As we mentioned last week, we here at Abnormal Use are spending May 2012 focusing on comic book covers featuring police line-ups. Last week, we featured Gotham Central #34, in which three costumed superheroes – who couldn’t look more different than each other – constituted the full line-up. Above, in Top 10 #4, published back in the halcyon days of 1999, we have the same problem. Written by the brilliant and mysterious Alan Moore, and illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, this series is less familiar to us than others. But the constitutional issue remains!

Check out this tribute to friend of the blog Bill Childs, founder of the TortsProf blog, who is leaving academia for private practice. (Hat tip: Walter Olson).

We’ve read blogs for a long, long time. You know this. We’re huge blogging nerds. But in all of our years, we’ve never seen as cool a blog post title as one last week from the EvidenceProf Blog.  Behold: “Joss Whedon, The Avengers, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Eli Stone, Reluctant Heroes & The Rule Against Hearsay.” Indeed.

Mike Birbiglia fears the legal implications of his “Saved Mail” folder. So should we all.

It’s a brand new month, and to celebrate, we’re going to spend our Fridays in May focusing on comic book depictions of police line-ups.  So, above, you’ll see depicted the cover of Gotham Central #34, published not so long ago in 2005. We’re not criminal lawyers here, but isn’t it a bit suggestive to have the participants to a line-up look so dissimilar as here?  By this point in the criminal procedure process, there’s a witness who has already described to the police the nature of the suspect, and the police have apprehended a suspect they believe to be the perpetrator. In this line-up, however, we’ve got Kid Flash, Cyborg, and Wonder Girl, who taken together, couldn’t look more different than each other.  If the suspect was a young red haired male wearing a yellow outfit emblazoned with a bolt of lightning, who do you think the witness is going to pick? There’s got to be a constitutional issue here, right?

How did we miss this? Friend of the blog Jay Hornack a/ka/ The Panic Street Lawyer writes up his recent tour of the Bruce Springsteen exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As we noted and detailed in this piece, a handful of our attorneys recently caught Springsteen’s latest tour in nearby Greensboro, North Carolina. As always, a fun outing.

Here is an interesting 1966 letter, written by Harper Lee, responding to a school board’s assertion that her To Kill A Mockingbird was “immoral.”  Back in July of 2010, our own Mills Gallivan, senior partner at the firm and occasional guest author here, offered his thoughts on Lee’s famed novel and the movie based on it in a piece called “Bluejays and Mockingbirds.”  We encourage you to revisit it.

Ryan S. at The Signal Watch wonders what the current generation of children know about pop culture of generations past.  A good read, that. This is not the first time he’s written on youth culture, either. If you have friends or children starting college this fall, you might direct them to his rather amusing blog post, “The League’s Guide for Incoming Freshman.”

In the last few weeks, we here at Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. have had a few new attorneys join our offices in Greenville, Columbia, and Charlotte. Check out the details here!

Whoa.  We just realized that this is our 120th installment of Friday Links.  How about that?

We all remember Hank Ketcham’s “Dennis The Menace” comic strip.  It was so popular that the strips were collected and published in volumes, such as “Dennis The Menace Vs. Everybody,” depicted above and published way back in 1957.  We assume that with that title, Dennis has sued everybody, making him the Plaintiff.  Is he being cross examined on the book’s cover? We’d like to see that, although we’re a bit disappointed that Dennis has elected not to wear proper courtroom attire.  We wonder what Mr. Wilson would say about that. (Hat tip: Patrick Condon by way of Chuck Klosterman).

If you missed last night’s episode of NBC’s “Community,” you need to seek it out immediately, as it is a hilarious parody of NBC’s “Law & Order” franchise, complete with a send-up of all of that show’s legal cliches.  The best part: The characters stage a mock trial of sorts in which they make many frivolous objections (and then attempt to withdraw their own objectionable cross examination questions). Our favorite: When the character of Annie (played by Alison Brie) impressively begins to lay the foundation for a series of impeachment, her opponent exclaims: “Objection, she’s clearly ramping up to something!” The episode is entitled “Basic Lupine Urology,” a play on the name of “Law & Order” showrunner Dick Wolf.  For the time being, you can watch the episode on NBC’s official website here.

