Behold, dear readers, the cover of Web of Spider-Man #126, published back in those wonderful days of 1995. The issue is dedicated to “The Trial of Peter Parker,” and of course, we know that Mr. Parker is Spider-Man’s alter ego. So what did he do? We were kinda curious, so we Googled the usual places, and we turned up nothing. However, additional diligence directed us to the SpiderFan website (not a law blog!), which offers this summary of the plot:

Peter was imprisoned awaiting trial for full multiple murders in Utah on the basis of fingerprint evidence. He didn’t do it and his clone Ben Reilly has swapped places with him so Peter can be with his pregnant wife, Mary-Jane. MJ has been told that there could be a problem with the baby she’s carrying due to Peter’s infected blood. Judas Traveller has been revealed as some sort of mysterious, well traveller, who is hundreds of years old and is searching for the true meaning of evil and good. Peter saved his life after he had played with the time continuum. A new Green Goblin has appeared – and seems to be a good guy – and the mysterious character of Kaine is still over-looking the events in Peter’s life. Also, the Jackal has yet another Peter clone.

So there we have it.

How could we ignore an article called “21 Weird Music Lawsuits“?

Whoa! Insane Clown Posse has sued the Justice Department and the F.B.I.! Can you imagine this lawsuit? Here’s more from Kevin Underhill at the very funny and award winning Lowering The Bar law blog.

Um, we think that there may be an occupation missing from this list of most stressful professions. How can lawyers not be included on that list? (Hat Tip: Kim Lawson).

Apparently, we didn’t realize that last month was PACER’s 25th birthday. Let’s all celebrate (if we can remember our PACER passwords).

The South Carolina Supreme Court has expanded its business court program statewide.

“How Gangland’s Sinister Disc Jockey Was Trapped!” proclaims the cover of Mr. District Attorney #2, published way, way back in 1948. Our question: Um, why is the district attorney pursuing disc jockeys? And why does Gangland need one? Is this some kind of payola thing?

The Hollywood Reporter has run a pretty interesting interview with the Motion Picture Association of America’s outside counsel. See here.

Don’t forget! The new Bruce Springsteen album comes out next week! (Hat Tip: Ultimate Classic Rock).

We will miss Phil Everly.

Congratulations to our own Steve Buckingham, who recently became a partner at the firm. He was a blogger at this site for quite some time before retiring almost a year ago to the day. You can revisit his farewell column here.

Well, next month, the North Carolina Bar Association is putting on a CLE entitled “Guns and Roses.” No, it’s not about Axl Rose (although that would present a host of legal issues). For more, see here.

FYI: Last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court published its annual order on Interest Rate on Money Decrees and Judgments. For the full order, please see here.

Headline of the week: “Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson Settle Lawsuit Over Use of ‘A-Team’ Images.” You would think any lawsuit arising from the recent A-Team film would be one challenging its quality. Oh, well.

You’ve probably read – or at least heard of – law student blogs. We here at Abnormal Use peruse them occasionally to remind us of our lost youth. One of our favorites was So The Bear Says, a blog written by a Baylor Law School student back in the day.  In fact, if you revisit that student’s blog, you’ll learn that ten years ago this week he first became a registered law student. We hope someone is reviewing our posts at this site ten years from now.

Well, as we previously reported last November, the editors of the ABA Journal recently named Abnormal Use to its Blawg 100 – the top legal blogs in the country – for the four year in a row. Well, as they do each year, the ABA Journal then asked its readers to vote for their favorite blogs in certain categories, and we had some fierce competition in the Torts bracket. We learned late last week that we had once again won the popular vote and became the readers’ favorite Torts blog.

