Pop Culture Happy Hour did a Small Batch on Monday about David Bowie - it was supposed to be about the Golden Globes, but of course this was more important.

I finally listened to it on Friday on my commute in and teared up in a couple of places, everything Linda and Stephen had to say was perfect. And they did put a bit of Golden Globes in at the end, and put into words something about courage and bravery that I think my brain has been trying to settle on for a long time.

We talked about the Hot Coffee case in my Legal Issues class last spring, I admit I was once one of those people who scoffed at it as an example of frivolous law suits. Yes, it was hot coffee, yes she spilled it on herself - but turns out there was far more to it.

For example, if the coffee being served is hot enough to cause third degree burns (that's when you need skin grafts folks), is 'caution, hot' really helpful (safe 'hot' coffee would be 60°C, which I would still find too hot - while McDonalds kept theirs at 82-88°C, enough to cause serious burns in 2 seconds)?

Also, when all she wanted was enough to cover expenses (medical expenses plus short-term loss of income) of $20k and McDonalds only offered $800, it becomes a totally different story. And they were sitting on another 700 reports of people being burned and had previously settled cases for more than $500k.

She was already pretty old when it happened, afterward she needed a live-in nurse and went through eight days of skin grafting and a further two years of medical treatment.

Long Live The Duke

This morning brought terrible news: the Thin White Duke has passed.