Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Now Everyone Needs to Use Their INDOOR Voices

When, dare I ask, has it EVER been appropriate to have a full conversation at a normal volume in a library? I will venture to guess that the answer to that question is "never." It seems pretty clear to me that even the Greeks and Romans revered the quiet sanctuary of their libraries and reserved their need to chatter for their homes, the piazza, the Forum, the Acropolis, or whatever.

Nonetheless, no fewer than half a dozen 1Ls have decided to have a group conversation right next to me in the reading room. Mindless 1L chatter about Property, about grades, about opening day of baseball season. Of course, with lots of irrelevant legal jargon and unfunny law puns thrown in for good measure: "So-and-so adversely possessed my favorite Widespread Panic t-shirt." Can you picture my eyes rolling?

To make matters worse, the most annoying one has a giant sticker on his computer: "[Name of Impressive Private Southeastern University]." Why people feel the need to parade these things around is beyond me. Do I walk around with "I went to [Name of My Ivy League Alma Mater]" tattooed on my forehead? No. On my backpack? No. And certainly not on my computer. I even hesitate to wear t-shirts with my undergrad plastered on them simply because that kind of grandstanding just seems downright unnecessary to me. Besides, it's a clean slate once you get to law school.

Perhaps when he's put in his place by his spring finals, and ends up waiting tables at The Grill all summer, he'll peel that sticker off and eat it. I can only hope.

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