These are my lions. My grandfather gave them to me when he moved. They were among the only things I wanted from his house because of the big sentimental value. I spent many happy hours playing on them when I was a child. They looked quite nice with their little snow caps on and I snapped their picture. It seemed like a long time since I put anything new up in the Architectural Elements category. The lions are Persian and quite, quite old.

-and-

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:34 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Do they have names?

Posted by: C at March 08, 2005 10:20 AM (Ds4xI)

2 In fact, they do: Patience and Fortitude, like their younger cousins at the New York Public Library.

Posted by: RP at March 08, 2005 10:22 AM (LlPKh)

3 They are great!!! I love them, especially with the ribbon and the cap.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at March 08, 2005 11:08 AM (tqjrf)

4 Cool cats. (Yes, that was a bad attempt at a pun.)

Posted by: Jim at March 08, 2005 11:18 AM (tyQ8y)

5 Love them; how wonderful you have something so personal to remember your grandfather and your childhood by. I'm mucho envious. :-)

Posted by: Amber at March 08, 2005 11:33 AM (zQE5D)

6 Wow, those are so cool! I bet when you invite people over, you tell them it's the house with the lions, right? LOL You probably can't miss them...

Posted by: Hannah at March 15, 2005 03:07 PM (7dELN)

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I have written a number of posts about the initial theft of the Scream and the Madonna from the Munch Museum in Norway. I have written follow ups here, here, here, and here. I have been very critical of the police since they have not come even at all close to catching the thief or thieves or recovering the art since they were stolen last August.

Now, these over worked art detectives have a new theft to contend with.

Be on the look out for:

The Telegraph reports:

Three works by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch have been stolen from a hotel in southern Norway - the second major theft of his paintings in seven months.

The art works were taken from the Refnes Hotel near the city of Moss, about 30 miles south of Oslo, last night.

Vidar Salbuvik, the hotel owner, said two of the stolen works were lithographic portrait prints, including one of the artist himself. He said the third was a watercolour titled The Blue Dress from 1915.

They were taken from the hotel restaurant after closing hours.

A hotel worker had surprised two people who had removed the pictures from the wall.

Art experts guessed the value could be in the millions of kroner (hundreds of thousands of dollars or euros). The watercolour was a one of kind, and would account for the bulk of the value.

"It seems to be a fashion among criminals to steal Munch," said Mr Salbuvik.

"There are no grounds for assuming any connection between the thefts, but we will be talking to the Oslo police about it," Jan Pedersen, of the local police, said.

The hotel is on the island of Jeloey, where Munch lived and worked from 1913 until 1916, when he moved to Oslo.

Wish Mr. Pederson, the local policeman, luck in his dealings with the Oslo police about links to the Munch Museum theft and luck in recovering the paintings.

However, if history is any guide, I trust you will keep your hopes for a speedy resolution in check so as to avoid the disappointment.

UPDATE

I spoke too soon. Grammer Queen has happily alerted me that the paintings have been recovered and are in good shape! YAY!

I hope Inspector Pederson is transfered to Oslo, pdq, and given responsibility for the Munch Museum thefts.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You may recall a small post I did not too long ago about how the Girl Child and the Boy Child hold hands in the car where ever they go. Well, last night, the nanny gave us a picture she took. You can't see their faces in the picture, but I think it is a very powerful image notwithstanding.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:41 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 That's a wonderful picture, RP. My wife also enjoys your posts, and notes that when our youngest son, 4, is in an incorrigible state, our daughter, 6, is the one to take him in tow and cheer his mood: She's really quite helpful that way.

Posted by: Mark C N Sullivan at March 07, 2005 10:44 AM (q9XsZ)

2 Oh, will you stop driving these tears to my eyes, Random! That is a gorgous picture. Says volumes. The way their hands are clasped...*fights tears again* *sniffles*

Posted by: Amber at March 07, 2005 07:16 PM (zQE5D)

3 your best photo yet rp...it's not nice to make a pregnant woman cry.

Posted by: standing naked at March 07, 2005 10:30 PM (6FCAy)

4 That's a very sweet picture. And I'm very happy to see that you've got car clutter just like we do. Heh.

Posted by: Jim at March 08, 2005 05:30 AM (MDLz3)

5 I'm glad that you all liked the picture. Since I didn't say, the Girl Child is in the orange and the Boy Child in the black and gray coat.

Posted by: RP at March 08, 2005 09:07 AM (LlPKh)

6 fhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiwapvfnhugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiieowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwifcvnhjg!

