tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55301542024-03-15T16:07:13.429-07:00Scrivener's ErrorLaw and reality in publishing and entertainment (seldom the same thing) from the creator's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into politics, military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comBlogger2886125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-84402182205067233782024-03-15T16:06:00.000-07:002024-03-15T16:06:41.786-07:00Poisoning iPads in the ParkSpring is here
Spring is here
Life is skittles
And life is beer…
Oh, it's not Spring until next week? Can't tell that from the non-Seattle weather today, although there's no need for air conditioning.
I'll start off with something noncontroversial, like potential enforcement of civil rights in the courts and doing away with consent searches because they don't work and they're CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-67433919090789791552024-03-10T10:18:00.000-07:002024-03-10T10:27:11.174-07:00Semicivilized Platter in the Wurst WaySometimes life 🦉 interferes at the sausage factory, and then one needs to throw out a bunch of spoiled stuff. Unfortunately, as it's election season (for eight more months, which is part of the problem), the news is going to look primarily like spoiled sausage ingredients for a while, and since the point of "sausages" is preserving the dodgier bits of dead animals…
…CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-32458599751904539852024-02-27T16:46:00.000-08:002024-02-27T16:46:54.721-08:00Literacy BarriersIt's been ten days now, so I think I'm sufficiently calmed down to not bring shame and disgrace on the legal profession with excessively intemperate comments on a recent decision. Frankly, the combination of the decision and circumstances leading to it does that all by itself. Before I go any farther, though:
disclosure: The following discussion concerns a litigant and law firm, but not CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-71454980127734317252024-02-23T16:34:00.000-08:002024-02-23T16:34:06.781-08:00CliffdivingI almost don't know which judicial outrage to excoriate today. I think I'll choose the more inflammatory one; there's a conflagration in the foothills of the first mountain:
One night as you sleep in your goose-feather bed
We will be kneeling at your bedside
We'll pray for your soul like the good Lord said
Let all be forgiven, let none be denied
Then one night as you sleep in your CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-21574370158416092062024-02-18T15:49:00.000-08:002024-02-19T09:04:40.311-08:00Unmedicated Link Sausage PlatterI'm afraid that medication for back spasms does not make for timely posting of the sausages, so some of these have perhaps been in the smokehouse a bit longer than optimal. That, however, may make some of their other ingredients slightly less noticeable.
As I remarked during the first iteration of this meme (a few weeks ago), it's really too bad that nobody noticed that reading is sexy duringCEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-88902022017672620332024-02-10T20:50:00.000-08:002024-02-10T20:50:45.937-08:00The Weird StuffTime plods when you're waiting for weird stuff. I finally have enough weird stuff to fill the platter.
Took a little trip today to a suburb, to the library and a grocery story. Out in the parking lot, some MAGAts (in uniform — white skin, red hats, election buttons, and dubious shaving jobs) were leafletting against a tax measure with a set-aside for low-income housing. The surprise came as CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-38581339590037636772024-02-10T04:30:00.000-08:002024-02-17T10:06:41.428-08:00It Was Twenty Years Ago Today…That AOL had to potentially pay (sorry, it doesn't scan, but this is the 'net after all in an infinitely-reflexive inquiry). It's still good law, as much because it's civil procedure as it is copyright law or law (hah!) of the 'net: If you're required to establish a contact point and take steps to ensure you don't have to deal with people using the published contact point, you don't get any CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-18440538913460528362024-02-02T10:51:00.000-08:002024-02-02T10:51:55.099-08:00Mixed-Species Link Sausage PlatterLots of weirdness from the arts and banking on this platter.
Consider The Broadsheet Hit List of 1648 (some of which remain disturbingly contemporaneous).
