I was driving home last week and listening to the local NPR station. I heard an interesting overview of five original movie studios, discussing their stars, niches, styles, etc. The piece, The Movie Studio System – Part II, was written by Chris Dashiell for Arizona Spotlight. It’s short and worth a listen, as is The Movie Studio System – Part I, which I listened to when I got home.

I’ve also run across a few other bits and pieces associated with film that might interest some. The ABA Journal, the American Bar Association’s monthly, published its 25 Greatest Legal Movies, presented here in an easy-to-access format (courtesy of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law Library) and as a

By now you‘ve surely heard about the new battle for freedom and personal space aka Reclining Air Wars. I first heard about this particular form of folderol when I read Flight Diverted When Passengers Feud Over Reclining Seat, by Eyder Peralta for the Two-Way at NPR on August 26. The down low? On United Airlines Flight 1462, a Row 11 passenger threw a hissy fit when the Row 12 passenger behind her used his Knee Defender—it costs $21.95—to prevent Ms. Row 11 from reclining. Water from Row 11 ended up on Row 12 (I guess there’s no drought at 36,000 feet), the pilot said “enough,” the plane made an unscheduled landing in Chicago, and Rows 11 and 12 each

Well, the official election season has begun! (Tradition says campaigning doesn’t REALLY count until after Labor Day.)

Lots and lots of misinformation abounds. (One bit I did not enjoy? Ads from the Republican Governors Association, telling us Fred DuVal, Arizona’s Democratic Party nominee for governor, voted to raise college tuition by almost 100% when he served on the Arizona Board of Regents. True statement? I think so. Grossly misleading? Absolutely, for it ignores our R governor and R-controlled legislature’s failure adequately fund higher education. [Disclosure:  I’ve known Fred since high school, he’s a great guy, and he can win. You can help at www.fred2014.com.]

I’ve digressed. I expect the Export-Import Bank will be a sleeper issue this fall,

Labor Day began in 1882, in New York. It became a federal holiday, celebrated on the first Monday in September, annually, in 1894.

Labor Day

is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. (From the U.S. Department of Labor website.)

We live in difficult times—clichés are true, often—and it’s easy to forget the people who make our things, build stuff for us, get our goods to and from us, and clean up after us. Monday is their day!

Yes, we all partake of the three-day weekend. We treat

I didn’t tell people about my trepidations regarding the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge piece, mostly. Now, I’m a worrier—if you’re an attorney, you’re probably a worrier, as you get tasked with taking on OPP aka Other People’s Problems—but this subject worried me lots. Somewhere, somehow, I picked up this “negative/downer” thing, and tackling a popular Internet phenomenon left me nervous.

With one exception, I received only positive feedback. Lots of readers and several comments, many of which came via email, phone, or direct contact. (There’s a lesson here, too, albeit not the main lesson of this post. Don’t assume everyone agrees with the flow, for you may be surprised that there are many, many “go along, get alongs,” people not

In the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, someone asks you to donate $100 to the ALS Association, which works to finds treatments and a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis aka ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. Donate, or you get a bucket of cold water dumped on you, and I’m pretty sure most people write a check and get wet!

What’s up with this? Why now? Before I try to address the questions, though, let’s all agree:  ALS is a dreadful condition, and those words don’t begin to describe its awfulness. Friends of mine have died from ALS, and I cannot imagine anything worse!

Everything started with Corey Griffin, a young Bain Capital go-getter with a friend, Peter Frates (a former

Oh Lord, where do I begin? The world may be more effed up right now than it has been in my almost 57 years on G-d’s green earth. We have wars or near wars in Ukraine, Syria, Gaza/Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and places in Africa I’m ashamed to admit I can’t readily identify on a map. One in seven American families need food assistance from a food pantry or shelter. We have American companies which have discovered the “inversion” tax scam, where they merge with a foreign company to get a new domicile as a tax dodge, while they still expect to do “business as usual” here at home. (Thanks to Walgreens—my daughter’s employer—for passing on this charade!) The world

Thanks to Ms. J and others for sharing A Memoir Is Not a Status Update. Dani Shapiro wrote it for the New Yorker. It’s about memoir as a writing form, and about how Facebook may be affecting it, and it prompted several thoughts.

I wish I could write like Ms. Shapiro. Her sentences sing, they’re so well-structured and beautiful.

I do not accept the premise that Facebook limits or adversely affects writing. Economics may kill books, but if there is a eulogy for the book-writing industry, I don’t imagine FB will get a mention. (For a fine essay on the economics of the publishing industry and the battle with Amazon.com, here’s Amazon v. Hachette: What Would Orwell Think? by