The Cheese Stands Alone isn’t really a restaurant, it’s a cheese shop in Chicago (Lincoln Square). I just discovered this little gem, and thought I would give it a plug because it has several really great things going for it, all of which I support.
First, it’s owned by husband and wife Matt and Sarah Parker. They share a love of cheese and a love for each other, and I just think that’s cool. I’d love to do something like this with my wife… maybe we’ll open our own practice someday!
Second, it’s a locally owned small-business, which in the day of economies of scale and megamart wholesale shopping is exactly the kind of entrepreneurial spirit I like to support with my dollars.
Third, and most importantly, it’s a cheese shop!
It’s located in Lincoln Square on Western Avenue. They don’t seem to have a web site (?!) but I guess that’s because they spend their time finding great cheese. I spend too long in the shop this afternoon sampling cheeses and walked away with a pretty extensive array for tasting this week (reviews of individual cheeses to follow). Sarah was working today, and she was friendly, offered samples of cheeses I was interested in, and was knowledgeable about their stock–and cheeses they didn’t have.
A great local Chicago find and well worth a visit. If you’re a cheese fan in Chicago, you owe it to yourself to stop in.
The Cheese Stands Alone
Baby Ruth!
As luck would have it, Kristyna and I were headed to Lafayette this weekend to pay a visit to my mom and my sister anyway… so when my sister, Mary, gave birth on Monday night, it was really great timing for us!
So on Saturday, we got to meet the precious, five day old, Ruth Elizabeth:
Isn’t she adorable? At five days, she’s mostly just eating and sleeping… ah, what a life. But she’s the cutest little thing, I can’t wait until she’s a little older and more active. Congrats Mary and Steve!!
Uncle Dave!
As of last night, I am officially Uncle Dave, proud Uncle to Ruth Elizabeth, who clocks in at a hefty 8lbs. 12oz! I won’t get a chance to meet her until this weekend, but she and her mother (my sister) are doing fine.
There will be pictures. Oh, yes, there will.
Blawg Review #23
Welcome to Blawg Review #23, hosted by yours truly, Dave! here at Preaching to the Perverted.
As the Editor ‘n’ Chef noted in his gracious introduction, I am a part-time law student in Chicago, who also has a full-time job, also in Chicago. As luck would have it, I’ve been traveling a lot for work this summer so this edition of Blawg Review is brought to you from merry old England, London to be specific, where the internet connectivity is great–but they could use more ice in their Diet Cokes.
This edition of the Blawg Review is an eclectic mix, owing mostly to my own varied interests. Katrina is still very much in the news, so it seems fitting that we still have a number of related posts. Also, I’m keenly (see? the Queen’s English is rubbing off) interested in China as well as Intellectual Property Law, so you’ll see a lot of that reflected in the links.
Finally, I owe a big debt of gratitude to Political Calculations, and the Carnival of the Capitalists for the idea of using dynamic, sortable tables for this week’s edition. (Just click on any header to re-sort the table by that header.)
As a further innovation (which is definitely facilitated by the format) if there’s a post you think was really essential last week (between 9/5-9/10) send it to me directly. I’m going to update the Blawg Review over the course of the week with new suggestions (from those dates only, please) and corrections. So keep coming back and inflate my hit count!
