Overly Concerned

No headache this morning, nor any stomach problems. I'm going to need full-test coffee instead of my usual decaf, but that's doable.

*whew*

Is to be a day for phone calls to various folks, setting things up for as close as lunch and as far away as June. Scheduling is everything.

Opinions

Half the fun of writing legal opinions has to be writing the "facts" section of the memo. This is where you get to be creative in your presentation of the story, and occasionally it's fun to really overdo the the language, just to see how far your editor(s) will let you go before taming your rhetoric. The legal analysis is interesting, of course, but not quite as fun as the facts - legal portions are all about fitting everything together into this nice, shiny, pretty structure that you hope doesn't have any weak spots which, if hit, will cause your pretty structure to disintegrate. The fact portion is where you get to sell your story, and present things as you want people to remember them, however that ends up getting spelled out in your narrative.

Speaking of narrative, given how much of my writing is influenced by my public speaking experience, I often wonder how I must look as I "talk" things out to myself as I write. Writing is a auditory experience for me, subvocalizations frequently preceding the translation to the screen/paper. I'm sure my face must contort into various expressions as I imagine how things would sound when read aloud or delivered as speech, sometimes furling my brow, sometimes adopting a wry smile. I can only imagine it would present a humorous picture to anyone watching.

Precision is everything

One should always be careful when writing to me, as I love language and love to play with it.

Got an email from a co-worker:

Thanks [Moose]. Please let me know what's up ogress.

My response:

I have to admit, I got a chuckle when I first read your email because I was sure you hadn't intended to call me a female ogre. ;-)

His response:

You are so correct - it's amazing what happens when you do not read as you type - it was supposed to read "as you progress."

Research

So, the memo I'm writing might be moot, but only if I can get a copy of an inspector general report that's older than the popularity of the internet (1991) and so is not posted on the IG's web site.

Now the question becomes, continue writing while I wait or wait and see if I need to continue or not (because if this thing says, "here's the authority" then I'm just going to give everyone highlighted copies of the report and say "here's your answer" and go no further).

Decisions, decisions...