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March 29, 2016
Anna Marie Duke (1946-2016)
Today we lost someone authentic and great. Patty Duke, 69, was way more than an Oscar winner, television icon and child film star. Gifted, hardworking, prolific, smart, tough, brave. First-rate stage and movie actress her whole life. She could sing, too. Survivor, endurer, winner. Real class with no apologies. And too young. This news bothered me.
Patty Duke & Helen Keller circa 1960. Photo: Nina Leen. Thanks Charles Lieurance, Betsy Munnell
Posted by JD Hull at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2016
Easter?
Today is a day of Renewal and Rebirth in several traditions and cultures. Today is a day when every home should have women, children, dogs, cats, new music, old books, laughter and enough on-hand cash to alter outcomes in several Chicago elections. Happy Easter, everyone.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2016
Another first century messiah. This one endured.
How did an illiterate and very likely married young Jewish day laborer from a Galilean backwater who rose up against an entrenched Roman-Jewish priesthood establishment as a messiah and was killed by the regional establishment like a dozen other messiahs in the same region during the same period--and for the same crowd control-related reasons--become the focal point of a major and enduring world religion? "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" is the best selling book by Iranian-American author Reza Aslan published by Random House in mid-2013. Zealot is not going to make everyone happy but it's a brave, competent and well-written sliver of history. Part scholarship and part clever provocation.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2016
The T Word: Fear & Loathing on a Southern Campus.
Coca Cola-built Emory University was once a great notion. See Susan Svrluga's piece in the Washington Post this morning: "Someone wrote ‘Trump 2016’ on Emory’s campus in chalk. Some students said they no longer feel safe".
Photo: Amelia Sims
Posted by JD Hull at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2016
Happy Spring, all you Druids out there.
Today, Sunday March 20th, is the Spring Equinox for 2016. Also called the Vernal Equinox, it's an astronomical event in which the plane of Earth's equator passes through the center of the earth's Sun. On this date, day and night are of approximately equal duration all over the planet. The Equinox also marks the first day of Spring, and the start of the time of year to revel in and celebrate Rebirth and Renewal, observed in most Western religions and cultures this time of year. Christianity, Judaism and a number of forms of Paganism of course have their own versions of celebrating Spring. See in todays' Sunday Express (UK) all ye need to know about the Equinox. Below: Shooting cherry blossoms, Washington, D.C., April 7, 1922 (LOC photo). Peak blossom time in 2016 will occur this week, March 23-24.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2016
Credit where credit is due: Hillary Rodham Clinton, you are one tough Baby Boomer.
See Quartz this morning: "On a Roll: Hillary Clinton looks unstoppable after winning Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina." Credit where credit is due. No one on planet Earth works harder than one uber-overachiever Chicago girl from a traditionally GOP family named Hillary Rodham Clinton who was the subject of a full feature in Life Magazine when she was 21 years old. Like Wild Bill, and for her entire life, HRC comes prepared, heavy and ready to play. Razor-sharp. And no wimp. I've always seen her as a wartime POTUS. Nicely done. You are one tough Baby Boomer.
W and HRC in California at Nancy Reagan funeral on March 11, 2016
Posted by JD Hull at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2016
Is International Women's Day over yet?
I'm so tired of celebrating everyone on the planet but me and mine.
Especially women--as if they were lacking in gifts, talent and accomplishments.
When they are not.
Is International Women's Day over yet?
Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2016
Redux*: Real-life Facebook Private Chat with Non-Feminist Girl/Woman "looking for a good man."
NOTE and WARNING: So a youngish attractive (not by mine but by normal people standards) person between 18 and 25 from her photo recently "friended" me on Facebook. I apparently accepted thinking she had some personal connection to me; she does not. Today she privately messaged me to chat via Facebook Messenger. We chatted while I was still at my office--I'm a youngish energetic Boomer lawyer; we're all like this, even on Friday nights--in my last half-hour at work. I unfriended her at 7:26 PM. Look, there is nothing more dangerous/unsexy than this kind of human you meet on the Net. Okay, a bit funny to me maybe. However, if you're a regular homely and/or sexually-frustrated married guy unskilled in philandering, or a part-time or novice cad, this is NOT fun, funny or safe. Do not try this at home; you'll just screw it up, end up on a Chris Hansen NBC show. I am correcting typos and punctuation of her English prose for clarity in this post. Otherwise verbatim:
(Chat Conversation Begin 6:56PM)
HER: Hi
ME: Hi, what's up? Can I help you?
