Many of our readers are students, preparing to return to school after Christmas break. They will undoubtedly encounter essay and research paper assignments with strict requirements concerning the number of words. For […]
It goes without saying that legal documents tend to be boring. If they were interesting, people would actually read the fine print before signing contracts and thereby eliminate the need for the […]
It was a chapter in American history that every decent person wishes had never been written. Slavery was legal — at least in some parts of the country. Slaves were viewed as […]
The charges against the defendant were almost unimaginable. Prosecutors accused him of leaving a trail of twelve corpses. A dozen lives were tragically and unjustifiably cut short by an inexplicable killing spree. […]
Something was bugging the people of St. Julien. The “something” was a bug. A bunch of them, actually. Weevils were threatening the peace and prosperity of the French town. Criminal trespass to […]
Abraham Lincoln attempted many things in his life. He was a railsplitter, boatman, store clerk, soldier, surveyor, postmaster, lawyer, legislator, and President. Along the way, he tried his hand as an inventor, […]
Volumes of poetry and countless love songs are dedicated to the proposition that love endures forever. This is an honorable and appropriate sentiment. Even so, it is possible to take things too […]
The bleak, dreary years of the Great Depression brought an energetic, ambitious, and unconventional mayor to the city of New York. Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882-1947) swept into office, following successive mayors who […]
Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House introduced the world to the never-ending legal saga of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. In Dickens’ uniquely-descriptive words: Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, […]
George Jacobs was arrested for an unspeakable offense. He was innocent, as he loudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen, but his protests fell on deaf ears. Whatever her reasons, George’s granddaughter […]
In 1995, Pepsi launched the Pepsi Points promotion. The public was encouraged to drink as much Pepsi as possible with the promise of earning points with every purchase. These points could then […]
For several weeks in 1927, the residents of Santa Ana, California were glued to their newspapers, eager to learn the latest details of possibly the most curious case in Orange County legal […]
National boundaries are nice, clean methods of distinguishing who owns what. If something is on one side of the border, it belongs to one country; if it is on the other side, […]
William McBoyle stole an airplane, and it was perfectly legal. Just to be clear, he actually took possession of someone else’s aircraft without their permission and never gave it back. Even so, […]
In the long list of people who have been executed by the electric chair, Willie Francis (1929-1947) was the first one to go through the process twice.
Commonplace Fun Facts 