Staring at Strangers

Go Forth?

You have got to have some sympathy for the younger generation these days. The economy is in the tank, the media regularly blasts out stories that assert that the environment is going haywire, governors are making embarrassing speeches about affairs with women half their age, and every week a new Ponzi scheme is being uncovered.

We had it pretty good in the 60's and 70's.  All you needed was love.  America was a country where anything was possible, whether it was going to the moon or becoming the next millionaire. 

So where can you look today for some bit of optimism?

Enter Levi Strauss & Company with a new ad campaign that plays on the aspirations of the young.  Their Go Forth campaign is a sad attempt to revive the spirit and optimism of the younger generation.  The campaign's web site is littered with photos of young, attractive, and often half-naked people with silly sayings scrolled across their photographs, such as "All I need is all I got."  That will get me up in the morning - not!  Perhaps it will work on the victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. With their life savings gone, they can attempt to console themselves that everything is really okay. 

Or view some of the homemade videos uploaded by people declaring their "new declaration of independence" here.  One young women asserts, while toying with her hair, "My new declaration of independence is that (pause and small smile) . . . everything is sacred."  Behind her you can see the big letters "Waffle House" on the side of a building, which compliments her message perfectly.

I think America can do better than that.

Technorati Tags: Levi Strauss, advertising, jeans, Ponzi, Bernard Madoff, declaration of independence, America

How the Japs See Us

Credit goes to Laura Martinez at Mi Blog es tu Blog for turning us on to this Japanese commercial for Mexican food.

Embedding has been disabled, but you can watch the commercial here.

All right, so I spent the morning checking out the new Liverpool at Plaza Las Americas, snacked on artisanal Italian ice cream, and didn’t see any Mexicans marching to the beat of Don Taco.

Technorati Tags: Don Taco, Mexican food

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him

That's the headline for the CNN article here about the spike in Internet traffic as a result of Michael Jackson's death.  I'd say that it should rank as one of the better headlines for 2009.

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson, death, CNN, headline, Internet, traffic

Send Lawyers, Guns and Money

Everybody wants one, but few are those who actually have one. The Estadounidense media would have you believing that every second Mexican has, or is in the market for, an assault weapon. You know, the garden variety AK-47s that are flooding the borders southward, a dozen or more in exchange for every northbound illegal immigrant, one of those balance of trade deals. And then there are those foreigners who seem to think that it’s illegal to possess a gun in Mexico. Dead wrong, of course, they are.

There is a way to buy a legal gun in Mexico.

 

Technorati Tags: guns, mexico, weapons

Non-Paying Clients and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

My co-blogger wrote here the other day about the different classifications of toxic clients, as described by Adrian M. Baron in his blog, The Nutmeg Lawyer.  This reminded me of my Being Solo column in the Oct/Nov 2007 edition of GPSolo Magazine which describes the different stages of slow paying clients.

Here they are - read the rest of the column here to discover ways of dealing with this problem.

The Five Stages of Paying a Lawyer’s Bill

In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote the ground-breaking book On Death and Dying. Kübler-Ross theorized that there are five stages of death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It has been my experience that the slow-paying client goes through similar stages when faced with a legal bill, as follows:

Denial. “This couldn’t be my bill. The charges are way too high. You couldn’t possibly have done that much work for my little matter (a $500 million real estate development project).”

Anger. At this stage you’ve already explained the bill to your client (on your time, of course), so there’s nothing left for your client to do but get angry at the situation. “Lawyers are too expensive! What a setup! They’ve got a scam going and there’s nothing anyone can do about it!”

Bargaining. I don’t think I have to explain this one. “Okay, okay, so couldn’t you take a little bit off? Come on, you’re making a lot of money here, what’s a few thousand dollars less?”

Depression. You don’t hear from your client. For weeks. Finally, you work up the courage to call your client. “What do you want?” he asks, as though you were the enemy.

Acceptance. You’ll know that you’ve reached this stage when there is a check on your desk (and it clears once you’ve deposited it into your bank account).