You may recall that in last week’s edition of “Friday Links,” we showed you the cover of Mr. District Attorney #63, published way back in 1958.  On it, the title character presents a suspect, “The Man in the Martian Suit,” to the police sergeant for fingerprinting.  Friend of the blog Kevin Underhill, who runs the seriously funny Lowering The Bar legal humor blog, couldn’t resist weighing on that comic book cover.  See his thoughts here.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Above, behold the cover of Mr. District Attorney #63, published way, way back in 1958.  Note that the cover story is entitled “The Man in the Martian Suit,” which suggests something about the events depicted upon the cover.  Our hero, the district attorney, presents himself and the presumably costumed crook to the police fingerprint desk.  Says the DA: “Check those fingerprints, sergeant! We’ll find out who this masquerading criminal is!”  Replies the sergeant: “But, Mr. D.A. . . . These prints are like nothing on this Earth!” You would think that the district attorney, in apprehending the “man in the Martian suit,” would have removed the Martian suit from the suspect before presenting him to the police sergeant for print.  Or, if the suit was, in fact, not a suit, but the exterior of an extra-terrestrial, you’d think the D.A. would have figured it out before this point in the criminal process, too.  Sigh.

Friend of the blog Max Kennerly, of the Litigation & Trial law blog has an interesting post: “How To Excel At The Basics As A Young Litigator.” Complete with Robert Caro references! You can follow Max on Twitter here.

We are disappointed to report that friend of the bog Stephen J. McConnell has announced his retirement – temporary, hopefully – from the famed Drug and Device Law blog.  You can read his last post – published past Monday – here.  Through our blogs, we’ve become pals with Steve, and he very recently participated in our collection of “My Cousin Vinny” reviews. Although our two blogs have previously quibbled on musical issues, we once joined forces to compile a huge list of songs about lawyers, judges, and attorneys, which was an immense amount of fun. We even quoted Steve in a prior edition of Friday Links on the occasion of the death of Clarence Clemons. In the mean time, Jim Beck and company will continue to provide sharp commentary on the drug and device beat.  We’ll miss you, Steve.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Okay, you’re not nerdy like us. You don’t know the DC Comics hero Booster Gold.  Well, he’s a super hero.  From the future.  He came back to our time – from the future – and uses all of his advanced technology to help us, the citizens of his past.  Above, you’ll find the cover of Booster Gold #14, published way back in the simple and easy days of 1987. Here’s our question: If, as the cover indicates, Booster Gold is a fugitive, sought by the police, why does the wanted poster say he is wanted for “treason and theft”?  I mean, isn’t it enough to just say he’s wanted for treason?   Do we really need to throw theft in there, too? That’s like saying: “Wanted for Treason and Jaywalking.”  Keep it simple, future police!

Andy Mergendahl at Lawyerist concludes that “Music on Vinyl is Better.”  This is one of the most important issues facing lawyers, actually.  We will not be left out of this debate. We will respond with a far more substantive post sometime in the future, but until then, read Andy’s piece.  We welcome your comments on this issue.

In this interesting post, our friends at The Law and The Multiverse blog answer this question:  ”[W]hat would happen if a superhero was summoned for jury service in his/her secret identity, and the case turned out to be one where the character had been involved as a crimefighter and might even be expected to appear as a witness?”

By the way, since we’re talking about music, friend of the blog Matt Wake had his first piece published in Paste Magazine this week.  The title: “16 Musicians Discuss Their First Concert T-Shirts.”  We here at Abnormal Use would tell you about our first concert t-shirts, but unfortunately, they were all purchased during our embarrassing heavy metal stage.

Lo and behold! David Francis of The Blog respond to our prior post, “Deposing Siri,” in his own post, entitled “Suing Siri: Deceptive Advertising or Frivolous Lawsuit?“

If you only read Abnormal Use on weekdays, you may have missed our Sunday, April 1 post, entitled “American Bar Association Denies Provisional Accreditation To Miskatonic University School of Law.”  Yes, of course, it was an April Fool’s Day joke. We figured since our traffic is generally low on the weekends, we could reference something far, far more obscure than usual, in this case the mythos and milieu of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.  The mythic Miskatonic University – which even has its own Wikipedia entry! – is a fictional institution created by Lovecraft and referenced by other writers who have followed in Lovecraft’s footsteps.  It’s an eerie place dedicated to the study of the ancient and occult. There are even books solely dedicated the fictive school. The existence of Miskatonic University: A Sourcebook, a role playing game guidebook, should tell you something about how Lovecraft’s creations have been honored over the  years.  (And that’s not the only book dedicated to the faux institution.). We thought it would be as good fake university as any upon which to base a parody piece on the ABA accreditation process, but in the end, the reference may have simply proven that we are far, far nerdier than you ever thought we were. (We know at least one of you caught the reference!) By the way, the image above is the cover art for the aforementioned Miskatonic University: A Sourcebook, which pretty much captures the spirit of the school, we think.

By the way, in the interests of completism, we present these links to our two past April Fool’s Day Posts:

“Star Wars Prequels Unreasonably Dangerous and Defective, South Carolina Federal Court Finds” (April 1, 2011)

“Unsatisfying Snickers Bar Unreasonably Dangerous and Defective, Texas Court Holds” (April 1, 2010)

So, five days after this year’s April Fool’s Day, you can now go back and revisit our posts from April Fool’s Days past.  Better late than never, eh? Enjoy.

Behold, the cover of Sam Hill: Private Eye #4, published way, way back in 1950. In that issue, we see that a trial is taking place, and Sam Hill, “America’s hard-boiled, wise-cracking sleuth,” is called to the stand to testify as a witness. “Careful what you say, Sam!” says a villain. “My boys will be watching you.”  Undeterred, Sam replies, “Tell ‘em to listen real close, too! They’ll hear the whole truth and nothing but!” Replies another gangster: “If we do, you’ll never leave that witness chair alive!” This is some frightful courtroom conduct. We trust that Sam stayed true to his guns, testified against the criminals, and justice triumphed in the end. Surely he did, right?

As you know, we here at Abnormal Use are big fans of the rock group R.E.M. Back in September, we wrote an obituary of sorts when the band announced it’s break-up after 31 years. We bring that up so as to direct you to this fantastic piece at The Onion AV Club, in which writer Steve Hyden explores his life-long love the band. It’s the first component of a multi-part series in which he explores the band’s output, starting with the material from the late 1980s, when he first encountered the group and its music.

Speaking of music, a columnist at The Philly Post has published a piece called “Why I Hate Bruce Springsteen.”  What the heck? We’re going to have to ask our blog pals Steve McConnell of the Drug and Device Law blog and Max Kennerly of the Litigation & Trial law blog to investigate this blasphemy. (Hat Tip: @blogness).

In a post entitled “Brainstorming Warning Labels for Purchases of a Legal Education,” Attorney Indy at the Mercho Legal Services blog responds to our writer Frances Zacher’s series of posts this week on legal education.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

No comic book covers today for this edition of Friday Links, dear readers. It’s an Abnormal Use tradition to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band whenever they come to the region, and so it was this past Monday evening when we found ourselves at Springsteen’s concert at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Present for the show were editor Jim Dedman and author Phil Reeves (along with non-blogger GWB attorney Art Howson). You can find the great set list here (and note that he played “Because the Night!”). We don’t blog enough about Springsteen. Not too long ago, we paused to reflect upon the passing of Springsteen’s saxophonist, Clarence Clemons, who passed away last summer at 69.  In that post, we included a photograph taken at Springsteen’s 2009 Greenville, South Carolina show at the Bilo Center, at which we captured a photograph of E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt holding a handmade sign made by Reeves.  What a day that was. (Oh, and if you haven’t heard it already, here is a link to Bruce Springsteen’s keynote address at the recent South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.).

Whoa! We just learned that we were named the “Blog of the Month” for January 2012 by the Penn State Dickinson School of Law Alumni Connection! Thank you!

The wonderful TweetsofOld Twitter account reports on an 1884 Louisiana on the job injury.  We wonder if it was litigated.

This week, Philip K. Howard at The Atlantic asked “Should the Courts Be Allowed to Repeal Obsolete Law?” An interesting read, that..

This week, Abnormal Use broke through into a new medium, taking the public airwaves by storm.  Our own writer Nick Farr was a guest on KUCI-FM‘s “The Docket” to discuss the legacy of My Cousin Vinny.  Nick enjoyed some great conversation with host Evan Simon about the film and its practical application in our legal careers.  In case you missed it, we understand that a podcast of that interview may be forthcoming.  Keep checking for updates!

