Category: Brooklyn

If you have not done so, go vote. Do your civic duty. Plus, it’s a nice day, so go outside. (easy for me to say, since I’ve got the day off).

An interesting story on Time.com – dare we eliminate the third year of law school? Wendy Cole reports:

The first year of law school is notoriously difficult, but other than lining up employment, what exactly happens during the third? Given that even professional litigators have a hard time coming up with a good answer, at least one school has decided to eliminate the year of living lazily. Starting next summer, attorneys-in-training at the University of Dayton will be able to complete coursework in two years, rather than the traditional three. The accelerated program—just approved by the American Bar Association—is the first of its kind in the U.S. [….]

So if they can shave off a year from their studies, does that mean they’ll pass along the cost savings to starter clients by lowering hourly rates? Don’t bet on it. But seasoned legal experts aren’t automatically nixing the concept. Says one veteran litigator, “You don’t learn anything in the third year of law school anyway, so they may as well shorten it.” In any case, long-winded professors seemingly need not apply.

So, this week, in the land of “Doonesbury,” Mike and his daughter continue the college tours trip, paying a visit to Mike’s alma mater, Walden. They drop by on Mike’s old commune, which is now home to B.D. and Boopsie, and Zonker, the ex-nanny to Alex. A warm reunion, but for Zonker’s lack of realization that Alex can take care of herself. Well, actually, despite what Mike may think of his daughter, I’d wonder if Alex can really hold her own with her half-uncle Jeff Redfern, the Walden senior (who really is clueless for a kid who’s been recruited by the CIA)…

Oh, and last night’s “Two and a Half Men” on CBS was quite funny, with Martin Sheen (dad of Charlie Sheen) playing the dad of Rose, the stalker/girlfriend-wanna-be of Charlie Sheen’s character, Charlie Harper. Considering the Sheens’ resemblance to each other, what does that mean? That Rose is obsessed about a guy who looks like her dad? But, funnier, her dad, Harvey, becomes obsessed with the Harper brothers’ mom, the much married Mrs. Harper. Yikes. Martin Sheen must be looking for other things to do with “West Wing” winding down.

Lawyers who blog… (and I guess we of triscribe.com are no better…)

The marathon was fun tv (yeah, I actually watched; wasn’t in the mood to watch the political stuff) – on the men’s side, the American was so darn close; then the South African and the Kenyan had their head-to-head match, with the Kenyan winning by a .1 second margin. Yikes. Meanwhile, the women’s side was no less exciting, insofar as one wouldn’t think that Latvia would suddenly be a marathon power.

The live debate on “West Wing” (I missed half of it, because I watched the Simpsons’ latest Treehouse of Horrors episode – not great; too many movie parodies – and those weren’t even movies I liked or cared for) – fun! Alan Alda (a known real-life liberal) playing a moderate Republican Senator Vinick who believes in the free market and smaller, more efficient government (but not believe in global warming). Jimmy Smits plays Latino TX Congressman Santos, who isn’t the most liberal of liberals, but did a rousing argument that he is proud to be liberal because liberals are the ones who actually did things in this country (like fought for voting rights for every citizen of every gender and race; ended slavery (well, a liberal Republican anyway), and stuff like that). Loved that defense of liberalism! (I may not be a liberal, but I despise how Right Wingers use the word “liberal” like it’s profanity). Both actors acted very well. Forrest Sawyer (ex-ABC journalist) played the moderator on NBC News. Umm, sure, Forrest. You might have an acting career! The fake campaign has been intruiging (well, I haven’t watched enough “West Wing” to say much more).

A profile of the making of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” – hmm. So they are already planning making the film version of Book 2, “Prince Caspian”?

Personally, I’ve the theory that one could make the books into four movies:

– “The Magician’s Nephew” was the prequel to “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” (arguably, it can be made into the prologue to LWW; the story there was pretty negligible, unless you really wanted to know how Narnia was created and how the Pevensie kids’ Professor came to be who he was – and really, the story never did explain how he got the wardrobe!)

– “The Horse and His Boy” was more of a contemporaneous tale within LWW (wherein this kid meets up with the four Pevensie kids during their reign of Narnia; the talking horses were lovely characters, but I personally felt it was the weakest of the seven books). You could just insert it into LWW, or not have it at all.

– “Prince Caspian” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and “The Silver Chair” were pretty much The Life of Caspian (although the Pevensie kids’ cousin, Eustace, is a real annoying British kid, who somehow learned to redeem himself – if Edmund was annoying in LWW, Eustace was a heck of a lot worse, since his parents were apparently the strange atheists of the unseen parents in the series – maybe the Christian C.S. Lewis was trying to hint at something).

– “The Last Battle” – well, the title sums it up. I came out of that one feeling sad; I can easily imagine the movie looking a lot like Lord of the Rings’ “Return of the King” (a movie that really didn’t know when to end).

But, this is starting to feel quite exciting, I must say, when they make a movie of a book I really enjoyed as a kid.

Today’s NY Times had this interesting op-ed, where this Princeton history prof writes on the inspiring story of how Lisbon, Portugal, recovered from a devestating earthquake 250 years ago – a story of strong leadership and foresight that may inspire a certain devestated American city in the Gulf coast region.

Fascinating article on the painted ghost signs of NYC – remnants of advertising on the brick walls of old buildings, evoking the era of corsets or, at least, a different NYC. The article notes the faded Scribners publishing sign in midtown. Where I work, downtown, you can see one of these painted signs (I think it dates to the early 1900’s, if not the late 1800’s). Too bad theyre not protected by landmarks law, but they do remind us that NYC’s an old kind of town.

These articles in the news prognosticating as to what kind of Supreme Court justice Judge Alito might be – well, they’re just confusing. There’s no question that he’s a conservative, but would he be a radical revolutionary conservative, or a gradualist conservative (i.e., more incrementally, such that in thirty years, you won’t even realize that radical change occurred – for better or for worse). And, listening to the politicians talk like they know what they’re talking about (“We don’t want an activist judge” or “Judges don’t legislate…”) is also irritating. As this NY Times article notes, what is ideology? Is it bad, good, or what? And so:

The debate over what criteria senators should use in deciding how to vote on Supreme Court nominees is almost as old as the court itself, because the Constitution offers the scant instruction that justices should be appointed “with the advise and consent of the Senate.”

Should education, temperament, experience and integrity be the sole determining factors? Or should ideology, a nominee’s political leanings and predictable stands on the hot judicial disputes of the day, also have a major role? [….]

The nomination poses questions about the unwritten rules to decide on a confirmation. No one has questioned Judge Alito’s knowledge, experience or intellect. But if he succeeds Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in what has been a swing seat on critical issues, his staunchly conservative views could have a profound effect on the court and the nation.

“It presents the issue in a very crystalline form,” said Richard D. Friedman, a law professor at the University of Michigan. “Alito is superb on all the measures of qualifications. All that’s left to oppose him on is ideology.”

Professor Friedman argues that ideology should not have a dominant place in the Senate consideration.

“The aggressively ideological opposition distorts the confirmation process,” he said. “Treating it as a political matter may encourage a view of the court as nothing more than another political institution.”

But Lee Epstein, a professor of law and political science at Washington University, said that to expect senators to engage in an apolitical confirmation process was unrealistic.

“If their constituents think ideology is a good reason to vote against a nominee,” Professor Epstein said, “they’re going to vote against him.”

Of the 156 Supreme Court nominees since the court was created, 35 have been rejected or withdrawn, according to the Congressional Research Service. Most of the 35 were clustered in times of turmoil like the Civil War and Reconstruction, when politics often trumped qualifications.

In 1869, more than a century before bloggers and cable pundits would turn up the heat on nominees, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, widely considered one of the nation’s top legal minds. After seven bitter weeks, the Senate voted him down, 33 to 24, in part because he had pressed for the selection of federal judges on the basis of legal talent rather than political allegiance.

No nominee has been voted down since Robert H. Bork, President Ronald Reagan’s conservative nominee in 1987. Harriet E. Miers withdrew last month because of criticism of her credentials, not her views.

A statistical model developed by Professor Epstein and her colleagues, which incorporates newspaper editorials and other sources, suggests that confirmations have steadily grown more polarized over ideology in recent decades.

