Happy New Year to everyone. I am still smoking a turkey to our traditional Bowl of The Wife of Kit Carson Soup at the Turley house. All of the kids made it to midnight last night, which was also my 16th (or 24th if you count 8 years of dating) anniversary. We eloped in Alexandria, Virginia on New Year’s Eve in 1997.
Since we were in Chicago for the Bears-Packers game, we are not having our huge party this year but just a smaller affair. Nevertheless, I am ramping up our Wasabi bloody Mary’s this morning.
It has been another great year on the blog, particularly in our selection for the ABA Journal’s Hall of Fame. Thanks to all of our regulars and particularly our our talented and popular weekend team of guest bloggers: Mike Appleton, David Drumm, Mark Esposito, Gene Howington, Elaine Magliaro, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Mike Spindell, and Charlton Stanley. We are closing in on 20 million views and we remained in the top ten most visited legal blogs in the world. I can now give some figures on our last year.
In 2013, there were 1,643 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 12,097 posts.
In addition to the United States, our two leading contributing countries were Canada and Great Britain.
Our busiest day of the year was July 13th with 77,641 views. The most popular post that day was Wounded Soldier Writes Letter About Pain And Being Forced To Commit War Crimes In Iraq . . . Then Commits Suicide.
The five most visits stories last years were:
1 95-Year-Old Man In Nursing Home Resists Going To Hospital . . . Police Arrive And Shoot and Kill Him With Stun Gun And Bean Bag Rounds 295 COMMENTS September 2013
2 Wounded Soldier Writes Letter About Pain And Being Forced To Commit War Crimes In Iraq . . . Then Commits Suicide 90 COMMENTS July 2013
3 10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free 702 COMMENTS January 2012
4 An Inconvenient Truth: Members of Congress Go Silent Over Prior False Testimony On Surveillance 164 COMMENTS June 2013
5 Missouri Legislator Introduces Bill To Teach Creationism As A Scientific Theory And To Teach Evolution As A Philosophy 78 COMMENTS February 2013
Our five most active blog regulars were:
5 most active commenters:
1 nick spinelli 4615 COMMENTS
2 Dredd 3520 COMMENTS
3 University Graduate 3377 COMMENTS
4 Bron 2819 COMMENTS
5 Gene H. 2759 COMMENTS
Thanks again everyone for making this site and 2013 such a great success!
Best wishes for the New Year!
Jonathan Turley
Congrats OS and take care of that back!
Elaine,
Good luck with the snow. We are supposed to get very cold here over the weekend.
Hope the new year is auspicious for everyone. I spent the day moving my office. Getting a new office and hopefully will make a great new start. As of today, I officially left the corporation I helped start years ago, and am doing my own thing, at my own speed, on my own timetable. In the immortal words of the old gospel spiritual which Dr. King made famous:
http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/free_at_last_from.htm
However, my back is protesting big time from moving boxes of books. Consider buying stock in ibuprofen; it is bound to go up at the rate I have been using it.
Annie & rafflaw,
We’re due to get about a foot of snow over the next two days.
Frank, Great stories and I like the dialect! The Mark Twain of Italian tales.
annie,
we have about 8 to 10 inches here in Northern Illinois. With more to come! Happy New Year.
nick spinelli:
In honor of our host (Jonathan is half Italian/half Irish) and Italian posters here and everywhere, here are:
THREE SHORT ITALIAN STORIES:
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THE ITALIAN ELBOW
An Italian grandmother is giving directions to her grown grandson who is coming to visit with his wife.
“You comma to de front door of the apartmenta. I am inna apartmenta 301. There issa bigga panel at the front door. With you elbow, pusha button 301. I will buzza you in. Come inside, the elevator is on the right. Get in, and with you elbow , pusha 3. When you get out, I’mma on the left. With you elbow , hit my doorbell.”
“Grandma, that sounds easy, but, why am I hitting all these buttons with my elbow?
“What . .. . .. .. You coming empty handed?”
=========================================================
Wise Italian Grandfather
Why Italian Fathers and Grandfathers pass their handguns down through the family.
An old Italian man is dying. He calls his grandson to his bedside, Guido, I wan’ you lissina me. I wan’ you to take-a my chrome plated .38 revolver so you will always remember me.”
“But grandpa, I really don’t like guns. How about you leave me your Rolex watch instead?”
