Malcolm Gladwell and the Freakonomics Guys aren’t the only ones who want to burst a few of your bubbles and shake up your world of assumptions:.
I’ve come into close contact (!) with these 3 books & writers in the past few weeks and thought I’d note their titles here for my book-loving readers:
1) “Quiet” was terrific (and was written by a lawyer), but none of the reviews I’ve read so far have mentioned how funny the author is when she lets her droll sense of humor loose:
In this political campaign season (365 days a year), I hope you have learned not to believe much of what you hear, read, or see online, or on the grapevine, or through a beery haze without first doing some serious fact-checking.
This admonition to fact-check also applies to any rumors about your county law library:
The law library is closing? (Maybe, maybe not.)
Due to state budget cuts affecting county law library staffing levels and related service cuts, the Oregon Legal Research Blog will cease regular publication until further notice.
There is still a lot of useful legal research content on the blog. Use the search button or click on one of the subject labels (aka tags).
If you are interested in guest blogging, please contact the Washington County Oregon Law Library at lawlibrary@co.washington.or.us
Permanent and temporary law librarian positions with U.S. Court Libraries in Portland, Seattle, and Pasadena.
For more information, link to the Ninth Circuit Library System’s employment page.
I was working on a blog post featuring studies that show the flow of tax dollars from taxpayers, to federal general funds pools, and then back to the states (and then presumably back to taxpayers), when I ran across a blogger’s instructions to readers who Comment. The instructions are worth quoting, and worth reading.
From Barry Ritholtz at Think Tank (scroll down to the post’s Comments section to see these instructions):
“Comments
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.” [Link to blog post and instructions to Comment writers.]
Yes, it’s Oregon Birthday, but we’re going to focus on lawyer love, instead. Sad, I know, and perhaps ultimately futile, but one must try.
We will start with the “The Restatement of Love,” which was published in the Yale Law Journal (full cite: 104 Yale L.J. 707 (1994)). (If you can’t find a copy online, check with local library databases or email us here at Oregon Legal Research Central.)
Next, let’s laugh at the language of the legal profession – and if you’re not having enough laughter in your job then it’s time to rethink your career choice.
Here is a Time Change grid for those who plan ahead.
Yes, Charles Dickens was very hard on lawyers, but he also had at least one lawyer hero (albeit a rather reluctant one, but definitely endearing rather than greedy or diabolical) and maybe more than one.
My favorite Dickens novel, “Our Mutual Friend,” has a nice-guy lawyer hero – 2 in fact – and as fabulous an array of characters as you’ll find in any Dickens’ writing.
A former Speaker of the House is addressed, and referred to as, Mr. x, not Speaker x. The current President of the United States is addressed, and referred to as, President, not Mr. x.
Do not assume other public officials, candidates for public office, radio or TV news hosts, newspaper reporters, or others know correct forms of address. Look it up yourself. It’s fun!
You will find authority for these pronouncements in any number of respected forms of address manuals, e.g. to name only two:
If U.S. Supreme Court Justices can rise above their Green Bag bobblehead replicas, and state court judges survive becoming piñatas, then surely the Department of Homeland Security can survive Justice Bedsworth’s forked tongue (and the Peter Principle)?
“Weaponized Snow Cones,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth, A Criminal Waste of Space, February 2012:
“I am not cut out to be an administrator. I have neither talent for, nor interest in, things administrative.
Oregon Legal Research Blog