originalzin's New Writeups

broken field (idea)

2009-10-31T17:36:00Z

Sit down. Let me tell you a story. It's kind of a Halloween story . . . I mean, it's about something that happened on a Halloween night thirty years ago. And it is kind of scary.

But it's not about monsters, demons, ghosts, or witches . . . well, not the kind you're probably used to. But really, the demons in my story are worse . . . sort of . . .

Maybe I should just tell you the story, whaddya think?

It's a story about something that happened way back when I was in high school. I've never been really big on talking up high school much. Bruce's "Glory Days" kind of ruined that for me. I mean, if the best you can do is talk about what happened to you when you were seventeen, what the hell does that say about the rest of your life, right?

But I can tell this story because it's not about me. It's about a friend of mine named Jimmy Masloff -- we all…

If I had $1,000,000 (idea)

2009-05-16T23:52:57Z

OK. I've got a secret. It's a little weird, but I'll tell you, if you promise not to tell.

I cry every time I hear the Barenaked Ladies sing "If I had $1,000,000."

Weird, huh? It's a catchy little tune, light-hearted and cheerful, the kind of song that you think would put a smile on the face of everyone that heard it.

The song's about a guy, I imagine him as a simple kind of guy, who sings to us about all the things he would do to win over the woman of his dreams, if he only had a million dollars.

He'd buy her a house. He'd buy her furniture for her house, maybe a nice Chesterfield or an ottoman. He'd buy her a K car, a nice reliant automobile.

…

attack memo (idea)

2009-05-06T15:01:49Z

Disclaimer: this writeup may best be understood when read together with this one.

I remember it well. I was a mid-level associate, pale from lack of sunlight and on a first-name basis with a growing list of late-night cabbies who drove me home at the end of each 14-hour workday. I was sitting in my cramped, windowless office, working on some forgettable piece of legal makework, when one of the two junior partners I worked for barged in.

We had a problem, he said. A major one.

The client was a major local university, defending itself against a discrimination lawsuit by one of its faculty members. Although the parties wanted…

Just Following Orders: a Legal Opinion on Torture Memos (idea)

2009-05-01T18:16:44Z

In 2002, the CIA's "acting" general counsel, John Rizzo, asked lawyers at the Justice Department to render a legal opinion. The question? Could 10 specific "enhanced interrogation" techniques, including sleep deprivation, prolonged "stress positions," and "waterboarding," or water torture, as it used to be known, be legally used against certain "high-value" detainees in Bush's nascent "war on terror?"

The response came on August 1, 2002, in the first of the now-infamous "torture memos" from Jay Bybee, the Ninth Circuit judge and former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, and his henchman, John Yoo, now a law professor at, of all places, Berkeley, California.

…

Not Just Like a Pill: Paternal Attachment and Spiritual Development (idea)

2009-04-10T18:01:08Z

I just had a wonderful weekend with my son, John Tyler. The weather was perfect, 70 and sunny with clear blue skies and a silky breeze to caress the skin. With weather like that, who wants to stay inside?

Not us. No, we spent just about every waking moment out and about. Deep Run Park. Lombardy Park. Byrd Park. Sometimes we played with toys, sometimes we played on the swings. But most of the time, John Tyler rode on his bicycle, a little wooden Skuut, one of those fancy new bikes without pedals.

Yes, I said a bike without pedals. He sits on the bike and scoots his way along – hence the bike's name – all the while improving his balance and coordination. No pedals, no brakes, just feet. By the time he outgrows this bike, his balance will be good enough to go straight to a regular bike, with…

I feel your pain (idea)

2009-04-03T20:23:38Z

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Maybe you've seen the ad. A four-year old boy walks into a crowded train station with his mother. She lets go of his hand and walks away. Separated from his mother, standing alone and frightened as the crowd of passengers swarms around him, looking frantically around for his mother, the boy quickly dissolves from lost confusion into hysterical tears.

A voice-over breaks in. "This is how your child feels after losing you for a minute. Just imagine if they lost you for life."

It's an anti-smoking commercial, part of a graphic series of ads the NY Department of Health is running in New York City. The ad has caused a bit of a stir because this gut-wrenching scene wasn't just acting. The little boy really did lose sight of his mother during the making of the ad. And it was done on purpose.

But I'm not here to…