Consider this sentence: In order to make a determination regarding whether negotiations should be entered into at this point in time, an evaluation of benefits and detriments was made. If your brain turned off after the fourth or fifth word, it’s not because you’re not a lawyer. Or, if you are a lawyer, it’s not because you’re not a smart lawyer. It’s because it’s a terrible sentence. Try this one instead:To decide whet...
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Author: admin
Being Thankful for our Political Process (yes, seriously)
It seemed like the negative campaign ads went on forever this election season. First the primary ads, then the general election. I don't watch a lot of TV, and I watch even less in real time. But in October and early November, every time I did turn on the television for a quick news update or to flip to the DVD setting, a barrage of foreboding images, jarring music, and criticism of the opposing candidate (whoever that might be) blared at me. Add some of the things people post slamming others' o...
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Who Built That – Women, Pride, and Success
This Post Also Appears at FEM2.0 http://www.fem2pt0.com/2012/08/25/who-built-that-women-pride-and-success/I was raised with the idea that pride is a sin – one of the seven deadly sins, in fact. Even children whose families weren’t religious probably heard the adage that pride goeth before a fall. And most of us were taught that bragging is impolite. How deeply I’d internalized the warnings against pride didn’t become clear to me, though, until I started practicing an exercise in Anthony Robbins’...
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I Will Be Out of the Office: Post-Surgery Thoughts on Downtime
Tomorrow I return to work after nearly 7 weeks off following surgery. (See Goodbye Ovaries.) During that time, I worked very little. I hadn’t expected that. Despite my doctor’s warnings before surgery that I must take at least 4 weeks off and preferably 6, and despite that my surgery expanded to 6 hours instead of the expected 2, I thought I would or should bounce right back. I figured on 3 weeks of downtime, but with e-mail checking and perhaps a little work even t...
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Goodbye Ovaries: Thoughts on Choices Other Than Children
After years of pain, I will say good-by to my ovaries and uterus in a few days. It’s major surgery, and had a doctor suggested it six months ago, I would have had heart palpitations. Now I’m ready. Especially after that Friday where I thought the 4-hour pain pill I’d taken over twelve hours before had worn off (certainly the amount of pain suggested it had) and drank wine with dinner. Bad, bad idea. Recently I told an acquaintance about the surgery and said other op...
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Why I Love V.I.
A while back I suggested my book group read Tunnel Vision, one of Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawki novels. In that novel, V.I., one of the first modern female private eyes, investigates a seemingly shady charitable organization. Along with solving more than one mystery, V.I. attempts to help a homeless woman and her children. As is often the case, V.I.’s methods are unconventional, and she distrusts authority. I thought the social issues the book raises would be great to dis...
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Falling is Part of the Practice
Every morning (okay, about 5 mornings out of 7), I practice yoga. It’s the only exercise I’ve managed to stick with. I think it’s because I can do it in my pajamas. I’ve tried joining health clubs, but as soon as I need to take any extra step to work out, like pack a workout bag, go somewhere special, or put on gym shoes, the odds of it actually happening plummet. Rolling out the yoga mat in my living room, though, I can manage.I also love that yoga is so laid back....
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It’s Not The Coffee
It started during my first year at a large law firm in Chicago’s Sears Tower. The Starbucks there, furnished with gleaming wood tables and chairs and a few armchairs to one side, occupies a corner of the Tower’s first floor. I usually worked weekdays from about 7:45 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. with a half hour lunch at my desk, then another four to six hours on the weekends. I don't drink coffee, but when I was especially busy, I stopped in Starbucks in the morning. I drank Chai La...
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Joss Whedon and The Power of Myth
I read Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth years before the first Buffy episode aired on TV. I’d just begun reading about the origins of religion and was struggling with learning that the gospels were not as historically accurate as I’d been taught. Intellectually, I grasped Campbell’s message that just because the stories or myths we are told did not literally happen does not take away their value. (I’m very roughly paraphrasing. It’s been a long time since I read it.)&n...
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See Jane Get Married
The past three years have been busy, maybe a little too busy. I started my own law firm, published my “first” novel (first published -- I wrote several before this one), and stood up in two traditional weddings. After eight years as a lawyer, I decided to start my own practice and spent a year planning it. Two friends who’d gone on their own right out of law school offered a huge amount of advice and encouragement. Some people I’d only met once or twice did things like ta...
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