Today I learned that it takes five attorneys to lift my chair up a flight of steps into a suburban home. To those of you who wake up tomorrow with sore backs, my sincere apologies. I’d offer to return the favor with some free legal advice, but you probably don’t need it.
NPR has a great story about accessible playgrounds where kids with and without disabilities can have fun together. Nothing like this existed when I was a kid and I wish it had; the playground near my childhood home was decidedly inaccessible. The article points out that accessible playgrounds are expensive to build and that parents often have to raise the necessary funds themselves. As the economy slowly improves, perhaps more municipalities will see such playgrounds as a worthy investment.
NPR is also creating a database of accessible playgrounds that is open for public contribution.
I just noticed that my blog had over 3,000 hits on a single day last week. And I have no idea why. As far as I can tell, no major site has linked to me and I certainly haven’t posted anything scandalous in recent weeks. Or years, for that matter. Strange.
The World’s End is the concluding chapter in the so-called Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are the first two). Like the first two, TWE features Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in another variation of the buddy movie formula. Here, Pegg plays Gary, a feckless guy approaching middle age who never managed to recapture the glory years of his youth. Gary is on a quest to reunite with his high school friends for another try at an epic pub crawl that they first attempted in high school. That attempt ended short of Gary’s goal to reach The World’s End, the twelfth and final stop on their planned route.
Gary cajoles his friends into traveling back to their hometown of Newton Haven and their crawl begins at a rather generic-looking pub. The movie has plenty to say about the Starbuck-ification of British pub culture. A few pubs later, Gary gets into an altercation with a local who is not exactly human. The friends eventually realize that a sinister force has taken over the town and they must escape. But Gary convinces them that they must finish the pub crawl so as not to raise any alarms.
The movie is squarely aimed at aging Gen-X’ers like myself. The soundtrack alone could have been culled from my CD collection circa 1997. Pegg has a gift for playing men who are not quite ready to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and he and Frost play off each other with skillful ease. And the many fight scenes are choreographed with a finesse that many straight action movies lack. TWE is a funny, charming movie that is the perfect remedy to the onslaught of grim blockbusters that rampaged through cineplexes this summer.
President Obama commented today that law school should be two years instead of three. He’s right. While I enjoyed my 3L year and took some interesting classes, it didn’t teach me anything that would have made me a better attorney. If it’s possible to earn a master’s degree in two years, a law degree shouldn’t take any longer.
“But it’s a doctorate!” you say. Shut up. We’re not learning how to cut people open or teach particle physics. Two years should be enough time to learn the necessary writing and critical thinking skills that most attorneys need. Law schools will likely resist any change that would result in lower revenue, but perhaps a few courageous deans will implement this idea and other schools will be pressured to follow suit.
What do my fellow attorneys think? Did that third year impart crucial wisdom to you?
The new TiVo models (the Roamio moniker is terrible and should be sent back to the marketing hell from whence it came) may compel me to replace my aging TiVo HD. The ability to stream to my iPad is a killer feature that might allow me to get rid of the antiquated TV in my bedroom. The cost for the top-end model plus a lifetime subscription is a bit high, but it would likely provide a steady fix to my TV addiction for several years.
I’ve heard rumors that Apple may release an updated TV device that could upend the traditional cable model, so it may be worth waiting to see which toy would serve me better.
Minnesota has recruited legendary lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe to be the official representatives of MNsure, the state’s insurance exchange. They’ll be featured in a multimedia campaign that depicts Bunyan suffering various accidents that would require an expensive trip to the ER. The slogan “Land of 10,000 Reasons to Get Health Insurance” seems a little clunky, but it gets the point across. The campaign has a folksy Minnesota appeal that should play well around the state. I noticed a couple MNsure billboards during my drive home today, so it looks like the messaging has already begun.
Wired has a really interesting feature that collects various theories on how Breaking Bad will end. The Color Theory particularly intrigues me. It focuses on the show’s use of color foreshadows certain events or sets the tone for a particular scene. For example, orange and pink typically signify that somebody is going to die. It’s something I’ve noticed more as I’ve been re-watching previous seasons, but not with as careful an eye as Color Theory proponents.
I have no idea how the show will end, but I trust that the writers will deliver a finale that is both surprising yet brutally logical. It won’t be a half-assed affair that resorts to gimmicks or sentimentality that have plagued the finales of otherwise great shows (I’m looking at you, Lost and Battlestar Galactica). Let’s hope upcoming writers heed the lessons of BB and learn to craft other series that have carefully planned story arcs.
In case you’ve forgotten, Orson Scott Card would like to remind you and everyone else interested in seeing Ender’s Game that he’s still a paranoid right-winger and more than a teensy bit racist. Card recently published an essay that imagines how Obama might become a dictator-for-life. He frames all of this as mere spitballing, but it comes across as something that you might find posted on militia website. Here’s Card imagining how Obama might seize power by creating a “national police force”:
The NaPo will be recruited from “young out-of-work urban men” and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities. In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama’s enemies.
Instead of doing drive-by shootings in their own neighborhoods, these young thugs will do beatings and murders of people “trying to escape” — people who all seem to be leaders and members of groups that oppose Obama.
If Lionsgate Studios doesn’t want to spend the next few months doing damage control, it might consider paying Card a hefty sum to take an extended vacation in a locale with no Internet access.
Like their national counterparts, local opponents of health care reform are resorting to desperate measures to persuade people to avoid purchasing insurance through the exchange. A Minnesota group led by a fervent Tea Party idelogue named Twila Brace has posted an ominous billboard near the Minnesota State Fairgrounds implying that people won’t be able choose their own doctor. It’s misinformation, of course, but what’s more interesting is Brace’s open admission of her desire to sabotage Obamacare:
“We look at the exchange as the Achilles heel of ObamaCare,” Twila Brace, the council’s executive director, told KARE Monday.
“And we know if the Exchange does not move forward, neither will ObamaCare, so that is why our focus is on stopping the exchange through lack of enrollment.”
MNsure will have to work hard to counter this propaganda in the coming months. People are already easily confused when it comes to understanding health insurance and they’ll need reassurance that signing up is in their best interests.