It’s a cute story, but you might not like it if you’re a litigant

What's a 103-year-old man smell like? Depends!

NYT: 103-year-old judge hopes to leave courtroom “feet first”. I never had occasion to appear before this Mid-Western judge but I did spend a month trying a case before another ancient federal judge, in his late nineties, up in Waterbury, Connecticut. Just before trial I called a friend, a former U.S. Attorney, and asked about the judge. “Oh, he died years ago,” my friend assured me. “He may be dead” said I, “but he’s hearing my case”.

And so he did. The old doddering fool slept through the entire trial, only occasionally interrupting the proceedings by firing blistering clouds of noisy flatulence, and after (sort of) hearing our side of the case, listened to perhaps five minutes of the defendant’s presentation before interrupting the attorney and asking, “who the hell are you?” After a month of trial, after both sides had filed post-trial briefs, the judge recused himself because he couldn’t understand the case.

So, in my opinion, life-time appointments for federal judges aren’t necessarily a great idea.

Dodged this one

Storm, possible tornado slams NYC. 30 miles away, yet who knew?

Fireman injured in Cos Cob

He’s okay, but it’s a reminder of the risks our paid and volunteer firefighters (and police ) willingly expose themselves to. Thank you all.

Finally, I can agree with our President

Obama: race between Blumenthal and McMahon a “no brainer”.

UPDATE: Can’t the President of the United States hire a speech writer who can keep his or her metaphors straight?

Obama said Republicans are trying to exploit the fear and anger among many Americans to win in November, but said they are responsible for losing four million jobs before he took office and “driving the economy into a ditch.”

“As soon as we took office we put on our boots, we climbed down into the ditch — it was muddy down there, it was dusty, bugs — and we’re pushing on the car, trying to get it out, slipping and sliding,” Obama said to laughs. “And the whole time the Republicans are standing there, sipping on a Slurpee, just watching us, saying `you’re not pushing hard enough. You’re not pushing the right way.'”

You can have mud, you can have dust: you can’t have both.

Kids caught in swastika incident

Four fifteen-year-olds. I’m with First Selectman Tesei on this one, who describes it as an act of “blatant stupidity”. Having been guilty of that same condition at fifteen, I’m sympathetic, within reason. I’m glad the police found the kids because no resident should have to fear that there are enemies out there, but I hope education, rather than strict punishment, is applied. I (dimly) remember being 15, and I know that my brain wasn’t fully functioning at that age.

Black Helicopters!

5:45 PM – military helicopters overhead here in Riverside – Obama must be coming! Welcome to town, Sir. And please go home to Chicago soon. Michelle hates it down there in Washington.

Idiot sellers

The WSJ reports that the owners of a Rhinebeck, NY estate (where Chelsea Clinton was just married) fired their real estate agent, listed it themselves and raised the price to $13.5 million even though it wouldn’t sell at $12. For some perverse reason that strategy failed so now it’s going to be auctioned: minimum bid, $7.5 million.