It looks like she's at an NBA game. That would probably explain the weariness.
The point is that unfoggedCon is going to mark the beginning of another hiatus isn't it?
The hiatus was probably an attempt to retain the spark. The return is the acceptance of the true state of affairs.
OK, Derbyshire. I think it's less "the bloom is off the rose" than "she's wearing a cowl-neck sweater and not showing her abs."
I don't think she looks jaded or whatever in that picture.
It's in the eyes, oudemia, you shallow, shallow wench.
She's preggers, too. Supposedly.
In his younger days, Ogged would have trolled his own blog with a "Jennifer Love Hewitt sure has gotten fat" post.
She's preggers, too. Supposedly.
Ain't no supposedly about it.
the eyes are fine. She looks sufficiently inquisitive to meet minimum youthspark regulations.
One eye seems more lid-hooded than the other.
Otherwise I don't see what the problem is. Why should we think that anything so quick as the spark of youth should be capturable in still images?
Jesus, I guess the sparks goes out the first contemplative moment you have that is caught on film and posted to the Internet.
Clearly it's all just going to be a long series of TPM Reports for Jessica from here on out.
The guy next to her (the dad, Cash Warren?) is the one with the weather-beaten face. No mention of that, you sexist.
Holy smokes, Heebie, warn a person, will ya? I'm not at my home computer.
(Having said that, Babette Cole's Mommy Laid an Egg has to be the funniest children's book on human reproduction.)
Goody, a sexist lecher pedophile post! I'll come back later. Connelly & Winslet looked fine to me last night in the movie. Trini Alvarado had a very low-billed part, and I remember her being very cute like twenty years ago, but the movie was decent enough that the glands got shut down and I stopped looking for her.
After Little Children I was surfing and got back to Hard Candy, where the 18-yr-old Ellen Page playing 13 this time felt like an 18-yr-old playing 25. With freckles, lots of freckles, so many extreme closeups of so many freckles.
Ye of little faith, the reason I stopped at Hard Candy was because Patrick Wilson plays the mail lead in both Little Children and Hard Candy and plays completely opposite characters.
12:I hate horizontal striped clothes.
Jesus ogged, it's too bad Jessica's not sparkalicous enough for you 24/7.
And I am on my way to an NBA game in five minutes! Hopefully it won't kill my spark of youth. I am tired, now that I think of it. (And drunk: department holiday reception.) And writing a dissertation. I am obviously doomed, spark-wise.
The point is not whether Jessica Alba has lost the spark of youth, people. I was just recounting the story of the post. So literal-minded, you are.
She looks great. Maybe bored. Looks like a basketball game, so who can blame her?
Also, this "it's in the eyes" thing (or "eyes are the window on the soul" equivalent) is just bogus.
w-lfs-n, why must you be such a lack the spark of youth?
"Maybe she's just tired," it says, right there in the original post.
The point is not whether Jessica Alba has lost the spark of youth, people. I was just recounting the story of the post.
Wasn't it Nabokov who said that sharing the details of the genesis of one's literary output was like passing around samples of one's own sputum? I specifically remember this quote because of his use of the word "sputum."
this "it's in the eyes" thing (or "eyes are the window on the soul" equivalent) is just bogus
Because....?
All that said, she has lost the spark of youth and I feel bad for her and you're all wrong and terrible people, to boot.
Because....?
Because the eyes hardly change. Subtleties of facial expression and musculature, sure. Telltale signs in nearby facial regions, absolutely. But they eyes themselves? Nah.
27: See Bush, Assessment of Putin by.
12: Scary Babylonian frieze man is having sex with Mommy!
Alba's eyes look plenty sparkly (which yeah yeah isn't the point).
I defy Ogged's theory in general, though. I've got a diss and a baby, and my eyes are plenty sparkly.
Because the eyes hardly change
This is not true. Bloodshotness? Shifts in flecks of pigment? Coloration of sclera? All go with age/hard use.
I defy Ogged's theory in general, though.
No you don't.
(Don't start none, won't be none, as a wise feminist horndog used to say.)
