Prof. Kerr @ Volokh Conspiracy slings some perspective by noting that Dean Kagan of HLS fame (soon to be Sol. Gen. Kagan) tripped up during her 1L Fall Finals …
Something for 1Ls to Keep in Mind: Via Tony Mauro, we learn something that might interest the law students in the VC readership: The first-year law school grades of Harvard Law School Dean (and SG nominee) Elena Kagan. First-year students who are assuming that their 1L grades will determine everything might be interested to know that in her first semester at Harvard, Kagan earned a B in criminal law and a B- in torts. She then recovered in the spring, earning mostly straight A’s with one A-, and she went on to clerk for the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court; to become a tenured professor at Chicago and Harvard; and then to become Harvard’s very popular Dean and now likely will be the Justice Department’s top Supreme Court lawyer. So much for first-semester grades as destiny.
VC comments point out that it’s damn hard to pull out of that tailspin unless you’re at Harvard (which we’re not) but a friend provides some alternative wisdom with:
The main thing is that I don’t think there is a correlation between lifetime success and happiness and law school grades. But that’s always hard to say without sounding patronizing. Will someone be happy in three years with their life? That’s the true test. Success comes from hard work at the job and the ability to balance career and personal life.
And everyone realizes there’s a correlation between bags of money and law school grades. But the critical missing element is balance. I find it interesting that I do well in school, yet have very little work-life balance (“yeah, sorry I didn’t call you back”). Marginally speaking, if you sleep less, study more and work harder, then you get a half-grade bump (e.g. B to B+, also not to be confused with terrorist fist-jab).
So I get satisfaction from doing well, and I’m thrilled with my future career prospects, but learning to balance important things like friends, family and life more generally is something the legal community needs to work on, myself included. I know people say they’ll work hard to pay off their debt, then do something they “really love” — but by then you’re in your early-to-mid-thirties. My New Years Resolution is to prioritize: study hard and then go do something else.
And now on to something completely different – “Save a red, eat a gray!” also known as “Oi, why are you taking my picture!” — From this story via NY Times:
Though squirrel has appeared occasionally in British cookery, history doesn’t deem it a dining favorite. Even during World War II and the period of austerity that followed, the Ministry of Food valiantly promoted the joys of squirrel soup and pie. British carnivores replied, “No, thank you.”
These days, however, in farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in.
“Part of the interest is curiosity and novelty,” said Barry Shaw of Shaw Meats, who sells squirrel meat at the Wirral Farmers Market near Liverpool. “It’s a great conversation starter for dinner parties.”
While some have difficulty with the cuteness versus deliciousness ratio — that adorable little face, those itty-bitty claws — many feel that eating squirrel is a way to do something good for the environment while enjoying a unique gastronomical experience.
With literally millions of squirrels rampaging throughout England, Scotland and Wales at any given time, squirrels need to be controlled by culls. This means that hunters, gamekeepers, trappers and the Forestry Commission (the British equivalent of forest rangers) provide a regular supply of the meat to British butchers, restaurants, pâté and pasty makers and so forth.
The situation is more than simply a matter of having too many squirrels. In fact, there is a war raging in Squirreltown: invading interlopers (gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century or more) are crowding out a British icon, the indigenous red squirrel immortalized by Beatrix Potter and cherished by generations since. The grays take over the reds’ habitat, eat voraciously and harbor a virus named squirrel parapox (harmless to humans) that does not harm grays but can devastate reds. (Reports indicate, though, that the reds are developing resistance.)
“When the grays show up, it puts the reds out of business,” said Rufus Carter, managing director of the Patchwork Traditional Food Company, a company based in Wales that plans to offer squirrel and hazelnut pâté on its British Web site, patchwork-pate.co.uk.
Enter the “Save Our Squirrels” campaign begun in 2006 to rescue Britain’s red squirrels by piquing the nation’s appetite for their marauding North American cousins. With a rallying motto of “Save a red, eat a gray!” the campaign created a market for culled squirrel meat.
The easy joke here involves bombing finals and then eating squirrels out of necessity, “a question we do not now consider.”
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