bowlinger qua bowlinger

take a look at this google search result stat…

versus this one:

that’s all for now.

Teenagers and dead deer: a winning combination!

Dead deer prank riles students at rival high school

Dead doe is put inside Comfort Deer bus

Follow up questions:

a) What kind of a high school mascot is a “Comfort Deer”?

b) Football, sure, cheerleading maybe. But since when did Texans take high school girls volleyball so seriously?

c) What’s the crime here? Anyone want to hunt through the Texas Criminal Code for an applicable offense?

I think this guy’s story would have been more convincing if he was found in a city or country where the helpful creatures reside in large numbers. Not that Cincinnati isn’t known for being full of magical creatures.  I just thought it was more famous for its chili.

The menu: baked wild salmon, mixed greens with avocado, asparagus, and roasted peppers, baguette, homemade pumpkin bread, hot cider

 The topic: Should obesity be a category that gets anti-discrimination protection under a federal scheme like Title VII? Should it qualify under things like the Americans with Disabilities Act? Are people who are not morbidly obese, but only overweight according to the over 25 BMI standard, discriminated against? As you can imagine, there were many very strong opinions on this topic. Most people felt that weight was not a characteristic like race or sex that should be included for discrimination protection in employment settings. But a few felt very strongly that people who discriminated on the basis of weight should even be sanctioned for their conduct. Most agreed, though, that what we are talking about with the obesity crisis (which some people think is a made-up or dramatized public health issue) is really related to health and not necessarily fatness.

Anyway, again, very interesting conversation, great food (that salad he makes is the same one he made for the dinner last year and it’s delicious). Apparently there were a few open spots in this class, a few people have dropped? I don’t know that he’ll let anybody new in at this point, but there were a couple new people there last night who just got added.

in general, i’d argue that the writing in The New Republic has steadily declined in the last couple of years. however, the following article is a pretty sweet analysis of swearing. it talks about the linguistic choices we make in swearing, the historical roots of swearing, and the cognitive process of interpreting swears. furthermore, the author swears a lot of fucking times in the article, which just tickles my fancy. enjoy.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20071008&s=pinker100807

Sorry for failing to update everyone on last week’s bowling action. With a couple of starters missing, due to circumstances, we showed our depth by fielding an all-female team. The Lady Bowlingers competed like a estrogen-fueled juggernaut, rolling over the Crocodiles (former league champions), who were rolling at half-strength.

This week, we’re back to our semi-normal line-up. I anticipate the presence of cupcakes, potentially containing some form of adult beverage.

The menu: grilled lamb, tabbouleh, hummus, homemade falafel, some kind of delicious grilled and buttered pita, baba ghanoush, thin buttery cookies filled with melted chocolate, coffee, chai

The topic: taxing fat

The proposed plan of our “special guest”: the taxing of common fatty foods….but….wait for it…only for people who are fat! You would be required to get your BMI read and if you are over 25, which apparently is the limit for people who are normal and not obese, you would be subject to the tax at grocery stores and restaurants, etc. I kind of forget the next part, there is a card, and people who are fat get the card? Or maybe people who are not fat get the card. Anyway, there is some kind of card and that’s how the tax gets applied. So when the server comes to your table at the restaurant, everybody pulls out their card and you don’t have one, so your part of the bill gets taxed. According to our guest, this creates an economic incentive as well as a public humiliation factor. The guest likens this to cigarettes which carry an additional tax and also has the public shaming element, which includes the guest riding past you on his bike while you are smoking outside the school and him laughing and yelling at you (which sounds worth it just to try).

A two hour discussion followed involving the many disputes people had with this plan, including the discriminatory effect on the poor, the idea of American food culture as embracing of poor diet and poor exercise habits, etc. We also discussed the tax taking other forms, like higher insurance premiums and companies having to pay large class action settlements (although admittedly there were many causation and proof problems with that idea).

Overall, excellent food as usual, and fun, lively discussion and debate of a legal and yet non-law school nature, which I am appreciating more and more these days. I’ll keep everybody posted throughout the semester on this course.