Cavy Core

Murders & acquisitions (nod to Bret Easton Elis, although I doubt he made that term up)

The only winners are the lawyers and the system itself.

A bicycle v. car case, $5K medical costs. Cyclist filed day-of on the statute of limitations. $60K claim, pain & suffering. Jury gave him $5K at 70/30 fault - eaten entirely by attorney fees. Under different terms he'd owe his lawyer. Now imagine this at every scale, endlessly, as a business model.

@hleisthen.bsky.social Here's the Jarndyce and Jarndyce explanation.

‘Of course, Esther,’ he said, ‘you don’t understand this Chancery business?’ And of course I shook my head. ‘I don’t know who does,’ he returned. ‘The Lawyers have twisted it into such a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the earth. It’s about a Will, and the trusts under a Will – or it was, once. It’s about nothing but Costs, now. We are always appearing, and disappearing, and swearing, and interrogating, and filing, and cross-filing, and arguing, and sealing, and motioning, and referring, and reporting, and revolving about the Lord Chancellor and all his satellites, and equitably waltzing ourselves off to dusty death,4 about Costs. That’s the great question. All the rest, by some extraordinary means, has melted away.’

(flashback to serving my time in law firms) 🔒

"He didn't at all see why the busy Bee should be proposed as a model to him; he supposed the Bee liked to make honey, or he wouldn't do it – nobody asked him." The full visible passage features Mr Skimpole at breakfast, discoursing on bees and their "overweening assumptions," arguing it would be insufferable if every worker went around demanding notice for their labor.

Is Dickens suggesting that rejecting the "busy Bee" ethic actually ends up like Skimpole, a parasite with fancy words and justifications? (Ch. 8) 🔒

Such an image, though, of the stomacher - "if her stays should turn out when she dies to have been a broad old-fashioned family fire-grate, nobody who knows her would have cause to be surprised."

A passage of text from Charles Dickens' Bleak House, with a sentence highlighted in teal: "Not that there is any superabundant life of imagination on the spot, for Sir Leicester is not here (and, truly, even if he were, would not do much for it in that particular)."

I only had my hard copy and was on the road yesterday evening so a day late with little snark from the narrator. 🔒

The snark rears its head throughout, never fear!

Hmmmm....

For the good of humanity. And rodentry.

I have noticed every time you leave town, something terrible happens.

I Don't Want a ChatGPT Proposal or birthday toast. I don't care about craftsmanship or poetry if the language isn't yours. I understand the longing to outsource, to optimize, to spend only a moment on generic perfection. But I want your simple phrases, your fumbling mumbles. Give me your mid sentence umms and crossed out words on cheesy greeting cards. Give me messy apologies. Give me nonsensical love songs you wrote in the shower. Please, give me the gift of your trying. Danielle Coffyn

Please, give me the gift of your trying.
📓

Haha. Truth! I've had a few.

It's a probate court case that's a right mess and has outlived supposed heirs. The fog in the beginning is very much literal and figurative. Someone else probably has a much more eloquent description. I was a late arrival to this text.

I did US probate law for a couple years. Met famous people. Nearly died of boredom. My former boss is a millionaire and I barely scrape by in nonprofit. Joke's on me!

Nobody really knows what it is about. Not really.

I did not. Now that you mention it, though, the comparison is spot-on.

Somehow, @hleisthen.bsky.social, not as exciting as MD, but I attempted to fix it for you.

The Court finds that the whale may have been both fast and loose simultaneously, depending on the metaphysical condition of the rope.

It is hereby ruled that the matter is therefore referred to a special master - in perpetuity.

Costs to be drawn from the estate.

Remaining estate value: £0

The estate of Jarndyce brought suit claiming the whale was a Fast-Fish, having once been attached by harpoon. The defendants argued that the whale had become a Loose-Fish, having escaped into fog and the general uncertainty of maritime life.

He weaponizes naivete. I am yelling at the book when they pay his debts.

Go home, Noem!

I am going to listen to that! Good accompaniment for some of the lighter and more mundane tasks of the day.

Was HCA known for being irresponsible like Skimpole? Or did he always rely on the kindness of strangers?

Gush of light, indeed. Hmpf.

Page 82 of a hard copy of Bleak House he had wrapped up with great care, the night being sharp and frosty, we trembled from head to foot. When we turned out of the town, round a corner, and Richard told us that the post-boy, wh had for a long time sympathised with our heightened expectation was looking back and nodding, we both stood up in the carriage (Richard holding Ada, lest she should be jolted down), and gazed round upon the open country and the starlight night, for our desti nation. There was a light sparkling on the top of a hill before us and the driver, pointing to it with his whip and crying, 'That's Bleak House!' put his horses into a canter, and took us forward at such a rate, up-hill though it was, that the wheels sent the road- drift' flying about our heads like spray from a water-mill. Presently we lost the light, presently saw it, presently lost it, presently saw it, and turned into an avenue of trees, and cantered up towards where it was beaming brightly. It was in a window of what seemed to be an old-fashioned house, with three peaks in the roof in front, and a circular sweep leading to the porch. A bell was rung as we drew up, and amidst the sound of its deep voice in the still air, and the distant barking of some dogs, and a gush of light from the opened door, and the smoking and steaming of the heated horses, and the quickened beating of our own hearts, we alighted in no inconsiderable confusion. 'Ada, my love, Esther, my dear, you are welcome. I rejoice to see you! Rick, if I had a hand to spare at present, I would give it you!'

False advertising! Where is my House of Usher, as promised?

🔒

You should open a story or a poem this way!

Time to put on "outdoors clothes."

TFW the helis are back and their transponders are off.
#abolishice