quick Monday night saute

I didn’t feel like doing the grocery shopping after choir yesterday (and I had plans to eat with friends, so I didn’t want to be late), so I shopped today after work instead. Since I was running short on time to make dinner when I got home, I threw something together on a whim. These whim recipes usually turn out pretty good. Here’s what I did:

Brown thin-cut chicken breasts (sometimes labeled as milanese) over medium-high heat in a little olive oil after seasoning liberally with salt and pepper. Turn quickly or they’ll get overcooked; if some are thicker than others and don’t cook all the way through right now, don’t worry—they’re going back in the pan in a bit.

Remove the browned chicken from the pan. Toss in a handful of sliced mushrooms (I used about three), a handful of finely sliced scallions (about 1 scallion), and sauté until soft. Deglaze pan with the juice of one lime and about 1/2 cup of sake and turn heat to high to reduce a bit. When the sake and lime juice have reduced by about half, add about half a cup of chicken broth, maybe a bit more. Let the flavors come together by simmering for a minute or so more, then add the chicken back to the pan.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 5 minutes, turning the chicken once. Remove the chicken again, turn the heat back to high and reduce down just a little more. Turn heat off, swirl in about a tablespoon and a half of good-quality butter (we’re working our way through a 2 pound block of butter from the farmer’s market, yum). At this point you can toss some cooked pasta in the sauce, or you can just pour it over the pasta and chicken. If you choose to toss the pasta in the sauce, reserve a bit to pour over the chicken to finish it off.

The flavor is reminiscent of miso soup, which is really interesting. I think this would probably work better with smaller pieces of chicken rather than with the cutlets, but the cutlets were what I had on hand. I’m definitely going to play with this some. ((A lot of people will cook this kind of recipe by first dredging the chicken in flour, which aids in browning and in thickening of the sauce. I’ve done that a lot in the past but I can never manage to get a sauce that doesn’t have a raw flour taste. That’s why I generally choose to use a wine of some kind and reduce it a bit to get a little thick; the butter also gives the sauce a little more tooth. It’s not a thick sauce, though, so if you like a thicker sauce, consider dredging in flour—or make a slurry of cornstarch and warm chicken broth and add it to the sauce while it’s simmering.))

is this a message?

My solitaire game has suddenly started giving me two sixes of diamonds, and no nine of diamonds. I do not understand it but the problem has persisted through a couple of reboots. I don’t play enough solitaire to make it worth any more dramatic troubleshooting measures, but I’ll admit that I’m a bit curious as to what caused the problem.

Update: Clearly I have forgotten the first rule of Mac ownership—when you experience a problem, trash the preferences. I have all my cards back. I chose to take steps when I lost another card, the eight of spades, in favor of a second jack of hearts.

another question

If anyone has insight…

How does one go about doing extensive research for an academic-style paper without unlimited and free Westlaw and Lexis access? (I’m not looking for someone to say, “Go to the books!” One, I have no time for that and two, my topic isn’t caselaw based.) Obviously Google, FindLaw, Hein (which I still have access to), and other free resources are useful, but they all have their limitations. How do future academics do this?

Update: Um, not sure why comments were off. They’re on now.

thoughts on publication

After some helpful advice (thank you, ^k^, I don’t know why I didn’t ask The Boy first), and some close rereading of emails, I chose the offer I wanted to accept, and did. Now all I have to do is sign and send back the publication agreement.

I’ve been musing on how different it is to be on the author side of this journal thing. I’ve had many, many dealings with authors as a journal editor, and I know what sorts of authors make editors’ lives hell. I want to avoid being that kind of author. At the same time, the article in question is now my work, so I have some newfound sympathy for authors who reject student edits. I’d like to try to strike a good balance between being an author who refuses to accept any edit without a fight, and an author who lets student editors have their way with her work without question. My topic is a bit arcane and I would be shocked if the students editing it had any expertise with the issues discussed, so I want to make sure their edits don’t change the substance of my argument, but I also don’t want to reject edits that might make my arcane subject a little more accessible.

The entire process of submiting—and getting so many offers—was such a confidence booster for me. That’s why it’s surprising to me that law journals have a large gender disparity in authorship. I’ve seen some commentary recently about the dearth of female authors. Orin Kerr believes (and I tend to agree) that this is the result of fewer submissions rather than of some bias by articles editors; the question then becomes, why do fewer women submit? I think attributing the submission disparity to a fear of rejection is simplistic, but perhaps it plays a bigger role than we might hope. I hear this argument made about law students in general—students at top law schools are generally unused to rejection, having been at the top of their undergraduate classes, high scorers on the LSAT; they tend to have good relationships with professors, they tend to experience less rejection in the job search (whether from law firms or from judges). I think there may be gender differences with respect to sensitivity to rejection (I don’t have any data on this, and I don’t know that anyone has really tried to make this argument). But even if there are, I don’t think fear of rejection can fully explain the gender disparity in submissions. I knew I’d get rejected from many journals—and, indeed, I did. ((In fact, the expedite process seemed to bring on more outright and less politely worded rejections than my original submission probably would have. Note to journal editors: Don’t make the subject line of your rejection email “We cannot publish “Title.” It’s just rude.)) But I accepted rejection as a fact (as I did when I applied to law school, applied to law firms, and when I applied for clerkships. Rejection is not fun in any of those contexts).

