The Letter of a Lifetime...

October 2011

Mavourneen D. Marion
Chicago, IL 60614

Dear Ms. Marion,
We are pleased to advise that you have passed the July 2011 Illinois bar examination.

Our records reflect that you have satisfied all of the requirements for admission to the bar of Illinois pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 704 and will be certified to the Illinois Supreme Court as eligible to take the oath of admission.

For information regarding the transfer of your Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) score to another jurisdiction, please visit the website of the National Conference of Bar Examiners at www.ncbex.org. For information and to download the transfer form, click the MBE Scores link under the homepage heading labeled Multistate Test Services.

Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 704f, a passing score on the Illinois bar examination is valid for 4 years from the last date of the examination passed. An applicant for admission on examination who is not admitted to practice within 4 years must repeat and pass the examination after filing the requisite character and fitness registration and bar examination applications and paying the fees in accordance with Rule 706.

The Supreme Court has fixed Thursday, November 10, 2011, as the date of the admission ceremonies. All certified candidates for admission to the bar must appear in open court to take the attorney's oath and receive their licenses. November 10 is the earliest date on which certified candidates may do so. Notices and instructions that include the location and time of your assigned ceremony will be mailed by the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court.

Very truly yours,
Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar

Best Reason to Smile Ever -- Bar None...

Ann Arbor, 9/10/11 - morning of first night game in The Big House history

 (clockwise from top) Luke, Mav, Jackie, Ethan, Jeannie, Lauren, Holly

Being a Michigan fan these days (at least so far) is making lots

 of people happy, but there's an even better reason for joy and

 jubilation around here:  Word has burst out of Chicago that

 Mavourneen and Luke have both passed the Illinois Bar Exam

  (results released 10/1).  The trumpets - and relief - continue

 to resound.

Major kudos to you both, and may your fingernails (and ours)

 grow back stronger and straighter than ever....

As they say... "Possession is 9/10s of the law...."

Summer, 1952

Well...maybe not when it comes to moms and newborn

baby sisters. This is Char, of course, holding on for dear

life as her formerly unquestioned primary position in the

 pecking order has now been disrupted by Linda's arrival.

Looks like Rose is handling it pretty well, all things

considered.  Hard to believe that this cling on here is now

 officially eligible for Social Security.  Well, better get it

while there's still some left in the pot, right?

All the best on your Big Day, Char!

Santa Catarina Palopo, circa 1979...AND 2011...

This is the little Guatemalan village that Linda and I lived in for most of two

summers more than three decades ago.  It's the same community that Mike and

Chuck and I trekked to at Christmas in 1978.  And it is where Amira and I stayed
 back in August -- except now it looks like this...

Legal At Last...

HackFest XXII, Ocean City, MD, 2010

The Birthday Boy, seen here pre-celebrating (with the most appropriate

 of libations) his promotion to the  realm of really mature, dependable,

 responsible young man from the ranks of capricious, no-account, 

barely-post-teen 20-year-old reprobate.  

Congratulations on your upward mobility young man, all the best on your

 Big Day, and continued success as a most reputable representative

 of Generation Y. 

Two for the price of one...

Janusch Home, Grandmont St., Detroit, MI, March 2011

Copyright HackFest Archives, all rights reserved (but for

what we're not sure).

This secret photo, taken with the Hidden Hackfester Cam,

inadvertently caught current B'Day celebrants Johnny Mac

(foreground left) AND Nicole (center-right, partially obscured

 by her Aunt Julie's head) in the same room at the same time.  

Utterly amazing. 

This stunning coincidence permits us to wish them both 

All the Best on their Big Day just one time without having

to repetitively do the same thing twice via individual shots.

So, here goes:  All the Best on your Big Day you two!

Au revoir, Amira...

Here's Amira (see silhouette on left in window bisected by telephone pole) embarking on her epic journey back to France:  Ann Arbor to Windsor to Toronto to Montreal and finally, Paris.

Got this text some 23 hours after she left A2:  "Mission complete! NAP TIME."

Andres.

My recent trip to Guatemala with Amira -- my first journey there

since 1979 -- enabled me to track down some old friends...

who were young friends back then.

These shots show our amigo Andres at 11 in 1977 and 45 in 2011.  He

 and his little brother Manuel lived next door to Linda and me in the center

 of the tiny village of Santa Catarina Palopo.

The two of them were constantly hanging about at the coolest casa on la

calle principal (aka, main street), and who could blame them?  That's where

we lived!  Amazingly, Andres now works in the kitchen of the restaurant

 of the hotel where stayed, the very same hotel on which construction

was just beginning during our first visit there (1977).

Andres, who still lives in the same house, now has five children ranging

in age from 2-16, and I met them all, and his parents, wife, and various

cousins.   Sadly, little Manuel, one of our favorites, became an

alcoholic (Guatemalan men are notoriously terrible drinkers), and he

 died several years ago in his early 30s. 

This is the day to remember this man...

Gr-grandpa Patrick J. O'Brien, killed in a mining accident on August 21, 1890.
He was 56-years-old.  RIP, P.J.

A Walk in the Woods.

Check it out...

JP put this short tribute film together... Casey:  The Video.

May Your Big Day be Wrinkle-Free, Stevie!

Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 2011

Birthday Boy Steve and his mates (l to r, Mickey, Adam, Christian -- out
 of frame, Mike) are  mesmerized by DS merchandise-meister Joe
 (AKA, Joseph, Guiseppe, Joey, Hey You!, et.al.), as he lectures them
 on proper clothes-folding  techniques, a valuable skill he learned
 in his retail days.

