Where's the beach?

Student: This is a tough one.

Prof: You haven’t seen tough yet. This is like, Cleveland, and the Rockies lie ahead.

The Sierra Club = Ents?

Prof: Family members tend to show up [to court] and look saintly—“Yeah, I love my grandmother more than the Red Sox. I even went to visit her once—it was great!” Institutional beneficiaries can’t “show up” so well. Like the Sierra Club—what are they going to do, come in with a bunch of trees?

So that's why it's so hot in here.

Prof (who is also a priest): None of these [technical] problems will happen when we get the new [law school] building. Until then we have to suffer... From a Catholic perspective, this is taking time off purgatory, so it's not without merit.

Tight Spaces

From my coworker who grew up in the back country of Kentucky:

"...there won't enough room in there to cuss a cat without gettin' hair in yer mouth."

Aren't we optimistic today.

Prof: This [completed contract method] will still be around in fifteen years or so when you're out of public accounting, unless we've screwed up the economy so bad that we're run by the Soviets or something.

Of course we haven't.

Prof: Has anyone done [this part of the homework problem]? I didn't think so. Good, let's skip it.

He can say this because he's tenured.

Tax prof: I'm scared, I really am, that the Democrats will get back in. ... As it is now, there are only a handful of people left who have even the foggiest notion, and then there will be nobody. ... It used to be that they would just drink ... but now with all these high-powered drugs, who knows what they'll do.

That would probably be cheaper, too.

Prof: Some [real estate agents] are really good, and some of them, you may as well get your local beauty shop operator or bartender to help you out.

Extra-textual commentary that makes class worth it

Prof: [After explaining that the will in question was in North Carolina] This will leaves a tract of land to [woman], who apparently was wronged. Notice that it is witnessed by her two brothers, who, under the Second Amendment, are armed and dangerous.

Quantifiably speaking

Prof: It’s almost always more profitable to be the lawyer for the executor than the lawyer for the will. Because money money money money is better than money.

Three cheers for the free market!

Class: [Animated discussion re: Tyco, and whether there is such a thing as "excessive" CEO compensation--arguments touched on the distinction between bad business decisions and "excessive" compensation and on the idea that, presumably, CEOs are paid at whatever rate the market sets]
Prof: [Asks whether we think the punishment of the former Tyco execs was appropriate]
Student: [Says that he thinks the punishment was a bit excessive]
Prof: How do you know that's excessive?
Student: The market didn't set that penalty!

How did he keep his job?

Prof: I had several people that I supervised [in a previous career] that I really questioned whether my boss was sober when he hired them. And since he died of alcoholism ... in the office, I might add....

Guess we'd better pray harder.

Student 1: So what do you do in that [complicated accounting] situation?
Prof: I have no idea. You pray you never see it.
Student 2: There's a homework problem [with that situation].
Prof: Really? ... I assigned that?

Say what?

Direct quotation from toilet paper packaging: Soft Sheets That Last & Last!

I'm wondering exactly how long one needs those "soft sheets" of TP to last.... are we talking rinsing and reusing here?

Would that be protected as free speech?

Prof (walking to dry-erase board to try to draw what he told us afterwards was supposed to be the Nike "swoosh"): I try this every year, and sometimes it comes out obscene, so that's not what I mean.

How not to conduct your espionage activities

Prof (re: Ames v. Commissioner): Every time he met with the Soviet diplomat, he made a large cash deposit to his bank account. So the CIA put two and two together....

Statutory Interpretation of the Day

We’re slogging through another provision of the Uniform Probate Code today, and I wanted to share some of the joy. My favorite section so far: UPC 2-603(b)(4)

If the will creates an alternative devise with respect to a devise for which a substitute gift is created by paragraph (1) or (2), the substitute gift is superseded by the alternative devise only if an expressly designated devisee of the alternative devise is entitled to take under the will.

If your response to that is not “eh?” You are a much smarter person than I am. I diagrammed the sentence and have concluded that it doesn’t mean anything.

However you like to party...

Prof: I had to fast for 12 hours, with for a hypoglycemic is very much like being drunk. Well, without the buzz. And the hangover. But there other ways to get the hangover, one of which is Penn State.

