If I had a hammer... I'd probably pound the podium.

Sometimes it can be good to be a rising 3L - at least when it comes to scheduling. There are no other classes ahead of us, so we get the first crack at next fall's lineup. (Not that they're teaching law next year at our law school. Catholic Social Thought? Mercy and Justice? International Art Law? Maybe it is possible to be sick the day they teach law at law school.) Fortunately my registration time was early enough to get all of the classes I wanted. The only one I was worried about was the Legal Aid Clinic, which has far fewer spots than any other class. (Still, it wasn't the first class to fill up - that honor belongs to Sports and Inequality.)

Besides the clinic, the class I'm most excited about is a little course called Law and Psychology. I think I'll make it my personal goal to bring up Abraham Maslow at least once by the end of the semester. Double points for using my favorite quote.

Classes are winding down, which means soon it'll be time for the pre-finals crunch. But before we all go insane, we do get a temporary reprieve in the form of Easter Break - essentially a long weekend. But not all of my classes will be making a mad dash to finish off the syllabus. In my International Dispute Resolution class we'll be conducting a mock negotiation to create part of a mock multilateral environmental treaty. I never got to play mock UN in school, so I guess this will be the next best thing. I'll be representing fair Britannia. It's too bad that I don't have a British (or even faux-British) accent. I was secretly hoping to be assigned to the Russian delegation so that I could hammer the podium with my shoe. But since I'll be representing the UK, I'll have to act much more dignified. Maybe if things get too heated I can make the civilized suggestion that we all break for tea.

Monkeys

(pic courtesy of ishkur.com, parodying the despair.com demotivational posters)

Yeah, so sorry for the lack of new posts lately. I guess I just haven't felt all that inspired. That, and I don't have worker monkeys to help out with posting new stuff. Although judging from the CareerBuilder monkeys, maybe that's not a bad thing. But if I did have worker monkeys to do my bidding, I think I'd choose the winged variety. They'd be more versatile that way. But I wouldn't dress them up in those bellboy outfits; that's just cruel. Haven't you always wanted a monkey? (Okay, time to stop channeling Barenaked Ladies.)

Anyway, I hope to get a few more posts in before the finals crunchtime hits. A few things to keep an eye out for: ICBM bowling season recap, a new 15-0n-15 (topic still TBD), and maybe even (gasp!) a law school related post or two. So hopefully that'll whet your appetite enough to keep checking back. Until then, I'll still be on the lookout for talented trained monkeys. And if you happen to know any that are particularly adept at taking law exams, get in touch with me ASAP. (Derek and Brad need not apply. [I kid, I kid.])

New pictures -- Barrister's Ball

New pictures for your viewing pleasure! (Many thanks to Susan who captured the shot above.) You can check out the whole set by clicking the link to the right or by clicking here.

Smoking out the truth

Here at NDLS, there's a weekly publication known as the Patty O'Herald (named for our infamous dean). It's primarily posted in the bathrooms, though sometimes there are copies taped to the refrigerator and elsewhere in the law school. The newsletter includes announcements of upcoming law school events, SBA news, and humorous law-related or law-inspired news blurbs, jokes, and anecdotes. Today there was one such story that caught my eye. Here's the story:

A Charlotte NC lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires."

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued and won! In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous, however; the judge stated that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be "unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires."

After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced him to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

(quoted courtesy of this site)

Now for the kicker. The story's a sham. A phony. Fake. Not true. In short, urban legend.
I suppose one shouldn't expect much from a self-described bathroom rag. But a little fact checking wouldn't hurt. A quick trip to snopes is all it takes.

Honor makes the front page

... of the South Bend Tribune!

You can see the picture here (for now (third down)) and here (for archival purposes).

Despite being in town for only a few days, Honor graced the front page of last Friday's SBT. We had attended an event on Thursday sponsored by the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty - David Kaczynski, brother of the Unabomber, came to speak. It was a very moving talk.

Anyway, some reporters from the Tribune came to do a story on the event, and snapped several pictures. The one with Honor in it is one of a couple that made the front page.

The Tribune's story on the event, which doesn't really do it full justice, can be found here (at least for a few days).

Update

Honor's in town! Things got off to a bit of a rocky start when United lost her luggage on Wednesday, but they finally got it to her later that night. We went out to Fiddler's Hearth. Yesterday was one of the few "nice days" here in South Bend, so we spent some of it outside. Honor and I also grabbed lunch at Mandarin House. Adam and Brooke joined us for pre-bowling dinner at the Mishawaka Brewing Company (MishBrewCo). Bowling was pretty fun.