Posted by: Raela at October 16, 2005 04:00 PM (R5NqD)

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We were returning home last night from taking my parents out to dinner to celebrate my mother's birthday and my daughter and I had the following conversation (remember, she's only four):

GC: What are you doing, Pappa?

Me: [thinking it was pretty darn obvious what I was doing behind the wheel of the car, responded with small sarcasm] Just hanging out. What are you doing?

GC: I'm just sitting back here watching you drive.

Me: How am I doing?

GC: Better. [small pause] That's all I can really say. Better.

Thus proving what every trial lawyer already knows: never ask an open ended question you don't know the answer to.

My wife almost went into convulsions next to me, muttering to herself, "its NY, everyone's a critic."

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You know that you need a quick break when, in the middle of working on a $40 million dispute, you realize that Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has fewer syllables than tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and that you want, in your reply brief, to define T.I.W.P.E.A as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because you think that it might be quicker to type.

Such that, your sentence, "[t]he proposed amended verified answer with counterclaims states a good claim for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage", might read instead as, "[t]he proposed amended verified answer with counterclaims states a good claim for Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". What do you think? Think the judge'd like it?

More coffee? check.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:56 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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My wife was late at the dentist last night so I had the kids all to myself. I got home, inquired into the behavior of the children, determined that they had been good, and gave them a small bag of University Alumni M&M's that I had picked up at a University Alumni function the night before (blue and white colored with a University crest on the bag). Predictably, the children were delighted. The Girl Child sat down at the table with them and shared them with her brother, very evenly and without any prompting from me.

Than she taught him how to eat them. She placed a couple, quite carefully, on the kitchen table, then suctioned them right up, one at a time. The Boy Child was charmed by this new trick and decided he had to do it to. He put his down, he likes to have one in each hand generally, lowered his little head to the table, got his mouth as close as he could, then picked it up with his hand and popped it into his mouth. The Girl Child patiently corrected him and they sat there, two happy little clams, sucking M&M's into their mouths. At the end, the Girl Child's mouth was pristine. The Boy Child, on the other hand, looked as if he had carefully crushed all of his M&M's, wet them down, and rolled his face over them. He was covered in blue and white dye and chocolate. The Girl Child wanted to wash him but took one closer look and handed the wet paper towel back to me. After I finished cleaning him up, he held out his arms to show me where he had been wiping his mouth when I wasn't looking. We washed those, too.

Then we went upstairs, where the Girl Child promptly spotted a spider on the wall in the Boy Child's room. I instructed her to go fetch some tissue while I watched the spider to make sure it didn't get away. She ran off and I heard her calling to the Boy Child, who by that time had gone into my room, "Boy Child, come here and watch Pappa kill a spider!" Back they came, with tissue. Did you know that spiders can jump? This one could and he did, right onto the floor where I could not find him. I looked for a bit and gave up. Not the Girl Child, however, who spotted him lurking behind the garbage pail. I moved the pail, killed the spider and disposed of the remains. After announcing the spider's position, by the way, the Girl Child made a hasty advance in another direction (points given for anyone who knows what this is a reference to) and climbed up onto the couch. I turned to her after the deed was done to congratulate her for locating the spider and we had the following exchange:

Me: Good job! Give me a high five!

GC: [stops bouncing on couch, gives me high five, goes back to bouncing]

Me: You sure are one mean old spider killing girl.

GC: [abruptly stops bouncing to look at me squarely in the eye] I'm not mean. [pause for emphasis] I'm nice. Also, I don't kill the spiders. I just tell you where they are and you kill them. I'm a nice spider finding girl.

All she left out at the end of that sentence was: So there.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:45 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Color photographs exist from World War I. The French took many of them and I came across this link to a small collection. They are spell binding. Especially, to me, the scenes of the semi-destroyed buildings.

Hat tip: Secular Blasphemy

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:11 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I dislike riding the bicycle at the gym. It is boring, it never feels like a workout, and did I mention its boring? The only good thing about riding the bike is that you can do it in place of a real workout if you have a cold (guilty) and if you are too tired to run (again, guilty). Besides, you can read on the bike. That is another grand redeeming virtue. So, I was pedaling away yesterday morning on the recumbent bicycle at the gym and catching up on last week's issue of the Economist when a particular sentence in an otherwise forgettable article on British educational reforms captured my attention so completely that a friend had to touch me on the shoulder to bring me out of my reverie long enough to acknowledge his hello.

Context: Certain people want higher standards , more choice and more competition in the British educational system (hereinafter "BES"). The offending sentence:

That sort of thinking is anathema to people who think the country's main educational task is to use taxpayers' money to eradicate class privilege.

