Month: February 2007

I’ve updated the software that runs triscribe to WordPress 2.1. This did zero to the public face of things, but made a few nice changes to the back end. This includes wysiwyg editing, auto save (no losing your typing if you hit the backspace key), and picture uploading on the same page as the edit. All cool stuff.

Photos on the flickr strip right now are a trip to City Island for famed seafood restaurant Sammy’s Fish Box. Why go to Red Lobster, when for the same price you can get the finest seafood money can buy in New York. We all got various combo plates, which we could only eat half of. P and I took our leftovers and made seafood fra diabolo the next day – two meals out of one dish. Recommended.

Chinese New Year this weekend, and our friend AS and family flies in tomorrow night. It’s going to be below 20 degrees F for the next couple of days. Brrrr!

Harvard becomes the 4th Ivy League school to have a woman president: Drew Gilpin Faust. Dr. Faust was interviewed on Lehrer’s Newshour on Monday night – and she noted that her being a historian is a plus. The journey toward the future continues.

Of course, I shall not be speaking for my undergraduate Alma Mater University; but I have to believe that one day, we too will have a woman president, sure. But, diversity in academia is still a work in progress.

Monday: I’m a bit behind on “Heroes,” having taped it and then just watched fleetingly by fast-forwarding through the storylines that I didn’t really care for (not that they’re bad storylines; they’re just not on my radar for the time being). Of note:
Hiro and Ando, the time-space bending guy and his sidekick, had a weird situation, now that they’re back in Las Vegas – but it was kind of a weak matter for them (if anything, Ando learns that falling for tall blondes may be dangerous for his and Hiro’s health).
I really find the Claire the Cheerleader storyline to be sincere and poignant – so she finds her bio-mom; bio-mom lacks some morals (well, if you go with the white trailer-park trash stereotype, hmm – surely there’s more to Meredith than that – and no, I hope she’s not Evil either); her bio-dad doesn’t want to meet her (or at least he says he doesn’t – but he’s clearly torn, because maybe he actually is a decent guy – still can’t be sure, because he’s a lawyer (oops) and a politician dealing with the final leg of his campaign (more oops)); her adopted dad – Glasses Man – well, he’s not terribly understanding toward her these days (no, not when he had let loose the Big Evil Mutant Man); and her adopted mom is suffering from severe memory loss (no thanks to Glasses Man’s mind-erasing Haitian sidekick, who erased Mrs. Bennett’s mind because Glasses Man thinks that’s the way to protect his family; yeah, right).

NBC’s sneak previews of the next episode of “Heroes” was irritating for hinting a little too obviously about who will die next. At least, I’m making my guess about Mrs. Bennett’s fate; I could be wrong. But, then again, I wasn’t surprised about who turned out to be Claire’s bio-dad; NBC has really got to avoid assigning the previews to the Promotions department – you’re not supposed to give away too much!
Also behind on “House” – got home too late, but managed to catch the end of Tuesday’s episode. House is still a basket-case jerk. I don’t believe him when he thinks he’ll find a way to end his pain (the physical pain; God only knows if his emotional pain will ever heal) – in the end, he uses his pain to define him and let him do what he will.

I liked that the episode made the three younger doctors a little interesting again – Foreman wonders if a doctor’s life really has room for a love life (umm, well, first, don’t take lessons from Dr. House about that). Cameron seems to be more willing to satisfy her physical needs rather than her desire for love – so she targets Chase. Chase, who once again proves why he’s a seminary school dropout, doesn’t seem too bothered that Cameron wants to have sex with him with no strings attached (mind you, they did that last season and she was foolish and vulnerable and he was – well – a fool (although he still strikes me as a guy who would find a way to make strings attach)). In real life, the actors who play Chase and Cameron are apparently engaged to each other – so it’s amusing.

However, FOX’s previews indicate that Cameron still has a fondness for House, though; sigh – get over him, Cameron!
See if snow will be anything at all in NYC; likely just a slippery mess. We are so not Oswego or anywhere upstate with the 10ft of snow…

Pardon the absence; life got in the way…!

Wed., Feb. 7, 2007 – attended a CLE seminar at the last minute at the City Bar – on “Blogs – Wave of the Future for the American Lawyer: Creation, Use, & Ethical Considerations.” Interesting – one of those programs that didn’t put me to sleep (uh, no, no, that never happens…) – three lawyers who blog about their subjects or about lawyers who blog. Kevin O’Keefe, Daniel Clement, and Troy Rosasco were the panelists.

According to O’Keefe, lawyer blogs, being specific to a legal subject, are “not advertising. Basis being that their primary purpose is not ‘the retention of the lawyer or law firm'” – and may be protected by Free Speech rights.  Kind of a relief to know!

The program was very fascinating stuff. Observations were made on the idea of lawyer blogs as networking or an easy way to get oneself published (as alternatives to law review and law journals).  I doubt we of Triscribe count under the state’s advertising restrictions, since we don’t advertise legal services. We just comment and, more often than not, we don’t even about the law. Personal blogging is all fine and dandy. Blogging, if nothing else, made us all Time People of the Year! Talk about societal change and being part of the wave of the future indeed.

Reading for last week: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – gripping. I remembered reading it back in high school, and thinking it was creepy. Now with the outlook as adult and a lawyer – still creepy. The book managed to make me miss my subway stop.

How gripping it was – the Salem witch hunts going out of control and all the implications therein – the very harmfulness of theocracy; the rational mind losing out to the human flaws of jealousy, pride, and lust; the problem of witnesses with poor credibility – children or young women who had no power and then grabbing power by making the judges and the authorities listen to them.

Were they really possessed, or were they just playing with everyone? Abigail Williams pushing it too far by sending the Proctors to their doom; Mary Warren too weak-willed to resist; and John Proctor – poor man who wouldn’t give names, because the process was wrong. People believed in witches – and the way the girls were acting, how do you fight the irrational? The rule of law is nice, but what do you do when people are still… people?
This may have been associated with Miller’s times – the McCarthy witch hunts – but it was more than that – it’s timeless. The writing was great; as a movie or play – sure, that was nice (go ahead – watch the movie: the strangeness of seeing Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor – or, scarier – Wynona Ryder as Abigail), but there’s something of a difference in having the text itself.

A society in hysteria, Miller portrays and then there’s what we have these days: well, the whole Anna Nicole Smith thing – someone who invented herself for the media, and the media exploits back. It’s also wrong to compare Anna Nicole Smith to Miller’s ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe – Monroe actually had talent in acting. (umm, forgive me for noticing this about the dead). As Prof. Joanna Grossman notes on her Findlaw column: Smith’s “litigious life makes her unusual as well. Lawyers, courts, and perhaps juries will now be left to sort out the legal morass she left behind.” Ain’t that right. As FC notes: Smith’s litigious legacy is quite a bar exam question. 😀

Last but not least on a week in review: the passing of actor Ian Richardson.