Dark Was the Night

          I abandoned my fear of contacting Prof. Dukakis in favor of my fear of receiving an incomplete and sent him an email. With luck, I hope to hear from him soon. In Constitutional Law, we discussed a fascinating topic: the changes in the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Commerce Clause from the 1800s to today and their implications. This sounds dry indeed on the face of things, but it is one of the most important functions of Congress and something that comes to bear on our lives every day. The walk home was miserable; the Fens is shoveled around the edges but the path through is still a snafu, like an obstacle course from Alaska or hell, possibly both. I haven't been discussing the snow situation much because it's just a fact of life right now, but I'm very happy that this isn't commuting season for me.
          I went to a fundraiser for the sailing team at Five Guys and met with Claire, her friend that I can never pin down the name of, and Sara & Clay, and Griffin. This is the second time in my life that I've been to one of their restaurants and this was a vastly better experience. Also, a far greasier experience than anything in recent memory. From there, I walked over to Blackman to meet Shandana for "The Case for Reparations," a lecture by Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The essential purpose of the talk was to take the audience on a journey through the 200+ years of exploitation of people of color in America. I was stricken by the concept that slaves essentially replaced indentured servants in society, with people of color gradually losing their rights and the children of white indentured servants regaining theirs in turn. For me, the most compelling arguments were the economic ones: that the Civil War really was about slavery, that all the slaves in the United States were of greater economic value than all of its production centers. That is a huge investment to put on the line; it gets easier to explain some things when you follow the money, like the behavior of Congress, for example. I respected that during the following Q&A, Coates did not pretend to have a ready solution and declined to bullshit one. At home, I had a chill-out session with Sabrina, Malcolm, Sean, and Alaric. Sabs and I intended to watch The Mask (the Henrik Lundqvist special, not the comedy film) but were stymied because it's airing on MSG+, not MSG. Instead, we watched the Sharks flatten the Stars, 5-2. No problems there.
          Quotes of the day:
"Dear, I think tonight we'll have a nice dinner, a bottle of wine, and commerce!" - Prof. Tolley
"...commerce is intercourse!" - Prof. Tolley
"The Chief Justice, from this point forward, gives constitutional law professors a bit of humor in an otherwise dry course- okay, okay." - Prof. Tolley