Inbox clutter

E-mail spam is always a headache. In spite of great advances in filtering technologies that divert unsolicited mail to a special trashcan, junk increasingly escapes their clutches and ends up in my mailbox. The other day, I received one that was sent by "me" to myself! The spam filter caught this one, thankfully, though others from perfectly fictitious entities were being neatly delivered into my Inbox!

Childhood dreams

Here is a quote by Clarence Darrow, a lawyer from the late 80s and early 90s. Any reasons why this line is doing the e-rounds at this point?

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm
beginning to believe it.

A brief bio of Clarence Darrow, taken from http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com:

Clarence Darrow (April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was the lawyer who defended Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murder and defended John T. Scopes in the so-called "Monkey Trial, opposing Fundamentalist prosecutor William Jennings Bryan. He remains famous for his wit, compassion, and agnosticism.

It is said that Clarence Darrow failed the bar exam six times, passing upon his seventh attempt. This feat is also shared by Judge Learned Hand, so fearful bar students can find solace in failing—they are in the company of the greats.

After beginning his career as a corporations lawyer in Illinois, he switched sides to represent the American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, in the Pullman Strike of 1894. Darrow had conscientiously resigned his lucrative corporate position to represent the working class, because he empathized with their plight. Unfortunatelly, Darrow had to compromise his principles when defending radical labor leaders such as Big Bill Haywood.

Darrow successfully defended Haywood, the leader of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Western Federation of Miners, on charges of murdering the former governor of Idaho in 1905. He was not so successful when called on to defend the MacNamara Brothers, who were charged with dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building during the bitter struggle over the open shop in Southern California: Darrow convinced them to plead guilty and barely escaped conviction himself for an alleged attempt to bribe a juror.

Whether guilty or not, Darrow left labor practice to devote himself to opposing the death penalty, which he felt to be in conflict with humanitarian progress. In more than 100 cases, Darrow only lost one murder case in Chicago. He became renowned for moving juries, even judges to tears with his eloquence. Despite scant education, Darrow had a keen intellect often shielded by his rumpled, unassuming appearance. Contrary to popular belief, he did not oppose religious principle, but the intolerance and ignorance preached by its more conservative practitioners, such as the Fundamentalists.

A story attributed to Darrow is his quip to a client, who, after winning, said, "How can I ever show my appreciation, Mr. Darrow?" Darrow replied, "Ever since the Phoenicians invented money, there has been only one answer to that question." However, Darrow's pursuit of wealth has been overstated by his detractors. Darrow often took on pro bono defendants who had no means to pay for their attorney.

During the 1924 Leopold-Loeb trial, when Darrow had supposedly accepted "a million-dollar defense," ordinary Americans were angered at their apparent betrayal. In truth, Darrow and his two co-counsels were given $100,000 to split three ways—after dunning the wealthy Loeb family for several months.

In 1925, he defended Ossian Sweet, a black doctor from Detroit, in the shooting death of a member of a white mob. The mob of at least a 1000 people had gathered outside Sweet's home to force him to move from the neighborhood. Darrow referred to the trial as one his best argued, closing with a legendary eight-hour impassioned closing argument which won acquittal for Dr. Sweet from the eleven-man jury, shocking the city.

After the 1925 Scopes Trial, Clarence Darrow largely retired from practice, emerging only occasionally to undertake cases, such as the 1934 Massey Murder Trial in Hawaii.

Darrow shared offices with Edgar Lee Masters, who achieved more fame for his poetry, in particular the Spoon River Anthology, than for his advocacy. Darrow also took Eugene V. Debs as a partner, following his release from prison.

Sidhuisms

Politics has not blunted Navjot Singh Sidhu's edge. Rather, it seems to have set his brain on fire! The latest backlash by the Amritsar babu against Pakistan's Moin Khan proves it:

"Mad dogs keep barking at the elephant, but the king elephant does not bother about them at all."

The context was, obviously, one of several mind-games played by brainless former players who cannot let go of the limelight. Moin asserted in his recent Rediff column, that Tendulkar is fading into history. When the latter smashed a pretty quick century in the last one-day game against Pakistan, Sidhu's fire was stoked to the full.

Of course, we lost the match inspite of a 300+ total, thanks to some brainless middle- and lower-order batting that saw the loss of 5 wickets for next to nothing in return (the dreaded Duckworth-Lewis method intervened to thwart India this time). So let the Tendulkar-bashing begin. Wasn't this century again in a "losing cause"? Frankly, the media seems to be adept at creating the worst cliches. What exactly is a "losing cause"?! Does anyone work towards losing? Is it really a cause?

In-flight reading

My favorite pastime on flights (long or short) is reading the in-flight sales catalogs. Most flights I have been on have one called SkyMall. The wares portrayed in these publications are typically grossly over-priced, but most of the "ideas" will stun you with the "creativity" of their "inventors".

My liberal sprinkling of quotation marks above must surely reveal my leanings on this issue. On a recent trip to Washington, DC, SkyMall had me rolling in the aisles with their selection of "must-have" gadgets and gee-gaws (a term I first heard uttered by Captain Haddock in the Tintin comic 'The Castafiore Emerald'). For example, there was an indoor ramp to allow your pet dog to get onto your sofa more easily. A similar product aimed at assisting dogs into cars. And I have to mention the man's organizer: a plain tray with a few dividers, to "store" keys, a cell phone and some change. Wow! table-tops seem to have become extinct now!

The next time you are on a plane and are bored out of your skull, turn immediately to SkyMall. I guarantee that it will be enough to fill the longest flight.

HOV: High Octane Ventures

As a transportation engineer, my eyes seem to trap more news stories involving cars, trains and anything remotely related to this field. Here is an example: in a span of just a few days, I chanced upon two articles involving the misuse of HOV traffic lanes.

High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are specially marked highway lanes restricted to vehicles with at least two occupants. These lanes are usually identified by the series of diamond-shaped symbols painted along their length. The motivation for such an idea is simple: provide a lane with fewer vehicles (and thus less congestion), which could force more people to share cars to and from work. In essence, they can potentially reduce the number of cars on the road. Resulting benefits could be widespread, and include reductions in travel delays, fuel consumption, emissions and accidents.

One woman was recently arrested for driving all by herself in an HOV lane. When she was hauled to court, she defended her action by claiming that her yet-to-be-born child was the second occupant! The judge threw her case out, and forced her to cough up the fee.

In a second incident, a man in the HOV lane was caught by a patrolling police officer because he had a fully-clothed dummy in the seat next to him! The officer apparently observed this car over several days, and noticed the same guy (in the same clothes, too) riding along!

All of this reminds me of my friend's account of innovative sellers in Greece, who marketed a plain white T-shirt with a single black band going across it - to "simulate" a seat belt! The idea was to attract drivers who were averse to wearing them, but (obviously) did not want to get caught.