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Tag: Law

My Friend ruined "The Big Toy"

This used to be my playground

The liability panic is adult nuttiness except when it’s not. It’s a fairly raw issue in Greenwich, where, for instance, a doctor was awarded $6.3 million a few years back when he broke his leg in two places while sledding with his 4-year-old son.

Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come

My friend Bryan Solgoode ruined the Big Toy for us all.

It feels good to say it out loud.

He was my friend and all, but only after the fact.  He wasn’t my friend when he did it.  It was his fault though, or more correctly, it was his mother’s fault for raising him as a crybaby.  Bryan could probably crush your dreams of fatherhood with a stern look these days, but when he was young you could bring him to tears with a strong word.  Thus Bryan destroyed the fun of childhood by being a giant slobbering wimp.

In the picture linked to this story, you see an open, vacant lot where a gigantic three tier, rope bridged behemoth of awesome once stood.  It had swings, and ladders and sand and tire swings and a tower.  Three stories tall!  An amazing “Big Toy” by any accounting.  I wish I had a picture of it to show you, but the fun police tore it down after Bryan “Big Baby” Solgoode fell off of it and hurt himself (through his own misadventure).

This was one of those Big Toys that would be called an attractive nuisance these days and be shut down so as to avoid lawsuits from crazed parents.  I mean, they didn’t even have to pay for medical bills, he didn’t die!  Years later, when involved in fights that cost a kid the use of his kidneys, Bryan didn’t have his legs cut off, did he? Nope, but because Bryan fell off of the biggest and best big toy in Kincardine, we all lose out.  We keep losing out when something cool or fun is closed to avoid lawsuits.

Where does it all end?

Note:  Bryan Solgoode is not his name, I changed it, for FEAR OF BEING SUED.

Bob Dylan is no source for legal argument

“The correct rule on the necessity of expert testimony has been summarized by Bob Dylan: ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,’ â€ a California appeals court wrote in 1981, citing “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Eighteen other decisions have cited that lyric.

The Chief Justice, Dylan and the Disappearing Double Negative

While one may not need a weatherman (who may or may not be a meteorologist) one should in fact consult an expert in legal matters, just in case the apparent truth of the breeze may simply be the eye of a much larger storm.

This is all about this quote:

“The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “ â€˜When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).”

I suspect when a Chief Justice bowdlerizes a quote from an old hippy I should think back to the fact that Ann Coulter is apparently a Deadhead and take heart that there was always a good reason to dislike the old hippies.  The most prominent fact being that the children of hippies tended to end up as Conservative Douchebags (albeit successful and wealthy douchebags).