|
Issue 5, Semester 2, 2019 ANNA SARTORI In the thick of the clerkship process, there are few joys in life. Nonetheless, I thought I had found one: pasta. Last week, I crafted the most beautiful lunch to take to university. As you may infer from my name, my ancestry is Italian. I don’t mess around when it comes to pasta. This was a creamy tagliatelle with sautéed mushrooms and generous spoonfuls of my Nonna’s homemade pesto stirred through. Sitting in Corporations Law while Helen warned us of the shortcomings of corporate governance, I keenly waited for the clock to tick to 12:55pm, when I could escape room 109 and consume my delicious gourmet meal. The moment never came.  Image: McDonalds - sourced from DigiDay https://bit.ly/2NAR6ta Issue 5, Semester 2, 2019 JACKSON WILLOWS We law students know as well as anyone how stressful and busy the life of the modern human can be. Between study, work, a social life, extracurriculars and maybe a hobby, we are inevitably spread thin. This is why the way we choose to spend our precious few hours of free time really matters. It’s those few hours of spare time that are our own – they are the time in which we get to express our individuality. I choose to spend a fair chunk of mine birdwatching, and I want to tell you why.  Image: Alex Proimos, Wikimedia Commons Issue 5, Semester 2, 2019 ANISHA THOMAS The other evening, I was at a sports bar watching some rugby. I turned up late and found my friends sitting at the front, near the big screen. There wasn’t any space to sit so I crouched down and then, deciding my 5’2” was short enough, stood up to save my knees. I heard an aggressive voice behind me, “get back down on your knees.” I turned to see another patron; beer in his hand, breath in my face. Thinking he must have been joking, I bent down a little. “Lower”, he said, and I went down. I thought – this must be a joke, so I stood back up. “I’m being serious, get down on your knees.” I went back down on my knees.  Image: Wikimedia Commons Issue 5, Semester 2, 2019 EDGAR BOX I’m not a fan of sport. In fact, I’m one of those people who finds contrarian pride in actively broadcasting how much they don’t like sport. I even pretend to not understand sport with my friends to boost my image as ‘the-anti-sport-guy.’ You know exactly the sort of person I’m talking about. Well, last weekend my friends took me to go and see a game of AFL; Essendon v Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Apparently, it was an important game — I wouldn’t know, or at least I’ll pretend not to, because there’s nothing cooler than people who don’t have fun. In any case, here is what I learned from the experience.  Image: Wikimedia Commons Issue 5, Semester 2, 2019
CARLOS COHEN I am currently looking for people who dabble with, or enjoy, video filming, editing, graphic design or animation, to create and launch a YouTube channel dedicated to United States social, political, and economic commentary. I am also looking for one or two co-hosts. Future plans also include uploading the show as a podcast to different platforms. The show will run for approximately twenty to thirty minutes per episode, with a new episode being launched every other week. Most of the research will be carried out by myself, however, help on selecting topics, or conducting research, will also be welcome. I will write the script, however wish to stress that this would be a team effort; and due credit will be given to all team-members. I am looking for people who understand that this is a show which will explore delicate subjects and controversial topics. However, objectivity and cordial debate is always welcome in this space. I must request that interested individuals be sensible, mature and open-minded. If you are curious or interested in being part of this channel, and would like to discuss further, please send an email to [email protected]. Carlos is a Second Year JD Student. Issue 4, Semester 2, 2019 ALEXANDER BUCK While our roofs are on fire, and Siberia is burnt down; While our basements are flooding and the ice caps melt down, 'We numb ourselves on the couch, Naively being brainwashed, Only interested in GoT, or AFL. As firefighters are ‘discussing’, No one is spared. And God is dead.  Image credit: Washington Post https://wapo.st/2KYSzGM Issue 4, Semester 2, 2019 AMY A Time for something a bit different to law. I want to talk instead about comics. Most of my friends know that I am a massive nerd. I love fantasy, sci-fi, video games and movies. Growing up as a teenager, this choice was not the most popular. ‘Ew, aren’t comics for boys? They’re soooo juvenile.’ This attitude amongst young women is a shame. Growing up, I remember reading Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, Erica Henderson’s Squirrel Girl, and Kurtis Wiebe’s Rat Queens, and thinking that these were exactly the kind of positive female-driven stories that were so desperately lacking in popular culture. Superhero movies have become our biggest media franchises, and the bean counters at Disney and Warner Brothers are finally waking up to the commercial appeal of female audiences with the release of female-driven films such as Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, and the announcement of Black Widow and female Thor movies in the near future. Given all this, I thought now would be a good time to look back over the history of the marginalisation and mistreatment of female characters and audiences by an entertainment industry built around the financial malpractice of pandering exclusively to adolescent boys. Because it’s a shame—comics are awesome, and I want more of them written for me.  Image credit: Marvel Comics, Kamome Shirahama Issue 4, Semester 2, 2019 ANONYMOUS Paper towel vigilante signing in. Recently I’ve undertaken some investigative journalism, with quite shocking results, and I think you all should know. Not everyone reads all the signs in the bathrooms, but I do as I must relieve myself on the hour, and it can get lonely in there. Plus, I don’t want to make eye contact with people (side note, does anyone play that game where you try to get into the loo before anyone leaves it and then leave before someone who entered after you leaves? Not relevant to this. Sorry. Very distractible). The point is that there are some common courtesy instructions regarding our towel usage, which seem to be going unheeded around here.  Issue 4, Semester 2, 2019 DAVE C Alright, when the hell did everybody get into bouldering? It seems like I glance away for five minutes, and suddenly we’re all too good for old-fashioned horizontal movement. Celebrities are into it, my friends are doing it, I’m pretty sure my mum is on board too. Why is everybody suddenly so keen to re-enact the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2?  Issue 3, Semester 2, 2019 YING WONG and MICHAEL FRANZ  Ying and Michael and both Second Year JD Students. Michael is the 2019 De Minimis Manging Editor, and Ying is the 2019 De Minimis Online Editor.
Issue 3, Semester 2, 2019 VARIOUS AUTHORS With the histrionics of clerkship season finally hitting a fever pitch, this week De Minimis has scoured the ranks of past clerks and applicants for experiences of this harrowing ordeal. *All names have been changed  Image credit: Michael Woodhead https://flic.kr/p/5bYnb Issue 3, Semester 2, 2019 ANONYMOUS In many ways, an offer for a clerkship position is like a new relationship, exciting, intoxicating and a little scary. In many other ways, a rejection letter is like a breakup, or the realisation that you’ve let love slip through your fingers, and requires an appropriately calibrated emotive response. Remember, a good law student is well-prepared, so when offers come out, set aside some time to pour a glass of wine, draw the curtains, and blast some lachrymose tunes to feel appropriately miserable to.  Image credit: Craig Cloutier https://flic.kr/p/bpii8X Issue 3, Semester 2, 2019 MAX FERGUSON If you’re anything like me (and God help you if you are), then you too need a distraction to stave off the insanity of law school. Recently, I found myself hooking into a nice, juicy, P.K. Dick classic: The Man in the High Castle, which fit that bill nicely. Probably the most famous book in the ‘alternative history’ genre, High Castle centres around a deceptively simple question - what would the world look like if the Axis powers had won the war? Now, this kind of question has been the fodder of year ten classrooms for decades. Some of my school friends took a particular kind of relish in saying such things as, ‘if only Hitler hadn’t stopped his tanks before Dunkirk,’ or, ‘if only the Luftwaffe had concentrated their fire on military targets.’ People seem to glean a certain masochistic pleasure from imagining a world far darker than the one which we currently inhabit. Such commentaries run the risk of appearing trite – mere self-gratification.  Image credit: svenneven, flickr Issue 3, Semester 2, 2019 ANONYMOUS My lunch is not warm I eat it cold, lest I annoy The microwave line The law library Full of legal minds -- wait, no! All commerce students  Image credit: Woody Hibbard https://flic.kr/p/9AZ7mh Issue 2, Semester 2 LIZZ KUIPER A thank you letter to the hole-in-the wall café outside Melbourne Law School that has taught me some valuable life lessons. 1. Porta Via has made me fiscally responsible Early in my first year of the JD, I learnt to always make my own lunch, lest I was forced to fork out ten big ones for the saddest pesto pasta in the southern hemisphere. I fear if there were a place in close proximity to the law school that served palatable, inexpensive food, I may be tempted to forego the home-brought option. Just one bite into Porta Via’s ‘hummus wrap’ (which contains no evidence of hummus but was maybe once stored on a shelf next to a can of chickpeas) would surely make even the most time-poor and meal-prep-averse of the cohort proclaim that, next time, they’d rather just make it themselves. So, thank you, Porta Via, for helping me tighten my purse-strings and stay well within my student-life budget!  Image credit: Zhihan Ye Issue 2, Semester 2 XAVIER BOFFA Although I am not usually someone with any real interest in competitive swimming, like many Australians I’ve spent the last few weeks enthralled by the ongoing developments rocking the sport on an international level.  Image credit: Thomas Hawk https://flic.kr/p/3R416 Issue 2, Semester 2 EMILY ZAHRA If you’ll indulge me, I don’t want to talk about law for a bit. Controversial, I know! However, I recently learnt a new word—ultracrepidarian. Although it sounds like a dinosaur, it actually refers to a person who criticizes or gives their opinion on an area that is outside of their expertise. Nifty, huh? Soon after I learned it, I was presented with a great opportunity to use it.  Issue 2, Semester 2 LUCINDA REINHARD I have it on good authority that there have been rumblings amongst the ranks of the Law School academia. It started as an eye twitch when the first trees came down, and has grown each day correlative with the number of cute sk8r boiz and gurls (I should pick up skating to increase the numbers) who began appearing, grinding along those sweet, sweet slabs of concrete, still free of skate stoppers (metallic bits that attach to architecture to ruin fun for the skaters, and a good night’s sleep for the homeless).  Illustration by Lily Hart Issue 2, Semester 2 RENZO TWEEDIE Editor's Note: The answers to the crossword may be found by clicking the 'Read More' button  Issue 2, Semester 2 DE MINIMIS A quick reminder that in this week's issue, we will be running a trial of the Disqus commenting platform for one week. Please note that you will be required to login or sign up with a Disqus account in order to comment. This can be done using your email address, or linked through your Google or Facebook account. A revised comments policy can be found here, which incorporates some of the new features of the Disqus platform, and the editorial team's corresponding position. We would also love to hear your feedback on this trial! You can submit comments and feedback through this form. All responses will be recorded anonymously.  |
Archives
October 2022
|
