General musings

After two VERY long (seemingly endless, in fact) days, I now have completed 25.5 hours of continuing legal education, meaning that, not only have I met the requirement of 24 hours every two years, I get to carry 1.5 hours forward toward the 2008 reporting period.

Every reporting period, we’re required to waste half an hour of our lives on substance abuse and how to recognize impaired lawyers. If you’ve heard this worthless, waste of time program once, you’ve heard it as many times as you ever need to hear it. There is absolutely no reason why this has to be repeated every other year. I’ve now heard it 9 times during the course of my career and it’s just as awful today as it was the first time. That’s half an hour of my life just wasted every two years that I can never get back, and it pisses me off every time that I think about it.

Having already fulfilled my substance abuse obligation for this reporting period, I decided that I could not even conceive of forcing myself to suffer through that last half hour today and left, or I would have 2.0 hours to carry forward and not just 1.5. That’s a trade-off I was definitely willing to make.

I wish I could find words to describe the overwhelming sense of relief I’m feeling, but they fail me at the moment.

Whew! will have to do for now.

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Like most states, Ohio has continuing education requirements as a condition of maintaining one’s license to practice law. We are required to complete 24 hours of continuing education every two years. The first half of the alphabet reports in odd-numbered years, and the second half of the alphabet reports in even-numbered years. As a “W”, this is my year to report. I have to satisfy the obligation by December 31. For the most part, we get to pick our own programs. The only absolute requirement is 1 hour of legal ethics, 1 hour of professionalism, and a completely and totally wasted half hour of how to recognize substance abusers every two years. Beyond that, we are free to select what we attend.

Like most people, I’m a terrible procrastinator. Every minute spent in CLE is a minute of unproductive time. I’m busy enough that it’s typically hard to work these programs into my schedule. There’s also the fact that most of these programs–not all, but most–are about as interesting as watching paint dry. Occasionally, you find an interesting one, but most are sheer misery. The vast majority of them end up being a serious waste of time. It is, therefore, no mystery why I tend to procrastinate in spite of my avowed intention to get it over with earlier each biennium.

In October, I realized that I had completed exactly 2.75 hours of my requirement, and that I had another 21.25 hours to complete by December 31. I’ve chipped away at it some–as I write this, I have 11.75 hours completed. That means that I have another 12.25 hours to go before the bi-annual misery is over.

I found a program that will provide me with 14.25 credit hours over two days (we’re allowed to carry forward as many as 12 credits, so the extra two hours will carry forward toward my 2008 requirement). Those two days are tomorrow and Thursday. It’s 9-5 each day. The topic is “Solo and Small Law Office Technology”. Normally, that would be reasonably interesting, as I’m something of a propeller head. It includes such scintillating topics as “the paperless office” and how to make maximum use of your scanner.

However, the consulting firm that puts the thing on is the very same consulting firm that my partners hired to do the technology when they established the law firm in May of this year. That means that I’m already using much of what they will be preaching over the course of the next two days. It means that I’m headed to the world of mind-numbing boredom for the next two days. The big challenge, I fear, will be staying awake.

I will have my laptop with me, and the Ohio State Bar Association has wireless. At least I can check e-mail and stay in touch with my world, and I might also find a way to get a little bit of work finished during the particularly dull moments. However, I can think of hundreds–no, thousands–of other things I’d rather do, or places I’d rather be.

The only consolation is that once I finish up on Thursday afternoon, I will have fully satisfied my bi-annual obligation. Wish me luck, folks. It’s going to be miserable.

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As the month of December 1980 began, John Lennon was riding a wave. His comeback album, Double Fantasy, was the number one selling album in the world, and it had two songs that went to number one on the singles charts. He was enjoying not only a resurgence, but his best record sales as a solo artist and since the break-up of the Beatles. He was happily married to Yoko Ono, and they had a five-year-old son named Sean.

On the evening of December 8, 1980, a demented young man named Mark David Chapman, who wanted to be famous, waited outside The Dakota, the famed Manhattan apartment building where the Lennons lived. John and Yoko had spent the evening at a recording studio, and when their limo dropped them off, Chapman called out, “Mr. Lennon!” When Lennon responded, Chapman pumped five bullets into Lennon, who died a few minutes later of his wounds. It was 11:50 P.M.

