Article III Groupie Comes Out of the Closet:
Via Howard, I learn that Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker is announcing that Article III Groupie of Underneath Their Robes is David B. Lat, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Newark, NJ. An excerpt:
No word yet on whether David is also behind the short-lived Proculian Meditations.
Although he intended to remain anonymous, the success of the blog made coming clean irresistible. "I felt frustrated that I was putting a lot of time into this and was unable to get any credit for it," Lat said. "But eventually these things have a way of coming out anyway. I only hope that the judges I appear in front of don’t read it."David is a Harvard College and Yale Law grad who clerked for Judge O'Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit; my understanding is that he now argues Third Circuit appeals from the Newark office.
No word yet on whether David is also behind the short-lived Proculian Meditations.
They are probably yucked out.
I can't decide if this is really funny or really disturbing...
didn't realize we were in alabama.
UTR was (is?) one of the most hilarious and entertaining sights on the net (possibly the most entertaining) AND very informative and sophisticated as well. This revelation, if true (please, please, please, let it not be so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) is indeed VERY disturbing. The humor is intensely gender specific and that which is histarical and appealing coming from a girl (or someone one believes to be a girl) is, uhm..., something less coming from a guy. The post on UTR does not offer the strong refutation we might have hoped for.
"December 04, 2004
Article III Groupie and Feminism
Mike
We often hear that intelligent girls hide their brilliance from their peers because guys do not like smart girls. Is it true that guys do not like smart girls, or is it more accurate to say that smart girls need to look harder for an intellectual match?
I think the answer lies with Article III Groupie and her blog Underneath Their Robes.
A3G gets numerous compliments and unsolicited date invitations by men who have never seen her. A3G is adored for her brains, not her looks. Although many people suspect that she is attractive, it is her poignant writing and creativeness that attract her many admirers. One person even wants to "totally make out with A3G."
Indeed, even if Groupie is really a man, as Judge Posner has suggested, my point remains true. People assume she is a brilliant woman, and that is why they love her. Groupie is clearly the Most Wanted Blogger.
She also moves forward the womens' movement more so than affirmative action or other quota programs. Groupie demonstrates that men will fall over themselves for a brilliant girl. So, ladies, if you want a successful companion, don't be afraid to put down the compact and pick up a book (though there is nothing wrong with being brilliant and beautiful).
There is no longer an excuse for girls to believe that they must hide their brains. That is, you don't need to hide your intelligence if you want to date lawyers instead of stoners. Then again, if you want to date from the later category, you are probably not, by definition, very sharp.
[Thanks to my wife, who also admires Groupie, for inspiring this post.]"
Generally agree with your post. It's hard to imagine though that circa 2005 (indeed, Circa 1985 - I was 13 but I recall somewhat clearly) intelligent women feel/felt the need to play dumb. It is true, however, that a demonstrably brilliant, highly credentialed elite girl lawyer becomes that much more attractive if she supplements these qualities with being a materialistic airhead.
If Lat really "is" A3G, though, he certainly grasps what it is that guys fantasize about and presents it to a T.
(P.S. my wife is not nearly as disturbed as I am at the revelation - although she is impressed by the actual credentials of A3G/Lat (????????????) which are even more impressive than her own - Ivy and Top 5 but not Harvard and Yale - only 1 SCOTUS interview and certainly not Wachtell - she turned them down).
For that matter, if he is gay, I don't see what the big deal is.
Does anyone believe he is not gay? I thought it was just a given. And that is based on so much more than just his writing in a first-person female voice.
Concurring with C&F, my ladyfriend has been saying for a while that no woman speaks like that, and it must be a gay guy.
I suppose it would be snarky of me to wonder aloud to the what's-the-big-deal, your-reaction-says-more-about-you-than-him crowd why they suppose Lat was trying to fool people into thinking he was female. I submit it's because it does make a difference who you think an author is, as paleolithic as that notion might be. That is, if in some alternate universe somewhere it doesn't matter if a gossippy site about super-hotties and bench-slaps is written by a man or woman, why not write is "as" a man to begin with?
Obviously, he made a conscious choice to write as a female, so in that sense it must have mattered to him in some way. But there are lots of ways in which it could have mattered. For example, he might not have been trying to actually fool people into really thinking the author was a woman ... he might just have thought a female voice was the right choice given the nature of the jokes he wanted to make.
Or maybe he did want to mess with people's assumptions. Either way, it makes sense to me.
If your stomach is turning because he's not a woman, you had inappropriate sexual thoughts about a plainly fictional persona.
If your stomach is turning simply because the mystery of "who is it" has been spoiled, well, there are plenty of blogs out there whose author remains anonymous.
Samuel A. Alito ("The A Stands for Awesome")
http://samuelalito.blogspot.com
Personally, I'll have no problem accepting future A3G writings, so long as the author maintains a consistent voice.
I, for one, will enjoy the blog all the more now that I know that A3G is a (partly) fictional character. This is high comedy people.
I see you as asking two separate questions. One question is why Lat would take the time to create any fictional character with such detail. The other is why he chose this fictional character in particular.
I don't find either of those questions that hard to answer. On the first, busy people routinely put a great deal of time and energy into their creative projects. I think they often find it relaxing, or a welcome escape, or just plain fun. On the second, as I suggested above, once Lat had the basic idea for the blog (applying this particular genre to the Article III judiciary), choosing a female voice makes sense.
In short, I think this wondering about why Lat knows so much about shoes is like asking why a person who decided to write a novel set in medieval times knows so much about swords--the answer is that the nature of the project dictates what the author has to learn.
(With due apologies to Joe E. Brown.)
http://judgesarejustlikeus.blogspot.com/
Now, it may be that the buzzards were circling, and Lat realized he was about to be 'outed' anyway. Having realized that, he decided to do it on his own terms.
Another possibility is that he'd gotten tired of wearing the mask.
I guess the good news is that he won't be one for long.