[This was the Monday morning after Notre Dame football was humiliated by Penn State.]

I zoned out and missed the rest of the story....

Prof (re: checking of an audit client's inventory by incompetent auditors): And we never figured out what the property was like 'cause they kept taking pictures of the wing of the plane. But that's kind of a major digression....

Shameless plea for help

Help a grad student! Take my short and simple online survey. Do it today! Tell all your friends.

Thank you, and have a good day.

(Becca--I just fixed the link for you. ~mbr)
Thanks, Mel! You're great. I think it was the weird quotation marks from Word that Blogger can't handle.)
UPDATE: The survey is fixed too. We got our SurveyMonkey guy to do his magic.

Awwww!

Addicted to lolcats? Check out Cute Overload (now on the right).

Putting it bluntly

Guest speaker: [An incentive] doesn't have to be financial. You can incentivize people by appealing to their egos. You can be a bank and give 'em a title.

Guest speaker: Dunkin' Donuts is gonna blow the doors off everybody. ... Krispy Kreme's coffee? BLEAH! It's yucky, right?

Guest speaker: Apple is the best brand extension company in the universe. [Lists examples: iPod, iPod Nano, iPod with video, etc.] ... These guys [Krispy Kreme]? Hot donut! Eighty years later? Hot donut!

Guest speaker: There are so many people out there willing to pay incredible multiples for junk. And you've got junk. So ... put the lipstick on the pig.

Can I go home now?

Student: [asks a question that complicates the discussion]
Prof: Well, we’re in purgatory. Let’s descend into hell.

Is it too late to drop?

Prof, re: review session: I’ll do problems on the board, and you can check them off for the exam—“Good, he can’t do that one; it won’t be on the test.” But “he” is a sick person, so you never know.

unless they're video games

Prof: There are some people who don’t attach emotional value to specific objects in wills—they’re called males.

...in which case we don't care.

[back story: Lapse is when the beneficiary of a will dies before the testator does, and the will didn’t say what to do if that happens.]
Prof: There is never a lapse problem that isn’t the result of bad drafting. Or nuclear war.

Only more expensive

Prof: Now we’ll complicate this a little bit. It’s like when the dentist says this will hurt just a little bit.

When examples go bad

Student: [points out something about a case he’s being grilled on]

Prof: Oh… Yeah… That ruins my theory. Um. I’m going to have a theory about that on Friday. It’ll be good, but you’ll all know that it’s a rationalization… Well for now let’s ignore that, because that makes me look bad.

Romans 12:19?

Prof: At one school where I used to teach, the students would continually talk while you were trying to teach. ... But there was an angel up there, and one of the students got in an auto accident and had to have his jaw wired shut. He didn't say another word the rest of the semester. That was the right thing for God to do.

Step 1: Admit you have a problem.

Prof: Where are my happy Phillies fans? ... Where are my unhappy Mets fans?
Student (apparently from NY): You really had to start off class like that?
Prof: Think of it as a support group. ... Did you have a feeling you wanted to share?

But you would travel all the time anyway.

Prof: [Tells class approximately how much a senior manager in a public accounting firm earns annually]
Student: Is that what they make? Cool.
Prof: Well, it would be more if you lived in Manhattan, but you wouldn't be able to keep any of it. You could live in a loft with eight other people.

Hope you weren't counting on that for your retirement.

Prof: I use (my Social Security) to finance my daughter's education. ... I don't know how anyone could live off it. My daughter lives off it. Of course, I've been paying in since the dawn of time.

Let me guess your political affiliation....

Prof (re: Obama's plan to impose FICA tax on all earned income rather than just the first $95k): Yeah, you're gonna have five trillion dollars! And the rest of us are gonna be walking around in our underwear because that's all we can afford to buy! Mr. Obama may have gone to Harvard, but he apparently walked in the wrong gate or something.

(Disclaimer: I'm not familiar at all with Obama's plan--all I know of it comes from our 2-minute discussion in class today. I apologize if this post misrepresents it or him at all.)

And we most likely forgot to read it.

