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Tuesday, November 19, 2019
I'm old
I taught Hicks v. Miranda in Civil Rights today. A student was explaining Miranda's close connection to and interest in the state in rem civil forfeiture action as a basis for Younger abstention. The following exchange occurred:
Student: They were his DVDs.
Me: It was 1975.
Student: They were his videotapes.
Me: It was 1975.
[Student stares blankly]
Posted by Howard Wasserman on November 19, 2019 at 12:37 AM in Culture, Howard Wasserman, Teaching Law | Permalink
Comments
If it makes you feel better, Mr. Wasserman, I still have cassette audio tapes, and, though I do not use this feature often, my elderly vehicle can play them. I also still own an electric typewriter, though it has probably not been used for ~15 years, and a manual typewriter, which I am not sure is functional at all. As my handwriting devolves from "artsy but mostly legible" to "I can't read what I wrote yesterday on this grocery list," I may end up having to use them again one day.
I also like to play "Stump the Y00ts" with a brass rotary phone dialer with a decorative bell on one end. My grandmother owned it, to be used when she had a fresh manicure. Not one person under the age of 40 has ever correctly identified what it is.
Posted by: Milla | Nov 27, 2019 10:51:56 AM
When I was a student at UCLA (early 70's) cassette recorders with the day's lecture notes and the coveted HP-35 had a habit of "disappearing"
Posted by: Paul | Nov 19, 2019 10:29:47 PM
The casebook had an attorney-client privilege problem with events in 2004, in which a confidential conversation was overheard because a lawyer didn't properly cradle the phone (leaving an open line to opposing party's voicemail). The question was whether the lawyer had taken reasonable precautions to keep the conversation confidential. The student I called on said she was unfamiliar with how hard or easy it was to cradle a phone properly, as she did not recall ever using a landline. Another student said she should have known the phone wasn't cradled, because phones all have lights telling you whether they're open.
Posted by: Suzanna Sherry | Nov 19, 2019 9:47:02 AM
From the freshman handbook I was given in 1980: "The items most frequently reported as stolen from dormitory rooms are typewriters, turntables, and electronic calculators."
Posted by: arthur | Nov 19, 2019 9:28:36 AM
One time a kid told me Jesus was born in the 1970s. I told him I was born in the 1970s. His response: "You knew Jesus?"
Posted by: thegreatdisappointment | Nov 19, 2019 1:30:13 AM
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