Outside of a Dog: Doyle, Arthur Conan: (04) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; [personal] passing the bar exam

Trent

Trent wrote on November 22, 2002 at 8:34 PM:

Congratulations!

That's how it happened for me, too. The day before I thought results were coming out, one of the people in my dad's office checked the website, and all of a sudden I had everyone in my family calling and saying "why didn't you tell us the news?"

Big party! Way to go!

Mike

Mike wrote on November 23, 2002 at 10:32 AM:

Congrats!

Kate

Kate wrote on November 23, 2002 at 11:13 AM:

Thanks, guys.

I had no idea when the results were coming out; the word was just not before November, sometime. I hadn't been checking the website every day, because I figured I would just work myself into a state doing that. Instead, I ignored it as best I could and relied on my co-workers for the news--which worked quite well, as you can tell.

Now I just need one more piece of paper and I can submit my application for admission and get that off my back, too...

Rich

Rich wrote on November 23, 2002 at 5:43 PM:

Congratulations, Kate!

Kate

Kate wrote on November 24, 2002 at 11:22 AM:

Thanks, Rich. Next time we see each other, we can commiserate over the misery that is the NY Bar Exam.

Novak

Novak wrote on November 24, 2002 at 12:06 PM:

What the...?

I must be ahead of my time, because I could have sworn that you took and passed the bar exam months ago. Here I've been thinking you were an official lawyer for half the year, now.

Not that I would have had any doubt you were going to pass, anyway. Congratulations. Now, if I can just survive Core Exams on the 5th, I'll still be alive for Vegas. You'll notice me by the advanced scoliotic curve of my spine, caused by curling up in chairs and cramming for many hours at a time, many days in a row.

Kate

Kate wrote on November 24, 2002 at 1:09 PM:

Novak--I took it in July, but they had, umm, 9,693 exams to grade, so it took them a while to figure out who passed. Then they have to make sure we aren't mass murderers or Nazis or whatever, so the earliest I'd be admitted is the end of January.

So, still not allowed to call myself an attorney, darn it. But soon.

Thanks, good luck on your tests, and hopefully you won't be so withered that you can't hobble around Vegas...

Nathan Lundblad

Nathan Lundblad wrote on November 25, 2002 at 11:46 AM:

Vegas, baby!

And congratulations, Kate. I'm amazed you weren't constantly checking the online updating thing yourself...

Mike

Mike wrote on November 25, 2002 at 12:03 PM:

Well, that Nazi thing might be a bit of a hindrance, eh?

Novak

Novak wrote on November 25, 2002 at 12:12 PM:

Kate: Ah, I guess that would explain it. You mean they're not little scantron-type tests, like the ACT and SAT? THat would make them much quicker to grade, and I'm surprised ECT hasn't lobbied the Bar association to exhaustion for the increase in revenue they'd see....

As for scoliotic hobbling, just ask Mike what I looked like on Saturday. I left around 9:00 PM to get some [more] work done, and I could barely pick my feet up as I walked out. Damn near fell asleep and almost missed my stop on the El, too, which is unprecedented.

Anne

Anne wrote on November 25, 2002 at 12:51 PM:

Hey, congratulations, you who have talked me into many books from afar.

I'm very glad I belong in a profession that doesn't require marathon tests.

Pam

Pam wrote on November 25, 2002 at 1:21 PM:

Hm, good thing the NY Bar Association doesn't read Usenet, or they'd have found out about that whole Baby-Killing Nazi thing...

Anyhow, congratulations again.

And why is it that a Sherlock Holmes story is cited so commonly in legal documents that it can be referred to as "the work of fiction most often cited in legal documents"? Wouldn't it be, like, more official to cite an actual real-world case?

Elaine Normandy

Elaine Normandy wrote on November 25, 2002 at 1:52 PM:

Congratulations!

Kate

Kate wrote on November 25, 2002 at 9:24 PM:

Nathan: no constantly checking the online thing, did you want me to go insane with the waiting? I was quite successfully able to *not* *think* about it for 99.5% of the time.

