Unexpected Visitor

It's a little tough to make out, but that's a turkey perched on top of the hedge in our yard. It was just passing through; wandered by the bedroom window (gobbling the whole way), gave the premises a thorough check, then hopped next door to terrorize the neighbor's dog. Seems they're not completely unheard of in Orange County, CA, but I can assure you this was fairly mind-blowing. Wisely, it cleared out well before I could start thinking about dinner.

Today's New Blawg

Channah, a law student in southern California, writes the hedgehogblog [via the Blawg Ring] and describes what it has looked like around here for the last few days:

But today's fire is worse. There were little snowflake sized pieces of ash falling everywhere...downtown, hollywood, the valley...everywhere.

it looks like snow.

pretty...but annoying and sad, thinking that the ash could have been someone's family photo album, or that 100 year old oak that once gave respite from the southern california sun.

Channah has lots more to say about law school, it's just tough to divert my attention from the surreal atmospheric effects we've experienced this weekend with the fires. Here's what they did to this morning's sunrise.

Open Thread On Blawging

I know I should have posted this on Friday to hopefully get it read by two or three of my ten loyal readers (who all have much better things to do on the weekend), but Work Happens, so here we are. On Monday I'm scheduled to speak to our L.A. office associates about sundry stuff, including weblog authoring. I'll probably post something incredibly eloquent and insightful here during the talk for demo purposes. Since I'll be emphasizing the interactivity this medium offers and the many ways this can enhance professional development and client service, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. If you could talk to a roomful of eager (well, at least half awake) young lawyers about weblogs, what pearls of wisdom would you cast their way? Try to keep the invective to a minimum...

Jungle Law

C.E. Petit sums up the dispute between Caterpillar and Disney concerning cameo appearances of the Cat's trademark in George of the Jungle 2: "[T]hey can't seem to see the deforestation for the dead trees."

That Sound You Just Heard Was The Other Shoe Dropping

Eugene Volokh posts the Authors Guild email to its members of yesterday's date, regarding Amazon's new Search Inside The Book service. A must read. Regardless of what the specific publishing contracts may provide, it's clear the Guild is philosophically opposed to the idea—even though Amazon is making only limited portions of the books available to individual users, in a format that does not readily lend itself to digital copying and reuse. Says Ernest Miller: "One thing is certain, however. Publishing house lawyers are already drafting language for the standard contracts that will ensure publishers have the right to do this for all future works." Note too the Guild recommends that authors delink their sites from Amazon because it disapproves of the site's Used Books service.