Since 1937, her model shows, the importance of nominees’ qualifications has not changed. But ideology took on greater importance beginning in the 50’s, with Brown v. Board of Education and conservative criticism of the Warren court. Ideology “exploded” after the Senate rejected Mr. Bork, Professor Epstein said.

The bitterly contested confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee, Anita F. Hill, played out before a rapt national television audience.

To some, the court’s role in settling the 2000 presidential election seemed to shatter once and for all any notion that it occupied some antiseptic zone untouched by politics. [….]

Professor Epstein and other legal scholars are wary of some of the terms thrown about in this debate. On Roe v. Wade, the abortion ruling that has stood as a precedent since 1973, she asked, would not a “judicial conservative” be a person who would uphold it and a “judicial activist” one who would overturn it? That is the opposite of the way such terms are often used.

“I told my class the other day I have no idea what judicial activism is,” Professor Epstein said. “Maybe the best definition of a judicial activist is a judge you don’t like.”

[emphasis added; Prof. Epstein makes an excellent point!]

Interesting
profile on Mary Wittenberg, the president and CEO of the NY Road Runners, who run the NY Marathon (pun not intended). She was able to combine her legal career and love of sports to get into the sport business, and got out of corporate firm life for a better quality of life. Nice.

Wow – your Hawaii travelogue has been great reading, FC! Glad that you and P- have been having fun!

Election Day Eve in the Metropolitan area: the NJ gubernatorial race is getting so sleazy – Mrs. Corzine gets quoted in the NY Times about her ex-husband, Senator Corzine (Dem.) (that she’s very much not endorsing her ex-husband); so of course, Mr. Forrester (Rep.) has it in his commercial; but then these rumors of affairs and corruption are getting rampant and crazy. I could have sworn it was about the issues (and the candidates haven’t done a very good job of that). I’m glad I don’t vote in NJ!

The NYC mayoral race continues. I’ll leave it at that.

So, I gave in tonight, and watched one of the new sci-fi schows of this season. I watched an entire episode “Threshold” on CBS. Very much an X-Files mode (and it’s because of my watching too much X-Files that I find myself tuned out to these new shows). But, the star Carla Gugino is a good watch and it’d be nice for her to have a show that’s not cancelled. She plays Molly, the head scientist leading the contingency against the invading alien DNA. Brent Spiner (Data/Dr. Soong of Star Trek fame) is doing a nice job as the resident biologist, along with a solid cast including Peter Dinklage and Charles S. Dutton. It feels more like Carla Gugino and These Guys, but curiously creepy show. Aliens Invading!

I missed “Smallville” last night, only catching the end of the episode. Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) is helping his old friend, the US Senator of Kansas (played by Tom Wopat) find his moral compass again. Jeez, I missed seeing the original Dukes of Hazard! (and, apparently, missed seeing Clark and Lois irritate each other; aww. They’re so cute – why are they making a new Superman movie without these two actors who are already Clark and Lois on tv?).

“Entertainment Weekly” and TV Guide reports that FOX doesn’t know what to do with the final nine episodes of “Prison Break” – FOX wants to keep the show on the air, but has no time slot for it. Geez. I still haven’t gotten myself to watch a full hour since the series premiere, and it seems like a weird psycho but interesting show, and you don’t know what time slot to put it in now? How about ditching a reality show (I think we can live without “Trading Spouses”) or crappy sitcom(s) (yes, I mean “American Dad” and “War At Home” on Sunday nights – they suck for a so-called cartoon and a stereotypical un-PC studio audience type of sitcom). EW and TV Guide theorize that FOX may consider doing an X-File on Prison Break – put it on Friday or Sunday nights (which worked for “X-Files”). Not a bad idea, really. Although, I’d hate for “Prison Break” to go up against “Cold Case” (CBS) or “Desperate Houswives” (ABC) on Sunday or up against “Threshold” and “Numbers” (CBS) on Fridays. FOX has to consider options here before letting “Prison Break” sit out for the spring.

EW’s new issue profiles the newest Harry Potter movie – “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (aka Book 4). How exciting. Well, then again, Book 4 leads the way to the darkness of 5 and 6, and well, we’ll see…

And, there’s the coming of the Narnia movie: “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.” This better not be a movie that’ll screw up a perfectly good fantasy series. I was too young to ever pick up on the Christian themes, but the books has fascinating characters and ideas. This fall may wind up having great movies (if done correctly!).

