February 11, 2011

At the Mystery Photo Café...

Last Sunday.

... I have thoughts of my own, and maybe you do too. Maybe you know what's special about that photograph.

45 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, it's about 6 years old and almost looks as if it were painted.

Was this the first flirt you had with Meade, perchance? Or just the first time you thought of him as more than just a commenter?

Maybe the first photo you uploaded to the blog?

PS You ought to consider having a portrait done, Madame. That shot is a rather beguiling study.

Fred4Pres said...

No flash?

Fred4Pres said...

Did you use a digital video camera to take it?

Ann Althouse said...

It has specific significance with respect to the blog.

It's not about Meade!

Ann Althouse said...

The picture was taken by my son Chris.

Triangle Man said...

Taken on the first day you blogged?

Will Cate said...

A quick perusal of the archives can show that's not the answer.

Will Cate said...

You were facing a deadline for submitting... something. And Arianna Huffington announced that she would get into the website business.

Will Cate said...

And you said, "This is the sort of thing I read about and instantly hope fails."

Not sure this actually adds up to something, but.....

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse was Gaga before lady Gaga?

mc said...

Is it in the photo data?

An anniversary of some sort?

It is a lovely enough image, is this one of those more pedestrian answers where you think "oh-well I couldn't have known that"?

MamaM said...

"Inspired by a colleague’s blog of personal reflections, Ms. Althouse began posting on January 14, 2004 and hasn’t stopped since, posting several times daily to more than 800,000 readers per month."

Which blog of personal reflections inspired Ms. Althouse to begin posting?

The "and hasn’t stopped since" part brought this to mind:

"So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going."

AllenS said...

Obviously, you used to bite your nails. You're calmer now, and find no need to chow down on them. You used to think "why do I do this?"

Megaera said...

No cosmetics. And hair is clean and brushed, but not blowdried. Sort of an 1800s effect, except that the hair then would never have been that loose and casual.

Unknown said...

Info about the pic, date and by whom it was taken, is at the image source, for those interested.

Maybe the last picture taken of you with film?

Or the first digitally edited?

Meade said...

The photo was posted on the same day you started accepting comments on your blog?

Harry said...

The lighting in the photo and the yellow top remind me of Vermeer's "The Milkmaid." Granted, the milkmaid is not a blond but she's wearing a white wimple that works.

Just popped into my head, anyway. No other theories to offer.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

By what I see there was hardly any commenting in those days.

Anonymous said...

And hair is clean and brushed, but not blowdried. Sort of an 1800s effect, except that the hair then would never have been that loose and casual.

Women's hair in the 1800's was very very different than today in an even more important aspect :(((

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse is mourning the death of a blog she contributed to?

I have no idea.

Irene said...

First instalink?

Automatic_Wing said...

You're pensively contemplating the prospect of kicking Kevin Drum's ass in some long-forgotten blog spat.

former law student said...

I'd guess first profile pic
vw: exemon: Pokemon's ex-wife

Unknown said...

Lem said...

Althouse is mourning the death of a blog she contributed to?

I have no idea.


Photo was taken 2 days later. You may be correct, sir.

Dave in Tucson said...

Something about deadlines? Or you finally got an oval backdrop?

Or just searching for the right bathroom?

coketown said...

My mom doesn't let me take her picture anymore. Last fall when I got a dSLR, I snapped her picture at the kitchen table then went into the living room and took a picture of their dog, a rottweiler. I then reviewed the pictures and, referring to the dog, said, "This camera really picks up the wrinkles." She thought I meant her and was mortified.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The pope had died.. Althouse is wearing yellow.. she often posts about death and suicide..

I'm out of ideas

Nice to see you fls..

rhhardin said...

She looks like trouble.

Ann Althouse said...

"I'd guess first profile pic."

Correct. And it was the first picture of me on the blog.

Meade said...

plus what rh said.

J. Cole said...

You look really wonderful.

BJM said...

Just when you think the meme is dead some one comes up with a new take.

The Crack Emcee said...

You look interesting in that photo. Not even like the same woman. A lot of the ones you take for the blog now, like the current one, look like you're trying to put on airs.

But it doesn't matter. If you're willing to applaud that Huffington woman, after all the harm she's caused, how you look really doesn't matter:

You are the same woman.

Unknown said...

Ann Althouse said...

"I'd guess first profile pic."

Correct. And it was the first picture of me on the blog.


As I said, quite beguiling.

Martha said...

MamaM asked: "Which blog of personal reflections inspired Ms. Althouse to begin posting?

Could the blog that inspired Althouse be Nina Camic's blog called THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCEAN? ninacamic.blogspot.com

Ann Althouse said...

"Could the blog that inspired Althouse be..."

The blog that made me want to blog and is my model for blogging is unquestionably Instapundit. But I thought he was already there, and somehow I couldn't presume to be a blogger too. I thought that for a few years. It took something else to make me feel that I personally was allowed to blog too, that it wasn't too late and too unoriginal. That final push came when Nina mentioned her blog and then, the same day, Gordon Smith said he had a blog too.

Rialby said...

You weren't getting any.

michaele said...

Just 'cause I'm a curious
type , I clicked through that whole particular photo stream.
You have a lot more sparkle and vibrancy nowadays. Quite a tribute to your current lifestyle (naturally, and Meade) that you have reversed the aging process.

William said...

I, too, thought the picture looked beguiling. However, upon closer inspection and upon learning that it was taken by your son, it does seem that the expression is that of the half censorious, half amused mother listening to an explanation of why the dishes weren't done......Who knows maybe these blog posts are a new art form. I read books by and about Samuel Johnson and his set. They were all greedy for literary fame and took efforts to craft elegant, cantilevered sentences. Mrs. Thrale, Dr. Johnson's platonic love, was a bubblehead who babbled entries in her diary. She was no Boswell, but there was an immediacy and spontaneity to her observations that brings her times alive. Maybe future generations will turn to the Althouse blog to see how we lived....This is not to say that you're Mrs Thrale--just that your reponsses to passing events are relatively uncrafted and unrehearsed. Not even the first draft of history, just the draft, the ripple of wind in the curtains, of history.

Unknown said...

You just took a few pulls of Purple Kush out the double chamber bong?

MamaM said...

I was curious about the inspiration involved and found the answer intriguing.

Instapundit as a "blog of personal reflections" didn't fit, so it was good to hear the whole story.

"To be human is to imagine".

lucid said...

Thank you for the story about how you decided to try to blog. I love stories, told from the side of accomplishment, of brave but uncertain and even frightened beginnings. I think that is also why immigrant stories often seem so wonderful and admirable to me.

Larry Davis said...

The picture was taken with a Sony DSC-V1 on April 3, 2005 at 7:01:20 in the evening. 360x414 pixels. F2.8 at 1/8 of a second. The picture was uploaded at 6:35:47 two days later, April 5, 2005 with a Mac computer running OS 10.3.8 using Quicktime 6.5.2.

It's interesting what you can find out about pictures.

Robin said...

Its a wonderful photograph.

Methadras said...

You look upset and like you were crying. Not sure why though.reastall