Tonight is the Barrister's Ball, so we'll be dancing up a storm. I'll try to get some photos of that up in a few days for your viewing pleasure.

That's about it for now. But I want to highly recommend one website you can check out if you're distressed at the lack of updates to this blog. Check out Improv Everywhere -- so incredibly funny. Their missions are comedic gold.

15 on 15(+6) - TV edition

Yeah, I'm a few days late on this one. And I don't watch TV too often these days, so my list may be even more eccelectic than you'd expect. Anyway, without further ado:

15. Iron Chef (the Japanese version, dubbed in English) - My all-time favorite cooking show. Top-notch chefs battle head-to-head to fashion tasty and creative dishes that incorporate a specified ingredient. This show is hysterical on many levels. First, there's the host (I think he's called the Chairman or something like that), who's always dressed up in some flashy shirt (my dad refers to him as "The Japanese Mozart") and is the only guy who's voice isn't dubbed into English. He's serious about his food; he even relishes biting into a yellow bell pepper like an apple in the show's opening credits. The challenger enters the arena (Kitchen Stadium) like a heavyweight prizefighter, and then selects one of the Iron Chefs by calling out his name and pointing to a giant mural of that chef. The Iron Chef rises from below the stage with the appropriate amount of dramatic music and smoke. Then the Chairman announces the ingredient and uncovers said ingredient by whipping a dropcloth off of the ingredient table with a dramatic flourish. Then the clock starts - the chefs have an hour to prepare their dishes. The majority of the show follows the progress of the two chefs (and their various sous chef helpers) as they scramble about the kitchen. This is accompanied by play-by-play commentary and general chit-chat with Japanese celebrities (who will ultimately judge the meals and determine the outcome). The dubbing is pretty funny too. All in all, the Japanese version is far superior to the American spin-off.
Favorite episode: I'm not sure I can pick out any one episode in particular. But Iron Chef Morimoto defeating American challenger Bobby Flay was a classic.

14. The Dick Van Dyke Show - Ah, "classic" television, in vintage black and white. Thanks to the advent of TV on DVD, I recently got to see several episodes from this series, and it's a great show. Dick Van Dyke is a master of physical comedy and has impeccable timing.
Favorite episode: The Curious Thing About Women -- Where we learn that opening other people's mail can be dnagerous, especially when it's a self-inflating raft.

13. The Cosby Show - I have fond memories of this show from my childhood. It brings back memories of the family all sitting together around the television for some good wholesome entertainment. I'm not sure if that actually happened, but that's what comes to mind when I think of the show. Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable is very amusing, and his children's antics are reminiscent of Cosby's stand-up routine Fatherhood.
Favorite episode: Pilot -- Where Cliff uses Monopoly money to teach Theo about budgeting and finance in the real world.

12. MacGyver - What can I say? MacGyver is just cool. Armed with little more than his Swiss Army knife, some household objects, and an extensive knowledge of chemistry and physics, MacGyver could get himself out of any jam. I'm not really even sure what his job was, but I think it was some sort of governmental secret agent gig.
Favorite episode: It's been a long time since I've seen this show, so I can't remember any one episode clearly enough to list as a favorite. But you can check out an episode guide here.

11. Law & Order - It's high drama "ripped from the headlines." And you've gotta love the dramatic gavel sound. Derek and I once thought up a drinking game to this show, but I don't know if we'd be able to make it through a full episode. Although I don't see myself ever being a prosecutor, I'd still like to have Jack McCoy's courtroom presence. And I have to say that watching this show probably had a strong influence on how I portrayed mock trial police officers.
Favorite episode: This show has been on for years, and I doubt I've seen even half the episodes. Nevertheless I have seen quite a few, and they start to blend together after a while. Add to that the complication of the various spin-off shows and I have no clue what my favorite episode is.

10. The Daily Show - A fantastic show. Oh, and I'm talking about The Daily Show in its current incarnation, anchored by Jon Stewart -- not the original with Craig Killborn. This show is like a televised version of The Onion, but funnier because the news stories are real. In addition to Stewart's hillarious take on current event, the show has a bunch of correspondents who do field pieces with the severity of Dateline or 20/20. Throw in a random Lewis Black rant, and you've got one heck of a show.
Favorite episode: Because of the topical nature of the show, it's hard to pick out a favorite. I'd just recommend watching it whenever you get a chance, or catch up on clips of the show over at Comedy Central.

9. The Colbert Report - Stephen Colbert got his start as a correspondent on The Daily Show, and now he has his own spin-off that follows it. Colbert's show is basically a parody of The O'Reilly Factor. Like The Daily Show, it pokes fun at current events. It's brimming with ego and self-aggrandisement as well as self-referential humor.

