In the Hands of the Young

The NYT Magazine has an interesting, if a bit predictable story on teen blogging. It reminds me the fact that all tools or substances, when abused, misused, or simply overused, can create, especially among people (though certainly not only), obsessive compulsions. Consider the following: TV watching, alcohol consumption, driving cars, listening to music,…. playing the violin.

Excesses are a fantastic (if dangerous) flights of passion, aren’t they? The article makes me feel old. I often turn off the computer to pay the bills, cook dinner, grade exams. I would do it whether I were playing the violin or hiking the Himalayas. Thirty years ago, I would have explored all possibilities, tested limits. Today I cook dinner.

The League of Nations, Mars and the INS

What I know is this: the League of Nations was formally established on this day 84 years ago. Also, this week Bush announced a new goal for the US space programs: a manned mission to Mars. And, Bush also came forth with a proposal that would legalize the status of illegal immigrants in the US.

The immigration thing has application to the many millions who are filling such exciting jobs as picking thornberries, scrubbing floors, and washing dishes. We all know why Bush is willing to pursue it. There’s the southern vote. And, his buddies who hire countless illegal aliens want to be able to run for office without being exposed for having a nanny who speaks no English. And, no American worker wants to pick thornberries. Nor, for that matter, to wash dishes, especially under the hostile stare of waiters who resent having to share tips with guys blasting hot water on pans freshly burnt by slivers of foie gras (this I know for sure from my moments at L’Etoile). And of course, there’s that other reason called administrative efficiency: currently, there is no easy way to deport millions of illegal aliens. INS tried to do it by developing a bureaucracy that would be so tangled that everyone would lose track of what was happening, but in the end it lost track of things as well and so now dazed agents stare mindlessly at meaningless documents while the nation waits. It is very embarrassing.

There are many positive things to be said for legalizing illegal aliens: amnesty in general makes one think of forgiveness and a willingness to admit to our mutual mistakes before we all tally forth and move on. Of course, there are troubling aspects as well, and I should link to those commentators who question everything from implementation, to the feasibility, the fairness, and the intangible nature of benefits, but I am too lazy, and it is Saturday, and Ca has begun the packing rituals (leaving tomorrow). So for now, let’s concentrate on the positives.

The thing is, I can understand that there would indeed be a back and forth on the complicated topic of immigration. What I cannot see is where we would have room for even a remote back and forth on Mars. Where is the "forth"?

Maybe it’s like when you take a course in college and in the middle of the semester you are so behind that you just cannot keep up, and you don’t get what the professor is saying, and you hate your classmates because they all seem to get it, and you just want to drop it and move on, and you do, and it is all such a relief then. Could it be that Bush, having been recently characterized as incapable of showing any intelligent signs of life during Cabinet meetings (possibly being tired from his morning run), having an economy on his hands that refuses to produce new jobs (yesterday’s story), not wishing to look forward to a debate with Dean or Clark or Lieberman nor any of the others whose names, BTW he probably cannot pronounce, could it be that he just wants to chuck it all and take on Mars? He’s never worried about the cost of personal travel before, why should he now?

I think it’ll add new excitement to the currently tired observation: “we can send a man to the moon, but we cannot cure the common cold!” Let’s give it a try: “we can send a man to Mars (ed. note: the press refers to the manned mission, so I assume we’re sending a guy), but we cannot ensure health care for all…”

About the League of Nations – I just wanted to put in a good word for an attempt at unity. And, I feel obliged to say something that everyone hasn’t already read elsewhere. I bet no one knew about the League of Nations anniversary.

What's in a bottle?

Last night we had a person for dinner who possibly likes artisanal wines even more than I do. And so I opened my one great bottle, a 1990 Chablis Grand Cru, made from 70 year old vines. Old vines are like old people – they have the wisdom and capacity to produce something infinitely more complex than their young counterparts, but they do it at a dwindling pace, so that the yield becomes less each year. At some point you have to scrap the whole batch because you can’t afford to keep it going, even though the grapes can be phenomenal. I bought this wine from a winemaker (Sebastian Dauvissat) who was young enough to be in high school when it was bottled. His enthusiasm was magnificent. I almost wanted to devote myself to a life of viticulture from that moment onwards. I think I’d be good at pruning vines during the short winter days.

Opening the bottle was much less satisfying than knowing it was waiting, retaining perfection, wisdom, maturity. But it had to be done: at some point you have to let go of your stored savings, be they material (wine?) or otherwise, and live.

WHERE ARE THE TRUCKS??

