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

 

potluck

“Past due gray”  If you’re a lawyer thinking about cashing in on the new bankruptcy laws,

by offering debt-reduction services to middle class consumers (who will be trying

to avoid bankruptcy), you might want to check out the Federal Trade Commission’s

press conference “to announce three law enforcement actions targeting deceptive

and misleading debt-related services.”

• 
  
  Also, see my suggestions on setting fees for debt-reduction to services.

 

  Legal Reader pointed to a column by Mike Nichols (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

March 11, 2005) deriding pro se litigants as nutcases with “decoder rings.”  Nichols didn’t

seem to have any actual information or insights to offer.  Maybe he could check out

SelfHelpSupport.org, and even our post last year covering New Hampshire’s Report on pro se

litigants [Challenge to Justice, Jan. 2004].  The NH Task Force had a slightly different tone

than Nichols:  “They come into their court, on their own, with a conflict or change in their lives,

and they expect a resolution. That is their constitutional right. . . .  Our obligation is to give these

citizens the help they want, need and deserve.”

  

  Just because Prof. Volokh has ignored our very good advice

concerning the application of conspiracy theory to his weblog, doesn’t mean

that you should.  (It’s a slow weekend, feel free to scroll down this page.)

 

“tinyredcheck”  JurisPundit Jeremy Moore has devoted a lengthy post to the conversation

provoked by my podriahs-podcasting post yesterday.  The caste of characters involved in the

e-mail thread includes Evan Schaeffer, Kevin Heller, Robert Ambrogi, Jeremy Richey, J. Craig Williams,

and George Wallace.

 

 

“easterEggF”    Whenever I’m seriously considering driving to my hometown — which 

is usually the day before a holiday — I think of our Honored Guest, Tom

Painting, another native son of Rochester, New York, who still lives

there. 

 

Tom is the well-known Rochester haijin (as opposed to your editor, the

neophyte).   Thus, and to wit, you get a basketful of haiku from Rochester

(can you hear those flat a’s?), while I get a 4-hour drive, during which I hope

to have a memorable haiku moment or two.

 

Here’s your low-fat, no-calorie Easter treat from

the shores of Lake Ontario:

 

 

the cattails

lose their heads

march wind

 

 

 

 

divorced

he finishes

his sentence

 

 

 

 

 

 

sleepless night
snow to rain
by the sound of it

For Tom, Easter means the passing of one season  

and the bright start of another:

 

 

 

the flyswatter

hangs from a nail

winter stillness

 

 

 

 

bases loaded

a full moon clears

the right field fence

 

 

 

 

Tom Painting

“the flyswatter,” “the cattails” & “bases loaded” from the haiku chapbook piano practice 

“sleepless night” The Heron’s Nest (March 2005); “divorced” – frogpond XXVII: 2