I've been going to Disneyland about once per decade. I'm now thinking that is just a bit too often. I spent about 8 hours there this month with members of Beth's extended family, before I had to leave with a Disneyland headache. It's not so much that the cost to park and enter could buy a plane ticket to Frisco; nor that they persistently squeeze even more money out of you at the 100 shops and restaurants inside; nor the parents I saw (not Beth's family :-) yelling at their kids (how disappointing it must be for families that don't work to discover they don't work even inside Disneyland). I think my main problem is the pernicious cheerful music that oozes from unlocatable speakers, like poison green gas in a Batman episode. I found the Small World ride a relief; at least there the cheer is overt.
Which is what I am on for a few weeks. I'm not allowed to talk about the case, but I'll bend that enough to set up the greatest Quote of the Month in the history of the Bobologue -- it is an eminent domain case in which a transportation agency is naming the price it will pay for lead-contaminated land. Here in la-la-land we have good-looking lawyers -- in fact these three bear remarkable likenesses to Rick Moranis, Sam Waterston, and the chubby Baldwin. It is called civil court, but that doesn't mean we're allowed to say good morning to the lawyers when we meet in the hallway. In fact, Rick Moranis is so concerned about the impropriety of casual contact he backed out of the 9th-floor men's room as soon as he saw me in there. We only hear evidence about 5 hours a day, which leaves me plenty of time to fantasize about writing a Jim Carey movie called Jury Duty -- Jim Carey is a self-important yuppie who thinks he's too busy for jury duty, and Jennifer Lopez is a working class single mom whose Dad has suffered some kind of injustice. So when they wind up on the same case.... well, you see, it pretty much writes itself.
Never underestimate the Nigerian love of worship. This is my advice, after attending the 3+ hour worship service (their 6th service in 4 days) celebrating the one-year anniversary of a Nigerian Mennonite church in South Central LA. 7 of us from my church went to share a few songs. Nigerian women have a way of harmonizing that attenuates the melody, and makes every song sound like the same song. It's kind of engaging for the first 20 minutes or so.... I did what I presumed would be a solo ("Softly and Tenderly") but I was enfolded and elevated by a soft and tender rendition of the harmony from the women in the third row.
One of my professors invited Beth and me to dinner at the faculty club, in honor of some visiting collaborators from Italy. I think it's the first time I've ever been kicked out of a restaurant for not being up to dress code -- I had on a decent T-shirt and tolerable blue jeans. I trotted back to my office for a button-down shirt. Afterward it was a very tasty dinner as we regaled one another with the stories of Millikan and Feynman that define our community.
I did something I seldom do, which is to give loud, unsolicited advice
to a stranger. I yelled at the 60-something health-food-guru-looking
gentleman in the Beamer obnoxiously blocking traffic while yakking on
the phone, "Hang up and drive." I was inspired, I think, by reading a
few days earlier about my friend Dave White giving unsolicited advice
to a stranger, "Get some therapy,
How much do we miss the cat? His owners picked him up on a Monday; on Saturday my housemate was taking a nap on the couch, woke up and said, "Hey, the cat's gone!". It is a plus for housekeeping; while the cat was here our dust bunnies were breeding like rabbits.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH (which really and truly happened): (During jury selection) "Mr. Reyes, in owning rental property have you had to deal with government agencies? Ms. Brown, have any of the schools you've worked at had problems with lead contamination? Mr. Nolty, is it true that a pulse of light can propagate faster than the speed of light?"
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