Was there a fat lady in The Mikado?

Last Friday, on April Fool's Day, George Wallace's A Fool in the Forest blog hosted a follow-up to his outstanding Nuclear-themed Blawg Review #304, published just last Monday. While pulling double hosting duties is an achievement in itself, Wallace's W.S. Gilbert homage in Blawg Review #305 deserves a standing ovation on its own merits.

This performance marks Wallace's tenth time hosting the Carnival of Legal Blogging (very probably a record). In keeping with the foolish spirit of his personal blog, Wallace has often hosted on or near April Fool's Day. This year, he explains Gilbert's connections to the law and other foolishness:

For this year's April Fools' theme I turn to a true connoisseur of human folly, William Schwenk Gilbert, the "Gilbert" of Gilbert & Sullivan fame. W. S. Gilbert knew something of the Law at first hand: as a young man, before finding success first as an author of light verse and then as the authoring and directing half of one of the more successful theatrical duos of all time, Gilbert attempted a career as a barrister in London's Inner Temple. He was not a success. Indeed, it is reported that in the course of a year a mere five clients came his way. We pause at this juncture to shed a tear of solidarity.

The grandest highlight of this Blawg Review is undoubtedly Wallace's take on The Mikado's well-known "Little List" aria, "As Some Day It May Happen". As our host notes, the song "is now almost always performed with extensive revision so as to target the irritants particular to the time and place of the performance. It is not unknown for new verses to be crafted immediately before curtain time...."

Once the curtain rises in Blawg Review #305, there are other performances of note as well, including several posts concerning writing and the arts — proposing a "one ream of paper" rule for successful pleadings, finding the DNA if not the soul of Finnegan's Wake, and bestowing awards on our fictional colleagues in this noble profession.

As Wallace mentioned, however, the future of the long-running (ancient, in blogging years) Blawg Review is in doubt:

Should it turn out that the post you are reading is the Last Blawg Review Ever, it is my hope that you will agree with me that, unlike the denizens of our Little List, the institution of Blawg Review assuredly will be missed.

I've been a host (several times) and a Sherpa (several years), but first and foremost I've been a fan and a loyal reader. If after six years, Wallace's Mikado edition brings down the final curtain for Blawg Review, as Ed.'s "Adieu" message and the removal of the "Future Hosts" sidebar suggest, it can be said that the show has ended on a high note.