I'll give you bloodshotness and cataracts.
41 to 36, but also 40 just for the sake of it.
Justfuckinggoogleit, I know.
I left that implicit.
The spark of youth, B, the spark of youth. It's not an insult, particularly to someone advanced in years, such as your highness.
26: You might be in a position to comment on this, actually. I have the vague sense of the US media are more likely to use the gushing "So tell us how you came up with the idea for this song/album/novel/biography" approach to interviews-turned-p.r. events. Do the UK media do this less, or is my sample skewed?
cataracts
Ooh -- you know what you can totally see, which always weirds me out? When people have had that corrective surgery where they replace the lens. It's odd, but you can *see* that thing in there, and you can tell it doesn't look like the lens that used to be in there.
Ogged, it's one photo, and if she looks a bit weary, perhaps it's because she's expecting. And anyway, she looks gorgeous.
However, I think you're right (and Gonerill's wrong) about the eyes in general, though in this specific instance you're wrong.
37
so dilated pupils indicate some change, no?
like pleasure response
and you say eyes don't change
It's the moment when you go from seeing your life as a set of possibilities to be explored and new experiences to be had, to realizing that you will not do or be the vast majority of what you might have done or been, and that your life is what it is.
See, I don't quite get why these things are necessarily in opposition. But okay, fine. I'm really just trying to be difficult, I'm quite happy to have acquired wisdom rather than youthful sparkiness or whatever it is.
What are you getting me for my birthday, by the way, hmm?
48 was me
i am very very very very sorry
In all likelihood, I am just fessing up to own my inability to read people from their faces.
Ogged, all B said was that she defies your theory, not that she (ugh) counterexamples it.
(Well, ok, she actually said both, but you only denied her claim that she defies it.)
Jessica Alba has been in some really shitty movies recently. Maybe her eyes are dimmed with shame.
I'm really just trying to be difficult,
Surely it's second nature by now?
Maybe it's when you go from intellectually understanding that your time on earth is finite, to emotionally understanding it.
Nobody understands me. The comment on two different movies about pedophilia and retarded maturation might have something to do with ogged's maudlin lament for lost innocence.
He scares me sometimes.
The rest of the photos are here, by the way. Nevertheless, what has been seen has been seen. Robots.
Surely it's second nature by now?
You'd think, but with my youth gone, I no longer see the world as a series of infinite possibilities to be difficult.
Maybe it's when you go from intellectually understanding that your time on earth is finite, to emotionally understanding it.
Hmm. Does that really hit people in their twenties and thirties?
My sister opines that it's when you start asking for things like steak knives for Christmas.
re: 45
They do that on daytime TV. Otherwise, gushing is uncool in any and all contexts. It's not the same there?
I'm pretty sure it doesn't really hit you until you're about to shuffle off the mortal coil.
re: 62
I asked for a blender for my birthday when I was about 26. Admittedly, it was mostly because I wanted the coffee grinder attachment, but still, not really rock'n'roll.
gushing is uncool in any and all contexts. It's not the same there?
Bwahahahahaha!
I thought for guys it was when the Playboy models started to be younger than you.
62, 66: ogged, don't you like Terri Gross, Queen of Gush?
They do that on daytime TV
They certainly used to do the hipster version of that kind of toadying nonsense on TFI Friday.
It's not about youth and aging. You people have no idea what I'm talking about. Robots!
Relax, ogged. We get you: you're deep.
It's not about youth and aging.
Then why are you calling it "the spark of youth"?
We get you: you're deep.
You can't hurt someone who studied continental philosophy this way, you know. But Labs would probably cry if you said this to him.
I thought for guys it was when the Playboy models started to be younger than you.
It's when you're old enough for the Playboy models to be your daughter that the serious depression sets in.
One can, I think, see when Desire leaves in the faces of the dying -- people and animals. And I don't mean the moment of death. Continental philosophers: feel free to argue about whether animals have Faces.
Hm, really, Knecht, you don't say … You have a daughter, don't you? And you say her mother is beautiful?
60: Um...in our class in contemporary America, the late twenties/early thirties is typical timing ...ring any bells?
