Osler's Razor

It's better not to taint anyone's mind with such knowledge if it can be avoided.
 

--One of your posters should know that the REAL Fat Kenny is in this photo. But he's not the one holding the keg. The guy that IS holding the keg went on to work for Cong. Tom Delay. The third guy, well he got to stir the Harry Buffalo punch every year. What else can I say about him?

Sadly, Tall Tenor is not in this photo. Most likely he was sitting on some sorority's float by this point of the parade. Or he slept through the whole thing.

Seeing as he went to a prep school in NC, perhaps he thinks PC stands for Pastel Colored.
 

I say the winning explanation gets submitted to Wikipedia.

Currently, Wiki simply states:

"Baylor Law has a reputation for being the "boot camp of law schools" because of the rigorous curriculum and high expectations of faculty. For example, Baylor Law students are required to stand when speaking and to pass the notorious Practice Court program (where an average night's worth of reading will be 300+ pages in addition to various advocacy exercises)."
 

Practice Court

=

Pretentious professors

+

assignments physically impossible to complete assigned on a nightly basis

+

verbal castigation on a daily basis

+

3 hours of sleep per night
 

It is 3 am. I have just finished reading and preparing for class, and finishing my opening for mini-trial 3, which I will try later, um, today. That is PC.
 

PC stands for "Practice Court" which is a mandatory program in litigation training at Baylor Law School. It combines classroom instruction with practical exercises. It is comprised of three classes taught over two quarters.
 

That photo has nothing to do with Practice Court.
 

If the keg of beer was full, and the car was going 90 MPH, then this photo might be analagous to Practice Court
 

Practice Court is an equal opportunity ass-beating. But, as on the animal farm, some are more equal than others.
 

Poe described it best. He was writing about the "Pit and the Pendulum," but it better describes PC:

"Amid frequent and thoughtful endeavors to remember; amid earnest struggles to regather some token of the state of seeming nothingness into which my soul had lapsed, there have been moments when I have dreamed of success; there have been brief, very brief periods when I have conjured up remembrances which the lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could have had reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness. These shadows of memory tell, indistinctly, of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down --down --still down --till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the descent. They tell also of a vague horror at my heart, on account of that heart's unnatural stillness. Then comes a sense of sudden motionlessness throughout all things; as if those who bore me (a ghastly train!) had outrun, in their descent, the limits of the limitless, and paused from the wearisomeness of their toil. After this I call to mind flatness and dampness; and then all is madness --the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things.
Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and sound --the tumultuous motion of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound of its beating. Then a pause in which all is blank. Then again sound, and motion, and touch --a tingling sensation pervading my frame. Then the mere consciousness of existence, without thought --a condition which lasted long. Then, very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state. Then a strong desire to lapse into insensibility. Then a rushing revival of soul and a successful effort to move. And now a full memory of the trial, of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon. Then entire forgetfulness of all that followed; of all that a later day and much earnestness of endeavor have enabled me vaguely to recall."
 

PC is Baylor's mandatory trial advocacy program. It is designed to prepare students for the physical and mental intensity of trial work through a curriculum of civil and criminal procedure, evidence law, and oral advocacy. Pedagogically, it is a mix of the Socratic method (of the you-will-stand-and-deliver-for-as-long-as-possible variety) and practice exercises. The exercises cover every portion of trial from filing of petitions/complaints to motions for new trial, although on an expedited time frame (not that the work load is necessarily reduced - no malpractice allowed). The lectures cover everything you need to know to successfully try a case. In either situation, a failure to perform adequately is typically punished by more work. The humiliation of failure is just part of being a Baylor law student.

As a practical matter, students are forced to become more efficient, learn to function on reduced (often 3 hrs or less or no) sleep, stay focused under fire, and compete in a very competitive environment. It isn't pleasant, but it is very good for you if you approach it as an opportunity instead of, say, a punishment from God. I enjoyed it overall, but there were days that I cursed out my friends or really wanted some dumbass to give me a legally defensible reason to beat him. I heard similar things from my classmates. PC kids are not a group to be messed with. Lot of stress. But it is great stuff in the end.
 