If you google Poland and blogging or blogspot you’ll see that for the most part, Poland:
1. ..was hot in the blog world last year because of it’s oppositional stance toward the EU’s proposed changes in voting rights (predictable)
2. remains on people’s radar screen as the country invaded by Germany and then the Soviet Union (predictable)
3. ..is the last name of a number of people referred to in blogs (surprising)
4. appears on long lists of countries that seemingly have nothing in common (“coalition of the willing?”)
5. has many blogging American visitors who use words such as “dunno” and “gotta” (surprising)

I myself am waiting for the city of Madison to show up and trim the trees in front of our house. This seems like an idle exercise, I know, but I feel strongly about how they should be cut and I know I wont have another chance to express my opinion on this matter for some 5 – 6 years. Yesterday, the city forestry guys were working their way up the block, and I thought my wait was about to end, but the silent bell that tolled the end of the work day (2:45 pm) made them pack up their tools and leave JUST ONE TREE AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE!! Perverse luck. And today, at 10 a.m., they’re not here yet.

Surely this may be read as a very uninteresting story, and indeed, the wait is very uninteresting, forcing me to google Poland and blogspots and do all sorts of other existentially stupefying things (because I keep thinking it is only a question of minutes). On the other hand, one needs an occasional reminder about life’s randomness, and tree trimmers stopping just before your property as well as finding people with names such as David Poland (a film critic, with a very interesting take on the top 10 movies of 2003, very astute AND funny observations on the worst films, and a good column posted yesterday about the Oscars) are all surprising and random events, and so I mention both as quirky stand-ins for those trivial, unpredictable occurrences that shape the day more than we’d like to believe.

ICY THINGS

If you follow any Euro-blogs (and there are a number of them), you’ll know that much has been written lately about the fingerprinting of foreign visitors – at least those, who cannot travel to the States without a visa. I wonder if most here realize what an odd assortment of “potential trouble-makers” we are screening: from Poland, the Czech Republic – yes, fingerprinting has begun. And Germany, the UK, or France? No, not at all.

Interesting, isn’t it that the US visa requirement is like a layer of PERMAFROST: seemingly forever in place for countries once known as within “Eastern Europe,” though presumably for economic now rather than political reasons. But with COLD WAR overtones nonetheless.

Here are some conclusions I’ve drawn from a blog written by someone whom I gather is also a radio announcer in the Czech Republic:

1. If you refused entry to the Czech Republic for all Americans who could not spell Czechoslovakia, few Americans would ever get to see Prague.
2. Slovakia is much more religious than the Czech Republic (this is relevant as yesterday—Three Kings Day--was a national holiday in Slovakia, but not for the Czechs)
3. It was a FREEZING -14 C in Brno yesterday.

Just to let you know, the wind-chill gave us -30 F readings yesterday in Madison. Not to brag or anything, but it was really COLD.

WEDDING KIND OF BELLS

Fact, or fiction?
1. Britney Spears got an annulment because she is a crazed attention-getter
2. Captains can marry people, just not ones that have existing spouses
3. If you are married for a day and then annulled, your property, acquired on that one day, is divisible property
4. Britney and former husband are good friends.

Answer code:
1. An annulment is a valid legal instrument available in most jurisdictions for those who mistakenly enter in a union that proved to be erroneous, for any number of reasons. The problem here is not with Britney getting an annulment, but with the state of Nevada offering up walk-in weddings at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings.
2. Lets put this to rest once and for all: captains haven’t the legal mandate to solemnize weddings, unless you are in a jurisdiction like Massachusetts which, to my knowledge, permits your buddy next door to preside over your union.
3. Oh come now. Were it that easy! Any state that transforms marital property into divisible property also permits judicial review of the circumstances. Plus it was an ANNULMENT, not a divorce.
4. They seem to be, but what do I know…

THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!

Today our very excellent floor installer (I say very excellent because the floor looks great but for…) came to inspect his work from the summer, after I complained that the boards are separating. The separations are such that I can almost hide letters and manuscripts in the emergent cracks. I’m no contracts expert. I stick with torts. In fact, I proudly announce to my torts class that tort law triumphs over the law of contract again and again (i.e. no matter what you signed away on paper, you cannot exculpate yourself from liability just by your say-so). But I do know one thing: when we purchased the new floor, we bought ourselves a promise of beautiful wooden floor boards, neatly aligned, one next to the other. The gaps were not part of the deal.

Still, when I called the installer, he told me that separations are natural. They happen because we keep our houses warm in the winter and the absence of humidity creates the great desire for boards to huddle into themselves. Mine were just huddling, and would unhuddle come summertime. But he offered to come out and take a look in case it was more than just a predictable huddle.

