Yesterday, I posted about evil and a couple of other things. Today, I experienced the antithesis of evil: children.

My wife and I were the designated Shabbat parents at the nursery school this morning. We brought two loaves of challah, a book, and a CD. We got to sit at the head of the table with the Girl Child. I also, in a multicultural twist at the Jewish preschool, sat next to a very non-Jewish Korean boy. My wife lit the candles and we all said the prayers over the bread, the wine (grape juice), and the candles. The children sang a song. After the celebration, I sat in a rocking chair and, in honor of the Girl Child's other heritage, read a story to the class. I read: Hiccup: The Seasick Viking.

Reading to a class of three year olds was the most pure fun I have had in a really long time. And I gave it a full, dramatic recitation, with different voices for every character and I certainly sang the song in the book to the best of my limited abilities.

My wife then explained the CD we brought with us and the children all danced to Norwegian children's music. The Girl Child grabbed another girl, held hands, and jumped about the place -- when she wasn't dancing with her mother, that is.

It was pure, unalloyed joy and the pleasure was exquisite.

So, the anti-evil? The beauty of a child's smile.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

If you need me, I regret to report that I expect to be at the office all weekend.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 05:02 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Are you a chatter? Do you tend to chat with strangers? Invite, from time to time, conversation with people you don't otherwise know but with whom you are sharing some common experience, be it waiting for a late train or stuck on line at the bank? I am mostly that kind of person. My wife is not, probably. I think she is little bit shy while I am not. This may explain why I have a blog and she does not. I think that this is a trait shared by most bloggers.

Yesterday, I had a chat with another lawyer. He wanted an extension of time, his second, so that he could move to dismiss my complaint against his client. I was basically agreeable to extending his time but insisted, to his great surprise, that he take a longer time than he had asked for. I explained that his date would inevitably involve him working over Thanksgiving weekend and that this particular fight, just being about money, is not worth it. I insisted he take a later date. After that, we got to chatting and I learned that both of his parents had been at Aushwitz. Both. Parents. His mother and his father were concentration camp survivors.

I was floored. I have met camp survivors before, but not many of them. I have been on a tour of a concentration camp before, a topic, if anyone is interested, for another post. You see these people, these survivors and you know you are in the presense of something extraordinary. These people did not survive some stupid television show. They survived evil.

Parenthetical: Evil is a concept that has fallen out of favor since, for the multiculturalists and relativists, it requires taking a firm comparative stand and making a value judgment. I am comfortable doing that and saying that certain cultural practices are not just different, they are flat out evil or wrong. Clipping off a baby girl's clitoris is just flat out wrong. Exterminating the Jews of Europe or engaging in genocide in Rawanda is evil. Stalin? Evil. These are not hard judgement calls to make. Don't shirk from making them just because others say you cannot sit in judgment on other people and their specific cultural practices. You are a human being and thus, you can. Endof Paranthetical.

These survivors looked evil in the face and, by luck or grace of God or pure strengh of will, or a combination of all of the foregoing, walked away. This attorney's parents walked away, found love, and made a family. They left the camps and made two sons, one a lawyer and one a diplomat. They made a success in this country. I am awed by people like this. I don't know, and hope never, ever, to have to find out, if I have the inner fortitude that these people had to survive.

His parents bear tattoos of their death camp numbers on their arms. They can never forget. So long as they live, we can never forget.

Evil still walks the earth. It paused in Beslan, a name I do not have to look up to check the spelling on. It lingers in Israel with the death of every Jewish child shot while hiding under the beds by brave Islamic terrorists who regard each death as a brave act, worthy of great celebration in the streets of Palestine. Can you doubt, really, that this is evil? I cannot. And I despair. I despair as the world press lionizes the life of Arafat, the world's oldest terrorist, without taking note of his crimes against humanity. I worry that it has become safe to hate Jews. Again. This is an ever present thought in my mind. It lingers in the background. It comes to the fore sometimes when I look at my children and wonder, did I do them any favors by converting them to Judaism? Have I just painted targets on their backs? This is an intensely and deeply held fear. I don't have an answer to this question and I hope I never do.

This was a major ramble today and I would never have gone down this path if I had not stopped to chat with this other attorney. I would never have learned about his parents if I was not a chatter and I would have missed the opportunity to reflect on it. I'm glad I took a moment to chat with him. You never know what comes out of a random chat.

