To get there you follow Highway 58. . .

2004-02-28T16:51:00.000-06:00

updated: 7 August 2005I am now blogging over at Crescat Sententia when I find myself in town and sitting still for an extended period of time. I am back from Kazakhstan and working at CRDF.Yes, I will eventually wander over to law school, but that's not until fall 2006. I'm a deferred lifer."...Soon now we shall go out of the house and go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into

2003-04-15T23:23:00.000-05:00

moving alert: Enough with this. Randomly discussing the efficacy of saints has done nothing to solve my problem. Nor has reposting archives, deleting and reforming the template, or searching for problems in the template's code--all the solutions suggested by Blogger's support sites and faqs. My computer problems, as always, remain damningly obscure. Still, I will continue to blog. I'm

2003-04-15T00:51:00.000-05:00

so, how crazy is it being tonight?

2003-04-13T11:15:00.000-05:00

ghetto blog. wonderful. In honor of that I shall be remarkably unprofound. Thanks for the advices. so, what's new to say? I dreamed I met Willa Cather last night. It was as though we were in the habit of getting together to chat every few weeks, but I'd actually run into her a few days before the most recent meeting. She's about 50 years old. Tall and slim like a femine cowboy.

2003-04-12T17:37:00.000-05:00

OK... this is frustrating. Blogger won't display any of my sidebar -- my archives or my links -- and it will only display the most recent post. I don't know why it's doing this. Certainly, I didn't conciously program any of that. The closest troubleshooting I could find on the Blogger page suggested switching to "no archive" format. I tried that, and it didn't work. If you have any

2003-04-12T17:21:00.000-05:00

Hmm. I hope this is just Blogger going crazy on me. I have no idea how to fix this.

2003-04-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

I don't know why my sidebar has disappeared. Thoughts? I also don't know why all my posts have disappeared.

2003-04-12T12:42:00.000-05:00

this is from my class on political prints (cartoons) in 17th century England. The meanings of words weren''t very well attached to what they described. Originally, the Puritans created nearly all of the political prints. However, they took seriously the commandment against graven images. To avoid this, they simply called prints 'picture,' 'sculpture,' 'figure,' or 'emblem.' Everyone knew

2003-04-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

I used to think that the recipes in the New York Times were written on an absurdly high level for people expert at parching foods at precisely six and one-half minutes with ingredients that required trips to grocery stores not found in Hyde Park (especially now that Binny's Beverage Depot has replaced the Wine and Cheese Chalet). Escautoun With Basque Cheese and Wild Mushrooms requests the

2003-04-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

Does "The game is over. May peace previal," spoken by the Iraqi ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Aldouri, count as surrender?

2003-04-09T07:11:00.000-05:00

I suppose it's not particuarly noteworthy to say that Thomas Friedman's column today, "Hold Your Applause," is worth reading.

2003-04-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

So, 36 hours in Los Angeles and I'm back again. There's four inches of snow on the ground here. I've been to Los Angeles before--if you want to get technical about it, I was born there, but I don't remember that first year and a half I spent in Pasadena. Still, this was the first time I've ever understood the city's appeal. Bright sunlight, wide open freeways (ok, so I had the fortune not to

2003-04-02T23:57:00.000-06:00

Last Friday, I went to see a performance of Shakespeare's Henry V. I've read it several times, and seen the Kenneth Branagh version (I like Derek Jacobi, but as the Chorus in this, he keeps reminding me of the guy from PBS's Nature). Still, there's one scene, Act 4, Sc. 1 that never fully sets well with me. It is the night before the battle of Agincourt, and King Henry V, disguised as a

2003-04-02T08:05:00.000-06:00

From Ronald Coase's lecture, in a quiet British voice: "There's a lot of discussion of rationale. Well, my view is people are stupid. There's a lot of evidence for that." Sir, I'll be quoting you on that in my econ classes.

