In The Air, Everywhere

The airlines simply do not get the credit they deserve for furnishing passengers, at no extra charge, with the unfailing entertainment that is the Skymall Catalog. Some current favorites:

Pop Dog

Who's got a pin?

Hourly Rate Smackup

Today's Los Angeles Times story about lawyer Bertram Fields ("His Cause: Bringing Down the Mouse") profiles an advocate who has made suing Disney in high-stakes cases—like the Winnie the Pooh merchandising dispute—something of a specialty: "'I would not represent Disney,' he said flatly. 'I don't want to be in a situation where I can't sue them.'"

Bert's $850 hourly rate as described in the article makes me wonder if he won't be hearing soon from Becky Klemt MacMillan of Laramie, Wyoming's Pence and MacMillan. Back in 1988, Becky is said to have penned a masterpiece of correspondence in response to SoCal lawyer Stephen G. Corris, who, so it goes, thusly declined Becky's invitation to help enforce a judgment: "Without sounding pretentious, my current retainer for cases is a flat $100,000, with an additional charge of $1,000 per hour. Since I specialize in international trade and geopolitical relations between the Middle East and Europe, my clientele is very unique and limited, and I am afraid I am unable to accept other work at this time." If you missed Becky's comeback when it first made the rounds in the days before email, go read it now. It'll make your day (possibly your week).

Some endnotes:

• The Legal Assistants Division of the State Bar of Texas says it contacted both parties to confirm the legitimacy of this exchange when it reprinted the letters in Issue #18 of the Texas Paralegal Journal. If you read to the end, there is a wrap-up discussing the flood of correspondence both lawyers received in the aftermath. Not surprisingly, Becky's tended toward marriage proposals and business referrals, while others tried to emulate Becky and join up with Steve (who admittedly exaggerated his rate).


• It's a mystery to me why Pence and MacMillan doesn't feature this on its Web site.


• Steve is an active member of the State Bar of California and a former navy pilot who appears to still practice here in beautiful Orange County. His focus seems to have shifted toward criminal defense, as well as civil litigation "of most types, from personal injury to defense from those who want you [sic] house, your money and your cat."


• It is entirely possible that among my firm's roughly 1,000 lawyers there are courtroom or deal jockeys who bill their time in this same stratospheric range. I don't think I've met them, but if/when I do, I'll probably suggest a sabbatical to Laramie.

"The First Thing We Do..."

Ask Slashdot: Working Hints for a New Telecommunter? (Posts one commenter: "I've tried this before, and the only way to get it to work is to start off by killing every single member of your family.")

McYoga

I've been following the Bikram yoga IP dispute Donna spotted Thursday ("Hot, sweaty and scandalous," Salon) for awhile, since the studio being sued is the one five minutes from my home where I've practiced for some seven years. (More: "Yoga's Bad Boy," the Yoga Journal; "Yogis Behaving Badly," Business 2.0.) The case has some fascinating issues—the worst kind for litigants, of course. Bikram wants to create a Starbuckian experience of consistency and quality. But while Starbucks might be able to halt unauthorized sales of "Frappuccino," does this mean it can dictate and profit from all sales of blended coffee, syrup and ice? Things are further complicated by the ancient and spiritual nature of the yoga asanas. As for me? I'm off to stretch and sweat.

Chilling

John Parres now has posted Kevin Sites' audio account of his capture at Kevin's blog.

[Update] Who knows why (CNN?), but the post with the audio link apparently got pulled. (Chilling indeed.)

[Update] Although not visible on the main page, at this writing the archive link still works. [via Dave Winer]