Whipped Cream Difficulties

We are compelled to note, for those keeping score at home, that Laura Hall’s latest appeal has been rejected by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

(Previously. Also previously.)

The Belle Meade Country Club (near Nashville) is being sued by a former chef for discrimination.

The twist? He claims he was discriminated against because he’s…Australian.

The chef, Richard Jones, alleges that his boss, an executive sous chef, made numerous comments about Australia being undeveloped and backwards, and about its people being “unrefined,” according to Greenberg.

It is incomprehensible to me how anyone could discriminate against Australians. The couple of Australians I’ve met have been among the nicest people in the world. It would be like kicking a puppy.

Anyway, if this is true, I hope Mr. Jones gets all that he is seeking in damages, and uses the money to open a nice restaurant (barbecued shrimp optional).

This NYT story pushes several hot buttons for me. First of all, there’s the whole 1925 diphtheria story, which I vividly remember reading about as a kid. (I wish, though, I could remember the title of the book.)

Secondly, there’s the whole survival/preparedness angle. What do you do when it is 39 below zero, you’re out of heating oil, and they won’t be able to make a delivery for another three months?

Mr. Evans said Nome could resort to flying in fuel through hundreds of small shipments but that shipping costs alone would be more than $3 per gallon. Fuel here already approaches $6. Conservation can only go so far.

(I wonder if they could use KC-130 tankers to fly in fuel, if it came to that.)

Finally, there’s the whole Coast Guard icebreaker situation. There’s apparently only one purpose-built Arctic icebreaker, the Healy, and that’s a medium-duty icebreaker that’s having difficulties clearing a path. The Coast Guard’s two heavy icebreakers aren’t available; one has gone into retirement, and the other is under repair for at least the next two years. I seem to recall reading about the icebreaker gap somewhere prior to this, but I can’t recall where.

On a hotter (in more ways than one) note, by way of Overlawyered, we learn of the lawyers gone wild of Vero Beach, Florida. The inciting incident in this case appears to be the conduct of Ronald Rider, who apparently offered former clients money to write letters to the judge asking for leniency. Rider also apparently got the judge rather upset by refusing to release $35,000 being held in trust for his former clients.

But the real reason I’m linking this story comes towards the bottom, where the activities of Mr. Rider’s “very high maintenance” wife Wendy are outlined.

Her stage name in the modeling business is “Muscle Barbie” and her 80-photo portfolio on the Model Mayhem website is revealing. Pictures which pop up from a Google search for “Wendy Rider” show Rider nude, topless, near-nude or – at best – clad in tiny bikini bathing suits or skimpy lingerie. Her nipples and other body parts show prominent piercings.

(I apologize. My failure to link to the Google search results is due to the fact that I am writing this on my lunch break at work.)

(Edited to add: Now that I am back at home, on my own network, I can safely link to the Google image search results for “Wendy Rider”. I would like to note, for the record, that I link to these only in the spirit of journalistic inquiry and a healthy respect for the facts, not out of any prurient interest in Ms. Rider or her assets.)

(I did go over to the Mix Masta B website to see if I could find the calender. It looks like it has been replaced by the 2012 one, of course, which does not feature Ms. Rider. (ETA: Here you go.) Also, I do not recommend going over to the Mix Masta B website if you are prone to seizures or break out in a rash when looking at MySpace pages. I do, however, appreciate Mr. B’s support for law enforcement.)

Lawrence is on top of the UT Law School dean resignation story, but there’s one aspect of this story that troubles me.

From the Statesman:

UT records obtained by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act show that a number of law professors received sizable funds from the foundation, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mmmmmkay. The Statesman goes on to quote officials with the Law School as saying that “Every member of the faculty with a named professorship or chair gets summer support and/or a salary supplement from the foundation,” and “Sometimes we help people with mortgage loans and things of that sort.” How many people does this amount to? And where does the foundation get funds?

But here’s the thing that makes me go “Hmmmmm”:

The records show that some faculty and staff members at the law school have complained of being underpaid or discriminated against because of their gender, age or ethnicity. In some of those cases, sizable settlements resulted.

Settlements?

Linda Mullenix , a law professor who complained of “pay discrimination,” received a $20,000 raise and a $250,000 forgivable loan. Laura Castro, who had been a spokeswoman for the law school, received $101,292, the honorific title of “visiting scholar” and use of an office for a year.

So was the Law School underpaying people and engaging in discriminatory behavior (or at least, giving people reason to believe such a thing was going on)? And were they using money from this fund to pay off people who otherwise would have sued? Because that’s sure the implication I get from the word “settlement”; that this money was going to folks who otherwise would have gone to court.

If my reading of this isn’t too far off base, it strikes me as being even sleazier than the forgivable $500,000 loan to the dean.