Monday, July 23, 2012
Haiku Winner: Susan Stabile!
Rennee, as usual, did great work this week, as did many others, but I was particularly struck by this straightforward (and entirely true) take by my friend and collaborator, Susan Stabile:
John Lennon is shot
at the start, and at the end
The Berlin Wall falls.
In between those two:
Challenger shuttle explodes,
gas leaks in Bhopal,
Pan Am Flight is bombed,
USSR launches Mir,
Titanic wreck found.
Klaus Barbie gets life,
and China kills students in
Tiananmen Square.
Susan quits law firm,
and becomes a Buddhist nun
living in Nepal.
There is something so stark about quitting your law firm and moving to Nepal as a Buddhist nun... but it is no more stark than the other things she describes: The explosions in the sky, red on blue; the moments in a courtroom; the end of communism at the hand of its subjects; and the death of an era at the edge of Central Park.
What she glosses over, though, is her career at the law firm, which focused on negotiating severance packages for corporate mascots. Her first client was Quisp, a small blue alien whose cereal was discontinued, who then recommended her to his friend who was facing a similar fate, Frankenberry.
It was only with her third client, though, that her expertise became well-known. She was working on a brief when none other than Fat Albert sauntered into her office, having been released from his position as spokesperson for the Lum's chain of restaurants. She won him the right to eat as much as he wanted for life at Lum's, a decision which eventually put them out of business.
Now, she is a beloved professor and expert on employee benefits law, as well as a fellow blogger. Congratulations, Susan!
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Thank you, Mark. You neglected mention of one of my more well-known clients - the Trix Rabbit (whose real name I am not free to share). You may remember that in the first several years after he began appearing in commercials for Trix, he never managed to get a bowl of cereal. The mental anguish this caused the "silly rabbit" - who didn't at all find this experience silly (and HATED being called "silly rabbit") - led to deep depression and alcohol use. I was brought in to advance his interests and finally succeeded in having a series of commercials made in which he succeeded in getting his beloved cereal. Still, thinking it not in my client's interests to be so heavily dependent on one product, I secured him some gigs advertising some other products - including his appearance in the "Got Milk" campaign.
It's under, it's under the mountain
Where the little worms sing out with glee
The Lum's is all covered with ivy
And my Ollie Burger's waiting for me
Where the little worms sing out with glee
The Lum's is all covered with ivy
And my Ollie Burger's waiting for me
Susan, I forgot about your work with Trix! I was so happy when he finally got that cereal... but then didn't he steal somebody's lucky charms? I seem to remember that.
Then he got 10-15 in the big house for theft, enhanced.
Then he got 10-15 in the big house for theft, enhanced.
My client was innocent of the lucky charms heist. I still think that was an inside job. I'm not saying Lucky the Leprechaun was behind the theft itself, but I have absolutely no doubt it was his jealousy at the Trix Rabbit's success that motivated LL's testimony....testimony that was instrumental in securing the conviction.
Congratulations,Susan,for undertaking the Professor's assignment in such an exquisitely encapsulating way,not to mention,affecting to the core.We don't often look back on history unfortunately,as a key to the present. What if we did?
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