So, Tuesday night:

On CBS, I watched “NCIS” – the “JAG” spinoff. There’s something about this show that I can’t help liking. Actor Mark Harmon – well, geez, you could never go wrong with Mark Harmon (that his Secret Service character was killed off so badly yet valiantly on “West Wing” was really sad). Actor Michael Weatherly (playing Special Agent DiNozzo) is a cutie (well, his character on “Dark Angel” was a cutie until the show got tiresome). And, the cast has a nice chemistry – one feels that they like working with each other and it makes their group of characters feel like a family too. It’s not a bad show, but if I have to keep seeing ex-JAG actors show up, geez, now that’ll be annoying.

On FOX, The Return of Dr. House! House deals with Dr. Sebastian, a sanctimonious self-righteous doc who is trying to end TB in Africa, only to develop TB himself and something heart condition. House, of course, can’t avoid being an annoying S.O.B. Actor Ron Livingston playing the rival doctor (who’s a lousy patient – no surprise, whoever heard of a doctor who’s a good patient? House himself sucked as a patient) – well, he’s a cutie of an actor… Well, all fun. Dr. Foreman got himself (and thus House) into trouble, and Dr. Chase may never go very far with Dr. Cameron, who’s a sucker for older, attractive male doctors who are asses. 😉

Star Wars III DVD is coming — I still get a kick out of the clip in that commercial of Obi Wan Kenobi yelling in anguish, “You were the Chosen One!!” in the final fight scene with Anakin Skywalker. (and, yeah, Ewan McGregor’s another cutie…)

The passing of Michael Piller, the executive producer of much Star Trek: The Next Generation, (co-creator of) Deep Space Nine, and an exec-producer of Voyager.

President Bush has nominated Judge Sam Allito to replace J. O’Connor. Well, we’ll see. But, when your opposition’s nickname for you is “Scalito” (or “Scalia-Lite”), what are we supposed to say?

Pluto has more moons. Cool. So, if one moon is Charon, what will the others be called? See, I figure like this: Pluto was the god of the underworld; Charon was the man who led the boat down the underworld’s river. There’s the River Styx; Persephone was Pluto’s wife for six months of the year. Or, we could always go with Goofy and Donald or something.

Hmm, interesting story: due to concerns of the extinction of the beluga, beluga caviar is going to be banned. So, I guess you better eat while you can. (well, not like I eat that stuff). But, there’s almost a cost-benefit analysis – give up your luxury to save a species. Eat other kinds of caviar. Or just don’t eat caviar. (okay, so I have no appreciation for it; forgive me).

The story on George Takei, the former Mr. Sulu of Star Trek. Coincidentally, the story comes on the heels of WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes’s story. Society’s going to take some time in dealing with its views of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality and correlations to Hollywood and sports (where men aren’t men unless they’re “men,” and women aren’t women unless they’re “women” … ok, I’m simplifying way too much), plus I’m thinking that the nexus of race, gender, and sexual orientation must be very interesting too. It’s a complicated world, to say the least.

The wonderful world of comics:

“Mary Worth” ended one storyline last week (ending it with Mary’s friend leaving town for a new and more optimistic life, and Mary and her boyfriend, Dr. Jeff, spouting annoying aphorisms, as usual) with a curiously interesting one (okay, so I’m a sucker for the angsty romantic storylines of “Mary Worth” more than that recent storyline of “I lost my adult daughter in a fatal car accident, and I’ll go back to drinking and I can’t function until my long-lost cousin invites me to help him run the family business, but I still haven’t resolved my man-hating problem because my husband left me years ago…”). 😉

Anyway, so this week, Mary’s neighbor, Wilbur Weston, who writes a “Dear Wendy” advice column (he’s pretending to be “Wendy,” but he’s just this pudgy middle aged divorced guy), receives a letter from an unhappily married woman. Unhappily Married Woman needs help, because her workaholic husband doesn’t want to go to marriage counseling. They’ve no kids to tie them down either. In today’s comics, since whatever the couple has tried hasn’t worked, Wilbur’s thinking about advising them to consider the final option of “moving on” (thinking of his previous experience anyway). His college-age daughter Dawn comes home and hears him out. She seems to disagree with him, but ruefully concedes that “You’re the expert on matters of the heart, not me.”

