Everyone else seems to understand things better. Everyone else seems to have more time, or at least better time management. Everyone else seems to have things so under control. Am I the only one who doesn’t get it?

(I have these thoughts at least once a day. But you probably don’t, because you probably get it.)

It amazes me when people say to me, in casual conversation, that I seem to have things figured out because I always make such insightful comments in class, or because I just seem calm. They’ll say it in a tone of awe, respect, or sometimes jealousy. Truth? I just happened to read and understand that particular case or I just happened to listen to enough of class that day to say something mildly intelligent. I really don’t understand what’s going on any more than you do. Especially Torts.

Why do we think that everyone else is better off than we are? Is it that we’re so self-centered that no one else’s problems occur to us? On the other hand, why do we pretend that we understand things better than we really do? Self-preservation? Trying not to embarrass ourselves, trying to keep up with our friends who present an image of comprehension? (Is that real…in which case I’m more scared…or is it as fake as mine…in which case I feel closer to them). It’s like we’re birds, puffing up our chests as far out as they’ll go. Really, none of us understand our world all that well. (None of us really know what is going on in Torts or Property). We’re all pretty frail, like birds, and it takes us time to become secure. It doesn’t come immediately. We all know this.

All well and good now, right? Easy to say, easy to believe now. But when I’ve got that stupid casebook in front me and I’ve read the same stupid case twice and looked it up on WestLaw and I’m still not really sure what’s going on and I still have 10 other cases to read, I forget this.

On a deeper level, though….how often do we really take interest in each other? When we ask a friend, even someone as close as a parent or a spouse, “how are you?”…how often do we mean…”Really, how are you? Are you happy? Are you satisfied with where you are right now? Does the world seem as daunting to you as it does to me?” But this level of depth might interfere with our self-centered self-preservation. We might actually have to feel uncomfortable for a second because we’ve breached that barrier. It’s just easier to ask quickly, answer quickly, and move on to something else. Like studying for Property.

We’re absent. We are absent from ourselves and from each other. I’m not sure which one starts the process, but it is a vicious cycle either way. It’s easier sometimes to not think, to be procedural, to follow rules and get through your day. If I’m lucky, I get a few moments before I sleep to just let it all sink in as I sink into my pillow….to let my body relax, to breathe. Wake up in a few hours and start all over.

They warned us about this at orientation.

Well. Just know that you’re not the only one. And I guess I’m not either.

Phew.

Clerk uses ax to fight off armed robber


Not letting her slight frame deter her, Sahin wielded an ax against a masked man who tried to rob her at gunpoint on Saturday, swinging with gusto at the would-be robber before he fled empty-handed.

“I said, “Get out, get out!” recalled Sahin, who was back at work at the register Tuesday. “I didn’t want to hit him. I just wanted him to get out of here.”

The diminutive clerk — somewhere shy of 5 feet tall and just 90 pounds — was behind the counter at her family’s business, Southaven Convenience on Montauk Highway in Brookhaven, about 8 p.m. when the man, his face covered with a bandanna, walked in, stuck a gun in her face, and demanded cash.

A store surveillance video, released Tuesday by Suffolk police, shows Sahin, wearing a long dress and a headscarf, stalling the intruder for several seconds, pecking at the cash register and searching with one hand for a panic button.

Suddenly, she grabs a 2 1/2-foot ax from under the counter, cocks it over her narrow shoulder, and takes a half dozen chops at the man, even reaching over the counter at her 6-foot target. The frightened intruder steps back and aims his gun again. But apparently confused by the onslaught, he then runs out the door with Sahin in pursuit to the parking lot.

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Kat-a-kat is a…..delicacy, I guess. It’s a Pakistani curry that is a mixture of various organs, usually some spiced mixture of liver, brain, kidney….all the stuff that I think is meant for bodily functions and not for eating.

Despite what you think about eating kat-a-kat, it is definitely fun to see it made. It’s made on a large griddle, kind of like a teppenyaki. The name “kat-a-kat” comes from the sound the two knives makes as they hit the griddle, chopping up the meat. This one is from Food Street in Melody Market, Islamabad. Enjoy! In the beginning, you see my dad (in a white starchy kurta shalwar) asking the cook to “play the music” as he cooks the kat-a-kat.

mmmm….simmering organs.

A nice/interesting resolution passed by the 110th Congress last week. This isn’t the first time they’ve passed a resolution recognizing Ramadan; I think they do it every year. I guess i’m not gonna knock it for being superficial….at least the issues are resonating on some level. Thoughts?

H. Res. 635
In the House of Representatives, U. S., October 2, 2007.

Whereas it is estimated that there are approximately 1,500,000,000 Muslims worldwide;

Whereas since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, some threats and incidents of violence have been directed at law-abiding, patriotic Americans of African, Arab, and South Asian descent, particularly members of the Islamic faith;

Whereas, on September 14, 2001, the House of Representatives passed a concurrent resolution condemning bigotry and violence against Arab-Americans, American Muslims, and Americans from South Asia in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States;

Whereas some extremists have attempted to use selective interpretations of Islam to justify and encourage hatred, persecution, oppression, violence and terrorism against the United States, the West, Israel, other Muslims, and non-Muslims;

Whereas some Muslims in the United States and abroad have courageously spoken out in rejection of interpretations of Islam that justify and encourage hatred, violence, and terror, and in support of interpretations of and movements within Islam that justify and encourage democracy, tolerance and full civil and political rights for Muslims and those of all faiths;

Whereas Ramadan is the holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal for Muslims worldwide, and is the 9th month of the Muslim calendar year; and

Whereas the observance of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan commenced at dusk on September 13, 2007, and continues for one lunar month: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

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