The Edge of Empty

So it is long past time that Bela and Count were introduced. I can't believe they will be a year old in just a few weeks. Time sure does fly! We brought them home at the end of February when they were about 9 weeks old. Bella  is our sweet girl on the right. She is a very mild-mannered girl who loves to stalk the cat. Often, we will find the cat laid out on the floor with Bela's nose gently buried in the cat's fur. When she gets too nosy, the cat runs away. I truly think Bela wants to be friends with the cat, but the cat is too dumb to play along. Bela likes to be close to anyone that sits still. She isn't a lap ferret, but she will come lay her head on a foot if given the chance. Where Bela is sweet, Count is sassy. Count is an active boy who loves to wrestle. His favorite activity is to climb the bookshelf in our room and push every book off. He then noses them around the room. He is quite territorial about them and gets upset if he sees anyone putting them away....

As a child, I was a voracious reader and loved to learn new words, especially big ones. Unlike most of my classmates, I enjoyed the weekly spelling and vocabulary lists in elementary and high school. Sadly, I have lost many of those great words over the last few decades.  However, learning fun, new words is one of the things that I have been enjoying in law school. Apparently, judges also like to use big words. Several times a case, I am forced to consult a dictionary to look up legal terms--which is not unexpected. What surprised me is that I find myself looking up other words as well. Obviously, the plain language  movement invading the halls of most state governments has not reached the courtroom. Won't you join me each week as I share a word gleaned from my reading? Contumacious is this week's word courtesy of Justice John V. Vaughn in the case  People v. Pettigrew , 332 N.Y.S.2d 33, 37 (1972). And his quote: Refusal to heed the warning so given; persistence in p...