Curiosities in the public record

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Has he no balls?

Judge Warren is the guy who threw out the 2nd degree murder conviction of Marjorie Knoller in the presa canario dog-mauling trial, which was probably the most politically unpopular ruling by a judge since, um, ever, so this isn't a likely explanation.

I know what you're thinking, but you probably could find more people in S.F. who utterly despise gay people than you could find people who didn't want Knoller to rot in prison for the rest of her life. It was the right call to make, IMHO, and I imagine his house was egged for it.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
It was the right call to make, IMHO, and I imagine his house was egged for it.

Okay. So he realized how difficult it is to clean up dried eggs.

BTW, is there no procedure for consolidating two closely related cases, so that the two judges don't have to play, "After you, Alphonse" with this political hot potato?

[Atticus Grinch]

Judge Slashes Lawyer's Rate for Typos, Careless Writing

"As for there being typos, yes there have been typos, but these errors have not detracted from the arguments or results, and the rule in this case was a victory for Mr. Devore. Further, had the Defendants not tired [sic] to paper Plaintiff's counsel to death, some type [sic] would not have occurred. Furthermore, there have been omissions by the Defendants, thus they should not case [sic] stones."

I can see slashing his hours, but docking his hourly rate is below the belt.

[pretermitted_child]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Judge Slashes Lawyer's Rate for Typos, Careless Writing

I can see slashing his hours, but docking his hourly rate is below the belt.

Well, the auto-correct function in his spell-checker worked. Sort of.

[Atticus Grinch]

If these 100 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words and Phrases are indeed commonly mispronounced as advertised, people are commonly pretty fuckin' stoopid.

[dtb]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
If these 100 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words and Phrases are indeed commonly mispronounced as advertised, people are commonly pretty fuckin' stoopid.

That is a very interesting site. I herby publicly confess that I have, lo these many years, been mispronouncing "barbiturate" (I did not realize it had that second "r"), although it's not a word I use often, so not many people have been witness to my stoopidity.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by dtb
That is a very interesting site. I herby publicly confess that I have, lo these many years, been mispronouncing "barbiturate" (I did not realize it had that second "r"), although it's not a word I use often, so not many people have been witness to my stoopidity.

While we're doing True Confessions, I hereby cop to using "di-a-late" instead of "di-late." So sue me.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
While we're doing True Confessions, I hereby cop to using "di-a-late" instead of "di-late." So sue me.

Never knew about pernickity, and I've never gone to Tijuana. I use bidness when talking to texans about the ol bidness. And I use aks, but only ironically.

[pretermitted_child]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
If these 100 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words and Phrases are indeed commonly mispronounced as advertised, people are commonly pretty fuckin' stoopid.

Perhaps some words deserve to be replaced by their mispronounced versions, such as:

card shark (incorrect)
vs.
cardsharp (correct)

when popular usage of the correct pronunciation is a relatively rare occurrence. For example, Google reports about 20,200 hits for "card shark" compared to about 3,750 for "cardsharp."

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by pretermitted_child
Perhaps some words deserve to be replaced by their mispronounced versions, such as:

card shark (incorrect)
vs.
cardsharp (correct)

when popular usage of the correct pronunciation is a relatively rare occurrence. For example, Google reports about 20,200 hits for "card shark" compared to about 3,750 for "cardsharp."

wasn't there even a cheesy 1980s game show called Card Sharks? I don't know why I posed this as a question. It was. Watched it on sick days and during the summers. Hi Coltrane.

[pretermitted_child]

This article by one Quang Phuc Dong at the South Hanoi Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.) (a/k/a Prof. James McCawley (deceased)) postulates that the word fuck gives rise to two distinct homophonous lexical items. For comparative analysis, the word damn and the expression shit on, among others, are also considered.

[pretermitted_child]

Yale has a new official typeface.

The Yale typeface is available to Yale employees, students, and authorized contractors for use in Yale publications and communications. It may not be used for personal or business purposes, and it may not be distributed to non-Yale personnel.

The typeface looks pretty unremarkable overall, except for the fact that the tail of the capital Q, in its various sub-flavors, as seen here, seems to go out of control. Also, the heavy bottom loop of the non-italic ampersand lends a stout, teapot-esque feel to it; I wouldn't be surprised if the ampersand had been modeled after the physique of some notable Yalie -- like William Howard Taft.

Edited for spelling

[Atticus Grinch]

Twaddle! {Court opinion in PDF.}

Warning: Also contains a flagrant use of Britishism ("sacked") by an American. We fought a war, people!

[notcasesensitive]

Fortune magazine published an article about Suzanne Somers and her thighmaster riches. My question is: is "Somers's" really the preferred possessive for her last name? I would have gone with "Somers'" but maybe I've been wrong all this time.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Fortune magazine published an article about Suzanne Somers and her thighmaster riches. My question is: is "Somers's" really the preferred possessive for her last name? I would have gone with "Somers'" but maybe I've been wrong all this time.

You have been wrong all this time. "Somers's" is correct. The only non-plural possessives entitled to use the "ess apostrophe" order are "Moses" and "Jesus," and even then it's purely tradition, not grammatical authority. See Strunk & White.

This is a pet peeve. So many lawyers think the "ess apostrophe" goes with any word ending in "s" and not just plurals. The rule says "plurals ending in 's'," and words have meaning, people!