Last night watched “My Cousin Vinny” again. I’ve been a trial attorney 27 years. There’s a reason parts of that film is taught at the National Advocacy Center from time to time on the direct and cross-examinations of witnesses. It’s procedurally the most accurate film ever. I have friends ask me about “Law & Order SVU NCIS SUV: TOPEKA” or even the great film with Paul Newman, “The Verdict”. They don’t hold a candle. “My Cousin Vinny” is as good as it gets. For procedure. The rest of the movie is absurdity. But still. It’s a great courtroom film.

No comprehensive history of American Punk Rock is complete if it leaves out Loretta Lynn’s 1975 song “The Pill.” A coal miner’s daughter from Appalachia singing about the freedom birth control gave her from her husband was hardcore. Evidence? Verse one:

You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I'd be your wife
You'd show me the world
But all I've seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I'm tearin' down your brooder house
'Cause now I've got the pill.

Hardcore.

Here’s my favorite Belzer/Munch thing. So. The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis is a theory that exists. The basic concept boils down to the idea that a huge number television shows belong to a single connected universe, which exists in the mind of a child, Tommy Westphall. Tommy Westphalia was the autistic child who imagined *all* of the TV program St. Elsewhere, as revealed in the series finale, in which the camera pulls back to see Tommy staring into a snow globe of the hospital. Thus, all of the show was imagined by him.

I am going to tell you a joke, but you won’t like it. It’s a long journey. You have to be willing to commit. You will hate me after. I am willing to accept that, if you are willing to read the whole thread. Do we have an agreement? If so, let me tell you about a horse. So there was this horse that lives above a music shop. The music shop offered music lessons for individuals. Come in, play guitar, learn an instrument, that sort of thing. Like a Music Center, but with a pro who would help you.

I work for an office in the federal government as a lawyer where in the last 8 years fully 1/3rd of our attorneys work on mass shooting cases. Schools, churches. Fortunately, I have dealt primarily with natural disasters. Floods, fires. Dozens died in my cases. None like this. It’s too much, what I’m seeing. Kids who were victims of school shootings are attending college where a school shooting happened. It’s insane. Ironically, I’m a big believer in the right of individuals to own guns. Rifles, for hunting. Small arms to defend homes or businesses.

Dry January: I have friends in the service industry who barkeep and went sober during the height of the pandemic. Reassessed. I mean several former hard drinkers. Still tend bar, *stay* sober. I can’t imagine. Those who take 30 days and then go back to it aren’t made the same. A bartender who goes stone cold sober gives one hope about the breadth of willpower, self-actualization. I see these kids bragging about not drinking for a month in front of these bartenders, ordering club soda. Not tipping. I know on whose side I side. Ain’t them.

Ginni Thomas is a traitor to the Constitution and this nation and nothing she testified to shows otherwise. Washington is a series of concentric circles. The smaller the circle, the closer you are to power. Ginni Thomas was very close to power. Elite. You know what those people do? Wield power quietly, don’t rock the boat, drink at Georgetown parties.

She threw bombs.

One more thing about the George Santos thing: his downfall won’t be about claiming to be Jew-Ish or gay or whatever, it’s going to be about money. He claimed to have little, and then a lot, and it’s all tied to sketchy stuff and Ponzi shit and I bet by 2024 he makes a plea deal. His congressional career — if it even starts — will be quite short. He’s fucked.

Me: So, wait. What is Boxing Day again?
British friend: So on Christmas family gets together. The day after, they give gifts to servants and tradesmen of lower classes. They don’t mix. Two different days.
Me: …
Friend: What?
Me: It’s almost as horrifying a tradition as, say, Thanksgiving in the United States.

Earlier today @disnazzio posted a tweet about the news media’s coverage of the newly-reported explosion in Pigtown. In my haste and thoughtlessness I tweeted that my first thought was for the victims, which was stupid and judgmental and assumed that it wasn’t hers. It, of course, was. She lives there. She tweeted her concern for her friends first and foremost. I didn’t see it. I only saw her follow up about the coverage, to which I reacted. Stupidly, wrongly, and completely thoughtlessly.