Disclaimer: As with all of my rambles, this is stream of consciousness and I have not and will not re-read to edit. You take it as it comes with these. Also, this does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities. Finally, smoking is probably bad for you.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 11:07 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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1 Not that this is the most important thing to take out of your post but your throwaway at the end tickled me. We recently had visitors from The Netherlands and their cigarette packs had warnings far more straightforward than the ones we have. One was "Smoking will kill you" another was "If you smoke you will die". Very straight-forward and to the point.

Posted by: Jim at November 18, 2004 11:33 AM (tyQ8y)

2 Just thought of something with that second cig warning. Aren't you going to die regardless of your smoking habits? I mean they're saying that if you don't smoke you will be immortal, right? Okay, my sidebar is finished. Great post, RP!

Posted by: Jim at November 18, 2004 11:35 AM (tyQ8y)

3 Wonderful post, Random. As usual. I visited Dachau in the '80s. Walking through there gave me a sense of absolute tragedy. When you see firsthand the accomodations, the chambers, the ovens...nothing I've ever experienced has moved me as much. You realize then that no matter how much you read about it, how many movies you see, there is no way of imagining what an awesomely atrocious existence was had there. It's disheartening to see that genocide is still alive and well. Humans are infamous for neglecting to learn the lessons our history strives to teach us. I hope kinder, saner minds prevail. The world has much at stake in the outcome. My hat goes off and my heart goes out to all concentration camp survivors, as well as to those that did not make it. No person should have to suffer such an awful fate.

Posted by: Mick at November 18, 2004 12:32 PM (VhRca)

4 That was a lovely and thoughtful comment, Mick, as usual. Jim, I'm glad that the humorous aspects of my disclaimer tickled you.

Posted by: rp at November 18, 2004 12:37 PM (LlPKh)

5 I've seen the movies about the concentration camps, and every time I had a hard time watching them, the sheer horror of every moment that was lived once they were arrested. I usually broke down if watching by myself, very similarly I broke down when watching the footage after the initial attacks on Baghdad watching Fahrenheit 911. "Lest we forget" is the motto for Canada's Rememberance Day on Nov. 11. Unfortunately a large portion of the world HAS forgotten, or chosen to ignore the lessons learned by the World wars. Evil is alive and thriving in our greedy societies and will continue as long as we view the worth of human life as less than the wealth we accumulate. I used to write songs when I was in high school, mostly just lyrics. Here are some that seem apt: "You've been given the gold, but can you keep it? Will your bones never wither away? All the things you acquire and the money you gain will never be enough to open the gate." Ok, so it was grade 11, I wasn't a wordsmith

Posted by: Oorgo at November 18, 2004 01:09 PM (lM0qs)

6 When Dan and I first got together, we had many discussions about "evil". Dan believes in evil, but I did not. I argued that anything "evil" can be explained as sick, twisted choices made by human beings who become flawed in their thinking, not because somehow "evil" got inside them. But Dan argued that there *is* evil. That people can tap into evil the same way we can tap into good. For strength. For inspiration. He says it's a choice. Still, calling something "evil" seems to me to be acknowledging that Evil is a force unto itself. As is Good. And I don't know if I buy that. On the other hand, there are many forces in the world I can't see or point at. Love, for instance. It exists, but I can't offer you proof. So...dunno. Thoughtful post, though, Random! And isn't that just like you to have been so thoughtful about the other lawyer traveling over Thanksgiving? :-) *beams at Random*

Posted by: Amber at November 18, 2004 01:38 PM (zQE5D)

7 a very moving, and personal post. thank you for sharing it. i didn't think you needed the disclaimer and for the statement So long as they live, we can never forget. we can never forget...rp...never.

Posted by: standing naked at November 18, 2004 07:07 PM (IAJcf)

8 Random, Re: chattiness as a trait shared by most bloggers - not true in my case. In my marriage, my wife is the one most likely to chat up total strangers, but she doesn't blog. I'm more shy and awkward with people I don't know but I blog. Nice comments on evil. I have much more to say on the topic, but need to get my thoughts and words better organized.

Posted by: JohnL at November 18, 2004 11:25 PM (gplif)

9 I am not a chatter. And I too once toured a concentration camp-Terezin, in the Czech Republic. Going to places like that makes you hate God and rage at the world. As a side to Jim-all the cigarette packets in Europe say that, in bold letters, across one whole side of the ciggies. It amuses me, and doesn't seem to work.