Prof (beginning class on a recent Monday morning): To be honest, I can't remember exactly what I assigned last Friday.

Do we get to try them out?

I don't think this is a mis-translation. I'm pretty sure I have heard of "restroom tours" here in Korea where they take you on a tour of different toilets.

Well, when you put it like that...

A note from my Federal Income Tax case book, regarding the case of a company that tried to deduct payments to a Christian Science minister who served as a "consultant" to the company founder/chairman of the board:

The court notes that Rev. Halverstadt did not provide specific answers to business questions. In fact, Christian Science ministers are not supposed to give direct advice....
Have you ever been in a situation in which you paid substantial sums to discuss things with someone who asked many questions and rarely provided answers? How much tuition are you paying now? Mr. Amend didn't get concrete answers; neither do you. How dumb was he? How dumb are you?

But the light is so pretty...

Prof: [in the middle of expounding on the advantages of different inventory methods] …and we’re all watching this fly that’s buzzing around.

Student: [mesmerized] It’s really big.

Fun with idioms

Prof: That was a red herring… The idea of a red fish being dragged along a trail always grosses me out.

Primary sources

Prof: Let’s just assume that the life expectancy for a woman in the United States is 78 years and 10 months… because that’s what Parade said last week. Why ever go beyond Parade, I mean, really?

A long and rich tradition

Prof: One of the best professors I ever had couldn’t do arithmetic on a blackboard. In front of a hundred angry eyes he would just choke. I have carried on his legacy faithfully.

In case you had any illusions

Prof: I’m going to give you two different answers for this. One of them is going to be useful on an exam. The other one is going to be useful in real life. It is always important to keep those two things separate.

Trusts & Estates Lite

My mind was wondering in Trusts & Estates this morning and when it came back, the prof was saying:

Prof: Or they spend money on that skinny half-crap whatever it is they sell… Friends don’t let friends buy Starbucks.

Apparently I didn't miss too much?

Any other lessons?

[Class discussion of lessons that can be learned from "The Parable of the Sadhu"]

Student 1: Don't go hiking.
Student 2: Especially not naked.

Ah, tenure.

Student: Why is the speaker today mandatory?
Prof: [laughs]
Student: We put him on the spot.
Prof: [chuckles] I'm very rarely on the spot, because the university can do so little about me ... unless I run around naked or something. ... They're really better off just leaving me alone.

Partisan ancestors

Prof, explaining a table of consanguinity and the parantella system of inheritance: Everyone to the left beats everyone to the right. Remember that during elections.

We can't just let the auditors catch it?

[Class discussion on the proper accounting treatment of a hypothetical transaction. Someone suggests a not-quite-ethical solution.]
Student (criticizing the suggestion): But that's why we have auditors.
Prof: And ethics, and long-term vision....

Is long-windedness the only qualification?

Student (role-playing a CEO): Not to belabor the point--
Prof: You'd make a good CEO.

Glad you're retaining that knowledge.

Student: We just talked about this in another class, actually.
Prof: I hope the answer is the same.
Student: I don't remember.

Would you care to elaborate?

Prof (after we'd reviewed the fact that PBO stands for Projected Benefit Obligation): Does anyone remember what the PBO is?
Student: Isn't it, like, a projection?

(In defense of that student, s/he did elaborate on that point.)

How do you really feel about Puerto Rico?

Prof (re: tax complications): [U.S.] possessions are ... sort of like having a little bug in your house. ... Not a nice bug, like a cricket, but a semi-obnoxious bug.

Is that so?

Scene: High School Speech classroom. The students are playing Taboo. The word is "broom".

Samuel: Friend of mop.

Distant relation

Student: Couldn’t you just credit equipment or fixtures instead of expenses?

Prof: Is your name Worldcom?

Things to repeat on the Bar Exam

Prof: The will was drafted in Nebraska, which, as some of you are aware, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas.

Prof: And if that sounds like Greek to you, it would sound very different in Greek.

Prof: Marla dies with a $400,000 estate… Good for her. It’s always nice when people die with wealth.

Tastes Like Chicken?

Teacher: [Another teacher] thinks you boys are so cute!

Girl: What does she think about us?

Teacher: She thinks the girls are sweet.

Boy: What!?!?! Did she taste?

Or, Why Lawyer-types Shouldn't Hang Out

Another truism brought to you by xkcd.

Back to School!

Professor: The law school exam is inexplicable on pedagogical grounds, and on grounds of human decency.

Professor: This semester is compressed, like an accordion. I’ll tell you why someday, but only after several beers.

Professor: Your exam is on 10/10, so you all know that it’s on a Wednesday. 10/10 is of course not a Wednesday every year, because that would be stupid.

Professor, re: Midterm exam: These questions will have real answers, not like essays.

Free to a good home

Me: But she just got a new kitten. Who's going to keep her kitten when she moves?
Supervising attorney: I would, but my freezer is full.

but was she credible?

Intern describing opposing witness: She was ghastly.

I now fly Delta.

Northwest agent who will remain anonymous: Next time you want to get somewhere, try a different airline.

Too much information

Me, to pilot standing in a line to be rerouted: I don’t know if I can rent a car; I’m not old enough.

Pilot, taking a step back to look me up and down: I wish I wasn’t old enough to rent a car.

Not the first time this has happened

Joanna, calling hotel to send a shuttle to pick us up after I got stranded in Minneapolis due to a cancelled flight: We have an airline voucher.

Hotel clerk: You flew Northwest, didn’t you?

Patriotism at its finest

[Overheard at Mt. Rushmore as a large Air Force helicopter buzzed overhead]

Tourist to man in Air Force uniform: Is that your helicopter?

Air Force man: Well, sir, that helicopter belongs to the taxpayers, so technically it’s your helicopter.

I think I'll take the train

The plane in Spain gives passengers a pain...

Lookin' on the sunny side of life

A reflection on summer travels

From Domestic Abuse

But Jurisprudence IS a real course... isn't it?

Jurisprudence prof: I don't know why all of you are here today. You must have a real course right after this.

And it smells bad.

1L: My knowledge of contracts is like Swiss cheese--holes everywhere!

2L: Don't worry. My knowledge of Business Association is more like a thin scattering of cheese curds.

I'll get on that right away.

Student: You can actually look at Franklin Roosevelt's tax return, if that interests any of you.

Being the class clown--unintentionally.

Student 1: At least you'll be able to look back on these days and remember that you made people laugh.
Student 2 (who had recently given a wrong answer in class): Yeah, but for the wrong reasons, though.

NOT environmentally friendly

In context of warrantless searches of vehicles:

Prof: You can only look in containers that could conceal what you're actually looking for. So you can't look inside matchboxes if the probable cause is for smuggling baby harper seals.... unless... no, that's gross.

Accountant humor! (Part 4)

Guest speaker 1 (re: trying to keep a client from doing something while you try to figure out why exactly they shouldn't): You just have to kind of delay and confuse the client for a few days.
Guest speaker 2: That's kind of the approach the SEC took. You could delay them either with a fog of uncertainty or a fog of fear.

Accountant humor! (Part 3) (Or, But what if your mother is an accountant?)

Guest speaker: You can judge the complexity of an accounting concept by whether you can explain it to your mother.

Accountant humor! (Part 2)

Guest speaker (re: the movie "The Smartest Guys in the Room"): You have an idea when movies start being made about accounting concepts that those concepts aren't too well-received by the public.

Accountant humor! (Part 1)

Guest speaker (before launching into a story): I've found that a good rule of thumb is that accounting stories are only entertaining to other accountants, and even then rarely so.

In case you were wondering.

From IRS Publication 547: Loss of property due to damage by a family pet is not deductible as a casualty loss unless the requirements discussed earlier under Casualty are met. Example: Your antique oriental rug was damaged by your new puppy before it was housebroken. Because the damage was not unexpected and unusual, the loss is not deductible as a casualty loss.

[Rats. There goes my tax evasion scheme!]

Forgot about that

Student 1: Flogging Molly is playing at Legends tomorrow night.

Student 2: Hm! I should go. ...only... I don't like them.

re: Presto at the end of Jupiter

[very energetic Asian] conductor: You see, composer do something very hard for orchestra here. Tempo get faster, and notes get more. It would be easier if notes get less when tempo get faster, but I did not get to talk to Holst about that. So we have to do best we can.

I'm not making this up.

This is the jurisprudence outline we were given in class today as a course overview. Some would argue that it's pretty representative of the course, actually. The random date in the lower third on the right is a copyright notice. I think.

So it's not just me!

Prof: Have you ever tried to have a discussion with a non-law person? Have you noticed how messed up their brains are? Haven’t you ever started looking for the judge so you can make an objection on the grounds of irrelevance? But if you bring it up, you just lost a friend… or a significant other.

duh...

Prof: I hope you can read this outline. I don’t type, and my handwriting is poor.

Student: I can’t. Why couldn’t your secretary type it up?

Prof: She can’t read it.

So do we.

Prof: On Monday I will give you an illegible outline of the court. I hope it is helpful to you.

He wasn't kidding.

Prof: Now that you have completed your [teacher evaluations], I can reveal my true self.

Class: *laughs*

Prof: shhhh!! *vicious look*

So is this like a marriage?

Group member 1: You guys complete me.

And the presentation is tomorrow....

Group member 2: I found [this document] that says--
Group member 3: The research needs to be done [by now].
Group member 2: That was my research.

Why I go home from group meetings with heartburn.

Group member 1: You're coming up with all these points that don't make any sense!
Group member 2: That's because my brain works in a weird way, and I get all these great ideas in my head and can't communicate them.

Why I can't study at home well

source: xkcd

Tax Avoidance 101

Group presentation question (re: Sugar Ray Robinson tax case): Does this change your plans for using tax avoidance schemes in the future?
Student 1: Yeah. I don't want to get caught.
Student 2: Well, it seems like they'll give you most of it if you argue a little bit.

Do you think you're that boring?

A group in my class is giving a presentation using PowerPoint. The slide on the screen at the moment reads:

Transition Slide
Listen to the speaker while they are talking

What kitties say

That's about right. Puck does this at random almost on a daily basis.

Why I stopped reading law books

Prof: If you read [a particular philosopher's] work, you'll get depressed. If you're already depressed, don't--your pills won't offset it

Ducking with style

Student: [question about the impact of birthrates on global legal convergence]

Prof: You know, [student], when you have an answer to that question, a lot of people want to know.

I want some ancient rites!

Student, re a European Human Rights Court case condemning adverse possession: I don’t think the English were arguing that they had adverse possession in their bones and the European continent was taking it away from them…

Prof [fake accent]: The ancient rite of the British farmer of taking other people’s land!

Are you sure communism doesn't work?

Guest speaker: I remember I walked into a store once and there was vinegar and salt. It was a liquor store.

Sure, I can relate.

Guest speaker (on the aftermath of the fall of communism in eastern Europe): It's pretty much like North Korea for a moment [i.e., for a while], if you can relate to that.

¿Usted habla inglés?

Prof: Are you fluent in Russian?
Polish guest speaker: Yes.
Prof: And other languages?
Speaker: I speak some English.

Well, from a pragmatic viewpoint...

Student (in a discussion the effects of switching to a consumption tax--specifically, effects on the elderly): They won't complain very long. ... It's better to [tick] off a seventy-year-old than to [tick] off a twenty-year-old.

Heh.

From my Tax Policy book again: The fifth of these tasks [assigned to Hercules] was one of the most daunting of all--to clean, in one day, 30 years of accumulated manure left by thousands of cattle in the stables of Augeas. (The analogy to the tax system is, we fear, obvious.)

But I wouldn't bet on it.

From my Tax Policy book (Taxing Ourselves: A Citizen's Guide to the Debate over Taxes): [T]he AMT will likely end up becoming a contentious political football. ... Still, at some point there must be a limit to how much unnecessary complexity politicians are willing to impose on the middle class for the sake of scoring political points.

But I really wanted to!

Oh the signs the signs...

Thanks for the reassurance.

Prof (after shooting down a student's answer to a question): Now everybody's scared. Don't be scared; I'm harmless. I'm really a nice person.