Technorati Tags: lawyers, attorneys, clients, paying, bills

Complaining Clients and the Common Cold

The Nutmeg Lawyer Denny Crane takes on the taxonomy of clients, more comprehensive than the ten most likely to get a lawyer into hot water:

1. The serial client. You’re not the client’s first lawyer or even the third, but you’re seduced in the belief that you’re somehow special, possessed of magic powers unknown by your predecessors.

2. Last minute Charlie. His summons arrived a month ago, but he’s waited until the last day to call a lawyer, knowing that lawyers really love rush jobs. After sifting through discovery materials amassed in giant trash bags (because this client knows how much lawyers enjoy a good mystery), prepare yourself for the suspense of wondering whether this client will show up for trial.

3. The irresponsible and noncompliant client. Appointments are often cancelled and seldom kept, court orders are suggestions, and directions are wishful thinking. It’s just as likely that this client won’t burden you with irrelevancies such as the whole story or your bank account with unnecessary deposits.

4. Blanche du Bois. Always dependent upon the kindness of strangers, this client will expect you to make all decisions, clinging to you with all the ardor of kudzu. Indecisive waffling is far easier on this fragile soul, trapped in desperate, desperate circumstances, who’ll toughen into a Steel Magnolia when it’s time to blame you.

5. The professional victim. Abusers as well as the abused fall into this category, whose lawyer soon joins the ranks of betrayer.

6. The bitter, hostile and greedy. No win will ever be sufficient, no Balm in Gilead, nor salvo will appease or succor the wounds of these scorched earthlings.

7. The disbeliever or negotiator. Evading the real issues, fudging on the issues and hedging on the truth, this client sidesteps reality. Simple indisputable facts such as "the sun rises in the east" become subject to debate as this client blurs and distorts anything to shape his own view of the world.

8. The Principled Crusader. Cause-oriented, maintaining "it’s the principle, not the money," this client harbors unreasonable expectations that no White Knight or hired gun can ever adequately fulfill.

9. The Expert Pollster. Lawyers are a vestigial organ, a mere formality, to these self-proclaimed experts who have legions of highly skilled, much-respected counsel consisting of the neighborhood yenta, Uncle Cedric, and the Internet aiding and abetting malpractice.

10. That hinkey feeling. You just know there’s something wrong, but you can’t identify it. Listen to your gut – and to your staff

Technorati Tags: malpractice, clients, lawyers

Snorting Jell-O

Popcorn lung is the new black lung. The next time you pop open a bag of butter-flavored Orville Redenbacher, you might consider the plight of the poor factory worker who’s now hacking away with half a lung just so that you’d have something to munch during the HBO special. Popcorn lung is insidious enough to attack ardent popcorn consumers as well. Oh, so they’ve gone and reformulated microwave popcorn while I was away? Well, that shouldn’t stop you from feeling guilty and scared, just the same.

Just around the corner lurks another danger. You’d think Jell-O, the state dessert of Utah and the entire Mexican Republic, wouldn’t hurt a soul. Think again. Snorting Jell-O could be dangerous to your health. Or not.

Technorati Tags: Jello, gelatina, popcorn lung

Grand Central Terminal NYC

Here's a simple film which gives you a real flavor of the street life in and around Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.  My office is nearby, so I have walked the streets and corridors filmed here many times .

The music is a piece by Max Roach.

P.S. If the film loads slowly, click on the start button, wait a few seconds until it starts to load, then click on the pause button, and wait until it is fully loaded before clicking on the play button again to view the film.

Technorati Tags: Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan, Mike Kobal

When the Tortilla God Speaks

 

L.A. Eastside via Daniel Hernandez and Intersections.

Technorati Tags: tortilla, masa, Mexican food

Supporting Roles

You thought Frank Constanza was joking about the manssiere. He wasn’t. Leave it to Nebraska native Julie Carmann, better known as Midwesterner in Mexico to ferret out important news you can use. That is, if you’re a man who could use some support. Or care enough about one who does to buy him one.

Technorati Tags: bro, manssiere, bra, WishRoom