Dumpling in a Hanky

I am slightly concerned about these...growths that I've found on my Tolley's Tax Handbooks...what could be in there? Are they buboes ? Should I be using the Medieval approach of protecting myself with sweet smelling nosegays? Is it the sign of an infestation of book-flesh eating bugs? Will they eventually burst out from the spines in a spray of paper shreds? Like the chestburster from Alien, but with more glue, and less blood? I am afraid. If you don't hear from me by the end of January, send in the search parties. Although I'd recommend they be wearing with HazMat suits , probably Type 1. And bring tongs.

If you're in England and Wales, here's the newly released guidance on using social media in public courts. It's probably not so relevant if you're the defendant though.

You! Yes, you! So you know a librarian? And you like stereotypes? And you want to buy them something for Christmas that fits in nicely to that stereotype?* Well, let me help… Now, books can get poorly, so what could be better than to let your Beloved Librarian help support sickly books, with a Book Shoe from the National Trust (no, I had no idea what a book shoe was before either). If you’re feeling flush, you could buy Beloved Librarian their very own mobile library ! Of course, they won’t get to draw it around the hills and vales of Britain , or get to give the donkey a funny name, but they’ll get a warm, inner glow of Doing Good. Even warmer if you actually buy them some books to put in i t. Of course, if you’re feeling wildly extravangant, buy BL their own village library . Although for that price, I’d be demanding that the library be named after me. Etsy is of course a world of weird and wonderful handmade gifts…how have I survived without the book ring ? Maybe your BL n...

These are just a few simple words, yet they're almost guaranteed to turn a bright-eyed, hopeful lawyer into a darkly-muttering, frustrated one. Y'see, sometimes there ain't a simple answer to what seems like a straightforward question because it all....depends. It depends, dear enquirer, because what may seem reasonable to one party, might not be so reasonable to the other party. And no, I can't give you any more information on the probable response by a judge or sheriff to your case because your case is entirely individual; the facts and circumstances in it are unique, and will have to be considered on their own merits. If you like, I could dig out a case from the 1800s that may relate to sheep, or suchlike, but I can tell you now, it's not going to help you one little bit. How nice a mood I am at the time in can be estimated by how sympathetic I sound when I deliver this information....

Oh, it’s all go on the jury front at the moment! First, I’m called up to be a juror, then the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales decides to d iscuss the topic of tweeting and doing online research while acting as a juror . In terms of my own experience in a Scottish court, I have to say, there weren’t any warnings about tweeting or going online via our phones by anyone official while I was in the public area of the court, or the jury room. I think there may have been a comment by the Clerk to turn phones to silent while we waited to be selected, but that may be a figment of my imagination, as I was reminding myself to make sure my phone was on silent while sitting there. Once selected and led to the jury room we were told by the court officer that we had to turn our phones off, and we were to be allowed one phone call to a relevant person who needed to know we’d been selected and therefore unavailable until 4pm (childminders etc) on the landline in the room, but other than ...

So, I work in a law firm, I deal with law-type stuff…but it’s all commercial law. I’ve never dealt with criminal law, and have no real clue about how that all works. So, when I got my third call for jury duty in three years (the first two years they exempted me as my current and previous workplaces mean I know various legal types, and may have opinions that would render me biased, but this time I thought I’d go along anyway and they could dismiss me if they felt I was unlikely to be able to serve ), I turned up to the Sheriff Court like a good girl. And my, what a long, long, boring day that turned out to be! The juror citation letter said come in at 10, but call the helpline after 5pm the day before for more information. The phoneline says come in at 10.30. I arrived at 10.30, joined the queue of other people clutching letters, while we waited outside the designated court for 10 mins. We all filed in and sat down, all 60 plus of us, and the Clerk of court gave a 5 min brie...

Well, 4 days after I’d been told my material would be taken off that site…it was still there. So I sent a further email saying if it was not removed immediately, I would be taking the matter up with their ISP (and many thanks to the peeps who commented, and gave me the info on how to do this if I needed to). And I got a reply: Hello, As we have informed you before, we remove the details. Don't worry. We have stopped updating this section about 2 years before. So we are checking the credentials of the articles section with design dept. Surely we will remove it shortly. Then, a follow up a few hours later: Please check it, its removed. And lo and behold, it is indeed gone…yay! However, all that other content from other people/sites, harvested in 2008 is still sitting there. But telling all those people is a bigger job than I can take on...