Statute of Frogs

As someone who likes to use footnotes,¹ I’m very pleased to have found a plugin that makes spiffy looking footnotes in WordPress. It’s the little things.

1. Though not nearly to the same degree as David Foster Wallace [↩]

This is wonderful.

According to the weather report in this morning’s paper, we have several nice days in store. But on Wednesday, there’s a “chance of cain.” So be careful. Me, I’m hoping for a plague of frogs.

Those of you who read regularly and extremely carefully* may have noticed the debut of a new category here at Statute of Frogs. Entitled “SNOOT,” it deals with the frequent (and frequently amusing) misuse of language that I encounter. The name comes from a David Foster Wallace essay (available in this book) in which he describes it as an acronym for “sprachgefühl necessitates our ongoing tendency.” Those who know me are well aware of my proclivities in this direction, so it seemed worth adding to the menu of bloggable subjects.

* I’m not really sure there’s anyone in this category, but I can pretend.

There are signs in all the elevators here at the courthouse informing us that the windows are being cleaned over the next few weeks. It contains basic information about what to expect, and then concludes:

Please do not be alarmed if you see individual(s) propelling down the sides of the courthouse.

I, for one, think that our friendly window washers* would want us to be concerned if they were being propelled down the side of the building.

* I should note that there is not enough money on Earth to get me to do this job. I get vaguely woozy just watching them from my safe perch inside.

Law schools place a lot of emphasis on legal writing. This makes sense, since most of what lawyers do is written. In general, though, I think people shouldn’t move on to legal writing until they’ve got a basic handle on writing. You know: proper English sentences. Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be a requirement.

Earlier this fall, I received a brief which contained a 10-comma sentence. Unless you’re Marcel Proust, there’s no excuse for that. Today, I got a letter with a sentence of the form “In addition, I have also [done another thing] as well.” How much more redundant could you be?

It’s a travesty, really. But not unusual.