At first, I thought if that is what the BES is concentrating on, no one should invest in the British economy because it will lack trained and educated workers. But that seemed like a very short sighted response on my part and I blame that on the fact that I was reading the Economist at the time and that may have colored my reaction.

But I moved beyond it and, after my first blush reaction that the BES is beyond help, wondered, what is the purpose generally of an educational system?

Is it really to create a class less society and break down class barriers? I'm doubtful.

I think, and here is where I step gingerly out onto the limb, that very broadly the purpose of an educational system is to generally equip a person with: the skills they need to navigate the working world after they are on their own (Commerce); the ability to enrich their own lives after school through the appreciation of literature, music, art, etc. (Art); the tools required to take an active part in the body politic, even if that only means voting (Polis); and, the ability to conduct and participate in civilized discourse with their neighbors (Discourse). Please note the absence of the need to teach children to pull down the structure of beliefs their parents may have. Let me expand on my thinking about the need for education to be about Commerce, Art, Polis and Discourse and what I mean by that.

First, Commerce. You need to live after school is over. You need to be able to pay your bills and earn money, inherited wealth to one side. You need enough education to figure out who to, hopefully, invest what remains after youÂ’ve paid your bills. You need skills and I donÂ’t mean technical skills. I mean analytical skills. An education ought to equip you with the analytical skills to get a job, hold a job, and perform to the best of your abilities in the world of Commerce.

Art. You need not only to feed your body by the money you earn, you need to feed your soul. You need to be educated enough to appreciate art and music, etc. You need this for a lot of reasons, actually, more than I could possibly come up with in the short amount of time I am stealing from my Commerce. So, letÂ’s take it as a given, ok? If not, you know where the comment board is.

Polis. You need to be equipped with the skills and education necessary to be involved in the life of the body politic, to participate in making informed decisions in your community, your state, and your country. You need an education to do that. You donÂ’t need to be taught how to eradicate class differences to get there. Again, a given, in my book.

Discourse. You need to be able to speak to others, to build relationships, to interact. Freedom is constructed from a web of interlocking relationships formed by people sharing a similar commitment to upholding certain traditions and values. I know values is a loaded word, but IÂ’m using it anyway, even though I hesitated. But, if you have not been educated so that you share these common values (e.g., freedom of expression), you canÂ’t have discourse, you just have screaming. Some of this, by the way, is where Art comes in.

Indeed, all of my distinctions are artificial constructs created for my own purposes. In the end, all of these things are interrelated.

Part of me can see why the Brits, or some of them, may feel the need to eradicate their class system. It has been much more static and resistant to change than ours. In our system, people can rise, or fall, on their own merits and the country is full of self made men and women. After all, where you start from in the United States is not guarantee of where you are going to end up. In England, I'm not so sure that is true. Social mobility is still higher in the United States than in England, I think.

The part of me that wanted to laugh at this sentence was quickly sobered when I remembered that we have the same problem in the United States under the name of diversity. King Banion (a great read, by the way) found the following job posting. Tell me this doesnÂ’t smack of the same thing as the British one:

The Campus Climate Coordinator is responsible for facilitating programs that will improve the campus climate and diversity awareness. The candidate will be required to communicate and provide education programs for multiple constituencies. ...The Campus Climate Coordinator will:
* Conduct needs assessments and make programmatic recommendations to the University units for campus climate improvements;
* Coordinate ongoing diversity efforts generated by the comprehensive plan for faculty, staff, and students in the area of cultural competency and nondiscrimination;
* Assist in the creation and development of a Diversity Resource & Curriculum Infusion Center which will focus on diversity training and research for the UW-La Crosse campus;
* Develop, promote, and deliver educational programs and training in areas related to diversity awareness (race, gender, disability, homophobia, sexual harassment, etc.) for an increasingly diverse workforce (building individual and team skills)

Once again, not education. Instead, it strikes me as re-education. Welcome to the re-education camp where we eradicate class distinction, which will be important later in life when you are homeless because you have no skills. None at all.

In the end, it strikes me that if you really want to eradicate class distinctions, give somebody the best education you can and watch them ascend to the heights of success so rapidly that it will make class distinctions relevant only to those who canÂ’t profit from their education.

