Reflections on a week past.

I look forward to the week ahead because it isn’t as full as the previous one. I have a birthday Tuesday, but this one doesn’t feel as good as last year’s. Last year I was preparing to go to Baltimore, but this year I have no such plans. Perhaps next year. We are headed to Milwaukee next month, a trip that we missed last year so it isn’t as if Karla and I won’t have a vacation this summer. We have a trial to finish first and then it is out to Milwaukee, the land of lakes, concerts, beer, bratwurst and most importantly, Austins. A week in Milwaukee is as good as two weeks almost anywhere else. Karla and I come back bloated, hung-over, tired and full of memories and smiles which last us until the end of the year. Good people those Austins.

I haven’t had as much time as I like to keep up with the news this week as it is almost always entertaining. I have watched with some interest this swine flu business and I marvel at both the panic that folks can whip themselves into and the importance the executive branch thinks it has in these matters. The media thought that Joe Biden’s comments about staying home during the swine flu “pandemic” would turn us into a nation of shut ins. They shouldn’t have worried, I don’t think anyone listens to Joe Biden very much. I think he needs to go to Dick Cheney’s “undisclosed location” and wait it out there, far away from the news cameras that he loves to make a fool of himself in front of. I did find it amusing that President Obama tried to explain the economic crisis to each of us as if we were the intelligent populace that we strive to be, then treated us as first graders minutes later when he told us, with all manner of seriousness, that to prevent the spread of disease, we should cover our mouths when we cough and wash our hands a lot. Good advice Mr. President. My first grade teacher Ms. Taylor would be so proud.

I’ve been kind of down this week because in the midst of the insanity, David Poole, a man I admired and respected, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 50. David covered NASCAR for the Charlotte Observer for twenty years and also hosted a NASCAR call in show on Sirius Satellite Radio. I listened every morning and was informed and entertained without fail. He and I would correspond by email on occasion and had some pretty spirited exchanges about NASCAR rules, the history of the sport and the economic viability of its future. He was a historian at heart and wrote a fantastic book about the late Tim Richmond. I enjoyed corresponding with him, listening to his opinions and laughing like hell at his outlook on life. The morning drive will never be the same and my email box will always be a little less full.

I had the pleasure of speaking to a few University students this week about the law and lawyering on Thursday. It wasn’t as much a speech as it was a discussion. I went out and told them who I was and what I did for a living and gave them a few war stories and then opened the floor up to questions. I was surprised to receive questions at such a rapid pace and in such a quantity that there wasn’t time to answer them all. As I listened to their questions, it was very easy to see myself in those chairs. They are now right where I was fifteen years ago. Full of optimism, excitement and terror at what I thought lay ahead. I explained that ours is a stressful profession and that the dull and earnest ones die young. I told them that they should laugh everyday, even if they don’t feel it appropriate. I told them to know the law without error, have impeccable ethics and be a ham, at all costs. I told them to be the jokesters in a world of straight men and women and most importantly, be remembered.

Finally, I heard late Thursday that Justice Souter will retire this summer from the United States Supreme Court. I have enjoyed his theory of jurisprudence over the years, even more so in the past five. He is not a majority writer as much as a Ginsberg or Scalia, but has a mind that I admire. I guess we’ll get to see President Obama’s theory of Legal Pragmatism much earlier on the Supreme Court than any of us expected. I will be interested to watch how a “result oriented” nominee will interact with a majority of theorists. I think Justice Scalia is already popping Tums.

I hope that all of you have a pleasant and productive week and have a chance to drink a few of your favorite Mexican Beers on Cinco De Mayo.


Take care, be well and do good work.


Trialdawg.

Dark, Rainy Mornings Inspire Dark Prose

I've spent the morning writing a short story that was totally unexpected. I can’t explain what happened, but every time I thought I was at an end, I wrote another paragraph. I started at “I was preoccupied with death at ten. I shot a rabbit in my grandmother’s backyard. The shot only wounded him. Although his eyes were exactly the same as moments before, I noticed a thin, white border around his chocolate brown iris that betrayed the calm of his wounded body. When I killed him, his eyes died before his body and he seemed at peace. I wounded him because I wanted to know what it was like to kill something. I killed him to end his suffering. The wounding sickened me, the killing empowered me. I’ve spent the rest of my life in pursuit of reconciliation.”

I developed those opening lines into the darkest and most extraordinary story I’ve ever written.

I've made no secret that I've worked steadily on a book for months now. The process has been fun because I can pretend to be an evil, sadistic bastard without actually becoming one.

Stay tuned.

Trialdawg.