I attended a concert by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Spectrum in Philadelphia that night. Bruce’s fifth album, The River, had been released that fall, and “Hungry Heart” was somewhere near the top of the charts. I was a 19-year-old sophomore in college. My friends and I drove about 3 hours to the Spectrum from Carlisle, and we saw a killer show. The Boss played for about 4 1/2 hours that night. The concert let out at about the time that Chapman fired the fatal rounds.

Nobody told Bruce Springsteen that John Lennon had been shot, so nothing was said during the show. We were completely ignorant of events when we left the arena to head for the cars.

When we got to the car, all of the Philly radio stations were playing nothing but Beatles and John Lennon songs, and we could not, for the life of us, understand why. Finally, there was a break in the music, and we heard the terrible news. Obviously, that’s a night that is forever burned into my memory, both for the incredible show we saw, and then for the horrific events that we learned of after the end of the show.

John Lennon did not deserve to die. With him died a little piece of my childhood and many of the dreams of a generation.

Rest in peace, John. You’re still missed. It’s hard to believe that 26 years have passed since that night.

Imagine

—John Lennon

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Susan and I are particularly fond of Asian food. We have a favorite Chinese restaurant that we frequent. The couple who own the restaurant are from Taiwan, and they’re very nice folks. Tonight, after spending seven hours in the car, we decided to go there for dinner.

The owner’s daughter waited on us. She was born here in the United States, but she’s a very quiet, studious sort of girl. She just finished her first quarter of college. While we were ordering dinner, her mother, who also works at the restaurant hurried over to the table and informed us that she had told her daughter that I was an expert on the Battle of Gettysburg. I said that I knew a little bit about it.

It turns out that the daughter, who’s probably still 18 years old, recently went on a camping trip to Gettysburg, and she toured the battlefield for the first time. She indicated that she really loved it, that she found it fascinating, and, when I pressed her, she told me that Devil’s Den was her favorite part of the battlefield. Specifically, she said, “Devil’s Den is just awesome.”

Needless to say, I was astounded by this. This young woman of Taiwanese descent–she’s first generation American–and who’s a studious sort who is considering being a chemistry major, is into Gettysburg! We ended up having a chat about the battle and what was so fascinating about it.

Our NHL team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, just hired a new head coach, Ken Hitchcock. Hitchcock–a Canadian–has won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars, and was brought in to bring some discipline and to teach the many very young players on the Blue Jackets how to be successful NHL players. His hiring has met with nearly universal approval among the loyal but greatly unhappy fans of this team.

It turns out that Hitchcock is a Civil War buff. He has a long-standing and well-documented interest in the Late Unpleasantness. That is, of course, appropriate for a team named to honor Ohio’s contributions to the Civil War, and whose logo features a Civil War-style kepi. As a season ticket holder from the beginning of the franchise, this pleases me a great deal.

I never cease to be amazed at how pervasive the interest in the Civil War is, and am likewise amazed at the unlikely places where I find that interest. I can only hope it keeps up.

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Susan and I went to see the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale, on Saturday night. I wondered what this movie would be like for months before it was released.

I liked Pierce Brosnan’s portrayal of Bond. Honestly, it’s a role he was born to play. Brosnan was plagued with a couple of really bad scripts and a couple of completely unbelievable story lines. His last Bond film, Die Another Day, was beyond atrocious, although it wasn’t Brosnan’s fault that it was so bad. The script was absolutely ridiculous, the story line was completely unbelievable, and Halle Berry was so awful in it that it was hard to believe that this same woman won an Oscar. I genuinely feared that the Bond series had reached its end, and that this horrendous movie was the reason.

The initial buzz was that Clive Owen, whose work I really like, would be the next Bond, and I really thought he’d make a great 007. However, that didn’t happen, and the search for a new Bond dragged on for several more years. Finally, the producers announced that they had cast Daniel Craig as Bond. Craig, who has proven himself to be a gifted actor in other films such as Munich, has blonde hair and blue eyes, and looks nothing at all like George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, or Brosnan, all of whom have very dark hair. As a result, there was a firestorm of controversy, with lots of web sites protesting the choice of Craig.

Casino Royale was Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, and it relates the story of how James Bond became a 00 agent, and how he evolved into the suave and debonaire secret agent portrayed in so many movies. It’s been filmed twice before, once in an hour-long version in 1954, and the awful 1967 farce with David Niven playing a retirement-age Bond with Woody Allen and Peter Sellers.

This telling of the story begins with Bond’s promotion to 00 status. M, played by the wonderful Dame Judi Dench, the head of MI-6, describes him as a blunt instrument, a stark contrast to the Connery version. There are no whiz-bang gadgets and no absurd special effects. The only gadgets are things we normal folks carry–cell phones and laptop computers. My only complaint is that the movie, at about 2:40 is too long.