Now, for your reading pleasure I present:
| Blawg Review #23 | September 12, 2005 |
| Post | Description | Contributor | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katrina Update | Monica Bay, from The Common Scold gives us a Katrina update, including a link to the efforts of “legal tech troops” to help out colleagues who have been affected by the storm. | The Common Scold | Katrina |
| Taking Away Their Guns in New Orleans | Prof. Orin Kerr sets the ball rolling over at VC regarding the confiscation of guns in New Orleans. He notes, “I have a feeling that this story is going to get a lot of attention at the VC one way or another, so I figure I may as well be the first to raise it,” well, that is probably an understatement. Many follow up posts and comments to, uh, kill time with. | The Volokh Conspiracy | Katrina |
| Blogging from New Orleans | It’s hard to imagine blogging from New Orleans, but many did manage, including Ernie the Attorney. Blogpulse catches up with Ernie through e-mail and a friend’s cell phone to bring you this interview. | Blog Pulse | Katrina |
| White Washing the Black Storm | I knew the Katrina race issue had gone mainstream when I heard Wolf Blitzer describe the evacuees from the Superdome as being, “So Poor… So Black.” Now we have White Washing the Black Storm, “Two Houston Law Professors’ First Hand Blog Accounts of the Real Treatment of Black Americans in Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath” | White Washing the Black Storm | Katrina |
| FEMA’s Brown Padded Resume: Hardly a Lawyer, Either | The Daily Kos brings you the low-down on dissecting Brownie’s resume. In light of his recent demotion, this seemed appropriate. Especially since Brownie’s a lawyer. | Daily Kos | Katrina |
| Price Gouging | Iain Murry claims, “Price gouging is one of the great myths of our time. Because it doesn’t exist, one should be wary of the motives of anyone who claims it does.” Prof. Dave Hoffman offers a counter-point. | Prawfsblawg | Katrina |
| Is Price Gouging Efficient? | Following on the heels of Prof. Hoffman, Prof. Christine Hurt from Conglomerate chimes in. for some reason, everyone decided to comment on Hoffman’s original post here instead of at Profsblawg which means 1) read the comments here, and 2) people obviously aren’t rational, they’re lazy. | Conglomerate | Katrina |
| Not the Usual Solemn Proceeding | Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports that the funeral of the Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, was not the usual solemn proceeding. | SCOTUS Blog | Judicial |
| St. John Roberts? | Judge John Roberts might be praying for his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. David Giacalone notes that there is a St. John Roberts to whom the practicing Catholic nominee could be praying for intercession. Depending on how the judicial confirmation hearings go this week, St. John Roberts could emerge as the patron saint of judicial nominees or the patron saint of martyrs drawn and quartered. | f/k/a…. | Judicial |
| Robert’s Views on Splitting the Ninth Circuit | Howard Bashman asks, “Who will ask Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts, Jr. for his views on splitting the Ninth Circuit?” I’ll volunteer, if they’d let me. I have a few other questions, all in good taste, I assure you. | How Appealing | Judicial |
| Law Profs Opposed to John Roberts: Show, Don’t Tell | “The weakness of the letter, as I see it, is that it fails the basic lesson of writing: show, don’t tell.” I think Prof. Yin has now become a hero to legal writing students everywhere. I need to check the list of professor’s signing that letter to see if I had/will have any of them. | The Yin Blog | Judicial |
| Higher Education: Good News and Bad News | Prof. Bainbridge puts on airs about higher education in America. Of course, he laments his own school ranking lower than UC Berkeley and UCSD, noting that UCLA needs to pull up their socks. See? The students at Berkeley don’t wear socks with their Birkenstocks. Maybe that’s the problem at UCLA. | Professor Bainbridge | Education |
| Where Are The Conservative Law Professors? | Over-represented in legal blogs?Yes, where are the conservative law professors, I think we’d all like to know. But in actuality, this article wonders why the 160 professors who ignore their own legal writing advice are primarily liberal and calls on conservative law professors to ignore their own legal writing advice, too, and offer their own “patently polemic” letter. | Objective Justice | Education |
| Do You Need a PhD to Do Competent and Cutting Edge Legal Interdisciplinary Work? | I certainly hope not. Otherwise, I’m screwed. | Prawfsblawg | Education |
| Schiess’s Plain Legal Writing | I’m always looking for ways to improve my writing–whether or not you can tell from Preaching to the Perverted. So this is a site I just discovered dedicated to legal writing by Prof. Wayne Schiess. It’s nice to see a blog from a professor at the University of Texas. Really. | Schiess’s Plain Legal Writing | Education |
| Got All My Thangs, In My Momma’s Name, but I’m Hood-Rich | “I hope my intellectual elitism remains finely tuned enough to weed out the vapid educated individuals from the intelligent hard-working individuals.” Me, too. | Woman of the Law | Education |
| Preparing For Class | Dennis Tonsing asks and answers the question, “When you were in law school, did you use abbreviations when taking notes?” Notes? I’m supposed to be taking notes?! | Academic Support | Education |
| Asking Some Tough Questions About Legal Education | Dennis Kennedy points to some good posts, including this gem from Diane Murley on Out of the Jungle. As I plunge further into debt and exhaustion (working full-time, law school in the evening) I have a lot of thoughts about the efficiency of legal education. I’m glad to see other’s thinking about this, too. | Between Lawyers | Education |
| China Joins IP Standards Group | Although I’m blogging from England this week, I’m very interested in China. Especially IP law in China. | Pierce Law IP News Blogs | IP |