2003-03-29T23:08:00.000-06:00

snatches of thought on Time from Robert Penn Warren'sRumor Verified, in the cycle "Glimpses of Seasons": "Forgets to define The mathematics of Time. But look! At the moment you stand On the knife-edge of no-Time. Or is it not no-Time, but Time fulfilled?" -- 1. Gasp-Glory of Gold Light "After white earth and gray sky then came Nothing you might call a sunset-- Just gray going grayer to

2003-03-29T13:59:00.000-06:00

So I'll definately be here on Tuesday, 1 April, listening to Ronald H. Coase give the eponymous lecture. Something about how much his theorem kept coming up in Econ of Pub Law last quarter, and taking both Intro to Micro and Elements of Econ Analysis next quarter. But where I'd really like to be is watching R.E.M. at the United Center, Chicago on Friday, 26 September. Tickets go on sale

2003-03-29T09:30:00.000-06:00

I've only finished one book this break -- two if you count seeing Henry V last night, but I've read that several times before -- but I'm partially through Antonin Scalia's A Matter of Interpretation, Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, and Robert Penn Warren's A Place To Come To. I've had to ban myself from bookstores for the rest of the trip to DC, and I should probably do most of my

2003-03-28T23:08:00.000-06:00

Try them out! My mother added comments to this site for me. [Thanks, Mom. :-)]

2003-03-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

whoa. that's quite some length about Lawrence v. Texas. for oral arguments go here for camping out go here I hope my visitors from the domain supremecourtus.gov return.

2003-03-27T23:11:00.000-06:00

CAMPING OUT BEFORE THE SUPREME COURTAfter all, I spent nearly eleven hours doing that, and only three-quarters of an hour actually watching the case. I went with my friend Will, whose postings I will not read until I finish with mine on the matter. 12:15am: arrive at the front steps of the Supreme Court. We'd walked from the Metro past the Capitol, deserted except for the same white conversion

2003-03-27T19:40:00.000-06:00

Finally! For the first time since camping out to see Lawrence v. Texas Wednesday, I can sit down in front of the computer. This follows: too tired, someone else using the computer, doing other things, the computer breaking, and now trying to figure out times when my younger sister doesn't need it. Coming first and sporadically: what happened in the last 45 minutes (what I saw) of the 1 hour

2003-03-24T12:08:00.000-06:00

Today's Supreme Court update: 2nd case heard: Wiggins v. US for more info, see: here generally for the term, and herebasically, death penalty conviction, can it be overturned for failure to present certain possibly mitigating evidence (defendant was sexually abused, physically abused, by mother and foster parents) Breyer: this is horrible. that this information wasn't shared/wasn't known.

2003-03-21T08:37:00.000-06:00

Supposedly, dear_raed is the blog of an Iraqi in Baghdad. I've linked to his post from Sunday -- his thoughts on the coming of war, and what he figures most Iraqis think. In short: we aren't suicidal, we want democracy and a regime change, but we don't want war.

2003-03-20T16:08:00.000-06:00

I wish I could say I've been productive. So far, sitting here in the Maclab, Pfaff's paper hasn't progressed much. My potassium and caffiene intake is doing well, though -- 3 bananas, 1 Raspberry diet Snapple, 1 diet Coke. I dragged myself out of bed early this morning. It had been a while since I did a real run. Today I did 5 miles: .75 miles to the Henry Crown track, 3.5 miles around in

2003-03-20T00:55:00.000-06:00

Just come upstairs to sleep after watching CNN's coverage... it devolved into an argument over whether or not Christiane Amanpour is hot.

2003-03-18T23:24:00.000-06:00

hehehe this is funny. or I'm tired.

