H&P 2005

 
 

"Lay down your Law books, now they're no d*** good"

Scott Turow's newest book, Ordinary Heroes, is not a book about lawyers in the sense his previous novels were. The protagonist is a JAG lawyer during WWII, but that is completely secondary. He gets drawn into combat including the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. I thought the story was very good, Turow always writes well, and this novel seems Hemingwayesque to me, a "Man at War" kind of atmosphere.

Annals of in -state Rivalries

Leave it to City Hall ...

 
 

Beachy sidewalk

 
When we were at the beach, we saw some herringbone sidewalk and decided that was what we wanted in front of our house. Still a bit rough. 

Trick or Treat

 
 

Good game

Annals of Books: Catching up on the reading list

Each time I try to post this my computer crashes.
Best book lately is Tyrannosaur Canyon by Preston.
The Traveler by Hawks was ok, as I finished it thinking it needed a sequel, I read the back jacket that it is part one of three.
The March by Doctorow was ok, about Sherman's March (the activity not the month) through the South, with a stop in Columbia to watch the Gamecocks play.
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of Warfare is a nonfiction that I enjoyed.
I have been meaning to read Freakonomics and The World is Flat, but they are packed in a box somewhere due to the renovation of our book room.
I have a promising new (to me) author named Steve Alten, he writes technothrillers like Preston and Childs.

New Seagrove living room 

The British are coming 

Sunset from Cape Cod, taken by Morgan. Actually saw the Green Flash a few seconds later. 

A rainbow dot, over Brewster, Cape Cod 

wink 

Pop Pop, Granny and grandkids at Cape Cod 

Annals of Law: Stupid Things the IRS does

In the wake of all of the corporate scandals lately, the Government has instituted new rules, regulations, and no doubt a bunch of committees. Something that boggles my mind is known as Circular 230.

In practical part (the only part I understand) this requires some lawyers to put a footer on every single dad blamed email they send out, in substantially this form:

"IRS CIRCULAR 230 Disclosure: Under U.S. Treasury regulations, we are required to inform you that any tax advice contained in this e-mail or any attachment hereto is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid penalties imposed under the Internal Revenue Code."

Note that this is on every email, including lunch invitations and Final Four Office Pools, etc. What good does this do for society?

Do you mean to tell me that if a lawyer advises me how to set up an offshore corporation, or if I am the CEO of Enron and I want to post dummy losses and get tax advice about it, putting a footer on the email makes it all better? That's completely insane. That's as silly as "expert driver on closed course, do not try this at home."

The only good email footer I have seen is from a lawyer I know, his has an unintended grammatical error. Reading it, the footer plainly directs any reader to delete and destroy the email without reading it. Like looking into a hall of mirrors? Whoa man!

I saw the movie

With the kids Friday night (Mrs was late getting back from out of town). It was pretty good, a bit intense for MEB (MHB spent part of the time watching her to make sure she was not "sad.") Pretty good Star Wars movie.

Although George Lucas is a genius about many things, I am skeptical about his storytelling. How hard is it to foreshadow when you start at the end? I also do not believe he had it all planned out, I think he made things up as he went along. Especially after the first movie. Therefore some of the later movies boxed him in.

Examples: Why did Obi-wan say "you must learn from Yoda, the jedi master who trained me." How did Darth Vader ever figure out Luke was his son? If it is just feeling the Force as MHB guesses (probably correctly) then why when he was faced with Leia in the interrogation scene, did he not note the force was strong with her, etc? Also, Vader and Leia appeared to be acquainted in Episode IV. Why hide Luke on Tatooine, Vader's home planet, with people he knows? Why, when flying over Tatooine in IV, did Vader not note in some way that this was his home planet? And why wipe C3POs memory and not R2D2s?

Still, I liked the movie. Lots of action, and the bad dialogue scenes were mercifully short and to the point.

A very cool website

Is the Baby Name Voyager. You enter a name, and you see how popular, or not, it has been over the years. Try it. http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

The best book I have read in a while

Is Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom, by A.L. Haskett (that's a good name for an author, isn't it?).
I found the book because it is recommended by Christopher Moore. Interestingly, it is out of print, having come out in 2000, but there are plenty of copies available on Amazon. This is one of those books that makes you laugh about every page, but the characters are interesting and the story is very good. It has a double ending that I really liked, I was surprised how good it is. Basically a tale of a young artist who leaves Wyoming for Los Angeles, with his full blooded Indian companion more or less tagging along after him. Once in LA, he meets the locals who are mostly bikers, strippers and art dealers. Is that redundant? I'm tired of typing and won't issue any spoilers, but this is a really great book. The author emailed me back (which I really appreciated) that he has another book in the works.

The hills are alive ...

My two current projects are learning to play the mandolin, and brushing up on my spanish. I have a case with a spanish speaking plaintiff, and the interpreters are driving me crazy. The plaintiff and other witnesses go blah blah for 30 seconds, then the interpreter leans back and says "...no." So I have a tape to listen to in the car.

The mandolin will take more time and starts more from scratch. I got a cheap one online, some books, tapes and videos, and am hacking along. The Mrs hates it so I have to practice out of her earshot. Of course, I will be great by the time Cape Cod rolls around.


The KM140 A-model Mando

Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The reviews on the back jacket of this book are too good to believe, coming from such good authors as Neil Gaiman, and another reviewer uses the "T" word (Tolkien) to describe this novel.

First time English author Susannah Clarke does a nice job with this story of two English magicians who vy for the public attention and to bring back English Magic in a highly historical fictional early 1800s. The humor and the sketching of the society is pretty good, and the story is very interesting for most of the book. The history is a little thickly laid on, though, with numerous footnotes to the fictional history, and even one that makes the reader go back four chapters to find out what a word means.

I liked this book (it is HUGE) but the ending seemed kind of flat. It possibly leaves room for a sequel.