Good News For My Summer

It's not the only reason to stay in Britain and visit France and Spain but it's the only reason I need to stay away from Germany.

British women are the least hairy in Europe.

But their German counterparts are the hairiest, according to a survey by razor manufacturer Wilkinson.

A Europe-wide study from the company looked at the hair-removal habits of 1,000 women.

The survey found British girls are the ones who undertake the most hair removal, with more than 93% saying they use razors before wearing skirts and shorts for the summer.

Germans fell way behind with just 40% saying they regularly shaved. This however shows an improvement of seven per cent from studies carried out two years ago.

Spanish women ranked just behind the British with 82% preferring the smooth to the natural look. French and Italian ladies lay in the middle - but with more shaving than not.

Nothing on the Netherlands.

Rose Is A Genius

And I'm an idiot.

we do know a couple of things that stimulate brain cell production. One of them, of course is anti-depressants.... But there are many other ways of stimulating the production and some of them are pretty damned interesting. One is if you put an animal on a wheel and let it run ad libitum and they run up to about 10 kilometres overnight, they make about twice as many neurones.

The other thing is that certain molecules produced during sex also appear to be highly stimulatory of neuronal production.

So running a lot, which Rose does, or having sex, I do neither, produces brain cells. Too bad the just honeymooned Bunny couldn't have delayed her finals until now.

Planning for Spain

The Fiesta and the bullrun occur every year from July 6th through July 14th. The "chupinazo" (opening ceremonies) is on July 6th at 12 noon. The running of the bulls takes place every morning at 8am from July 7th through July 14th.

From here.

cuyaz: YOu know what will be in spain while we are there
Bruin7089: What?
cuyaz: Running of the bulls
cuyaz: I am not sure I would run with the bulls though
Bruin7089: Why not?
cuyaz: Don't want to die
Bruin7089: It's like 7 people out of a few hundred who die
Bruin7089: those are good odds
cuyaz: True
Bruin7089: YOu don't even have to get close to the bulls
Bruin7089: We should do it.
Bruin7089: With me running in front of you.
cuyaz: Okay, I will give it some thought
cuyaz: It is one of those things you have to do in your life
Bruin7089: you run, you hop off to the side and watch
Bruin7089: not that hard
cuyaz: Or you run, a bull gores you and you have two places to shit out of now
Bruin7089: I think it's overrated unless you happen to be one of the few who are gored.
Bruin7089: Three places
cuyaz: This is true
Bruin7089: Less time on the john.
cuyaz: More time in the hospital
Bruin7089: and your health insurance that you signed up for kicks in
cuyaz: I wonder if my insurance I just bought will over me
Bruin7089: It's probably in the fine print/boilerplate

Quote This

"but now that i think about it i either way its either a cause for celebration which entails a lot of drinking or a depressing time which requires a lot of drinking, either way it looks like i'm getting hammered" - Rizbang (on the final grade coming in tonight)

There Is So

"[It] can be a viable full- / part-time business."
"[It] is especially suitable for those living on fixed or limited income or who can't keep livestock of any other kind."
"[It] is one of the most sustainable micro livestock enterprise that lends itself to urban and suburban settings."

Annie and Brian know what it is.

All True But The Umbrella Part

How to make a Soller

Ingredients: 1 part success 1 part crazyiness 1 part instinct

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of emotion

How to make a Southwestern Law Student

Ingredients: 5 parts anger 5 parts silliness 1 part empathy

Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add a little lustfulness if desired!

How to make a Top Ten% Law Student

Ingredients: 3 parts competetiveness 1 part arrogance 5 parts ego

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Serve with a slice of curiosity and a pinch of salt. Yum!

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

I Too Can Be Sexy If I Try... Or Don't Try... Or Try Without Appearing To Try... Huh?

A couple of posts at The Volokh Conspiracy that I found interesting especially after last night's discussions with Brian, Trini, and Kate. First, from a friend of Prof. Volokh's:

I think almost any man can be sexy, can become a good flirt, can learn to attract women, if he is truly willing to. Like most social skills, the general principles aren't that mysterious, and are quantifiable if you pay attention.

But most men don't really want to be sexy; they want sexy to be them. I don't mean to man-bash, men are one of my favorite genders, but it's such a waste of resources. Like you, I know tons of great women. They're (list of all the good adjectives), and people want to be around them.

