Non-Law Rant: Why isn't there an Esquire for Women?

Once upon a time, when I [and Cat!] lived in a house full of men, one of the roommates had a subscription to Esquire. (And Details, but meh.) Since all of our various publications (among them: the Economist, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Marie Claire) ended up at the base of the functional-but-never-used fireplace in the front living room, at some point on some "I'm bored" Sunday, I picked up a copy of Esquire, and fell in love.

Not with the man on the cover (I honestly can't even tell you who the cover feature was that month). With the *content.* You see, unlike your garden variety "women's interest" magazine (the aforementioned Esquire's-sister-publication Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Allure, Elle), Esquire actually treats its readers like intelligent human beings. It makes allusions to political goings-on, and expects you to understand the reference, rather than assuming you're so uninformed you need soundbites to seem plugged-in at cocktail parties. Specifically, it asks you to know (and care!) about (gasp!) the economy [and economics, and the fact that Wall Street is in trouble]. The war(s). American foreign policy. Other things that any educated, employed American should hopefully have a clue about.

Esquire also does a pretty good job of featuring good reporting, interesting first-person writing, and the occasional awesome fiction piece. I don't mind skimming the first few men's style pages of each issue to get to the real meat (which isn't hidden under 50+ pages of fashion ads and perfume samples). Plus, the general editorial voice is actually really, genuinely funny...music reviews and pop culture references seem light when appropriate and soulful when they should be. Overall, good stuff on every page.

Sure, Esquire also has some pictures of scantily-clad women in every issue. So what? They're usually interesting, relatively unknown women who are currently starring in funny/entertaining/topical movies that I'd actually like to see, in contrast with, oh, another rehashing of how "Angelina's a really bad person for stealing my husband" with Jennifer Aniston whenever she has another romantic comedy coming out. And Esquire has a page or two devoted to "Women We Love." Not a dozen pages about those women's supposed beauty secrets.

Here's the thing...I actually feel smarter - like I've learned something - after reading Esquire (full disclosure: I recently used some MyCokeRewards points to get a subscription for myself, and if this month's letters to the editor are any indication, women make up a devoted subset of the magazine's circulation numbers). I can't remember the last time I felt the same way after picking up Cosmo.

So the question is: why isn't there a female version of Esquire?? If Marie Claire is the closest there is, somebody in the (yeah, the economy's tanking and publishing's been going down since even before that but still...) magazine world should step in and fill this niche. Educated, intelligent women would, I'd wager, be a pretty good market to corner - they're wealthy and control an awful lot of spending power, compared to the girls that buy supermarket tabloids, etc. You could put in a fair amount of content aimed at getting them to consume luxury goods (after all, we educated/intelligent women like nice things, too), but think Vanity Fair aimed at a slightly more feminine audience, with pieces that are a bit shorter (I LOVE VF, but it's often a plane indulgence, when I have a chunk of time to go cover-to-cover, rather than a casual read). Useful information, interesting things, and just a touch of style...but heavy on the substance.

I'd buy it. And I'd pay real money, too. Not just MyCokeRewards points.

***

Things I Did Not Know About Contracts (Until Now)

After two days of doing literally nothing productive other than grocery shopping and going to the gym, I am making myself study for contracts. It turns out (not exactly unpredictably) that I didn't learn all that much in contracts class. Here are some interesting things I have learned about contracts so far in my exam preparation:

Louisiana is the only state that has not signed onto the Uniform Commercial Code.

Generally, courts hold that in telephonic or face-to-face communications in which an offer is made, the offer lapses when the conversation terminates in the absence of a clear indication that the offer remains open beyond the conversation.

A party that was intoxicated when the contract was made may avoid the contract only if the other party had reason to know that, by reason of intoxication, the party was unable to understand the nature and consequences of the transaction or was unable to act in a reasonable manner in relation to the transaction.

