Yearly Archives: 2008

King Mango Strut’s Final Year???

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The New Times reports that this could be the Last Year for King Mango Strut? — a victim of red tape and increasing costs imposed by the City of Miami.

strut.jpg

The King Mango Strut is a local tradition — a wacky parade for no discernible reason, about not too much, with lots of silly floats and marchers satirizing local politicians and current events. It's good pointless fun.

Dec. 28 at 2pm if you want to catch what might be the last, historic, Strut:

The strut route begins at the corner of Commodore Plaza and Main Highway. It turns left onto Main Highway and then turns left onto Grand Avenue at Cocowalk and turn left again at Commodore Plaza. If we are having too much fun we will go around again until we all fall down. Right after the strut, there will be parties all around the Grove.

Posted in Miami | Comments Off on King Mango Strut’s Final Year???

Judge Dismisses First Count of Kuehne Indictment

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Southern District of Florida Blog, Judge Cooke grants Ben Kuehne's motion to dismiss Count 1.

Full text of Judge Cooke's opinion. Not my area of law, but it looks perfectly sensible to me.

Incidentally, I have yet to meet anyone who thinks this case should have been brought, or that the primary motive was anything other than terrorizing the local bar in order to dissuade them from taking big drug cases. Maybe the changeover in the Justice Department will be an occasion to dismiss it…although I'm not optimistic.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | Comments Off on Judge Dismisses First Count of Kuehne Indictment

Local Madoff News

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

In case you were wondering, I have hearsay from a fairly reliable source that the University of Miami had no money invested in the Madoff funds.

Of course, what one hears — always third hand — is that lots and lots of people in the Miami Jewish community seem to have lost a packet.

Posted in U.Miami | 4 Comments

Shortest Day Not Very Short

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

So today is the “Winter Solstice”. Apparently in other places that means it is dark and cold. Here, it means that it's warm and sunny.

UM should market itself as the 'Law School in Paradise'….

Posted in Miami | 7 Comments

Giant Croc in Coral Gables

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Sun-Sentinal, Pancho the crocodile, suspected of eating three dogs, relocated again :

A huge American crocodile called Pancho, suspected of eating three dogs in a bayside Coral Gables neighborhood, has been caught and relocated for the second time, the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Wednesday.

If the federally protected reptile journeys back to the canals of Gables-by-the-Sea, and experts think it almost certainly will, the critter will be removed from the wild and given to a zoo or licensed private owner.

Measuring 10-feet, 7-inches when captured last week, Pancho had grown nearly 16 inches in the 21 months since it was first caught and moved to the Homestead area of Biscayne Bay, according to Lindsey Hord, the commission's crocodile response coordinator.

Hord's advice to area pet owners: “Keep your dog on a leash.”

Actually, Gables-by-the-Sea (a high rent district annexed by the city a few years back in order to up the tax base) is a bit south of campus, but all these waterways are connected, and I bet a determined croc could make its way up here if it really wanted to.

Posted in U.Miami: Crocs | 1 Comment

Your Favorite Word Could Win You an OED

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Powell's Books is having a fun contest, with the prize being the 20-Volume Oxford English Dictionary.

What's your favorite word? And why? What, in your opinion, is the strangest, or most useful, or ridiculously specific word in all of the English language?

Don't be shy — tell us the word you can't stop obsessing over, the one you make sure to use at least once in every party conversation, the word that gets stuck in your head like the song lyric you can't quite place but can't stop humming.

My first thought, I'm almost embarrassed to admit, was “justice”, but I think they want something more offbeat.

Deadline for submissions is Jan. 5, 2009.

What's your favorite word?

Posted in Shopping | 1 Comment