As you know, each Friday, we here at Abnormal Use post some to other sites and articles of interest.  Keeping with this week’s theme – the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the release of My Cousin Vinny – we asked some of our favorite bloggers to share their thoughts on the film and its place in cinematic history.  As previously noted, these are some real heavy hitters in the legal blogosphere.  This week, each of them published their own post on the film’s anniversary and the lessons that we as lawyers can learn from the characters in the film.  Today, we will direct you to those posts and collect our favorite excerpts from each of them.

Jay Hornack of the Panic Street Lawyer blog at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Law and the Art of Automobile Maintenance,” (3/11/12). Hornack, a lawyer and professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, discusses his students’ thoughts on the film and notes that most of them were born after the release of the film in 1992. He also explores the potential musical influences of the screenwriter, Dale Launer, who took a road trip to the South to develop the character of Vinny.(By the way, if you are not following Jay on Twitter, you need to do so here.).

Alan H. Crede of the Boston Personal Injury Lawyer blog, “My Cousin Vinny‘s Version of the Criminal Justice System,” (3/12/12). In his post, Alan raises an interesting point, and one we hadn’t considered before.  Marisa Tomei plays a character who ultimately testifies as an expert in general automotive knowledge. Note: she did so a year before the U.S. Supreme  Court handed down Daubert. Alan also has an interesting take on the Brady v. Maryland implications of the film, in particular, the interaction between Vinny ant the prosecutor and their exchange of information during the proceedings.

Steve McConnell of the Drug and Device Law blog, “An Appreciation of My Cousin Vinny – Twenty Years Later,” (3/12/12). In addition to blogging about medical drugs and devices, McConnell, who hails from Philadelphia, is a pop culture whiz. After comprehensively surveying the 1992 pop culture landscape which produced Vinny (as well as Tomei’s Oscar win for her role a year later), McConnell explains several object lessons trial lawyers from the film.

Kendall Gray of the Appellate Record blog, “My Mentor, Vinny,” (3/12/12). Gray, a lawyer in Houston, uses a series of YouTube clips from the film and notes the “many invaluable life lessons and practice pointers during the film.” Because of those great lessons of import, Gray thanks Vinny for his status as his mentor. These lessons include courtroom decorum, punctuality, the value of directness (and the risks of being too direct), the proper approach to questioning an expert witness, and the importance of home/work balance.

James Daily of The Law and the Multiverse blog, “My Cousin Vinny: The Perils of Joint Representation,” (3/13/12).  We love the guys at The Law and the Multiverse.  In fact, you may remember that we interviewed them just over a year ago. They apply legal analysis to superhero comic books and films. In his Vinny piece, Daily explores an interesting issue: “Simultaneous representation of clients whose interests may conflict.”  Recall that Vinny represents his cousin, played by Ralph Macchio, and another defendant, played by Mitchell Whitfield, both of whom are accusing of murder. Daily explores whether this is, in fact, permissible under the circumstances.

Professor Alberto Bernabe of the Torts blog, “My Cousin Vinny: A Story About Legal Education,” (3/12/12). Discussing the film from a legal education perspective, Professor Bernabe makes an interesting point about the film: “Vinny is terrible at the things we do teach in law school, but very good at the things we don’t.” He may not know the complexities of contract law or legal ethics, but as Bernabe notes, “law students could learn from him as to how to use legal thinking in the complexity of actual law practice.” (By the way, we interviewed Professor Bernabe back in November of 2010).

Max Kennerly of the Litigation & Trial blog, “Every Young Trial Lawyer Needs To Watch My Cousin Vinny,” (3/14/12). Kennerly is a maverick legal blogger, so he was a natural writer to approach about this project. He notes that one reason why the film continues to resonate with lawyers is because “everything that happens in the movie could happen — and often does happen — at trial.” Offering an anecdote from a recent deposition in federal court, Max also observes that the film confirms a legal practice truism: “Lawyers don’t prevail by coming up with great ideas; they prevail by coming up with ideas that convince others.”

Erik Mazzone of the Law Practice Matters blog, “My Cousin Vinny and Resilience in Law Practice,” (3/15/12). A friend of the blog and the Director of the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association, Erik (note the proper spelling of his first name) focuses on the power of resilience.  He writes: ” Throughout the first three-quarters of My Cousin Vinny, Joe Pesci’s Vinny suffers setback after setback. Yet each night he works hard and each morning he comes back to the courthouse to do battle for another day.” It is only through resilience that he finds success as a lawyer.