2003-03-18T20:21:00.000-06:00

from David Friedman's Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do With Law and Why It Matters: -- the entire book is available on-line at his website -- "Marriage is an extreme example. While many of us like to believe that our husbands or wives are uniquely suited to that role, it is not true; if it were, the chances of finding them would be remote. At one time I did some rough calculations on the

2003-03-17T13:37:00.000-06:00

Signs it's time to go to sleep: the sentence begins: talking about Kazuo Ishiguro's deliberate decision to write a post-Freudian work. the sentence ends: talking about Cleveland, and the winter's end at the Point. yup. In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

2003-03-15T23:06:00.000-06:00

What have I been working on a lot recently? My paper on Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day", for William Veeder's class on Contemporary Historical Fiction. What's the book about? Sheesh, you don't ask that question to someone who's going a paper on a book. Who writes what goes on the back of books. Salman Rushdie says, "Brilliant....a stoy both beautiful and cruel." True. Know what

2003-03-13T20:08:00.000-06:00

So I was reading the newspapers during dinner. . . from the Baton Rouge Advocate: The good news is David Duke has been sentanced to 15 months in prison, of which he must serve at least 80% within prison walls. Duke's the ex-Grand Wizard of the KKK who ran for governor of Lousiana back in 1992, making it into a run-off with Edwin Edwards. Bumper stickers supporting giving Edwards his fourth

2003-03-13T18:45:00.000-06:00

Crazy times are coming. . . Tuesday night, I was talking with Will about my paper for Little Red Schoolhouse on prior restraint of the press. Because it was for LRS, where following their form trumped intellectual honesty to my own opinions, he asked if I actually believed all the points are argued, or was I using them to satisfy the paper's requirements. According to the words coming out

2003-03-13T01:48:00.000-06:00

Well, reading period starts today and lasts through tomorrow, so I don't know how much I'll feel like posting in the next week. Anyway, for enjoyment, the following two quotes come from Julian Barnes's "Flaubert's Parrot." following a passage of what might be said at a hypothetical obscenity trial of Madam Bovary --- "Is this book sexy? No, M'Lud, we hold that it would have an emetic, not a

2003-03-10T17:47:00.000-06:00

from the film version of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Holly Golightly: "Mail me a list of the 50 richest men in Brazil -- the 50 richest!" Paul Varjak: "Holly. I'm not going to let you do this." HG: "You're not going to let me?" PV: "Holly, I'm in love with you." HG: "So what?" PV: "So what? So plenty! I love you. You belong to me." HG: "No. People don't belong to people." PV: "Of

2003-03-10T08:28:00.000-06:00

From The Economist: still no good news about Nauru. The telephones are back on, but the president has been voted out of office, reinstated, seen the presidential mansion burnt down, quit. . . . The Economist also has a longer piece about Nauru from 20th Dec 2001, which ends with the lines "It is a melancholy sign of the islanders' desperation that the idea of simply buying another island and

2003-03-09T14:38:00.000-06:00

"Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies." It's a line from Kurosawa's "Ran," a movie I have not seen but should [thanks to Ben for quoting this]. It's a line I should add to my collection of lines that may sound depressing, but I personally find hopeful (fine, it's a small and yet to be collected collection). Anyway, I'm just using this as an excuse to throw up one of my

2003-03-07T21:03:00.000-06:00

Oddly, I remember being worried about Iraq at least a year before Desert Storm. I can place this Desert Storm was when I was in third grade, and this memory is from Highland Elementary, standing on the playground looking west [I was at Highland Elem from preschool through first semester of second grade, Buchannan Elem third through fifth, and some place random for the semester in between].

2003-03-06T23:25:00.000-06:00

I went to go hear Geoffrey Stone give his thoughts on Civil Liberties in Wartime earlier tonight. Stone is a professor at Chicago Law, former dean of the Law School, and Provost of the University before that. His talk began with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798; moved forward through Lincoln suspending the writ of habeus corpus during the Civil War, sedition in WWI, and Japanese internment

2003-03-05T09:51:00.000-06:00

Kitty litter and oozing creosote -- When I went to downtown to the 7th Court of Appeals and heard Judge Posner give oral arguments in January, this was one of the cases heard. It's nothing remarkable: a railway worker building a bridge slipped; his foot fell a full 21 inches through the ties. He sued CSX Railway, alledging an unsafe working environment. The court ruled that sure it was

2003-03-04T00:36:00.000-06:00

It's time the University took down the orange signs bragging that in 1999, the Princeton Review ranked the Student Counseling and Resource Service here #1 in the nation. A student committed suicide this Friday; another committed suicide at the beginning of winter. For more information or thoughts about the recent tragedy, try here and here. It seems now that one death became two in the

