Author: Greg Ross
The Paradox of Self-Amendment
A constitution can contain a clause that provides for its amendment. But can this clause be used to amend itself?
Article V of the U.S. Constitution requires that an amendment be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Could they change this requirement to 90 percent? Or declare that the president can amend the constitution at his whim? Or abolish amendments altogether?
“If legal rules that authorize change can be used to change themselves, then we have paradox and contradiction; but if they cannot be used to change themselves (and if there is no higher rule that could authorize their change), then we have immutable rules,” writes Earlham College philosopher Peter Suber. “Paradox and immutability should create an uncomfortable dilemma for jurists and citizens in western legal systems. It appears that we must give up either a central element of legal rationality or a central element of democratic theory.”
Oops
‘Overhead’ is a familiar technical term in newspaper work. It describes a report flashed to a newspaper directly by commercial telegraph instead of through the regular channels of a wire service. For instance: on Decoration Day in the town of Walsenburg, Colo., 50 mi. south of Pueblo, Editor John B. Kirkpatrick of the World & Independent wired Associated Press in Denver that he wanted coverage of the Indianapolis automobile races. Presently AP wired its reply: WILL OVERHEAD WINNER OF INDIANAPOLIS RACES. Editor Kirkpatrick jumped with excitement. An hour later the World & Independent’s 1,750 readers puzzled over an 8-column streamer:
OVERHEAD WINS INDIANAPOLIS RACE
The story, as edited by Editor Kirkpatrick, began:
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — Will Overhead won the Indianapolis Memorial Day race today. At the 250 mile post Babe Stapp was leading the string of roaring cars, but gave way to Overhead on the last half of the 500 mile grind.
— Time, June 12, 1933
Unquote
“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.” — Emerson
Legal Language
In 1987, eighth grader Gavin McDonald failed to win first place in a Ventura County, Calif., spelling bee.
So he sued.
A rival at another school had spelled horsy H-O-R-S-E-Y, and in the ensuing confusion the officials there had agreed to allow two students to advance to the county finals. McDonald alleged that this was unfair.
Justice Arthur Gilbert of the California Court of Appeal asked, “When should an attorney say ‘no’ to a client? Answer: When asked to file a lawsuit like this one.”
He dismissed the suit. “Our decision at least keeps plaintiff’s bucket of water from being added to the tidal wave of litigation that has engulfed our courts.”
In a Word
piscation
n. fishing
halieutics
n. a treatise on fish or the art of fishing
Hocus Pocus
Choose any number and write down its divisors:
14
1 2 7 14
Then write down the number of divisors of each of these divisors:
14
1 2 7 14
1 2 2 4
Now the square of the sum of this last group will always equal the sum of its members’ cubes:
(1 + 2 + 2 + 4)2 = 13 + 23 + 23 + 43
Discovered by Joseph Liouville.
Pounce of Prevention
In 1916, inventor Hugh Huffman offered “a more efficient form of scarecrow,” a faux cat mounted on a wind vane and fitted with bells. “The action of the wind will give various motions to the figure which will simulate the lifelike movements of the animal.”
If it worked then, it ought to work now.
News of Note
Two very old stories are worth repeating for their peculiar excellence. A Scotch newspaper, reporting the danger that an express-train had run in consequence of a cow going upon the line, said, ‘As the safest way, the engineer put on full steam, dashed up against the cow, and literally cut her into calves.’ In the earlier half of this century a London paper announced that Sir Robert Peel and a party of fiends were shooting peasants in Ireland.
— William Shepard Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities, 1892
Misc
- The smallest number name that’s typed with eight fingers is ONE SEPTILLION ONE THOUSAND.
- Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus are all towns in Indiana.
- 2427 = 21 + 42 + 23 + 74
- SAN DIEGO is an anagram of DIAGNOSE.
- “It is not customary to love what one has.” — Anatole France