Friday, August 7, 2009

My (several months old) thoughts on the matter

An ambulance, sirens blazing, lights flashing, barely clears the busy downtown intersection before pedestrians and motorists resume their battle over the right of way and their race to make the yellow light. To almost everyone, this emergency is a pause button.

We ask the same people to watch our computers as the people we consider potential laptop thiefs. It would be, as they say, a delicious irony if that’s how it worked out. Yet there’s a sense of comfort in requesting someone’s observation of your belongings, in spite of the fact that they’ll forget you asked as soon as you leave the room, and you’ll forget to thank them as soon as you return.

Contracts is known to be a dry subject. This reputation is not deserved. Exhibit 1: The poetry inspired by the not-so-barren cow, the Rose 2d of Aberlone, and by the litigation resulting from her surprise fertility. Hilarious. Exhibit 2: the colorless image from the late 1800s, reproduced in our textbook, of a black lump with 4 vertical lines descending from it, supposedly a cow, with the caption “black angus in pensive mood.”

NYC subways are frequently used as a focal point or at least a starting remark for conversations regarding sociopathic behavior, intrusions on personal space, and the smell of urine. Incidentally, on the subject of smells: referring to someone as stinky is endearing, while noting that someone smells is mean. You’re probably smiling as you call someone smelly. However, you will have earned a dirty look for the comment “Bob smells,” especially if you say it too loudly.