Starting at 4:46 p.m. ET today, I will be live-streaming Planes, Trains & Automobiles in real time based on the best available information. Tuesday, 4:46 p.m. ET — Neal Page, an ad executive at a meeting, checks his watch. He has a flight to get to so he can be home for Thanksgiving in Chicago.

So here’s some good news. After two delayed launches (not unusual), NASA said tonight took the next huge step to putting a person on the moon. It launched Artemis 1, a first of three stage mission to the moon. This one is uncrewed, but will do things a crewed flight will.

https://twitter.com/nasa/status/1592772202289430528

People don’t keep up with the space program anymore, and that’s okay. We’ve had 50 years of crewed space flight. So what does this thing mean? Well, we decided to put people on the moon again. Why? Frequent flier miles, maybe, or free cheese. I think it’s because next is Mars.

You know what chafes my hide? Abe Fortas was forced off the Supreme Court for accepting a payment — not uncommon at the time — for $20,000 per year to provide advice to a client with no business before the Court. When that came up, he stopped. Didn’t matter. He resigned. Was it unethical? Probably! At the time? Maybe! The ABA *allowed* it but later changed the view. So off Fortas went. Voluntarily. For the good of the Court. Skip ahead 50 years.

My father, who died shortly before I was born, served in the U.S. Army for about four years. Paratrooper. Avoided Vietnam by being stationed — to his astonishment in 1967 — at Fort Knox. My grandfather, my father’s father, died on June 8, 1944 in France. My grandfather, John Atkinson, Jr., was a 1st Lieutenant in the 101st Airborne, 501. The show “Band of Brothers?” That was about the 506. My grandfather dropped into France in D-Day, got scattered, regrouped with his guys, and lived two more days.

So, a lot of people have written that where we are as a nation is similar to The Troubles of Northern Ireland. But there are numerous differences between now and then. Primarily: a small geographic area and one occupying force preying on religious differences. Where I think we are closest to, historically, is probably closest to Reconstruction Era U.S. We don’t study that time enough in school. In fact, we rarely study it. But it is instructive.

Blue checks are, on the one hand, the way you can be sure the content you are reading is actually from, say, *the* “Tom Arnold;” on the other hand, they are a stupid caste system relegating some to untouchable status forever. But no one should care. washingtonpost.com/media/2022/11/… At the end of the day, unless you monetize your posting, it shouldn’t matter. And if you are monetizing your posting by posting 250 times a day, well, life is too short for that.

When I was six or seven I had a vinyl album that was a Disney record called “Trick or Treat.” I would play one side when I went to bed and the next night the other side. It was about a witch who encountered Donald Duck on Halloween. Probably heard that album 200 times. Tonight I was flipping around and was on Disney+ and to my utter shock discovered this was a cartoon short. I just always thought it was an album. This was from 1952. I watched it and started welling up, mouthing the words. I know the entire script by heart. I’m 52.

One thing to consider is that by granting pardons to people for simple possession is that the Biden administration is signaling to federal prosecutors and others in the Executive branch that future charges should be viewed as disfavored. So, for example… A park ranger in, say, Yosemite National Park, has the authority to arrest someone under federal law for drug possession. In fact, in 2015, the arrests for possession in Yosemite were four times as high as in any other National Park. But now…

findlaw.com/legalblogs/law…

I’m not blaming the organizers, they worked off the information they had. But it wouldn’t be the first time events were canceled because of wrong weather predictions. Still. Sucks big time.

Here’s what I think is the cap to my tweets about Baltimore Magazine. The Editor in Chief tweeted earlier and said that there had been an error made. I asked her to clarify if the magazine had erroneously left Atlas vendors off the list or if the Dept. of Health did. Her DM: So: the EIC says it’s not her department and refers to the public letter published by Baltimore Mag President Michael Tietelbaum. Ok…

I apologize if I get strident, but I just finished an excellent biography on Nixon by Farrell, and reading the parts on Watergate in the current climate I actually laughed at how almost *trivial* it was, and how — in comparison — Nixon was goddamned near *honorable* in comparison I’ll say this and then head to bed, but my rant about the Supreme Court that got me so much attention and what we see now with these Trump documents are of a piece. There was a time — within my lifetime — where even the most grotesque unlawful villain — Nixon — would rather