Forget about takeaway; you'll want to stay awhile at this restaurant.

Eric Turkewitz has become known in the legal blogosphere for his excellent New York Personal Injury Law Blog and particularly for last year's Blawg Review of the Year runner-up, Blawg Review #134. This year he returns, describing a Thanksgiving holiday with Arlo Guthrie in Blawg Review #188.

For those who may not be familiar with Guthrie, he is a folk singer whose signature song, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," lasts anywhere from eighteen to forty-five minutes, depending on his mood. Your reading of this week's Blawg Review probably won't require anything like forty-five minutes, but it will be time well spent. Highlights of this week's edition include the legal challenges associated with international piracy, tales of law enforcement overreach, and the propriety of presidential pardons (for humans and turkeys alike).

It's another tour de force from Turkewitz and I for one pity the one who has to follow him next week. If it's not been said before, it's been said now: self-pity is the best pity.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (195) . . . The Sequel!

This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Bendigo Advertiser (via Techdirt) (from Friday, November 21; links good at time of posting):

TIMOTHY McCORMACK produced four excellent character references to persuade a judge to give him a lighter sentence for faking his engineering credentials to work on Qantas aircraft.

But during his sentencing hearing in the District Court yesterday he sat hunkered down in the dock with his head between his fists, bent so low that only his hair was visible to the bench.

The references were too good to be true, the court heard. The fake engineer had also falsified each of his references.

They included a fictional school counsellor, which had been misspelt "councilor", and an allegedly fictional Senior Sergeant Woodward, who purported to be the president of a fictional Hornsby Junior Australian Rules Football Club.

"There is no football club by that name," said the Crown prosecutor, Paul McGuire. Judge Mark Marien, who described the proceedings as an "extra-ordinary event", said that all the references were formatted in the same way and signed by the same hand. McCormack, 27, pleaded guilty in September to 42 charges relating to the falsification of documents, including his exam results for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's aircraft maintenance engineer licence and his engineering credentials.

[Previous TGIS]

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (195)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Reuters (from Monday, November 24; link good at time of posting):

A panda at a zoo in southern China attacked a student who snuck into its pen hoping for a cuddle with the endangered bear, state media said Saturday.

The 20-year-old male student surnamed Liu jumped over the fence at the zoo in the tourist city of Guilin, ignoring warning signs not to, Xinhua news agency said.

"The panda, named Yangyang, was wide awake. Apparently scared by the intruder, he bit at Liu's arms and legs," it quoted an unnamed worker as saying after zoo keepers managed to calm the bear and rescue Liu, the report said.

"Yangyang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him," Liu was quoted as saying from his hospital bed. "I didn't expect he would attack."

[Previous TGIS]

Thanksgiving is special.

What other day of the year do I look forward to seeing the Detroit Lions play? What other day of the year does the wife look forward to getting up early to watch people walk with balloons down a street in New York? Ah, Thanksgiving.

In this, the calm before the culinary storm to come, consider a more noble purpose for this day. As you pause to give thanks for your friends, family, and freedoms, why not contribute to help those who've given so much to secure those things?

I've written recently and in years past about Project Valour-IT and that fundraising gauge has lived in the sidebar for some time now; if you've not taken a moment to consider contributing, please take that moment now. This fundraising effort is now up to nearly $73,000 overall, with the Army team's contribution the largest of all the branches, at more than $30,000. Thanks to all of you who've joined me in contributing thus far!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! My sympathies go to those of you who root for the Lions (or, Heaven forbid, play for them); I started this post just after kickoff and now, approximately 20 minutes later, the Lions are down by 11 points. Lions fans, may the turkey and trimmings you will later enjoy remove the bitter taste in your mouths this season.

Random Thought (16)

I'm not entirely certain whether I've ever spoken of the pompatus of love.

[Previous Thought]

Only the fittest legal blogging survives.

Well, not really, as the continuing existence of this blog attests. There isn't a natural selection principle at work in this week's Blawg Review; instead, Joshua Fruchter of the LawyerCasting blog has been hard at work selecting the best legal blogging of the past week for inclusion in Blawg Review #187. The results of his efforts, presented on Evolution Day, the anniversary of the publication date of Darwin's The Origin of Species, consider a "survival" theme from a number of perspectives. These include the plotting the economic survival of various legal practice models, making sure one's own practice survives tough times, and contemplating personal survival outside legal practice. Eric Turkewitz, whose New York City Marathon-themed Blawg Review was widely-acclaimed last year, will host next week at his New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (194)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Weekly Standard (from Tuesday, November 18; link good at time of posting):

Hugo Chavez Faces Political Challenge From Ex-Wife

She divorced him, got custody of their daughter, married a tennis instructor, and so as to prevent a descent into divorce cliches, she thought outside the box and worked to defeat constitutional reforms he proposed in 2007, which would have made him president for life. Not your average passive aggressor, Marisabel Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, an attractive blonde radio personality and journalist, is now running for mayor of her hometown Barquisimeto to replace an outgoing pro-Chavez candidate. She's reportedly luring much of the woman vote, and support from those disappointed with Chavez's "21st-century socialism," which has produced such delights as "overflowing sewage, human waste in the streets and the lack of electricity." It will only get worse as Chavez's petro-bucks keep falling.

