That’s right, guys! Today is the eve of the commemoration of a great event in history: The Supreme Court ruling in the case Roth v. United States that obscenity is not protected by the Constitution under the first amendment’s right to the freedom of speech! In other words, tomorrow is a bad day to curse!
No, but seriously? I just checked Wikipedia’s “On this day…” page for tomorrow. I’m actually excited because tomorrow is the seventeenth birthday of my Best Friend and only blog visitor, Riko!
(actually, I have two visitors now… thank you, Mother! PS: here is her blog, which will rock your hand-knit socks… http://knittingknewbie.wordpress.com/)
Now, back to business–specifically, the business of Riko’s birthday. He’s going to be a senior next year. As I’m sure you understand, this is a Big Deal. Do you understand the magnitude of this event? Dude, I raised this guy as my Best Friend since he was just a little seventh grader with bad handwriting! Now he’s going to be a senior with bad handwriting! Oh my Lordy, what will we do?
Riko, I want you to know that you are a cool kid. Enjoy being able to see rated-R movies without us. Jerk. Why can’t you just be 18 already and get us in to see Bad Teacher with you?!
I’m just kidding, Mom. Ha ha ha, I don’t even care about that. I still watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in SHAZAM. Ha. R-rated movies, who cares about that? Not me! Ha ha ha. Innocent kid. Yup. That’s me.
Moving right along, I wonder who ends up as courtroom artists? I mean, I’m watching some coverage the Blaggoyavich case (who ends up as a governor with a name like that? Oh wait–Schwarzenegger doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue), and the drawings are really quite interesting. What is it like to be a courtroom artist? And what kind of markers do they use? I mean, do they spend the big bucks and get nice COPICS, or maybe Prismacolors?
Oh. Thank you, Wikipedia!
Basically, the sketch artists are there because they don’t want to distract the people in court with flashy cameras and such, so they have somebody drawing, or taking notes, or trying to remember what things look like, because in some cases the court requires the artist to make their sketches only upon leaving the courtroom. Wiki says “citation needed”, but traditionally these sketches are drawn on brown paper. Pastels, pencils, charcoal, and other media “suitable for sketching” are typically used.
Well then! Learn something new everyday. I really wonder how you end up as one of those, though. I mean, can you just be some kid in art school who needs a couple extra bucks, so you sit in on a case and draw pictures to sell to the press–because apparently, that’s what they’re for: selling images from the courtroom to the press so that they have something to show on the news. Pretty chill, huh?
There you have it, folks! What have you learned today? Let’s review:
-Obscenity is not protected under freedom of speech! That’s right, folks, so make sure you watch it around Mr. President Obama because he will almost certainly arrest you on the spot! [citation needed]
-Riko will be able to see the movie Bad Teacher as of tomorrow, and I don’t care one bit.
-Courtroom sketch artists are really cool. And, apparently, outlawed in Hong Kong. Huh.
Alright, chickedies–ha! Now there’s an actual reason for it to be pluralized!–this is ChickedyDooDah, signing off!
Writer Chickedy 