f/k/a‘s cracked investigator, sleuthEsq (try saying that
three times after a few mimosas), was a little late filing
his first Sunday Brunch Potluck report. Here are the
highlights, in time for dinner:
In an attempt to brief Pres. Bush on the planned May 1st
work stoppage and demonstrations by supporters of the
American immigrant community, new White House Press
Secretary Tony Snow is rumored to have played the DVD
version of “a day without a mexican” (2004) for G.W. Also
available in Spanish, as “Un Dia sin Mexicanos,” and directed
by Sergio Arau, the film was broadly panned (with a 30 out of
100 score at metacritic.com). But, the scenario is surely one
that will help enlighten our Decider-in-Chief. As IMBD notes
in describing a day without a mexican:
Tagline: On May 14 there will be no Mexicans in
California.Plot Outline: One day California wakes up and not
a single Latino is left in the state. They have all inex-
plicably dissappeared, chaos, tragedy, and comedy
quickly ensue. (view trailer)
Sure, immigration is a very complex subject (see, e.g. Washinton Post,
“Immigration’s Bottom Line, April 30, 2006; “Hispanic Media Split on
May 1 Boycott,” New America Media, April 24, 2006), and one movie
might not do the topic justice. Nonetheless, the film’s weaknesses
might be just what our White House is looking for:
important questions of why the situation continues. It’s satisfied
to point out an injustice without going any deeper, satisfied to
remain infotainment, distributing some facts amid the laughs that
may make a few people ponder but won’t necessarily ruffle any
feathers.“Perhaps it is the filmmakers’ intent to make that one bold statement
¦#x2014; “Notice us! Appreciate us!” ¦#x2014; and then move on. There is some-
thing to be said about keeping a politically charged message simple,
but it also feels safe and geared to maximize the box office.”
Kevin Crust, L.A. Times, May 14, 2004
conceived for Mexican television and padded out to three times
its half-hour storyline. Its narrative conceit will entertain for a
while, but eventually you will long to disappear with the rest
of the Mexicans.”
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle, Sept. 24, 2004
On a related topic, the ever-practical folk at Not One Damn Dime, sent me (and
thousands of others, of course) an email today declaring their support for tomorrow’s
“Great American Boycott.” With their usual perceptive grasp of economics and
politics they declare:
If the anti-immigrant politicians and hatemongers are right, that ‘immigrants
are a drain on society,’ then during the day on May 1st, the stock market
will surge, and the economy will boom. If not, we prove them wrong once
and for all. We know what will happen!
With their usual fine sense of what is politically doable (and morally correct) they
assert: “We will settle for nothing less than full amnesty and dignity for the millions of
undocumented workers presently in the U.S. ” The f/ka Gang confesses: NODD has
a big mountain to climb, after their first Not One Damn Dime Day silliness — before we
will be able to take them seriously. [see our prior post]
“HurricaneG”
If Washington Post readers had been visiting the RiskProf weblog of Prof.
Martin Grace regularly, they would have been way ahead of the learning
curve this morning, when trying to digest “Insurers Retreat From Coasts:
Katrina Losses May Force More Costs on Taxpayers,” by Spencer S.
Hsu (April 30, 2006).
RiskProf Martin Grace “prof grace”
Although the WaPo article — which reports that many insurers
are refusing to write homeowner’s insurance in high-risk areas —
is quite informative, we suggest “More Consumer Disadvocacy”
and RiskProf‘s entire Hurricanes page, for those who want to
understand the economics and politics of the insurance game
(and impress their friends at cocktail parties). update (May 2,
2006): RiskProf has added “More on Consumer Disadvocay”
May 1, 2006).
The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law
Evan Schaeffer had high praise this week for a book by (p/i defense)
lawyer Mark Herrmann — The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law
(ABA Press, release fairly imminent 2006). We were intrigued by a
book that promised to be curmudgeonly, witty and informative about
the art and science of practicing law, and which Herrmann claims:
“became an instant cult classic among law students and law
firm associates. It is among ABA Publishing’s fastest-selling
books of all time.” (emphasis added)
You can only imagine, therefore, the let down, when we discovered
on the ABA webpage for CGPL that “This product is not yet available, but
can be pre-ordered.“ Also, the “where to buy” button at Herrman’s law firm,
Jones Day, links only to the ABA page. When queried, Evan suggested,
that there must be other “channels of distribution” and lots of pre-orders.
However, PriceGrabber states that the only source is Amazon.com, and
Amazon.com says “This item has not yet been released,” while noting
a “September 30, 2006” publication date.