Amen Joe. The only thing I would add is that PC also teaches how to work with co-counsel, in that almost all of the exercises require one to work with a partner. Some (like mine) were fantastic; others (to remain nameless) were not as dedicated. I would also say that the exercises are primarily tort-related so there is a definite focus on that type of trial law.
 

For the record... that was NOT me holding the keg, nor am I in that photo, and I thank IPLG for his clarification. I wasn't present when this pic was taken because the Choir had an official, Homecoming-related function.

I do know whose car that was, though, and there's no way that heap ever went 90 mph in its life (remember the breakdown on I-64 coming back from a Skip trip?)...

Thanks for the PC defs, too. It sounds like it's a really good learning tool, but it also makes me really glad I didn't follow my father's, grandfather's, and uncle's tradition.
 

The Green Monster and I take great umbrage at your remarks. That car actually performed best at 70 MPH or higher, kind of mean feat back in the days of the nationwide double nickel speedlimit. I topped it out at 120 coming back from C-Ville at about 3 AM.

That wasn't a breakdown, it was merely a flat tire, as I had jumped the median after missing an exit and had to turn around.

Most likely that was the most powerful and fastest car I will over owned. Big old V-8 Mopar 318 Engine
 

I think this definition:

"Practice Court is an equal opportunity ass-beating."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH that made me laugh.

P.S, Hey OperaMan, which I think I am going to call you from now on... Settle it once and for all: were you the one in the giant yellow hat?

PS PS I have a job interview today, with UPS to work in their Supply Chain Management division which is a field I have always been interested in working. SCM has revolutionized the way business, both traditional and online, handle their inventory. ITs kind of cool in a nerdy way.

Who knows if I will get it? The interview went well, but then, a lot of them go well. I will be happy if I get it to work in a place that has more than 5 employees Hopefully no binary clocks.
 

No, Operaman missed the whole parade... se above.

TT, she's referring to past posts which featured a man in a giant foam hat... And I am sure you know who that was.

Tyd, I am sure I have photos of Operaman in college. I THINK there's one of him in Madras pants even. Or maybe that was just in the Fraternity scrapbook.
 

IPLG, I most certainly do remember the guy with the big hat... he's kind of hard to forget.

Man, I hadn't thought of madras pants in more than 20 years... I had kelly green wide-wale cords, too!!! Nowadays, I'd much rather wear Wranglers and the boots I got in Calgary (boots = one reason I'm exciting about singing in Austin next year).
 

OperaMan,
Maybe you should not wear your Madras pants in Austin.
 

When I was in undergrad at Baylor, some Baylor Law 1st quarters came to our Phi Alpha Delta meeting. In response to the question “what is Baylor Law like?” one of them opined “it’s like having finals every day”. Now that I am here at Baylor Law and in PC, when pre-PC students ask me “what’s PC like?”, I tell them “it’s like having finals from 1st quarter every day”.
 

Tradelaw guy has it right. The best/worst part of the exercises is the other students. The stories that PC students tell are always split between getting torn up by a prof (usually in class) and getting screwed by some other "lawyer" who just had to be a jerk.

Really, to get a taste of PC, you have to hear the stories. Like the kid in my class who got a memo on the second day of PC, had to rewrite on the third, plus got another memo, had to rewrite again plus another memo on the fourth day. By friday he was delirious and threw up blood in the second floor bathroom. Moral of the story: don't screw up early in the week or you may not sleep until Saturday. But he told it so much better.

Me, I just got called on everyday for some reason. Probably looked like I'd spent too much time at The Cryin' Shame or something. Got so used to the up-and-down that one day I got thrown out of class ( I was very tired) and just sat down and kept taking notes. I think I may be the only PCer to get tossed from the same class twice in one day. It was a relief at the time.
 

Practice Court = social hour and tons of complaining. There was also a great rush when called on knowing full well that you did not do the reading, nor have the cases in front of you (cause you didn't even print them out). If it wasn't for people like tanner and jhill, i probably wouldn't have had such a good time.
 

I might describe Practice Court in much the same way that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the effect of drinking the best alcoholic beverage in existence, the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like "having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick".