Sunnydale High Yearbook

SUNNYDALE HIGH YEARBOOK
Christopher Golden & Nancy Holder (1999)

RATING: 5/5 Stakes

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: "It's senior year for Buffy Summers and her friends. And that means homecoming, senior prom, finals, graduation--all the usual evil doings guaranteed to make the Chosen One long for recess. Slayer duties caused Buffy to miss picking up her yearbook, so Willow took it for her and elisted the help of Xander, Oz, Cordelia, Giles, and Angel to make it truly special. Filled with personal notes, candid photos and in-jokes about Slayerfest, Halloween, substitute teachers, the principal who was eaten, Ascenscion, etc. Buffy's Yearbook is part school publication, part memory book."

REVIEW

An oversized hardcover like the Sunnydale High Yearbook isn't something you're likely to find in a used bookstore, but it really is worth seeking out as it makes for a great "keepsake" of the first three seasons of Buffy. It really has all the characteristics of a high school yearbook: signatures and goodbyes both profound and vapid, a "congratulatory" message from the principal, special sections on sports and student clubs, student photos (including all those one-episode day players), ads from local businesses, and even an "In Memoriam" section (something especially necessary in Sunnydale!). Flipping through it is a really fun way to remember those early episodes and it lends a nice air of authenticity to a setting that was usually just a backdrop for Buffy's adventures. It's only about 90 pages long and is a quick read, but I found it more enjoyable than most Buffy novels out there.

Torchwood: Something in the Water

I've gotten hooked on Torchwood. I have no idea why everyone on the net didn't think very highly of the first season (which I'm about halfway through), but I love the darker, sexier, gorier tone of the show. A guy should follow his passions, so I picked up my first Torchwood novel, Something in the Water by Trevor Baxendale. I really like the handsome design of the books, small hardcovers with nice cover art--though I don't know why they put a blank page at the end of each of the book's 29 short chapters, which basically means over ten percent of the book is blank pages. But anyway, it was an enjoyable, fast-paced read that captured what I've seen of the show quite well. It has the usual "evil alien (are there any other kind on Torchwood?) has come to Earth to cause a ruckus" plot, but the "water hag" alien reproduces like something out of . . . well, Alien. It's a damn gory & gross book, though unfortunately without the sex and profanity of the show. I'll definitely pick up another one in the series to see what I think--I'd consider some of the Doctor Who books, but I've heard they're written more for a younger crowd.

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Random Law Review # 2

Christopher Newdick's Preserving Social Citizenship in Health Care Markets: There May Be Trouble Ahead, 2 McGill Journal of Law & Health 93 (2008).

Newdick, a Professor at the University of Reading in the UK, looks at three recent cases from England, Canada, and the EU to suggest an unravelling of what he calls "social citizenship" in the area of health care law. In his view, individualist and market-based understandings of civil rights are being used to undermine the common good as embodied in welfare/universal health care regimes. For example, courts are increasingly allowing individuals to buy private health insurance or seek private treatment abroad (and then be reimbursed domestically), which can put enormous burdens on a state health system. It's a moderately interesting article, though the thesis is an obvious one to draw from the three cases discussed and there's nothing new here that would make one think this will be an enduring piece of legal literature: it's more of a "look what's happening" type of article. From what I've read here and elsewhere, health care law certainly seems to be a fascinating intersection of economics, ethics, administrative law, constitutional law, and more.

As it relates to my own interests, I've always found the distinction discussed in this article between "negative" rights (rights against the state, like traditional freedoms of speech, religion, etc.) and "positive" rights (demands citizens can make to the state for welfare, education, health care, etc.) to be an important and enduring dividing line between competing conceptions of the proper role of constitutional rights in democracies. I've always thought the former belonged in bills of rights and the latter was something to be dealt with by legislatures, but there's an interesting case to be made for more inclusion of positive rights in constitutional documents.

Last Issue Special # 6: Justice

SERIES: Justice

DATE: 1989

THOSE RESPONSIBLE: Peter David (writer); Howard Mackie (editor). For some reason the colorist is credited as "Don't Ask." But I really want to.

