Judicial opinions seem to invite irreverent versification, for their subject is as broad as life itself, which keeps throwing up fact situations beyond the imagination of mortal scribblers. My father was wont to peruse the advance sheets with a muse on his shoulder, and he left us of rhymed paraphrases of exotic cases. Three of them - concerning a supposedly barren cow that turns out to be pregnant, a railroad engineer injured while relieving himself in a gondola car, and a seaman seeking support from his employer after leaping from the window of a Yugoslavian brothel - have already appeared, for better or for worse, in the Green Bag 2d. The editors have thought it appropriate to gather them together in a single slim volume for easy reference, just in case anyone want to look at them again. At my suggestion they have added several other lighter compositions, including a detective story about the Rule Against Perpetuities that previously appeared in The Student Lawyer Journal and a few other rhymes that I found in the files, one of which deals with a circumcision that went sorely askew. It has never been published before, and chances are pretty good it will never be published again.

Subscribers to the Green Bag received Quidsome Balm as our annual Holiday Greeting in 2000. If you are not a subscriber to the Green Bag, or if you would like to purchase additional copies,  the book is available for $10 including domestic shipping directly from The Green Bag Press. You may pay either by check mailed to the Green Bag Press, 6600 Barnaby Street N.W., Washington, D.C., 20015, or by credit card through PayPal by using the link below: