I was going to back off of this one as I'm already very tired of thinking about AI and the LotR connection was getting so tenuous that I was thinking of cutting it, but uh, stay tuned I guess because JFC...

Christmas came early with reprints of the article that I would most like to hand out as a business card. My friend saw how excited I was by this, asked for a signed copy, and snapped this pic. It's certainly something! Celebrate your holidays by reading www.capitallawreview.org/article/1363...!

I'm working on/brainstorming a project that heavily features both of these movies if anyone has takes! (They're both fantastic but Anatomy of a Murder is my quintessential "Machine for Empathy" lawyer film). (BCS is also involved but 1) it's not a movie and 2) I need to actually finish it)

My colleague @timothymharris.bsky.social' latest, The Contracts Clause Can be Enforced via Section 1983, Period: The Nonexistent Circuit Court 'Split,' 78 SMU L. Rev. Forum 106 (2025) got picked up by the inversecondemnation blog! Congratulations! www.inversecondemnation.com/2025/12/new-...

Now that we know Pritzker's (surprisingly solid) Star Wars rankings, any other guesses on top contenders' hot takes? I feel like Newsom and Vance are too terminally online to be interesting, but I feel like AOC or something could cement the youth vote (and Trump's respect) by being a RotS-head.

I think this is an interesting take that also explains why the third act of Rogue One has never really worked for me. A common refrain about Andor is that it's great until you remember that this "Palpatine" guy is a weird cackling demon shooting lightning, and Rogue One just... put it in the movie?

Pouring one out for the goth-est of all the beers.

I've had this take for a bit and I'm not actually sure how hot it is: As of this moment, Taylor Swift is a better filmmaker (the Fate of Ophelia video, like a lot of her filmography, is pretty good!) than she is a musician (the Fate of Ophelia song is pretty bad!). Does that math add up?

As we celebrate the latest addition to sandwich jurisprudence, any guesses on which members of the Supreme Court think that a hot dog is a sandwich? Sotomayor is a known yes, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Alito are nos with an extra joke, but I feel like any of the other four could surprise.

TIL Afroman has multiple songs about Idaho, and you can tell that he's a real Ida-head because he pronounces Boise correctly. Jury's still out on Moscow, but it seems like he has that one too because he spent his best rhyme on Pocatello (an objectively correct decision unless he's in UI marketing).

Question for my legal film people (brainstorming for a project): Are there any non-lawyer films that you think every lawyer ought to see, or that informs your approach to law in some way? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is a good example, but I'm seriously considering Poolman, so anything goes.

Alright, new professional photo, shame to break the seven year streak but the Cosmic Gardener comes for all of us. Now for the important question: Does it make me look more or less like a hobbit's evil twin?

You know, I can't really tell you why, but I've never seriously explored evidence scholarship. This is good enough to make me consider a deeper dive into it! Good luck on the hunt!

Is what the guy threw at an agent a sandwich? It doesn't matter in a legal sense, but I may need to follow up on this essay to reflect the growing role of an expansive definition of a sandwich in the fight against fascism. hedgehogsandfoxes.org/index.php/20...

Ugh, I really need to get back on the nemesis market post-tenure. I think my current beefs are too abstract and/or asymmetrical. If anyone wants to be the Seto Kaiba to my Yugi Mutoh (don't worry, the Pharoah isn't involved), I am taking applications!

Like all great legal scholarship, this article got me spiraling out about auteur theory and the criticism of it as applied to law journals (I'm going to say piece forthcoming?). Can't think of a more glowing endorsement than that!

Figured I'd celebrate the end of summer with a Weird Al concert. What a strange cultural figure- did we ever figure it out? He's not the opposite of a problematic fave- that's Kevin Smith- but i feel like everyone has a Weird Al phase they outgrew but never got embarrassed by?

Naruto-run, don't walk, to your local theater to watch Weapons today! (Movie good, nowhere near as rich of a text as Sinners but probably more effective qua horror film or, weirdly, comedy, a worthy follow up to Barbarian, easily second-best movie of the year so far)

Might be time to consider an exploratory committee...

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you joy and happiness. I know I'm cheating with the extra context but this meme has kept me going for almost a year at this point and I think it's fun/aspirational.

Anyway I can't reveal all the details yet and I do just want to keep talking Magic with law people (the skills are similar!) but I should take the opportunity to note that my essay, Making Magic: How Lessons From 20 Years of Creating Magic Cards Can Improve Legal Instruction, is coming soon!

My picks are boring, so I can at least be specific: watching The Rise of Skywalker and seeing the vat of Snoke clones after Palpatine declared he "made Snoke" five minutes into the movie after watching this video the night before broke Star Wars for me. youtu.be/aanyjLmB1Bs?...

I'm having a very satisfying return to my alma mater for AALL/CoList, but above all else I'm very pleased to announce that true legends never die.

I am getting evidence that my "mail a print of an article that cites a YouTuber for a joke so that he will read it on video" gambit has driven a noticeable increase in traffic for The Law is Weirder Than AI. If you are in the habit of citing YouTubers for some reason, you might try it!

Interesting discourse I'm seeing on the other place: what is Biden-era cinema? Friend is making an extremely compelling case for Barbie, but Top Gun: Maverick and Saw X also strike me as strong picks.

