Compulsively Aimless

As a lead up to the celebration of our America’s 250th birthday, I attended a conference on one of our lesser known but important founding documents the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Related to that, sharing some beautiful artwork that was created to mark its 150th anniversary. Have a look at these first day envelopes issued by the US Postal Service from 1937.

  Jigsaw Memory You’re in someone’s memory  but they’re not in yours  Contrarwise  --someone is in your memory,  but you’re not in theirs  like a stranger’s photo  you may live on forever in the background  without intention.                    The Reasonable Person (for the lawyer-poets) Once upon a time in the 18th century The law invented the reasonable man. He was neither a saint nor a fool  neither genius nor an imbecile neither paranoid nor careless  he was a man of ordinary prudence a man of common sense. He could be blind, disabled,  a doctor, a lawyer, a factory worker,  act in an emergency act in self-defense or in the heat of passion. He is objective, not a statistic. In modern times,  he evolved to be the reasonable person. The reasonable person would never frolic and detour assume the risk suffer a depraved heart aid and abet break and enter The reasonable pers...

  Another in my never ending series of pointless word games. This time it's repurposing legal terminology from Black's Law Dictionary (Abridged 5th Ed.) asking the question: Indy Band name or Microbrew?   Here's a few of this morning's favorites.  Strict Scrutiny Shadow Docket Corpus Delicti Ultra Vires As Is Attractive Nuisance As Is Depraved Heart Sub Rosa Null and Void Sui Generous  Act of God Force Majeure   Stop and Frisk  Surviving Spouse (if this were a band, their big hit would likely be Alienation of Affection)  A few from Schoenbaum's Admiralty Law  Salvage Charterparty Captains Protest Empty Repo Writ of Marque Perils of the Sea   And a couple to reflect the growing cyber law area. Deep Fakes Logic Bomb 

  PHRASES AND FOUND POETRY OR CENTOS A FROM BOOKS I READ IN 2026 Enjoyed a wide variety of books for 2025. Mostly non-fiction, history but also a couple books of poetry,  one kids book, a handful of great novels, two books on Johnny Carson, and toward the end of  the year, read a handful of books from Oxford University Press series, A Very Short Introduction to…  My year end list is here at Good Reads .  Sharing a few notes and minor amusements.  Tales of the Northwest , William Joseph Snelling I never killed a man who wore a hat.  Beauty, and I are strangers. The Living Great Lakes , Jerry Dennis The North Shore of Lake Superior, la marge sauvage , the wild shore.  You see glimpses of time’s broad scale. The wind roaring overhead in the rain, spattering and gusts.  The waves hitting the oldest rocks on the planet.  We could hear the crawl of the centuries out there. Native American Stories In 2025, I read a couple of books on Native Ame...