But that's just amusing, not as cringingly predictable as the impending implosion of gatekeeper-subculture-centric periodicals. Now when have I heard this before? Or seen it as a rather thin roman à clef that ultimately CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-67423090261249399072024-01-27T10:43:00.000-08:002024-01-27T14:50:04.002-08:00Post-Dental-Work Link Sausage Platter
Because for a couple more days, until the cement fully cures, I can't go gnaw on ribs — and then, the only worthwhile barbecue place around here will be closed for the day. So, now that the anesthetic has worn off and I have a convenient excuse for grouchiness (like I really need one):
So H'wood is getting a holy slap this year, eh? Meanwhile, a bunch of arrogant undereducated narcissists CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-90098270492167705352024-01-21T11:15:00.000-08:002024-01-21T11:15:57.826-08:00Nonconsensus Link Sausage PlatterThis platter of link sausages has been thoroughly p-hacked because I'm making an ideological point.
We just can't seem to get away from the malign influence of eighteenth-century English privilege as expressed in not just the common law, but in particular aspects of it. Despite the US having the First Amendment — which, for all of its problems, seems superior to the conceivable alternatives, CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-46042321625902469212024-01-14T15:58:00.000-08:002024-01-15T15:59:46.335-08:00Fooling Some of the People All of the TimeSo, tomorrow Iowa demonstrates its contempt for the electoral process with in-person caucuses held on (ordinarily) business days that are also school nights, in the midst of a major weather event. The results and orientation shouldn't be all that surprising: The Iowan political process gave us the horror show of the Dishon. Steve King (the other one, who was reelected six times after spewing CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-26334931961835476132024-01-07T12:26:00.000-08:002024-01-07T16:17:29.097-08:00Three Years Later…I still dare call it treason. (Migraines do not respect precise anniversary dates.) Or if not within the strict confines of "treason" — which is admittedly, and perhaps vehemently so, something that requires clear proof of acts notwithstanding state of mind, and the evidence is not yet of record however convinced I am that the forthcoming trials will do so — then an attempted coup CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-47748609327313542242023-12-31T15:08:00.000-08:002023-12-31T15:18:32.433-08:00Open-on-Sunday Link Sausage PlatterBecause it's the last Sunday of the year, and more Americans are worshipping at the idiot box (overtly professional football… and not, you losers) in preparation for a night of drinking, debauchery, and baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad musical performances than anywhere else.
A company that wants to open an outlet actually on the property of, and a hub for, public transportation — especially in CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-87432710834402723642023-12-28T15:14:00.000-08:002023-12-28T16:30:46.039-08:00UnchartedIt should surprise exactly no one that I'm not a Swiftie; more accurately, I'm not a Cowelly or a Brauny. No one performer or songwriter is obligated to do anything beyond the strictly personal, or at least inspired by the strictly personal, if that's where their strengths are. The hit-making machines and "all of our artists only record dancefloor hits" attitude of the contemporary music businessCEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-56056531959743471092023-12-23T17:16:00.000-08:002023-12-23T17:16:15.679-08:00Poisoned Blood SausagesI have two questions for those Over Here complaining — no, not just complaining, shrieking — about how immigrants are poisoning the blood of the nation:
What federally-recognized tribe are you a member of?
Care to share your hints for getting stains out of those white sheets you're wearing?
I'd also ask if they were aware that they're echoing a wannabe Austrian artist, or pseudonymous fan CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-53005425377966830912023-12-16T14:10:00.000-08:002023-12-16T14:10:03.384-08:00Dodgy Turkey Award Leftover PlatterRemember the Turkey Awards from three weeks ago? The universe appears to be offended that I jumped the gun on ridiculous people for the year. Fortunately, I always note "so far," but this is rather excessive — especially given how much these weeks-old leftovers are stinking up the 'fridge.
