Podcast: Is Public Breastfeeding Legal?

This week, my Legal Lad podcast looks at a woman's right to breastfeed in public. Turns out the law differs radically from state to state. And -- in honor of World Breastfeeding Week -- my colleagues at Quick and Dirty Tips have posted their own podcasts looking at other aspects of breastfeeding -- the techniques (from Mighty Mommy), the etiquette (Modern Manners Guy), and the latest medical research (House Call Doctor). Check it out on iTunes -- if you like it, consider writing a review...or even subscribing to the podcast (it's free!). Or listen at the Legal Lad site, right here.

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Podcast: Embezzlement

What to do when your business partner is dipping into the till? In my Legal Lad podcast, I explain the law of embezzlement -- which applies to skimmers and scammers, even if they secretly hope to repay their employers someday. Check it out on iTunes -- if you like it, consider writing a review...or even subscribing to the podcast (it's free!). Or listen at the Legal Lad site, right here.

More links to subscribe to Legal Lad:
Legal Lad on iTunes
Legal Lad via RSS
Legal Lad Transcripts

Deciphering the Sotomayor Hearings

How can you spot the wise Latina? She'll be speaking Latin, of course. Just two days into the Sotomayor hearings, the nominee has dazzled the crowd with stare decisis, sui generis, and pro bono. In case you're having trouble following all this, a number of papers have published legalese glossaries for non-lawyers, here and here.

Oh Canada

Ever wonder what Law & Order would look like North of the border? In my Legal Lad podcast, I take a look at what makes Canadian law different from US law. Check it out on iTunes -- if you like it, consider writing a review...or even subscribing to the podcast (it's free!). Or listen at the Legal Lad site, right here.

My piece in the New York Times

Last week, the New York Times ran my Op-ed piece about the Declaration of Independence. The Founders borrowed liberally (to put it mildly) from the language of British law when drafting the Declaration. What makes the Declaration great is that the Founders turned what might have been a provincial legal document into a universal declaration of rights. And that's something to celebrate!

Poetic Justice

My fellow Brooklynite, Russell Bittner, tells me that he is working "on a series of poems for snarky children that I intend to market to the children of lawyers -- and, by extension, to those children's parents, many of whom I assume to be equally as snarky."

"Snarky," according to the OED, means "irritable, short tempered," from "snark," meaning either to snort or to nag.

And so here, for all you kids out there, is one of Russell's creations -- Nolens Volens (willing or not).

Nolens Volens

My friend Nolens – just like me –
goes to bed unwillingly.
Nolens thinks that sleep is rot;
Mom, however, thinks it’s not.

“What the heck,” – I hear Nol say –
“sleeping leads to tooth decay!”
Nolens has a point, I think;
Mom, however, doesn’t blink.

“Sleep’s not right for guys like us –
guys who spit and curse and cuss!”
Nol – it’s clear – loves sacred texts;
Mom politely genuflects.

Then, as I’m about to swear,
I see Nolens grab his bear,
hibernate, and take a chair
high up where there’s no there there.

Nolens’s fingers, once asleep,
leave off fleecing Bo Peep’s sheep –
wherein I discern the rub:
Nol has fallen for the cub.

I next grumble fitfully
as the clock strikes half past three,
sinking me with each dull clink –
Mom, however, doesn’t shrink.

She, instead, has darker plans:
“Afternoons,” she countermands,
“aren’t – like mornings – made for naps;
pillows take the place of laps.”

Volens now unmasks my frown
as Mom gently swings me down,
sending me between the sheets
into rapture that entreats

me to ask for one more thing
to divest of sleep its sting:
that while sucking on my thumb,
I can call old Nol my ‘chum.’