Favorite episode: Again, this one's topical. Check out the clips on Comedy Central -- especially segments like "The Word" and "Threatdown."

8. Jeopardy! - The king of game shows. This show brings back fond memories of quiz team in high school. Like any good game show, you can play along at home, and either marvel at what kinds of things the contestants know or scream at the television in frustration when they miss an "obvious" one.
Favorite episode: Any episode with a healthy dose of answers I know the question to. :)

7. The X-Files - The truth is out there. This is one of the few series which I followed fairly faithfully while it was on TV. It had its highs and lows, which is part of the reason it's lower in these standings. FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully trek across the country (and sometimes the globe) investigating the paranormal - which invariably turns out to be some amazing or freaky phenomenon that modern science cannot really account for. (And while we as the audience got to "see the truth," Mulder and Scully never seemed to hold onto the crucial evidence that would prove the existence of the varioius phenomena. And amazingly, no matter how many mutant creatures they found, Scully always insisted that it had to be something less exotic and more explainable by science. That's not to say that Mulder was always right; many of his theories were pretty outlandish, and occasionally it was something explainable.) The show tracked everything from weird mutants to werewolves to astral projection, but aliens and alien abduction was a recurring theme. In fact, the backbone of the series revolved around the government's knowledge and collusion with aliens. All in all, the show could be weird at times, but it was suspenseful and frequently pretty funny too.
Favorite episode: The first few seasons were by far the best. The show really went downhill after Mulder left the show; the Mulder-Scully dynamic was a fundamental part of the show. Little Green Men is good, and is probably the first episode I saw. But my favorite is probably Jose Chung's From Outer Space.

6. Arrested Development - I've only just recently been introduced to this fine show, thanks to Adam and Matt. And while I haven't even gotten through all of the first season, it's downright hysterical and I've been promised the best is yet to come. The characters are outrageous and over the top, and I marvel at the minds that devised the bizarre yet amazingly funny plots. It's full of quotable lines. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this series, thanks again to TV on DVD.
Favorite Episode (so far): Top Banana -- Where we learn that "there's always money in the banana stand," and "OH MY GOD, WE'RE HAVING A FIRE... sale."

5. The Practice - A counterpoint to Law & Order - "reasonable doubt for a reasonable fee." It's a great legal drama with compeling characters and interesting cases. There are plenty of trial tactics to love, and the show isn't afraid to confront the ethical turmoil of defending clients you know are guilty. But we get to peek inside the DA's offices as well, and see both the valiant struggles for justice and the potential of prosecutorial abuse of power.
Favorite Episode: Once again, the early episodes were the best. Things started to fall apart as some of the main characters dropped out of the picture. Bringing James Spader on board was a good attempt to save the series, but it wasn't to be. Luckily, Spader's character got spun off to Boston Legal, which while good isn't as good as The Practice. All said and done, my favorite episode has Eugene giving a thoroughly masterful cross examination. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was the fifth episode in the first season (Part V - it was before they were naming the episodes apparently).

4. Whose Line Is It Anyway? - If you want to watch something really funny, watch this show. I think it's only on ABC Family now, which is a shame, but if you've never seen the show I highly recommend it. Often imitated, never replicated. This is great improv comedy. I used to watch the original British version on Comedy Central (back when I had cable); later, Drew Carey created an American version. The British version had more rotation among the participating comedians, which added a little variety. But the American cast (Ryan and Colin were veterans of the British show) is so good that you don't really need any others.
Favorite episode: It's an improv show; half the fun is seeing what wild and zany stuff they'll come up with next. So my favorite episode is probably one I haven't seen yet. But even if it's a repeat, it's still hysterical and I'll still end up watching it.

3. Jeeves & Wooster - Based on the characters created by P.G. Wodehouse, this show is everything that makes British 'humour' great. Wooster and company engage in all types of crazy hijinx and find themselves in increasingly funny entanglements. Luckily the ever-wise and incomparable Jeeves is there to sort things out.
Favorite episode: The Bassets' Fancy Dress Ball (or, A Plan For Gussie) -- Where we meet the infamous (and hillarious) Spode and learn he has a deep, dark secret...

2. The West Wing - A very well written show with great characters. Really, I'm not sure what I can say about this show that Derek hasn't mentioned in his various blog posts. Given the state of government, sometimes I wish Martin Sheen was President.
Favorite episode: Hartsfield's Landing -- The President proves his mental prowess both on the chessboard and in balancing delicate and dangerous diplomacy with China and Taiwan.

