Cleaning with Gasoline

爆発ネズミ

(click to enlarge)

Easements

地役権

   Today in property class we discussed easements. Basically, an easement is what happens when a property owner allows an outside party to use part of the land. This usually occurs when a municipality builds pipes, electric wires, or sidewalks through someone's private land. It also occurs when a property owner allows passage to outsiders through a path or road on the property.

   One of the cases we read on the topic concerned a dispute between neighbors over an easement. Neighbor A required the use of a path on Neighbor B's land to reach the main road. This continued for years without issue until B decided to build a dam on his property. The dam, as dams tend to do, caused water to build up near the path, muddying it to the point where vehicles couldn't pass anymore.

   Introducing the case, the professor quipped, "He couldn't drive his Chevy to the levee until the levee was dry."

   A brief ovation followed.

The Soul of Wit

起きたらまだ恐竜がいた。

　　A Latin American literature course once introduced me to the imaginary wonders flash fiction could induce with Augosto Monterroso's tale, "Upon awakening, the dinosaur was still there." (Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí).

    That's not the title. That's the entire story. Readers are free to imagine the rest of the scenario by themselves, and, hoo boy is it fun. Time travel? Flintstones? Genetic engineering revival of extinct species à la Jurassic Park? Who would wake up next to a dinosaur? Seriously, who? Not only that, the response from the central figure isn't surprise or fear but merely, "oh, still here, eh?" So much to think about.

   American literature has a famous, albeit decidedly more tragic, take on flash fiction often erroneously attributed to Hemingway, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn". 6 words that tell a great deal.

   Why talk of flash fiction? Well, today in my torts class I came across a line that sounded like a great flash fiction piece. The text is taken from a description of a case that I will not discuss here. Let your imagination fill in the gaps.


   "When the attendant turned on the electricity to start the ride, the mental patients began to converge on the plaintiff."*




*Text taken from Mark F. Grady's discussion of the case of Satcher v. James H. Drew Shows, Inc. in his casebook on torts.