Carb-Free and Cranky

Well, I did it. I started the dreaded Atkins diet today. My husband, longtime follower of the regimen, made me swear that, if I did the diet, I would not complain about the utter lack of carbs (and therefore pasta, chocolate, Girl Scout cookies, and everything else with flavor) in my life. Of course, he did this because I have been known to join him on this diet before, only to make us both completely miserable.

So, I am now in a carbless haze. But the good news is, if I can lose ten pounds, I can move to the next phase, where I can add "nuts and berries" to my meals...yippee!

A Glimpse of the Mundane

Most important thing I've learned in law school today: none of the former Soviet Union states has adopted a recording system for secured interests.

Now there's some knowledge I'll use every day...

We Win! (I think)

I am currently watching Curling for the first time, and I am fascinated. More amusing than the fact this is an Olympic "sport" is the fact that the teams have fans. I'm talking costume-wearing, cowbell-carrying, singing fans! I think this would make great material for a mockumentary, a la Best in Show. This is at least as funny a crowd as the dog show circuit.

I'm trying my best to figure out what is going on, but so far I'm quite confused. So, a few of questions for you Curling experts out there: What the heck is the point? Also, are the guys with the brooms/sticks/whatever you call them actually guiding where the rock is going? If so, how? And if not, why are they skating alongside and rubbing the ice in front of the rock? I would love some insight.

Oh, wow! As I'm writing this, it appears the USA team has secured the bronze medal, much to the excitement of their fans, who are clad from head to toe in the Stars and Stripes. Wonders never cease.

Out of My Way, Assassin!

Jason and I had an up-close-and-personal encounter with stupidity last night (and, no, it wasn't our own stupidity this time). Let me set the scene:

We live on a narrow street. The street is not a one-way, but a dead end, barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. To compensate for the lack of parking for the surrounding apartments (and the insistence by non-tenants that they have a right to the few actual parking spaces), people park on the street. So, using simple math, what was once a narrow two-lane street becomes a one-lane street. You also need to know that our house is on the corner of this narrow street and a very busy street.

Now, here's the situation: When we were coming home from dinner last night, we pulled into our narrow street from the very busy street, only to be met with a Ford Explorer coming out of the (now one-lane) street. Please keep in mind that all the parked cars were parked on her side of the street. Our car barely out of the traffic from Busy Street, we sat there waiting for her to back straight up and allow us to pass. What does she do? She SITS THERE. And not just sits--she moves her car FORWARD, to where it is almost touching ours! Incredulous, we sat there for several more minutes. By this time there was another car waiting to turn onto Narrow Street from Busy Street, with the driver twiddling his thumbs. She kept sitting, inches from our car! So, being the gracious souls we are, Jason and I reversed into Busy Street and the traffic, so that Queenie could exit the dead end. (Somehow I don't think I've fully captured the shock and disbelief any reader should currently be experiencing, but I'm doing my best.)

When Queenie pulled into Busy Street from Narrow Street, as the rest of the world stopped in its tracks, the car waiting to pull onto Narrow Street gestured at her in frustration. After we parked our car, two neighbors we've never met came over to discuss what an idiot that girl was and threw in a few descriptive profanities as well. (Being defensive and highly annoyed, I thought they came over to tell us we should have backed up and let her pass, so I was not very nice... But, as I said, this post is not about my stupidity, and I digress.) The point is, everyone witnessing the situation understood the simple principle: car exiting quiet dead end should reverse and allow car from Busy Street to enter the dead end, especially when the parked cars are on her side of the street. But apparently the driver of said Explorer doesn't know what the "R" on her gearshift stands for.

Last night I may have been paralyzed with disbelief, but a word of warning to those exiting and entering Narrow Street today: I am fully prepared for a future standoff and will simply not back into oncoming traffic so that you can exit. So there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Husband (and me)!

I have decided that sharing a birthday with my husband is really fun. It's a whole separate "official" holiday at our house. Like an added Christmas Day or something. So, a big thank you to those who've emailed or called (and a special thanks to my in-laws, who woke me up with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday this morning).

If you need us, we'll be celebrating all day...

Missing in Action

DaySide (FoxNews) just reported that U.S. airlines lose 10,000 bags a DAY! Maybe I'll carry on everything I own next time I fly.

