Slate article on how the battle to end billable hours that the law firms deal with may have to be fought by the clients, those unhappy in-house corporations, pissed by the expense involved.
Speaking of how expensive the law firms are making things, Chief Justice Roberts apparently is reminding Congress in his year end report that it’s kind of unfair that judges make less than a first year associate at one of these big law firms. Well, that is a grim reality, isn’t it? Heck, the Big Firm 1st Year Associate makes more than a Congressman…
Sadly, U of Hawaii lost to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl; what a sad game to have watched (and I didn’t even watch that much of it).
I liked this NY Times analysis of the NHL New Year’s Winter Classic game. Richard Sandomir writes:
The National Hockey League needed a game like Tuesday’s outdoor Winter Classic. In its fight for the attention of sports fans, it requires events that set it apart. It needed a tight game — this one was won in a shootout by the Penguins star Sidney Crosby — and an entertaining broadcast by NBC’s group of exhilarated announcers. It needed to build a regulation-size rink inside Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., for a game that started in daylight and ended at dusk.
But most of all, it needed the snow, the sleet, the rain and the wind.
More meaningful games than Pittsburgh’s beating Buffalo, 2-1, will be played in arenas. But the league can only benefit from the merger of a well-played hockey game with Green Bay football weather before 71,217 fans.
You can’t plan on staging a hockey game in which viewers need to squint through snow to watch. Given global warming, any future Winter Classics located in traditionally cold climes may end up being played in 70-degree conditions with melting ice and players skating in shorts.
But Tuesday was ideal: a game that featured wintry weather from start to finish; several unplanned breaks to shovel away snow and scrape away ice by human Zambonis; weather radar and forecasts; and the announcers Mike Emrick, Ed Olczyk and Darren Pang working without any buffer from the weather. [….]
The broadcast was defined by weather references unneeded inside arenas, where the average temperature is a reported 62 degrees.
“They’re trading scoring chances in the sleet,” Olczyk said.
“There’s a solid layer of snow on the ice,” Pang said.
“We’re tied,” Emrick said in the third period. “More snow coming.”
Olczyk and Emrick were situated on an elevated perch about 15 yards from the rink and 15 feet off the ground. Olczyk, who played for the Rangers and is a former Penguins coach, went hatless, prompting friends and others to text him to ask if he had applied hair-immobility gel.
“It was hard, with the elements, to write,” he said. “We had plexiglass over our notes, but the water seeped through the cracks.” They showed their notes, bleeding with colorful inks, late in the game. [SSW: A funny scene, I must say! Meanwhile, Bob Costas was warm inside, while Pang had to wear hats to cover his bald head…]
He added: “At times, it was difficult to see. It was never a white-out, but the near boards were obscured once in a while. I like to look at body language, but when you’re that close, and you’re in the elements, it’s difficult to pick out the guys.”
The game was designed to be a reminder of hockey’s outdoor roots of children playing on backyard rinks and iced-over ponds. Olczyk and his youngest son skate on a pond behind his Chicago home “and my wife yells at me to put his hat over his ears.” The last time he played in weather like Tuesday’s was as a midget player on an old rink in Chicago’s North Shore.
“It’s in our blood,” he said.
The league must have known the risk of trying to attract a major audience for Tuesday’s 1 p.m. Eastern game with competition coming from two overlapping college bowls (the Outback and the Cotton) and two others (the Gator and the Capital One) that started at the same time.
John Collins, the league’s senior executive vice president, acknowledged that New Year’s Day was a competitive day for future Classics, “but it’s a day where the N.H.L. should have a place in the conversation.”
“We should stand tall on a day like Jan. 1 and put a claim on it,” he said. “There are benefits to Jan. 1, but it’s not etched in stone. It was Jan. 1 this year because the NBC guys had a vision for what it could be and pushed hard for it.” [….]
So, I guess I’ll give NBC credit. And, as I said, it just looked really, really amazing on big screen HDTV… Anyway, I’m not saying it’d be an annual New Year’s tradition, but message to NBC and NHL: do it again! …
Well, I did miss the glowing hockey puck from the FOX productions of hockey games; that would have helped with the visibility!
Watched the late night shows – channel changing and VCR usage going on – on the first night that they were back. Tough positions for Conan and Leno to be in; but good for Letterman to get a deal with the Writers’ Guild. Jacques Steinberg and Bill Carter did the write up for the NY Times on the shows’ re-appearance to the small screen; the NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley has an interesting review of the late night viewing.
My opinion: Conan made a nice balance of seriousness and amusement. The strike beard he had – he’s right; it does make him look like Kris Kringle from the old “Santa’s Coming to Town” cartoon. Plus, I had to laugh at the Watch Conan Spin His Wedding Ring on The Desk. Well, what can you do without writers? Meanwhile, Dave Letterman’s mostly white beard made him look strangely cheery, even smug. His show, with writers, got quite biting with the pro-union sentiment. Watched some of the Leno interview of Huckabee, but not that much; the Leno monologue was okay, I guess, but I’m not much of a Leno watcher to begin with. Craig Ferguson’s opening skit with the sheep was hilarious. Ah, well!
At the hour that I’m posting this, it’s the wee hours of the morning of Jan. 4, so I’m still digesting the Iowa Caucus stuff. Turned out to be more exciting than I expected; we’re really living in history! Too bad about Senator Biden’s deciding to drop out; I wished he could have stayed on for one more debate. He brought some real thoughtfulness to things. Actually, the Democrats have been interesting; it’s been really something, I have to say – more than mudslinging. Are we heading for change, and how? Obama v. Edwards v. Clinton – let’s see how it gets hashed out in New Hampshire, and the road to Super Duper Duper Duper Tuesday. Heck, even the Republicans’ side of things is turning out to be quite the spectator sport, with Huckabee making Romney sweat now.
But, still – I feel weird that Election 2008 came so early. It’s long in coming (yeah, since 2006, a friend of mine reminded me), but it feels so rushed and long. This post from NBC News’ Nightly News blog, “Daily Nightly” written by Andy Franklin, NBC News producer, raises an excellent point:
We see some variation of this ritual every four years, though it hasn’t always started in Iowa — or started this early. Forty-eight years ago today — on January 2nd, 1960 — Senator John F. Kennedy was just getting around to announcing that he was a candidate for president. The 2nd fell on a Saturday that year, and with little else making news that first weekend of the New Year, Kennedy hoped to make a splash in the Sunday morning papers. He did. But the actual contests themselves were a still a long way off. The first primary, in New Hampshire, was two months away; Kennedy (from neighboring Massachusetts) was unopposed, and won easily. Wisconsin, Illinois and others followed in April. But the contest that would prove decisive — the West Virginia primary — did not take place until May.
Goodness – back in the day, we really slogged it out with the campaigning, huh? And, at least, the candidates and the voters got Christmas for their own. Oh, well. Got to hand it to the Iowans – as much as we thinking caucusing is weird or has drawbacks, it got them to think about the issues or the candidates in more ways than ordinary voting may yield. We’ll see what’s next…