Can't Start A Fire Without a Spark

Yesterday, I was unable to board two buses because they were too full. Or rather, the driver did not encourage people to move to the back and squish a bit (read: to be considerate of others), so people were not permitted to board. While annoying, this episode had its own humorous point which probably made up for the inconvenience. There were maybe seven other people who were not allowed to get onto the buses, including an elderly Hispanic woman. This woman was so outraged at the first bus driver that she hurled a few four letter words and one five letter word beginning with a "b." It is not every day you get to see a respectable looking older woman proficiently cursing in an accent. But that was my day yesterday.

Note is due Monday. I also have to write my fourth and final paper for Law of Democracy sometime soon, likely this week. With meetings and regular work, that adds up to a pretty decent amount to do. Law of Democracy is a thoroughly scary class. My professor is an intimidating intellect. He has argued 13 cases before the Supreme Court, knows a few justices personally, and has incredible litigation experience. He dissects statutes and opinions like no one I have seen. This did not help my grade on my most recent paper for his class, where he found approximately twelve issues that I had not spotted. Today, I went to his office hours briefly to ask him essentially how he does it. It was phrased better than that, but it still was probably a silly question. He reminded me (not very reassuringly) that he has lots of experience at this and has been doing it a lot longer. More helpfully, he told me that I was not just missing obvious stuff, but this is a difficult area of law and quite a difficult course. Right, he did say that in the beginning of the semester, and I either did not listen or forgot. So I feel a little bit better about my performance, and a little motivated to do better. But mostly, I want to some day be a baller like that. Oh, did I mention that his name has surfaced in discussions of Supreme Court nominees?

Today was a Bruce Springsteen day.

I hope tomorrow is Rex Manning day.

I have a friend who became an aunt on Monday. She showed me pictures on her iPhone. Like...fifteen pictures. Of a one-day-old. There were only so many times I could repeat, "Aww, adorable. So cute," before I began sounding super disingenuous. I mean, it's a fine looking one-day-old. Cute for something that looks like a wrinkly ball of skin and hair.

Administrative Law Is A Huge Waste of Time

This has been easily the most interesting week in Con Law so far. Admittedly that is a pretty low bar, like being the most delicious corn muffin. We have been talking about free speech. Monday we discussed profanity and you could tell my professor was looking forward to teaching the class. He dropped about 40 F-bombs during class, along with a bunch of other curse words that were entirely unnecessary but he just had to get off his chest. Tuesday we talked about libelous speech and he read the magazine Us Weekly to the class, including a description of a country star who has 3 pet raccoons (prompting the kid next to me to mutter "hick"...he wasn't the only one). Today we were talking about obscenity and my professor said "The court says that obscenity is worthless speech. Nickelback is worthless speech, why can't we ban that?" Thank you! That's what I've been campaigning for a while. Why not throw Five for Fighting in there too while we're at it.

Does anyone else want to spray out all of the Pam just to see how much olive oil is in it?

My brief visit to Boston was a good way to break the regular weekly cycle. I finally purchased an object of longstanding desire: a fleece-lined hoodie which became affordable thanks to student discounts on top of other discounts. Shaked couldn't get one because she isn't built like a linebacker and they didn't have smalls. I also ate myself into a Guatemalan food and candy coma with Ron and Shaked before seeing Robert Downey Jr. punch a small child in the stomach (in a movie, not in person - that would have been a much better story). I (with Shaked) prohibited Ethan from bringing a large stuffed unicorn out on a Friday night, pet my cats, and debated my mother about the utility of teachers unions. Overall, what I'd expect from a much-needed visit.

There is a New York Times story about the Onion news stories about Joe Biden. That's meta. Also, hilarious that they generated that much attention. The best part is that the Times tried to get an interview with Biden for their article. It was laughingly denied.

I'm Brian Fellows.