I think it's particularly true that most men can learn to be sexy, since women are more forgiving about looks, which are less changeable . . . . Maybe it's easier for women to cultivate appeal, since we're sort of more raised with the idea of adapting ourselves, rather than just "being," but men can do it.

And I know a fair number of (good adjectives) single men, but [it's generally] also clear why they're single. They don't listen, and won't; they won't get a real job; they're boring but don't want to acknowlege it or do anything about it. Hey, if that shirt was "in" when they were in high school, no need to see if any ads/mannequins/humans under 60 wear it today.

I don't have a single female friend who hasn't asked herself, "What am I doing wrong?" and been totally open -- often too open, in a self-blame-y way -- to the answer, and to changing the answer, often with great success. But I almost never find that men ask that question, or are even willing to hear the answer, let alone do anything about it. Instead, single men in my experience behave as if the only life possibilities are being the way they are, or acting. The idea of growth and change don't make the radar.

Of course some men welcome growth and change. But those men grew and changed, or were pretty cool to start with, and are usually -- not always, but usually -- hooked up. . . .

A former student responded:

As a man who is intimately concerned with what makes a man sexy, I can say that your friend Marilyn got it only partially right. Yes, boorish manners and a bad shirt can completely remove a man from the running. Yes, attention to the civilities of the day can give even the most aesthetically challenged man a shot at scoring a mate. . . .

[But] I find it is often a man's resoluteness in the face of what I shall call here adversity that makes him sexy. It is his adamantine surety of place as he strides into a room that makes him noticed. Were he to be engaged in the constant questioning of himself that Marilyn suggests, I reckon it might be more difficult for him to pull this off.

As an example, I offer what an observer of gay male culture might call the fetishization of the straight man. It is not that he, the straight man, is so much more attractive or well dressed than a gay man. Quite often the opposite is true, with the average gay man perhaps being better groomed and tailored than the average straight man. Rather it is the sheer *effortlessness* with which an attractive straight man can achieve his attractiveness that makes him sexy; his insouciance wins the day.

Gay men simply try too hard, often attempting to look perfect, which always fails and leaves him looking simply . . . false, stilted, fabricated. The straight man (the metrosexual and Marilyn's dream men aside) rarely goes to this length, and it is the imperfection in his appearance that gives it the veracity of the virile....

"[I]t is self-confidence that yields sex appeal, not constant self-awareness and adjustment."

Prof. Volokh writes:

Very interesting -- I hadn't thought of it this way; I suspect that many women's perspective, conscious or not, is much like the gay man's perspective that Geoffrey describes.

Of course, this means that one needs to adjust oneself so successfully that it looks like one isn't trying to adjust oneself at all. The same is probably true for women, at least in some measure: The best makeup is the makeup that's so good that it looks like you aren't wearing any makeup.

But naturally this sort of self-improvement is much harder than the self-improvement Marilyn originally wrote me about -- and the self-improvement she described might yield less payoff than one might at first think. So maybe the "I'll just be me" slobs she describes are (sometimes) being more rational than we gave them credit for being.

Enough analysis already, someone give me the conclusion, or a bright line rule at least, to resolve the issue of what to do to be a sexy man. Eh, whatever, I can always blame women for my failure to be a sexy man as one puts it:

[T]he real source of male slovenliness: women. If women weren't so damn forgiving of slobbiness, if they weren't prepared to look for the diamond buried in the rough of a man's beer-belly, men might have to shape up a little. The only reason gay men are - on the whole - better turned out than straight men is because they have to appeal to other shallow, beauty-obsessed males to get laid, find a mate, etc. The corollary, of course, are lesbians. Now there are many glamorous lesbiterians, but even the most enthusiastic Sapphic-lover will have to concede that many are not exactly, shall we say, stylish. The reason? They don't have to be to attract other women; and since women find monogamy easier, they also slide into the I'm-married-so-what-the-hell-have-another-pretzel syndrome. When straight women really do insist on only dating hot guys, men will shape up. Until then, it's hopeless.

As Brian put it, "women are sucky."

Quote This

"I like kissing and you cannot kiss with Lefty." - Brian

When Lawyers Date

Link from JD2B:

On June 5, you agreed to accept dinner, paid for in full, by me, based on your stated offer that we would go out again. In that you have ignored all overtures to said follow up meeting, you are hereby considered in breach of contract.

