I shall not fail that rendezvous

Lately, I seem to have a little more free time to myself. I suppose that can be attributed to having turned my law review paper in, and a legal writing deadline looming several weeks on the horizon (rather than right in my face).

Whatever it is, I have had time to brush up on the Battle of the Somme, the subject of my 2004 history honors thesis. I bought a visual history book / DVD on the Somme, and leafing through it reminds me of what it was like to write papers as a history student, rather than a burgeoning lawyer-to-be.

And coincidentally, World War One has been in the news lately; it seems the U.S.'s last surviving doughboy, Frank Buckles, has recently been honored for his service to his country.

Thinking of that era of my life, when I was writing one of my favorite papers of all time, makes me smile. I had piles of dusty history books in my too-small bedroom, and I was elbow-deep into a subject that I not only found interesting, but vitally important to memorialize. Plus, I was a strange bird back then:


At any rate, my recent revisits into the land of trench warfare have led me to a decision - I'd like to go back to France in 2016 for the 100-year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and attend the memorial ceremonies there on July 1. (July 1 was the opening day of the Somme battle, and some of the bloodiest, saddest few hours of British military history.)

I especially want to see the monument at Thiepval and the cemetery at Serre Road. I think it would be a fitting thing for me to do; out of all the European war cemeteries I visited, I never did get to the Somme.

So here's to you, Frank Buckles. If only the rest of you could have made it to the ripe old age of 107.

I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope or battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows ‘twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear….
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

“Rendezvous” by Alan Seeger, American Harvard graduate and Somme soldier

Applemania

We went to see my dad's band, the Road Apples, play a gig tonight not too far from where we live. They always play songs I like, including my longtime faves Tom Petty and The Who. (And tonight they played "Bus Stop" by the Hollies and "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis, which are two of my all-time favorite songs!)

Incidentally, after the band closed their first set with "My Generation," everyone was very impressed with Dad's drumming. I heard them say, "Man, who is that drummer?" to which others in the group replied mysteriously, "That's Mr. Drummer." Very odd.

I also found out that they have a new website, which is pretty neat. It was also martini night at the bar tonight, so I got to try a Road Apple Martini, which was actually one of the better appletinis I have tried. (A little bit of lemon cuts the sugary sweetness of the green apple liqueur.) So, the Road Apples are coming up in the world - now they have a website and a drink named after them!

OK, so I need to go out more.

I don't know why, but I love watching award shows. When I was a kid, it was the Miss America pageant, and nowadays it's the Grammies and the Oscars.

This year, as Dave and I geared up to watch the Oscars, I realized that I had not seen a single one of the pictures nominated in major categories. I guess that's what law school (and grad school) will do to you.

Then, as we watched the show, I realized that the only film I had seen - which was nominated for the relatively minor award for best makeup - was "Norbit." That is some depressing stuff.

(I did see Harry Potter 5, but, of course, that was not nominated for anything.)

So now I have compiled a list of movies that I really want to see:

• "La Vie en Rose"
• "Once"
• "Elisabeth: The Golden Age"
• "I'm Not There"
• "Juno"
• "Ratatouille"
• "Atonement"
• "Enchanted"

If there are others you think are worth watching, let me know, but I should tell you that "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will be Blood" look like they would scare the crap out of me and I don't want to watch them, haha.

Richard J. Daley, we love you.

Having been to the Daley Courthouse for court filings in the past few months, I began to notice a strange smell.

I asked around my law friends, many of whom have also been to the Daley Center for various things. The best explanation I got is that the place smells like "depression."

However, I believe I pinpointed it on my first day: the Daley Center smells like bleu cheese. I don't know what that means, but it can't be good. It's also possible that I smell like bleu cheese, after my recent love affair with Roquefort. But I still vote that the Daley Center is rotting with mold from the inside out.

A lawyer's humanity

Well, the second half of law school has begun - I lived through finals and I have come back for more. This semester, the lineup is Legal Writing III, Copyright, Real Estate Transactions, and Legal Profession.

Legal Profession has been the most thought-provoking class so far this semester, at least for me, because of its implications for my future life as a lawyer. This class is all about the ethical dilemmas you will face as a lawyer, and suggestions for how to act to keep yourself out of trouble with the ARDC.

I stress that it teaches ethics, not morals. Following the ethical rules of professional responsibility will keep you from getting disbarred, they don't necessarily help you sleep at night.

Take our last class, for example, where we talked about the rules of attorney-client confidentiality. We read about a case where a lawyer knew that his client had killed two women, but kept the secret - even when confronted by the parents of one of the dead girls. The court lauded the attorney for keeping his client's information confidential, because if lawyers didn't adhere to confidentiality, their clients could never trust them.

That's all well and good for the justice system, but could you walk around with the knowledge that your client had killed, not to mention the knowledge about where the bodies were buried? Could you honestly tell a bereaved parent that you couldn't tell them any information about the whereabouts of their dead child? Could I?

It seems like ethical rules sometimes ask you to stop thinking like a human, in order to think like a lawyer.

If someone comes into your office brandishing a bloody knife and confessing to the murder of his child, your first instinct would probably be to call the cops...and RUN. But a lawyer is supposed to calmly tell the murderer that he will keep his secret safe, but he should really turn himself in to the police. (The one thing the lawyer cannot do is take the gun and hide it for the client, or advise him to destroy evidence, etc.)

At any rate, the class is interesting, challenging, and more thought-provoking than any class since Torts, which had same sorts of ethical dilemmas related to balancing the interests of society over the individual. I'm looking forward to having my mind bent over what it means to be a lawyer. (I think.)

First day on the job!

Today was my first full day on the job at Peck Bloom, and it definitely flew by. I completed some office tasks, like updating binders, and I went on my first court run! We visited banks, the post office, the process server's office, and scaled the Daley Center like they did in Blues Brothers!

OK, maybe we didn't scale the Daley Center, but we did brave its hectic maze of bizarro elevators. It was fun to see the inner workings of the legal system, certainly in a more direct and real way than I ever do in the classroom. I'm looking forward to going back on Wednesday!

My favorite chef...

I love Ina Garten.

I have loved Ina since I first saw Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network some years ago, and now I own almost all of her cookbooks (thanks to my mother in law!).

But this Christmas, I got The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Barefoot in Paris, two wonderful cookbooks that have led me to explore new foods in the days since we returned from Christmas down south.

This afternoon I went shopping and bought some "French" ingredients at Jewel - endive lettuce, garlic hummus, baby greens, spreadable goat cheese, shredded gruyere, a whole wheat baguette, and a slice of Roquefort.

So, tonight I made grilled veggies from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, which Dave loved; I also made a plate of hummus in endive lettuce leaves. The "meal" was a Greek vinaigrette salad of baby greens and arugala, topped with pieces of baguette with goat cheese spread on top. Mmm...

My French-style shopping trip will also allow me to create the following dishes (some of which are French, some are not):

• Endive, pear, and walnut salad with honey
• Green beans and broccoli with hollandaise sauce
• Marinated salmon with couscous
• Croque-monsieur sandwiches
• Radishes, baguettes, and Roquefort butter
• Brie fondue
  
• Creamy garlic potatoes
• Italian sausage and cheesy rice
• Chorizo and potato burritos
  

Anyone want to come over for dinner this week? Hah!