Your list should keep going as you travel. Just wait til you hit the desert, you'll wish you could get another look at the economy.

It's funny that you say that about the debate, because the only time I noticed a discrepancy it was the other way around. I thought they were trying to hide McCain's baldness by zooming in. Wasn't paying attention the whole time though, maybe they spent more time giving us a close-up of Obama's hotness...either way, I think McCain would probably benefit from a wider shot. And let's hope the debate wasn't televised in HD; his mummy-esque appearance would have been too shocking for the viewing public.

On the question of time that it will take you to get to Vegas, knowing how much you and your mom will love the experience of driving cross-country and won't want it interrupted by potty breaks or stops at Jack-in-the-Box (greatest curly fries in the country), I'll guess a mere 84 hours, or 3.5 days. (My dad and I did the same drive in about 24 hrs, but we took turns driving and went straight through). Good luck and God speed!

Sunday morning I was watching both candidates on various Meet-The-Press type shows. O. was elegantly angled, as if a Sears Portrait Studio employee had posed him. M. faced the camera dead on, mug shot style. Perhaps this can join your observations as evidence of cameraperson bias.

My guess: three score and ten hours.

PS Before you choose an apt in Vegas, ask current residents if they've had a problem with scorpion infestation. The leasing company will lie to you.

 THanks for the tip, Counselor Sharon.  Just what I need, ONE MORE THING TO WORRY ABOUT. 

Oh, and thinking about our contest, there's also a prize for the person who can guess how much money it will cost to get from detroit to vegas...in an SUV filled with boxes of books.

i didn't make a guess for teh first one because i have control over how long it takes us to get there adn it'd be unfair...but i'll guess we're going to spent $890 on gas.  

I have only your best at heart, my dear:
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/NV-Las-Vegas-Fountains-At-Flamingo-...
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/NV-Las-Vegas-Fountains-At-Flamingo-...
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/NV-Las-Vegas-Fairways-at-Southern-H...

Scorpions?!

$745

I have a friend in Vegas...he's actually a native. He's not in the traditional Vegas professions, but he does lie about when he'll return phone calls. Oh yeah, and he graduated from law school about a year or so ago. He's a fun guy, for a workaholic. I'll hook you up with his phone number.

Why did you go to law school?

Interesting. Because I would have pegged you as a liberal. Just because.
But it turns out you're more "my kind of guy". ;-)

Yeah, Chill and Play Fair would be good advice to both sides. Although I am sure it will go mostly unheeded. BTW looking forward to your response to Annonymous (above) about why you went to law school. :D

I would also like to know why you went to law school...

After all, you invested 3 yrs of your life and ended up with a "highly addictive" (according to my girl-friend, who is now a big fan.....and reads your blog religiously....and now when she read that you are working on your second book, she wants to know where she can reserve a copy....) law school memoir.

Unless you have lawyer-like job planned, how will you pay back your parents for law school? I thought your father expects you to finance his retirement beach house in Florida????

Counselors,

I went to law school because I was told that I had to if I was going to practice law.

Seems to me you just want to "play" lawyer and that you don't want to have a real job at all - ever.

Well, Counselor Anonymous, you obviously don't know me very well then.  But that doesn't surprise me; I try to stay away from people who make unfounded, mean-spirited verbal attacks.  Seems to me that you just want to "play" asshole - really.  

P.S., I'm impressed that you have time to hold down a real job AND make these attacks.  Way to multitask!

Question for Anonymous: what is your definition of a "real job" and why do you consider it the telos of existence?

Uhhhh....since when was being an author of widely published memoir not considered a "real job"???

After all, it is currently #22 on Amazon.com's rank in category: Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Lawyers & Judges.

#26 in category: Books > Entertainment > Humor > Lawyers & Criminals

I also recommended his book to a former colleague from work, who is seriously considering applying to law school (but unsure since everyone is against it) after being laid off from Wall St.

I wish I can quit my job and get paid as an author............

It's politics man. Everybody always getting there panties bunch.

Las Vegas is cool. This time of the year it's great, but I just moved here about 5 months ago and the Summer was hell.

It's funny how you get anonymous hate comments once every couple of months. I'd like to think that there are all kinds of people out there who hate you so much that they talk shit to you on your blog and amazon book reviews, but I have a feeling that it's just one jealous loser. Sorry Lax.

I'll never understand people who post anonymous criticism on the internet. Or Republicans. Those are two things I will never understand. And probably the Rule Against Perpetuities. So three things.

Are you planning on going for the Nevada Bar while you're in Vegas?

First, a disclosure: I am Rick's uncle and mentioned in his book.

I am also a lawyer of 38 years and have been writing and published since I was 16 (Kennedy was President). The two avocations are not mutually exclusive, but one pays better. I encourage young Richard to pursue both and - most of all - to follow his heart and passions.

 Thanks for the support, Counselors.

-No plans to take the Vegas bar.  I mean, don't get me wrong, the Illinois bar was a blast and all...

And yes, Counselor Jaffe is right about the monetary thing...which is a factor for me.  Many of the worst lawyers out there make more than the best writers. 

As a conservative republican, I have not had my views seriously represented in DC by anybody lately (except for those glorious GOP rebels in the House), so the "Play Fair" gambit doesn't work with me. Besides, the personhood question is too important to let anyone mess it up, no matter how well qualified they may be in other respects. I am not a knee-jerk total free market fan, nor am I able to trust Big Gov's never-ending promises to do a better job controlling my life. But if we fail to develop a rational consensus about what a "person" is, then Big Gov has a blank check on control over any "non-persons" it may define into being. Therefore, I could never vote for any pro-abortion candidates ever. Ever! Why? Because that position contains the seeds of everything Orwell feared. Using carefully parsed language to define some humans into the club and some humans out, then using the language of "choice" to describe the ultimate deprivation of "choice," death, is a brilliant demonstration of double-speak. It completely obfuscates the importance and difficulty of knowing what constitutes a person, and how a person should be treated by society and society’s law. And I will not vote for someone who furthers that confusion. Nobama for me. Sorry.

All these threads and commotion for revealing his future plans as a side-note....

Lawyer Boy is one of the best books I have ever read...If anonymous had actually read your book, he/she would have realized that your aspiration of law school was not simply about becoming a lawyer. Do whatever the heck you want to do with your life, and tell everyone else to shut it, lol. You are incredibly talented, and have an amazing piece of literature to show for it.

P.S. Please finish your next book soon.

Gosh, Counselor Reformer, not sure what to tell you.  I know you feel that Bush2 shafted you...(played up his Jesus love during elections...then left you behind)...but I don't know how much sympathy I can give you for that.  It's like, he represented that he was a 10 on the Jesus scale and turned out to be a 9.  And you bring up Abortion, which, I realize, is a huge issue for most of America.  The hugest issue, for many.  I think you and I are both surprised that it's barely getting a mention in this campaign.  Why do you think this is? 

 Oh, and thanks for the kind words, Counselor Kristen...the suspiciously kind words...

"literature?" Oh, puleeze.

Counselor Anonymous, 

For somebody who dislikes my writing so much, you sure read/comment on my blog a lot. 

"Suspiciously kind?" Sorry for any suspicion...I was just a little perturbed by the comments from Anonymous and felt the need to interject. I seemed to have further provoked the situation, though, which was not my intent.

P.S. Anonymous, look up the definition of "literature."

Didn't ask for sympathy. Just explaining to you why I have no sympathy for the implied moral equivalence in "giving the other side a turn." I am not a utilitarian. I am a theist. Therefore I don't buy the moral equivalence theory. The good guys gotta win, eventually.

BTW, Bush2 didn't "shaft" me respecting the personhood issue. His judicial picks were great for our side. He did disappoint me on government spending. Big time. Also, I think his theory that a totalitarian culture could be transformed by a war was deeply flawed, though I am less sure he was wrong or dishonest about the WMD issue. History will bring greater light.

But I do find it interesting you assume his "Jesus" pitch is what got my buy-in. Not so. I maintain that one does not need to hold a specific variety of theism to realize that we need a good, durable social contract on the meaning of the term "person." Bush represented that he would go that route, so he got my vote, and would get it again vs Obama. Therefore, your response was conclusory at best, i.e., without sufficient basis, like answering "yes" to a law school essay. Why did you make this assumption about me? Just curious.

Your question concerning the relative silence on abortion in this election is intriguing. I propose that most people are more concerned with their own financial well-being than they are the well-being of the millions of tiny humans that will never see the light of day. Out of sight, out of mind. By contrast, hard-core pro-lifers like me can see beyond the current international and economic turmoil to perceive a more distant future where human slave labor is manufactured and disposed of as needed by Orwell's hogs. We don't like that vision, so we work against it. But we are few in number. The masses move like water under the tidal forces of the current crisis. Nevertheless, we do what we can, because we must. Your theory?

ok, counselor

sorry about teh assumption. just heard lotsa christians saying they felt shafted by GW for the reasons i had mentioned. guess you're not one of them. check.

next, you can be a theist and a utilitarian. met some people who identify as both. you could argue that you can't be a devout christian and a util (because christianity has a deontologial moral code), but you can for sure be a simple theist and util. no conflict there.

last, not sure i buy the out of sight out of mind...cause abortion is no more out of sight in 2008 than it was in say, 2000, when it was a huge deal in the prez election...it's usually a huge deal...actually, i'd use it to generally refute the whole 'out of sight, out of mind' saying...

k...gotta end this post. have a good night, counselor.