| Robert�s Record on IP Issues | With Robert’s slim judicial record, groups like the EFF are wondering, what are Robert’s views on IP issues? I’m wondering, too. | Pierce Law IP News Blogs | IP |
| Guide to Cyber ID Theft and Financial Fraud | beSpacific has this link to an excellent resource about on-line ID theft and fraud. Not just for lawyers, this is stuff everyone should be concerned about. | Be Spacific | IP |
| The Latest IP Crime: “Box-Wrap” Patent Infringement | This is an interesting case in the IP world. Lexmark wins a case allowing them to enforce their “single-use” license term, which prevents consumers from putting new ink into the old Lexmark cartridges when they run dry. There are some interesting comments. | Copyfight | IP |
| False Advertising in China | Colin Samuels contemplates the legal recourse possibilities for Chinese restaurant patrons who thought they were served illegal tiger meat but were actually consuming donkey meat marinated in tiger urine. | Infamy or Praise | China |
| Criticism of Yahoo’s Role in Prosecution of Journalist Shi Tao | This case presents some interesting issues about international law. Especially with the rise of China and increase activity by American companies there. | Chinese Law Prof Blog | China |
| China, Inc. | Prof. Gordon Smith chimes in with some thoughts about China and the role of the Chinese government in private companies. | Conglomerate | China |
| New Paper on Shareholder Activism | Prof. Bainbridge announces that his new paper, “Shareholder Activism and Institutional Investors” is available on SSRN. It promises to be a pretty interesting paper, given the rise of the shareholder in recent years. He also takes a look at the institutional shareholder and their role (or lack thereof) in policing corporate governance. | Professor Bainbridge | Corporate Law |
| Labor Day Special:Labor Law Stories | George Lenard offers a book review of Labor Law Stories as a tribute to Labor Day. | George’s Employment Blawg | Labor Law |
| Does Punishment Work? | Ken Lammers, a Virginia criminal defense lawyer, shares his opinion on whether and when punishment works. | Crimlaw | Criminal Law |
| First Survivor Richard Hatch Indicted on Ten Counts | What happens when a person reneges on a plea deal? The government fires back with both barrels, so to speak. Is Hatch still a Survivor? Burned once, don’t look for the government to offer any sweet deals this time. | White Collar Crime Prof Blog | Criminal Law |
| Batson Redux: Can We Ever Eliminate Racially Motivated Peremptory Strikes? | The Jurygeek, Clay Conrad, takes a look back at Batson, in which Justice Thurgood Marshall argued that the only way to eliminate racist peremptory strikes was to eliminate peremptory strikes. | Jurygeek | Practice |
| An Astute Kansas Jury | After rendering a not guilty verdict, a juror asks the prosecutor, “I just wanted to know if you were a jerk all the time, or if it was just in the Courtroom?” | Jurygeek | Practice |
| Breakdown of Civility Among Lawyers | Robert Ambrogi is, “appalled that members of the legal profession would call for unbridled, vigilante street justice,” in response to looting during Katrina. He links to some prominent legal blogger’s thoughts on the subject, whose views may (or may not) surprise you. | Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites | Practice |
| LexThink BlawgThink | LexThink BlawgThink is coming to my home town, Chicago! I had to miss the last one (being in school and working and all) but this one I’m not missing. If you’re reading this, you should go, because you can meet me there. And isn’t that reason enough? | Dennis Kennedy | Practice |
| No Duty To Disclose Racist Beliefs | Professor Volokh is skeptical of a lawsuit by the Missouri Attorney General against a Katrina fundraiser sued for violating state fund-raising law and for “omitting the material fact that the ultimate company behind the defendants’ Web sites supports white supremacy.” | The Volokh Conspiracy | Practice |
| On Surviving the Lion’s Den | Evan Schaeffer has returned from the American Enterprise Institute, where he spoke about the Vioxx verdict. His speech was titled, “In Defense of the Jury System, Post-Ernst.” As testament to Evan’s oratory skills, he survived. | Legal Underground | Practice |
| Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner Drops Some Subtle Hints | Katrina is causing a lot of causation challenges for insurance adjusters who are now beginning to deal with claims. Most homeowners policies cover losses caused by wind or caused by water that gets into the home because of wind (such as rain after the roof has flown off), but they don’t cover losses caused by surface waters and flooding. | Declarations and Exclusions | Practice |
| “We’re So Good We’ll Be Fine,” And Other Fairy Tales | Leadership and law practice. Two words that probably don’t go together as often as they should. Bruce MacEwen offers some thoughts about the differences between management and leadership. | Adam Smith, Esq. | Practice |
| Mediation Mensch | The Mediation Mensch isn’t a lawyer, but with the meteoric rise of mediation in the past 10 years, maybe more lawyers should be mediators. | Mediation Mensch | Practice |
| Safeguarding Client Information | Katrina has got many firms re-thinking their disaster recovery plans. The folks at Freedman Consulting offers some starting points for your firm to start re-evaluating how you protect client information from disaster. | Law Practice Management | Practice |
| Is Space Law Like Sex? | You can take the professor out of space law and blast him into an impossibly alluring orbit of fame and fortune in the blogosphere and beyond, but you can’t take the space law out of Professor Reynolds. | Space Law Probe | Practice |
| For more information or past issues, please visit BlawgReview.com |
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the format and I hope you return to Preaching to the Perverted to check out some of my other ramblings.
Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.
Brick Lane Festival
Today was the only day off work for this trip and as luck would have it, it was festival day. It was the Brick Lane Festival 2005/Banglatown International Curry Festival 2005. I love Indian food, so I decided this was a good way to spend my day!
I headed over to the festival around 1pm. It was pretty cold and overcast, and I was really hoping not to get rained on. The tube was closed all over for engineering work, so it was a pain to get to the right area, but I managed. On the way, I discovered the Old Spitalfields Market, which apparently used to a produce wholesale market, which has been moved, to the aptly named New Spitalfields Market. Supposedly they are called that because of the “Hospital Fields” that used to be there. I think it’s because all day long, the rain felt like spittle.
They still have a market at the old site on Sunday. For the most part it was a flea market type place, with some cute things here and there, amidst a lot of junk. I walked around the market for a bit, but didn’t stay long. I had some curry to eat.
I made my way down to Brick Lane and was not disappointed. Brick Lane was packed with people, eating various Indian food, Baladeshi food, you name it at various stalls up and down the street. There were also musical venues, with different bands playing, and yes, another market! This was the Sunday (Up) Market which is held at the Old Truman Brewery. There were more shops and vendors selling everything under the sun, and the area on the street near the market seems to attract a ton of street vendors selling even more crap. I took a look around the market and checked out a few bands–nothing special.
Although, at one venue there were these old guys dressed like Elvis dancing and entertaining the crowed. I couldn’t tell if they were promoting something or what, but they were funny.
Back to the food. There were Aloo, Pakoda, Samosa, Chutneys, Kebabs, Tandoori dishes, Parantha, Roti, Naan, Biryani, and too many different types of curry to possibly list/remember/try. The two most interesting things I had all day were a kebab wrapped in roti with some sauce that was really wonderful. A Bangladeshi gentleman next to me recommended it, saying the place was good, and they didn’t usually serve it that way. The other interesting thing were a sampling of Bangladeshi desserts.
There are differences between Indian and Bangladeshi food, although for a typical westerner like me, it’s often difficult to be sure which is which. This is even more difficult in an outdoor street vendor environment, where you are constantly being jostled by the crowd, so you can’t really have a long conversation about this dish or that. Still the desserts were really good. They were sweet, but not overly sweet–I really wish I knew better what they were. I’ll just say the next time you go out for Indian or Bangladeshi, don’t skip on the dessert!
All in all, it was a good day. I went home tired, but very well fed. There are photos up on my flickr gallery.
Cheese!
I finished up at work a little early today, so I decided to go for cheese… after all, I’m in England, I need to take advantage of eating cheeses here that I can’t get easily (or at all) at home. So here you go, six English cheeses for your reading pleasure–and my eating pleasure.
Keen’s Cheddar
This is a raw milk cheddar, made by Moorehays Farm in Somerset. I thought it was fairly typical for English Cheddar, pretty much like I remember having when I was a kid. This wasn’t quite as sharp as I like, I think it could have aged a little more. However, it’s still a very snackable, nice traditional English Cheddar.
Isle of Mull Cheddar
Yumness. This is my kind of cheddar. Slightly softer than the Keen’s and definitely with a more pronounced flavor. It’s a Scottish cheese, from the Hebrides. It’s got a nice sharp edge when you first bite into it that mellows out into a nice, slightly salty tartness. Definitely a winning cheddar.