1. Firefly - I learned about this show after it had already been cancelled. It had an entirely too-short run on FOX. It's really a great show; I guess given the kinds of shows FOX generally shows, Firefly was just too good for the network. Despite it's short run, the show's done very well in DVD sales and even spawned a movie. I think there are still some efforts to bring this show back, which I think would be fantastic. Firefly is a space-western set aboard the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity. It was created by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel). What really makes the show is its cast of characters. They're fairly complex with dynamic relationships between each other. The episodes that were made had some great plots, and Whedon's sense of humor and knack for snappy dialogue (peppered with some Chinese words and phrases!) makes for some great TV.
Favorite episode: Out of Gas is a great episode that examines how many members of the crew met. These flashbacks are incorporated into a storyline in which an explosion on Serenity illustrates the fragility of life in space. It's beautifully shot and has some great music as well.

Spring Break Update

I'm blogging this morning via wireless (as opposed to the dreaded dial-up connection); many thanks to the neighbors. :) Actually, I'm just glad that my wireless is working again. Yesterday I took my laptop to a Panera up in Columbus, only to have problems connecting. My computer would tell me that it was connected, but I had no IP address and couldn't use the connection in any way. Well, it turns out I didn't have the correct driver installed.

When Dell sent me my new hard drive and support software, the CD with the drivers and utilities didn't have my model (Inspiron 8600) listed. (This is probably because Dell doesn't make the 8600 anymore, so they don't have the associated stuff kicking around anymore.) But there were some drivers that were supposedly compatible with the hardware I have, so I installed those. Last night I found my old diagnostic discs (the ones that originally came with my computer), and after reinstalling the proper drivers everything seems to be working fine.

I also found a copy of Word Perfect, so I'll be able to read any files that my professors send in wpd format. So all in all, things are looking up for my computer.

I also got to skate yesterday. It was my first time back on the ice in many, many moons. I stuck to dance, so no jumps and spins. Maybe if I'm feeling adventurous I'll try a little freestyle in a few days. But for now it just felt good to be back out on the ice.

Not much else to report. The weather's been a bit crazy here - fluctuating temperatures, wicked wind, huge thunderstorms - but I guess the whole country is experiencing meteorological weirdness right now. Otherwise, things are pretty quiet here in Ohio.

Back up and running

I'm happy to report that my computer is once again working. My new hard drive arrived earlier today, and I'm working on getting it back to the way things were before the old hard drive conked out. A few observations:

• Hard drives are ridiculously easy to install.
• Reinstalling Windows XP was less of a pain than I expected.
• I have Microsoft Word again, but I no longer have a copy of Word Perfect. This is going to get annoying very quickly since it seems the vast majority of law professors use Word Perfect.
• Firefox is still cooler than Internet Explorer.
• The new AIM (Triton, or something?) is incredibly annoying.

In non-computer-related news, it's officially spring break! Okay, so more like mid-semester break, as it is technically still winter. But it was really nice outside today, so I could at least imagine that it's spring.

I'll be driving back to Chillicothe tomorrow morning, and I'll spend the first half of the week in Ohio. Then it'll be off to Boston for the rest of the week! So blogging will probably be light for a while.

Technical difficulties, please stand by

I apologize for the lack of posts, and further apologize that there probably won't be any new posts for at least a few more days. My laptop decided to die, and I doubt there'll be a new entry until things are fixed. Hopefully that won't take too long, but who knows. Luckily I have the extended warranty for my laptop, so Dell ought to do something about this. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon.

Legal News: Sea Sponge Edition

Okay, this was just too funny to not blog about.

We all know that it's important to proofread a brief before you submit it to the court -- few things undermine your credibility more than rampant spelling errors. But it's important to note that proofreading entails more than simply running the spell checker. (Note to Derek: when running the spell checker, make sure the spell checker knows the proper spelling for "appellant.")

Of course, there's nothing wrong with using the spell check. I even heartily recommend the practice. But you need to exercise some oversight, and not simply have the program automatically make all the corrections it wants. (Seriously, who actually does this? Half the time the spell checker suggests some crazy alternative for a mistyped word...) Word processing programs frequently don't like legal jargon -- I think it has a hard time with Latin. Some might circumvent this problem by adding common legal terms to the spell checker's dictionary. What you don't want to do is let the spell checker run amok. A San Francisco attorney recently learned the hard way about dangers of relying on spell check's automatic corrections.

Almost any first year soon becomes familiar with the term sua sponte. But the spell checker becomes very confused by this string of letters. The closest approximation based on its algorithm is... "sea sponge." Which anyone should recognize means something completely different. (I actually tried this on Microsoft Word, and it came up with "sue sponge.") So relying on the spell checker leads to such wackiness as:

"It is well settled that a trial court must instruct sea sponge on any defense, including a mistake of fact defense."