[longish pause]
HER: How are you doing?
ME: Fine. And you?
HER: I am doing well. I am looking for a good man.
ME: That would not be me. I have had 2 or maybe 3 wives and scores of girlfriends and cheated on every one of them. Besides you are way too young for me. Way.
[moderate pause]
HER: You mean you cheated on your wives and GFs?
ME: Yes. Every one of them. I think there's something wrong with me.
[No pause at all but this non-sequitur response...]
HER: But I believe with love 2 people can overcome age and distance.
ME: Well, I don't. I'm looking for (1) Smith College, (2) brilliance, (3) wit, (4) Anglo-Gaelic breeding, (5) athleticism, (6) world-class beauty, (7) a flat in London and (8) really big trust funds. And (9) right here in DC. Must have all 9.
[another longish pause]
HER: Really?
ME: Yes. Absolutely. How did we get to be FB friends? I may be the wrong Dan Hull. There are lots of Dan Hulls and most are lazy hillbillies like me. Half of us are in jail.
[short pause]
HER: Uhhh...ok.
[Chat Conversation End 7:25pm]
1 out of 9 doesn't cut it.
*From post on 1/29/16
Posted by JD Hull at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2016
Washington Examiner: "What If Clinton's Indicted?"
The cover story for this week's Washington Examiner print edition is here. It's a weird idea. And as WE does it, it's a bit overreaching. But 12 months ago so was Trump or Carson as 2016 POTUS election players.
AP photo
Posted by JD Hull at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2016
Partner Emeritus: On the State of the Legal Profession.
If you are a lawyer who loves what he or she does for great clients, you may have more worries these days about the future than what happens after Super Tuesday. See comments last week at David Lat's Above The Law made by the incomparable, highly-regarded Partner Emeritus, a New York City-based patrician BigLaw god and North Star to serious corporate lawyers, and cherished friend, to the post "What Happens When Gunfire Breaks Out During The Bar Exam?" Excerpts:
I have seen the end of this profession. Currently the cabal of law school deans and the ABA are pushing for a uniform bar exam which will segue into a no bar exam standard (e.g., Wisconsin). Today the GRE will replace the LSAT. Tomorrow the TOEFL will replace the GRE as the law school entrance exam.
Lately, I have refrained from visiting courtrooms as all I see is mediocrity running amok with tablets and iphones. Two months ago, I witnessed the following exchange between a young "lawyer" and a judge:
Young Lawyer: "Judge, I just googled this issue and found a case which supports our position."
Judge: "Counselor, are you aware of our Electronics Device policy? You cannot operate that device without prior consent. Did you obtain consent?"
Young Lawyer: "Your honor, the courthouse has open public wifi, if it really wanted to restrict access, the clerk of the court would have set a password."
Judge: [Shaking his head in disbelief], "Counselor, that is beside the point and the case you 'googled' was reversed last August by the appellate court."
Young Lawyer: "Judge, can you provide the appellate court's decision? Google did not find that case and says my originally cited case is still good law."
After witnessing that exchange, I lost all hope for this profession. Even if scientists were able to clone me a million times, the profession is beyond repair. Heaven help us.
And even more poignantly:
Dan, we've lost the good fight. Look around you. The Golden Age of Law will never return. We will always have memories of they heydays in the '80s. We live in a society where the average citizen believes Donald Trump is a legitimate GOP candidate (he is not, he is a Hitlery Clinton operative who was set up to run as a candidate to sabotage the GOP) and will vote for Hitlery because she is a woman and it makes us feel good inside when we vote for the "underdog." Look how that worked out for AmeriKa when it elected the first Black man to be the Kommissar. We are doomed Dan. When Hitlery becomes the Regina Kommissar, I will become an ex-pat in a remote country and watch this country become consumed in conflagrations. I hope you have your exit plan already mapped out.
Partner Emeritus
Posted by JD Hull at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2016
Moral Superiority: "I'm a Racist. You're a Racist."
Racism and balking at Otherness is natural to humans. It has always gone on. Warring, distrustful tribes is, in fact, the history of this planet. The vast majority of us are racist and bigoted. Let's start there.
The Battle of Salamis, 1867, Wilhelm von Kaulbach. Between Greek and Persian armies, it took place near Athens in September of 480 BC.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)