Multiple Applications...
A landmark here in Newport, The Cannery restaurant, was headed for demolition in the fall of 1999. It had a bayfront location and a long history. A local resident, Jack Croul, hated to see the place go, so he bought it and fixed it up. It reopened in February with the help of Ron Salisbury (El Cholo), general manager Steve Herbert (Gladstone's), chef Felix Salcedo (Sonora Café) and sushi chef Yuji Nishimura (Hirozen).

Those details had eluded me until this morning. What I did realize is that if there's a hot spot, my husband and his pals know and go. He's been at The Cannery maybe three times in the last month, including last night. I haven't been there since the reopening, so I had to know if the The Cannery now is "it."* His response was what got me: "The place is crowded, but you don't know anyone. Either trendy people don't go there, or I don't know the trendy people."

*Hey, around here "it" comes along with all the frequency of Ikeya-Zhang or involves Dennis Rodman.

Feeding Back
Ernie writes, and Larry concurs, that online spaces for (anonymous) lawyer comments about judges are good things, and wonders whether this is happening. (Excuse my shortcut of sharing this here and expecting you gents to come find it. I'm writing a brief and time is short.) A California attorney set up just such a system on his site a few years back. The practitioner comments are fairly sparse, and I'm not sure if that's blind terror, or lack of publicity, or both. Maybe if Calvin blogged. Regardless, I'm all for resource-oriented lawyer sites that are useful to practitioners and the public, and this has been one for a long time. Among all the other rich content, Calvin offers downloadable court forms that (last time I used one, anyway) are not available in editable electronic format anywhere else.

Wholly Comedy
Larry Townsend's book "Secrets Of The Wholly Grill," which explores the humor in shrink-wrap software licenses, got a nice review today on law.com. Its first chapter had me cracking up too. Wish my pop would finish it so I could read the wholly thing.

Blawg Additions
Some cool blawgs join the roster today: Rebeca Delgado has been around the block as a lawyer and is appreciating La Belle France. (Her blog and her site sont très, très belle.) Rick Klau works on bringing technology and legal professionals together - a glutton for punishment, clearly. He's an author and a regular columnist for the American Bar Association's Student Lawyer. (Thanks, Ernie.) Finally, the EFF has been blogging about the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group - "Consensus At Lawyerpoint" - since March 27, and it looks like there's more to come.

Half A Century, And Counting
Justice Mildred L. Lillie, who presides over the Second District, Division Seven, of the California Court of Appeal, was honored yesterday for her fifty-five years of service as a California jurist. Between the time Justice Lillie passed the Bar and I did, 133,300 people were admitted to practice law in California. Justice Lillie has authored over three thousand decisions, and in her own words she has been there, and she has done that. And will keep right on dispensing conscientious justice.