I turned up the humidifier, sent the dog to another part of the house (diminishing the possibility that the installer would point an accusing finger at something other than his work) and waited. The installer came early, shook my hand in a convincing, assured way, and inspected his work. A big smile came to his face. He looked up and said “this happens all the time! We get calls daily in the winter from surprised customers! We tell them the boards are just shrinking (I prefer the term huddling) for the winter. It’s just so warm and dry now! No, this is nothing to worry about. We stand behind our work. Your boards are okay.”

It seems to me that these are attractive words that he used, and I would like to use them too. For instance, say the Dean calls me and asks why, by the beginning of Spring Semester my grades have not been turned in yet (in case I really get stalled with the grading). I answer “Don’t worry, Dean, this happens all the time! Law profs here are notorious about handing in late grades! Remember when one waited until Spring break to turn hers in? Hey, I’m sure you get calls all the time. It’s the same thing! I’m just late, that’s all. You’ll get them eventually”

Or, maybe I could call up the slogan when I fail to report income for tax purposes (say blogging suddenly turns profitable), or when I show up late for class, or when I take up too much space with my over-head luggage, or when I fail in whatever I routinely fail in, for all the reasons why we all fail repeatedly, all the time.

Anyway, I shook his hand and we parted, amidst my mumbling something about putting in yet another wooden floor in the living room in the future because we just love his work (and we do, but for the emergent cracks). It reminded me of a day when I was 16, in Poland, standing in a very long line at the post office with my boyfriend (that is perhaps an overly optimistic characterization of his status vis a vis me), and the teller decided to take a tea break just as it was my turn. I, being not one to argue, meekly went to the end of another line. My “boyfriend” looked at me and said “oferma zyciowa!” (you Warsaw types will appreciate this; in English it roughly translates to something like “life’s loser”). I took it to heart then, but today I guess I was in a more forgiving mood.

THE LONG GOOD-BYES AND BELLS

Madison made it into the national news twice today: for the pile-up of 60 cars on the interstate due to snow, and for the foot-ball game victory which was, apparently, against all odds. For me, the week-end was centered around SC’s departure: watching the rituals of packing on Saturday, the cancelled flights on Sunday, delays and reroutings on Monday. I can’t believe I have to go through this again in a few days. Ca, whose winter break is longer, is still home. That’s the good news. The bad side is the anticipation of standing around the airport AGAIN next week-end, trying to fain interest in the permanent 50% sale of giraffe bags at the gift shop-- anything to distract from an imminent departure. The giraffe bags, BTW, have to go. Anyone who has been at the Madison airport in the last three (possibly more) years will know what I’m talking about.

This week-end I read a sentence about the agricultural standards set by the European Community (yes, in one of the 4 books). Having just written something about Poland’s accession to the EU, I had a moment of panic. Does everyone now typically speak of the EC rather than the EU? Has the common vernacular switched, so that I am using passé terms belonging to another era? Resolution no 2: request several more news services with international updates to appear in my morning dose of emails.

So what was the best international story of the day? The Bells one of course. For those not yet clued in to the linking capabilities of the blue words, let me just say that it is about monks in Russia (the old Russia), ancient bells and Harvard. It struck me that the piece challenged a way of regarding principles of ownership. Now, I am fairly immersed in the laws governing property ownership, especially in my work on divorce and family dissolution. I am used to a world where ownership is set by legal standards which in turn are governed by principles of fairness, efficiency, and perhaps some antiquated value-ridden notions of rightful transfers. I get that. But the Bells issues set me spinning. What seems obviously fair (for Harvard to disgorge the blasted bells) has no legal basis whatsoever! It could only be grounded in the idea that in art (and elsewhere?) there is a “true” owner, which supercedes the “rightful legal” owner. If that idea shifts the bells into the hands of the monks, then should every item of art (or non-art) be placed in the hands of the “true” owner?

Yes, sure, you legal types are reminding me that there is nothing new in exploring what an object was intended for in setting rules of ownership. If, for example, a person receives an item as a “gift,” then it is kept out of the cartload of divisible goodies at the time of divorce: it was INTENDED for the individual, and there it shall stay. But the world of bells meant for religious observance somewhere in the mountains sheltering Russian monks – that’s something else altogether. Here (or rather there, in Russia), you are examining what an object was originally created for, and this premise then blasts away the legal rules that frustrated that original intent. Imagine how differently we would treat each object around us if we were to fashion theories of “true intent” for everything in sight.

Nonetheless, I say give it back to the monks. Harvard claims it has a wider audience for the bells. Come on, Harvard, asserting rights of ownership based on a populist appeal: “we want to share them with the masses!” they say. It just rings false to me.

MOVIES and BOOKS and POLISHNESS

We watched a DVD last night: a favorite around here—Shakespeare in Love. It’s cleverness charms, and it is a satisfying kind of charm, you don’t have to say things like “It’s dumb, but I liked it anyway” since it isn’t dumb, it’s quite clever.