Are we being too curmudgeonly to ask how a book that has not yet
reached more than a handful of readers/reviewers could be called “an
instant classic.” Doth pre-orders a classic make? More like “imminent
classic,” don’t you think”? It is a strange bit of puffery — and sounds like
lawyer hyperbole, to me. Of course, that should be a topic covered in some
detail in Herrmann’s book.
afterthought (May 2, 2006): Prof. Yabut left Your Editor a note
last night saying: please check out Meaning #6 in the American
Heritage Dictionary (4th Ed. 2000) for the word “cult.” Okay. Now,
I understand: The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law is already
an “instant classic” among:
“6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric,
usually artistic or intellectual interest.
The f/k/a Gang swears that the above blurb is in
no way sour grapes for the fact that Curmudgeon’s Guide has
snuck ahead of this weblog in the Google results for the query
update (May 2, 2006): Mark Herrmann saw the discussion at Evan’s Illinois
Trial Practice Weblog and this site, and sent Evan an email, which resulted
in the following update by Evan:
An update: I received the following email from Mark Herrmann on 5/2/06–
I saw the exchange on the blogs about the release date of The
Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law.
I’ve contacted ABA Publishing, and the publisher has now fixed
the website to indicate that the book is in fact available and being
shipped.
The pre-orders alone, however, had been enough to move the book
to the ABA Web Store’s “Best Sellers” list, so, not surprisingly, I
side with you in the bloggers debate.
Almost makes a guy want to come out of retirement and do a little cross-examin-
ation. The numbers intrigue me [e.g., what does it take to get on the ABA
“Best Seller’s List”? How many law students are coming across with the $34.95
to join the Curmudgeon cult?] And the definitions, too. Of course, since we don’t
use emoticons around here, we don’t know whether Mark realizes that — in addition
to giving his book some good publicity, Yabut-style — this blurb is one curmudgeon
pulling another’s leg. Mostly.
Thanks to Language Log‘s astute and amiable Mark Liberman for answering
our lamenting query from Friday: Why do so many news broadcasters…
end their show by saying “we’ll see you here tomorrow”? In “Out-of-time, out-of-
body seeing and hearing” (April 30, 2006,) Mark harkens back to the homey-
interactive, un-canned, feeling created on radio by the late Hank Williams, in
his Health & Happiness Shows, Mark notes that Williams ended with:
If the Good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise, we’ll be sure
to hear from you again”. That’s pretty much the radio version of the
inverted meaning in TV closings like “We’ll see you here tomorrow.”
Mark continues: “It’s clear enough, I think, why Hank said “we’ll be sure to hear
from you again” and not “you’ll be sure to hear from us again”. In the first place,
he’s making a promise for himself and his band — it would be strange and even
rude for him to try to commit the listener to tuning in again. He could have promised
that “we’ll be sure to play for you again”, but that would highlight the very thing he
wants to overcome, the one-way, non-interactive nature of the medium. He’s trying
to make listeners feel that he’s right there with them, taking in their requests and
their reactions as if he were playing a live roadhouse gig rather than a canned radio
show.”
I’m always fascinated by the way two (giving myself the benefit of the doubt)
mentally competent speakers of the same langague can come away with very
different interpretations of the same words. For example, for me, “we’ll be sure
to hear from you again,” sounds exactly like Hank is rudely trying — in Mark’s
words — “to commit the listener to tuning in again.”
Mark ends with:
Hank chose an image that emphasized the empathy he wanted to feel,
and if he strayed a bit beyond the strict bounds of logic, surely an
author of “one-breath poetry” can forgive him.
To me, by skewing the meaning of the words, instead of saying something factually
true that invited the listener to come back, Hank — and I’m a fan of his music — is
manipulating the feelings of the listener and making our language a bit less useful
as a tool of communication. Surely, if Hank tried his “But, I’ve been here with you
all night” baloney with a sweetheart, from out of town, she’d call his bluff. And maybe
sing “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
I really do enjoy the virtual conversations with Prof. Liberman, but I have to make a
dissent from his last clause: “if [Hank] strayed a bit beyond the strict bounds of logic,
surely an author of “one-breath poetry” can forgive him.” Mark needs to read the
page he has pointed to (“is it or ain’t it haiku?”). Haiku is all about saying what your
physical senses are perceiving — what you actually see, hear, taste, touch, smell.
If done right, haiku is not a poetic genre that uses artifices and imagination to achieve
its results.
Speaking of haiku and late-breaking news, the latest edition
of Roadrunner Haiku Journal (Issue VI: 2, May 6, 2006) hit the internet
today. As usual, it has three haiku each from more than a dozen
fine haiku poets, plus a number of other special features. Here are
a pair of poems from our Honored Guest Andrew Riutta
it comes and goes
without a sound
evening mistnot one fossil
among these stones
graveyard parking lot
city moon
generations
of renters
– and a sample from Tom Clausen
sharp curve-
a weathered cross
nailed to the tree
April 30, 2006
sunday buffet: no mexicans, insurance, nor curmudgeons
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