Read "Good Old Neon" in his short story collection 'Oblivion.' It's brilliant, and eerie in light of his sad end.

Just passing through. Found you on GOB and just thought I would give you a read.

 Counselors, 

Should I do the stories before the rest of the nonfiction?  Is Wallace best-known for that?

Thanks...but what's GOB?

I think he may be "best-known" for his fiction simply because 'Infinite Jest' was so immense--*literally* with something like 1,076 pages, over 100 of which are footnotes (some of which go on for pages of themselves), and also *literarily* as as a genre-buster with huge influence. It's such a crazy and upsetting book, but so awesome :) (i'd insist that you to read it before you die but you don't like being told what to do...)

I think his fiction and nonfiction spotlight each other--In his fiction he writes the most absurd things, a kind of fantastical realism that carves out something very weird but very true. I've not read as much of his non-fiction but am impressed that he can unleash the same analytical prowess and lucidity separate from the outrageous quality of his fiction. I wish my writing was that adaptable. I am very envious of his vocabulary and obsessive imagination...

I'll stop enthusing before you wish to be euthanized, but if you're interested in DFW, check out http://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw or the memorial threads on mcsweeneys: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/dfw/memories.html .

 Thanks, Counselor Sharon.  100 pages of footnotes sounds GREAT.  But not sure if I can do a 1000-page book at this point in my life... But yes, I will try to get to it before death.  

Yeah, it's always cool to read fiction and nonfiction by the same person.  I'm envious of his vocab too.  

Globe of Blogs

That depends.
You certainly don't sound like a believer or even like you're much open to the possibility. So what would be your point in going? Trying to get good comedy material?

Ms. Chloe was so much more believable with her voodoo phone line. I think we all thought she could curse our enemies too.

 Counselor Michelle, 

Hmm....maybe I could best put it like this, I want to go so I can better understand what's really going on.  Is that a satisfactory answer?

-

That old fraud has been proven wrong so many times, I can't believe anyone still listens to her. I wouldn't waste your money unless you're planning on sneaking in a hidden camera, lying, and catching her lying to you.

 Thats one of the things I wonder about, Counselor Pirates, does she think she's lying, or does she think she has psychic abilities and the ability to talk with my grandparents?

She must have some kind of supernatural powers to produce two bestselling books a year...(and probably mind-control powers to coerce herself and the reading public to ignore how terribly written they are!)

Talk sex with Sue Johanson is free and she probably gives better advice that is more useful considering... well, I won't go there.

Nah, if you want to do it. Do it. I wouldn't ever because she's taking advantage of humans and their curiosity and/or the fact that some are still haunted by a death. Quite genious actually. I feel bad for those people that see her to seek peace of mind because those poor people are so lost that they don't realize that she is telling everyone a variation of the same vague thing that could apply to any situation. Some people are so desperate to believe - they eat it up. I'm not a believer, but I won't bash those who want to participate. But if you give her the $50 she'll be the one laughing that you fell for her scheme.

I think she knows she's a phony. I believe that most of the celebrity psychics are narcissists and borderline sociopaths.

I think maybe at the beginning of some of these people's careers they believed. I think that cold reading is both a talent and a skill. When they start with just their raw talent, their ability to read people must seem supernatural even to themselves. But I can't accept that any psychic that has been disproved and debunked so many times actually believes their own hype.

Read up on how she interacts with journalists. It's pretty evident that she knows she's a liar, and that she knows that there are enough idiots out there who still believe.

You have too much time on your hands. Do you work?

 Counselor Pirates, 

I will do just that.  

Rick, you need to go and go soon.

Psychics are either delusional or frauds (in rare cases, delusional frauds), and either way they have significant comedy potential. I recommend setting up some kind of test, which she will fail, and then writing about the outcome.

I did this once for a summer-associate event for which (since I am the "funny guy") I was forced to provide entertainment. This psychic did "readings," in which you bring a picture of a person or some other object associated with them and she tells you what signs or impressions or whatever she gets from that. So, we gave her half a dozen pictures or so of lawyers in our group and asked for her impressions of each. That would have been moderately funny even if one of the pictures hadn't actually been a picture of Ted Bundy (who wasn't actually in our group but who did go to law school).

She described him as a "people person," and I gave her partial credit for that answer.

If this psychic doesn't do readings (if she cares, that would make her the delusional kind), I'm sure you can come up with something appropriate involving a ghost. Or maybe something magic-trick-related.

Hurry.

-- Kevin