Posted by: Helen at November 19, 2004 02:13 AM (AeGVs)

10 My 1.65 cents-worth (adjusted for inflation): I'm a chatter. My mother said I would talk to a telephone pole. *eyeroll* People are INNNN-terestin'. *guilelessly* You give good dictation. I know this by the PARENTHETICAL/ENDPARENTHETICAL. Maybe, instead of painting a target on their back, you've given them a heritage of strength and fortitude, courage and bravery. (Yeah, I'm pretty much a "glass half-full" type, why do you ask?) It's not so much the smoke as it is the resultant fire that is really deadly. I smoke. And I wish I didn't. But what I wish MORE, is that "interested bystanders" would STFU and let me enjoy my damned cigarette. As I told one particularly pushy gentleman who informed me "Smoking those will kill you": "Yeah, but my NOT smoking right now MIGHT kill YOU." Keep on with the random posts. I love your musings. As always,

Posted by: Margi at November 19, 2004 04:25 AM (MAdsZ)

11 Nice one, RP. For the record, I am a chatterer's chatterer. I'll talk to almost anybody, anywhere, anytime.

Posted by: Howard at November 19, 2004 10:39 AM (e1Imk)

12 Well, this post certainly received some very interesting and thoughtful comments and I appreciated them all. I don't really know where to start addressing them. So, I will merely address one remark: Helen, you and I visited the same camp, the Children's Camp, it was called. If that isn't enough to make someone want to cry, that children were removed from their parents and sent off to another camp entirely, then I just don't know what to say. It is proof positive of Evil.

Posted by: RP at November 19, 2004 03:19 PM (LlPKh)

13 I did tour the children's camp. I also toured the political prisoner adult's camp. It was the children's camp that gutted me and tortured my dreams for ages.

Posted by: Helen at November 20, 2004 03:27 AM (AeGVs)

14 Wonderful post. I too am a compulsive chatterer with strangers. I love finding the common and not so common groud. And you are right about evil. It doesn't help to equivocate. It does help to point it out and demand its end. Evil begets evil. We do the world no favor when we conflate understanding the cause so to prevent it in the future, with forgiving and allowing its existence.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at November 20, 2004 03:39 PM (iT4Tl)

15 Helen, you know exactly where I am coming from. Thank you, Rachel Ann. You and I are on the exact same page and probaly at the same sentence on that page.

Posted by: RP at November 21, 2004 10:52 AM (LlPKh)

16 *cough* (non-smoker cough) A little late here, but that is a great post, especially the aside about evil.

Posted by: Simon at November 22, 2004 03:32 AM (OyeEA)

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I have been reading this week a slim memoir by Richard Pipes, entitled: Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger. This was a fabulous read. Dr. Pipes has had a fascinating life and he breaks it down into three periods: 1, his escape from Poland during WW II and almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis followed by his acclimation to the US and earning a Ph.D. at Harvard; 2, his time as a prof. at Harvard during the Golden Years of the 50's and 60's; and, 3, his service at the National Security Counsel under Pres. Reagan. Of the three periods, only #2 is kind of boring.

Period 1: Escape from Warsaw. This was particularly interesting for me as all of my Polish family who didn't immigrate to the United States were killed during the Holocaust and it was compelling to read about the journey of a family who was luckier or had more foresight than my own. You felt as if the Pipes family was absolutely one step ahead of the Fascist bureacracy the whole way but just barely. As if they were closing the back door to the house as the Fascists were coming in the front door. It felt that close. I also enjoyed Pipes' descriptions of his first college days in the US and how he acclimated to America.

Period 3: Life with the NSC. Pipes was a Soviet specialist and very critical both of the Soviet Union (he was called one of the great Cold Warriors) and of detente and the scholarly / diplomatic class that was build up with a vested interest in business as usual with the Soviets. He and Reagan shared the view that business with the Soviets was a moral issue and the Soviet system was inherently corrupt. He provided, it appears, a lot of the theoretical support for Reagan's positions on arms control and countering Soviet actions with decisive responses. Pipes was the one who pushed for sanctions during the Solidarity crackdown in Poland, for instance. Absolutely fascinating reading and I just wish there was more of it. Pipes paints Haig as a freak, by the way, who Reagan detested and he has few if any nice things to say about Nancy.

Upshot? Go and read this. I think you'll enjoy it. I picked it up at the library but intend to buy a copy for my father in law as a gift.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was flipping though the Daily News yesterday when a small item caught my attention. Two Bonnie and Clyde wannabes stuck up a local bank. No one got hurt and it looked like the two evil criminal geniuses were going to get away clean. Then, they had a small mishap. The driver of the get away car crashed into another car. Their luck gets worse. The car they hit? A NY City Police patrol car. The thieves were arrested and carted off to jail. They take a dim view of bank robbery in NY, I believe. From the car, the police recovered the $750 stolen from the bank and two crack pipes.