2003-03-02T12:44:00.000-06:00

Gah! It wasn't my coffee pot that was broken, it was the outlet in the kitchen I plugged my pot into. This I only discover after buying a new Mr. Coffee and throwing the old one out. Sigh... I think the new one is the exact same model and color (white) as Annie's (my old was black). I don't think I would have gotten through my first year without her's. ok, if Sudeep can give bad vibes that

2003-03-01T15:50:00.000-06:00

And by the way, to be consistent, according to this , Bobby Jindal has "all but entered the race for governor." He mostly declared his intent while speaking to the media at Baton Rouge Metro Airport (why there? admittedly, it looks good now that the rebuilding is done). Gov. Foster and former U.S Rep Bob Livingstone both endorse him, and the governor's son, Murphy, said, "How many times have

2003-03-01T13:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, when I went downtown with Kathleen to pick up a new coffee pot after mine died that morning (I'm sure it's somehow this fellow's fault, he never liked mine very much, hid him away in the pantry when my back was turned, wasn't looking forward to the coffee pot moving back in with him next year), we also went to Borders (how could it be avoided? why should it?). The Oxford American

2003-03-01T12:35:00.000-06:00

"10 January 1946 I couldn't stand the house tonight, so I walked out into the rain. I remembered the time when I had stuck my nails into my palms, and I didn't know it but You moved in the pain. I said, 'Let him be alive,' not believing in You, and my disbelief made no difference to You. You took it into Your love and accepted it like an offering, and tonight the rain soaked through my

2003-02-26T18:11:00.000-06:00

Hallelujah, my job luck has improved. Monday around noon, I got an email asking if I could come in for an interview the next day at 4:00pm. The job I'd applied for is to one of Judge Posner's research assistants. I've been interested in this job for a while. I applied for last summer, was told that there weren't any openings. So, I tried again. The interview. Well, it wasn't one. Fortunately I

2003-02-23T20:57:00.000-06:00

From Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday, the Guy Noir skit -- "She was wearing a silk sheath dress that defied gravity and commonly accepted standards of decency." I'd like to have that dress. Although perhaps not. As later in the episode revealed, it was actually a latex costume concealing a man (you see, the whole thing was set at the Whopee factory where the heiress

2003-02-23T00:33:00.000-06:00

The mood continues... :-) Wednesday night I re-read Ecclesiastes, and Thursday I went to see Waiting for Godot up at DePaul. There is nothing to be done. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is. Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Let your garments be always white; do not let oil

2003-02-21T19:29:00.000-06:00

I went for a walk on Lake Michigan today. The weather was great, warm enough that I could just through on a long-sleeve tee and shorts (yes, actual shorts! when was the last time my legs have seen the light of day? October?) and go for a run in the late afternoon sun by the lake. A blue sky contrasting with the freshly-harvested look of dried yellow grass, softer than usual, released from

2003-02-17T19:26:00.000-06:00

Furthermore -- incentive structures. A certain friend said, "So in a twisted attempt to encourage your ever-so-reluctant blog, I've decided I'll send you a new email every time I read a post." Has the friend followed through? Yes [an update]

2003-02-17T19:20:00.000-06:00

I wish I had good thoughts. Unfortunately, I don't. My mind hasn't been working too well recently. There's nearly always a song stuck in it -- I went from three straight days of Tina Turner's Proud Mary to Saddam Hussein's song 'I Can Change' (from the South Park movie) to something from Chicago! (which was fine, since I'd just seen the movie) to the current, the They Might Be Giants song

2003-02-16T23:29:00.000-06:00

The Virtual El is a guide to Chicago by the stops. Click on Garfield on the red line, it tells you the U of C is there. Click on some place more active, and get a listing of art, bars, bookstores, dancing, food, hotels, libraries, movie theaters, music clubs, record stories, recreation, theaters, travel & tourism, videostores...

