Sue Hemberger
@smhemberger.bsky.social
Loves books, food, movies, cities, conversation, and trees. Sociable introvert. Deinstitutionalized academic.
Had that problem with Rosenberg’s Trial of the Assassin Guiteau just this morning! (Last opened in the early 1990s when it lost out to Foucault’s I Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my Mother for the “dueling discourses” slot in my Law & Lit syllabus. Good times, lol!)
November 11, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Had that problem with Rosenberg’s Trial of the Assassin Guiteau just this morning! (Last opened in the early 1990s when it lost out to Foucault’s I Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my Mother for the “dueling discourses” slot in my Law & Lit syllabus. Good times, lol!)
I organize by category not color, but lots of books fit multiple categories for me. I tend to remember covers and, as a result, I not infrequently find myself looking for a book of a particular color. And I am foiled by publishers that give the spine a different color than the cover. Don’t do that!
November 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I organize by category not color, but lots of books fit multiple categories for me. I tend to remember covers and, as a result, I not infrequently find myself looking for a book of a particular color. And I am foiled by publishers that give the spine a different color than the cover. Don’t do that!
As a lefty white woman, for decades now I’ve felt that the Democratic party has welcomed the GOP’s misogyny. The message to people like me has felt like “suck it up cuz where else are you gonna go?!”
November 10, 2025 at 3:04 PM
As a lefty white woman, for decades now I’ve felt that the Democratic party has welcomed the GOP’s misogyny. The message to people like me has felt like “suck it up cuz where else are you gonna go?!”
Thank you for your service.
November 10, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Thank you for your service.
Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm
Force Majeure
Force Majeure
November 6, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm
Force Majeure
Force Majeure
Thanks!! FWIW, it looks like this specific issue (use of the husher) was litigated/upheld by the DC Court of Appeals in 2019 (Sup Ct declined review) Blades v. United States, 200 A.3d 230, 238-41 (D.C. 2019). www.acludc.org/cases/blades...
Blades v. United States - Asserting Public Right of Access to Full Jury-Selection Proceedings in Criminal Trials - ACLU of DC
Mr. Blades was convicted of assault with intent to kill while armed and related offenses, after a trial in which was conducted in a manner that is quite common in D.C. Superior Court. First, the judg...
www.acludc.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Thanks!! FWIW, it looks like this specific issue (use of the husher) was litigated/upheld by the DC Court of Appeals in 2019 (Sup Ct declined review) Blades v. United States, 200 A.3d 230, 238-41 (D.C. 2019). www.acludc.org/cases/blades...
Please cite that case.
November 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Please cite that case.
Depending on the judge, the whole process can be inaudible. IME, a prospective juror might receive/answer initial screening questions via a written form or the judge might ask those questions audibly & have members of the pool answer with a show of hands (which then leads to further inaudible Q&A).
November 6, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Depending on the judge, the whole process can be inaudible. IME, a prospective juror might receive/answer initial screening questions via a written form or the judge might ask those questions audibly & have members of the pool answer with a show of hands (which then leads to further inaudible Q&A).
That’s the norm in DC (assuming you mean the individualized part of voir dire with the white noise machine turned on). And has been for years.
November 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
That’s the norm in DC (assuming you mean the individualized part of voir dire with the white noise machine turned on). And has been for years.
Kind of an assholic cartoon. Willful ignorance and/or deceit aren’t something I’d associate with people who are literally blind.
November 6, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Kind of an assholic cartoon. Willful ignorance and/or deceit aren’t something I’d associate with people who are literally blind.
And a very reasonable price!
November 6, 2025 at 12:54 PM
And a very reasonable price!
Mostly agree. But c’mon some works get way more attention than they merit, lol!
November 6, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Mostly agree. But c’mon some works get way more attention than they merit, lol!
Oops, “local”— not
“colonial” newspapers!
“colonial” newspapers!
November 5, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Oops, “local”— not
“colonial” newspapers!
“colonial” newspapers!
The closest I’ve seen to evidence of influence is that in 1754 Ben Franklin cited the Iroquois confederacy as a model for the proposed but rejected Albany Plan of Union. Yes, 30+ years later BF was a member of the Philadelphia Convention but he does not make a similar move there/then.
November 4, 2025 at 11:06 PM
The closest I’ve seen to evidence of influence is that in 1754 Ben Franklin cited the Iroquois confederacy as a model for the proposed but rejected Albany Plan of Union. Yes, 30+ years later BF was a member of the Philadelphia Convention but he does not make a similar move there/then.
There’s a pretty vast (and now relatively accessible) documentary record re the framing and ratification of the Constitution of 1787. (Including the 18th c equivalent of ‘internet stuff” — i.e. short anonymous real time commentary published in colonial newspapers). It does not support this claim.
November 4, 2025 at 10:52 PM
There’s a pretty vast (and now relatively accessible) documentary record re the framing and ratification of the Constitution of 1787. (Including the 18th c equivalent of ‘internet stuff” — i.e. short anonymous real time commentary published in colonial newspapers). It does not support this claim.
Also, the framers were worried about whether their union would survive post-revolution/once united action against a common foe no longer seemed imperative. So they weren’t going to pattern their new constitution after a federation that had already proven itself unable to survive that revolution.
November 4, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Also, the framers were worried about whether their union would survive post-revolution/once united action against a common foe no longer seemed imperative. So they weren’t going to pattern their new constitution after a federation that had already proven itself unable to survive that revolution.
Almost always, I get asked this question after someone has (or is close to someone who has) contracted COVID and they want immediate practical advice and a better way of avoiding infection going forward.
November 4, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Almost always, I get asked this question after someone has (or is close to someone who has) contracted COVID and they want immediate practical advice and a better way of avoiding infection going forward.
Transmission is airborne. Masking and improving/monitoring indoor air quality are important steps for protecting yourself and others, in addition to vaccines. Even post -exposure, there are cheap/simple things you can do to decrease the odds/severity of infection (nasal sprays/lavage, CPC mouthwash)
November 4, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Transmission is airborne. Masking and improving/monitoring indoor air quality are important steps for protecting yourself and others, in addition to vaccines. Even post -exposure, there are cheap/simple things you can do to decrease the odds/severity of infection (nasal sprays/lavage, CPC mouthwash)
You’d think that the “marketplace of ideas” rhetoric would have lost its appeal in the age of billionaires/monopoly capitalism…
November 4, 2025 at 7:16 PM
You’d think that the “marketplace of ideas” rhetoric would have lost its appeal in the age of billionaires/monopoly capitalism…
And Chicago does, lol?!
November 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
And Chicago does, lol?!
Sidenote — similar issue in HS. Craziest example involved a Frederick Douglass narrative and, if you knew the whole text (I happened to), the essay you’d write to answer the question being posed would bear scant resemblance to what you could produce given only the assigned reading.
November 3, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Sidenote — similar issue in HS. Craziest example involved a Frederick Douglass narrative and, if you knew the whole text (I happened to), the essay you’d write to answer the question being posed would bear scant resemblance to what you could produce given only the assigned reading.
I’m not sure how you make a credible claim about an author or a text with such limited exposure. I mean yes, you can choose a particular passage as exemplary, but your choice is, presumably, *your* choice and you chose it for a reason based on your familiarity with the work as a whole.
November 3, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I’m not sure how you make a credible claim about an author or a text with such limited exposure. I mean yes, you can choose a particular passage as exemplary, but your choice is, presumably, *your* choice and you chose it for a reason based on your familiarity with the work as a whole.
I was kind of shocked when the Marx that my daughter got in her soc sci core course @ Chicago consisted of about 10 pages of The German Ideology. And in another humanities (?) core course they were reading parts of novels.
November 3, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I was kind of shocked when the Marx that my daughter got in her soc sci core course @ Chicago consisted of about 10 pages of The German Ideology. And in another humanities (?) core course they were reading parts of novels.
“Best case for the other side” is how I learned this as an undergrad (and that figuring it out was a prerequisite to making a strong case for your own position). As a then-recent HS debater, it was, for me, an excellent and intellectually responsible corrective.
November 1, 2025 at 3:03 PM
“Best case for the other side” is how I learned this as an undergrad (and that figuring it out was a prerequisite to making a strong case for your own position). As a then-recent HS debater, it was, for me, an excellent and intellectually responsible corrective.