Friday Link List

via The Oatmeal

Pardon the slightly coarse language above, but in an unusual turn of events recently, I was given occasion to attempt to explain cryptocurrency and blockchain to someone quite senior to me. I can't say for sure that I was successful. This joke is very relevant to law in general, actually, because of the extraordinary number of open questions that remain in even well-developed areas of the law. 

1. // As it's been a while since I last recommended it, I wanted to sing the praises of The Fashion Law again. It's such a fabulous and prolific blog, with broad coverage of legal and business issues related to fashion. I gather from this recent interview with Julie Zerbo, the creator and primary author, that she runs a very small operation, in which case, wow, the level of dedication and hard work that she's devoting to it, possibly entirely by herself on the writing front, is amazing. I particularly enjoy Zerbo's coverage of FTC guidelines and truth in advertising issues, i.e. here. 

2. // One reason I'm so protective of my anonymity (when I first started this blog, I didn't even disclose the type of graduate school I attended) is that a part of me worries whether my blogging could ever become a professional obstacle. I've seen someone lose a clerkship interview over their conspicuous and weakly written online article that popped up in their first page of google results. There manages, in a fit of strange coincidence, to be more than one current biglaw lawyer by day, former fashion blogger by night, that I don't think I can ever view positively, in the highly unlikely circumstance that our professional paths ever cross, specifically because of poorly written entries or other serious markers of poor judgment (think cyberbullying a vulnerable person) apparent from their blogs. In all instances, the offending content has long since been scrubbed from the web, but my memory is forever.

Alas, under our current administration, significantly worse blogging activity and other internet-based indiscretions are no longer sufficient to disqualify a person from becoming a judicial nominee. There are no less than three separate examples. Thankfully, the one who both failed to disclose a conspicuous potential conflict of interest and who simultaneously managed to be a ghost hunter, a horror novelist, and a KKK-defender has been withdrawn.

3. // Here are a few memorable 2017 posts from the many cool people in my blogroll: Style DTour's beautiful wedding dress; Jane's post about being done, for now, with online dating (in my usual way, I left a rambly comment); Cassie's year-end recap, including of her moves towards zero waste; Ariana's post about why she first went zero waste, and by the way, her writing this year has been incredible and harrowing, and is all highly recommended; and LL's thoughtful post about the Woman's March in Boston, which is particularly interesting to read now, as so incredibly much has happened since, both arguable victories and setbacks alike. I could never successfully compile a comprehensive list of every post worth checking out from my blogroll, as the list would be miles long, but rest assured, you can't go wrong with clicking on any of those blogs!

4. // If you're based in the US and have Netflix, or otherwise have access to the show, I highly recommend Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the CW musical dramedy. I haven't had this much fun watching something in a long time. It isn't for everyone - it's very much about mental illness (and is a compassionate treatment of those issues) - among other fairly dark and serious things, and the opportunities for secondhand embarrassment from what's onscreen are about as extreme as I've ever seen, but it is so smartly written, and completely hilarious. I'm normally someone who'd be completely turned off of a show by the secondhand embarrassment effect, but it's so good that I powered through anyway.

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5. // As you may recall, I have a possibly questionable fondness for H&M Premium Quality cashmere, in part because their super-slouchy cashmere sweater (worn here), a birthday gift from a few years ago, is my favorite sweater. They've brought back their cashmere blanket scarf in more versatile colors than earlier this year, black, pale gray, and a somewhat toned-down bubblegum pink. The dimensions are a little smaller than the Grana one I bought, but it seems large enough to wear the same way, as both a slightly chunky scarf or a medium-sized shawl/wrap.

6. // I may put in an order for a pair of Sam Edelman Loraine loafers, as I've been in the market (I waited for months for the M. Gemi Felize to come back in solid-color leather, but they've only had it in suede), but might ultimately be put off because my size, 7.5, is no longer available anywhere in black leather. If I order, I'll be trying out the 8. The almost-identical Sam Edelman Lior loafers are available my size, but the horsebit hardware looks different. (And yes, I might be influenced by wanting something that looks like the Gucci loafers.)

How do you feel about Bitcoin? Have you ever seen Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? I wasn't able to get into it the first time I watched because the format takes some getting used to, but this time I got completely swept up.