2003-02-14T19:56:00.000-06:00

the old ballad "Lord Randall" -- one of the versions "O where ha you been, Lord Randal, my son? And where ha you been, my handsome young man?" "I ha been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon, For I'm wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down." "An wha met ye there, Lord Randal, my son? And wha met ye there, my handsome young man?" "O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon,

2003-02-14T09:49:00.000-06:00

Bobby Jindal update. He's resigned his DC post to "ponder a run for governor."

2003-02-13T01:02:00.000-06:00

A girl from one of my classes is going to be in New York City this weekend, protesting in Dag Hammerskold Plaza and, she hopes, marching in this 100,000 person parade that's been ordered to stand still. She's of the ah well, arrest me, these boots are made for walking, mindset. The city argued for a stationary rally, saying it's worried about the safety of both the marchers and the UN. I

2003-02-13T00:47:00.000-06:00

I wonder who chooses acronyms for the government. There's the infamous TIPS, which originally didn't take seriously, figuring its name was so ludicrous it must be a joke [incidentally, info about it is hard to find on the Dept. of Justice website]. And thanks to John Maltbie's First Amendment blog, Actual Malice, I recently learned about SLAPPs. Why name your program "Terrorism Information and

2003-02-12T23:50:00.000-06:00

Bobby Jindal is considering running for governor of Louisiana. The Baton Rouge Advocate buries a mention of this down towards the bottom of an article on the Republican Party's chances to retain the position after Mike Foster leaves. Here's an old and quite flattering look at him. In short, he's from Baton Rouge (and even my old Baton Rouge High); went from Brown where he doubled in bio and

2003-02-11T21:59:00.000-06:00

Hahaha! See the graphic: the evolution of the Darwin fish.

2003-02-11T17:32:00.000-06:00

SUCCESS!, pronounced, of course, with a double-"ess" sound. ;-). Also on page 8 if you leave out the middle name. That accomplished, is there a point to this any longer? Well, I think I'm getting addicted. Besides, I can always hope to come up sooner in the search.

2003-02-10T18:16:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Manners is awesome. The question: "When one is out on the town with someone whose company has been engaged for a monetary consideration, and one encounters acquaintances, what is the proper way of dealing with the situation?" The answer: "A young person whose appearance and behavior are not of a gentleman's customary social circle is properly introduced as his nephew or niece." Don't

2003-02-09T23:30:00.000-06:00

googling myself -- Whenever I say that I think of the "Ask the Ethicist" column about whether it's ok to google your date, and Randy Cohen's response 'well, I googled myself and that's not nearly as dirty as it sounds' -- words to that effect. Anyway, in my latest check to see if AMANDA BUTLER BLOG (come on google, read that!) made it in, I discovered that I've made it onto someone else's site

2003-02-09T17:45:00.000-06:00

I should explain. Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men" opens with "Mason City. "To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new." These driving directions won't get you anywhere. In this novel "about" Governor, and then Senator, Huey P. Long, Mason City is the stand-in for Winnfield, Long's hometown up in Caddo Parish. The city they

2003-02-06T01:37:00.000-06:00

target="_top" style="text-decoration:none">< target="_top" style="text-decoration:none">? law blogs target="_top" style="text-decoration:none"># target="_top" style="text-decoration:none">> Let's see what happens. I'm trying to join Legally-Inclined Weblogs Netring , which is from Blawgring: Building the New Blackstone. Building a new common law through blogs? Hmm... My joining

2003-02-05T22:36:00.000-06:00

"Ashcroft Orders Prosecutors to Seek the Death Penalty in More Cases." That's the NYT headline for this article . Wonderful. Simply wonderful. Ashcroft fears the death penalty is not being consistently applied across the country and inconsistency in such a serious matter is a grevious wrong. But he has a solution: let's kill more people. Those soft-hearted folks up in the northeast [

2003-02-03T18:59:00.000-06:00

TONIGHT I CAN WRITE! ok, so it's not the saddest lines, but this tale is of a man who has a story he needs to tell so he can confront the past, but he's incapable of actually saying what he needs to, and instead he compensates by writing on multiple levels and hoping the reader figures it out (of course, the reader knowing what's going on may not help the man know himself, but maybe it's just

