There is an interesting thread starting at PrawfsBlawg initiated by Rob Vischer of St. Thomas (MN). Rob asks which talk show host best exemplifies your teaching style. He aspires to Charlie Rose, but admits to a little bit of Oprah.

This is probably a dangerous — or at least an awkward — topic for a blog read by a professor’s students. Someone may think themselves Tim Russert but be perceived as Rosie O’Donnell. In any event, most of us cannot be what we want to be all of the time. I may wish I to be Jim Lehrer or Bill Buckley, but have days when my inner Bill O’Reilly or, God forgive me, Larry King comes to the fore. I have even caught myself channeling Phil Donahue.

I acknowledge and bewail my manifold sins and wickedness, which I, from time to time most grievously have committed against your divine majesty . . . .

Maybe it’s not such a good topic after all.

Last month, Jessica Slavin’s short post on “Things Law School Doesn’t Teach” caught my eye.  Professor Slavin’s post linked to a public defenders’ blog in Connecticut which contained a list of “10 things I didn’t learn in law school,” a list seemingly assembled without a lot of thought, apparently just a bit of lighthearted fun.

The comments to the post, on the other hand, were hardly lighthearted, especially the comments of Professor Papke and John Kindley.

Professor Papke wrote:

. . . I thought the list was cynical to a fault.  Too many lawyers have a sad bitterness and mean anti-intellectualism about them.  Maybe living in debt and working in the context of hierarchy and bureaucracy produces those attitudes.  I wish somehow lawyers could remember law school as a demanding but enriching academic experience.