[Previous TGIS]

Blogging and Other Social Media

Blogging and Other Social Media has been published and is available from both Amazon US and Amazon UK. The book was written by Alex Newson and Deryck Houghton, who established the IMPACT legal blog at Freeth Cartwright (Alex is now at Shoosmiths), and by Justin Patten, a mediator who blogs at Human Law and who hosted Blawg Review #78.

Blogging advises business audiences seeking to establish a presence in social media and to exploit that presence effectively. I was pleased to make an early contribution to the book's final chapter, "Online Reputation," and I'm especially pleased that the principal authors have reworked it so extensively for publication! Congratulations to Alex, Deryck, and Justin for a job well done!

Take a break from the War, put your feet up, and enjoy Blawg Review.

While the "Twitter War" in the legal blogosphere was gleefully reported by some, enthusiastically participated in by others, and studiously ignored by many, Benson Varghese of the Res Ipsa blog probably got things right - his Blawg Review #186 covers it along with the rest of the best from the past week in legal blogging. Highlights include (in addition to the War) the thoroughness (or overreaching, depending on your viewpoint) of the Obama administration's vetting of prospective appointees, the importance of a Nazi-free elevator pitch, and the replacement of Big Law by Big Government. Joshua Fruchter handles hosting duties next week at his LawyerCasting marketing blog.

West London Man Returns

Charon QC's always entertaining West London Man series returns today with an episode which spans the big pond. West London Man (23) finds George in desperate straits as he attempts to forestall a planned visit by his distant American cousin, with whom we're all familiar but with whom George is eager to deny any connection. Assisted quite ably by his wife, Caroline, and not-so-ably by an American lawyer friend, will George manage to safeguard his professional and social reputations or find himself an outcast from West London?

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (193)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of TimesOnline (from Thursday, November 13; link good at time of posting):

Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.

By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.

. . . .

The commandos found guns and other “paraphernalia” on board the dhow and a handful of terrified pirates.

[Previous TGIS]

Veteran's Day Need Never End

Sure, the calendar shows Veteran's Day as occurring only yesterday, on November 11, but our military personnel continue to sacrifice for us the year round. Major Chuck Ziegenfuss advises this morning that Project Valour-IT, an effort I've proudly championed in the past (see here, here, and here), is in dire financial need; consequently, an urgent fundraising effort is underway and will continue for the next couple of weeks.

Those who are not familiar with the project can find more information at the website of its parent charity, Soldiers' Angels. I'll put a donation link in the sidebar and post from time-to-time about the progress this fundraising effort has made. My link will attribute donations to the Army team, but you can donate to any of the other branches' fundraising teams or at the Project Valour-IT site and the donations will all head to the same place, to be used to benefit of our injured servicemen and women.

At the time of this post, cumulative donations for all branches' teams are nearing $12,000; the fundraising goal is $250,000.

Please join me in donating what you can. Thanks, as always, for supporting Project Valour-IT and our troops.

UPDATE: The cumulative donations graphic seems to be having some issues at the moment; I'll remove it from this post for now.

Random Thought (15)

Was Water the Pete Best of Earth, Wind & Fire?

[Previous Thought]

Around the World

It famously took Phileas Fogg eighty days to go around the world; Australian IP strategist and IP Think Tank blogger Duncan Bucknell does it in a much more expeditious two dozen links or so. His Blawg Review #185, after a brief recognition of Hollywood beauty and wireless spectrum pioneer Hedy Lamarr, covers global IP strategy from political, economic, and legal standpoints and is worth a read. The Res Ipsa Blog handles hosting duties next week.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (192)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (from Tuesday, November 4; link good at time of posting):

A visiting St. Olaf instructor who wrote an online essay about stealing John McCain lawn signs -- "like a ninja under the cover of [a] cloudy Minnesota night" -- has resigned, the Northfield college announced.

Philip Busse, an Oregon-based journalist and political activist who taught a media studies course, also will be charged with misdemeanor theft, according to the Rice County Sheriff's Office. He could face up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Busse admitted that what he posted on the Internet was true, said Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook, so as of Friday afternoon, "it was essentially case closed." Busse was expected to receive a citation in his mailbox Tuesday, Cook said: "How appropriate -- on Election Day."

[Previous TGIS]

There's an election of some sort tomorrow...

...but today, there's Blawg Review! I for one know which I prefer. For those who can't get enough election coverage, Dan Filler and his colleagues at The Faculty Lounge offer some that's actually interesting in Blawg Review #184. Highlights include a tolerant view of Governor Palin's misunderstanding of the First Amendment, a not-so-tolerant view of Senator McCain's accusations of socialism, and a few thoughts about the whether an Obama presidency would have an adverse effect on domestic law-and-order. Much like the campaign, it seems that Senator Biden made absolutely no impression on Blawg Review this week.

Duncan Bucknell hosts next week's Blawg Review at the IP Think Tank blog. In the meantime, don't forget to vote tomorrow. Or forget. At this point, I can't bring myself to care any longer.