2003-02-01T00:38:00.000-06:00

sigh. . . I felt this way last quarter, too, like I had lost whatever I once had. It's the feeling that comes to me when I'm writing papers and I fall into stream of conciousness writing because combining the efforts of thinking and creating style become a ponderous burden when linked. But only when there's clarity and elegance do the ideas fully take form, become fleshed out. I type away,

2003-02-01T00:10:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to train myself into an addiction to runner's high. I figure that's the best way to motivate myself. Actually, second best: feeling like a slob in front of Shannon for not doing any physical activity while he described his day's workout probably beat the addiction motivation. I don't go very fast; I like counting the laps and seeing how many I can force myself to do. It's a power

2003-01-29T22:39:00.000-06:00

these fares good 2/4/03 to 3/31/03 Chicago to Memphis (59); Memphis to Chicago (58): $31.00 Memphis to New Orleans (59); New Orleans to Memphis (58): $9.00 Chicago to DC (50); DC to Chicago (51): $16.00 In less tempting news, I can get from Chicago to St. Louis: $11.80 Quincy: $12.40 Albany: $15.40 Portland: $56.80 Los Angeles: $58.60 http://www.amtrak.com/railsale.html you know it's a

2003-01-29T09:57:00.000-06:00

In response to a request [baude.blogspot.com] -- I love this passage because it's sad. Each time she calls herself "a bitch and a fake" I think she's being painfully honest in a way that few people allow themselves to be, and because of that courage she has just proved herself not to be a bitch or a flake. Graham Greene has led me to do the same thing Sarah faults the men for doing -- I

2003-01-24T22:51:00.000-06:00

"When I was at school I learnt about a King -- one of the Henrys, the one who had Becket murdered -- and he swore when he saw his birthplace burnt by his enemies that because God had done that to him, 'because you have robbed me of the town I love most, the place where I was born and bred, I will rob You of that which You love most in me.' Odd how I've remembered that prayer after sixteen years.

2003-01-21T18:42:00.000-06:00

Gah. I really hate how computers make me feel. I'm in the process of upgrading from to OSX so that my machine will be less likely to give me scary messages during the finals paper crunch about how there's not enough memory to complete the operation of saving the current draft. One weekend to install OSX. Attempts over several evenings to install AppleWorks, my obscure word processing program

2003-01-14T17:29:00.000-06:00

humpf. what's the lag time for google to find something? Descendents of Lewis Johnston to the 6th generation is all that appears when I check my full name (and yes, that's an accurate hit).

2003-01-14T17:27:00.000-06:00

Well, this is disappointing. I google myself and I can't even get my own blog to show up. I am not the person who asks "Who is Amanda Butler?", or rather, who answers that question, at http://www.spiritofnature.org/amandabio.htm. And disappointingly, I can't find out about a cached file with a 'specified server that cannot be found' about which Google tantalizingly hints "... The young woman

2003-01-05T22:38:00.000-06:00

What? Someone's been pointing people to my blog? This means I have to write something. OK, so I know that's the point of a blog and I can get compulsive about a need to write my thoughts. Still, this feels like a gun to my head. Where's the payoff? If I don't reply to an email, I don't get any more emails. If I reply quickly, I get new mail more quickly. See, there's incentive. Here, I'm

2002-12-31T18:16:00.000-06:00

Read so far this break: "Dr. Zhivago," by Boris Pasternak "The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox," edited by Dennis Hutchinson and David Garrow "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler," by Italo Calvino In progress: "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris If I can find a copy, but neither is in the local, poor-quality library system: "American Project," by

2002-12-30T10:32:00.000-06:00

Hello. I thought it wise to reserve this address before anyone else did, since I don't have the luxury of knowing that the competition for agarwala.blog... or baude.blog... will be scant indeed. I still have not decided whether or not I will actually post here. I don't want to fall into the trap simply quoting my blog when people ask what's up, and I know that once I've written a narrative,