The Graph on the Wall Tells the Story of it All

[Spring break officially started at 5PM yesterday, and I have a few things I need to take care of. Yesterday was a good day, though, an auspicious beginning to eleven days of no class (no Fat Albert-inspired jokes about how I always have "no class," please.) I spent yesterday morning writing a book report about Angela Alioto's political tell-all, Straight To The Heart, for my Intro to Progressive Law course. It really only needed to be a two-page summary to prove I'd read the book, but five pages later, I was still spewing my every thought about San Francisco's and California's political machinations for the past 35 years. I haven't had so much fun in ages.]

[I made it to Contracts just in time to give my presentation on Krell v. Henry, 2 King's Bench 740 (1903), an English case having to do with the defendant wanting to get out of having to pay for the Pall Mall flat he rented to watch Edward VII's 1902 coronation procession. Most of the time, our prof just does a modified-for-New-College's-"kinder-gentler"-way-of-doing-things Socratic dialogue with the student, but I decided, dammit, I'm gonna put my ongoing fetish for the history of British royalty to good use*, and practice my public speaking skills at the same time. Prof was game, so I got up in front of class, sequined plastic tiara on, and proceeded to draw a map of the parade route and gave a little talk about how this was at the height of the British Empire's power and there hadn't been a coronation in 63 years, so it was a REALLY BIG DEAL for Defendant to rent this flat from Plaintiff on the day, and when King Edward got sick, both Plaintiff's and Defendant's Purpose had been Frustrated, and so the contract was discharged. I even whipped off the tiara with a flourish when I came to the part about the coronation being postponed. "It must and it shall/Be spring in Pall Mall" - law school can be fun!]

[Apres classe, Violet and I got together and had a pleasant talk about our plans, something we hadn't done in a while. It reminded me of the days when she and I would sit at Nirvana in the Castro before our copy editing class at HMI, and I got home feeling really good about this law school adventure, better than I have in quite a while. So, now, spring break is here, and my goals are:]

[1. Finish appellate brief (not optional, see Mulher's last few entries to see how frustrating a process this is.)
2. Finish planning Mom's 60th birthday party, hurtling toward us faster than I care to think.
3. Edit Alioto book report, it may be the seed for an article for next year's law journal. Lots of what she has to say about San Francisco's political machine is really interesting (even if five years out of date), so much so that I'm having trouble thinking about anything else.
4. Edit my bound, PDF-formatted copy of this year's law journal. I haven't been writing much about my misadventures on this year's journal staff...crazy, man, cray-zee...
5. Put together my song presentation for Intro to Progressive Law two weeks from now. At the beginning of each class, a student presents a song having something to do with progressive law. Since our Contracts prof is the guest speaker that day, I volunteered, and am giving a little spiel about the 80's (a decade my leftist professors excoriate on a daily basis) and playing "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode. ("The contract/Still intact.") I can't wait!]
5. Get that pile of dirty laundry festering over there in the corner completely DONE. (Three loads in the dryer as I type, good.)
6. Help John plan his own birthday party, set to happen the week before Mom's.
7. Decide what I'm going to do this summer.]

[Or maybe I'll just take a nap...]

Previously Next

*For example, did you know that no one knows what roman numeral the next king called James will have appended to his name? Do you know why?