The very first time

I suspect that everyone has nostalgia accompanying memories of their first _____: first date, first kiss, first start on the varsity squad. Every subsequent instance is unable to measure up to that initial thrill, even if it could somehow be measured and shown to be objectively better. Right now I wish I could relive the first time I put in contact lenses. After wearing glasses for years, I had thought that good vision was good vision, and the only switch would be not having the clunky frames on my face. But now even my peripheral vision crackled with a clarity that glasses could never have provided. I no longer had to look directly at the floor for it to be anything other than an eternally fuzzy carpet of varying hues. I sometimes get a glimpse of that experience if I go without contacts for a few days or a week, just long enough for my brain to forget. Maybe one day I'll find a special pair that will make me feel like it's the first time all over again. Some day.

I'm sorry, but...

There is an amusing farce acted out in any number of communities and social situations. Actually, there may be many, but the one I have in mind right now is the fiction that anyone is actually good at remembering other peoples' names. It is a nice social save to claim "I'm sorry, I'm terrible with names," and I admit to using it myself almost daily, it seems. With the number of people who claim this, though, it makes me wonder where all these hypothetical people are who must be good at remembering names. I, for one, cannot remember meeting anyone with this skill, and if I have, I probably have forgotten their name, anyways.

Nerdy Lawyer/Economist Joke

Kraus: "Thank God for repudiation. It's a public good for lawyers."

A Glib Cynic Poll

I am uncertain as to which kind of lawyer I'm more bothered by: activists (of any stripe) or personal injury. I'm also not sure if the "With whom would I least prefer to be seated at a dinner party?" test is the correct one to apply here. Thoughts?

Enter Procrastination, Stage Left

Procrastination, unfailing herald of Exam Season. As my spotty blog history might suggest, Exam Season is roughly coterminous with a desperate desire to do anything but study. Poor is the mind that cannot come up with something more interesting than outlining, and law school doesn't usually attract the mental slouches. Today, though I was able to come close to finishing a Con Law outline and to make inroads on one for Contracts II: Contract Harder, in the meantime I found myself researching the history of aircraft carriers. And no, I am not taking Admiralty.

This afternoon when preparing to heat up some Campbell's soup for lunch, I experienced a revolt of the stomach (or taste buds), demanding immediate cheap Chinese food. I obliged by making my way to Taiwan Garden on Ivy. Total hole in the wall (完全漏洞在墙壁里). The food was tasty and a good value but nothing to wax poetic on. The lunch special was $4.50 and included a lunch entree (Amazing Chicken; their words, not mine), fried rice, egg roll, and soft drink. The egg roll was actually quite good and the rice - well, it's hard to mess up rice - but the sauce on the Amazing Chicken didn't really grab me. B+ (on the law school curve)

Thoughts from my Notes

I'll update this as I make my way through typing up my notes (some of the faculty quotations made it into the Law Weekly, so apologies for any repeats):

• Whenever a professor says "Good question" she usually means the opposite.
• --
  
• Student: "There’s a difference between wine and pot."
  Mitchell: "Of course there is! One is legal and one should be legal!"
• --
• Goluboff: "It has been argued that polygamy is actually good for women...I could use another wife [around the house]."
• --
• Kitch: "So what kinds of animals did they leave off?"
• Student: "Amphibians."
• Kitch: "Oh yes. Dolphins!"
• --
• Student 1: [says something stupid in class]
• Student 2: "It's okay, it's Monday."
• The next day -
  
• Student 2: [says something stupid in class]
• Student 1: "It's okay, it's Tuesday."
• --
• Kraus: "What does the writing say?"
• Student: "It says what it says."
• Kraus: "That's keeping your truth-telling percentage up."
  
  

Law School Term of the Day - eleemosynary

eleemosynary
adj.

1. Of or for charity; charitable; as, "an eleemosynary institution."
2. Given in charity; having the nature of alms; as, "eleemosynary assistance."
3. Supported by or dependent on charity; as, "the eleemosynary poor."

"That an expert testifies for money does not necessarily cast doubt on the reliability of his testimony, as few experts appear in court merely as an eleemosynary gesture." Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 43 F.3d 1311 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 869 (1995).