I find more resonance in what one author calls a lack of “chutzpah“: “[P]ofessional women do less than men to draw attention to their accomplishments.” ((This latter observation is actually attributed to an international study of professional women.)) I find networking to be one of the most difficult things I am expected to do. I find it extremely difficult to toot my own horn, as it were. I hate to feel as though I am bragging. Yet what I consider bragging is exactly what I have to do—as a lawyer, an author, and a potential academic—if I want to be successful. I do think there are some women—and men, to be honest—who don’t need to advertise themselves in this way; their accomplishments and talents are so evident that success finds them despite themselves. But the rest of us? We mere mortals? We have to market ourselves. And I think women are not as good at marketing ourselves as men are. ((I’ll note that I hate these sorts of blanket statements. Obviously some women are exceptional at self-marketing and I am sure we can all think of more than a few off the tops of our heads. But I don’t think it’s unfair to say that as a whole, women generally are not good at marketing themselves.))

But I said I found the gender disparity surprising. And I do. Consider: On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being least and 10 being most difficult), I think the difficulty of submitting this paper registers about a 3. It took some time, some research into which journals I wanted to submit to, a little bit of money, and I won’t deny that I experienced some angst while comparing offers, but it wasn’t hard. The hard part came first—writing and editing the damn thing. And I suspect the next few months will be hard, as I revisit my writing during the editing phases. But that several journals thought my paper was worthy of publication? There’s nothing tough about that. I was left feeling really good about myself after the whole process, full of confidence in myself and my talents, and eager to try it again. ((Indeed, I’ve already got a new idea percolating. The muse, she strikes!))

So. I’m on the road to publication. It’s exciting!

advice that I am actually a little embarrassed to ask for

So I have a problem, which is not really a problem, and I sort of hesitate to even post about it because I hate when people do this kind of thing, but I genuinely want advice and I’m not posting this as a means of being falsely modest or getting people to shower me with praise or anything.

I submitted my big paper out for publication a few weeks ago. And my submission was successful—successful beyond my wildest dreams. Which isn’t to say that the Harvard Law Review came begging me to publish with them (they wouldn’t need to beg), but it is to say that I have received multiple offers of publication from specialty journals.

And that’s sort of where the problem lies. All of my offers are from journals with mostly similar “stats” as tabulated by the law journal rankings database. But I don’t know whether those rankings are what I should be focusing on in trying to figure out where to publish. Because, let’s be honest—at this point, what I care about is the best possible placement for my article, with the widest academic readership, and the most “wow” factor for my resume. ((Not that I’ve mentioned it in a while, but I do still think I’d eventually like to teach.)) Sure, had I only received one offer of publication, I would have accepted that offer and been thrilled—my writing, in print! Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! But that’s not what happened. Instead, I have multiple offers (from journals in more than one specialty area), and now I have to choose between them.

In choosing, do I consider the school as the most important factor? Or the “stats”? Because at least one of the journals offering me publication is located at a lower-tier school, but it’s also the one with the best stats. How much of a difference does the specialty area make? (I’m looking at Communications and Law versus Law and Technology.)

I know, I know—this is not a problem. And I am not posting this as a sideways way of saying, “Hey! Look at me! I’m special!” I’m genuinely perplexed. There’s not a lot of advice out there for this particular situation, particularly when the journals involved are all, more or less, of the same general caliber and reputation—basically, middle of the road. Are there any meaningful differences I should be considering other than the stats? Or should I just resort to some sort of game of chance to help me decide (“Spin the wheel of fish!”)?

but i don't start work for another month!

. . . aaaaand I just got my first student loan bill. Hi, splash of real-life cold water in the face.

ready or not?

I’m back from my vacation, (pretty) rested, tan, and, to be honest, a little at a loss. I’m currently sitting on my couch watching the Olympics, catching up on news and blogs, and feeling a little nervous, like I should be doing something else. BUT I SHOULDN’T. In fact, I have nothing on my plate right now—I am free as a bird. ((This is marginally untrue; I do need to make some very minor revisions to my paper and figure out what I need to do to submit it for publication. The revisions are a little bit of “work,” in the sense of requiring some kind of mental endeavor; the rest, I think, will be mostly mechanical (though I’m not really looking forward to those mechanics.) The point is still valid, though.)) I need to relax and enjoy this freedom, though, because it’s not going to last and soon enough, I’ll be missing it.

post-bar wrapup

I am human again.