The ABA Journal‘s official announcement can be found here, and in relevant part, it reads:

ABA Journal editors picked their favorite 100 law blogs of 2013 and then opened up the polls for some friendly competition. After some 4,000 readers weighed in, the winners and proud owners of bragging rights in each category are:

Torts

Abnormal Use

abnormaluse.com

If you’re suing because your yoga pants are see-through, or because hoisting up the back end of a running snowmobile left you short one leg, chances are your case could end up analyzed by the bloggers at Abnormal Use. Strictly speaking, Abnormal Use is a product-liability blog, but the writers are also interested in technology issues like social media discovery. Be sure to stop in for their “Friday Links” column, a roundup of offbeat and quirky legal news blurbs.

We do like us some offbeat and quirky legal news here, don’t we?

Thanks again to everyone who supported us and voted for us in the contest! We look forward to bringing you another year of commentary.

We rarely, if ever, post on Saturdays, but today is a special occasion.  It’s our fourth birthday!

Four years ago today, way back on January 4, 2010, we published our very first post here at Abnormal Use. It was a mission statement, and you can revisit it here. We didn’t have this fancy design back then; rather, we had put together a basic Blogger template. It’s funny to look back at those initial posts and realize that we had no idea that this enterprise would be in any way successful. But here we are, 48 months later, still posting each business day for you, our dear readers.

By the way, above, you’ll find the cover of Superman #207, published way, way back in 1998. As you can see, the comic celebrates Superman’s 30th birthday. Our favorite part, of course, is the super villains yelling at Superman in unison the following: “Unhappy birthday from your worst enemies Mr. Mxyzptlk, Luthor, Braniac . . . .” That seems rather hurtful, don’t you think? I mean, they go to all the trouble to go to Superman’s birthday just to yell insults? And by the way, aren’t they wanted criminals? Why aren’t Superman and Supergirl apprehending them? Are they so distracted by Superman’s birthday that they can’t be bothered to bring those villains to justice? Something doesn’t make sense there. That’s the Silver Age for you.

Thanks again to our tireless contributors: Nick Farr, Rob Green, Kyle White, and Frances Zacher! We’ll have some new writers joining us soon, and we can’t wait to introduce them to you!

To see our past birthday posts, please click here, here, and here.

Welcome to our first edition of Friday Links of 2014. Above, you’ll find the cover of More Fun Comics #17, published way, way back in the 1930’s. Happy New Year!

Three years ago this month, we published our interview with Jeff Richardson, the author of the iPhone J.D. blog. Let nostalgia take the wheels and revisit that post here.

Speaking of anniversaries, it’s now been three years since we here at Abnormal Use received a voicemail message from Wilford Brimley. To learn that fateful story, please click here.

In case you missed it, the North Carolina Court of Appeals cited Nathaniel Hawthorne in a recent commericial litigation case. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter 197 (Bantam Books 1986) (1850). Indeed, the wearing of multiple “faces” may bewilder not only men, but also corporations.

Bank of America, N.A. v. Rice, 750 S.E. 2d 205, 206 (N.C. Ct. App. 2013) (Hat Tip: North Carolina Bar Association Bankruptcy Listserv).

The musician Beck is being sued by an actor from a Quentin Tarantino film! It’s a landlord/tenant case. We tried really, really hard to come up with a “Loser” prevailing party joke, but we just couldn’t do it. Alas.

From Mental Floss: “11 Obscure References in Classic Songs—Explained!” Our favorite: “You’re So Vain.” Yes, of course that would be our favorite.

Happy New Year from the Abnormal Use law blog and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A.! We hope you an eventful and safe New Year’s Eve, and we welcome you now to 2014.

Above, you’ll find the cover of New Adventure Comics #12, published at the very end of 1936 and dedicated to the arrival of the new year: 1937. Wow. That is one old comic book. Check out the summary from Comicvine:

New Comics received a makeover with issue #12, becoming New Adventure Comics, its symbolic cover featuring a fresh faced baby 1937 ushering out Father Time’s past relics. While still stuffed with short humor strips, including, “Hard luck Harry,” New Adventure Comics increasingly emphasised action in far away lands through such features as “Castaway Island” and “The Vikings.” Rounding out issue 12 was another installment of “Federal Men” though readers could have been forgiven for puzzling over its bizzare sci-fi twist. Unapologetic Sci-fi fans Siegel and Shuster had shoehorned in a professor who explained the “future of scientific crime detection.” This framing device gave the two a licence to delve deep into their favourite obsession, telling a tale set in the year 3000 that involved ray guns, rocket ships and star pirates. It also starred an “ace sleuth” named Jor-L (a name later to be re-cycled as that of Superman’s father).

