Tina Talks: Guest edition

From the top, clockwise: Amy, Stacie, Emily, Elena, and TinaThis week I got together a few of my friends to help you out with your problems. Let’s see how they did!

Dear Tina,

I’m trying to plan a Valentine’s Day date. What is the most romantic way to spend Valentine’s Day?

-Sincerely, Legal Lover

Amy: The most romantic way to spend Valentine’s Day is definitely eating a taco bowl in the GULC cafeteria together. Maybe with a little Con Law on the side. Valentine’s Day will be on Taco Tuesday!

Stacie: That’s super funny, Amy! Can we think of a romantic case for them to read out loud to each other? Like Loving v. Virginia? Are there any others that are remotely romantic?

Emily: The Con Law case where the SC justice was riding circuit and there’s a crazy attempt on his life on a train from Fresno to LA. Ha ha ha. That crazy woman got two men to fall for her hard enough to do crazy things.

Tina: You mean In Re Neagle?

Emily: Sometimes the most romantic date is one that’s also efficient, especially for a law student. And what’s more romantic than letting your valentine utilize his or her Tuesday night to finish some of that reading that’s been piling up since the semester started in January? The couple that studies together stays together.

Are you buying that? Yeah … I wasn’t either. And the argument falls apart if the object of your affections isn’t attending the super-romantic institution that’s law school.

However, there’s still a way to do this. All you have to do is turn to the most romantic casebook you have: Con Law. After all, who can beat a case like Loving v. Virginia, where a couple was willing to take on a state’s anti-miscegenation laws so that they could have a legally recognized marital union? Or you can turn to the backstory in In re Neagle. Sure, the case is about presidential authority, but the real point is that David Terry’s undying love for his wife and former client, Sarah Althea Hill, got him to go after Justice Fields on a train in California.

So light up a few candles, open your casebook, and read those cases in a soothing voice to your loved one. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Dear Tina,

Hulu is ruining my life, or at least my grades. Help!

-Addicted to Hulu

Elena: I suggest taking your laptop to a public place and not bringing your headphones with you. Then you can still watch Hulu, but the dirty looks from other people there might be enough to overcome your addiction, at least for that day.

Tina: I have to interject here. There are tons of people for whom receiving dirty looks deters nothing. Don’t watch T.V. or listen to music in the library, and if you do, turn the sound down! Headphones are not magical sound-blocking devices that keep you from annoying your classmates. Have some shame.

Elena: If the problem is really bad, you could have a friend change the password on your wifi at home, and not tell you what it is.

Tina: Good thought, Elena. This also works with Facebook and Netflix passwords.

Your advisors were Amy Cheung, Elena Eggers, Stacie Reimer Smith, and Emily Wu.

Comment on last week’s “Tina Talks”

So, apparently a whole bunch of people misunderstood my last column. The question was not about being able to guess a person’s nationality. The question was about when a person mistakes one individual of Asian ethnicity for another individual who also happens to be of Asian descent. Like if you walk up to Sally and say, “hi Marcia,” but it’s not Marcia, it’s Sally, and the only thing Marcia and Sally have in common is that they are both of Asian heritage. Get it? Yes, that’s totally messed up, and the messed up nature of that was the point. If you actually read my column all the way through, I’d hope you’d see that that was the only context in which my answer made sense. But alas, I know we students don’t always have time to read closely. And since we accidentally got on the nationality topic, assuming all people of Asian descent are Chinese, etc., is also ignorant and offensive.