I liked that last panel of the close-up of Dawn and her one liner, since it harkens back to her rather failed romance wherein her sort-of boyfriend, Forrest “Woody” Hills (get it?), had to be sent to the mental illness facility, because he went bonkers after finishing his dissertation (you had to feel bad for her, especially when her relationship with Woody was strangely cute (she drafted him, an eccentric grad student, in her scheme to get her father out of dating a gold-digging woman)).

“Judge Parker” comic strip – This week, Judge Parker’s son, Randy, got dumped by his fiancee, Mimi, due to a differences in religion (or cult or what, I don’t know – Mimi appears to be head of some organization that seems much too much like Scientology or something). For a young lawyer who appears to have some brains, it never occurred to Randy that a flighty blonde girl named “Mimi” might not be someone with whom you’d settle down? (although, it appears that the comic writers are headed in the direction of letting Randy consider the attraction of the firm’s temp secretary, another flighty blonde – who had just been recruited by the… CIA? Geez, Randy.).

In today’s edition, Randy’s boss (or law firm partner?) Sam Driver has just returned from Mexico (having gotten their firm’s office manager Gloria out of corrupt Mexican jail). On the ride home from the airport, he learns that his adopted daughter, high school senior Neddy, got a new boyfriend during her summer in California. Abby, his wife, tells him that Neddy wants them to meet Bob, who’ll be coming to their place (flying in from California) tomorrow. The last panel shows Sam totally stunned – wide eyes and frozen. Geez, Sam, it’s not like Neddy never brought home a boyfriend before (or maybe he’s just stunned that so much was thrown at him so fast). Pity the poor father of two teenagers and a law firm that’s somehow in operations while he was dealing with archeological pilferers in Mexico (not to mention Mexico’s rather corrupt criminal justice system and mindless bailiffs).

Today’s a “Doonesbury” Sunday rerun, (from last year, and I remembered thinking it was funny then too) – Mike Doonesbury’s friend/ex-business partner, Bernie, explains how his nephew, Zig (who hasn’t been seen yet, but sounds like a hilarious kid), has learned how to make outsourcing work for him in his “systems analyst” job:

Bernie: “Every night [Zig] e-mails a day of work to this wicked smart engineer in Bombay. The next morning, the completed work is sitting in his mailbox. [Bernie smiling proudly:] Zig pays the engineer a third of his salary and, is now looking for a second job!”

Mike [stunned]: “Wow… that’s impressive… [Mike glancing at Bernie:] And his boss hasn’t caught on?”

Bernie, deadpanned: “No, every few weeks Zig has the engineer screw up.”

Hehehe. I’d almost say that this trumps the Sunday edition of 10/16/05, wherein young Jeff Redfern of Walden College gets a reminder from his roommate Zipper (yeah, Garry Trudeau’s going to have to start giving his characters original names). Zipper wisely tells Jeff of how Alex Doonesbury (Mike’s daughter who’s going on her college tour and therefore visiting Walden) is Jeff’s half-niece and therefore a no-no for Jeff’s dating purposes (geez, Jeff, you need Zipper to tell you that?!) (Zipper: “Can you date a half-niece? Aren’t there genetic implications? I’d go slow, dude!”).

Enjoying your hour back yet? Daylight savings is done for the rest of the year.

So, the whole big news of the day: Harriet Miers, Supreme Court nominee, withdrew. On the one hand, we could see it coming. She didn’t look like quality; she may be a good lawyer, but she wasn’t the epitome of a nominee. The Right Wingers had to be reassured by the White House’s tack of “She’s a conservative,” but evidentally, not quite (which scared the hell out of the Right Wingers). The Democrats could only stand back, and it means what? No one defended Miers on a substantive sense. And, now she’s out. It felt bad, because this means what, exactly – that we’re going to face a true conservative nominee to placate the Right Wingers? It’s making me nervous, I daresay. I have yet to read the analyses on-line or the newspapers, but it looks like we’re back to the drawing board in terms of watching the White House pick who again. The bright side in this is that at least Sandra Day O’Connor is still in the Court.