Oiling the Machine

Last week, UA's student newspaper The Crimson White published an article, wherein the SGA president acknowledged "The Machine" at work on UA's campus. This acknowledgment alone was news, as SGA administrations and most UA Greeks have adamantly denied the existence of any Machine in the past. So, when I saw the headline I was intrigued.

I have to say, however, that I was disappointed when I read further. The SGA president said the organization was just "people working for their friends." Really? Then why is it so secretive?

Oh, and she further elaborated, saying the organization's "humbleness" had been mistaken for secrecy. This is laughable.

I did not attend UA for undergrad (I didn't want to be written out of any wills, after all). But I have several firsthand accounts of the control of the Greek network when it comes to anything on campus. Here is my meager understanding of the Machine's workings: the Machine (made up of delegates from most traditionally white sororities and fraternities) secretly decides who will run in any given election (Homecoming, SGA, etc.), they put that person up as the Greek candidate, and every sorority and fraternity member must then vote for that person. So, basically, a Greek gets elected every time. And the Greeks that want to run but are not "chosen" by the Machine as the candidate? Oh, well.

As I said, I don't know the inner workings of all this. I do know that an organization just "working for their friends" doesn't normally have the power to require hundreds of people to vote for their candidate. Further, I highly doubt that such a benign organization would operate in extreme secrecy.

Don't Get Out Your Spackle Just Yet

Continuing my decorating theme from last week, I saw a disturbing magazine headline when I was standing in the grocery store line yesterday. It said, in bold, "Wallpaper is back!"

I have noticed the increased wallpaper usage on HGTV and TLC in past months. Shows that until recently stripped every wall of paper and replaced it with paint are now throwing wallpaper on any given space, instead of the fancy paint treatments they used to employ. And I'd just like to say, "Stop!"

I realize that wallpaper, particularly paper that looks like a fancy paint treatment, can give a similar feel without all the work or expense of these treatments. Even so, it is NOT the same--it still looks and feels like wallpaper.

What's more, if you're going for efficiency, wallpaper is not the answer! Just think about the pain wallpaper can be. I am proud to say I have never wallpapered a room in my life, but I have distinct memories of my mother and grandmother with spackling compound, scissors, tape measures, water, and buckets of paste. I can also remember their frustration while trying to match the pieces of a patterned wallpaper in order to continue the pattern around corners of a room. Not to mention the agony of removing old wallpaper. I would rather inhale the paint fumes any day.

Decorating, like fashion, goes through its trends. And while wallpaper may be currently "in," it will undoubtedly go "out" again. However, I haven't ever seen a nicely painted wall that was out of style. Don't give into this trend--Hold fast to your paintbrush.

At the Buzzer

I'd like to congratulate my brother, the 14-year-old basketball Phenom, who swished a 3 with seconds remaining to send the game into overtime last night. Unfortunately, I had to miss the game. But we are still reeling from his 17 point run (5 three-pointers) in the last one we saw him play.

Nice work, Mugsy.

I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm not sure how this works, but somehow the law school (faculty, students, and most importantly me) reach burn-out during the semester at about the same time. Maybe we all get busy at the same time. Regardless, this leads to several class cancellations and, even better, professors who go completely off-topic in class. I can't tell you how I appreciate this on a day when I am coughing, sniffling, and totally unprepared. So, a word of thanks to my equally tired professors!

Hullabaloo at the White House

God, give me the composure of Scott McClellan.

I spent a little time this morning watching the press lambast McClellan about the Vice President's failure to inform them immediately after his hunting accident this weekend. Clearly, Cheney shouldn't have worried about his friend's condition. He shouldn't have visited him in the hospital. Instead, he should have run to the nearest cell phone so that he could give an official statement to the American people. Get real.

Admittedly, the VP's office should probably have been more proactive, rather than letting the story leak through the ranch owner to a small Corpus Christi newspaper. But this is not exactly an issue of national security. I highly doubt the American people feel betrayed by the one-day delay in disseminating the information. And, in any case, no one feels as indignantly as does the press corps. Perhaps they're just personally hurt that they weren't the first to know.

For My Fellow Nerds

There is a quiz that is supposed to tell you which Rule of Civil Procedure you are. The results are amusing. In case you're wondering, I am Rule 11. Which are you?

Girl Talk

For the women out there: check out this blog my friend Courtney sent me recently.

These women (3 sisters and their mother, and all the wives of ministers) apply God's calling to our lives in very practical ways. See, for example, their posts on the habits of highly effective women. Though I frequently fall short of God's calling and their insight, I have been really encouraged by their blogging. They are real, and they are Scriptural in their wisdom. Enjoy!

