I have
been thinking about writing a blog for a long time. The idea fits well with one of my youthful
career goals – becoming a newspaper columnist -- which arose chronologically somewhere
in the midst of major League shortstop, novelist, and high school history
teacher (combined if possible with high school baseball & soccer coach).
I was actually “this close” to
starting a blog about 15 -20 years ago. A
student who had been quiet up until then came up to me after class and said
that it was important that I have an online presence – maybe a “zine” or diary.
He had even decided to help me along. Amazingly, before even speaking with me he
had bought the domain name, hughhansen.com, and had programmed and formatted the
website himself. He created various pages
for it that had Latin-like filler text waiting for me to come along and replace
it with my own. But much to my regret, this
extraordinary opportunity was never realized.
I hesitated too long and finally lost contact with him. It was early days, preblogospheric, and I did
not know anyone who had a zine or anything else like it, or who could
technically create one. Nevertheless, the
idea remained in the back of my mind.
So why
did it take so long to start? One reason is that I have trouble organizing my
life, especially where there is a technical component. Another reason is that I
wondered whether I would have the time to do it properly. Today, I still have problems organizing my
life and I’m pretty sure that I don’t have the time to do it properly. Nevertheless, I asked myself, “if not now,
when?” “Never” crossed my mind, but then
in rapid succession so did “never say never,” “nothing ventured nothing gained,” and finally,
“perhaps I should try Twitter.” Indeed,
for a while tweets seemed to satisfy my need to set the world straight. But soon I ended up having ideas, too long,
complex and brilliant for 140 characters, which began spilling over into the
custom-made tweet basin that I use.
Finally,
I no longer could avoid what destiny clearly had in mind for me: “Hugh Hansen’s
One Thing After Another Blog.”
Why this Name?
“One Thing After Another” was the
title of a Canadian newspaper column, and of a book that collected them in 1948.
The author was Charles Bothwell Pyper, known to the world as C.B. Pyper but to me
as Uncle Charley. He was my great uncle, my grandmother’s brother. He was born in Belfast, moved to Canada at an
early age, and drifted into journalism.
He served in the British Army during WWI and was seriously wounded. Back in Canada he became an editorial writer
and then a war correspondent covering the Spanish Civil War, the Russo-Finish
War and then WWII “embedded” (to use a current term) with the Canadian army in
Europe. Sometime between the wars he was
also a columnist. He took on any and all
topics, including the minutiae of day-to-day life in a self-deprecating, witty
and insightful manner. One review called
the book a “volume of brilliant essays” and another stated that Pyper had been
hiding his “literary light under an editorial bushel in a newspaper
office.” My uncle’s sense of humor,
insight and wit remind me of Mark Twain.
I think if he had been writing in the U.S. he would have been recognized
as a leading writer and columnist.
One
Thing After Another was the first adult book I read. I was tremendously impressed with it and
still am. To this day my uncle remains
an inspiration. So naturally I would want to name my blog after
his column. The name also fits because my posts will be on
relatively diverse topics like his columns. I added “Hugh Hansen’s . . . blog” to the name to distinguish it
from yet another “One Thing After Another . . .”, an online “diary about two
lads and Eddie the dog” which seems to focus on recipes, pictures of the actual
cooking and delicious-looking results.
What Will it Cover?
Most blogs seem to focus on one subject
matter or area. This is particularly
true for those dealing with law. This format
makes sense. For instance, lawyers and
academics tend to specialize, and have little time for material outside of
their areas. Nonetheless, I intend to
post things in a number of areas: IP law, some con law, other legal topics, and
also a number of non-legal topics. Readers of course can pick and choose what
they want to read.
With regard to the law, I am a
legal realist (lower case) and will be looking beyond, beneath and inside the doctrine
in cases. I will try to determine if
something other than statutory language or case law might have driven a result. To what extent will a holding in a case act
as a binding precedent even for the same judge or judges in the future? Similarly, how might other judges in the same
or other circuits view the case, and to what extent might they follow it? As you probably perceive, I am a stare decisis skeptic.
Also, I will be sharing my views on
aspects of federal practice, particularly with regard to litigation. I have been lucky to have observed many
trials and appeals as a law clerk in the S.D.N.Y. and Second Circuit. I have
been a litigation associate in a large law firm, tried a number of cases as an AUSA, consulted on cases here and abroad, and have analyzed countless
cases as a teacher deconstructing what went wrong or right. It would be unfortunate if I hadn't learned
something from all of this.
Conclusion.
I am glad to finally start a blog. I plan to have fun and hopefully produce
something for readers to think about, whether they agree or disagree with it. I
welcome comments but please remember, I am a sensitive lad.
0 comments:
Post a Comment