Okay, okay, the larger point. I think it certainly can happen in the 20s or 30s. Death of a parent, major illness of a friend, whatever happens to bring it home to you.
Of course animals have faces, even Faces.
57:Damn, just like last night during the movie, when I looked at those photos my attention was very quickly drawn to the guy. I have been noticing that in myself lately. They both look pretty good, and happy, and really young. I don't know what ogged was seeing.
Maybe I'll watch Hard Candy again, with the sound off. Ellen Page is an young actress on fire, and maybe I will see something in the eyes. It was a stunning performance.
Look, Jessica Alba was never smart or interesting enough for me. After Idle Hands I tried a couple episodes of her TV show, and completely lost interest.
It's not about youth and aging. You people have no idea what I'm talking about.
Possibly because you misdescribed it. It's not as if disillusionment and resignation are one -time events in life. There is always a floor beneath the one on which you find yourself, ogged.
Hm, really, Knecht, you don't say ... You have a daughter, don't you? And you say her mother is beautiful?
There's some youthful spark for ya.
Infinite possibilities for disappointment remain open to me yet!
Ben w-lfs-n trying to date your daughter might just slaughter youth's remnant spark.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't really hit you until you're about to shuffle off the mortal coil.
Hey! That song has spoilers.
Nothing rekindles the spark like being tutoyed by a vivacious young sexpot like oudemia.
"Ouais." She shrugged and drew heavily on her Gauloise.
I wish English had a formal and an informal second-person pronoun.
You could always just do your very best to revive it.
94: You could become a Quaker and rock out with your thees and thous.
95: Thou get it exactly right.
93: Ye might not be right in all cases.
Hm, really, Knecht, you don't say ... You have a daughter, don't you? And you say her mother is beautiful?
I once had a heated argument with Fleur about which make us unhappier: if our hypothetical grown daughter posed for Playboy, or if she served time for a white collar crime. Fleur thought the former would be worse. (IIRC this was before we had any children for real.)
Did anyone explain to the ogged about makeup?
And I'd get a society of friends into the bargain. But I know a Quaker and she doesn't thee or thou people, at least not that I've heard.
Kobe wonders how old Knecht's daughter is.
100: Well, no. But they held out longer than anybody, I think.
She looks wearier in the pic linked from 59.
Nothing rekindles the spark like being tutoyed by a vivacious young sexpot like oudemia.
I'm conscious of exposing the lameness of my musical taste here, but there is a great song by Patricia Kaas called "Je te dit vous"
94:Thou? Used to.
Little Children dealt with this exact theme, and I am trying to charcterize its message. Umm, three (a fourth, tragically & pathologically) of the characters accept that they are their history, contingency and find in those self-imposed boundaries & reponsibilities a security, a reassuring identity. It's a meh movie because in all cases the maturation is imposed by external events rather than introspection or self-discovery.
Kate Winslet has a critical scene with her small daughter (4?) that is almost an exact match of a scene Maggie Gyllenhaal has with her small daughter in Sherrybaby. The latter scene and Maggie were immeasuraby better than what Winslet had & did.
In Spanish, it sounds sexier to use the formal pronoun. For instance.
But they held out longer than anybody, I think.
Yes, there was a significant period where Friends used it though no one (much?) else did.
if our hypothetical grown daughter posed for Playboy, or if she served time for a white collar crime. Fleur thought the former would be worse.
Yikes. Latter sounds worse to me.
108: If Nixon had used it it might have survived. What a sellout.
108: Yes! I am thinking of Jimmy Stewart talking to the librarian in Philadelphia Story.
Wait, I've seen that movie at least twice; why don't I remember this?
Actually it does ring a bell. I just don't have the specifics. Nevermind.
Yikes. Latter sounds worse to me.
It's not all Chained Heat in the big house, gswift.
Yes, there was a significant period where Friends used it though no one (much?) else did.
This is the first comment I read, and for a minute I was sitting here going "When did Ross and Rachel refer to each other as 'thou'?"
