f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

No spin or spine needed to declare that all the haiku in the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award Collection are winners.   They were chosen by the Haiku Society of America as the best unpublished haiku in their respective years.   A few minutes at the Henderson Collection, or browsing the HSA website, is a great escape from post-debate babble.

The old antitrust prosecutor in me was momentarily suspicious, seeing that f/k/a‘s newest Honored Guests,  Billie Wilson and  W.F. Owen are dominating the last few years’ competition.  But, then, I remembered that monopoly gained on the merits is perfectly legal.    If there is a conspiracy, you’ll see that Michael Dylan Welch, George Swede, and several other f/k/a contributors are also members.  Here are a pair of winners from billie and from w.f. [all published in HSA’s journal, frogpond]

First Place 2004:
w.f. owen

Indian summer
a spent salmon
washes ashore

First Place 2003:
Billie Wilson

whalebone
from a beach near Savoonga—
winter rain

Second Place 2002:
Billie Wilson

summer evening—
from across the meadow
a call to supper

Third Place: 2001
W. F. Owen

Indian summer
a fish slips through
the gill net

by dagosan:

expecting rain,

smiling at

the blue sky

[Oct. 14, 2004]

disclaimer: the accolades above refer to haiku by our Honored Guests, not by

the Humble Editor.

one-breath pundit

• • I’m with Bainbridge — that was a boring debate; followed by aggravating post-debate commentary.

    • Cf. E. Schaeffer: The Enough-With-the-Debates-Already Edition

  • I know campaign workers are paid to spin about their candidate’s virtues, but do the common folk

    who call in talk radio really believe their one-sided reviews?  Yikes.

  • Count me among the Kerry/Edwards supporters who object to each of them mentioning the sexual orientation of Mary Cheney in the election debates — at best, an unnecessary, awkward distraction.  See, e.g., re: Kerry: tins; TalkLeft; and Law, Life, Libido (good satire, Matt); re: Edwards: USAToday.

  • Ted Frank and Martin Grace are worried about the negative externalities of pro bono litigation.   I hope we can all agree that some lawsuits are good for society and that poor people deserve to have representation to bring those lawsuits.  On the other hand, note that there is really very little pro bono going on, and Pro Bono Is Not the Answer to the Access Problem.

  • My heart goes out to the poor soul who Googled “should I drop out of law school” this evening.  The Resources Page of Hindi Greenberg’s Lawyers in Transition website might be helpful, as well as the law review article On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession, 52 Vand. L. Rev. 871, by Professor Patrick J. Schiltz (discussed here).