Is there any clearer indication that drugs are bad and make you stupid? Crack, I assume, has fogged their minds so badly that they risk hefty jail time for a couple of rolls of quarters and eroded their driving skills so totally that they crash into the police. No, if they were not using drugs I bet they could have stolen a lot more money by working on Wall Street.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Overheard while getting lunch today. One young woman to another. Accent, pure Queens.

Everyone hates her. She's so condescending. [pause] You know, she talks down to everyone.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 01:10 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Yes, I agree. It's awful. It makes me feel a little bit better about our form of government.

Posted by: Mick at November 17, 2004 03:04 PM (VhRca)

2 Hey, man! This was supposed to go under the Zimbabwe post!!!

Posted by: Mick at November 17, 2004 03:06 PM (VhRca)

3 Is this where we get to talk down to Mick? As in, "Hey MICK! I think you meant this to be in the Zimbabwe comment thread!" ;-) ;-) hee...

Posted by: Amber at November 17, 2004 03:23 PM (zQE5D)

4 What's so ironic about that? And what does a Queens accent have anything to do with it?

Posted by: Hannah at November 18, 2004 03:30 AM (0tNIc)

5 Thanks Mick and Amber for the unintended, on Mick's part, humor! Hannah -- the accent bit was so that you could hear the voice for yourself in the privacy of your own home and the irony part was that she was describing another woman as condescending while she was being both condescending and even patronizing herself.

Posted by: RP at November 18, 2004 05:40 AM (X3Lfs)

6 I wouldn't recognize a Queens accent if it hit me over the head. But I get it now, thanks.

Posted by: Hannah at November 19, 2004 04:39 AM (zr6mn)

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I know that most of the world is uncaring about Zimbabwe. It is certainly not a hot topic among the blogs. However, and knowing even that it will not particularly draw a lot of comments, I feel compelled by my sense of outrage to write about recent events in Zimbabwe where Mugabe has suspended the country's constitution.

Mugabe is tightening his grip on this poor country. He has "suspended Zimbabwe's constitution to drive a batch of repressive new laws through parliament".

The key provisions will ban any foreign funded human rights organizations from operating in the country, will prohibit any foreign-funded organisation from providing any kind of voter education (cause it is easier to repress people if they are kept stupid), will create a "Zimbabwe Electoral Commission", composed of 5 commissionsers all appointed by Mugabe, to run elections, and, for the first time, members of the Zimbabwe National Army, the police and prison services will be permitted to serve as election officials.

This is a recipe for disaster and for further consolidation of power. I feel quite bad for the people of Zimbabwe.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 12:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I walked away from buying a new suit today. It was a lovely suit, dark blue with pin stripes, double vented in the back and it fit me splendidly. It was a Cerruti suit, reduced from $1,600 to $495. Quite a reduction but the store lost its lease and is closing. I was all set to buy it and it was going to be the first new suit I have bought in several years. I've lost quite a bit of weight lately and was thinking it might be time to make an addition to the wardrobe. I was very excited about it. Then I noticed that the suit was made of 92% wool and 8% polyester. $495 for a suit that was not pure wool? Are they serious? I flatly refused to buy it at that point. They tried to explain that these suits sold very well and that the 8% was used to keep the suit from wrinkling. So what? Polyester does not breathe that well and even 8% was too much for me. Am I too fussy? Maybe. I am certainly particular and I made the mistake once before not paying close enough attention to the fabric of a jacket. That was a good mistake since I now pay better attention.

This was just the suit that got away.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:04 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 If I could afford it I would get the 100% as well, though I prefer 100% cotton or silk to wool. Wool is too itchy. But quality lasts and lasts and lasts. A well tailored suit stays around in the closet till it goes of style and comes back again. I don't understand about the wrinkling part; I suppose if one commonly throws one's clothes on the floor that would be true, but if one is paying $1,600 for the suit (which is what it was expected to sell for) I would think one would take better care of the item.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at November 15, 2004 03:38 PM (K4EpJ)

2 Sheesh, I think if you loved the suit so much, then you should have moved past the 8% poly. You probably wouldn't have noticed - my guess is it's just enough for the suit not to wrinkle as easily, but not enough for the fabric's breathability to be compromised. Poly's come a long way since the 70's, you know...

Posted by: GrammarQueen at November 15, 2004 04:43 PM (gDEwS)

3 Actually, I thought I could feel it when I ran my hand over the lapel (which I was doing to see if I could feel whether it was top fused or hand sown since they feel different and this was the first Cerruti suit I ever looked at). It just didn't feel correct to me, the fabric. That's why I looked at the label so carefully. It had not occured to me that the suit could be anything other than wool until I felt it more carefully.

