Preparation MR

My third year of law school (December 1981), I was part of the student comedy and variety show called the Yale Law Revue, officially described (on page 88) as "a collection of satirical songs, skits, and vignettes, written, staged, and performed by law students"). I had a great time, singing the praises of the closest pizza joint to the school to the tune of the theme from American Bandstand ("If a pizza or grinder you seek/Food Italian that's been made by a Greek"), and imitating Howard Cosell interviewing a student training for his interview with "Sullivan & Cromwell, the Cravath, Swaine & Moore of large New York law firms" ("Howard, I feel good, I feel loose, I feel articulate, I feel well-dressed").

Another skit parodied New Haven School of law, science, and policy, called "Preparation MR" (for Prof. W. Michael Reisman, whose international law course I was taking - and enjoyed tremendously), riffing on then-ubiquitous TV ads for Preparation H (that one features a very young Bryan Cranston!). I wrote out the script and taped it to a toothpaste tube box, and earnestly delivered the pitch for the product that could deliver World Public Order to your nether regions. It was one of the highlights of my law school years, and I can still (no surprise if you know me even slightly) quote many of the jokes from memory.

So imagine my delight when Rob James, YLS class of 1983, emailed me to ask permission to quote the Preparation MR skit on his blog, Attenuated Subtleties, discussing his late-career introduction to the New Haven School and its "highly inflected" language in a post called "Legal science or a cult of style?" Rob wanted permission to use my skit and parts of a line he remembered, "years of research yielding scholarly writing amounting to several thousand pages, many of them different."

Of course I was delighted to let him. When you write one of these skits, particularly one so full of inside jokes, you hope that people get the jokes at the time. But having someone get the joke 45 years later is even better - far, far better than having an appellate court cite your student note. At least for me.

C2C Randolph-Macon College

John Shimkus and I did our third Congress to Campus visit at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA, October 8-9. RMC was a great host; students were engaged and interested, and I am now a big Yellow Jackets soccer fan with an actual jersey. We also spoke to the Women in Legislative Studies Conference hosted by RMC on October 9. The college's summary of the visit is here.

Running for the Bulls 10K

For completeness, I'm putting this race on the blog, even though this was a mistake. It was a law firm group activity, and nobody else did anything other than the 1 mile walk with a dog. Meanwhile, I'm slogging through a 10K 3 days before a 4-day East Coast trip, with an extra day trying to get back home with an overnight stay at DFW because of a flight cancellation, and it probably helped me get an incredibly persistent case of the flu. But I finished, and 2nd AG (because there were only 2 of us). 1:16:22, 40/50 overall, 28/33 gender, 2/2 AG. Official results here.

Devereux "Trusted Advisors"

Devereux ran a series of "trusted advisor" posts on Facebook and LinkedIn to spotlight members of their center advisory boards, like me on the Devereux Arizona Advisory Board. Here's the Devereux national Facebook and LinkedIn posts, and here's the Devereux Arizona

FB and LI links.

Sun Devil Classic

The Sun Devil Classic in Tribute to Hannah Henry was supposed to be a triathlon, but heavy rains led to water discharges in the lower Salt River dams, and the water quality (and opacity) in Tempe Town Lake meant it was switched to a duathlon. Not my favorite, as the swim is my (relatively) best event, but I've had a long recovery from the flu and it's probably best I wasn't in the water - especially not that water.

It was a beautiful day once the sun came up, and while the race was a slog - OK run 1, satisfactory bike, OK transitions, and a not great run 2 where I had to run-walk the 5K - I'm in a great age group, and finished 3rd AG (even ahead of the guy who finished fourth). I'll take it. Results here:

Run1 11:02.7
T1 3:50.8
Bike 49:21.6
T2 4:26.5
Run2 38:29.4
Division 3/4, 71/72 gender, 118/120 overall

I Have an Op-Ed

As a member of the ReFormers Caucus, I'm the Arizona point person and have an op-ed piece on protecting elections and election workers that just went up on AZ Central and will be printed on June 3. Hope you like it.