I imagine it would be hard for a court to take you seriously after a sentence like that. Plus, the judge is more likely to think of this, when you'd rather be pictured as this.

Fun fact: you can reverse the trick at dictionary.com!

So be careful when checking over those briefs. Supervise your spell checker. And read your brief over -- actual proofreading -- before submitting it. Otherwise people may think your head is filled with this instead of this (though it is interesting how they do kind of look similar...).

Grumblin' Gumbel

I still hope to do a Torino wrap-up with my final general thoughts on all of skating in the past fortnight and the Olympics in general. But before getting around to that I read this post by Ruvym and saw Bryant Gumbel's rant about the Winter Games. (This website has good links to the rant in several different formats (additional video format here); there's also an excerpt of the rant in text format if you can't/don't want to watch the clip. Full text of the rant is available here. It's not very long, so I recommend reading that before continuing reading this post.)

As I remarked in Ruvym's comments, I disagree with Gumbel both in his general sentiment and many of the specific statements. But I want to go a bit more in depth here, in something of a point-counterpoint fashion. (Just as a note: I'm a big fan of free speech, and I in no way mean to suggest that Gumbel doesn't have the right to make any of his remarks. I'm simply exercising my right to disagree, vocally, with those remarks.)

"Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing."

Okay, so the ancient Greeks didn't have many of the sports that comprise the Winter Games. So what? Most of the events in the Summer Games weren't around back then either. The Olympics have grown far beyond the scope of the Games held by the ancient Greeks. These are the modern Games.

"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention."

It's true that there aren't as many black athletes in the Winter Games as there are in other sports. But that doesn't mean that those competing are not the worldn's greatest athletes. Without getting into the "Is it a sport?" question (we'll get back to that one), does Gumbel really mean to suggest that the Olympians are not the world's greatest athletes in their respective events, in part or whole because there aren't many blacks competing? I'm sure there's been discrimination in some sports -- Shani Davis's experience in speed skating comes to mind. And beyond specific acts of discrimination, there are certain financial or socio-economic barriers that may effectively discriminate against blacks. But that's certainly not specific to blacks, and I imagine it's not the full story. Many countries have specific strengths when it comes to the Olympics. We don't see many winter athletes from Australia, but they make a strong showing in the Summer Games, especially swimming. And the Scandanavian and Alpine countries, which often dominate some of the winter events, don't show up in the same record numbers for the summer events. So while I can respect any movement that seeks to break down the barriers that stand in the way of anyone who wants to participate, let's not disparage the athletes that are competing and suggest that they are not among the world's greatest.

But maybe Mr. Gumbel meant to suggest that the problem is more within our own country than the world in general - that really it's the lack of African-Americans that questions the legitimacy of ranking Olympians among the world's greatest athletes. But what about the lack of African-American athletes in hockey? Some people have pointed this out, but would Mr. Gumbel ever make similar comments about the racial inequities of the NHL? It also raises a question of how many African-American athletes are even attempting to enter sports like hockey or Winter Olympic events. (Admittedly, this becomes thornier if one contends that a culture of discrimination disuades such attempts.)

"Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won."

Now we come to a very common debate on whether events like figure skating are actual sports. I could (as many others have - to see both sides of the debate, I'd suggest these two articles that I recently came across) go on at some length to defend figure skating as a sport. Maybe I'll devote a future post to discuss this more. But sport or not, how could you not consider figure skaters athletes? Competitive skaters go through training regimens that are just as (if not more) strenuous than those of just about any non-pseudo-athlete Mr. Gumbel would care to mention. If performing triple axels and death drops do not qualify one as an athlete, then no offensive lineman or outfielder deserves the distinction of athlete either.

There are plenty of events in the Summer Olympic Games that have equally subjective judging. Are gymnastics and diving also non-sports engaged in by mere pseudo-athletes? Subjectivity is found in just about every sport; maybe not to the same extent as skating, but you have referees and linesmen that can have a large effect on the outcome. How many questionable on-the-field rulings have ultimately "decide[d] who won?"

And does it even matter whether the event is truly a "sport?" The Olympics are about the spirit of competition, and it doesn't have to be a sport to be competitive. After all, these are the Winter Games -- an event does not have to be a sport to qualify.

"And try to blot out all logic when announcers and sportswriters pretend to care about the luge, the skeleton, the biathlon and all those other events they don’t understand and totally ignore for all but three weeks every four years."