The White House is supposed to be busy anyway.

The latest “Doonesbury” continues to be amusing (or sad, if you want to think of it in another way), as J.J. continues to demonstrate how very much out of her teenager’s life she really is. J.J. wants to contribute to helping Alex decide on what college to apply, but didn’t even realize that her daughter is a geek. Alex has been a pioneer in the Internet, with patents and plans to go to a tech-inclined school, which Mike, the dad who supported this in the first place by having gone on-line all those years ago, is fully aware. J.J. didn’t even realize when Alex already took the SAT’s? Geez, J.J. is turning out so much worse than her own mom (Joanie got her act together and got her life in neater terms, with her career as a D.C. lawyer; J.J. probably had no sense to pull herself together).

And, Doonesbury had to pull its storyline for next week, in light of the lack of Harriet Miers hearings. Aww…

The passing of Civil Rights icon, Rosa Parks.

The passing of the NY Giants owner/football industry icon, Wellington Mara. Check out the Associated Press coverage – at least Mara got to enjoy the winning game on Sunday.

The latest Doonesbury storyline: Mike Doonesbury is taking his daughter, Alex, on the college tours. MIT, Cornell, Rensselaer, and… Walden? J.J., Alex’s mom, points out that this isn’t the ideal college. Alex figures it’s her safety school, and she’s a legacy (since Mike is an alumnus and so was, I believe, J.J.’s mom). Understandably, Mike gets outraged with his ex wife’s underwhelming reaction to Alex’s intention to apply to Walden. J.J. points out that even he took Walden off his resume. Mike weakly rebuts with “Well, it was years ago…” Walden, hardly the best college in North America. (ironically, it was originally Yale, since Garry Trudeau was using his alma mater as the home of his characters back when his characters were in a college newspaper).

I watched a bit of “Prison Break” on Monday night – goodness, is the actor Wentworth Miller (as the Prison Break mastermind Michael) a cutie or what? (umm, never mind – but I get all happy when he’s on the screen 😉 ah, well…). Michael’s teenage nephew, L.J., is heading into more serious trouble, as the Evil Secret Service guy is after him (and had killed off L.J.’s mom and stepdad; geez, Michael, do you realize how much deep shit your family’s in because your brother/L.J.’s dad is on Death Row?). Crazy and hard to stomach tv.

It’s officially a Nor’easter tonight. Wilma + Tropical Storm Alpha = a lot of wind and rain.

Medium today was quite good – psychic vs. psychic. When does Patricia Arquette actually have a good dream?

Comedy news is now officially more effective than major news outlets. The embattled NY Times dubbed The Coubert Report (pronounced “Co-bear Ra-por”), a spinoff of The Daily Show, as not “too much of a good thing”. CNN’s Lou Dobbs was Coubert’s guest today. He cited overseas outsourcing and illegal immigration as the country’s biggest problems today. Coubert pointed out that if you outsourced the jobs that the illegal immigrants wanted, you would solve both problems; Dobbs yielded in defeat.

John Hodgman, of Little Grey Book Lecture fame, has put out a bizarre book called The Areas of My Expertise. I like reading the Old Farmer’s Almanac, with its tables of sunrise, sunset, weather forcasts, and random articles of practical knowledge. Here, Hodgman has created an almanac where you have to be always on your guard against what is true, what is entirely fabricated, and what is some persnickity, clever twist that comes out of left field. All of which have very limited practicality, unless you are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a Yale grad, or someone in need of cultural references. “Lycanthropic Transformation Timetables” adorn the beginning of each chapter, in case you were wondering how much time you had to flee before a human would turn into a beast at the sight of the moon. 700 hobo names. Classes of dramatic situations, including “man vs. man”, “man vs. nature”, and “man vs. cyborg”. The combinations of omens and potents that would bring about Ragnarok, aka Swedish Armageddon. You get the idea. Hysterical, if you can deal with a cross between British humour and David Eggers. If not, you will find it insanely bewildering.

In all seriousness, Rosa Parks, who sparked the modern civil rights movement for not sitting in the back of the bus, passed away at 92. For all of us dreamers, you have our thanks.