If you haven't treated yourself to it yet, this article is excellent. The perceived capabilities of a first year law student reveal far more about the people who use them as a frame of reference than the students proper!

Law is Weirder than AI update: One of the YouTubers I cite did, indeed, find my use of his work funny. I hope that you also get the chance to achieve your dreams! 37:53 for the start (longwinded fanboy letter warning), 40:22 for my YouTube debut. www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99f...

I'm trying to come up with a good title for the M3Gan 2.0 and F1 double feature, make it the next Barbenheimer or Glicked. Best I've got so far: F0rM3g2la 1.

The fact that this article is relevant to major current litigation is honestly completely deranged. journals.indianapolis.iu.edu/index.php/in...

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace has a quote for every occasion, but I've been getting a lot of mileage out of "I'm one of the few people you'll meet who's written more books than they've read" recently. What if we gave ourselves all the cognitive problems of a cocaine diet without the cocaine?!

Honestly I think this one has legs. There's pent up demand for rom coms, as evidenced by the Materialists opening despite the fact that nobody likes it, this has a fun hook that can be explained (somewhat) easily, keep costs down and add a murder I bet Blumhouse would bite... I see potential.

Looks like I'm late to the party on this one, so might be a crowded market, but I may have found my latest, greatest enemy. Does it count if the pop culture reference is the ENTIRETY of the journal article, which I suspect will wind up being the case for "She-Hulk?"

Me thinking about getting another article out of The Last Jedi because it is a text deeply interested in demonstrating the folly of both of these desires. (The law is only barely involved at this point but the connections are there and let's be real, this has never stopped me before.)

People seem to generally prefer Lexis AI to Westlaw AI, which I believe is primarily a result of Lexis training its LLM with secondary and primary sources while Westlaw only trains on primary resources. This is an interesting testimonial about using secondary sources but also why not just use them?

We are trying to turn (and maybe already conceptualize) legal scholarship as the scam presented in this video, and see our own work as being like Scott. I guess it makes sense to make Scott's life easier- Scott's life sucks- but are we really just contrepeneurs? www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYc...

I don't know what to say about the LA situation, which is even worse than my comp. But the armed invasion of Portland (my home no matter where I live) in 2020, and the response of "friends" to it then and since, was a radicalizing event for me. Anyone even humoring Trump's actions is an enemy.

New non-law posting alert: Do you want to hear me talk about movies on their own, and not just insert extended references into law review articles? My first (of hopefully many!) pieces for Idaho Film Society, Velvet Mischief, is available! www.idahofilm.org/transmission...

The great thing about going on vacation is that I get to turn off social media for a couple weeks. The bad thing about going on vacation is that once I'm back I have to figure out how to get back on to social media. 😪 Anyway I'm sure given how this year has gone it has been an uneventful two weeks?

I think people are too prone to an agenda-first approach writing. I probably am more antagonistic towards planning than many, but I think it's more like a top-down (agenda to piece) versus bottom-up (piece to agenda) approach to writing. An agenda often presents itself through individual pieces!

I think this extends well beyond the particular sphere Zitron inhabits, and it's very cool to see this sentiment expressed more regularly. But also, what if we just outsourced our writing and the feeling described here to a machine that did it slightly faster and considerably worse for no reason?

My hating comes from a lot of stuff outside of this (although it's closely connected), but my doubting is very much predicated on stuff like this. Always good to see another Ed-head in the community.

As I learned from my friend and mentor Grand Admiral Thrawn, you can learn a lot about your enemies by studying their art. Since we are (omg) entering hostilities with Canada, I am pleased to announce that one of their most singular works, The Elephant Graveyard Radio Hour, has returned.

I will never understand why people are so eager to take these shortcuts on scholarship (and writing generally). The best change in my career was when I wrote my first article under duress and realized I loved writing. Are people just hell-bent on keeping people in my original joylessness?

In the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about the Council of Sams. For those who don't know, this is an eclectic mix of people and characters who I have been directly compared to on the basis of appearance, voice similarity, and general vibes. My personal favorite: Pepe the King Prawn.

This is funny but it tracks. I can't say exactly the same but she's always occupied a weird amount of my brain. Way too amused by The Question, way too into Bioshock, way too into fundamentally self-centered women with bobs who definitely don't approve of me, etc.

Movies you've watched more than 12 times using gifs. I feel like this meets the letter of the "Hard Mode" exceptions (Star Wars, Star Trek, and LOTR) without meeting the spirit. But yes, if you want to track my research agenda it is a list of movies that would work as an answer to this prompt.

Wendy has perfectly summed up my problem with AI, grades, and hell, let's throw Quimbee in while we're at it. The fact that she seems to know what she has lost gives me modest hope, but there is a joy in learning and creation that we have done our utmost to destroy. nymag.com/intelligence...

My only problem with Evan's story is that it stole my upcoming film adaptation of The Law is Weirder Than AI's thunder.

This is true of legal skills but I think applies to most artistry as well. It's great when work is good and people know what they're doing, but seeing people who clearly don't but are figuring it out is one of life's great underrated pleasures IMO.

NORMALIZE DOGS THAT LOOK LIKE AT-ATs!