Maybe the announcers and sportswriters don't care about these events. But just because these events get attention only once every four years or so doesn't make these events less important -- especially to the athletes who compete in them. These events may not be as popular. They're certainly not promoted to the same extent as the activities Mr. Gumbel considers sports. But what's wrong with letting these athletes get a share of the limelight every once in a while? Perhaps Mr. Gumbel would rather just forget about most Olympic events. But maybe with a bit of coverage these events would be better understood and not ignored.

"Face it — these Olympics are little more than a marketing plan to fill space and sell time during the dreary days of February."

This is perhaps the most hypocritical statement of the bunch. Sure, the Olympics are marketed by television studios. And they have become commercialized. But does Mr. Gumbel contend that it's not the same or worse with any number of other sports in the United States? College football. March Madness. The World Series. The Superbowl. They're all about ratings and money too. And the stars of these "real" sports can look forward to lucrative paychecks and endorsements. What monetary reward is there for gold medalists in most Olympic events? They may get a tour on the late night talkshows, and if they're photogenic enough, maybe they'll pick up some endorsements. But most fade into obscurity shortly after the closing ceremonies. If any athletes are in it for the love of the sport, Olympic athletes are; at least far more so than any "real" athlete Mr. Gumble is likely to name.

So I wholeheartedly agree with Mike Wise when he writes, "Gumbel has a right not to like the Winter Olympics. He can trash curlers, lugers and snowboard-crossers all he wants. But who made him arbiter of all things culturally diverse? Superimposing your own idea of diversity upon athletes from 80 different nations, essentially equating diversity with only race, is just inane." It's entirely Gumbel's prerogative to dislike the Winter Games. He doesn't have to watch them, or report on them. (One has to wonder if he thinks any less of his brother for anchoring CBS's Winter Olympic coverage in the early 1990s.) But I think this rant is in bad taste, not only in what he says but in how he says it (I recommend watching one of the videos to get the full effect). There may be some valid points in there worthy of serious discussion, but much of that is lost in Gumbel's overall tone and rhetoric.

Finally, Gumbel needn't denegrate the athletes competing in the Games just because he doesn't appreciate the sports they pursue. No matter my personal preference on college basketball, I wouldn't attack the players. Why can't those of us who appreciate the Winter Games have a few weeks, every four years, to enjoy them? So let us have our games, Mr. Gumbel, and you can keep that March Madness you're so obviously fond of.

UPDATE: ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski has an article that takes a similar view of Gumbel's statements. Thanks to commenter JB from Brendan's blog.

You know you're in law school when...

...you see this and wonder if and how EU law might handle the situation.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Hope everyone enjoys their Fat Tuesday. It's good to see that New Orleans has recovered enough to celebrate a bit. But while New Orleans is certainly renowned for its yearly extravaganza, there are plenty of other places partying it up today. In fact, according to Forbes there are six cities with bigger fiestas. Check it out here.

Olympic Recap: Ladies' Long Program

Sorry this post is a little late, but I wasn't able to see the ladies freeskate as quickly as I had originally intended. I'm sure it's a bit anticlimactic since I'm sure everyone knows the results (how could you miss them?), but I'll share some of my thoughts all the same.

First off, kudos to Shizuka Arakawa. Japan's been having a rough Olympics in Torino, and Arakawa has pretty much turned it around. Japan leaves Torino with one medal, but it's a big one - the gold in the Games' marquee event. Arakawa also owns the distinction of being Japan's first gold medalist in Olympic figure skating. (Midori Ito was Japan's last great skater, who earned bronze at the 1992 Albertville Games and is famous for being the first woman to land a triple axel in competition.) Arakawa will certainly receive a hero's welcome when she returns to Japan. Apparently the country is rolling out golden doughnuts for the occasion.

In a field rife with errors, Arakawa had one of the few clean skates. Though she wasn't perfect - she did pop one triple into a double - she was solid where it counted and never lost her artistry or flow. Technically speaking, it was a bit cautious, but it was enough. Arakawa displayed a maturity and elegance that most of her rivals lacked. She was far and away the best skater of the night, which was reflected in her nearly eight point margin of victory.

A lot of the media focus has been on Sasha Cohen and how she let the gold slip through her fingers. True, she was leading after the short program (by the slimmest of margins), and was America's best hope to continue a 3-Games streak of winning the event. Sasha's hopes of Olympic gold were dashed after falls on her first two jumping passes. Considering those substantial errors, she's lucky to have placed second. But while she did get some help from the rest of the field, she earned her silver by bouncing back from her program's rocky start to end strongly. As her coach told Sasha as she left the ice, "you didn't start the program, but you finished it." She looked shaky on warmup, and after two big mistakes it would be easy to let the program get away. But she fought back, nailing every element for the rest of her skate. Even her artistry and choreography did not seem affected. While it's unfortunate that she wasn't able to skate cleanly throughout and hopefully take gold, the greater tragedy is that Sasha Cohen was again unable to put together two clean programs in one competition. This is a demon she's been wrestling with for some time, and one she'll have to conquer if she wants to stay at the top of the ladies' field.

