opadit

weather radar screengrab showing a band of stormy weather approaching the Avalon Peninsula of the Island of Newfoundland from the southeast

must be February in the North Atlantic

snowstorm rolling in tonite with like 45cm/18in of snow expected, feels like a Friday afternoon in the office

There's actually only two kinds of divination: augury, which is learning the language of birds and snakes (&c), and necromancy, which is communicating with the dead. A lot of divination like cartomancy, i ching, tea leaves, pyromancy, these are all actually a form of necromancy. How?

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Maddow last night makes me wonder if the administration hasn't Streisand-effected the history of enslaved people in the President's House by trying to remove the installations

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng9l...

serious question -- which of the parties/lawyers brought this up, or did the judge slip on the sidewalk at the site (which is catty-corner from the federal courthouse)

Memorandum and/or Opinion – #53 in CITY OF PHILADELPHIA v. BURGUM (E.D. Pa., 2:26-cv-00434) – CourtListener.com MEMORANDUM AND/OR OPINION. SIGNED BY DISTRICT JUDGE CYNTHIA M. RUFE ON 2/16/2026. 2/16/2026 ENTERED AND COPIES E-MAILED.(kp) (Entered: 02/16/2026)

the opinion, which opens with a blockquote from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, is here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

5. Defendants are hereby ORDERED to maintain the President’s House Site in a clean and accessible manner, cleared of debris, snow, ice and/or any other impediment to public access.

LOL

"and keep the fucking sidewalk cleared like everybody else who can get a ticket for not complying with Philadelphia Code § 10-720"

Memorandum and/or Opinion Order – #54 in CITY OF PHILADELPHIA v. BURGUM (E.D. Pa., 2:26-cv-00434) – CourtListener.com PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ORDER THAT for the reasons stated in the accompanying Memorandum Opinion, the Amended Motion for Preliminary Injunction [Doc. Nos. 45, 2] is GRANTED. The alternative relief for ...

the order is here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

happy fucking Presidents' Day

lotta quick takes in immediate reactions there, but dig the thoughtful response thread by my good friend @brendancalling.bsky.social , who is a Philadelphia teacher

we had a lot of good times together before he found Ms. Right -- we laughed about that having been our first date

and if I'd never met him, I wouldn't have shared an elevator with Iron Chef Morimoto one time (they were living in the same building)

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and then we took a wrong turn walking out of the cinema and wandered around the Irish famine memorial

relationship didn't last because we had different goals in life but we're still good pals

YouTube video by Carter Amelia Davis Homemade Gatorade

you can watch it here:

Check 'em out.

euroindiemusic.info/2026/02/13/f...

Self-Portrait (rotated), potential sketch for The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, late 15th//early 16th c

https://bsky.app/profile/vitaphonezone.bsky.social/post/3merv3an7ec2t Organist Helen Crawford of New York’s Paramount Theatre with her Wurlitzer, pictured in 1931 (the hardest image I’ve ever seen).

Sheet music perspective-corrected, not very legible because the halftone (?) printing matrix isn't high enough resolution in this part of the photo.

I did the best "Computer! Enhance!" I could, but I can't guess the key signature or exact notes. Playing the likely notes & chords did not make a tune I recognized.

Any guesses?

this defendant may have lost his $150 million securities and wire fraud case, but just think of the Quinn Emanuel fees he saved

I just sent a memo to firm partners saying maybe we need to take a gander again at the practice management software's license and WTF does it say about users' inputs to the AI

whole point of AI is that it learns over time with all the stuff you input so safeguards are against its raison d'etre!

our practice management software has a built-in AI tool, and now I want to know what tool it is (I can't believe it's home-brew) and what the licensing agreement says -- although my ethical and risk concerns should outweigh, it's above my pay grade to be involved in selection of the package

I mean, when you share information w/ a third party, or you outsource your legal research ("research") to a third party, then I'm not sure what you should expect to happen to the privileges in question

maybe I'm not the sharpest legal knife in the drawer but it doesn't seem like a hard issue to me

I'm reminded of the comments about GWB's Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, who people compared to a Star Wars villain -- like, she was so hopelessly underqualified that there was no need at all to punch down at her for not being conventionally attractive

the procedural history on this is a ride (in a clown car)

cases.justia.com/federal/appe...

I get why Fairmount Station is low on the list for renovations, especially the lower level (probably lowest ridership on the line), but ugh, in some ways it needs renovations more than any other station

nobody posted the clip anywhere so i went and dug the whole episode up

e-mail from LinkedIn: "You appeared in 4 searches this week" with a couple of corporate logos

screenshot of LinkedIn page associated with one of the logos: the Pennsylvania Governor's Office of General Counsel

my lawyer brain wants to tie this back to either my anti-Shapiro repost earlier today or the text message from a southeastern Pennsylvania private investigator last week (which I still haven't responded to)

I think the vast majority of non-lawyers don't realize how serious and, well, bizarro-out-of-left-field it is, for AUSAs to be doing this

I was discussing this with a friend last night -- everybody hates lawyers but we do, pretty much all of us, believe in the rule of law, and keeping your integrity and reputation (never mind your license) is usually huge

I mean, yes, opposing counsel should file Rule 11 motions, too, but this thread detailed why there is no capacity among the lawyers and clients involved -- the rest of us lawyers who believe in the rule of law in our self-regulating profession need to regulate these bad actors

this is sanctionable and the sooner and more often bar complaints are filed against these lawyers, the better