Born to be wild!

Researchers are not said to live in extraordinarily exciting environments. This holds true, in particular, for lawyers who by definition very rarely work in the jungle like certain zoologists, nor on the top of volcanos like geologists, nor in the midst of billion-dollar equipment like aeronautical engineers. Quite the contrary, their genuine "habitat" are libraries or other rooms bearing books, ancient or more recent ones, but nevertheless: agglomerations of paper that give a boring impression to the general public. In order to recharge its batteries, the homo legalis needs either a vacation of extensive length, at least three weeks, or ...

... or he or she may resort to the most powerful tool at hand, whose use has come under close scrutiny in the last years: WMD. Again? W-M-D, full stop. Weapons of Manhattan Distraction. Having a delicious dinner at the Cornelia Street Cafe and Karaoke afterwards is one of the most effective combinations of two different WMDs.

Professor Joseph Weiler invited us - his Research Associates (from left) Shin Hyung, Fan, Jun, Gaew, and Leo - to join him for this splendid recreational trip. Not only that we spent a tremendously relaxing time together, no, Prof. Weiler enriched the evening by teaching us! Yes, you won't believe it, even in our spare time we study here at NYU;-)
Firstly, he introduced us to the wisdom of kosher food. The former cute Austrian schoolboy immediately remembers the times when he was made reading the 11th chapter of the third book of Moses, Leviticus, which contains all the relevant provisions that religious jews adhere to. For instance, thou shall eat only meat from ruminant animals with cloven hoofes, and only fishes with scales and fins which live in oceans or rivers. The following dinner conversation oscillated, inter alia, around the surprising fact that most American men, not only the jewish, are circumcized.

Secondly, Prof. Weiler taught us how to do a real appealing karaoke perfomance. Interestingly enough, he has a proficiency non négligeable which indicates that it's not the first time that he indulges in such a divertimento. Second in experience was Shin Hyung, who guided us to the Karaoke bar at 32nd and Broadway. As to karaoke, Gaew turned out to be Weiler's excellentissima discipula. Fan presented the latest No. 1 hits from Beijing. Leo, hopeful of the advent of Halloween, sang The Cranberries' "Zombie." Finally, Jun celebrated the revival of the roaring sixties intoning Steppenwolf's "Born to be wild."

Prof. Weiler, thank you for this truly great evening.