North Maple Rag

I had a fun moment today while editing a memo. The bulk of it focused on procedural due process, one of a handful of legal topics about which I think I know a little (as do all of my section-mates). As I went through the footnotes on Goldberg, Matthews, Mullane, and the like, I revelled in the feeling of familiarity. I've been wandering through a legal doctrine I only had passing familiarity with (from undergraduate classes) for the past two weeks and it was great to read something and instantly understand the arguments.

Shortly before completing that task, I'd been given my first writing assignment. It's a project I'm more than a little nervous about it. This assignment will be part of the first draft of the article my boss and I are writing and I'm pretty confident that I'm not qualifed to be writing legal scholarship. Alas, that doesn't change the fact that it's due next week. Wish me brilliance.

And, as you're doing that, email me book recommendations. I'm currently reading Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones. It's unrelated to the Bill Murray movie and, so far, it's very good. The main character is an American interpreter living in China and the author seems to enjoy showing the contrast between the speech patterns of English and Chinese (Mandarin, mostly, I think). It's also a little bit of a mystery and, I suspect, a romance. I'm only about 100 pages into it, but I think I can safely say it's worth your time.