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The O(range) C(ounty) Bar Association monthly OC Lawyer Magazine, once again brings us Justice Bedsworth so brace yourself for a laugh and an education:

“Bunting for Boilerplate,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth

Excerpt: “My late father was not a sports fan. He was whatever the opposite of a sports fan is. He used to say, “I hate sports the way people who love sports hate common sense.”
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But I was a mama’s boy, and Mom loved sports. She took me to the Little League tryouts, played catch with me in the front yard, and went to hockey games with me well into her eighties.
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So when I tell you this column is about sports contracts, at least you know I recognize the subject matter does not guarantee that it will be interesting. I may or may not be able to make it interesting, but it won’t be for lack of understanding that sports talk does not automatically light up your PET scan.
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But that’s not my complaint today…..

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Civil disobedience, and its close cousin, civil resistance, has existed for centuries, maybe longer. The recent Gene Sharp article in the New York Times (2/17/11) had a long list of related links for further research, including a link to his Albert Einstein Institution and his e-book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy.”

We all know the most visible of the nineteenth and twentieth century peace-makers, Thoreau, Gandhi, King, but there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of others, some of whom have won Nobel Peace Prizes (as Gene Sharp may very well do next year) and most who have not.

Clarence Jones, lawyer to Martin Luther King, wrote his own book recently about a peacemaker and it is a wonderful read. It is a deeply moving account of a missing piece of our recent history: “Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation.”

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I was able to answer a reference question the other day with a Jack Ohman cartoon – the one about redistricting in Sunday’s (2/6/11) Oregonian – very funny. The patron was pleased.

I’m not the only law librarian who says that “reference” duty is the best job in a library. It also helps if you read widely, including political cartoons. (I grew up, so to speak, with Herblock and it’s nice now to be in Jack Ohman territory (Oregonian-home).

Political cartoonists are amazing people – political, literary, artistic, comedic, disquieting, and not infrequently sources of reference information.

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The Classroom Law Project has loads of fun volunteer opportunities, some of which are for a few hours, a day, or every week or month.

Check the Classroom Law Project website for more information or telephone them: (503) 224-4424

You can sign-up right now to volunteer at the 2011 Mock Trial Competition.

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I couldn’t resist this: “That’s one big book: Book is 2-feet thick, has 10,119 pages,” by Stephanie Wise, Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 27, 2011

Excerpt: “The University of Iowa Libraries has a new book in its collection — a 100-volume, 10,000-page, 2-feet-thick book of poetry.

The book, “Poetry City Marathon,” written by Iowa City poet Dave Morice of Dr. Alphabet fame, is the culmination of a 100-day poetry marathon this summer….” (Link to full article – or use a search engine if the link doesn’t work anymore.)

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Gale Cengage is running a contest: Are You a Librarian Superhero?

Your librarian can turn into a cartoon, which to some might not sound like such a good deal, but to many librarians, We Love It!

You can read the Contest Rules and the Press Release for more information.

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Be prepared to be mesmerized: there are lessons aplenty for us all in the tale of Jon Alexander (Californian and Oregonian) as told by Justice Bedsworth:

The February 2011 Orange County Lawyer brings us:

Getting Up, by Justice William W. Bedsworth

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While searching for recent 2011 Oregon bills, I found a glitch in their search engine. The bill I knew existed wasn’t showing up, no matter what word or number I used to search for it. I double-checked (against the actual bill) and triple-checked by asking colleagues to see if the problem was me rather than the database. It wasn’t me.

The lesson here is: Be careful about relying solely on the Oregon Legislative bill searching utility, Ultraseek. (You can also reach this search engine from the Legislature’s website. Then, click on Bills/Law, and then click on the year you want to search – and then “Search the bills and laws.”)

Keep in mind also that Ultraseek is not an exception to any search engine reliability rule – and it’s actually not too bad as these sorts of free search engines go. The problem exists for all search engines (and databases); they are all flawed (e.g. Google isn’t perfect either –aren’t you shocked, shocked?!)

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Law and the Multiverse: Superheroes, supervillains, and the law is a fun, new blog dealing with theoretical legal issues in relation to superheroes and comic books. The authors, licensed attorneys, apply existent laws to fantastic situations. For example, recent posts include “Supers and Social Secutiry,” “Costumes and the Confrontation Clause,” and “Supers and the Eighth Amendment.”

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While playing around with our newly installed OSB BarBooks database and came across this mysterious Boolean search: variable: 4 and weights:7

While waiting for the answer to reveal itself, I went off to catch up with my law library blogs and ran across this excellent research tip post at the KCCLL (King County Law Library) Klues blog:

“Cheat sheet” comparing Lexis and Westlaw search syntax Research Tips

It links to:

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