TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (221)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Inquisitr (from Wednesday, May 27; link good at time of posting):

Residents in Conisbrough, England have changed the name of their street after deciding that Butt Hole Road no longer appealed to them.

The name, despite its modern meaning, was given to the street hundred of years ago, and is named after a communal water butt.

Resident Peter Sutton told The Daily Mail that “he originally thought the street’s name would be fun - but admits he soon got tired of the jokes.” The paper also noted that the street had become a tourist attraction, particularly popular with Americans.

The street formerly known as Butt Hole Road is now known as the far less interesting Archers Lane.

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Blawg Review Throws in the Towel

Blessed are the geek: for they shall inherit the earth.

--Matthew 5:5 (Revised Internet Edition)

Memorial Day coincides this year with Towel Day. As Blawg Review #213 host Kevin Thompson points out, "Towel Day is also a memorial, but a geeky one," which arose after the untimely death -- er, "permanent existence failure" -- of Douglas Adams in 2001. Thompson helps the legal blogosphere get its geek on by explaining the universal significance of towels, drawing together the best legal blogging of the past week, and drawing a number of prominent former Blawg Review hosts out to pose with their towels. Highlights include grousing about lawyers' courtroom attire and grousing about that grousing, determining when legal ethics should prevent blogging a Supreme Court case, and realizing when not to ask a legal blogger to take down your photo from an unflattering post. Charon QC will host a return engagement next week. Until then, don't panic.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (220)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Canadian Press (from Monday, May 18; link good at time of posting):

The Belgian bodybuilding championship had to be cancelled after anti-doping officials showed up and all the competitors fled.
"I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again," said anti-doping official Hans Cooman. He said some bodybuilders just grabbed all their gear and ran off when he came into the room. Twenty bodybuilders were entered in the weekend competition.
"The sport has a history of doping and this incident didn't do its reputation any good," Cooman said.
Belgium's bodybuilding federation did not dispute the facts but said it could not explain why the competitors had suddenly rushed off.

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What kind of Blawg Review do you usually have here?

Elwood Blues: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country and western.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

If someone had suggested before this morning that the best legal blogging produced in an entire week could be reduced to a country and western song, it might have seemed unlikely. Tamera Bennett ably demonstrates that it's possible in Blawg Review #212, hosted at her Current Trends in Copyright, Trademark & Entertainment Law blog. Highlights include divorce-related shenanigans, the trademark troubles of the girl from ipanema, and finding ten links to make a perfect Blawg Review.

Kevin Thompson hosts next week's Blawg Review #213 at his Cyberlaw Central blog. Bring your towel and join him as he searches for a decent cup of tea, the meaning of life, and the best legal blogging. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the Blues Brothers performing both kinds of music:

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (219)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Beautiful Game blog (from Friday, May 8; link good at time of posting):




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Universal health coverage? Heated debate. HealthBlawg's Blawg Review? Unanimous acclaim.

I confess to a healthy amount of skepticism about both the Obama Administration's first hundred days in office and its next fourteen hundred or so days. Notwithstanding, I'm a great believer in David Harlow's ability to sum up the President's first hundred days in the White House while gathering the best legal blogging of the last seven. He certainly doesn't disappoint with Blawg Review #211, hosted at his HealthBlawg site.

Harlow reminds us that the President has "enjoyed" a very busy few months in office and the range of issues addressed by the Obama Administration in that time provides ample grist for the legal blogging mill. Highlights of this week's edition include a reminder that the first hundred days will be the last hundred days in the President and Vice-President keep eating undercooked burgers at greasy spoons, an overview of the knife-sharpening in preparation for a Supreme Court nomination, and debating whether our federation of red states and blue states is becoming socialist and whether the United Federation of Planets in "Star Trek" already is.

Next Monday, Tamera Bennett will host Blawg Review #212 at her Current Trends in Copyright, Trademark & Entertainment Law blog.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (218)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Times Online (from Monday, May 4; link good at time of posting):

From a distance the large ship on the horizon looked like the perfect target, ripe for a successful spot of piracy.

But as the Somali pirates sped toward the vessel sailing near the Seychelles, they were horrified to see two boats and a helicopter set off from their target and launch their own counter-attack.

They had failed to spot, in the dazzling sun, that the 'merchant ship' they thought they were intercepting was, in fact, a French naval ship bristling with cannons, radar technology and armed commandos.

When the three pirate boats were spotted heading toward them the frigate Nivose, one of the ships patrolling the region as part of the European Union anti-piracy mission Atalanta, headed into the sun to camouflage its true identity before turning to confront its attackers.

When the boats were close enough, Lieutenant Commander Jean-Marc le Quilliec sent his commandos out on outboards, with a helicopter to provide air support.

The helicopter fired two warning shots to stop the three boats from fleeing and within minutes the 11 pirates had surrendered.

Two of the attack boats were small skiffs which the pirates used as attack vessels and the third was a nine metre (30 foot) mother ship, used to transport supplies such as petrol, water and food.

Only one pirate was left on board the mother ship which had nothing on board except fuel and potates, said Lt Commander le Quilliec.

"He apparently thought the pirates had hijacked us," he said.

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This Blawg Review might just start a movement of its own.

Dan Harris has come to accept that despite his varied and considerable talents his previous efforts to bring about world peace via Blawg Review hosting have come to naught. Undaunted, he returns today with Blawg Review #210, which he promises will be sarcastic, mean-spirited, petty, and low-brow but not snarky.

The theme for this week is the May Fourth Movement which arose after the First World War, when the European victors gave defeated Germany's Chinese holdings to Japan rather than China. Harris is uniquely-qualified to host a Sino-Japanese-themed carnival of legal blogging. As readers of Harris' acclaimed China Law Blog know, his head is in China, focused on that nation's legal, business, and other challenges and opportunities. As followers of @DanHarris on Twitter know, his stomach is in Japan, where sushi and sashimi have their origins and have found their highest expression. As a result, his heart is bobbing up and down in the East China Sea, somewhere north of Taiwan.

Highlights of this week's review include a proposal to imprison and waterboard bow-tie wearers, a recognition of the legal significance of a dipsy-doodle, and a recommendation that our fellow blogger Eric Turkewitz become Justice Turkewitz.

David Harlow will host Blawg Review #211 next week at his HealthBlawg. In addition to gathering the best legal blogging published this week, he will update us on the progress in the Turkewitz confirmation hearings.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (217)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Asbury Park Press (from Thursday, April 30; link good at time of posting):

A Florida man faces misdemeanor charges for possession of drug paraphernalia after he placed his keys and other belongings, including a pot pipe, in a tray at a courthouse security checkpoint.

Clinton J. Gordon of Fort Pierce routinely emptied his pockets at the St. Lucie County Court House when a security deputy noticed something unusual among the items . . . .

The officer checked out the pipe and determined it was for smoking marijuana by the smell and the residue.

The 39-year-old Gordon was placed under arrest and charged in connection with the Tuesday incident.

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