CATEGORY: ACCEPTANCE

First of all, I've always loved that cover blurb, "# 32 in a Thirty-Two Issue Limited Series." Comics need more self-deprecating wit like that. Justice was one of the few New Universe titles to make it past the first year, though it had a major reboot--the details are vague in my memory, but I think the main character, Tensen, went from being an other-dimensional fantasy realm type to a hardnosed paranormal investigator. According to the frontispiece, his current mission is "to travel the land, find other paranormals . . . and judge whether or not they are using their powers properly."

Apart from the cover blurb and the words "Now, the end" on the frontispiece, there's no mention this is the final issue, but it seems like the main storyline is wrapped up as Tensen becomes the permanent sitting judge for paranormal disputes in the Coney Island area, leaving the reader with these final thoughts: "They look at me, and in their eyes I see hope . . . need . . .a plea for fairness. But no fear. Finally . . . I am home."

Roscoe & The Gamecock

Captain America # 183 cracked me up for two reasons. First, this pic of Cap (in his short-lived "Nomad" outfit) upon learning of the death of short-lived supporting character Roscoe:

Second, this pic of Cap's super-villain rival in the issue, the dorkiest villain of all: The Gamecock.

Last Issue Special # 5: Zorro

SERIES: Zorro

DATE: 1991

THOSE RESPONSIBLE: Philip John Taylor (story) & Ian Rimmer (script)

CATEGORY: SILENCE (mostly)

A lot of companies have had the license for Zorro comics over the years, and in 1990 Marvel got its chance, producing 12 issues before cancellation. I think the comic was based on the concurrently-running syndicated tv-show that I used to watch with my Dad on Sunday afternoons--it was pretty generic stuff, but entertaining nonetheless. As for the Zorro comic, the last issue cover blurbs that it's the "Grand Finale" issue, which would have to suffice as notice to readers since there's no text or letters page inside. It's not easy to tell whether the story was written specifically to be a final issue or not--it's a sort of It's a Wonderful Life, where Zorro ponders whether his career has been worthwhile and then a ghost or delusion named Fernando shows up to present an alternate reality in which everything's gone wrong because Zorro never existed (there's a surprising degree of continuity, with frequent footnotes to earlier issues). Seeing this, Zorro of course decides to take up his sword and get back to work--I especially like what he says to the evil Alcalde (the ruler of the town) after punching the crap out of him:

"I'm here to hammer home a message. I've had enough of your injustice, your tyranny . . from now on, I own your evil heart! Fear your own shadow, in case it hides my blade because I'll be watching your every step. Put one foot out of place . . . and I'll swoop down on you like God's Thunder and crush you out of existence!"

Random Law Review # 1

Phuon (Lily) Tran, Note, Cadbury Schweppes plc v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue: Eliminating a Harmful Tax Practice or Encouraging Multinationals to Shop Around the Bloc?, 30 Loy. L.A. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 2008

Whew! That's quite the mouthful for a title, and one not likely to entice the casual reader (if there is such a thing for law reviews). I can't blame the author, though, as the topic isn't one that easy to sum up (I've tried a few different ways, without much luck). Basically, this student note discusses a recent case decided by the European Court of Justice, which adjudicates disputes between member states of the European Union.* The UK wanted Cadbury's Ireland subsidiary to pay income taxes at the UK rate, whereas Cadbury naturally wanted its Ireland branch to pay the much lower (by 2/3) Irish income tax rate. The Court sided with Cadbury, holding that member states can't require that foreign-based subsidiaries pay higher domestic rates unless they can prove that that subsidary is basically a sham designed for tax evasion. The author is of the opinion that the decision is sound, but that the Court's rule is too difficult to apply in practice.

This is a perfect example of the drawbacks of publishing student casenotes in law journals: there's nothing you could get from this note that you couldn't get from simply reading the case itself. There's very little in the way of meaningful analysis in the casenote (so little I would give this a pretty low grade if it were a seminar paper), which means that any tax professional looking for insight on the EU's law in this regard would be wasting their time coming here first. Good legal scholarship requires a "value-added" element that is rarely present in casenotes.

*And to digress completely, how come whenever I put books on the European Union, bioethics, or Thomas Jefferson on my Christmas list, they never show up? (you people know who you are!) Are you worried I won't be as excited by them on Christmas morning as I am by a giant AT-AT Imperial Walker? You're probably right, but still.