(no subject)

Hmm—right now train fare to California is cheaper than airfare.

mumbo jumbo II

Amusing semi-escoteric Wikipedia readings of the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_fiction

A similar but more complicated legal fiction involved pleadings in cases where title to real property was tried. The common law had a procedure whereby title to land could be put in direct issue, called the writ of right. One inconvenience of this procedure, though, was that the defendant at his option could insist on trial by wager of battel, which is to say, trial by combat, a judicially sanctioned duel. Most plaintiffs were unwilling to stake life and limb on the hazard of the battle, so the procedure fell into disuse. Rather, an elaborate tale was told in the pleadings, about how one John Doe leased land by the plaintiff, but that he was ousted by Richard Roe, who claimed a contrary lease from by the defendant. These events, if true, led to the assize of novel disseisin, later called the mixed action in ejectment, a procedure in which title could ultimately be determined, but which led instead to trial by jury. This is the origin of the names John Doe, Richard Roe, and so forth, for anonymous parties. The fiction of Doe, Roe, and the leases was not challenged by the parties unless they wished to stake their life and safety on a trial by combat. Wager of battle was in fact not abolished in England until 1819.

(no subject)

I was interviewed last week for a little article that appeared yesterday in the Los Angeles Times concerning the San Juan Capistrano Hot Springs. This is the second or third time I've been interviewed about it recently; earlier this year there was a story in some Los Angeles County weekly, and a few months before that, in some San Clemente-area publication. I'm always disappointed by the resulting articles though—they tend to end up being a reguritation of text from my web site (which is pretty much the sole source of public information on the springs) with a response from the Orange County parks dept for good measure. At least this time the reporter got a decent interview with a Park ranger.

The "army of bees" he mentions is due to a nearby apiary by some friends of ours in the Orange County Beekeepers Assn.

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