Kevin Underill of the Lowering The  Bar legal humor blog, “Everything That Guy Just Said Is Bullsh*t: A Review of My Cousin Vinny,” (3/16/12).  Underhill is one of the blogosphere’s funniest legal writers, and so he applies his talents to a new review of the film.  It is not to be missed.

It wasn’t just law bloggers who participated. Our friend Ryan Steans, an old pal and non-lawyer pop culture blogger at The Signal Watch blog, jumped the gun big time and published his review of the film over a month ago. His take is very interesting because he had never seen My Cousin Vinny until 2012, and as a non-lawyer, he did have a very different view than the rest of the project participants.  To him, the film was just a forgettable 1990s comedy that he saw for the first time twenty years after its original release. Concludes he: “[T]he movie sort of fails in part because Joe Pesci isn’t actually funny.  He seems sort of confused and dumb, and emotionally detached from Tomei who is carrying all the weight plotwise and from a comedic standpoint.  It’s satisfying to a certain audience in its utter predictability, but its not much . . . fun.  Still, people refer to this movie all the time, so I am likely missing something.”

Don’t forget that we here at Abnormal Use offered our own thoughts on the film on Monday before our series of interviews published the remainder of the week.  In case you missed them, you can revisit them here:

Nick Farr, “My Cousin Vinny – More Than A Movie,” (3/12/12). In this piece, writer Nick Farr explains how My Cousin Vinny changed both his life and the outcome of a 7th grade student council election. (Yes, you read that right.).

Rob Green, “Lessons Learned From Vincent L. Gambini,” (3/12/12).  In this piece, our newest contributor, Rob Green, offer six practical lessons that lawyers can glean from watching the film. If you think about it, the film is its own continuing education course with many practice tips contained therein.  In fact, we should probably all get CLE credit for watching it again, don’t you think?

Rob Green, “Review: Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You,” (3/12/12)  Did you know that years after the film’s release, Joe Pesci released an album in character as Vinny? Rob Green somehow found a copy of this long forgotten album and drafted a review.  Spoiler alert: the album is not for the faint of heart.  Or the faint of ears, for that matter.

That, dear reader, brings our week long anniversary coverage to a close. We’ll be back for the 50th anniversary celebration!

(Editor’s note: The ABA Journal excerpted our interview with director Jonathan Lynn here and our Q&A with screenwriter/co-producer Dale Launer here. Thanks also to these bloggers for their support: Boing Boing, Widener Law Blog, Above The Law, God/Politics/Rock ‘n’ Roll, Lowering The Bar, Nuts & Boalts, The Volokh Conspiracy, and the Northern Law Blog. To see a full index of our My Cousin Vinny twentieth anniversary coverage, please see here.).

Depicted above is the cover of Tales From The Crypt #21, published way, way back in 1950.  Note the newspaper headline: “Cooper Dies in Electric Chair / Convicted Killer Swears Revenge On Judge Hawley As Switch Is Thrown!”  The reader of that paper, presumably Judge Hawley (still in his robe!), looks up to see an undead version of Cooper at the window. Yikes! Here’s the thing: When the executed criminal rose from the chair at the state penitentiary, you’d think the warden or someone would have called Judge Hawley to warn him that a supernatural undead convict – who had only just vowed revenge upon him – was on the way to his chambers!

Friend of the blog Bill Childs, himself of the TortsProf Blog, directs us to this 2009 post from his blog entitled “Some Data Points on Coffee.”  Here’s a teaser: “This year, I decided to ask students to use a food thermometer I have to compare the temperatures of coffee and other hot drinks as served in the Springfield area.”  Check it out.

An important question for our dear readers: Did you get the new Bruce Springsteen album, Wrecking Ball, which was released this past Tuesday? Any thoughts? Here’s one Twitter review we read: “The Boss is back, and he’s really angry.  Really.”

Click here to learn about “assault” “verbal combat” in a Colorado courtroom in 1911. Yes, you read that correctly.

Remember not too long ago when we alluded to big plans in 2012?  Well, they’re almost here.  Stay tuned, and check the site on Monday.