Eclectivity

I recently opened a new package of notebook paper. Unlike most of my classmates, I take notes by hand rather than on my computer. I’m hoping this will be my last paper package. If not, I’m probably taking WAY too many notes.

Speaking of notes, here are some eclectic notes from my recent life:

As I read, I like to move. My ideal world would be one in which I could read and run at the same time. (Yes I know books on tape exist, but I don’t like running with things in or on my ears.) Since running and reading isn’t really an option, I do a good amount of walking and reading. But textbooks get heavy (and looking down too long causes sore necks) so I also do a LOT of sitting and standing around reading. That’s when my hands start playing with things, most recently a yo-yo and a slinky.

During classes I usually play with the elastic or bracelet I have around my wrist. I wonder how my professors would react to a yo-yo . . .

In History of the Common Law we recently read the Magna Carta, an appropriate activity for its 800^th birthday. My professor showed up in a celebratory polo shirt. (You can find souvenir items at magnacarta800th.com.) I learned that one ancient copy of the Magna Carta spent WWII safely hiding in Fort Knox.

Along with Magna Carta, we read the Charter of the Forest, which is the Magna Carta’s forgotten little brother, so to speak. Forest laws were a unique, often vilified portion of English law pertaining to royal forests (which, counter-intuitively, involve much more than just woods). Of course, Robin Hood came up during this class (it was only a matter of time in a class about historical English law).

As I was walking down DOG Street one day,
the governor drove by on his way to the capital.
He interrupted a heated street argument about
Parliament closing the port of Boston.

Switching to Admiralty, the best opinion I’ve ever read (even better than the haunted house rescission) is Margate Shipping Co. v. Montco Offshore Inc. (143 F.3d 976). It starts out, “’Twas a dark and very stormy night . . .”, goes on to cite the law of ancient Rhodes, and heaps accolades on the aptly named and deserving Captain Strong. The judge who wrote it must have been in a good mood. Either that or he/she moonlights as a serial novelist.

My Admiralty professor recommended a website: marinetraffic.com. Just in case you’re wondering which ships are in the neighborhood.

My other Admiralty professor (there are two) spent our last class discussing treasure salvage. He was involved in the litigation surrounding the salvage of the Central America, which sank with so much gold that it contributed to the economic panic of 1857. One of the largest gold bars in history, over 900 oz., was retrieved from the wreck. My professor got to see the gold piled up in the Brinks vault where it was stored. (He was working on the insurance company side, which was awarded about 10% of the treasure; in his words, their portion “wasn’t a huge amount; it was like $10 million.”)

This desperate onion has been
in my fridge a little too long.
I think Desperate Onion is a
great name for a rock band.

In Copyright, we discussed the copyright-ability of a series of choreographed yoga poses (no go), an undulating bike rack (nope), and a belt buckle (if it is a Winchester-type with independent artistic value, yes!). Copyright is intriguing because it prompts me to look up things like Winchester belt buckles and the Hindenburg disaster footage. Ah the joy of copyright law in the era of Google and YouTube. (After I Googled “Winchester belt buckle”, belt buckle ads started showing up in my browser.)

My most recent favorite quotation from Copyright: “[They are] both working in the genre of large freaky puppets . . .”

My favorite quotation from a chapter on Talmudic (Jewish) law in my Comparative Law textbook: “Creation is a hard act to follow.” (H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 5^th Ed. 2014, 117.)

I’ve also recently been reading an undergrad textbook because I’m working as a graduate assistant for a business professor who is teaching a course on the legal environment of business. After two years of hyper-technical law books, the undergrad book seems almost laughingly simple. The legally-trained part of me wants to qualify everything and point out all the nuances. In other words, my default answer has officially become the very lawyerly, “It depends . . .”

And in case you’re wondering, there are 33 weeks left until graduation. I counted.

I was reading by the lake one day
when a flotilla of geese came by.