John: the Multistate, one of the two days, is 200 multiple choice questions. However, NY's local day is 50 multiple choice questions and 6 essays (I think; I've already forgotten the details, mercifully). They've actually just added an additional essay-type-thing-type to make sure that people can write practical documents as well as essays; I think ours was a memo to a supervising attorney as to whether a criminal defendant could be properly charged with a particular crime.

Weasel-boy: Pfft.

Anne and Elaine: thanks very much.

Pam: Pfft^2. And it gets cited thus: "... this case is similar to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time [foonote: Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," in _The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_.], since here ..." So it is official in that it's citing the actual source of the reference. In other words, lawyers don't just use cliches, they cite them...

Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden wrote on November 27, 2002 at 8:03 PM:

Congratulations! An admirable achievement, in no wise diminished by no one's having ever doubted that you'd do it.

Katherine

Katherine wrote on November 29, 2002 at 6:08 PM:

Congratulations on your achievement! (I want to be you in about 5-6 years... ;-))

all the best.

Mary Kay Kare

Mary Kay Kare wrote on November 29, 2002 at 6:46 PM:

Let me add my belated congratulations as I attempt to catch up on blogs and booklogs this afternoon. Now we'll definitley have to rendezvous for a drink at Boskone to celebate. (Oh, and I'm throwing a RASFF Valentine's party to which you and Chad are invited.)

MKK

Kate

Kate wrote on November 30, 2002 at 10:07 PM:

Teresa, Katherine, Mary Kay--thanks, all.

Katherine--I hope you mean, you want to also have passed the bar in 5-6 years, 'cause it would be just weird to have another me running around. =>

Mary Kay--Boskone rasseff party sounds great, though I can't guarantee we'll be there for Friday. Celebratory drinks always good.

Martin Wisse

Martin Wisse wrote on December 1, 2002 at 3:10 PM:

and a somewhat late congratulations from me as well.

Sheerluck Holmes: yes, Conan Doyle made up a lot of stuff on the spot, including the denouncements if you ask me. Some of the solutions in _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ seemed somewhat farfetched when I read it last year. It's ironically that the iconic author of the classic puzzle branch of the detective genre was himself fairly sloppy in his reasoning.

Incidently, In _Flashman and the Tiger_, the latest Flashman book, there's a neat sideswipe at the Great Detective, echoing Pratchett's criticism of Holmes' deductions.

Castiron

Castiron wrote on December 2, 2002 at 1:18 PM:

Congratulations!

Leigh

Leigh wrote on December 2, 2002 at 8:35 PM:

Finally started bouncing around this little incestuous blog-ring you folks've got going, so... let me add my belated congratulations as well, Kate. 'Tis faaaabulous.

Hopefully Vegas will occur so I can say so in person.

Kate

Kate wrote on December 2, 2002 at 9:12 PM:

Martin, Castiron, Leigh--thanks again. (Even while I'm back in the "waaah I have no time" mode, I still bounce at the congratulations.)

Martin, I wonder if there's any historical difference or some other reason that Doyle's occasionally dubious puzzles became so iconic? Something about the way people approached texts then, maybe? I don't know enough.

Leigh--we aren't *that* bad...

Leigh

Leigh wrote on December 3, 2002 at 1:48 PM:

Suuuure you aren't...
*grin*

Youse guys are making me want to finally get around to doing my own...

Castiron

Castiron wrote on December 4, 2002 at 10:59 AM:

So, where _did_ you end up going for dinner? ;-)

Kate

Kate wrote on December 4, 2002 at 7:16 PM:

Provence, one we know to be reliable (well, except when I order traumatic food, but that's a different story).

Pam

Pam wrote on December 6, 2002 at 4:05 PM:

Okay, I gotta ask: exactly what counts as "traumatic food"? Food you eat while you're traumatized? Food which is produced in a traumatic fashion? Food which causes trauma?

Kate

Kate wrote on December 9, 2002 at 7:07 PM:

Food which causes trauma. Specifically, food that looks like a plate full of giant insects when one is mildly insect-phobic.

(Crawfish with the shell on, in this case.)