Where a party's duty is conditioned on his own approval of the other party's performance, courts generally enforce such condition – even if the other party will suffer forfeiture – where approval concerns a matter of aesthetics or taste, and the disapproval is based on honest dissatisfaction.

Cool, eh?

***

p.s. It turns out, I didn't need to know any of those things for my contracts exam. Oh well.

Recipe For Avoiding Disease During Exams

Yes, really a recipe. I've been drinking the following on the recommendation of one of my many aunties, and it surprisingly works. Also, really really surprisingly, it does not taste atrocious. In fact, it tastes...well...tasty.

The recipe is as follows:
Peel and cut up some ginger root and put it in a cup
Add about a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, a little bit of sugar, some lemon juice, and some cayenne pepper.
Pour boiling water over, let it steep, and try to enjoy.

Apparently the cayenne pepper and lemon juice have some magic cold-fighting properties, and ginger and cinnamon are just really good for you.

Not Dead Yet (Part II)

(1) I'm VERY glad to hear that Cat is not dead. I am also glad to hear that her dinner-maker and support-giver made it through, too - I was a bit worried about him in the whole ordeal. :)

(2) I am also happy to report that I am not dead. In other words, torts was not nearly as painful as it could have been. It turns out not reading over my (stolen from someone who took it in 2006) outline until 11:30pm the night before the 9am exam was not (quite) a recipe for disaster. In all honesty, once I got into the room and sat down with some coffee & an apple that the school gives out during finals - and forced my brain to pretend it wasn't still asleep - the exam was actually kind of (gasp!) fun?...by that I mean that the fact pattern on the first issue-spotting question was pretty interesting, and the second question (which asked us to respond to a series of questions about a written opinion) was interesting, too (though in retrospect I realize I neglected to fully answer the overarching question because I got caught up in the smaller questions - oh well). The time flew by, I uploaded my file to the exam web site, and then my small group went out for lunch and drinks to celebrate the completion of our first exam. And then I took a nap.

Now, onto Contracts...

**

Not Dead Yet

Although, I may be almost there. We had two 8 hour exams in three days, and have a shorter one on Friday. 8 hour exam number 1 was reasonable. 8 hour exam number 2 was awful awful awful. However, now that I have gone through 16 hours of law school exams, I feel qualified to offer some advice on the topic:
(1) Have a working transportable computer that can connect to the internet...no, I haven't got one of these.
(2) Find someone you are very attached to (and is hopefully irrationally attached to you) and get them to offer constant moral support and home cooked dinners...I have got one of these.
(3) Take practice exams.
(4) Breath.
(5) Recall worse things will happen and have happened to you in life. I personally find this comforting, but I guess it might not work for everyone.
(6) Realize at some point other than the day before the exam that the more you study, the less unpleasant taking the exam will be. Also realize that an unprepared for law school exam can be very very unpleasant. This may require referring back to 4.

Today is D-Day

Not as in "divorce day," which apparently describes what happens in the first week(s) of January every year in the UK (and maybe in the US?)...instead, the first exam of my law school career. [Cat's already had hers, I believe, but since I haven't seen her online/talked to her since, I'm assuming it killed her, until notified otherwise. I am very sad. Perhaps too sad to take my own exam??]

Let's just say that I haven't done much studying. Weeks spent at my parents' house and my former house, respectively, proved less-than-productive in the best way (got to sleep, see lots of friends, do lots of shopping, eat lots of good food, etc.). However, I may have heeded upperclassmen's "Don't Study! It's pass/pass!" advice a *bit* too much...so today is crunch time. I'll let you know if I am in fact the first person in 50 years to fail Guido Calabresi's torts class [but since we don't get our "grades" back till March/April, pardon the delay in passing along word of my demise].

Wish me luck.

Winter in Boston

I am (at least in theory) frantically studying for exams. Using that as an excuse for my laziness, I'm just going to put up a picture of Harvard Yard in the winter, which is gorgeous.