Godminster Organic Vintage Cheddar
This cheese is organic because it’s made from the Godminster Farm’s organic cows in Somerset. It’s a very mild, soft cheddar, definitely softer than either the Keen’s or Isle of Mull. The flavor is nice and the cheese melts in your mouth, it reminds me slightly of a Havarti, both in texture and flavor–but not the Godminster isn’t quite as tangy as Havarti.
Caws Cenarth Perl Las Blue Cheese
I decided to take a break from the cheddars, and picked up some of this Welsh blue cheese. This is a pretty mild, but quite salty blue cheese. I liked it a lot, and think it’s great for straight eating–usually I prefer blue cheeses in other foods or sauces, to help take some of the edge of that tang. But this has just enough tang, balanced with a nice, creamy texture to make it good eatin’ straight.
Swaledale Ewes Cheese
This is the first second ewe cheese I’ve ever had (I didn’t realize Roquefort was ewe’s milk!) and I have to say I like it. Okay, I can’t remember a cheese I didn’t like, but that’s beside the point. It’s a very mild cheese, not too hard–firm, but still slightly crumbly. The description I read said that the favor “pastoral” but I don’t get that. I think it does have a fuller body than a cows milk cheese, and definitely a different flavor that I can’t quite put my finger on. I will say this, if you have the opportunity to try an ewe’s milk cheese, do it. I think ewe will like it. (Sorry. I couldn’t resist.)
Loose Potted Cheddar
I saved the best for last. I found the best cheddar I’ve ever had. It’s amazing. It’s made from unpasteurized cow’s milk, and it was sold from a large crock, full of chunks of the cheese. It’s not spreadable or anything, but it’s still pretty soft for a cheddar. Imagine firmer than a buffalo mozzarella, but not by a whole lot. The result is this amazing creamy consistency that just melts in your mouth with flavorful cheese goodness. It’s mild, but it has this incredible cheddar flavor with a level of intensity that lingers oh, so nicely. It’s an amazing cheese and hands down the best cheddar I’ve ever had. The guy at the cheese shop looked at me when I picked it and said, “This is a really good one. My favorite.” Damn, was he right. If anyone knows where to get potted cheddar in the States, please let me know.
Oh yes!!
Yes! Yes! Yes! This so rocks… Sunday is the Brick Lane Festival! You can be assured I will be there, pigging out. Yes!!
Safety Paint
I’m back in London, to finish up the project I was working on in July and August. I’m pretty jet lagged at the moment. I take the red-eye, thinking I’ll get some sleep, yet I’m always sitting next to the Kid-Who-Wont-Stop-Squirming.
Anyway, in the cab to the hotel, there was an ad for LTI, the company that makes the “World Famous London Black Cabs” which was essentially an ad about how safe your taxi is. The title says “You’re in Safe Hands.” It has a picture of the taxi with cutaway view to the features, like “Ultra-Strong Steel Chassis” and “Crash Tested to M1 Standards.”
But my favorite is “11-Stage Paint Process”. Yes, I feel safer already.
You know you are cracking…
…when you dream about Civil Procedure.
I had a dream that I had died and I was being judged to determine if I would go to Heaven or Hell. It turns out, it’s all about personal jurisdiction and choice of law.
In my dream, when you die, you go to a Court of the After Life, where each side files these special motions to try to wrestle jurisdiction over your soul. It all hinges on minimal contacts–of sorts–and “fair play and substantial justice”. A balancing test, really.
If you have more good contacts with people, Heaven gets jurisdiction and can apply their law, which is relatively forgiving. If you have more bad contacts with people, you’re in Hell’s court, where the law is a little more strict constructionist.
Well, I lucked out and ended up in Heaven’s Court (hey, it was my dream) and then went on to be Solicitor General for God.
*insert maniacal laughter here*
Olbermann Swings
I’m not normally a fan of Keith Olbermann, but in his latest commentary, he has some real gems, like:
[M]ost chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection –or at least amelioration– against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
And should you need further evidence that our leader is, well, isn’t a leader, compare just about anything he’s ever said to this quote from Winston Churchill:
The responsibility of government for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.
There’s also a full transcript of Olbermann’s commentary at MSNBC.
[Via Boing Boing]