Speaking of NBA games: celtics live blogging part 2 up in this, this time featuring Blume.
Let us know if she loses the spark of youth.
1 point game at the half! Now there's either midgets or 10 year olds on the court.
Spark of youth appears to be in effect.
Up there somewhere, something sounds like youth passing. Eyes become not just tired but bored. Oh.
Blume is a fan of the current Celtics Dancers outfits; I am not sure about the Prince cover they're dancing to.
Not nearly enough has been said about the image on page 21 of the book linked in 12. Baby popping out of Mama, with a big Ta-Da! in the arms. Unbelievable.
They appear to have skipped illustrating the turd, however. For some reason, that's the part of childbirth that bothers me most. It's not as if newborns are otherwise dissociated from shit.
Blume agrees with 123. Connection to Glen 'Big Baby' Davis unclear at this time.
Whaa? I do agree with it. But: whaaa? Let us not become the he-said-she-said couple of unfogged, Tweety.
Thou art the man!
My first foreign language was Russian, with a vivid, often -used 2nd person singular. Apart from the bible, the remnant of ours in English was most notably used in the translations of Buber's writings from the German.
So, is Knecht's daughter coming to DC Unfogged? Is she spunky and hot like Fleur?
Is she spunky and hot like Fleur?
Spunky and five years old, my friend.
Spunky and five years old, my friend.
Perfect, she and PK can go out. Baa was supposed to have a daughter whom PK would romance, but he's dropped the ball, I guess.
Wait, I thought the consensus was that PK is either gay, or will never, ever get a date.
Awesome! Is she silly? Will she sing silly songs with me at DC Unfogged? Will she dance around like a crazy cat with me????
Wait, I thought the consensus was that PK is either gay, or will never, ever get a date.
Did you raise PK to do whatever the consensus
says?
Well, the little boy across the street did tell his mother recently that he and my three year old daughter had agreed to wed, so I guess it's never too early to arrange something for the older sister.
What's up with the main page? Did Knecht just comment and have it deleted immediately, or something?
If you M-fers bring your kids when I have left mine at home, I am going to be really pissed.
Because my daughter LOVES to dance, hug, and kiss EVERYONE! So if I leave her at home, and other kids are there, I will be really disappointed. Plus, my son is quite the charmer.
Oh. How sheepish I feel now.
Are any kids coming? Is asilon's?
133: I thought the consensus was that PK could only rebel against you by moving to the right. So he'll grow up to be a Wall Street trader, and a Republican.
134: If I didn't already know what a wonderful father you are to your daughter, 134 would be creeping me out.
The betting odds are against the Ruprechts attending DCon this year.
139:
Are Asilon's
Really w-lfs-n, I am disappointed in you. Such a silly mistake for a young academic.
What's up with the main page? Did Knecht just comment and have it deleted immediately, or something?
I have no such power. I don't know what happened.
What??!??!? No Ruprechts????? Where is the list of attendees?
While in DC, I will pause for a moment and be self-conscious in honor of the Knecht who could not be there.
a lot of meaningful comments
i am like reading and learning something
people complained about inanity of my comments :(
i blame some irresponsible youthful deity for inattention, born in 90ies/ really?'
were my modest offerings not good enough for Thou/ee?!
145: Aren't you going to pour out some of your juice box or whatever it is that you drink? Such disrespect.
While in DC, I will pause for a moment and be self-conscious in honor of the Knecht who could not be there.
I'm honored, I think, to be the butt of w-lfs-n's humor, but I'll be damned if I get the joke.
I'm honored, I think, to be the butt of w-lfs-n's humor, but I'll be damned if I get the joke.
Talkin' 'bout Herrschaft und Knechtschaft, duderino. Lordship and bondage.
149: Oh, you mean, like "Für-sich-sein" and "Für-andere-sein".
You're too erudite for me, duderonomy.
Did you raise PK to do whatever the "consensus" says?
No, but I fully expect you to go along with it.
Oh you. You do know just what to say, don't you?
B, does PK have a skateboard? Can he shred?
B, does PK have a skateboard? Can he shred?
