f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

[SCCL] I did not go to bed planning to think — much less write — about ladybugs today. But a segment of NatureWatch, which was playing in the background on my local public radio station this morning has placed that famous genus of beetle on my mind all day. You can find today’s NatureWatch podcast called “Lady Beetle” on or through the NatureWatch homepage (Nov. 13, 2007), and at PRX.org. It notes that “Few insects create a warm place in the human heart, but one small beetle has found its way into legends, nursery rhymes, and even superstition.” And, that this “Beetle of Our Lady” is considered a harbinger of good weather, good luck, and a bountiful harvest.

It seems that farmers have long been grateful for the crop-saving appetite of ladybugs for aphids and other crop-eating pests. Although I shouldn’t have been surprised, I was, to learn that the “Lady” in ladybug refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. See “Our Lady’s Bug,” by Bro. John M. Samaha, SM, for an interesting rendition of ladybug history.

In her 2002 article at Tarot Canada, “Our Lady’s Beetle or God Almighty’s Cow,” Cheryl Lynne Bradley gives a very useful summary of ladybug/ladybeetle hisotry and lore. For example, she reports:

A single ladybug can consume more than 2,000 aphids in its lifetime. There are more than 5,200 species of ladybeetles in the world and some 290,000 different species of beetles, more than any other kind of animal. . . .

Ladybeetles can control significant pest problems in gardens, orchards and on farms. To English farmers, a ladybeetle signals a good harvest while in the vineyards of France, a ladybeetle is a sign of good weather. Medieval European tradition held that ladybeetles were sent from heaven to save the crops. They were referred to as Our Lady’s beetle. It was later shortened to lady’s beetle, then simply ladybeetle. They have also been called God Almighty’s Cow. Our Lady refers to the Christian Virgin Mary and superstition holds that to kill one will bring ill luck.

  It is considered a blessing to have one land on you as long as you don’t brush it away – the redder the beetle the better your luck will be.

she leans
a little closer
ladybug on my palm

………………. Yu Chang – Upstate Dim Sum 

ladybug descending
this windwhipt blade of grass
last blaze of sun

…………. pamela miller ness – – Summerday, Puget Sound sequence

Speaking of pests and red things, I was going to tell you today about Eric Turkewitz’s debate, at his New York Personal Injury Law weblog, with Avis over whether he could use the image of its trademark in a post discussing the auto rental firm’s support for the Graves Amendment, which was recently held by one court to be unconstitutional. The amendment “granted immunity to car rental and leasing companies from state laws that would hold them vicariously liable when the renters/lessors were negligent and injured someone.” In a Comment at Eric’s weblog, lawyer Fred Grumman, Associate General Counsel, of Avis Budget Group, Inc., had accused Eric of being ignorant of trademark law and of infringing his employer’s trademark. Check out Eric’s reply and the links to other weblawgers who have opined on this topic. (via Stephen Albainy-Jenei at Patent Baristas)

letting her
walk all over me
ladybug

. . …………………….. by Tom Clausen – being there (Swamp Press, 2005)

Finally, if you’re a law firm or lawyer, one way to make your own good luck is to read and ponder the entire Richard Susskind End of Lawyers series, at TimesOnline (prior post). The fourth of 6 installments was posted yesterday, “Outside investors will demand a very different type of law firm” (Nov. 12, 2007). In it, Susskind notes that market researchers have reported that “reported 60 per cent of [UK] citizens would prefer to obtain legal services from common high street brands (supermarkets and banks, for example) than from solicitors in private practice.” He speculates on the many changes that mass-market retailers — unwedded to business practices of the past — would make.

“If it were possible to start afresh and build legal businesses from the ground up, surely the hard-nosed investors would not replicate traditional legal service. They might buy a firm for its brand name but would no doubt bring to bear a more contemporary suite of tools and techniques for managing the delivery of legal services.

“The new wave of investors and managers will surely find that individual law firms are over-resourced; and, further, that the legal profession itself is over-resourced. They will quickly recognise that, within and beyond law firms, there is enormous duplication of effort and reinvention of the wheel; and, in turn, that there are too many lawyers and too few smart systems.”

Susskind continues that “there would be no reason to suppose that investors would restrict themselves to legal services for consumers. It is wrong-headed to think, as so many lawyers do, that the greatest impact would be felt amongst those who undertake high volume, low margin work.” Instead, commercial lawyers need to understand that their:

“clients’ loyalty to conventional firms will be limited if new legal businesses emerge that offer quicker, more convenient, lower cost alternatives to low- and high-value work that seem to be more geared to the interests of clients and are more business-like in their constitution.”

backyard moon
mosquitos
rush the poem

………………….…. by David G. Lanoue – from Haiku Guy