Christmas as a 'matter of devotion' they could do so privately at home, ...

"Has anyone ever told you that your high-wattage passion for no-collar American food makes you television’s answer to Calvin Trillin, if Mr. Trillin bleached his hair, drove a Camaro and drank Boozy Creamsicles?"

"When you cruise around the country for your show 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,' rasping out slangy odes to the unfancy places ...

The DC police are investigating the David Gregory incident "to determine if the magazine was in fact real."

Breitbart.com reports (and quotes the criminal statute). What's to investigate? Here 's the "Meet the Press" transcript. G...

At the Santa Claus Café...

... the traditionalists here at Althouse seem to believe that Christmas is not complete without this photograph from 1953.

"The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit — replacing what works with what sounds good."

Writes Thomas Sowell , in a column called "On Christmas, Liberals Are By No Means Liberal." After watching a documentary about the...

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last/ Next year we may all be living in the past."

The original lyric to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which I learned about after happening to catch the tail end of ...

Meadhouse, kinkaidified...

... by Chip Ahoy: ... who explains how he did it here . This is my original, mere reality, deemed too bleak by those who find fulfillment in...

"American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western."

"It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them." Spike Lee, being noble , perhaps, but also h...

Did you get what you wanted?

Like I did, back in 1958:

"From bone fragments to Higgs boson, the tiny finds with huge consequences."

The scientific breakthroughs of 2012. Whither the Denisovans?

"I want you to see what you're up against... okay?... What hope have you got?... Quit while you're ahead!"

[ADDED: Bad language warning on the videos.] The "flunky pig tryin' to con" Al Pacino was Charles Durning. It's Christmas,...

Kerry Gordon — "sensational scientist!" — asked by Sam Wilson — "a wastrel wordsmith" — to fulfill his "one wish: wedlock!"

"Dare she pursue this preposterous proposition?" See all "32 Fables from the Foreseeable Future," in PDF, here . "S...

Merry Christmas!