  Visibly impressed by Joe's ability to handle everything from
 wife-beaters to boxers with the easy facility of a laundromat mogul,
 the boys then promptly left the room, and in a sudden rush to
 get back on the road, haphazardly and hastily crammed all their
 belongings into their backpacks. They then stuffed their backpacks
 into any nook or cranny they could find in the van, vowing to begin
 folding their clothes just like Joe at the next stop.  Not.

HB, Steve!

A fitting Tribute to a Fine Specimen of Doghood...

The Mighty Casey

December 24, 1995 - August 12, 2011

The greatest dog in the world was laid to rest on Friday, peacefully fading into canine afterlife. No doubt Casey's new universe will include an endless supply of every imaginable consumable treat, all within easy reach: no counter tops to scale or reprimands for having an insatiable appetite for almost anything--but especially human food.

Casey joined the family five years before the turn of the century and endured into its second decade. In dog years she was old--very old; in the human equivalent, she was ancient (about 108). Her "cousin" Hillary, also a Vizsla who came into the world at about the same time, lived a great long life--and died two years ago.

Our Casey was a true homebody, never straying far from the patio and always preferring the company of people. Vizslas crave attention and affection and behave more like classic "lap" dogs. Even when she was full-grown, Casey wouldn't hesitate to pile on to you or put her face in your face or her paw on your leg--gently intruding on whatever you were doing for a dose of human touch. She made a lot of friends that way, including complete strangers, who often greeted her with a "hi sweetie" or "what a sweetheart" refrain. Indeed, she was beloved.

Though Casey was no watchdog, she did let the others in the local animal kingdom know on whose homestead they were treading. She eventually made peace with deer, probably because they visited so frequently. Bear were another story: her voice went up two octaves at the very sight, hair tense and up on the back, alive in sheer hysteria. At the other extreme, there were skunks, and Casey's curiosity was appropriately acknowledged: she was twice christened, and when she re-entered the house, she couldn't hide her humiliation. While it took weeks for the stench to fade, it only took her a day or two to get her mojo back.

But it was Casey's preoccupation with food that was the thing of legend. In her prime, she was a master thief: creative, crafty, and most of all, persistent. Among her trophies: an entire gingerbread house, loaves of bread, a tin of coca powder, tomatoes from the garden, a pan of brownies, a whole chicken leg (bone and all, stolen at a picnic out of the hand of a guest). Her tastes sometimes strayed from food and included sun glasses, retainers, tar paper, mulch, bar soap, Q tips, paper napkins, candles. Those occasions didn't always end well, but before long, she would be back in the game.

Mark Twain once said, "It's a good thing a dog has fleas, they keep its mind off of being a dog." Maybe there's an analogy here for Casey. She wasn't bored being a dog, she had a mission. Maybe it was her relentless pursuit of the next item of food that kept her youthful and alive for so long; maybe her insatiable appetite actually added years to her existence. Not because of the additional nourishment, but because she was "in the hunt." Maybe that's Casey's legacy for the rest of us: Whatever the pursuit, there is something to always being hungry. 

MJM, 8/14/2011

R.I.P. Casey.

Got news yesterday of this great dog's passing. In honor of a life well fed, er, led, we offer up this vintage post of classic Casey...

Busted!

Newton, NJ, August 2007 - Our exclusive Hidden HackFester Cam caught crafty Casey up to her old tricks -- in this case, sweeping stray Zingerman's bread crusts off the kitchen counter into her mouth. The above photos reveal her time-tested method: Spotting, balancing, reaching, grabbing, gobbling.  As her loyal and long-suffering masters have learned over the years, nothing edible -- from tomatoes to birthday cake to snotty Kleenex (and worse) -- is safe with this insatiably hungry hound in the house.

Before...

Brothers Rodrigo, Jose Maria, Carlitos - Santa Catarina Palopo, circa 1977

Amira and I depart for Guatemala and the above-named village

on Thursday, August 4.  This is the same little community where

 Linda and I spent most of the summers of 1977 and 1978; and

where Mike, Chuck, and I showed up on Christmas Day, 1977 -- 

after an epic bus journey through Mexico -- playing

 Santa Claus and his helpers.

Due to the long Civil War that worsened in Guatemala in

 the late 70s, we were unable to return, and by the time

 the conflict was finally settled (1996), we

 had other countries and other concerns on our minds.

 In any case, it will be unreal seeing all the good people (many of them

kids) that we got to know (and in some cases, have kept in touch with all

these years); and observing all the changes that have come about in this

utterly tranquil place, where fishing, farming, and weaving were the

 villagers' main occupations.  

Stay tuned for the AFTER photo....

It was 30 year ago today...

Photo credit:  Janusch Family Archives, copyright 1981

A rousing, rollicking mariachi band serenades those fortunate enough
 to be in attendance at the Marion-Dominguez wedding reception,
 August 1, 1981.  Note Richard Gump in background, staring
 starry-eyed into the horizon, wishing that he, too, had been born
 Mexican, so that he, too, could have become a mariachi man and
 have performed at weddings and wakes and birthdays and
 anniveraries like this lucky quintet.  

It was just moments after this photo was shot that he snapped
suddenly out of his reverie, ran over and grabbed Mary Ella,
 and dragged her to the driveway-dance  floor.  There,
 the two of them put on a wild disco-dancing display to the oddly
  compatable Mexican music concert behind them, the likes of
which nobody who witnessed it would ever see again....