To that end, you are being invoiced for 50% of the cost of the dinner, pursuant to the offer. For the record, the offer presented you with the option of not going out again and paying for half of the dinner, or going out again and not paying at all. You accepted these terms, choosing to go out again, as stated above, but have since failed to deliver your end of the agreement. In that this was merely a promise to meet, and not a promise to marry, the agreement is binding under New York law and does not require a written agreement (i.e. statute of frauds).

Furthermore, this is absolutely not a joke.

Your share is 50% of $74.51 which is a total of $37.25. Payment in full is expected within 30 days

My life is rated PG.
What is your life rated?

Oh To Be Young Again

A year younger and I would have saved $102.50 on my BritRail pass, a 25% discount.

Don't Ever Listen To A Poll

I caved in and checked my grades, not good. I'll post them when I receive them all, which should be by the end of this week. For now, I'm too depressed to do any more posting for the day. Catch you all later.

UPDATE: Torts grade is in, not what I expected and that's not a good thing.

Hubie Umber Would Have Appreciated This

Link via Favorable Dicta - who also happens to be having schnitzel today:

The state is posting billboards with messages such as "Isn't she a little young?" as part of a campaign to dissuade men from having sex with underage girls.

In 1999 and 2000 in Virginia, men over 18 were responsible for 219 births involving girls who were 13 and 14, the department said.

Messages such as "Isn't she a little young?" and "Sex with a minor, don't go there" also appear on posters, coasters and napkins in bars, restaurants and stores in five cities.

Property Grade Is In

Torts and Civ Pro are left. I should know all of my grades by next Monday.

My Fellow Southwestern Students, We Are Not The Peers...

Of those at Duke, Stanford, or any other of the law schools to my knowledge. But I think we all knew that already.

In an attempt to bring its assessment policies more in line with those of its peers, the School of Law will implement a new grading system, raising the median for certain classes from 3.1 to 3.3 grade points and lowering the maximum possible score from 4.5 to 4.3.

The change, however, is not expected to have a significant impact on students' transcripts, since the new median will only apply to classes of 40 or more students; furthermore, only 5 percent of any class may receive above a 4.0.

At the same time, there was concern that the students' abilities were not accurately represented, as many other schools use higher medians to set grading curves--Stanford Law School, for instance, sets its median at 3.4. Consequently, many feared that Duke students would not be as competitive as job applicants from peer institutions.

Many law schools, such as those at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, have scrapped the 4.3 scale entirely. Harvard follows an 8-point system, and the University of Chicago uses a system with points ranging from 157 to 185. After reviewing such alternatives, Duke opted for a more traditional scale.

"We thought it was more helpful to use an established system rather than an alien one," Newman said. "Employers have to make very quick judgments, and grades seem to be very important in that process."

Although grading system changes often raise questions about the potential for grade inflation, administrators said the changes are not significant enough to warrant such concern.

"We essentially fine-tuned our system to reflect what peer schools are already doing," McLauglin said. "We are not leading the pack to simply benefit our students."

So are there any other law schools out there with a 2.3 median GPA?

Lakers vs. Pistons

Can someone please tell Kobe to stop settling for jumpers, to attack the rim instead, and maybe then the disparity in free throws will end.

If For Some Reason You're Not Sure Whether You're A Summer Associate Or Not...

Read DG's list.

More On Billable Hours

Seriously, keeping track of billable hours - and meeting a set number of billable hours - has got to be the worst thing about being a lawyer.

Lawyers aren't so lucky. If you're tussling with a statute and your eyes glaze over, the length of time spent glazed isn't billable. If that same cute little hummingbird -- there he is again! hi, hummingbird! -- hovers in the tree outside your office window and waves hello, the time you spend smiling at him is not billable. In the time it takes to get up, go to the bathroom, get a cup of coffee or glass of water, and return to your desk, you've just squandered 0.1 billable hours.

Summer associates are not pressured to bill, but we're not stupid, either. This is the time to acclimate, to become adept at nickel-and-diming your workday to an extent unprecedented even for people like me who've done it before. I guess thinking in six-minute quanta becomes intuitive with sufficient practice....

Yet it amazes me that people can bill in tenths of an hour, log thousands of those six-minute increments every month, shackle their attention spans and obsess and skip workouts and not be doing it for the love.

Read the whole thing.