Professor Esenberg on Crawford and the Scope of Employee Protections From Retaliation

Rick Esenberg has a new podcast on the Federalist Society website, in which he comments on Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee.  Crawford, currently pending before the United States Supreme Court, deals with the scope of the antiretaliation provisions of Title VII.  Rick’s podcast provides a succinct and helpful summary and assessment of the facts and arguments in the case.

Continue ReadingProfessor Esenberg on Crawford and the Scope of Employee Protections From Retaliation

Professor Jay Grenig Hosts Thanksgiving Feast

As reported in the Journal Sentinel this morning, Professor Jay Grenig hosted a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner for a number of law students and faculty yesterday. 

The Grenigs don’t host the event every year, but when they do, it’s quite the feast. Jay got the hang of timing dinners for large groups back when he worked as a weekend cook in a sorority house at Sharon’s school, Willamette University in Oregon.

Continue ReadingProfessor Jay Grenig Hosts Thanksgiving Feast

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 . . . .

Continue ReadingHow the Turkey Got Its Name