(no subject)
Comment to this post and I'll entrust you with five subjects I believe you uniquely qualified to discuss. Then post this in your LJ and tell me something I don't know about the subjects given.
From Peter:
Lawyer: When I submitted to this little exercise, I didn’t know you were going to be so literal about it. Yes, I am a lawyer. To its profound and lasting regret, the Massachusetts bar admitted me to its ranks in 1986.
Is that really all I’m supposed to say? “Yes, I’m a lawyer”?
How about this: in ancient times, lawyers were permitted to employ a rhetorical technique called prosopopeia, wherein they would speak as somebody other than themselves. The dead, usually, or a living person not present. Cicero does it in Pro Caelio, his defense of Marcus Caelius.
It’s fallen out of fashion today, obviously, the advent of the Ouija board having rendered impractical the use of attorneys as conduits to the netherworld-but in those rare moments when I’m feeling charitable towards my profession, I like to think that’s what lawyers are meant to do: give someone without a voice the ability to speak and to be heard.
Generosity: The act or virtue of giving freely, with no regard to the worthiness of the recipient and no thought of recompense. Denny is generous. I’m just rich and easily outraged.
Boston: As splendid a city as you’ll ever encounter. An interesting tidbit for all you trivia buffs out there: our sports teams are far superior to yours.
Zippy: I dimly recall knowing-and perhaps even harboring a certain affection for-a person by this name, but it’s been so long that the details elude me.
Justice: I presume this marks the point where you ran out of ideas.
Joseph Heller on the subject: “Justice is a knee in the gut from the floor on the chin at night sneaky with a knife brought up down on the magazine of a battleship sandbagged underhanded in the dark without a word of warning. Garroting. That's what justice is.”
From Peter:
Lawyer: When I submitted to this little exercise, I didn’t know you were going to be so literal about it. Yes, I am a lawyer. To its profound and lasting regret, the Massachusetts bar admitted me to its ranks in 1986.
Is that really all I’m supposed to say? “Yes, I’m a lawyer”?
How about this: in ancient times, lawyers were permitted to employ a rhetorical technique called prosopopeia, wherein they would speak as somebody other than themselves. The dead, usually, or a living person not present. Cicero does it in Pro Caelio, his defense of Marcus Caelius.
It’s fallen out of fashion today, obviously, the advent of the Ouija board having rendered impractical the use of attorneys as conduits to the netherworld-but in those rare moments when I’m feeling charitable towards my profession, I like to think that’s what lawyers are meant to do: give someone without a voice the ability to speak and to be heard.
Generosity: The act or virtue of giving freely, with no regard to the worthiness of the recipient and no thought of recompense. Denny is generous. I’m just rich and easily outraged.
Boston: As splendid a city as you’ll ever encounter. An interesting tidbit for all you trivia buffs out there: our sports teams are far superior to yours.
Zippy: I dimly recall knowing-and perhaps even harboring a certain affection for-a person by this name, but it’s been so long that the details elude me.
Justice: I presume this marks the point where you ran out of ideas.
Joseph Heller on the subject: “Justice is a knee in the gut from the floor on the chin at night sneaky with a knife brought up down on the magazine of a battleship sandbagged underhanded in the dark without a word of warning. Garroting. That's what justice is.”