But the reason we watched a DVD is that we have been having trouble finding a movie to go to. Having waded through the sugar of Something’s Gotta Give, Love Actually, Under the Tuscan Sun, and suffered through the darkness of the remaining shows (does anyone NOT agree that it’s been a somber movie season?), there wasn’t anything that grabbed.

I suppose NOT seeing a movie is an option, but SC was supposedly on her last night home (I say supposedly because the weather did make it impossible for her to make the connection today after all; all her flights got cancelled and so now we have her for one more day: more movie v. DVD dilemmas for tonight!), and it seemed the frivolous thing to do. And, there is, in January and February, a sense of urgency: let’s see as much as possible because of the imminent Academy Awards (showing off linking abilities again) – note early date this year! We’ve been tracking the Awards faithfully for 28 years (those here that are old enough to say that), and everyone except for me is extremely good at Academy trivia. To me, the Awards are sort of a periscope into the future: this is what dementia will feel like when I’m 95 (note the inherent optimism in that clause): I’ll look around and not remember the names of people in the room. Currently, I only don’t remember the names of people associated with the movie industry.

Anyway, “reading a book” is not a great option. I am in the middle of four. But I have issues with some aspects of all of them. There seems to be a randomness there, but in fact, each book does have its reasons for sitting with a Borders book mark stuck in the middle:
1. How To Be Good by Nick Hornby is one of my book club’s selections. It is darkly humorous. The dialogue (thus far) gives you a good taste at what it feels like to live in a querulous relationship. It must be an eye-opener to the few (do they even exist?) who manage not to be repeatedly nasty to their partners, friends, or family. Kind of depressing, on the other hand, if, by page 3, you think to yourself, for the tenth time no less, “sounds like something I would say…” [A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION to myself: use less of Hornby’s dialogue in daily life.]
2. From Here, You Can’t See Paris by Michael Sanders. This is one of those endless titles that I pick up just so I can brag that I have read EVERYTHING on the shelves about rural life and artisanal food production in France or Italy.
3. The Lady and the Monk by Pico Iyer—I’ve been on this forever! And also his newer book, The Global Soul, which I only just started. I actually do like The Lady etc, but every once in a while it has to go into a state of repose, because Iyer is so slow in his reflective meditations about Kyoto and Zen Buddhism, that my interest stagnates.
4. Listy Albo Opor Materii by Stanislaw Lem—ahhhh, the other side of the ocean wakes up. I picked this up in Krakow last month. It seemed like a great way to keep me focused on things Polish. The trouble is that when I am here, Polish things there are like faces in the Academy Awards – very very vaguely familiar, but I can’t seem to remember why I had this pressing need, while there, to keep them vibrantly alive. Anyway, Lem, for those on this side of the Atlantic, writes commentaries on politics, society, etc. This book is a collection of his letters—written in a sardonic tone to bureaucrats, to acquaintances, other writers. I don’t really admire sarcasm in writing, but I do admire Lem’s wit. It’s very Polish (whatever that means: note my latest story on this topic, forthcoming, as they all are, someday somewhere).

If blogging should entertain or inspire, then my post should have at least some elements of one or the other. However, absolutely nothing funny passed through my head the entire day. The inspirational theme is more subtle. You could think-- if she, who has no ideas, can do this, so can I! If I may allow a prediction: I foresee that blogging will eventually replace email as a form of personal communication. There is something more adventurous about sending out a blog. The risk, however small, warrants a greater care in what you write, which is a good thing.

One goal I have for right now (in addition to reading 8 exams, which is not going to happen) is to try out linking. The site that I've been in and out of all day has to do with snow --it's a visually pleasing rendition of regional weather patterns. According to the site (okay, CNN, NYT, etc as well), we are to have our first snow storm tomorrow. SC is wondering if that means a cancelled flight back to Connecticut.

Still, weather is neither inspiring nor funny. Better think great thoughts (law related?) before I blog again.

I first thought about blogging last week. I thought it would take me a year to decide to try it. I changed my mind. I have many who think this is a terrible idea. But I see real possibilities of profit: do this, or I'll write menacing truths. I'm hooked. If I can figure out how to make this work.

Reasons to blog:
1. I don't have to write long personal emails to friends who may or may not want to hear about why I haven't finished grading exams yet.
2. I can do this instead of grading exams
3. I can be added to my daughters' lists of "favorites" -- that just feels so good!
4. I can experiment.

Reasons not to blog:
1. Cs has grave reservations
2. I have mild reservations
3. I most certainly will regret at least 51% of my postings
4. I will feel compelled to write about legal things since this is what I am trained to do. But it will be tempting to write about non-legal things more.

Okay, let me try posting.