Posted by: RP at November 15, 2004 04:52 PM (LlPKh)

4 Polyester is evil. Good Choice

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at November 15, 2004 06:47 PM (U3CvV)

5 well, not sure about evil but good eye RP...

Posted by: standing naked at November 15, 2004 08:54 PM (IAJcf)

6 Hey man, you're absolutely right. I no longer bother buying any kind of clothing that I don't feel 100% comfortable with. It's just not worth it. You'll hesitate before grabbing it every time you see it hanging in your closet. Good eye!

Posted by: Mick at November 15, 2004 09:23 PM (QLESm)

7 Er. Uh. I don't get it. What's the difference?

Posted by: indigo at November 15, 2004 10:23 PM (5PkrR)

8 I sort of have to agree with Indigo. I mean, lovely suit? Cerruti? Big reduction? As a woman, I get subjected to clothing horrors all the time-thongs, high heels, waxing. To me, an 8% difference wouldn't have made any difference at all. BUT-the good news is, you know what you like and what you're comfortable in. *shakes head over loss of Cerruti suit*

Posted by: Helen at November 16, 2004 02:44 AM (AeGVs)

9 Well, the suit was lovely looking, but not nice feeling. It has to feel nice and I could, with my thumb and index finger, detect that there was something off with this fabric. I don't care for polyester and would not expect it in a suit that claimed to be of such a high caliber. As for horrors, I think women suffer more bad clothes then men do. In fact, above, all the men agree with me and the women are less inclined to agree. I think you are just trained to suffer more than men are (clothes wise)! Is Cerruti a big deal, Helen? I'm just not familiar with Italian suits.

Posted by: RP at November 16, 2004 05:43 AM (X3Lfs)

10 I think you should have bought it, if for no other reason than "Shopper's Remorse". I still yearn for clothing I didn't buy. The beautiful Italian jacket that was on sale that I didn't buy. Those gorgeous shoes I didn't buy. That beautiful blouse I didn't buy back in '93. I think many women remember the clothing purchases we *didn't* make and we forever mourn their loss. So perhaps we women are looking at it as "Random's Suit That Got Away". You'll be talking about it wistfully years from now..."Remember that suit I didn't buy, hon? Yeah...I still dream about it at night sometimes." Like we do. ;-)

Posted by: Amber at November 16, 2004 11:40 AM (zQE5D)

11 Not a chance, Amber, not with this one. This time I feel like I narrowly missed making a mistake. Although I certainly understand that remorse thing. I've had that before. But usually, the remorse would come from hurrying into buying something. To borrow from a quote, buy in haste, repent at leisure.

Posted by: RP at November 16, 2004 12:01 PM (LlPKh)

12 I'm sitting here, bemused smile on my face, because I absolutely LOVELOVELOVE and did I mention LOVE the fact that you, as a man, are comfortable enough to discuss the cut, fit and composition of an article of clothing you place on your body? Do you know how friggin' GAWJUSS that is? You, sir, are DA. MAN. Good call, BTW. If you ain't gonna be happy with it, it just doesn't matter if it was hand-sewn by virgins and annointed by Gawd -- it's not something you should do. I, of course, have never been that smart -- I purchase in haste and repent at my leisure. But that has got to be the best post I've seen today. Bless you. xoxo

Posted by: Margi at November 17, 2004 04:19 AM (MAdsZ)

13 Oh, and I didn't read the comments until AFTER I posted. Purchase in haste, repent at leisure. Imagine that. ::: wanders off, shaking her head :::

Posted by: Margi at November 17, 2004 04:24 AM (MAdsZ)

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This weekend, my wife and I stayed over in NYC. From our room, we had the following view of the new and improved MOMA:

It was a nice view of the museum prior to its reopening.

It was also quite nice to have an adut only evening away.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Well, the paintings are still missing, the criminals are still unidentified, the museum is still closed, and there is nothing new out there in the media.

Oh, wait. I forgot. There is something. A brilliant new plan by a Norwegian city councilor who thinks that the best way to prevent thefts in the future is to make the plans of the museum a state secret. I shit you not. This is the best they appear to have come up with. Can you say, collapse of Western Civilization?

No word on what this will mean for the thousands of people who have innocently picked up maps to the galleries during their visits. Perhaps they will have to return them or face prosecution.

My favorite part of the plan?

If the complete plans for the city hall cannot be made secret then Horntvedt will try to at least classify certain parts of the building.

