Πάντα ῥεῖ

Don Shula was a professional football player and coach, not a lawyer. This quote, however, applies in many ways to legal history as I pointed out to my students. There is cause here both for rejoicing and concern.

Πάντα ῥεῖ means "everything flows" and is associated with the philosopher Heraclitus, he of the "Never step in the same river twice" school of thought. 

Perhaps I have a solution

As I watch the ridiculous "religious liberty" laws being put forward in the Land of the Free to preserve poor persecuted Christians from having to participate in a same-sex wedding by baking a cake, I have a simple suggestion to offer from the perspective of someone who is teaching a legal history course.

When same-sex couples approach any business to request that the business perform the service it advertises, the couple should make clear right up front that the business, the owners, the staff and anyone associated with it is NOT INVITED to the wedding. That way there should be no confusion about what is being asked: that you bake a cake, not that you show up and eat it.

That should solve any scruples. You are absolutely NOT being asked to attend or approve or give a gift. You are only being asked to bake the stupid cake for which you will be paid your usual outrageous fee.

Thank you.

Bank holiday

A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, some Commonwealth countries, other European countries such as Switzerland, and a colloquialism for a public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although banks close and the majority of the working population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract. The first official bank holidays were the four days named in the Bank Holidays Act 1871*, but today the term is colloquially used (albeit incorrectly) for the two public holidays which are not official bank holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, namely Good Friday and Christmas Day. These last two days were considered such traditional days of rest in those places that it was deemed unnecessary to mention them in the law.

All of that means that today, Easter Monday, was a holiday here in Durham. Since the class I teach doesn't meet again until Wednesday, I am in the middle of a five-day break ... with no where to go!

Perhaps I will wander into the fields looking for lost synagogues or something. If only I had a basket of plover's eggs, some champagne and a Teddy Bear ...

*[And here is where you know you are dealing with someone teaching a History of Law course] The Act designated four bank holidays in England, Wales and Ireland (Easter Monday; Whit Monday [Monday following Pentecost]; First Monday in August; Boxing Day in England and Wales and St Stephen's Day in Ireland), and five in Scotland (New Year's Day; Good Friday; First Monday in May; First Monday in August; Christmas Day).

A Jew in Durham

Although brought up in a somewhat relaxed Orthodox Jewish home, I no longer follow most of the traditions of my ancestors. Nonetheless, I am a Jew, born of a Jewish mother and a Son of the Covenant. And grimly, I have distant relatives who died in the Holocaust.

This being the season of Passover, I thought I would check out what's happening among the Jews in Durham.

Not so much. The Jews, as you no doubt recall, were expelled from England by King Edward I in 1290. Although individuals may have been around, there was no communal presence until the 1650s and their presence was only fully legalized in the nineteenth century.

As for Durham, from what I have been able to glean, the first settlement was in 1888. There was a small synagogue for the first part of the twentieth century, but it folded in the 1950s and is today a Presbyterian chapel. Kind of says it all. It looks lovely with all the ivy, but they were not hosting any seder.

The front bit, though, with the ivy on the poles does look a bit like a sukkah.

Callum?

Damien asked about my friend Callum, the one who explained about the governmental advocacy of the ploughman's lunch in order to increase consumption of cheese.

Here he is:

April fool!

The real Callum: Sir Callum Mitchum, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, St. Acca College, Durham University: