http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com Rory Olsen's reflections on writing, law and life. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:00:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Below is a copy of a letter that I mailed yesterday to Jeff Bezos, Chairman and CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. March 13, 2010 Re: Askville.com Dear Mr. Bezos: Almost three years ago, I accepted an invitation via e-mail from your firm to participate in a new venture called Askville. I will always be glad ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/03/14/revolt-of-the-masses/ Over the last few days, a lady who once upon a time had a case in my court, didn't bother to retain counsel and then lost her case, has been posting derogatory comments about me, my trip to Texas Tech, my morals and many other things in comments section of ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/02/08/ex-parte/ As I mentioned in a previous posting, when I agreed to submit an article to the Texas Tech Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal, I also agreed to speak at their one day seminar held on February 5th. The trip there was a bit of an adventure. The itinerary called ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/02/06/trip-to-speak-at-texas-tech/ The Houston Bar Association conducts polls of its members in election years. The idea behind the poll is for lawyers who have appeared before sitting judges or worked with non-incumbent judicial candidates to rate the qualifications of those running. Bar polls are not truly representative of lawyers, since membership in ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/01/23/have-they-no-shame/ First, the  committee approved my thesis. Actually, they approved it subject to making a number  of technical changes that need to be made to make the UNR bureaucrats happy. But the vast majority of the work is over. Thanks are due to Dr. John Dobra who ably chair the committee. ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/01/20/january-19-2010-has-turned-out-to-be-a-great-day/ I will make my speech at Texas Tech next month.  In preparation for the speech, I finished my PowerPoint presentation today. A small glitch developed. Of course! The glitch was that the audio/video clip that I had inserted into the presentation failed to transfer either to another computer in my office ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2010/01/15/i-learned-something-today/ I realize that this is purely anecdotal evidence, but today, December 4th, Houston, Texas had its earliest snowfall on record. Where I am at the roofs of the houses and some of the front lawns have more than several inches of snow accumulated.  There is so much snow that it ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2009/12/04/global-warming/ Houston, being on the Texas Gulf Coast, has a mild climate, particularly when compared to the city of my birth--Chicago. Today, December first, my mind has started to wander to thoughts of Spring. Unfortunately, the weather is not the cause of my thinking about Spring. No, what has happened is that ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2009/12/01/thoughts-of-spring/ My oldest cat, Dominique, had a reoccurrence of health problem. So I took her to the vet this morning. Dominique is the sweetest tempered being of any species that I have been blessed to have known.  She is a Tonkinese cat and like many of her breed has a calm demeanor, ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2009/11/18/how-i-learned-to-make-a-cat-taco/ The other evening while reading Levitt and Dubner's SuperFreakonomics, I came across the name of one of the true benefactor's of mankind, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss. Never heard of the name? I never did either until I read the book. But, I am sure that you have heard of his seminal ... http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2009/11/05/a-forgotten-benefactor/