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Crank Calls. Emails. Whatever.
Mar. 20th, 2021 09:22 pmEleanor was out most of the morning on delivering beds and bedding around inner city Buffalo neighborhoods. A friend got her involved in a program called Sleep In Heavenly Peace, a national organization that builds beds for kids in need and then provides them. The local operation is based out of a former storefront in one of the dead malls surrounding suburban B-lo; it's a program worthy of its own post, and that I will try to share more about. Meanwhile, left here to my own devices, most of them not working to one extent or another, I went all Grumpy Old Man on people.
First was my own bank- the one my business has been with for all 15 years of its existence, I've had a personal connection to for most of the 20 before that, and who I generally think positive things about. Their business banking website was running slow to nonexistent the past couple of days, and I wound up in 800-numberland trying to resolve it. We ultimately concluded that their "solution" was to clear all my Chrome cookies and site history data, and change the browser bookmark to their general bank main page, from which an online banking link then appears. Only problem with this approach is it also cleared out all my Chrome login data on every other site, so I spent much of the day two-factor authenticating with everybody else. But I think we've got it managed for now.
I then delved into the wonderful world of competitive email blasting.
----
First up was the lecture series site from two nights ago. Initially, I wrote to ask if they could provide multiple links to other ways to access their series via streaming, since our smart television couldn't find the proprietary site for the show, and I checked today and could not find an app for that. But then, I reflected further and sent them the following:
I just realized I sent the email below to Crowdcast, which is kind of like complaining to foxes about the construction quality of henhouses. But on further reflection, I realized I didn't ask the most important question: why is this series paywalled during a pandemic in the first place?
The closest analogous event to yours locally is the UB Distinguished Speakers Series. We participated in that, too, in the Before Times. Their reaction to the shutdown was to make the events free and accessible in an interactive format. And I'm betting Leslie Odom Jr. gets a bigger honorarium than anyone on this site
Other than the kids you bus in from Park School for these events (can I get on that bus? must be easier than parking down there;), you have a Kleinhans audience. We're old, grumpy and are lucky to find the "any" key. The more options you give us, the easier it is. Put it on all platforms- Facebook Watch, Youtube, Zoom, Teams, whatever. Need money? Put out a tip jar. We fill them regularly! (Also, we paid for these two events and donated the price difference. We WANT more people to be able to get in!) And take questions from the audience at large in real time like you did in Before Times; sorry, but a UB prof, a Very Important Minister and a couple of kids don't get the range of experience and quest for knowledge. Zoom allows real time questions and real time responses. The other platforms have similar functions.
Sorry to rant, but I've failed this week at Zoom, Geeks Who Drink, Facebook Watch and this. Hopefully by fall we'll all have our shots and dewormings and we can return to the way we were. Virtual can survive as an option, but it's got to be done thoughtfully and taking the needs of the participants on both sides of the stage into account. I'd be happy to participate in discussions about that.
No word back yet from THAT.
----
I then moved on, after reading today's lovely story about the latest debacle concerning a local trial judge who hasn't been having himself a good month. Word got out in early March that on the last day of February, he'd laid his head on the railroad tracks, not waiting for the EE, but for what, exactly, nobody's saying, nor is anyone releasing the videos that might confirm whether Hizzoner tripped, was pushed or just decided to take a little nap on a third rail. An FBI investigation into Some Friend Of The Judge is going on, which may involve a local chapter of a famed but officially nonexistent Italian American civil organization. But today's revelations took even weirder turns, in that our local paper was able to confirm his specific investigation for judicial misconduct- for officiating at SFOTJ's wedding for a $5,000 fee, aka fifty times more than the law allows, and not reporting same on his annual financial disclosure forms.
By "confirm," they never did get as far as the state commission in charge of such thing admitting it- but neither did they deny it, and the charges are pretty well specific and documented. Since this isn't the first time one of these "investigations" has caught us all off guard, I penned this response to my local state legislator of my own party:
Dear Assemblyperson:
I am a constituent and neighbor of yours, and have practiced law for over 35 years, most of them here. I remember how civics works (work?), but more importantly my kid grew up on Schoolhouse Rock and "I'm Just A Bill," so I know how it's SUPPOSED to work. When someone has A Good Idea, they take it to their legislator, who introduces it, debates it, sends it to the other house, works the differences out in committee and sends it on for signature. Yay! But I've also lived here long enough to know that it doesn't work that way often, if ever- but maybe this problem is something we can all agree on as needing to be solved.
In just the past 10-15 years, I have witnessed the parade of disgrace coming from the benches of Western New York. Judges I regularly appeared before, shocking us in their departures- for bribery and influence peddling, for falsifying testimony to "help a friend," for verbal abuse to and making inappropriate demands on court staff, to drunk driving and making demeaning statements about attorneys appearing before her. (The latter only came up in that last case because she was charged with the former, and fought her removal all the way to the Court of Appeals while drawing full pay the whole time. If making demeaning statements about attorneys on the record was a removable offense, we wouldn't have any judges left.)
And now we have a State Supreme Court Justice lying down on railroad tracks and involved with certain nonexistent civic organizations. Allegedly.
All of these prove the uselessness of the current mechanism for investigation, determination and ultimate penalty, if any. How the latest justice's investigation got leaked is a surprise; the Judicial Conduct Commission's tight-lipped "I KNOW NUTTTHINK!" response on the record is not a surprise at all. If any attorney had been accused of any of the foregoing, we would be on Appellate Division suspension in a week and the end result would be pronounced and public within a few months. Judges take "innocent until proven guilty" to another level entirely, retaining pay if not complete power until Albany "gets around to it." The Honorable Drunk "Don't You Know Who I Am?" judge milked the payroll for over a year because the commission was too broke to order a transcript.
Not a peep from the administration of the courts, now down a justice in the middle of an already stressed time. What do I get from them this week? A fee increase, and a snarky memo saying "When you're on a Teams call with us, we want suits and heels and no sex toys in the background and NO EATING OR DRINKING!"
I therefore propose a Judiciary Law amendment to make the commission more inclusive of members of the public, more open to the public and press, and a provision for the suspension of duties and pay if the charges appear to warrant it. I would welcome the chance to speak with your staff about introducing and advancing such legislation.
Only answer to that one so far was a standard autoreply from her email, blah blah thank you but I get too many emails to answer them all personally. I have a feeling this one might get a reply, though.
----
The final crank of the day was entirely in my own mind.
Eleanor's been on a cleaning and decluttering state of mind this week, and several boxes of Christmas ornaments and other decorations appeared in the landing to the garage a few days ago. She intended them for Goodwill, so I loaded them into her car, brought a few more similar boxes up to join them, and then this afternoon took them to the dropoff point where they were successfully offloaded....
but not without a chortle.
One of the boxes, Eleanor had labeled “flattish ornaments.“ I misread it, of course, as “fetish ornaments.”
OK, then. We knew that Santa knows when you’ve been naughty, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind....
At least he didn't bind me, gag me and dump me on some railroad tracks;)
First was my own bank- the one my business has been with for all 15 years of its existence, I've had a personal connection to for most of the 20 before that, and who I generally think positive things about. Their business banking website was running slow to nonexistent the past couple of days, and I wound up in 800-numberland trying to resolve it. We ultimately concluded that their "solution" was to clear all my Chrome cookies and site history data, and change the browser bookmark to their general bank main page, from which an online banking link then appears. Only problem with this approach is it also cleared out all my Chrome login data on every other site, so I spent much of the day two-factor authenticating with everybody else. But I think we've got it managed for now.
I then delved into the wonderful world of competitive email blasting.
----
First up was the lecture series site from two nights ago. Initially, I wrote to ask if they could provide multiple links to other ways to access their series via streaming, since our smart television couldn't find the proprietary site for the show, and I checked today and could not find an app for that. But then, I reflected further and sent them the following:
I just realized I sent the email below to Crowdcast, which is kind of like complaining to foxes about the construction quality of henhouses. But on further reflection, I realized I didn't ask the most important question: why is this series paywalled during a pandemic in the first place?
The closest analogous event to yours locally is the UB Distinguished Speakers Series. We participated in that, too, in the Before Times. Their reaction to the shutdown was to make the events free and accessible in an interactive format. And I'm betting Leslie Odom Jr. gets a bigger honorarium than anyone on this site
Other than the kids you bus in from Park School for these events (can I get on that bus? must be easier than parking down there;), you have a Kleinhans audience. We're old, grumpy and are lucky to find the "any" key. The more options you give us, the easier it is. Put it on all platforms- Facebook Watch, Youtube, Zoom, Teams, whatever. Need money? Put out a tip jar. We fill them regularly! (Also, we paid for these two events and donated the price difference. We WANT more people to be able to get in!) And take questions from the audience at large in real time like you did in Before Times; sorry, but a UB prof, a Very Important Minister and a couple of kids don't get the range of experience and quest for knowledge. Zoom allows real time questions and real time responses. The other platforms have similar functions.
Sorry to rant, but I've failed this week at Zoom, Geeks Who Drink, Facebook Watch and this. Hopefully by fall we'll all have our shots and dewormings and we can return to the way we were. Virtual can survive as an option, but it's got to be done thoughtfully and taking the needs of the participants on both sides of the stage into account. I'd be happy to participate in discussions about that.
No word back yet from THAT.
----
I then moved on, after reading today's lovely story about the latest debacle concerning a local trial judge who hasn't been having himself a good month. Word got out in early March that on the last day of February, he'd laid his head on the railroad tracks, not waiting for the EE, but for what, exactly, nobody's saying, nor is anyone releasing the videos that might confirm whether Hizzoner tripped, was pushed or just decided to take a little nap on a third rail. An FBI investigation into Some Friend Of The Judge is going on, which may involve a local chapter of a famed but officially nonexistent Italian American civil organization. But today's revelations took even weirder turns, in that our local paper was able to confirm his specific investigation for judicial misconduct- for officiating at SFOTJ's wedding for a $5,000 fee, aka fifty times more than the law allows, and not reporting same on his annual financial disclosure forms.
By "confirm," they never did get as far as the state commission in charge of such thing admitting it- but neither did they deny it, and the charges are pretty well specific and documented. Since this isn't the first time one of these "investigations" has caught us all off guard, I penned this response to my local state legislator of my own party:
Dear Assemblyperson:
I am a constituent and neighbor of yours, and have practiced law for over 35 years, most of them here. I remember how civics works (work?), but more importantly my kid grew up on Schoolhouse Rock and "I'm Just A Bill," so I know how it's SUPPOSED to work. When someone has A Good Idea, they take it to their legislator, who introduces it, debates it, sends it to the other house, works the differences out in committee and sends it on for signature. Yay! But I've also lived here long enough to know that it doesn't work that way often, if ever- but maybe this problem is something we can all agree on as needing to be solved.
In just the past 10-15 years, I have witnessed the parade of disgrace coming from the benches of Western New York. Judges I regularly appeared before, shocking us in their departures- for bribery and influence peddling, for falsifying testimony to "help a friend," for verbal abuse to and making inappropriate demands on court staff, to drunk driving and making demeaning statements about attorneys appearing before her. (The latter only came up in that last case because she was charged with the former, and fought her removal all the way to the Court of Appeals while drawing full pay the whole time. If making demeaning statements about attorneys on the record was a removable offense, we wouldn't have any judges left.)
And now we have a State Supreme Court Justice lying down on railroad tracks and involved with certain nonexistent civic organizations. Allegedly.
All of these prove the uselessness of the current mechanism for investigation, determination and ultimate penalty, if any. How the latest justice's investigation got leaked is a surprise; the Judicial Conduct Commission's tight-lipped "I KNOW NUTTTHINK!" response on the record is not a surprise at all. If any attorney had been accused of any of the foregoing, we would be on Appellate Division suspension in a week and the end result would be pronounced and public within a few months. Judges take "innocent until proven guilty" to another level entirely, retaining pay if not complete power until Albany "gets around to it." The Honorable Drunk "Don't You Know Who I Am?" judge milked the payroll for over a year because the commission was too broke to order a transcript.
Not a peep from the administration of the courts, now down a justice in the middle of an already stressed time. What do I get from them this week? A fee increase, and a snarky memo saying "When you're on a Teams call with us, we want suits and heels and no sex toys in the background and NO EATING OR DRINKING!"
I therefore propose a Judiciary Law amendment to make the commission more inclusive of members of the public, more open to the public and press, and a provision for the suspension of duties and pay if the charges appear to warrant it. I would welcome the chance to speak with your staff about introducing and advancing such legislation.
Only answer to that one so far was a standard autoreply from her email, blah blah thank you but I get too many emails to answer them all personally. I have a feeling this one might get a reply, though.
----
The final crank of the day was entirely in my own mind.
Eleanor's been on a cleaning and decluttering state of mind this week, and several boxes of Christmas ornaments and other decorations appeared in the landing to the garage a few days ago. She intended them for Goodwill, so I loaded them into her car, brought a few more similar boxes up to join them, and then this afternoon took them to the dropoff point where they were successfully offloaded....
but not without a chortle.
One of the boxes, Eleanor had labeled “flattish ornaments.“ I misread it, of course, as “fetish ornaments.”
OK, then. We knew that Santa knows when you’ve been naughty, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind....
At least he didn't bind me, gag me and dump me on some railroad tracks;)