Arbitration & Mediation

The Week in Assholes

By Victoria Pynchon

A new regular weekly feature at the Negotiation Law Blog ~ The Week in Assholes.

Gawker Calls Scalia an 'A-Hole' as He Questions Women's Rights Under the 14th Amendment at Legal Blog Watch.  I grew up in Impeach Earl Warren territory - San Diego in the late 50's and early 60s, then primarily a Navy and defense industry town - read:  None Dare Call it Treason-Duck 'n Cover-Fallout Shelter-Flouridated Drinking Water as Communist Plot-John Birch Society pre-Tea-Partyville.  So I'm happy to begin an Impeach Scalia Campaign based on his recent statement that he "doesn't have to read the briefs" to pen Supreme Court opinions on the most controversial issues before the Supreme Court today. Just sayin'. See Boehner's House, Scalia's Pizza at the New Yorker, hereby cutting my demographic in half.

Reuters reports that thanks to the ever-vigilant ACLU, it's no longer a crime in Pennsylvania to shout the word "asshole" at passing motorists or even to the police officer who's hassling you. Also see Swear Freely In Pennsylvania: It's Your #$%^&*^ Constitutional Right at NPR.

Nice guy James Van Der Beek styles himself as an "Asshole for Hire" at Funny or Die.

ESPN Reporter Ron Franklin was fired for calling reporter Jeannine Edwards an "asshole" but only after she asked him politely not to call her "sweet baby."  I think this had more to do with gender politics than profanity.

In book news,

• there are only three days left in the Good Reads A is for Asshole, the Grownups' ABCs of Conflict Resolution giveaway here.
• we've been added to Don Philbin's fabulous ADR Tool Box here.
• The New York Real Estate Lawyers' Blog posted a blurry version of our home-made flyer for the SDNY Federal Bar Association Book Launch Party (and gave the un-blurry details below)

Vick[ie] Pynchon, Chair of the Federal Bar Association's ADR Section, will be reading from her entertaining & illuminating new book: "A is for Asshole - The Grownup's ABC's of Conflict Resolution [on] January 11th at Pierre Loti (www.pierrelotiwinebar.com), which, named after a wanderer and writer, is an appropriate venue for this book reading.  It would be great to see you, and enjoy Vick[ies]'s words over some wine, together! Click here for the full sized flyer with details. We got a good review over at the Business Conflict Blog, despite what appears to be criticism for our "unfortunate" use of "a vulgarity in naming the volume," which makes good sense, you know, since lawyers never use the word "asshole" as in "we're going to cut him a few more assholes with this motion" or "opposing counsel's such an asshole," things like that, words that appear to have vanished from attorneys' vocabularies since I left the profession in '06, but then I entered the profession when my superiors called women "muffs" (when the "muffs" were around) and accused anyone of insufficiently combative temperament a "faggot" (when possible "faggots" were around).  I'm so glad we've become so much more civilized in the succeeding years. Newsday's Money Fix column gave a shout out to the book along with some of my recommendations for cutting consumer bills in 2011 The Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women announced my upcoming appearance, with the book, at an event titled She Negotiates . . . and Everything Changes scheduled for next Monday, January 10 at 6 p.m. in Woodbury, New York, also announced at Networking Magazine's website. Other upcoming book events can be found here.

So that's The Week in Assholes (cross-posted at the ABCs of Conflict).  Come back next week to see who is and who isn't, as well as who's permitted to utter the word without adverse consequences.

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on January 06, 2011 (boomark / email).