After consuming not-too-much-wine on Wednesday night, I fell into bed at midnight, but woke up promptly at, yes, you guessed it, 6 am. I rolled over and went back to sleep, but it wasn’t a very good sleep, and I was up by 8. Which was OK. I spent most of the day at the spa being pampered, though I won’t go back to that spa for the nail services. ((My fingernails don’t take to polish very well, and I need a really careful manicurist to give me nails that will last more than a couple of days. Despite my manicurist saying her French manicures can last for 10 days with nothing more than a quick reapplication of top coat, I am already chipping this morning on the edges. I had a manicurist tell me once that I have very oily nails and they have to be properly and carefully prepped for polish. Notably, that manicure was the only French manicure I’ve ever had last more than a few days. So, anyway, it was a fine manicure, but I won’t have the polish in a couple of days, I can already tell you, and it was too expensive a service for me to pay for that myself. (I had a gift certficate for most of my services this time.) )) But never mind the nail services—the 90-minute massage was worth every penny, plus the generous tip I gave my massage therapist, and the facial was also terrific. I am not one of those people who ever finds a facial relaxing—hello, digging at my pores? Relaxing? No way!—but I don’t expect relaxation, I expect clean, glowing skin. And I got it; my skin looks terrific. Those two services alone really did the trick for me, leaving me feeling just relaxed and just pampered enough.

And since my massage therapist pounded the tension out of my back, I slept like a ROCK for 10 hours last night. Today I’m awake, refreshed, and, having nothing on my schedule but to go do some shopping, I’m thinking that feeling isn’t going to go away.

I may post again tomorrow, but probably not; and after that, I’m not sure I’ll be back. First, I’ll be on my bar trip, getting away to the tropics for some quality sunshine; after that, I don’t know what else I have to write about. I’m not as down on the blogging thing as I was way back in May, full of the stress of having just graduated with the bar yet looming before me, but I’m also quite happy to leave on a high note. I’ve started feeling an obligation to blog again, and that’s exactly what I don’t want—if I’m writing here, it should be because I want to be writing. I don’t know if I’ll want to be writing, much less if there will be any stuff going on in my life that I can write about.

Anyway, to everyone who took the bar this week, CONGRATS! It’s over; we can all forget about it until the results are out sometime this fall. To those who haven’t taken the bar, it’s not as awful as I’ve made it sound. It’s just an endurance race. Schedule a spa day after your bar ((I think the spa I went to may start offering a bar exam package—one of my techs told me I was the second post-bar-exam client she’d seen yesterday, and then she started getting really excited about the possibility of a package just for us. I’m honestly not sure what to think about that.)) to flush all the tension from your skin; it’ll be worth it.

Until whenever!

bar over, sober fail

So I’m done with the bar. I’ve consumed approximately 1/3 (give or take) of each of two bottles of wine (which I guess is 2/3 give or take of ONE bottle of wine), a very good steak ((I won’t say a great steak because I have a hard time calling a steak great. My steak was cooked as I wanted it, and the texture was great, but flavor was just OK. So it was a very good steak instead of a great steak)), and now I have nothing to do but laze around until tomorrow at about 10:30 when I leave for my spa day. So, really, I have nothing to do for the next two days but transport myself the six or so blocks to and from the spa (handy that), in between which I get a full DAY of I-have-nothing-to-do-but-be-pampered. Sweet.

Since I’m talking about my future-beyond-the-bar, let me offer my opinion about what it is about the bar that is SO awful. Because it is not the amount of work compressed into a tiny period of time—I went to a college that required comprehensive exams in each major, so TWICE in my last semester, I spent an 8-hour day regurgitating information onto a screen (luckily that was an option even way back in the stone ages when I was in college) with no real idea of what might be asked. Thankfully, I managed to learn enough stuff to answer the questions and graduate in both of my majors (even though I did not comp with distinction, but c’est la vie, I had other shit going on). But I had eight hours each time to work at my own pace and answer the questions that were given and, while I used up my eight hours, I didn’t have to sit through INSTRUCTIONS.

Yes, the part of the bar that is the worst is the INSTRUCTIONS. If I have to hear one more time how I cannot have sunglasses or headwear that is not of a religious nature, or any other item, including books, papers, study materials, aids, or any other similar or dissimilar items near me at my seating location, I might just have to hurt someone. Also awful: the BOREDOM. There is the boredom involved with hearing the instructions for the fourth time. There is also the boredom of realizing I cannot write anything more on these essays because I (a) don’t know what I’m saying, (b) don’t want to erase something right for something wrong just because I THINK I didn’t know what I was saying earlier or (c) I couldn’t care less, BUT the bar examiners in my state won’t LET ME LEAVE YET. ((Yes, I know in some of your states, you can leave as soon as you are done and want to leave. Not us. If you finish early, you have to STAY UNTIL THE TIME IS UP. This, folks, BLOWS.)) The boredom of sitting and watching the clock for fifteen minutes when you know looking over your answers is futile and NOT in your best interests because you don’t know any more now than you did twenty minutes (or an hour or two hours) ago when you first looked at the question, thought carefully about it, and answered it, is UNBEARABLE. And you can’t sleep because you had too much caffeine so you’d be alert for the damm BAR EXAM. Boo.

OK, I have more wine to drink.

things that bug me enough to blog about them when I'm also in the middle of the bar

You know what annoys me?

Women who get married and then put their middle name in “air quotes” in their name in Facebook. So, for instance, Jane ‘Doe’ Smith.