Irina Slutskaya was the last to skate in the ladies' long program. Since she was in second place by only .03 in the short and Sasha had made key errors, it looked like Irina's gold to lose. And unfortunately, lost it she did. Irina turned in a somewhat disappointing performance and finished with bronze. Her jumps looked off; her landings weren't as solid as they've been in the past and it looked like she had to fight more than usual. Though she opened her program without much difficulty, Slutskaya suffered costly falls and errors during her jumping passes in the second half of her program. Her program also lacked artistry and spark. When the judges marks came back, Sasha's spins, footwork, and artistry were enough to keep Sasha ahead of the Russian veteran.

Fumie Suguri, who placed fourth, also turned in a strong program. But with a lower level of difficulty and less artistic expression, she was unable to capitalize on the shortcomings of Cohen and Slutskaya. Joannie Rochette of Canada skated well, and even got the second highest technical marks of the night. And while lyrical and enjoyable to watch, her artistic scores were not high enough to get her to the podium; she finished fifth. Americans Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes placed sixth and seventh respectively. Full results here, long program marks here, and detailed results here.

The Joy of Skating award goes to Silvia Fontana. Although she finished 22nd overall, she was a pleasure to watch and really seemed to be enjoying herself on the ice. She wasn't expected to medal, so she probably did not experience some of the same pressures as the other skaters, but she got to end her Olympic career by skating well in front of her home crowd.
Runner up: Emily Hughes. Emily also came out and skated a great program and really seemed to enjoy every moment out there. Michelle Kwan's withdrawal from Torino made Emily an unexpected Olympian, and every time you see her she just looks thrilled to be a part of it. We'll probably see more of her in the years to come.

The scoring system doesn't seem to be having the same effect in the ladies' event as it has in other places. While the pairs and dancers seem to be pushed to execute harder elements and the men have exhibited greater creativity and more transitions between moves, the women are still doing mostly triple-doubles and are still telegraphing their jumps. After the Nagano Games in 1998, it looked like triple-triple combinations were going to become the new standard in the sport; the triple axel was certainly not materializing as some had expected. And while there are still rumblings about who will be the next woman to incorporate the triple axel or even a quad (Miki Ando did attempt one this time around), there hasn't been a big push to up the level of difficulty.

I think part of this may be due to how the new scoring system rewards putting difficult elements in the second half of the program (those elements skated after the half point mark get a 10% scoring bonus); maybe skaters are holding back some difficulty in the beginning of their programs so that they can try more in the second half. But I'm puzzled as to why there isn't more connecting footwork in the skating between elements. Many of the competitors are still doing basic stroking between jumps and spins. The top skaters - particularly this Olympic's medalists - are the exception, for the most part. And maybe it will be somthing that comes in time. But I don't know why the men seem to be ahead on this one.

Scoring aside, it's been another surprising Olympic free skate for the women. For the fourth times in as many Olympics, it's been something of a surprise finish in ladies' figure skating. In 1994, Oksana Baiul stole the spotlight from the Nancy and Tonya debacle. In 1998, Tara Lipinski leapfrogged Michele Kwan to capture the gold. The 2002 games saw Sarah Hughes skate the program of her life to surpass Kwan and Slutskaya. And this year, when everyone was expecing a showdown bewtween Cohen and Slutskaya, Arakawa bested them both. In one freeskate, Arakawa ended the U.S.'s golden streak in the event and denied Russia an unprecedented figure skating golden sweep. It just goes to show that you never know how things will end up until everyone's skated.

The high-bowlin' Manatees

The ICBMs had a strong showing tonight, and for the first time the scores counted. Since we're a mixed team, we report our top two mens' scores and top two ladies' scores for the evening. The ladies put in a particularly strong showing, with scores approaching the 150 mark in the second game. Both Conscientious Objector and Private Injury achieved personal bests. Comandant Nugatory En Fuego and Private Injury both bowled turkeys tonight. Major Ho also came within a pin of a turkey. Conscientious Objector was our clutch frame-closer, and she often followed up her spares with strikes. But the amazing feat of the night - a phantom strike - was pulled off by PFC LCD. A well thrown ball knocked out nine pins, and nudged the tenth just enough out of allignment to fool the computerized scoring system into calling it a strike.

