Have you seen the Curmudgeonly Clerk's excellent post on the McDonald's coffee case? If you have more than a passing interest in the law of products liability, be sure to read it. My concern at the moment, however, is not with the post, but with its twenty-eight (and counting) comments. Many well-known webloggers have participated, including Ted Frank, The Uncivil Litigator, Mr. Poon, and the Clerk himself.
Tomorrow, at the risk of permanently offending my hero The Clerk, I will be handing out awards to some of the best of the post's commenters. If you have any desire to be present for the awards ceremony, you might want to read the comments. Be forewarned, however, that they are entertaining only if you allow your eyes to glaze over whenever you encounter any discussion of the law of products liability. Meanwhile, pay attention to the witty digs, the name-calling, the ungenerous characterizations of others' arguments, and the like. If you follow these rules, you'll be able to get through the post and the comments in no time.
In other programming notes, tomorrow I also plan to parody Terry Teachout, the Wall Street Journal drama critic and ubiquitous arts blogger. Although my circle of advisors, staff of editors, and stable of lawyers are advising against it, I think I've finally gained the upper hand.
Finally, I'm moving the guest-blogging feature to Wednesdays, as I hinted I might over the weekend. This Wednesday's guest blogger will be Dennis Kennedy. Very exciting!
Avoiding said witty digs, name-calling, and ungenerous characterizations was why I just trackbacked to the Clerk and some of his principle debate partners, and posted my own take on the case on my own blog. (My conclusion: if it's wrong, the verdict is more likely an aberration, rather than as something indicative of a basic flaw in the law or the civil justice system. Curious if you agree, Evan.)
Yeah, stuff gets less traffic that way. But few people pursue me to my own blog to just to insult me gratuitously. Hmmm. Where's that "make blog public" toggle on TypePad's control panel?
Posted by: Beldar | August 09, 2004 at 10:34 PM
Damn, Beldar! I've got my post written already, and it ends with a link to your post. So you stole my thunder, sort of. But I want you to know I read your post already, before you mentioned it here. And yes, I very much agree.
Posted by: Evan | August 10, 2004 at 12:02 AM
Well, hell, you run this place, just delete the whole damn thing. My comment, your reply, this comment. That's what being the blogger-in-chief is all about!
Posted by: Beldar | August 10, 2004 at 01:58 AM