Road Warriors

And I thought springtime baseball in Rochester was rough.  

Bloodletting in BigLaw (or, Lawyers are People, Too)

I understand that it can be hard sometimes to find sympathy for corporate lawyers, but waves upon waves of layoffs have rocked major law firms the past two weeks, with today bringing news of Latham and Watkins laying off 440 employees (190 associates, 250 staff), making it the largest layoff of its kind, according to industry blog Above the Law. The severance package is sizeable, to say the least, but the sheer size of the cuts--12% of associates, 10% of staff-- is eye-opening.  

One of the interesting trends that surfaces in this cut is the firm extending stipends for incoming associates to defer starting with the firm and work for community service organizations during the "gap year" in between 3L and the first year on the job.  Given the dire situation facing legal aid organizations and public defenders, one hopes that, if there is a silver lining to this recession, it's a renewed commitment to providing legal aid to those most in need.

Lefty! Lefty!

Story of my Little League career.   As it was, I seemed to prefer hitting it to left field, particularly as I got older, so they could shift all day.  

Can't wait for baseball season.

To Whom It May Concern:

Can we please arrange so that one of our players gets introduced like this on Saturday? I'm thinking Groove Theory could channel Jabbawockies.  All we need is a Shaqtus stand-in.  

Change We Can Believe In

Georgetown 65, South Florida 40.  So starts the 6-0 end to the season that will propel us to the tournament... right?

New Blogs, Please

Stumbling upon that marketing blog has also nicely broken up a bit of a Google Reader rut I had been feeling, something that coincides with this post from Andrew Sullivan.

What's the deal with Twitter?

I stumbled upon this blog via a friend's Twitter feed.  I haven't quite digested all of it yet, but these posts on Twitter strike me as being roughly accurate.  Maybe my environment--Twitter-happy Washington--makes me sympathetic/adhere to Twitter, maybe my upbringing (AIM, Gmail, and Facebook status updates) attract me to it, but either way, I think it's an enjoyable--and potentially useful--medium.  

Back

After a long weekend and illness-induced absence, I am back and will be posting this evening. 

Quote for the Moment

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again, but baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and could be again.

-Field of Dreams

The sports question at Pres. Obama's press conference? Not Michael Phelps.  Not Super Bowl-related.  Baseball.  For the wrong reasons? Yes.  But the game endures, and the quote continues to remain relevant.  Much better than "if you build it, they will come."  

Things I Didn't Expect to Read Today

Indulgences return to the mainstream in the Church.  On a related note, expect McDonald's to peg its Filet-O-Fish price to a mark slightly below the recommended donation level for an indulgence during Lent--though in past years, they've been selling them 2/$2 on Fridays, so they should be in the clear.  

I'm envisioning a price war between indulgences and Mickey D's. Sacrilege, I know, but isn't this the policy outcome of putting a price tag on bad behavior? It's Holmes' bad man formulation, only with the Afterlife, instead of the law, as the forum.  If it's easier to continue living a sort-of sinful, yet enjoyable life while making charitable donations that shave some time off of a stay in Purgatory than it is to live a slightly more virtuous, yet less enjoyable and more arduous life and require fewer indulgences, then the incentive is for Catholics to choose Option A.  The here and now will be more pleasant, and there will be negligible, if any, impact on the Afterlife.  

And this line cracks me up: "You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1857 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day."  Talk about a distinction without a difference.