"PK" actually stands for "Yngwie Malmsteen".
I was at Knicks-Sonics tonight; I'm sure still images of me would not have indicated my normal, sparkling, self.
153: He has one, but it got left out in the rain all last winter and the sandpaper's coming off the top. He needs a new one. And no, he doesn't really know how to ride yet, but doesn't he just totally need to learn, or what?
w/d we're NBA buddies! Where's your sparkle-motion? Do not let Blume out-sparkle.
Hey, I was at the Steelers-Bengals game two weeks ago. While walking there I got vertigo and almost fell in the river, my glasses were so blurred by the rain! We're all overpriced-entertainment buddies!
160: Half price cocktail night at the Garden, by any chance? (Totally implausible jokepremise -- damned Massachusetts liquor laws.)
I think perhaps I never even had the spark of youth. So, you know, freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Or something like that.
Knecht the game is over: Massachusetts is home of bars!
I'm a younger sibling, so I was able to witness the extinguishing of the spark of my sister's youth while mine still burned. I took heed, and transferred my spark from myself into a storm lantern with plenty of fuel, and hid it at the top of a Himalayan peak, surrounded by a moat and guarded by a dragon. I'm now assured that, whatever may befall me in life, the spark of my youth continues to burn.
I've heard that when a lady has entirely run out of pie it shows in her eyes. That probably isn't Alba's problem, though. Maybe her pie is just a little less perfect, with a less flaky crust for example. My sister-in-law is having trouble training staff in her pie-shop. She can't make enough pie totake care of everyone, the the hirleing piemakers just can't match her for quality.
I make a decent enough pie crust. For an amateur, I mean. I can't pretend to compete with the pros.
Do you know what? Trader Joe's pie crusts--in the freezer section, and they're not the awful pre-formed kind, they're rolled out and folded into quarters--are really not half bad.
I'm not so good at pie crust. For Thanksgiving, I used the Trader Joe's crust B. mentions, and it was indeed pretty good for storebought.
And yet, the hireling pie was excellent. I'm not sure I could even handle SIL pie; I think I might approach it but then abruptly be awakened, like the Pearl Poet. Surely she burns with the pure flame of youth.
hireling pie
Mmmm, hirelingonberry.
I've never tried frozen pie crust. But I'm a big fan of frozen puff pastry (which I would never try to make at home, because that sounds like too much work for too little in return).
Trader Joe's has all-butter frozen puff pastry for surprisingly cheap.
Jesus, the hireling pie you had had the very problem the piemistress had mentioned the day before: too tough a crust. Putting in exactly the right of amount of water is the key, but you can't measure it, because some flour holds more moisture than other flour. You have to go by feel. So maybe Jessica Alba's putting in too much water when her flour's already damp, IYKWIMAITYD.
I'll keep going back until I have SIL pie, even if I have to sedate the children.
BTW, Jesus' daughters are adorable despite their father's authoritarian parenting methods.
My SIL controls Fafnir's mind with her delectable pie.
Pie crust is tetchy. The amount of water is an issue, as is its temperature (it should be ice cold). An elderly relation of mine (my first cousin twice removed, but I thought of her as an aunt) once told me to use holy water, but that may be too specialized, or too sectarian, a solution. Beyond the amount and the temperature (and perhaps the disposition) of the water, what matters is the handling of the dough. If you handle it too much, it will turn out too tough. But if handle it too little, it will not be properly mixed, and you won't be able to shape it.
Probably someone with an advanced degree in chemistry has already solved the problem, but mostly I think it's a matter of hands-on practice and experience. You have to get the feel of it, in other words.
181: My grandmother taught me that dough wouldn't rise unless you marked it with the cross of our Lord.
As to piecrust, yeah. Mr oudemia is a frigging chef de cuisine, but I have a hard time achieving the space where the dough will roll out and not crack and the utterly overworked.
You know what will really take the spark out of your eye?
I've always been troubled by pastry, and recently gave up and started doing it in the food processor. It may be inauthentic, but boy is it reliable.
The pie is gone from LBs eyes, alas.