Having said that, Craig was tremendous. His portrayal of Bond is probably the closest to the way that Fleming wrote the character of any yet attempted. He gave a nuanced but powerful performance, and he pulls off some very realistic fight scenes with aplomb. In short, I think that all of the criticism and fears that Craig would not make a good Bond was unfair and not well-considered. This guy, at age 38, could continue to play Bond for years to come. And I hope he will.

Bond is back. With a vengeance.

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I live in Columbus, Ohio.  I am, however, a native Pennsylvanian. I grew up rooting for Penn State.  I genuinely could not care less about Ohio State and its football program.

However, here in Columbus, if one does not bow and scrape at the temple of Woody Hayes, one is looked at suspiciously.  I’m absolutely convinced that OSU football is some strange, bizarre, and fatal disease for which there is no cure.  It causes otherwise normal, rational people to turn into drooling, wild-eyed, raving lunatics.  It really is unbelievable.

There’s actually some bozo in this town who makes a living doing a Woody Hayes impression.  Never mind that Woody’s been dead for something like 25 years, and never mind that he disgraced himself at the end of his career.  This guy gets on the radio every week and makes personal appearances, and just jibbers on and on, sounding like a brain damaged moron, and people actually PAY him for this….I just don’t get it. 

Tomorrow is the OSU vs. Michigan game.  Even under the worst of circumstances, it’s an obsession and the focus of an entire city’s existence for a week or so every year.  This year, however, with both teams undefeated and ranked one and two, you can only imagine what it’s like.  One of the local anchors put it quite well indeed last Sunday morning when she said (while wearing scarlet and gray), “If you are the sort of person who gets sick of Ohio State football, you’re in the wrong place this week.” 

It’s been the lead story on the local news every broadcast for a week.  It’s been on the front page of the local rag every day this week.  Enough, already!!!!  Everywhere you go, people greet each other by saying things like “Go Bucks!” or “OH”, to which the appropriate response is “IO”.  It’s kind of like some secret fraternity handshake thing, except it’s not a secret.  And when you genuinely couldn’t give a damn, like me, people look at you funny. Our office manager is decked out in OSU regalia today.  I’m not.  I’m sure it’s going to engender some strange looks today to see someone NOT wearing scarlet and gray, but I don’t care.  I don’t own a single OSU item, and I intend to keep it that way.

The clincher happened this morning.  The morning radio show that I have listened to for years was having some Bacchanalian OSU fest, and when I got in the car, I was greeted by nothing but screams “OH” by the DJ’s and “IO” by the drunken crowd.  I finally couldn’t take it anymore and changed the station to Bob and Tom so I just wouldn’t have to listen to it anymore… 

All I can say is that I can’t stand it anymore…..this damned game can’t be over soon enough….

And God forbid that they lose….

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It’s been a while since we last checked on the results of the unscientific poll on favorite Civil War battlefields on the CWDG web site. Tonight, with 132 votes registered to date, here are the current results:

Antietam 15.91% (21)
Chancellorsville 2.27% (3)
Chickamauga 6.82% (9)
Fredericksburg 3.03% (4)
Gettysburg 46.97% (62)
Petersburg 0.76% (1)
Richmond 0.00% (0)
Shiloh 6.82% (9)
Vicksburg 3.79% (5)
Other–tell us what! 13.64% (18)

Total Votes: 132

Not surprisingly, Gettysburg continues to hold an enormous lead. No news there. I was one of the three votes for Chancellorsville. I wonder who the other two were….

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At long last, tomorrow is election day. When the negative attack ads started in June, it seemed like this day would never come. As I said last week, it couldn’t come soon enough.

Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, please do your civic duty and vote tomorrow. The way I see it, those who don’t do their duty and vote have no right to bitch.

As for me, I intend to keep on bitching, so I will be there bright and early tomorrow morning exercising my constitutional rights (one of the very few constitutional rights we still have left, thanks to George W. Bush).

And, best of all, by this time tomorrow night, there will be no more attack ads…..

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Today is November 2. The mid-term elections are in five days. Tuesday cannot possibly come soon enough.

