How to Find a Lawyer Overseas

Need a lawyer overseas? How do you find one? It really depends on the country and the type of case. For BigLaw, see if a national firm has a presence in a foreign country. For criminal cases, use the NACDL directory. The Big 4 are repeating history and practicing law again–remember Anderson Legal? A foreign connection does not a foreign case make. If trial venue is in the US, a need to take evidence abroad does not convert your case into a foreign one.

Continue reading →


The Santos Protocol

A New Way to Find a Job Today’s job hunt should start with careful invention following the example of Congressman George Santos (R.NY) and the preparation of a resumé that need not align with fact. In this post-truth, Santos Protocol, Inventing Anna world, a fact is whatever you claim it to be. Disagreement can be shrugged off as opinion and fact-checkers mere haters. A good legend avoids mentioning licenses that might be verified.

Continue reading →


The Santos Protocol

A New Way to Find a Job Today’s job hunt should start with careful invention following the example of Congressman George Santos (R.NY) and the preparation of a resumé that need not carefully align with facts. In this post-truth, Santos Protocol, Inventing Anna world, a fact is whatever you claim it to be. Disagreement can be shrugged off as opinion and fact-checkers mere haters. A good legend avoids mentioning licenses that might be verified.

Continue reading →


How an Apostrophe Almost Landed Me in Jail

John Delorean I feel for those whose surnames include a ‘de, di, la’, an ‘al-’, ‘el’, ‘ben’ or ‘ibn.’ Or ‘von’. And of course, anyone who has the misfortune to have an apostrophe in their name. I feel for you. John DeLorean (not De Lorean, which would put him in this select group) was on trial in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan during a time when I had several cases in the same building.

Continue reading →


You asked, We quacked


But Britney’s a Special Case

Britney Griner was benefited in more ways than one by the extraordinary prisoner exchange with Russia. Russia and the US do not have a prisoner transfer treaty. The US does have such a treaty with 11 countries and is a signatory to two multilateral international conventions1. The terms of these treaties are all the same: upon transfer, a prisoner is not automatically freed. Instead, the prisoner is to serve the remainder of his sentence in the prisons of the receiving country.

Continue reading →


Horizontal Space in Ulysses

If you need blank horizontal space in Ulysses, try using a UTF-8 space character. Ulysses does not strip blank space where that blank space is a UTF-8 character, like U+2004 (three em space). While this symbol cannot be generated in Ulysses–like s̵t̵r̵i̵k̵e̵t̵h̵r̵o̵u̵g̵h̵ for example–if generated in an external program and copied to Ulysses, it will both be displayed in Ulysses and upon export.

Continue reading →


Eastern Brown Snake

I had a conversation about these critters last week. They are found, fortunately enough, in Queensland, Australia but not in Thailand. Their venom is neurotoxic and extremely dangerous. They commonly grow to a meter and a half in length. If you come across one, run. Snakebites are one of the leading causes of death in Myanmar, where I once briefly worked as a lawyer before being fired by a jealous, Spanish HR person who was upset because I wouldn’t ask the Spanish ambassador to renew her passport.

Continue reading →


The Duke of Sodom and a Time Travel Mystery Solved

I came across a reference, in a new biography of Colette, to the “Duke of Sodom,” a French dandy, contemporary of Oscar Wilde, named Robert de Montesquiou. I thought I’d look him up, for after all, anyone who has earned the sobriquet “Duke of Sodom” must be a memorable character. I was surprised to find on his (English language) Wikipedia page a reference to time travel and one of the great mysteries that has intrigued me for so many of these years and in a small way, was the seed for my El pueblo (The Settlement, serialized here) though to be fair, it was the juxtaposition of contemporary and 15th century architecture in San Miguel de Allende that suggested the possibility that there might be a place out of time.

Continue reading →


Paul Pelosi Update

While the arresting officers’ body cams have not been released, at least one journalist has seen the footage. The recording shows that Paul Pelosi indeed opened the door to the officers, did not say that he was in danger, and then retreated back into the house away from the officers and towards his assailant. It is not clear how long Pelosi stood near DePape before the assault started. The federal indictment states that it was the officers who opened the door, not Pelosi.

Continue reading →