Screw the cite-check and pass the Cheetos. Why do things the hard way? It's not like lawyering is demanding. In February's edition of InsideCounsel magazine (formerly Corporate Legal Times), do see Associate Editor Lauren Williamson's cover piece, "Mind the Gap: Generation Y Attorneys Enter the Workplace". Whether you're 25 or 52, Williamson did a masterful job. But why are Boomer partners in the office for hours after the associates leave? Stealing stuff maybe. Wait, Shepard’s® does what? Dude, you're hosin' me. No way!

Lord Chief Justice Sir John ("Pompous") Popham, circa 1603

Lawyers aren't special. We're in a service business. We are not royalty. Get used to it. Rule 9: Be There for Clients 24/7. Returning telephone calls promptly and keeping your client "informed" is not client service. Color all that barely adequate. Get a new standard.

My people were entirely Nordic, which is to say they were idiots. Every wrong idea which has ever been expounded was theirs. Never once had they opened the door that leads to the soul; never once did they dream of taking a blind leap into the dark.

--Henry Miller (1891–1980), Tropic of Capricorn (Grove Press, 1961)

Even when writing about his own tribe of northern Europeans, he was funny, profound and painfully on target. Born in Manhattan and, interestingly, of German-Catholic parents, Henry Miller, novelist and painter, lived in Paris, Big Sur, Pacific Palisades, and many places in between. An inspiration to more than a few Beat poets and writers, he was a generation older than them--and beat most of them to it.

He lent an angry but insightful, funny and bawdy voice to the sentiment that Americans were too desperately conformist, unwittingly sterile and flat-out afraid to seize and live real life. Despite his often tiresome overtures of extreme existential dread, Miller was, and is, way fun to read. He could write beautifully; at his best, no one is better.

Women. He knew how to write about them in any profession, culture or walk of life. When he wrote of women, he was infuriating, hilarious or touching, moving easily from porn and hate, to awe and worship. Deep down, I think Miller loved them all--especially when he ranted against them. The whores of Paris, too.

"Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race."

They don't know what love is.

--R. Newman

Welsh version:

Inside there are only costs. Results are only on the outside.

The CEO alone experiences the meaningful outside at an enterprise level and is responsible for understanding it, interpreting it, advocating for it, and presenting it so that the company can respond in a way that enables sustainable sales, profit, and total shareholder return growth.

Alan George Lafley

Our new digital culture permits a certain accepted wimpiness to masquerade as needed "privacy" and personal "style". However, anonymous blogosphere participants are rarely worth anyone's time, thought, or respect.

The revered French Resistance in action 70 years ago. Today, certainly, these fighters might need to comment and blog anonymously. But most lawyers, shoe store managers, Tulane grad students, accountants, and other Country Club Charlies haven't earned that privilege. Past posts on the subject are here and here.

And grow a pair. This blog does not publish anonymous comments. Absent compelling reasons, nameless blogosphere participants, in our view, are rarely worth anyone's time, thought, or respect--even when they think and say brilliant things. Anonymous writers have already "discounted" themselves. They are second-class citizens. And they generally say third-rate things; they have no incentive to exceed below-average.

It doesn't take much thought or courage to lob one in there when you don't sign your name. Our new digital culture permits a certain accepted wimpiness to masquerade as needed "privacy" and personal "style". But it's a ruse. Most of us can do better than that. Don't buy into nameless blogging and commenting (or participation through pseudonyms) unless it's deserved.

As Walter Lippmann once reminded us, "cowardice" is a strong word, and you don't throw it around. We dislike using it. It implies a certain moral superiority of the user (which the writers of this blog would never claim, and do not wish to achieve). It generally furthers no discussions, and justifiably puts people on the defensive. But that word, unfortunately, may fit here.

If you want evidence and examples, see the comments on any given day to posts at Above the Law, which enjoys a status as one of the most successful sites ever (in or out of the law). Check out the anonymous haters, nameless "experts" and scores of prissy pundits who won't sign their real name to their rants and indictments. (We don't know how much David Lat is paying editor Elie Mystal these days, but it's not enough. Mystal is a mensch, soldier, hero and lightning rod who is often himself targeted for abuse.)

Club Ned Exemptions. "You sure do have a pretty mouth." Special needs exemptions, however, may be available to deserving applicants at this blog. Examples: Rape victims discussing being raped. CIA operatives talking about their jobs. Cuban, Iranian, Chinese dissidents. Abused housewives. Risk-takers and Radicals. Real victims. And those who have experienced a "high profile" humiliation--like Ned Beatty's character Bobby in "Deliverance".

Everyone else? (1) Get over yourself. (2) Get some help. (3) Or simply get back to work. You're just not ready for the bigs until you sign your real name to your real words.

So Kitzbühel is old, with a 12th century wall around much of it. It's small (around 8500 people), beautiful, historical, and a bit slow--but loads of fun for those with pluck. In modern times, and before non-Austrians found it and made even it more famous for skiing, the region was a resort for wealthy and proper Austrians from towns like Vienna.

But Kitzbühel has loosened up a bit. Well, a lot. It now has decent jazz. Drinking happens. It's inexpensive to live or visit here. It's surprisingly quiet. You can write your novel or textbook. You can miss editors' deadlines--and count on forgiveness. Oh, you can ski. And you can watch some of the best skiers in the world.

1. Quarterbacks--not Generic Dweebs.

2. Value--not Reduced Rates.

3. Verve--not Risk Aversion.

"Lawyers? Send me take-charge workaholics who don't dress like FBI agents or talk like Mr. Rogers."

(Photo: HBO)

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

--Jack London (1876-1916)

Tocqueville, of course, has been getting high marks for prescience from Americans and Europeans in the last 25 years after being ignored for the first 150 years. Now it's time for a new addition to the "Tocqueville renaissance": a novel--and necessarily a "road" novel at that. See in this week's The Economist the review of Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America (Knopf). We'll buy and read this one.

A papal water slide, too. To run, she may have three states to pick from. Or at least give her job/role at State? (We're serious.)

You look like a city. You feel like a religion.

--L. Nyro, 1969

Foley Square, 1963