Culture clash!
Between clerkships, fellowships (I might be on my way to Alaska at this time next year), my last week at the ACLU, two symposia, and various other things, I'm going a touch nuts.
But just a touch.
In lighter news, I went to that awesome Yankees game last week where the Marlins were ahead for the entire game until the bottom of the 9th, when all of a sudden the wind started blowing and rain started pouring down, and the Yankees started actually hitting the ball. Then, just after the Yankees caught up and it was 4-4, they called a rain delay. The Yankees eventually won when they resumed the game a couple of hours later. GO YANKS!!!
I went to the game with a friend from the ACLU and a law firm that's paying for his summer here. The attorneys who escorted us were... well, let's just say... not my kind of people. We went to the firm itself to meet up with some of them, and they drove us up there.
I knew straight off that I didn't like the male attorney when, as he was talking to the receptionist at the front desk of the law firm, he picked up her heavy name plaque and dropped it on a vase of yellow flowers she had on her desk, crushing some of them. She looked uneasy. He looked like he thought he was being charming.
Then, this female attorney came out. She wasn't very talkative when I tried to make small talk with her. But you know what got her going? When the male attorney started talking about the dinner they'd had the night before. She went on and on about how she couldn't believe she ate "two servings of carbs" that day! "I had rice AND polenta!" And the male attorney said, with no irony, "yeah, you have to watch that or you'll start gaining weight." He had a pot belly. She weighed about 100 pounds.
Now, the friend I went with has an interesting sense of fashion. And we have a very casual dress code at the ACLU. So I was wearing a t-shirt cotton American Apparel dress and sandals. He was wearing some flamboyantly colored shorts and an indian-style shirt. This was one of those days during the heat wave. The male attorney said to him "did you wear that to work?" When he said "yes," the attorney snorted under his breath. The conversation progressed to the public interest award my friend got from the firm. The attorney said "did you have to interview to get it?" My friend said "no." The male attorney snorted again and said "that's probably for the best." Ew!
So later, thoroughly irritated by a car ride filled with rude attorneys uninterested in making comments longer than one syllable unless they were insulting us, we finally arrived at the game.
During the seventh-inning stretch, apparently everybody now sings "God Bless America." I have a problem with singing that song to begin with, because I think that entangling the idea of country with the notion of god leads to dangerous situations in which thousands of people die, millions of buildings are levelled, and Dick Cheney shoots people in the face. Or something like that. Anyway, I DO stand for the national anthem, I DO NOT stand for God Bless America. Particularly when they make a speech beforehand saying "please rise to honor the soldiers who are in Iraq DEFENDING OUR FREEDOMS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE." To clarify further: I DO NOT have a problem with the people in the armed forces, particularly the ones who think they're protecting their country by serving or think they have no choice but to join because of their socio-economic situations. I DO have a problem with pretending that what they're doing in Iraq is somehow defending my freedom or my way of life. So I WOULD stand to honor soldiers killed in Iraq. I DID NOT stand to honor their defense of "our freedoms." I work at the ACLU to help in some small way as *they* defend "our freedoms." Also, I like to respect the beliefs of those around me. So I will say "amen" if I go to church with a christian friend. If I had been at the game with friends who served in the armed forces, I would have stood to show my respect for them. As it was, I was surrounded by ass-hat attorneys who I had no respect for.
So my friend and I remained seated as everybody else stood. One of the attorneys leaned down and said "um, you're supposed to stand for this part." We explained that we were choosing to remain seated because of our beliefs. So other people from the firm started asking "why are they sitting?" And the attorneys around us explained "they're from the ACLU." That seemed to satisfy everybody's curiousity.
Later, my friend asked the male attorney I mentioned before "why are they sending in that guy if he has such a low batting average?"
The male attorney replied "why didn't you stand during God Bless America?"
That was the last thing he said to us.