Debbie, What Have You Done???

I am a huge HGTV fan. I can be completely sucked in by just about any 30-minute fix-a-room show. But there is one great exception: any transformation performed by Debbie Travis. She has a show called "Painted House," in which she personally wreaks havoc on various rooms through obnoxious colors, mediocre murals, and stenciling. Today, for example, she has decided to revamp a sophisticated, though plain, loft into a Crayola box. She has painted a wall and a staircase bright orange. And now, before my very eyes, she is painting the floor of this loft with the same neon pallette. Someone, please, make her stop!

Who Pays the Bill?

Last month a member of the Indiana House of Representatives proposed a bill to shift the payment of attorneys' fees in a civil case to the losing party. This loser-pays system is followed almost everywhere in the world--everywhere except the U.S. This country has always required the parties to pay their own expenses (except where a court exercises its discretion to the contrary and awards attorneys' fees to be paid as part of the damages).

And there are policy reasons for this system. The U.S. legal system provides access to courts for the "little guy." Through the contingency fees charged by many plaintiffs' counsel, a poor plaintiff may sue for his injury without risking a fee he will not be able to pay. Requiring all losing plaintiffs to pay the costs of defense would deter many plaintiffs, particularly the poor, from ever bringing suit. Many may feel inclined to cheer the thought of such a disincentive, but this "solution" is not all it's cracked up to be. While the bill would prevent frivolous suits, it goes too far, and prevents nonfrivolous suits. It fails the truly injured individual by preventing him from bringing suit, and thereby fails society by protecting defendants who have violated the law.

There is another consideration: a defendant who knows the plaintiff may pay his bills has every reason to flood the plaintiff with massive (expensive) discovery. Many parties already engage in such dilatory practices in violation of the Rules of Civil Procedure. This problem would only grow if a wealthy defendant could scare a plaintiff by increasing the bills. Even a plaintiff who braved the risks and brought suit may notice the growing defense fees he cannot pay and either settle for a nominal amount or dismiss the case altogether.

Surrounded by the loud call for tort reform, legislators are trying multiple means to cut down frivolous lawsuits that waste the resources of individuals and the judicial system. Reforms are important, as judicial efficiency is a vital policy. But reforms should not go so far as to deter any suit by a destitute plaintiff. Our country thrives on the equal opportunities afforded its citizens, and this bill would burden Indiana's poor by virtually eliminating their ability to litigate.

Update: After researching this issue a little further this afternoon, I would like to broaden my original stance to include disincentives to the middle class. In fact, a Utah medical malpractice defense lawyer, Francis J. Carney, published an article about this issue in the May 1995 volume of the Utah Bar Journal. He points out the ways the "loser-pays" system has failed in England. In England, the government pays the litigation costs of the poor, so the sytem actually harms the middle class plaintiff, who has assets to lose, rather than the poor or the wealthy. See Francis J. Carney, "'Loser Pays'--Justice for the Poorest and the Richest, Others Need Not Apply," 8 UTAH B.J. 18 (May 1995).

Misc.

Update on Groundhog Day: For anyone wondering, Birmingham Bill concurred with Punxsutawney last week. That's right, folks. Birmingham has its own groundhog.

Also, a belated happy birthday to my dad, who turned the big 50 last weekend!

Break out the Scarves...It's Below 60 Degrees!

In breaking news, Punxsutawney Phil has told us to expect 6 more weeks of winter. Well, no kidding! I think this might be the third day this "winter" I've worn my wool coat. I'm not really complaining--I am competely miserable on a cold rainy day. I just find it extremely ironic that winter didn't bother to arrive until Groundhog Day this year.

Bored? Escapa!

I have just received, via email, my latest vice. It's Escapa! Sure to provide hours of entertainment (and therefore hours of utter uselessness), this game involves the difficult concept of moving the red box around, avoiding the flying blue boxes and the black outline, for as long as possible. My best time so far is just over 19 seconds. Can any of you beat me?

(Those of you in law school can thank me later for this little addition to your classtime game repertoire.)

For the Love of Mississippi

I received an email from my grandfather (a Mississippian for over a decade) this morning containing a set of ads about Mississippi. Apparently a P.R. firm in Mississippi used its own time and money to develop these one-page ads/posters, and they're excellent. Check them out.