No word on whether this means that the lavatories will be marked with signs. I mean, gee, you never know.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was awakened this morning at 6:38 when I heard my bed room door creak open oh so gently and two little blue eyes peeked around the door frame. She was clutching her little blue blanket that is a must-sleep and, noticing I was awake, she came happily into the room to climb into bed with my wife (still sleeping) and me. We cuddled for almost a half and hour, very quietly. A half an hour of no movement is an eternity for a child. I lay my hand on her little chest and felt her heart beat. Children's hearts beat very fast as if, even in repose, they are in a hurry. I took her hand to put it on her chest and to see if she could feel her heart too and this is what she said to me:

Pappa, when hearts fall in love, they get all warm and fuzzy.

I never thought about it like that but I don't think I could have said it any better.

Here's wishing you all lots of warm and fuzzy.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 01:28 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 What a doll. RP, I think I'm in love with your daughter. Want to trade for one of my hellions?

Posted by: Jim at November 13, 2004 01:31 PM (GCA5m)

2 Thanks, Jim. Trade, well, maybe not a trade. A loan, however, probably could be arranged. Especially on days like today when my wife calls me from home (I'm at work this fine Saturday) to tell me that there are no naps happening.

Posted by: rp at November 13, 2004 03:37 PM (LlPKh)

3 once again she proves herself the smartest person i 'almost' know.

Posted by: standing naked at November 13, 2004 03:49 PM (IAJcf)

4 That is so adorable

Posted by: Holly at November 13, 2004 08:35 PM (Wkg+N)

5 That is one of the sweetest things I've ever heard [read]. How full of love and joy she must make you! Great job, Pappa. And Mamma, too. xoxo

Posted by: Margi at November 14, 2004 04:57 AM (MAdsZ)

6 Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ...

Posted by: Hannah at November 15, 2004 04:47 AM (0tNIc)

7 Thanks, y'all. She is a constant source of surprise for me.

Posted by: RP at November 15, 2004 10:58 AM (LlPKh)

8 What a little sweetie! ::sighs::

Posted by: Amber at November 16, 2004 11:35 AM (zQE5D)

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Been awhile since I've done one of these. But today is a gray, rainy, gloomy day here in NYC and the heat is too high in my office and I'm sleepy and lacking in motivation to do anything substantive. So, I give you the time suck of the day with a word of caution, if you like games like Boggle, you could spend lots and lots of time playing this game:

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These deposition excerpts courtesy of the blog Margi turned me onto some time ago. Thanks, Margi! I thought they were very funny.

The following exchanges were in depositions of bitterly contested divorce suits:

Q. Isn't it a fact that you have been running around with another woman?

A. Yes, it is, but you can't prove it!

....

Q. Did you ever stay all night with this man in New York?

A. I refuse to answer that question.

Q. Did you ever stay all night with this man in Chicago?

A. I refuse to answer that question.

Q. Did you ever stay all night with this man in Miami?

A. No.

....

Q. Isn't it true that on the night of June 11, in a prune orchard at such and such a location, you had relations with Mr. Blank on the back of his motorcycle?

(there was a complete sentence for about three minutes; then the wife replied.)

A. What was that date again?

....

Q. What was the nature of your acquaintance?

A. Oh, there wasn't no nature to it, nothing like that, at all. No nature to it. We were just friends, that's all.

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We had our parent/teacher conference last night with the Girl Child's pre-school teachers. We send her only 3 days a week and all but one of the other children go 5 days a week. We thought that the other 2 days would be good for other things, seeing her grandmother, playdates, etc. Her teachers all had very nice, albeit not very specific, things to say about her: she listens well; plays well with the others; wants to do and does everything they ask of her; and, is just a pleasure to have around. But I could sense an implicit criticism about our decision to have her there for only three days a week. So I finally asked, did they think we should have had her there for all five days? And the head teacher kinds of looks away, and looks back, and purses her lips and blows a stream of air out and says:

Teacher: Do you want an honest answer?

Me: No, lie to me.

Fortunately, she laughed. I really have to learn to watch my mouth.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:31 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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As some you may know, I am the Interview Chair for the Alumni Admissions group of my north-eastern liberal arts university. As such, I supervise the assignment of interviews, conduct some myself, and basically make sure that the several hundred or more applicants from NYC get interviews if they want them. In this capacity, I am forced to reflect on the position that College has in the American iconographic landscape. I am not going to post about that here. No, instead, I refer you to John's essays about Dartmouth. Fabulous stuff, as you'd expect from John. An example from an off hand remark about admission:

[N]ot to mention the cost of the adolescence spent in gamesmanship, artful maneuver, and self-denial that led to admission in the first place.