I live in Ohio, which is THE battleground state these days. We’ve lost about a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs in the past six or seven years. The state’s unemployment rate is 5.7%, a full percentage point higher than the rest of the country. The economy in this state is a wreck. Our convicted criminal governor is leaving office after two terms filled with corruption and scandal. Mike DeWine, Republican Senator, is closely linked to Skippy Bush and his failed, corrupt administration. Deborah Pryce, the fourth ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, is in the race of her life. The next district to the east of where I live is the district of convicted felon and corrupt politician Bob Ney. Ney’s hand-picked successor, who defaulted on a $700,000 government guaranteed SBA loan, is running for his seat. Even previously safe seats are in play; my district is represented by Rep. Pat Tiberi, who was the chief of staff for John Kasich, and was his hand-picked successor. Tiberi is in a dogfight with a 79-year-old multimillionaire who served a single term in Congress in the early 1980’s until his district was gerrymandered out of existence. A blue tide is about to sweep this state (and hopefully, both houses of Congress, too).

From all of this, you can probably imagine what the TV ads are like. It’s non-stop attack ads, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There’s not a single positive ad. Instead, it’s every possible attack you can imagine, including an especially egregious Willy Horton-style ad for a Republican candidate for the state house. It started in June, and it has just increased in intensity until there are virtually nothing but negative attack ads every commercial break.

I can’t stand it any more. Next Tuesday CANNOT come soon enough.

Whatever happened to commercials where the candidates actually said something positive and laid out their ideas and justifications for why they should be elected? Nothing of the sort happens now. Instead, every possible skeleton in every possible closet is dredged up, and there simply is no reason why ANYONE would want to subject themselves to this. Is it any wonder that we’re stuck with a government of such mediocrity that an imbecile coke head like Skippy Bush could possibly have been elected president twice????

We deserve better.

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J. D. Petruzzi has an excellent post about leading tours of obscure places as his first real blog entry. Those of you who know me, or who have been long-time readers of this blog, know that there are few things that I enjoy more than seeing or visiting really obscure places. I love visiting really obscure placs that few if anyone ever visits.

I especially love leading tours of obscure places. Let’s face it: most serious students of the Civil war have seen the site of Pickett’s Charge. I have never found Pickett’s Charge even remotely interesting–in fact, it bores me–and I’ve walked it four or five times in my life. If I never hear of it again, it won’t bother me a bit. It’s not a site I need or want to spend any more time on.

What I enjoy are the sites of the obscure skirmishes–JD’s focus on the brief encounter between the 26th Pennsylvania Emergeny Infantry and Jubal Early’s division on June 26, 1863 is an excellent example of what I mean here. I’d driven by the monument to that encounter more times than I can count, and I had never noticed it. I really love finding those out of the way spots–which often interest nobody but me–and learning about them.

Once I learn about those out of the way spots, few things give me greater pleasure than sharing that knowledge. I REALLY enjoy leading tours. I like giving folks my interpretations of events and showing them those obscure places that I enjoy so much. Perhaps it’s in the hope that others will find them as intriguing as I do. Perhaps it’s a way of indulging my frustrated inner teacher. No matter what, there simply aren’t a lot of things that I enjoy more than leading tours of battlefield sites.

This year, I’ve led tour groups at Monroe’s Crossroads, Gettysburg, Trevilian Station, Yellow Tavern, and Haw’s Shop. With the very notable exception of Gettysburg, these are not spots that typically get much in the way of visitation. I’ve been to Trevilian Station a couple of dozen times over the course of my life, and I have never seen anyone else touring the battlefield on any visit. I’ve never seen anyone else at Haw’s Shop, or at Yellow Tavern.

Monroe’s Crossroads is a completely different story. It’s nestled among the artillery drop zones in the middle of Fort Bragg, and it almost requires an act of Congress to get permission to go out there. If the 82nd Airborne is there–and not on deployment–it’s pretty much impossible to get out there because they’ll be drilling. It’s not much of a surprise, therefore, that I’ve never seen anyone else out there other than guys in camouflage uniforms when I’ve been out to visit the battlefield.

I view it as part of my responsibility to share whatever knowledge I might have with people, and part of that–probably the most enjoyable part of it–is leading people on battlefield tours. If I could make a living doing it, I would do so in a heartbeat. Sadly, though, unless you’re Ed Bearss, it’s generally not possible to make a living that would enable anyone to exist at a standard of living higher that poverty level. Some of the National Park Service historians undoubtedly do better than that, but those jobs are, of course, very few and far between. So, it means that I practice law full time and indulge my Civil War jones as often as I can.

But I will always derive great pleasure from leading battlefield tours, and it will always be something I will want to do whenever possible.

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