Rudy "I Wouldn't Recognize 'Respect for Civil Servants' If It Whacked Me With a $150 Million CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-4005809297752323002023-12-12T12:02:00.000-08:002023-12-13T08:12:26.321-08:00All Three DownSunday afternoon, I had the gridiron football game on in the background, doing the beginnings of end-of-the-year paperwork, set to the local rivalry game — only in US sports can the "local rivalry" be a 900-mile road trip, and that is literally the closest possible away game, with the next-closest game significantly farther than a trip from Madrid to Berlin — and was subjected to a rash of reallyCEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-24449107315593176432023-12-07T10:50:00.000-08:002023-12-12T15:37:53.665-08:00Infamous Link Sausage PlatterThere are two aspects of this calendar date that continue to live in infamy: Korematsu and Hirabayashi. Well, three: Manzanar. Well, four: Executive Order 9066, and an almost fanatical devotion to genteel bigotry. I'm just not going to try to explain how this kind of neglected history makes the current brouhaha over who, and how, and when people can be selectively outraged by atrocities in the CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-75762723784377138712023-11-30T00:49:00.000-08:002023-12-27T22:32:18.526-08:00A Return to Dietary NormalcyThe turkey is gone, so it's time for sausages!
So someone needs to save Disney, eh? And the obvious starting point is reinvigorating Marvel — this from a studio that built its reputation on appropriating material from other cultures and copyright piracy (just what, exactly, did you think Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and The Lion King were?). Well, I don't really agree; they'd have to "CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-48737897457648171392023-11-24T01:31:00.000-08:002023-11-24T01:31:00.175-08:00Black FridayIt's Black Friday! Let's see, what's on the shopping list?
Kangaroo treats, $3.77 at MallWort (hoping they'll get through TSA's gentle ministrations)
High-end trading hardware, $3300; software, $800; communications (fiber optic), $99/month (but I'll only need two months' worth and even Veriz0n can't get me Down Undah)
Inside information to support an "optimal trading strategy," no charge CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-58328007694951111062023-11-23T11:14:00.000-08:002023-12-27T22:37:31.331-08:00The 2023 Turkey AwardsAn annual tradition for over a decade! This is my list of ridiculous people from 2023 (so far). Pass me one of those rolls (and cue up the media player), please:
The Greasy Gravy Award for oily publicity that makes the main dish inedible goes to literary prize committees and their unrelated-to-art-or-reality eligibility criterea. Really, guys: A substantial proportion of the greatest literaryCEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-3212612109309966142023-11-20T17:09:00.000-08:002023-11-21T00:13:18.287-08:00Brining the BirdOnly three more days until Turkey Day! Only three more days until the 2023 Turkey Awards!
RIP Dame Antonia Duffy, better known as A.S. Byatt. She's far better known in the US for a filmed adaptation of one of her densely-layered novels than for the novels themselves, which is rather a shame.
On the other hand, if you really want to understand why so much utter crap gets published (CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-11276629450654478762023-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:002023-11-15T19:03:19.527-08:00Degreased Link Sausage PlatterI've poured the excess fat off these link sausages, but that's far from their most objectionable ingredient. (Don't ask. You really, really don't want to know.)
Well, the studios blinked, essentially (with a few changed details to satisfy passive investors — and the Department of Labor — that they had negotiated hard). Inquiring minds want to know precisely what the studios' extensive legal CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-86628594337672388862023-11-13T17:55:00.000-08:002023-12-12T15:43:10.845-08:00CowardiceIt's not genocide, at least not yet (as distinct from "genocidal acts"… perhaps not for all that much longer). It's "just" an atrocity. Yes, in fact one does refrain from military actions that violate the laws of war, however "necessary" they might seem, and even when "the other side" is itself violating the laws of war. That's what makes "laws of war" meaningful in the first CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5530154.post-68401930828310851902023-11-11T11:11:00.023-08:002023-11-13T20:10:34.229-08:00Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleven Minutes Into the Eleventh HourNo sausages today. At least in Western democracies, military personnel and veterans seldom get to see the laws or the sausages being made — they find it difficult, not to mention often unlawful, to stick their heads up above the bowl, even to watch (let alone object to the spicing… or the blade). This is therefore merely a snarl at a bullying theocrat — or is that theocratic bully? — who CEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06970221836704655630noreply@blogger.com