I think the whole thing was hilarious. Such a major culture clash. And such a reminder of why I didn't want to work in a firm at all, not even for a year or two after law school.
But just a touch.
In lighter news, I went to that awesome Yankees game last week where the Marlins were ahead for the entire game until the bottom of the 9th, when all of a sudden the wind started blowing and rain started pouring down, and the Yankees started actually hitting the ball. Then, just after the Yankees caught up and it was 4-4, they called a rain delay. The Yankees eventually won when they resumed the game a couple of hours later. GO YANKS!!!
I went to the game with a friend from the ACLU and a law firm that's paying for his summer here. The attorneys who escorted us were... well, let's just say... not my kind of people. We went to the firm itself to meet up with some of them, and they drove us up there.
I knew straight off that I didn't like the male attorney when, as he was talking to the receptionist at the front desk of the law firm, he picked up her heavy name plaque and dropped it on a vase of yellow flowers she had on her desk, crushing some of them. She looked uneasy. He looked like he thought he was being charming.
Then, this female attorney came out. She wasn't very talkative when I tried to make small talk with her. But you know what got her going? When the male attorney started talking about the dinner they'd had the night before. She went on and on about how she couldn't believe she ate "two servings of carbs" that day! "I had rice AND polenta!" And the male attorney said, with no irony, "yeah, you have to watch that or you'll start gaining weight." He had a pot belly. She weighed about 100 pounds.
Now, the friend I went with has an interesting sense of fashion. And we have a very casual dress code at the ACLU. So I was wearing a t-shirt cotton American Apparel dress and sandals. He was wearing some flamboyantly colored shorts and an indian-style shirt. This was one of those days during the heat wave. The male attorney said to him "did you wear that to work?" When he said "yes," the attorney snorted under his breath. The conversation progressed to the public interest award my friend got from the firm. The attorney said "did you have to interview to get it?" My friend said "no." The male attorney snorted again and said "that's probably for the best." Ew!
So later, thoroughly irritated by a car ride filled with rude attorneys uninterested in making comments longer than one syllable unless they were insulting us, we finally arrived at the game.
During the seventh-inning stretch, apparently everybody now sings "God Bless America." I have a problem with singing that song to begin with, because I think that entangling the idea of country with the notion of god leads to dangerous situations in which thousands of people die, millions of buildings are levelled, and Dick Cheney shoots people in the face. Or something like that. Anyway, I DO stand for the national anthem, I DO NOT stand for God Bless America. Particularly when they make a speech beforehand saying "please rise to honor the soldiers who are in Iraq DEFENDING OUR FREEDOMS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE." To clarify further: I DO NOT have a problem with the people in the armed forces, particularly the ones who think they're protecting their country by serving or think they have no choice but to join because of their socio-economic situations. I DO have a problem with pretending that what they're doing in Iraq is somehow defending my freedom or my way of life. So I WOULD stand to honor soldiers killed in Iraq. I DID NOT stand to honor their defense of "our freedoms." I work at the ACLU to help in some small way as *they* defend "our freedoms." Also, I like to respect the beliefs of those around me. So I will say "amen" if I go to church with a christian friend. If I had been at the game with friends who served in the armed forces, I would have stood to show my respect for them. As it was, I was surrounded by ass-hat attorneys who I had no respect for.
So my friend and I remained seated as everybody else stood. One of the attorneys leaned down and said "um, you're supposed to stand for this part." We explained that we were choosing to remain seated because of our beliefs. So other people from the firm started asking "why are they sitting?" And the attorneys around us explained "they're from the ACLU." That seemed to satisfy everybody's curiousity.
Later, my friend asked the male attorney I mentioned before "why are they sending in that guy if he has such a low batting average?"
The male attorney replied "why didn't you stand during God Bless America?"
That was the last thing he said to us.
I think the whole thing was hilarious. Such a major culture clash. And such a reminder of why I didn't want to work in a firm at all, not even for a year or two after law school.