“You lissina me, boy. Somma day you gonna be runna da business, you gonna have a beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big-a home and maybe a couple of bambinos. ”
“Somma day you gonna come-a home and maybe finda you wife inna bed with another man. “Whatta you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, “times up’?
=========================================================
Only an Italian mother can get away with this!
Mrs. Benevenucci comes to visit her son Anthony for dinner…..who lives with a female roommate Maria.
During the course of the meal, his mother couldn’t help but notice how pretty Anthony’s roommate was.
She had long been suspicious of a relationship between the two, and this had only made her more curious.
Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Anthony and his roommate than met the eye.
Reading his mom’s thoughts, Anthony volunteered, “I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Maria and I are just roommates”.
About a week later, Maria came to Anthony saying, “Ever since your mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the silver sugar bowl…. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?”
Well, I doubt it, but I’ll email her, just to be sure”. So he sat down and wrote:
Dear Mama,
I’m not saying that you “did” take the sugar bowl from my house; I’m not saying that you “did not” take it. But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.
Love, Anthony
Several days later, Anthony received a response email from his Mama which read:
Dear son,
I’m not saying that you “do” sleep with Maria, and I’m not saying that you “do not” sleep with her. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have found the sugar bowl by now!
Love, Mama
Moral: Never lie to your Mama….especially if she’s Italian.
Frank, I’m obviously Italian also, but I consider Pitino and Calipari as 2 paisans that after you shake their hand, you count your fingers and check for your wallet. I love your city!
As a former player, and later a basketball coach, I always admired and respected Coach Wooden. I moved to Kentucky, and this really is a college basketball state. I graduated from U of L Law School, so my loyalties are with the Cardinals. But since you have an Italian name, like mine, you can cheer for either Italian Head Coach Pitino or Calipari.
Thanks, Frank. I praised Wooden here sometime back and a guy pounced on me. Upon further inquiry he told me he was a USC alum. A person like yourself from Louisville knows about rivalries. Louisville or UK?
Thank you for the great quotes, Frank. There’s no better day than New Year’s for inspiration to help us face the road ahead.
The planets have aligned, specifically for Mr. and Mrs. Turley’s Anniversary
Jonathan wrote previously “This is my wedding anniversary. Sixteen years ago, Leslie and I eloped on New Year’s Eve after eight years years of dating. (There is an ongoing dispute over calculating the event, I insist that this is our 24th anniversary but Leslie insists on not counting the eight years of dating). “
I found a solution in this disagreement: 16 Earth Years equals 24 Venusian Days. Now the Spouses Turley can agree, in harmony, on the numbers.
Mrs. Turley is from Earth
Jonathan is from Venus.
Happy Anniversary !
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/
Thanks,nick spinelli. Here are some more words of wisdom from Coach John Wooden. His site is: http://www.coachwooden.com/
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
John Wooden
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_wooden.html#GdqxjWR1f1YRilW7.99
Frank, You need to visit more often, great comment. I love John Wooden, as much a philosopher as a teacher/coach. Some players didn’t like him or his discipline when they played for him. But, ala Vince Lomabrdi, as those players went out into the real world they learned those two men were teaching them about life and how to succeed. The best teachers/coaches[same profession] are tough, demanding, loving, and righteous.
Happy New Year, Professor. May you and yours (including the fine JT posters) be guided by good fortune throughout the year.
Happy New Year! Equally snowy and might I add cold, here in Wisconsin. Bread in the oven, soup on the stove and wooly slippers makes it tolerable. However, visions of aqua water, blue skies, golden sun and Hawaiian music….
Oh, and we have a foot of fresh powder. Too bad as a blind skier I have to book in advance.
Happy 2014! I’d really like to hop on the bus and buy me a blunt, or better yet, some sort of herb-infused muffin or cookie or doughnut or something in honor of the occasion, but the city council won’t actually approve the two pot shops in Steamboat till next Tuesday. What’s a hungover guy to do?
Must have been a heavy duty celebration Counselor, it’s 2014.
Happy New Year! Thanks for the great articles and posts. A little food for thought as we enter the new year:
From Mother Teresa:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.
From Charles Swindoll:
“The longer I love, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church….a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
From Coach John Wooden:
John Wooden was given the following “Two Sets of Three” from his father.
1. Never lie.
2. Never cheat.
3. Never steal.
1. Don’t whine.
2. Don’t complain.
3. Don’t make excuses.
From D.J. Pollay:
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.
Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so…Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!
Have a blessed, garbage-free day.
– D.J. Pollay
Happy New Year from snowy Illinois!