… the name of The History Channel program that I just watched. The promo: Heroes who fight tax collectors and moral crusaders, or just common criminals? Like it or not, America was built by rumrunners, moonshiners, and bootleggers–even founding father John Hancock was a smuggler. In the 1920s, Prohibition turned fishermen into rumrunners and two-bit [...]
I was at the library, Ociffer
December 3, 2007 By 1 Comment
After pulling over a weaving car, the officer asks, “Have you been drinking?” The driver answers yes. Then the officer asks, “Where?” Well, look out if your establishment’s name is the next sound heard. I just read “N.J. Sharpens Liquor-law Policing,” in USA Today. It begins: The state of New Jersey has a question for [...]
Among the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100
November 29, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The "adult" in adult entertainment
November 23, 2007 By Leave a Comment
If you’re a grammar snob, or maybe you’re just terrified of sounding less-than-literate, check out The Grammarphobia Blog. Yesterday’s entry: adult entertainment. There we learn that “[t]he use of ‘adult’ as a euphemism for sexually explicit (as in ‘adult cinema’ or ‘adult entertainment’) dates from only 1958, according to the OED. The earliest published reference [...]
Which year(s) were YouPorn?
November 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment
An interesting article, Obscene Losses, by Claire Hoffman appears in this November’s online edition of Conde Nast Portfolio. It begins: DVD sales are in free fall. Audiences are flocking to pornographic knockoffs of YouTube, especially a secretive site called YouPorn. And the amateurs are taking over. What’s happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly what’s [...]
Well, we didn’t try to suppress speech …
November 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment
… even if Judge Kanne of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals says, “yes, you probably did.” This opinion is hot off the presses. In throwing out the Village of Washington Park’s alcohol-ban in adult entertainment establishments, the Court writes: Because the purpose of the ban on alcohol consumption in newly licensed establishments was to [...]
If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em
November 7, 2007 By 1 Comment
The City of Warren (a suburb of Detroit) has bought an adult bookstore: The city of Warren has been known to purchase private businesses to aid long-term development goals. But city officials broke new ground with their recent purchase of an adult bookstore. The rare move has given the city ownership of Book World, the [...]
The Mild, Mild West
October 28, 2007 By 1 Comment
From the Seventh Court of Appeals of Texas comes this case. It concerns Kenneth Smartt, who began operating a business involving nude dancers (Xoticas) outside the city limits of Laredo in 1995. In 1998, Laredo annexed the property. Four years later, Laredo amended a previously existing ordinance to require those operating sexually oriented businesses to [...]
Insight from the Inside: Dissenting Opinions
October 23, 2007 By Leave a Comment
This past Sunday (10/21) I attended the Leo & Berry Eizenstat Memorial Lecture at the Ahavath Achim Syngogue. The guest of honor? None other than The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What a superb Sunday outing. You can read about the speech here. Justice Ginsburg spoke about the importance of dissenting opinions and the role that [...]
The Party of the First Part
October 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I just finished reading The Party of the First Part, by Adam Freedman. What a super book. I wasn’t sure what to expect, given that reading about ‘words’ and their origins can be like, well, yucky. None of that here. Mr. Freedman’s writing is devilishly sharp, crisp and probing while maintaining a light feel. I [...]
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