The Lori Drew Verdict
Anne Reed, author of the Deliberations blog, has some interesting comments on the possible role of jury selection in the verdict in the Lori Drew/MySpace harassment case.
Appreciating Our Professors: Larry Lessig
I’m never any good at these questions. I’m always stumped whenever I’m asked, “Who is your hero?” Similarly, although I enjoyed many of my classes, I don’t recall too many “ah-ha” moments in law school that didn’t come from reading a book or an article. For whatever reason, I’m more inspired by ideas than people.
And the idea that I picked up in law school that inspired me more than any other was the idea that law is part of a broader web of human culture, that it both influences other aspects of that culture and is influenced by it. I encountered (at least) two professors at Yale who were grappling with this concept, Bob Ellickson and Larry Lessig. Well, Lessig was only a visitor during the spring semester of my first year. On the other hand, I never took a class with Ellickson, and I’m not sure I’ve even ever met him. I know Ellickson primarily through his classic, Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes.
So Lessig it is.
How the Turkey Got Its Name
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you work your way through the (somewhat mythical) tryptophans, here’s a nugget to chew from the History News Network: Why Is Our Thanksgiving Bird Called a Turkey? (Answer: Because, of course, it came from Turkey). A taste (it’s wafer thin!):
But if the turkey is as American as motherhood and apple pie, why for god’s sake is the name of this bird the same as the name of a vast and important country in the Middle East? Not just any country, mind you. Turkey — the proud nation we know today — was the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the largest and most powerful political realm the western world has known since the decline and fall of Rome . . . .
How the American bird we know as turkey got the moniker “turkey” and not huexoloti (Aztec) or guajolote (Mexican) — authentic early American names for American turkeys — has much to do with the fact that Turkey was the center of the world at the time Christian Europeans began taking a few baby steps toward finding an alternative route to India . . . .