Month: June 2011

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been slacking. Instead of blogging, I have spent the last week: 1. Reclaiming a portion of my yard from knee-high grass after a month of rain and no sunny days to mow.  Final score: Susan 1, Lawns 1 (But you can’t see the victorious one from the street.) 2. Heading off a nitrate spike in my aquarium and getting the seahorses settled before I leave town tomorrow. (My husband is babysitting them in my absence, but he’s not the aqua-geek I am so I wanted it “plug feed and play” while I’m gone.)

Any reader who hasn’t had his-or-her head stuck under a rock for the last six months is aware that I have an aquarium. I received it as a Christmas present last year, and the original (and ongoing) intention was to make it a seahorse and pipefish species tank. In the beginning there were rocks. And tubeworms. And a peppermint shrimp named Gumbo. Then came the corals, a few at a time. And at last, Thing 1 and Thing 2. A few weeks later, a pair of pipehorses followed – Gelato and Gherkin, though only Gherkin survived.  For the record, he’s

Today’s shiny dinglehopper is three steps removed my research subject-of-the-day. Step 1: June 2, 1953 was coronation day for England’s Elizabeth II. The 27 year-old monarch acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952 (the day King George VI died), but delayed her coronation for three months in order to mourn her father’s passing. Step 2: While investigating English coronations (to distinguish them from the ones observed in France), I discovered that persons who claimed the right to attend a coronation could bring suit before a special Court of Claims, which led to… Step 3: the discovery that the English

We’ve already discussed two of the basic requirements for a contract: a valid offer and acceptance. Today we address consideration – a legal term which has more to do with showing the money than showing concern. In contract law, “consideration” means a thing or act of value which provides the basis for people entering into a contract. In English, “consideration” means how many Oreos you’re going to give me for this platypus. (You want this platypus. You know you do.) As long as a contract contains some form of consideration, courts rarely evaluate the amount or sufficiency. One court even