SJ At 11

It was eleven years ago today that Dr. SJ told me she was busy, to stop pestering her and find something else to do.

Like what?

“Start a blog,” she replied. And so SJ was born. I had no particular purpose at the time. I knew nothing about blogging, but I liked to write. So I did.

Over the years, SJ has gone through a great many permutations, issues that struck my fancy, points I felt like making, occasional personal stories and commentary on the law. There’s a quite a bit packed into the archives, and chances are good that whatever you wish I would write about is already there. I don’t look back at it, and many links from years past are now dead, as other bloggers have come and gone. 

I’ve made great friends. I’ve made great enemies. I’ve been right. I’ve been wrong. But I’m still here, for better or worse. Thanks for reading. Thanks for donating to defray the cost of this joint. Thanks for the illuminating comments. Even the crazy and idiotic comments. It’s all part of the fabric of eleven years of SJ.

90 thoughts on “SJ At 11

    1. SHG Post author

      Don’t be so nice to Dr. SJ. She just wanted me to stop annoying her. She doesn’t get a medal for that. Oh wait, maybe she does.

      1. Kathleen Casey

        At age 49 we tend to be immature. And maybe the doctor stays busy with her own blog.

        Thank you for all you do.

      1. Patrick Maupin

        SJ is the only gluten free donut that’s worth a damn. To Wilbur’s point below, all gluten free donuts make you think, but the thoughts provided by the rest of them are more like “How can they possibly charge money for this, and why did I put it in my mouth?”

        Happy birthday, and many thanks for being here.

          1. LocoYokel

            I reject this maple bacon donut of which you speak. It’s only a tool of old, white, shitlords to oppress donut eaters everywhere.

  1. wilbur

    You do a helluva job, thinking through and cranking out two or three essays a day. Your writing is always thought-provoking. I can think of no higher praise.

    Thanks for your efforts, and for letting me be your occasional straight man.

  2. Eddie Harrington

    Happy Blogging Birthday, Scott. Your readers owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. SJ. I’m sure I speak for many when I say that I hope you are still writing SJ 11 years from now!!

      1. LocoYokel

        No, I want you to still have something left of your intelligence. I think a column at the NYT would be conclusive evidence that your mind was gone and you need to be stuck in a home for your own safety.

  3. MollyG

    Thank you for writing this blog. I think I have been reading it daily since near the beginning. I am not a lawyer and I value your perspective and commentary. You have a skill for seeing the core issues that others miss or gloss over.

    1. SHG Post author

      Thanks, MG. I often find myself starting a post with one thought in mind and ending up somewhere else entirely. I don’t know what I think until I see what I write. It’s often as much of a surprise to me as it may be to you.

      1. Fubar

        I often find myself starting a post with one thought in mind and ending up somewhere else entirely.

        With the King’s¹ blessing² I now anoint
        You a Knight for maintaining this joint.
        You have fought without cease
        Guacmole with peas.
        For that courage … wait, what was my point?

        FN 1: King Edward the Greatest and Firstest with the Mostest (1812 – 1888)

        FN 2: He might as well bless it because he can’t do anything about it.

        1. SHG Post author

          I know that thought process all too well, which is why have all those trashed posts that never see the light of day.

  4. PseudonymousKid

    Thanks for the blog and all the fun. Can’t say more than what’s already been said. You’re a fantastic essayist and writer in general.

  5. Sol Wisenberg

    You are the first thing I read every morning–after the Conflicts Bulletin. In all seriosity, you don’t need a NYT column. Why associate yourself with the paper that once employed Walter Duranty? I think of you as the closest thing the country has today to Mike Royko. And what paper today would let Mike Royko even have a column? Not a one. So please keep at it, right where you are.

      1. the other rob

        Now there’s two things that I never expected to see in the same sentence! Happy birthday to SJ and thanks to SHG.

  6. Jay

    I appreciate that your posts encourage critical thinking, and bring up points that non-lawyers can understand and relate to. This community in it’s little corner of the internet is great, and I am glad I found it.

    And of course thanks for the free lawyer advice.

    GBR

      1. Skink

        I think there should be an Anniversary Day Rule: posts can be combined. If this thread is combined with Demon Porn, then I’m free for getting laid. Not as a lawyer, but as an asleep dude.

        I’ll just have to do some remembering about what goes where and why.

  7. Jim Tyre

    11, huh. So we can look forward to acne, that awkward first date, the learner’s permit, so many good things.

    Keep it up, SHG. You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and Doggone it, people like you^^^your blog.

      1. John Barleycorn

        Good choice… Not too many joints left where the rabbit, the pheasant, the deer, and the cow are all featured every night. Four of my favorite things!

        Enjoy….and I sincerely hope you have a toast or two, to the next eleven over the foie gras.

        BTW, I would go with the pheasant and don’t forget to book a room.

  8. Chris Ryan

    Being an engineer, rather then a lawyer, it was always tough finding a blawg that covers relevant topics, with facts and evidence, without attempting to dumb stuff down for the laymen (or getting so far into the weeds as to be unreadable to all but those schooled in Latin). Thinking is hard, but well worth it, and I appreciate a place that calls attention to my bad assumptions and forces me to rethink my positions.

    Thanks Scott, for the time well spent, and I hope there are at least another 11 years left in your tank.

    Chris Ryan

            1. Richard Kopf

              omg! I’m literally shaking right now. But it may be the palsy. Or perhaps the gin. I don’t know. Where are my fucking keys?

              Greenfield stole my fucking keys!

              All the best.

              RGK

  9. Skink

    Thanks for being real.

    When I annoy my wife, she tells me to walk the swamps at night. At least I think that’s what she says–she says it in Spanish, a language I don’t speak. Dr. SJ is way more better at annoyance.

      1. Skink

        I haven’t tried to learn, so I wouldn’t know. Maintaining status makes for short arguments. I just agree that I’m some bad, but unrealized, dude and move on.

        Mickey was the dude.

  10. Geezerette

    Non-lawyer lurker. I have learned much! and would now be a wiser juror. However, I most enjoy the snide and irreverent laugh-out-loud humor.

  11. Eliot J CLingman

    Your logical reasoning and intellectual honesty are as rare as glitter pooping unicorns dancing on digital rainbows…. so its hats of to simple justice blawg’s 11 rotations around the sun.

  12. Nemo

    Congrats, Mr. Greenfield, and thank you for providing an educational blog with real staying power. There aren’t many experts at all who pull off what you have. You’re the Sluggy Freelance of law blogs, IMO.

    And since you mentioned links, do you plan on updating the Volokh link?

  13. michael c woodward

    I associate myself with all of these accolades, and extend thanks and 11th birthday wishes to SJ.

    I happened upon this blog when I googled “public service announcement” in 2012 for reasons I no longer recall. Up popped the “tin foil hats” story – https://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/08/18/public-service-announcement-lose-the-tin-foil-hat/
    Been a daily read ever since. You make the practice of arctic law even more interesting. My very best.
    Michael Woodward
    Yellowknife, Canada

  14. Sotted Owl

    Dammit, I’m a day late to the party. And I wasn’t even invited.
    Anyway, thanks for trying to make me just a little bit less stupid.
    Keep trying.

  15. Billy Bob

    First, you turn 60 years on Earth. Then SJ turns eleven. What’s next? Down Jones Chow Mein bites the dust and drops twelve thousand point? Gold goes to 10,000? Interest rates quadruple to 10%? Don’t laugh, Black-Swan of the blawgosphere-breath.
    Remember BB’s famous last words: Bed, Bath and Beyonce! Not necessarily in that order? You do not have to be beautiful to get nominated to SCOTUS. And that is the way we like it; trust it,… for two hundred years [of misery]. Keep up the good work. You are doing a heck of a job there, Brownie. You have a mind like a steel-trap, and your output is prodigious. Don’t your fingers ever get tired? Just askin! (We know you do not finger-type, like some troglodytes we know.)
    You are in your Prime. It does not get better than this!?! Or my name is not,… Honey, what was my handle and password on SJ? Do you know what a CAPTCHA is? This is nuts. I’m outta here. Prez Trump on the line! Tell him I’m busy and will call back in a few.

  16. Shadow of a Doubt

    As a Canadian with an american wife who spends a lot of time in the states, I want to thank you for posting in both an informative and entertaining way. Your postings have allowed me to not only have a much better understanding of American law but allowed me to form my opinion of American issues in an informed way, and you manage to do it without boring me to death in the process, which is a rare talent indeed, thanks for sharing it with us.

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