Writer's block

I am not suffering from writer's block at the moment, no more than usual. Since people have said kind things about the book, even though I am not in the running for the great American novelist, I am not feeling rejected.This morning I plan to go to the Colonial Club again and see if anyone shows up for the "Joy of Writing" group. If not, I will write a paragraph or two for Wacky and then check out some of the other things they have at the club, including an exercise room and a wood shop -- the exercise room for me and the shop for Tom. And I need to go by the library to return one of his books.

Tomorrow Tom will go to the little railroad to help get things ready for their planned opening in April. Although I have found things to keep me busy here, Tom has been looking forward to getting back to familiar territory in the Dells now that the weather is improving. My intention is to take advantage of his absence to do some serious apartment-cleaning. The cats will stare at me and the robot as we do our best. Then they will wander around, depositing a fresh layer of cat hair on everything.

And the beat goes on ...

 

Random acts of randomness

Oh, many a shaft at random sent
Finds mark the archer little meant!
And many a word at random spoken
May soothe, or wound, a heart that's broken!

— Sir Walter Scott, Lord of the Isles

1. Life is often uncomfortable. The way to deal with that when it happens is to be uncomfortable.

2. Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. — Winnie the Pooh 

3. In ancient Greek theater, actors wore masks that not only helped identify the role they were playing but that also helped project their voices so that they could be heard. The masks we wear sometimes conceal who we are, but at other times they make it possible for people to hear what we are saying.

4. Have you ever read a document that contains a page with text saying "This page is left intentionally blank?" But it isn't, is it?

5. This is my life and it's ending one minute at a time. Oops! There went another one.
6. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. — William James
7. As I was writing this, the telephone rang and the name that showed on caller ID looked like the last name of Tom's ex. He picked up the phone and said brightly, "Hi, babe!" The caller responded with a shocked, "What?" It wasn't Helen, but a fellow library volunteer who wanted to let me know that I did not need to substitute for her tomorrow. Not sure what she thought was going on or what this will do to my library rep.

United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff

For your Sunday consideration:

United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D.Pa. 1971),^[1] was a court case in which a man filed a lawsuit against Satan and his servants in United States District Court. It was dismissed on procedural grounds.

The complaint

Gerald Mayo filed a claim before the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in which Mayo alleged that "Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall" and had therefore "deprived him of his constitutional rights". This is prohibited under several sections of the United States Code. Mayo filed in forma pauperis - that is, he asserted that he would not be able to afford the costs associated with his lawsuit and that they therefore should be waived.

The decision

In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Gerald J. Weber first noted that the jurisdictional situation was unclear. While no previous cases had been brought by or against Satan and so no official precedent existed, there was an "unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff", a reference to the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster". Judge Weber suggested that the defendant (who had claimed in that story to be an American), should he appear, might have been therefore estopped from arguing a lack of personal jurisdiction. In this context, the Court noted that Satan was a foreign prince, but did not have occasion to address whether, if sued as a defendant, he would be able to claim sovereign immunity from suit.

Judge Weber also noted that the case was certainly appropriate for class action status, and that Mayo had met three of the four required elements for a class action (commonality, numerosity and typicality), but it was not then clear that Mayo could properly represent the interests of the entire (immense) class (the adequacy element).

Ultimately, though, the Court refused the request to proceed in forma pauperis because the plaintiff had not included instructions for how the U.S. Marshal could serve process on Satan.

Source: Wikipedia 

See also Failure Magazine