JUNE 13, 2019 – Back in the day, we who are of a respectable vintage communicated by voice in two ways: in person or by telephone with a combination receiver/microphone attached by a cord to the telephone itself, which was hard-wired to the outside world. We corresponded primarily by one of three methods: a letter …
AMERICA IN A NUTSHELL (PART II OF II)
JUNE 12, 2019 – The flag-waver talked on. “Muslims shouldn’t be allowed into this country either,” he told me. “How many Muslims do you know personally?” I asked. “I know what they stand for.” “No, my question was how many do you know personally.” “I know what they want to do to this country.” “But …
AMERICA IN A NUTSHELL (PART I OF II)
JUNE 11, 2019 – Yesterday on my way to work I had two contrasting, back-to-back encounters. I’ll report them objectively, using as few adjectives and adverbs as possible, except to enhance visualization. I want the reader to be self-directed as far as conclusions are concerned. PART I – CAP AND FLAG When I crossed Third …
THE CIVILIZED MAN AND THE UNCIVIL WAR
JUNE 10, 2019 – Recently I watched Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentary, The Civil War—the ultimate oxymoron. I’d read and studied much about that seismic event, and I’d been riveted to the first showing of the aforesaid documentary nearly three decades ago. But this time around, the Civil War looks more tragic, more cataclysmic, more baffling …
CHANNELING DAD
JUNE 9, 2019 – Though Dad died over nine years ago, I still think a lot about him—what he would think, what he would have to say about one thing or another. I’m especially aware of him when I’m up at the lake, walking the woods, observing nature or . . . working on some …
RATS AND RACE AS CONCEPT
JUNE 8, 2019 – After a week in the rat race, we’re now enjoying the quietude of the northwoods. Here one notices the subtleties of nature and learns to appreciate the grander scheme of things. After dinner I slipped the kayak into the waters and paddled fast straight out until I was safely beyond the …
DOOM, GLOOM . . . AND HOPE
JUNE 7, 2019 – If we don’t materially alter our course now, big portions of the world’s 7.7 billion people will find themselves in areas so environmentally compromised as to be uninhabitable. Mass migrations will increase, threatening existing political and economic structures around the world. Consider, for example, rising average temperatures in most of India …
“HOWE” LIFE COMES FULL CIRCLE
JUNE 6, 2019 – For eighth grade English I had Mr. Howe, the wrestling coach. Reliable sources reported that he was an excellent coach. I could attest that he was a superb teacher. When he included the lyrics to The Sounds of Silence in our poetry unit, he became everyone’s favorite teacher. He was soft-spoken, and …
CIRCUS BUS
JUNE 5, 2019 – One day at Franklin Elementary, where I was a third-grader, the teachers handed out flyers for the Shrine Circus. If you wanted to go, all you had to do was have your parents fill out the form at the bottom of the flyer and pay the dollar to cover the ticket …
THE CURMUDGEON . . . AND THE LETTER
JUNE 4, 2019 – Yesterday I yelled at four people—two by phone, two in person. I don’t mean “yell” yelled, but I was pretty steamed. In each case of “yelling,” two thoughts occurred to me: 1. I’m becoming a curmudgeon; and 2. The targeted person was probably less than half my age. (That would mean born …
(ENVIRONMENTAL) TALK IS CHEAP
JUNE 3, 2019 – This past weekend at the cabin we entertained our three-and-a-half-year old granddaughter; or rather, she entertained us. It was her first visit of the season, and she had a blast—nature walks, rides in the kayak, watering the gardens, playing in the sandbox, picking wild flowers, throwing stones into the lake, drawing …
“IS YOUR CLIENT FAMILIAR WITH THE POETRY OF WALLACE STEVENS?” [PART III]
JUNE 2, 2019 – I immediately called my client at home in southern France. He’d been expecting me to call after the hearing. “How’d it go? Did we . . .” “Can you hear me?” I said, repeatedly. Bad connection. I tried ringing again but the call wouldn’t go through. To improve the signal, I …
“IS YOUR CLIENT FAMILIAR WITH THE POETRY OF WALLACE STEVENS?” [PART II]
JUNE 1, 2019 – Once we’d settled in, the judge took his seat behind his commanding desk and asked us one by one to identify ourselves and our clients—none of whom was present. My guy was the only individual party in the case. The other parties were giant corporations, and I’d wanted to position my …
“IS YOUR CLIENT FAMILIAR WITH THE POETRY OF WALLACE STEVENS?” [PART I]
MAY 31, 2019 – The case revolved around an arcane issue, and the resulting briefs were sufficiently dense to put any judge fast asleep. They had been a laborious undertaking for all of us lawyers involved—briefs in support of cross-motions for “summary judgment.” When the time for the hearing arrived—9:00 on a Monday morning in …
MULLING MUELLER
MAY 30, 2019 – [NOTE TO READERS: The poetry of Wallace Stevens will have to wait (see yesterday’s post).] – After Robert Mueller’s appearance yesterday, I read Volume II of his Report. Volume II addresses the question of the president’s obstruction of justice. The Report is an exemplary piece of rigorous legal writing, but you …
THE “OPEN AND SHUT” CASE
MAY 29, 2019 – Occasionally a client wants me to sue the pants off someone. The client is as indignant as can be over a business deal gone bad. The opposing side, he says, is dumb, lying and crazy. The client is so worked up s/he starts in the middle of the story, then travels …
MR. [CABIN] SCIENCE
MAY 28, 2019 – This past weekend, my wife and I worked from dawn to dusk getting our cabin and grounds prepared for our younger son’s wedding late in August. In rain and shine we worked. En route home, I came up with this multiple choice test: Ultimately, what is ownership of a lake cabin? …
“[JASCHA] WHO?”
MAY 27, 2019 – I come from a family of violinists. Grandpa Nilsson (1891 – 1973) started it all. In Minneapolis in the early 1900s, he played in the pit for silent movies. Later, he established a music school, and at its zenith, he had over 60 weekly violin students. Later still, along came my …
THE NOT SO MIGHTY DUCKS
MAY 26, 2019 – I grew up in Minnesota in the ’60s, which means I grew up on ice skates. Though I never played organized hockey, I attended a small college where in the ’70s hockey was by far the biggest sport. By the team roster, you could tell which states (and Canadian provinces) had …
SURPRISE!
MAY 24, 2019 – The recent flooding in mid-America reminds me of the time when floodwaters inundated my family’s neighborhood. We lived across the street from the Mississippi in Anoka, Minnesota. In March ’65 (I was in fifth grade), the river rose to threaten many homes along our street. One Saturday morning the doorbell rang …
“. . . YOU RICH SON OF A BITCH!”
MAY 24, 2019 – One day my dad came home from work and told a funny second-hand story, which means I’m making it third-hand. But if you read The Art of the Detail on this site (May 22), you’d know that Dad was a man of precision. I’m sure that in relating the story to …
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
MAY 23, 2019 – Every so often I play a kind of amusing thought experiment that also sharpens the powers of observation. It goes like this . . . I decide on a person from some age a long time ago. Sometimes it’s a relative—a great, great grandparent, for example; or a famous person about …
THE ART OF THE DETAIL
MAY 22, 2019 – Attention to detail can be critical. Observing a “No Left Turns” sign can avoid a head-on crash on a one-way street. Describing a parcel of real estate as “Lot 1, Block 2” instead of “Lot 2, Block 1” can prevent a legal malpractice case. Returning the pliers to its designated drawer …
PREJUDGED
MAY 21, 2019 – Prejudice—I’m as guilty of it as is the next person. One of my best examples occurred aboard an overnight train from Lyon to Paris. The train had originated in Rome and pulled into Lyon well past midnight. My reservation was for a second-class compartment already occupied by three other men about …
SCALING THE MOUNTAIN
MAY 20, 2019 – I don’t know of a single accomplished string player, however gifted or endowed with genius, who didn’t practice. Hard. Just as every NBA star has practiced 10,000 free throws, so has every string star practiced 10,000 scales. Jascha Heifetz, among the most extraordinary violinists ever, once quipped that if he were …