Isn't that just brilliant?

Also, I learned a new word from his post: synecdoche. Defined as follows at Dictionary.com:

syn·ec·do·che: n. A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

[Middle English synodoches, from Medieval Latin synodoche, alteration of Latin synecdoch, from Greek sunekdokh, from sunekdekhesthai, to take on a share of : sun-, syn- + ekdekhesthai, to understand (ek-, out of; see eghs in Indo-European Roots + dekhesthai, to take; see dek- in Indo-European Roots).]

I love learning new words. Thanks, John!

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was perusing the history section of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst website (don't ask) and I came across the following little nugget that I thought might be of interest:

Two expressions from the old RMA [Royal Military Academy] passed into the language. "Talking Shop", meaning "to discuss subjects not understood by others", derives from the RMA being commonly known as "The Shop", as its first building was a converted workshop in Woolwich Arsenal. "Snooker", the table-top game, was invented by a former cadet of the RMA, where the members of the junior intake were known as "snookers", from a corruption of "les neux" (the new guys).

Source.

Isn't that cool?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:00 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I've seen a lot of rants recently. A lot of people are seriously pissed off and are venting on their blogs. Fair enough. Vent away. If it is entertaining and well written, I will read it. However, it can be tiresome. Anger is fatiguing, after all. And so I give you the anti-rant. A random list of things for which I am grateful if not downright happy.

My Anti-Rant:

I am grateful that the recent presidential election, despite the bitterness with which it was conducted, did not descend into a pit of acrimonious litigation which might have torn the Republic apart.

I am thankful that my family is healthy.

I am grateful, enormously, for every little kiss and I love you my daughter gives to me.

I am also equally grateful every time my 20 month old son calls, "Ba Ba" and holds his arms up to me.

I am grateful for the smell of Johnson's baby shampoo on the hair of children.

I am thankful we have enough money to not worry about putting food on the table or clothing the children. The rest is details.

I am happy that my wife, my childhood sweetheart, loves me and trusts me and, I think, would pack up the family and move with me almost anywhere I wanted to go.

I am grateful that my grandfather just celebrated his 90th birthday and is in excellent health.

I am grateful for the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform.

I am thankful that I live in the United States of America and that my ancestors sought it out as a beacon of hope and the land of opportunity and better things for their children.

I am happy that winter is almost upon us. It is glorious to walk to the train in the morning as the cold cuts through you and makes you feel clean and alive.

I have a lot to be grateful for, thankful for, and happy about. This list is woefully incomplete, but it is a start.

I hope you all can write a similar list, too.

Here endeth the anti-rant.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 11:28 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Last night, I attended a ceremony to present a wreath in honor of Veterans' Day. I had to attend since I helped organize it. We had the ceremony right before the Marine Corps Birthday Dinner that we also organized. It was well attended and we had a Lieutenant General from the Marines as our guest of honor. He spoke both at the dinner, which I did not stay for, and at our wreath ceremony. He spoke of the importance of veterans and of the "steely-eyed" men and women who are serving now.

As many of you may know, Veterans' Day started as Armistice day. It was the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month that the guns of the Great War stopped firing. That was the war to end all wars. Or so we thought. It was certainly horrific.

So, today, give thanks.

After the ceremony ended, I walked up to an older man. Must have been in his late sixties or early seventies. He had a chestful of medals on the left breast of his tuxedo jacket. I held out my hand to him and I said the following:

"Thank you for your service. I am not staying for the dinner tonight because I have to go home and read stories and bathe my children. Thank you for all you've done in the past so that I can enjoy this now." And I shook his hand.

He looked startled and then genuinely pleased. He shook my hand back and smiled and thanked me for thanking him.

And I went home and read stories to my children, secure in the knowledge that there are brave men and women out there making it possible for me to enjoy my freedom.

Thank you to all veterans.

My thanks and gratitude would be incomplete, I feel, if I did not also thank the families of the veterans. Those men and women who keep the family together while their soldier goes off to fight. They are mostly unsung, these home bound warriors, but they deserve our thanks no less and have suffered their loved one's absence in ways we may not fully comprehend. Thank you.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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From the NY Post today:

Ethan Hawke satirized New York's over- demanding parents Monday when he out lined his plans for Maya, 6, his daughter with Uma Thurman. "I've already started compiling her reading list," the sometime novelist told the audience at the Glamour Women of the Year awards at the Ameri can Museum of Natural History. "It starts with the Hans Christian Andersen in the original Dutch (emphasis added), because that's important. Then there's Homer and she'll go straight into the complete collected works of Judy Blume, because as any man knows, there's no better guide to the teen woman than 'Deenie.' "

Dutch, you nincompoop? Dutch? Try Danish. Hans Christian Andersen wrote in Danish. You know, Ethan, Danish is not just something you eat with your coffee.

On that note, I leave you with the statue of the Little Mermaid from Copenhagen (you know, in Denmark?):

Posted by: Random Penseur at 01:52 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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I read here of the enormous irony in that Jews carrying visible signs of Jewish symbols were excluded from marching to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht in Oslo. How can this be?

Andrew Sullivan covers this as well.

UPDATE:

There is a lot of information going around that Jews were not excluded from the march. Indeed, someone left a very long comment to that effect (by pasting and cutting another's words). Instead, I refer you to the following for more information: here, here, and here

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:09 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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NY State, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that I must accomplish 24 hour credits of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) in order to renew my license to practice law every two years. It is a self reporting system. Theoretically, they can audit you but I've never heard of it happening. No matter, I will comply because I can't actually contemplate signing my name to a false affirmation that I did comply. And if I could contemplate doing so, no amount of CLE is going to make a difference. Certainly not the 4 hours of ethics. I figure that if you make a knowingly false affirmation, you are beyond the help 4 hours of ethics can provide.

One nice thing is that I can do it by way of streaming video over the internet. I am picking among the following interesting (said with no irony at all, that's how pathetic I am) looking classes:

*Evidence and Objections: Laying Foundations for Introducing and Raising and Rebutting Evidence

*Credibility and Cross Examination by Irving Younger (A giant of the trial bar)

*Hearsay (also by Younger)

*Nuts and Bolts of New York Appellate Practice

*Summary Judgment in New York: A Review

*Avoiding Professional Malpractice

There are also some good bankruptcy programs on asset protection.

I look back on this list and I weep with the knowledge that I am actually looking forward to a little evidence refresher. How reduced I have become.

Still, as for a bright spot, at least I am not in Minnesota, where:

The Minnesota Supreme Court issued an order making ethics and diversity training mandatory for Minnesota attorneys. As of July 1, 1996, lawyers licensed in Minnesota are required to take three hours of ethics courses and two hours of elimination of bias training as part of the 45 credit requirement to keep their attorney licenses up to date.

The University of Minnesota allows you to meet this requirement with this kind of silly course:

ENGL 3741: Literacy and Cultural Diversity 4 credits

Meets CLE req of Citizenship/Publ Ethics Theme; meets CLE req of Cultural Diversity Theme

Description: Through reading, writing, and community action, this course examines the function and variety of literacies in contemporary U.S. culture. Readings in literary, sociological and pedagogical theory, imaginative literature, autobiographies and memoirs, will engage students with the idea of literacy. By working in community organizations, students will enter into the complex practices of literacy among young school students or adult learners, with long-time citizens as well as newly arrived residents from Africa, Mexico, South Asia, and elsewhere. Reading across history and culture, but with a special emphasis on the vexed case of U.S. literacy, we will think about inscription and exclusion, the politics of power and knowledge, institutions and disciplines of literacy and literature, about race and schooling, about migration and disapora [Ed. comment: SIC!!! This is so stupid that they cannot even spell DIASPORA. It's DIASPORA, you idiot!!! There, I feel better now and return you to the course description], and about the possibilities for renewed and revolutionary literacies. Readings may include works by Paulo Freire, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Franz Kafka, Frederick Douglass, Zitkala Sa, Nuruddin Farah, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Myung Mi Kim, Anne Fadiman. As part of the course, students commit to 2 hours a week of literacy work (broadly defined) in a local community organization. A one-day literacy training session, usually scheduled for a Saturday early in the semester, along with a variety of on-site trainings, will help students prepare for their community work.

Class Time: In addition to course work, a 2 hr/week service commitment off-campus

Work Load: Assignments will include a reading and reflection journal, a literacy autobiography, several short writing assignments, an in-class presentation, and a final project.

I'm sure that the clients of Minnesota are better served by lawyers who can fight their way successfully through bull shite like this. 100% sure, I am.

As this blogger points out, the real problem is that there is really only one stream of ideology that qualifies for inclusion in this curriculum. Guess which one? If you guessed conservative, you're wrong! The lawyers in Minnesota have tried to litigate this requirement and lost.

I guess I'm grateful for the small favor that if I have to take CLE, at least I can pick professionally useful classes and am not required to pay someone for the privilege of brainwashing.

Back to evidence!

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:29 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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