Professors Say the Darndest Things . . .

An exchange between a student and an older professor in class today:

Student: Is it OK if we use short-hand on our exams? Like DPC for Due Process Clause?

Professor: Yes, but please don't write your exams like you Twitter.

More on My Bluebook Incompetence

I'll admit it: I'm not a good Bluebooker. Not even close. My small group professor 1L year (where we get basically all of our legal research & writing instruction) was not in any way a stickler about us learning proper citation form (he said he cared more about content than form), so I sort of just winged it and hoped for the best. The professor I do research for says, "I don't care how you cite stuff, just make sure I can find it." [Can you see why I like working for him?] I've been on two secondary journals for multiple semesters, but I've never had to do more than a handful of pages of Bluebooking at a given source cite, and most of the citations are pretty basic. However. This semester I became an articles editor for one of my journals....and that means I have to do a lot more Bluebooking, while trying not to look like a complete idiot.

So don't judge me too harshly, please. I'm trying to learn, I really am. But to give you a sense of just where my baseline is, here's a transcript...I was gchatting with a mutual friend of Cat & yours truly today:

me: Geezus. Ordering of citations?!?! RIDICULOUS.

J [HLS student]: haha

I get e-mails about that!

me: I didn't even know it was a thing until last week.

J: "Dear journal, juts reminding you that this is one of the most commonly neglected rules."

me: gah

totally insane

J: ordering of signals as well

me: yeah

I figured that out just TODAY.

J: hahaha

me: who'dhaveknown!??!

J: it's such bs!

me: I am such a bad law student.

I am going to be such an incompetent summer.

J: lol

me too!!!

me: I can't even Bluebook.

me: but now, with my "I know how to order stuff" knowledge, that's like the only rule I'm honoring.

it's zero-sum, man.

and ordering cases? whoa!that was mind-blowing!

...

me: yeah

I'm pretty much gonna be like "sorry, people, I'm a bad Bluebooker."

"Don't assume anything I said is correct."

J: Good idea, SB.

***

Why, Thank You!

We're honored to be included in ClearAdmit's list of 25 Best of Blogging nominees!

Consider checking out some of the other nominees' blogs, which run the gamut from informative to hilarious and everywhere in between. In no particular order:

1. Danielle http://www.the-4ls-experience.com/
2. Sue Ting http://sueting.wordpress.com/
3. Ricky Nelson http://legallyquestionablecontent.wordpress.com/
4. The Lovely Mrs http://thelovelymrs.blogspot.com/
5. Invisible Man http://invisiblemannakedcity.wordpress.com/
6. Goateed 1L http://goateelaw.blogspot.com/
7. IDWSJ http://idwsj.wordpress.com/
8. Reckless http://lastcallforrecklessness.blogspot.com/
9. Molly http://redonrust.blogspot.com/
10. Cee http://catatonicstormclouds.wordpress.com/
11. Mariel http://freshthoughtsoup.wordpress.com/
12. TDOT http://www.lawdevnull.com/
13. Soleil http://thedivinedetails.wordpress.com/
14. Ivy Lea http://ivy-lea.blogspot.com/
15. Huma Rashid http://humarashid.com/
16. Cat & SB http://similarlysituated.blogspot.com/
17. The Exit http://mylegalfiction.blogspot.com/
18. Dennis Jansen http://www.dennis-jansen.com/
19. (In)Sanity Gal http://sanitysouffle.blogspot.com/
20. I’m Nobody http://butnothanks.blogspot.com/
21. UVA Law Blog http://www.uvalawblog.com/
22. Julie Anne Ines http://blawgirl.julieanneines.com/
23. No Reins Girl http://noreinsgirl.wordpress.com/
24. Alex http://moonshineproject.wordpress.com
25. Laura Bergus http://laurabergus.com/

***

In Other News...

While I spent much of the weekend lounging in the living room, doing bouts of work and watching the Masters, my classmate just won $750,000 at the North American Poker Tournament event at Mohegan Sun. The full story is here, for people who just want the summary and not the play-by-play.

One might say her final opponent's play was affected by Vanessa's supporters, including a number of YLS classmates:

"If ever I get heads up in one of these things again, I'm hiring myself a new cheering section," Beasley said. "I'm hiring your cheering section."

Congrats, Vanessa!
***

The Blue Book Revolution

Both SB and I are relatively involved with our respective journals, and we were commiserating today about Blue-Booking. (If we have any non-law students reading this, I am sorry, but this post will probably be totally incomprehensible). Likely because we had spent so many hours Blue-Booking, we decided to come up with slogans for a revolution in which the Blue-Book would be eliminated. Here is the G-Chat text of that conversation:

SB: I'm sure there is some catchy "red blood of the bluebook runs through the cities!" rallying cry we could come up with

Cat: I'd go more for: Down With Blue Book Tyranny! Up With Flexible Application of the Chicago Manual of Style!

SB: haha - that's cool, too!I'm kind of an anarchist: "Anything that lets me find your source is cool with me!"

Obviously, we are not actually advocating either violence or eliminating the Blue Book. But sometimes, it does seem like too much attention is paid to Blue Booking in student journals - after all, does it really matter if you ensure the period after Id. is not italicized?