Here were toinght's scores (those we reported are highlighted):

Comandant Nugatory En Fuego: 137, 85, 133
Conscientious Objector: 92, 146, 128
Major Ho: 107, 120, 128
PFC LCD: 93, 94
Private Injury: 92, 147, 110

So it was an excellent start to the scoring portion of the law school bowling league. Hopefully we'll be able to build on this. Let's see if next week the men can step it up a bit.

Still to come...

Recap of the Ladies' Long Program. I haven't seen the skating yet, so I'll post my commentary on the ladies' final skate late tomorrow afternoon. I'm also hoping to post some final thoughts on this Olympic's skaging in general, maybe this weekend.

If you're looking for final standings of the ladies' event, click here.

Olympic Recap, Day 11: Ladies' Short Program

Last night, the women turned in some stunning performances in the short program. The top five competitors all turned in clean, dynamic skates.

Sasha Cohen leads after the short. She skated an exceptional program full of grace and confidence. Her jumps were solid. Her spins were centered. Her footwork was quick. And her spirals were fantastic. It was a dynamic program, and Sasha really sold it. Her showmanship was first rate. Her program component score, similar to the artistic marks under the old system, was the highest of the night.

Irina Slutskaya is a close second - she trails Cohen by only .03 points. Her program was light and lively and filled with athleticism. She skated faster and jumped higher than the rest of the field. Irina turned in the highest element score in the ladies' short.

Shizuka Arakawa from Japan skated to third place. She displayed a natural elegance throughout her program, and cleanly executed each of the required elements. I liked her music - Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu - though the piece seemed a little faster than she could handle. (In all fairness, the fast portions of that piece are probably faster than any skater could handle.) I also felt she could have displayed more emotion and expression; her footwork sequence in particular seemed a bit flat. But Arakawa is hot on the heels of Sasha and Irina, less than a point behind.

Arakawa's teammate Fumie Suguri is fourth after the short program. I really enjoyed her program. It had a fluidity and grace that I liked better than that of Arakawa. I felt she really sold her program through the choreography. But her program elements were not as difficult as those of the top three skaters; many of the elements were only level 3 instead of the highest level, level 4. As a result, her base mark was lower than that of Cohen, Slutskaya, and Arakawa. Still, Suguri is less than five points off the leader, so she's still a medal threat.

Kimmie Meissner, the sixteen-year old from the U.S. is currently fifth. Although she did well enough at Nationals last year to qualify for Worlds, since she was only fifteen she was ineligible to compete last year. She was one of the first to skate last night, and her program set a high standard. She skated clean and with passion. She lacks the maturity of the top skaters, but could still contend for a medal with a strong freeskate.

Emily Hughes, the bronze medalist at U.S. Nationals last month who took Michelle Kwan's spot after Kwan had to withdraw with a groin injury, skated a good program with only a minor bobble on her footwork sequence. Although she is not expected to medal, her seventh place finish in the short still gives her an outside shot at the podium. Full results here, detailed results here.

I was surprised that there weren't very many triple-triple combinations attempted in the short program. I'm sure we'll see a fair number attempted in the long program tomorrow night, but I thought there would be more in this round. I think spin quality has improved under the new system, and there are some interesting positions. But there are also some things that seem to be overdone - particularly Biellmann spins and changes of edge in spins.

Costume-wise, there was nothing particularly unusual or scandalous in the short program. There were only a few music selections that bear separate mention. Yelena Liashenko of Ukraine skated to a somewhat avant garde piece that included chirping birds and reminded me of some of Surya Bonaly's stranger numbers. Canadian skater Joannie Rochette chose an instrumental version of Madonna's Like a Prayer, which was interesting. Finally, Susanna Poykio of Finland skated to a piece that incorporated music from Austin Powers. I don't think any of these music selections were bad, just different. And the skaters even made them work to an extent, though they did not display the same artistry exhibited by the top skaters.

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

I haven't forgotten about the ladies' short programs. I didn't get to see all the skaters tonight, but from what I did catch, it looked like a good round of skating. Luckily, Alina was kind enough to tape the skating and hopefully I'll be able to watch it sometime tomorrow.

Look for a new post with my thoughts tomorrow afternoon after I've had a chance to see the full event (or at least all that NBC televised).

If you're just looking for results, though, check out this webpage.

Hey, that music sounds familiar...

No, I'm not talking about the music of tonight's free dances, but rather a little tune that played during the award ceremony - the Russian National Anthem.

If you thought it sounded kind of like the old Soviet National Anthem, it's because, well, it is. It's the same music anyway; the lyrics have changed. For more, check this out. (Thanks go out to Adam for pointing out the Wikipedia site.)

The Russians have already taken gold in three of the figure skating events. Will Irina Slutskaya make it a clean sweep? The ladies skate their first round - the short program - tomorrow night.