There are so many fascinating tidbits in this article (The ultimate sin tax: Nevada considers taxing hookers) I scarcely know where to start. How about that Sheri's Ranch (a legal Nevada brothel) is so flush it's building a $24 million PGA golf course? Or that it handled (straight from the AP without a trace of irony, that word) more than 10,000 customers last year? Or that the Nevada state Health Division believes 365,000 sex acts are performed each year in the state's brothels (that's 1,000 a day)? Or that yoga, golf and massage all are exempted from the state's contemplated new "entertainment and admissions" tax? (Why, 'cause they're therapeutic? Ok, that logic holds...)

This seems somehow all bound up (stop it) with the fact that Frederick's of Hollywood is looking more and more Victoria's Secret day by day (and, come to think of it, vice—without a trace of irony—versa).

The Stanford Spectrum Policy Conference, with live Web video and audio, is going on today and tomorrow. Dave's blogging, and blogging the blogging (Gary?). I was, of course, counting on Donna to round up the coverage of the U.C. Berkeley DRM Conference that I've had to ignore until now because of work, and she has, of course, come through with flying colors.

Just updated the blawgroll pretty significantly, with links I've been saving as a present for the new template. If you've been feeling neglected, hopefully that's now eliminated!

Just back from yoga, this thing still here? Like getting the car washed, it just drives better.

The folks at Blogger: "Also, Google liked our logo. And we liked their food." [via Ev]

Wow, that was great, I didn't feel a thing. Thanks Matt! Jeneane just reminded me what a nailbiter it was to skin our blogs, not to mention how bitchin' we thought we were. (Of course, now I think I'm bitchin' all over again.) It's taken me just under a year to overhaul; must be something about spring starting to sneak over the horizon.

Let me know if anything looks weird on your end and we'll try to fix. (The new blawgroll menus seem to work in most browsers, but not IE 5 for the Mac. Posts dated prior to Feb. 18, '03 will be formatted differently because I'm just not compulsive enough to clean 'em up.)

Hack, wheeze, ahem: who can breathe through all this dust? If all works as planned, this post should inaugurate a new look for Bag and Baggage. The design is brought to you by Matt Round, the genius behind Malevole. Matt's blogroll was what initially caught my eye (I mean, is that great or what?), through pointers from Stavros/Chris and Elaine...and there you have it. How things work in blogspace, I suppose! Matt's in England, gives great code and email, and was a close contender for The Guardian's Best British Blog last year as selected by Ev and friends. (I just watched his Tribute to Ray Harryhausen again and think I laughed even harder this time.)

So bear with me as I stretch and get comfortable in the new Bag and Baggage space. Formatting may be a little funky as I begin to figure things out. (W3-Who?)

In the interest of journalistic accuracy (Into the Blog, LA Times, re Live from the Blogosphere), I believe the precise text was "Holy crap." (Hey, Ev's back. Phew.) Fun article.

(I am never skipping an event again, I am never skipping an event again...)

Neat-o, check out the new Blogs at Harvard Aggregator. And Dave's right, it's fast. Caught my last post in less than 11 minutes.

TPH: "In the end, people will have their own reasons for their licensing decisions. I want simply to explain what I think is the most likely legal interpretation of the license so that people can better imagine how it might or might not work for them. [As always, I have to add the remark that people who have a lot riding on the licensing decision or want to talk about the quirks in a particular licensing scenario should consult an attorney.]" (2/25/03) Earlier post re Movable Type and CC licensing here. Someone should really jump on the opportunity to write this article.

A few things that have managed to crack through my current Wall of Work:

Bye, Mr. Rogers, you'll be missed.

Bye, Berman-Coble bill, you won't.

John C. Dvorak's PC Magazine column about the end of the moratorium on Internet sales taxes is a stunner: he's against it. (For some well-articulated reasons, too. A bit more background here.)

Patrick Norton has 3,500 or so helpful words on practical things to know about switching to the Mac. (The Mac's doing a bang-up job on the brief I'm finishing. Let's hope the same can be said of its author.)

The article from the March, 2003 issue of the ABA Journal about legal wegblogs now is available online: Lawyers who 'Blawg' -- Attorneys Are Finding Fans (and Some Fame) Posting Legal Commentary on the Net. I like it quite a bit. The author Jason Krause did his homework, and seems to have a clear understanding of "the whole weblog thing." In addition to profiling Howard Bashman, Goldstein & Howe's SCOTUSBlog, Marty Schwimmer and me, Jason picked the brains of a number of other fine legal bloggers including Eugene Volokh and Rick Klau, who are quoted, and Ernie Svenson, who unfortunately is not. The piece captures the excitement and passion I think is familiar to those of us who have drunk the Kool-Aid, and is bound to prompt even more legal types to take up this action-packed extreme sport. "[P]lease move away from any blunt instruments..." (!) (Heh, only a true blogger can quote herself with such delight and abandon -- not to mention a bracketed initial-cap. And yes, I await with eagerness and not some small degree of raw fear the print issue's photos.)

[Later] Minding one's p's and mixed metaphors: "It's a fertile legal playground for lawyers." (!???!) I'm laying the whole of the blame for this on Glenn Reynolds for *seeding* me with playground imagery right about when this interview happened, and right about here.

[Later still] Eeek, the pics are up.

Good morning, it's the crack of dawn, my husband left an hour ago to get ready for closing argument today in the case he's been trying, and I'm continuing to fine tune a Ninth Circuit brief due Friday. (For those of you who might be trial court litigators -- and for whom Friday thus feels like an occurrence due to hit around the same time as a manned mission to Mars -- realize that in the world of appellate law I feel like I'm filing this any second). With both sides of my marital unit in such high-test lawyer mode, you'd better pray we don't do anything rash this week like reproduce (uh, slim chance). There's no telling what sort of spawn that might loose on the world. "The Justice has a new weapon..."

(The brief I'm working on is for a party you've most likely heard of. I'll let you know once it's a matter of public record, if only so you can better appreciate how this project has a singular ability to snap me back to commando-caliber discipline every time my attention begins to drift in the slightest.)

GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON
--C. R.

Today's LA Times business section has an article on unanticipated invocations of the DMCA (Media Copyright Law Put to Unexpected Uses; reg. req.). The Berkeley DRM Conference gets going later this week with an impressive roster of speakers. (Look for bIPblog's Mary Hodder to blog this, according to Donna; hopefully Professors Lessig and Felten will have some thoughts too.) Finally, if the DVD CCA plans to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari regarding the Pavlovich decision (PDF), I believe its time within which to do so expires after tomorrow.