Chuck Newton

Good Lord!

According to several sources I have read, according to the Vatican newspaper Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population _ a stable percentage _ while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

Al Gore Launches $300 Million Ad Campaign For The Climate

Former Vice President Al Gore is set to unveil a three-year, $300 million climate change campaign Wednesday, one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.  Wow.  Can I say that moving your work and office home is generally good for the climate.

If You Identify With These Cartoons You Do Not Work Alone From Home

Carolyn Elephant Can Speak For Me Anytime

Law.Com reports that Carolyn Elefant wants to be the voice for solo lawyers.  Well, let me tell you something.  Carolyn can be my voice and speak for me as a solo any little ol' time she wants.  Read the article.  And, buy her book -- her roadmap -- Solo By Choice.

Oh No! Say It Is Not So! My Idol Has Passed.

I generally do not care for McDonalds, but I love the Egg McMuffin.  I fear, however, that it is not good for me now that I have crossed the half century mark.  See that stack of Egg McMuffin in the picture.  Left to my own terrible devices, I could eat every one of those.  I do not visit McDonalds much anymore because I do not like the rest of their menu and I could founder on the Egg McMuffin.

With that knowledge, you need to know that Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald's restaurants, has died, a Southern California. He was 89.

Peterson died peacefully Tuesday at his Santa Barbara home, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald's restaurants in that city.

He began his career with McDonald's Corp. as vice president of the company's advertising firm, D'Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald's first national advertising slogan, "Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day."

Peterson eventually became a franchisee and was currently co-owner and operator of six McDonald's restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Fraker said.

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He "was very partial to eggs Benedict," Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

Fraker said that, although semiretired, Peterson still visited all six of his stores in the Santa Barbara area until last year when his health began to deteriorate.

"He would talk to the customers, visit with the employees. He loved McDonald's," Fraker said.

Fraker, who said he worked with Peterson for 30 years, said "he was amazing as far as giving back to the community."

"He embraced the community and the community embraced him," Fraker said. "We loved the man."

The Evolution of Dad - But Do Not Call Me "Mr. Mom"

Being a good Dad.  In a way that is one of the main reasons for downshifting, the carpet commute, going solo, and working at home.  It is the benefit of the Third Wave.  It is the ability to just be around your kids and see them grow up.  To have some degree of impact on their lives that they might remember in later life.  We Dads might not want to admit this is the reason, least we be looked upon as a little Nancy, a little lazy, a little too much out of the norm.  Too many say that it is not the amount of time you spend with your kids, it is the quality of the time you spend with your kids.  I say BS.  That is the Disneyland Dad line.  Children growing up need subtle contact and support at inopportune times.  They need guidance.  Even if they do disturb you much around the house, they need to know they can.  That you are there is sometimes all that matters.  And, that you are keeping an eye on them.

Marketing Straight Down The Middle

Talk about innovative marketing that is subtle and makes a statement.  This divorce lawyer has stationary, business cards and envelopes with a line cutting right down the middle.  What more has to be said.  It is easy to remember.  It makes the point just looking at it.  You could expand it in to email broadcast, fax broadcast, blogging and many other avenues.  Why this attorney feels the need for stationary is beyond me.  The attorney should be striving to get rid of it and use email and other sources of communications.  Paperless office = good.  Paper based office = bad.

The Ego Is Big

It amazes me sometimes how highly people think of themselves, and in particular how much they think others think of them.  (By the way we do not think about you). 

I guess it is just natural that people that gravitate toward law have big egos.  The self-esteem of many lawyers is fragile.  Many just have an inflated sense of self-worth or, in philosophical terms, they are overly interested in themselves and in what others might think of them.

That is the reason that I took interest in Jay Fleischman's post at Bankruptcy Practice Pro.  Not that he has an inflated ego, but because I think he helped define the cause why many attorneys just cannot stand the thought, or accept the premise, that they can move their law practices home.

It is the thought that "[l]osers work from home. Loners, people who won’t ever make much of their professional lives. They’re those lawyers who always look slightly beaten down, as if they’re carrying lead weights on their shoulders. Crumpled suits, scuffed shoes, battered briefcases. Jeez, you almost want to give them a dollar as you walk by".  Great stuff really.

As Jay says, "[t]here is one reason for not working at home - fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of changing the way you think about your world. Fear of how people - your clients, your colleagues, your judges - perceive you".

You can call it a lack of confidence by those who cannot move it home, and certainly that can be a contributing factor.  I tend to think, however, that the problem is not how others really perceive these lawyers, it is how they perceive themselves, and the very thought that they believe everyone is watching them.  It is mainly about big egos.  They come to believe that such things are beneath them because they think that they are better than everyone else.  The problem is not with everyone else.  The problem is with these egocentric lawyers -- the person who thinks it is wrong to move home -- and their inflated sense of self-worth.

It for this that they will give up keeping more of what they make, saving time in commutes, feel more comfortable in their surroundings among other benefits.

I have communicated with a lawyer that moved home to help watch and care for his children after his wife passed away, and never moved back out of the house when the children got older.  How unbelievably humble is that?  Putting your family over your business sense of self-worth.

To those who go over the litany of why they cannot move home, I just want to take a sharp little pin to that over-inflated ego and watch it buzz around the room wildly until it lands uneventfully on the dirty floor.

But, that is just my opinion.

A Plastic Banana Guard?

Oh come on!

HuffPo had a list of the "Top 10 Most Useless Items of Crapola".  I thought a lot were just silly.  The fact that the Auto-Adjusting Wrench was listed as first on the list just demonstrates that the article was written by a girl.  What good Texas boy would not want an Auto-Adjusting wrench.  Ladies, go online and buy your man one right now.

The fuzzy toilet seat cover has been around in various forms since I was a child.  I was gross then, and it is gross now.  But, (I like that pun) it keeps your bum warmer.

And, the paper weight is just getting outdated with the coming of the Third Wave and the paperless world.

And, there is probably not a mom out there that on a cold winter's night does not believe that maybe a Baby Wipes Warmer is not a good thing.

Can we not all agree, however, that the plastic bananna guard is just useless?  First, it looks obscene.  Do  not make me explain this to you.  But, does not a banana already have a protective skin?  Unless a banana is just rotten, it does not smash that easily.  And, contrary to cartoons and what we read in law school, I have not encountered very many people who have slipped on one.  We need immediate legislation that bans this device before our kids see it and want one.

One Year Of Practical Legal Education

According to The National Law Journal, Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va., has announced a plan to reform its third year by replacing all academic classes with "experiential" learning, such as actual interactions with clients.

The plan appears to be to get the bar courses out of the way and then start trying to prepare students for the practical practice of law. 

In Washington and Lee's case traditional classroom instruction with practical simulations, real-client interactions and the development of law practice skills. Project simulations will span the array of traditional subject matter, such as banking and corporate finance, securities law, environmental law and family law.  The law school's existing clinics and externship programs will also be expanded. All third-year students will be required to obtain a Virginia practice certificate and participate in at least one real client experience during the year. At the same time, students will be immersed in a year-long professionalism program that explores what it means to be a lawyer by featuring topics such as legal ethics, civil leadership and pro bono service.  Instead of listening to lectures, third-year students will be presented realistic settings requiring them to use judgment, solve problems, work in teams, negotiate solutions and counsel clients.  Students will be asked to mirror real-life situations, for example, by negotiating prenuptial agreements for an intended husband or wife and do oral proceedings in a custody battle.  Also, students will explore relationships between attorneys and clients, keep track of their billing hours and discuss how attorneys should handle clients' expectations.