Teach someone to read, write, and think analytically. That is the ultimate in subversion.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:26 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 I think, and here is where I step gingerly out onto the limb, that very broadly the purpose of an educational system is to generally equip a person with: the skills they need to navigate the working world after they are on their own I agree with your basic assesments, but had the feeling that is what the author meant. Not that we would live in a classless society, but class wouldn't affect the ability to become an independent, self-sufficeint, educated human. That class would not be inherited, but a result of effort. (leaving out those who, because of health issues-retardation etc., are not able to compete). My take from the reading at least. I could bery well be wrong. However, I think you are right in terms of the purpose of education.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at March 04, 2005 02:01 AM (tqjrf)

2 Thanks for your comment, Rachel. I was beginning to wonder if anyone managed to get to the end of this long post! I'm not at all sure that the writer meant what you think. I'll try, later today if I get the time, to cut the article out, scan it, and email it to you so you can see for yourself in full context.

Posted by: RP at March 04, 2005 08:53 AM (LlPKh)

3 I posted my overly long and rampling reply at Zero Intelligence.

Posted by: Jim at March 04, 2005 08:09 PM (MDLz3)

4 I found this post from a link on Zero Intelligence and agree with you. I look at myself and see someone who I think is objectively not highly educated, and then I look at my peers from the "AES" and generally get this sick feeling. There's too much of a focus on building up self-esteem in America, and not enough on building up an education. No one ever seemed to figure that if students got well educated that they'd have a real sense of self-confidence, I guess. What is funny IMO to do is watch American teachers who try to pull the same reeducation crap in our schools. I have never met a one who'd be even a successful guard at a Soviet Gulag. They're so fun to tweak because they get so mad, especially when they see that you genuinely don't care about their "lofty ideals." Nothing sends them up the wall faster in my experience than periodically quoting Nietzsche

Posted by: MikeF at March 06, 2005 04:42 PM (dHZUR)

5 I'm another random person from Zero Intelligence. *waves* Mike, they don't like you quoting Nietzsche because he isn't one of the approved philosphers for that set. I mean, you're not supposed to get an education outside of the classroom! That would imply that you know how to do their job better than they do (which may or may not be true, but still).

Posted by: Allanque at March 07, 2005 02:14 PM (32a1G)

6 Thanks R.P....I would love to see the whole thing. I did perhaps misunderstand the intent.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at March 08, 2005 10:38 AM (tqjrf)

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That someone is not me. I am not snowed in at home, I regret to report. Deeply regret to report, I should say. Instead, I am sitting at my desk and ignoring anything that doesn't bear a label: Caution, contents under extreme pressure and may explode, you dumbass, thus causing malpractice, if you don't attend to said contents, you understand? In other words, I am sort of catching up on long neglected matters which need tending to, prodding, or kicking.

Part of that tending to will be that big ass brief I have to put a reply in on. I don't really like big firm litigation tactics. They kind of suck, for the most part. They throw bodies at issues and attempt to overwhelm with the shotgun, scattershot approach instead of the rifle. I prefer the rifle. I prefer a targeted argument, the most effective argument, not every argument I can possibly think of thrown up without discrimination.

One thing I do find useful from big firms, though? Their legal research and citation. Yeah, pretty much I can rely every time on the big firm litigator to cite cases that are more helpful to me than they are to him/her. With some firms, I can begin my research from their cases.

Let me explain a little about computerized legal research. Cases are summarized by the West Group into headnotes. Headnotes describe the legal proposition advanced by the case. Before computers, you really used to research by headnote. I am of the generation of lawyers who learned to do legal research pre-computers. Let's say you want to find a case that says that to allege a particular kind of business tort, interference with pre-contractual relations, you have to allege that you would have gotten the contract with a certainty. Now, with computers, you can do the following search for the proposition: "certainty" /s "contract" /p interference. That brings up any case that uses certainty and contract in the same sentence and has interference in the same paragraph. Easy, right?

Well, no. You see, American jurisprudence is really based on the facts of each case. The facts decide what legal principles are applied to each situation. So, if all you do is the search and you find your quote and you cite it to the Court and move on as happy as a clam (although why clams are reputed to be happy is beyond me), then you have not really done your job. Big firm lawyers do this all the time. They cite the little bit and move on to the next point.

Then I come along and I read the whole case. And I get to find that in the following paragraph, the court goes on to say that despite the fact that you need certainty, no where in the history of American jurisprudence was a plaintiff required to establish that he could prove his cause of action in his complaint. Kind of an important, maybe even critical, distinction, no?

There was all sorts of other really useful stuff in this case. When I cite a case to the Court, I tend to read the entire case first and only cite it if the whole case is good for me. Takes a little more time in terms of legal research, but really makes all the difference and you are left knowing that your brief and your legal citation is bullet proof. That is peace of mind when you are in front of the Court on oral argument.

I am looking forward to seeing what other useful gems await me in this big firm brief.

But I still wish I had my snow day.

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