May 28, 2006

Althouse studying for her last law school exam.

My son John puts a lot of effort into scanning old family photographs, which he uploads to Flickr. Here's one of me, studying for my last law school exam:

Studying for last law school exam

My last law school exam was Federal Courts, which was also the first subject I taught as a lawprof.

Can you tell that I had not gone near a professional haircutter in many years? Can you believe that those glasses were entirely fashionable in 1981, the year the photo was taken? Don't laugh! The glasses you're wearing right now will look stupid in a quarter of a century.

45 comments:

Han said...

alas, pity I was only 1 year old in 1981. If I were my present age at that time, I would have so totally tried to hit on you.

Seriously.

Palladian said...

A mantle of books make even the worst glasses and hairstyle sexy!

Jeff with one 'f' said...

Reminds me of Jan Smither as Bailey Quarters on "WKRP in Cinncinati"!

Anonymous said...
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Ron said...

Jeff, I think you got it! Although Ann does look a little like Edith Head in that photo...

Sanjay said...

Yeah, glasses keep getting smaller since the '80s. I like the bigger glasses, dammit, they have more peripheral vision.

Ann Althouse said...

Anyone who needs a strong prescription has to be glad that small frames are in style. I usually wear contacts, but my prescription is strong and would get really thick at the edges if the lenses were large. It looks awful.

Ruth Anne Adams said...
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knox said...

...makes hitting the books look kind of cozy and romantic... not like hell at all!

Ann Althouse said...

NYpundit: The glasses are the same as the ones Annie Hall wears in the scene in the outdoor LA restaurant. Except hers were red. Mine were fuschia!

Ruth Anne: You have a good eye -- for liquor! I'm guessing it's Campari. Or Johnny Walker Black.

Ann Althouse said...

Most of my students use laptops and I've never noticed any sound of typing. What about the sound of pens and pencils scratching away at paper? Really there isn't a whole lot of noise. The most distractingly noisy item is the ring binder, by the way. When you're trying to get to the last few things at the end of the class and the students start clicking ring binders, it's nerve-wracking. The second worst noise problem is students coming in late, which is also a visual distraction.

Palladian said...

I deal with student lateness by using the age old method of public shaming. Works like a charm, except in the most incorrigible cases.

A.M. Mora y Leon said...

Hey I got a 1981 pic of me in those, too!

Nowadays, I go for the Lisa Loeb Look!

reader_iam said...

I like the 1981 series of which that is pic is a part. It really made me smile.

Nice work on John's part of scanning and preserving places and times, along with the pix themselves.

KCFleming said...

My heavens, what a radiant young woman; an expectant face, full of promise. 25 years later, what do you wish she knew then?

chuck b. said...

What if someone had told you at that very moment that one day you'd be a famous "blogger"? And that you'd lobby your readers to vote for you for 'conservative' blog diva?

Ruth Anne Adams said...
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Ann Althouse said...

Wicked: Sorry. Some of that just went top far. I'm not mad at you, but...

Slocum: That's an old film camera, acting like a film camera under incandescent light.

Brendan: A was "H" at NYU in those days. "H" for "honors," and yeah, I did get that, even with a new baby.

Ruth Anne: The grandma with the nylons at Christmas was my father's mother, Elsa Tausig Althouse. She died in the 1970s. Only one great-grandmother was alive when John was born, and that was Pauline Fiddle, my ex-husband's mother's mother. She died not long after that picture was taken. She was in no position to help. My mother-in-law Jean did babysit a little. But my ex-husband Richard was the main support then. He was a full-time parent.

Ann Althouse said...

Too far, I mean....

MadisonMan said...

So are the bookcases still in your possession?

In 1981 I had a cheezy moustache. And a jesus afro.

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, I think we used a filter to deal with the indoor lighting... Can't remember....

Bookcases... just threw them out a few months ago.

EMC said...

My first thought? "Wow, Hillary Rodham!"

No offense.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

Ann, thanks for the appreciative words about me. Not many people would deserve comparisons to Diane Keaton and Hilary Rodham at the same time.

I took the photo, BTW.

I think the liquor might be Strega.

Ann Althouse said...

Strega! Yikes! I don't even like to think about what that stuff tastes like.

Simon said...

Don't worry about the glasses. George F. Will is still wearing essentially the same frames today.

knox said...

looking at old photos like that makes me nostalgic... doesn't even have to be my own family!

reader_iam said...

I don't know why, but since first seeing this picture and even now, it makes me think of a character that would be in a Henry Jaglom film.

(Now, I like his work, so don't take that the wrong way.)

I also keep thinking of that Claudia Weill film "Girlfriends."

Can't explain it, but there it is.

David McDougall said...

shianux - you took the words right out of my mouth.

also, that stream of light falling to your right is fantastic.

- dave m.

DaLawGiver said...

Dump the glasses and contacts, get yourself the Mother's Day gift you'll love forever and kick yourself for not getting sooner.


LASIK!

I wores glasses since the 5th grade, got contacts in 1969, wore them for 30 years, reverted to glasses when my eyes could no longer tolerate contacts, then had LASIK surgery 5 years ago. I was scared shitless but see 20/20 now. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Still need reading glasses though but I don't care because I CAN SEE the individual blades of grass again with my naked eyeball!

Methadras said...

Let's just say that there wouldn't be a lot of studying going on.

John said...

Yes those glasses were popular in the 80s. Look at Marshall Crenshaw on the cover of his "Field Day" album (1983) here:

http://www.marshallcrenshaw.com/albums.html

Chip Ahoy said...

quel sérieux.

Agnostic Monk said...

Ms.Althouse,

I have a pair of spectacles exactly like that and they are from the 90's.

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, those aren't the Annie Hall magenta things. They really are brown, and they were bought at what was the most fashionable eyeglass store on the East Side of Manhattan at the time, in about 1980.

dannyboy said...

I say with this with utmost of respect.

You're much hotter now but that's only because in the 70's everyone looked like three kinds of ass. Just look at what the fashion styles. That's why no one drops acid anymore.

Plus that looks like an ambush photo too boot.

David said...

Ann, I too would have hit on you--but not based on that photo.

Still would, but for my marital status.

rcocean said...

You were hot back in the days.
But damn, did you use garden shears for the haircut?!

You look better now.

amba said...

I had those huge, owlish glasses too.

Wince said...

Federal Courts must have been a very different class back in 1981.

Ann Althouse said...

"Federal Courts must have been a very different class back in 1981."

I had to leave during the 11th Amendment to have a baby, but I got the notes and it was all about Parden and constructive consent. Ha ha.

Anonymous said...

Book Nerds. heh.

Rockport Conservative said...

I use the big frames from the 80's to watch TV when I am lying in bed. I looked very hard for them and found them in a small town opticians shop and had single vision lenses put in. At my age I deserve every luxury I can think of. With the acrylic lenses they are not nearly as thick as they were back in the day. I also had a pair made into sunglasses, but with bifocals.

Emily said...

You look outrageously sexy in this photo.

bagoh20 said...
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bagoh20 said...

I'm with lawgiver: LASIK is a freeking miracle. Got mine 20 years ago and it's been incredibly liberating. I can't imagine anyone regretting it. Like few other things, it's worth a hundred times what it cost.