Comments on: Happy Hour is for Amateurs

By: ~Antar~

~Antar~ — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:09:57 +0000

Wow. I was reading the reviews for your book, and the only negative comments seem to come from other lawyers (by their pretentious speech in fucking Amazon comments) on how terrible you must be as a person.
I must say that you’ve obviously ruffled some feathers, keep up the good work.
PL: I thought the nicest criticism was from the woman who said she wanted to hate the book, but thought every kid looking at law school needed to read it. It’s one of the three star reviews.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:12:45 +0000

It is a great cover. And what’s inside is certainly the most important thing. And there’s great writing inside.
I was just wondering about the title, that’s all.
Pretty academic though. You know you can’t keep academics from rubbing off on you a little when you’re around them all the time. I should be working on math homework anyway instead of dissecting minutae on this addictive website. Can’t wait for the book.
PL: Study hard. Facility with math keeps you away from law school.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:39:53 +0000

Because it’s a spin on a worn-out phrase: ____ is for amateurs.
…and isn’t the whole point of your book that, except for the 10-percenter type people, Happy Hour is actually for professionals? Amateurs don’t do happy hour. They go out and have legitimate fun that builds relationships with people that they have real fun. Happy Hour is for professoinals, the kind that only want to go out for tapas on Friday at 6:30, talk about something intellectual but not too controversial (with the wine glass stem dangling through the fingers of course) and try to look smarter and more gracious than thier ‘friends,’ whom they don’t really like.
My guess is that the publisher came up with that title because it would sell the book to people who aren’t already familiar with your (brilliant) work… the kind of people who don’t think much about underlying form, because the kind that do are probably already know you. Also, the former is by far the most common (==> more money).
…and finally, it does not ring of PL. So that’s why.
…or, am I supposed to realize all that? Am I comitting the opposite of the situation with your hippie neigbors and the Buick by mistaking the droll as the earnest?
PL: No. But you’re missing the fact that we have to sell the book. HHIFA was the only titled that worked for a variety of reasons. The book can be read on a variety of levels. I’ve given up trying to figure them all out. Hell, the marketing on this thing has been and will probably always be in flux of some sort. Some people take it as Fear and Loathing style gonzo humor. Some people take it as deep social commentary. Some people take it as a polemic on the folly of not doing what you want to do. I think it’s all three and more and this title worked for it.
I guess one could also take it as double sarcasm. I hadn’t thought of that.
We could give ourselves headaches dissecting it. I’d say the title, though not “PL” in some regards, is the only way to cover what it is. Ultimately, it’s a cult book, and it’s what’s inside that counts (not to discount the great cover Bunny and Donika came up with), so this is all kind of academic.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:21:44 +0000

Did you come up with that title?
PL: Why?

By: Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:04:50 +0000

I’m actually irritated this isn’t out yet and lots of the old stories have been taken down. There’s truly nothing better to read than Philalawyer when you’re sitting at a mind numbing tradeshow watching soulless sales weasels and herd logic customers walk by.
PL: I’m getting a new piece of the old variety up by week’s end. My editor and I have been a bit bogged down, however, with book stuff.
I suggest buying one of those little TVs and watching the bobble-heads on the Hill try to kiss their constituents’ asses and score political points arguing over the bailout.
There’s an absurdity in watching Barney Frank rip into what he thinks are the specifics of the structure that John Cleese and Eric Idle couldn’t replicate.

By: Kakutogi

Kakutogi — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:07:06 +0000

i’m probably the only Kinesiology major that has read every article on this site religiously. I have learned so much from you. I switched into Sociology last Friday and threw away my chances of graduating in 4 years. But you know what? Who gives a fuck. I’m spending a fuckload of dad’s money, but I’m sure as fuck not wasting a cent of it. Your attitude and writing has influenced my way of thinking, and it’s why I’m taking the classical tradition, a japanese language course, and a grab bag of all sorts of bullshit. There shouldn’t even be a choice, dumb ass high school grads looking at college should be forced into general studies their first year. I think what I really want to do is become a prof (and take the ass raping that comes with getting a PhD), but at least i’m smart enough to know that I may find a different route even now. It sounds like a stretch to say I learned about all this stuff from a blog like this, but you definitely had a huge part in helping me see what my priorities are. Hopefully I can get the fuck out of the country before my generation starts to really fuck shit up.
Good luck on the book, I’d buy it just for the articles you took off the site. I’d definitely travel to meet you, and i won’t bother asking you to come down and visit this shithole of a town (u of i urbana-champaign).
PL: Jesus, man. Thanks. That’s awfully kind.
As to sociology, if you ever want to write an article about the fragile male ego that sits at all of the problems I see in law (and we’re now seeing on Wall St), let me know. I think that, along with sexual puritanism and its attendant frustrations (often channeled into fundamentalism), is one of the most destructive and annoying forces in the universe.

By: subrogated self

subrogated self — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:29:06 +0000

PL-Long-time fan, read you in 04 when at a horrible Houston-based firm. Looking forward to the book, I find it amusing that some of the reviwers seem to think you made up or embellished the stories. Kind of the reaction I got from some of my fellow associates I referred your blog too. Let’s just say–to paraphrase Cobain, they are not like me and were not amused! They simply cannot put their mind around the concept that when as HS juniors they were sneaking liquor from their parent’s basement bars that I was buying 8-balls of blow direct from the Columbians in Jackson Heights and partying in underground clubs into wee hours of morning.
PL: Jesus, you were a lot more hardcore than I was at that age. But that hits the real thrust of the book… Not a lot of people are closet libertines, but the percentage who are is not insignificant. And yet no one admits it. We all pretend everybody’s a teetotaler. Strange judgmentalism in this country. We’re all so fixated on values, and yet the more we look around, everything proves people are so much more nuanced than that…

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:16:20 +0000

Enjoy it while you can, Phil, because if the Jesus Crowd that you and yours are selling out to for a 30 pieces of silver tax cut have their way, this time next year you’ll be tearfully confessing and repenting on live teevee to a celebrity panel made up of John Hagee, James Dobson, and Fred Phelps on a Fox reality show called “Which Sinner to Smite?” I just hope for your sake that the call-in voters find Julia Allison’s blog more offensive.
Maker’s would be a good sponsor, btw,
PL: Do you recall the last line of “A Clockwork Orange”? There’s a bucket of money in professional repenting. Is there a better racket than stealing from those degenerates? “Oh, ahhh am saved. I have felt the power of the Lurd!”
Knob Creek balked at us. Said we weren’t post-ironic enough.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:38:12 +0000

Don’t even get me started on the automakers. It makes me sick. Rick Wagoner is a disgrace. A fucking disgrace. Where else can you drive your company’s stock to a 52 YEAR low, blame it on unforeseen events, and have the board say they don’t care and get a massive loan from the government? It’s ludicrous.
PL; The company should be forced to break up. I don’t know if this could be done because their product lines share a lot of components, but it seems right that the company be forced to sell off its better units, like Cadillac, GM Trucks and parts of Chevy, which actually make good products.

By: Fellow 10%er

Fellow 10%er — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:24:52 +0000

Oh polar bears, mouth like a vacuum. Great writing, I thoroughly enjoy learning about how much I don’t want to go into Law, damn you Boston Legal for only showing the cum shots. That aside, I’ll be avidly reading your book and praying (but maybe I should do something useful) that there won’t be a dry spell from the updates when I’m done.
Happy day is for pros.
Cheers
PL: Thanks. As to the updates, we have material. A new piece will run tonight or tomorrow. We’re just figuring out how to run it in conjunction with the book announcement.