As that summary suggests, there’s an interesting bit of Superman history/trivia in this 76 year old comic book. Superman, of course, would not appear until 1938 in Action Comics #1.

Check out our past New Year’s Days posts (featuring new year themed comic book and album covers) here, here, and here.

In fact, a year ago today, we published a list of our favorite songs about the New Year.  To revisit that post, please see here. (Of course, it features references to U2.).

“The world’s mightiest family salutes the new year,” proclaims the cover of Shazam! #11, published way, way back in the early 1970’s. As you can see, the new year at issue then was 1974, making this comic book cover exactly 40 years old. How about that?

How many of you went to work today? Days like today always prompt such a dilemma: What, if anything, might accomplished today, the final day of the year (especially when few others are actually in the office)? As we’ve confessed in the past, we are not actually in the office today (and in fact, this post was written days ago and set to auto-post this morning). So who knows where we are right now? But we can say this: it’s been a fun and fine year. We thank all of our readers for their support.

So, as you venture out into the night tonight, be merry, but be safe. Have a happy new year!

In the mean time, check here to see last year’s New Year’s Eve post for a great Archie comic book cover related to the day.

Behold the cover of DC Universe Holiday Special #1, published not so long ago in 2008. We find it appropriate for the occasion. Our question: Where’s Batman?

In 1964, famed writer Isaac Asimov penned a piece in The New York Times predicting what life might be like in 2014. To read that fascinating article, click here. Three years ago, in December of 2010, we commented upon a series of New York Times articles written in 1931 predicting the world of 2011. (Hat tip: Treehugger).

Here’s one we ought to read: “16 Habits That Are Killing Your Productivity and How to Fix Them.” (Hat tip: Lee Rosen).

Our favorite tweet of the week: “Decided against being the first attorney to be subject to an objection for wearing Google Glass in a deposition.” (Via @BytePatent).

Of late, we’ve been enjoying the Libation Law Blog, which bills itself as a source for “[n]ews, insight and commentary on liquor law and legal developments in alcohol regulation, and the brewing, winemaking, and distilling industries.” It’s run by Ashley Brandt, an attorney in Chicago with Freeborn & Peters LLP. (We note with interest that Mr. Brandt features a Christopher Hichens quotation on his official firm bio.).

We here at the Abnormal Use law blog and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! Above, you’ll find the cover of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer #8, published way, way back in 1957. (That must have been a sizable comic book for its cover price to have been $1.00 in 1957!). In fact, in preparing this post, we learned that Rudolph had his own comic book series – published by DC Comics – back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Keep in mind that Rudolph only came into existence in 1939. As you might imagine, the series only published one issue per year, and it did so for a total of thirteen issues. Check out the covers to these thirteen issues by clicking here for a gallery from Comicvine. We hope you, our readers, will be safe and be merry during this holiday season. To check our our past Christmas posts (and other Christmas related comic book covers), please see here, here, and here.

Well, it’s Tuesday, December 24, 2013, which means that for some, this is a work day (at least in part). We here at the Abnormal Use law blog and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. hope our lawyer readers will sneak out of the office a bit early to spend some time with family and friends today. To celebrate this festive occasion, we present the comic book cover above – that of The Flintstones Christmas Party #1, published way, way back in 1977. “Holiday fun with all your favorites!” proclaims the cover. All we can say is that there are a LOT of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters in that sleigh. Have a safe and fun Christmas Eve (and triple check to make certain you’ve bought all your presents!).

To check our our past Christmas Eve posts (and other Christmas related comic book covers), please see here and here.