Author Archives: Amy Farr Robertson

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About Amy Farr Robertson

Civil Rights Lawyer. Dog Lover. Smartass.

Because what would you photograph if you just got your new Olympus EX-25 Extension Tube?

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The EX-25 is a piece that goes between the camera body and the lens that permits you to take macro-like photos with an ordinary lens.  It has the advantage over a true macro lens of being way less expensive, so I can goof around with this style of photography without investing a lot of money.  Many of the reviews noted that you’ll probably want to use a tripod, and they appear to be correct.  But, having just taken the device out of the box and put it on my camera, attaching the camera to a tripod would have required far more patience than I have.  And a slightly greater depth of field would have brought more of the nostril into focus.  I have a lot to learn — but this is going to be fun!

Remembering Granddaddy on Memorial Day

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My grandfather, Arthur Clendenin (“Clen”) Robertson, became a soldier at the age of 37.  That’s him, second from the right:

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And on the far right of the back row here:

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He tried to enlist following the bombing of Pearl Harbor but was turned down based on his age.  From a letter to my Dad:

I then wrote Charlie Nelson, Chairman of Davidson County Draft Board no. 6  asking to be transferred from 4a[*] dependents to 1a., which was granted.  I was inducted at Ft. Oglethorpe June 18, 1942, did basic training at Ft. McClellan, alabama; admitted to OCPS in September and to OCS at the Infantry School in Ft. Benning, graduating as a Second Lieutenant December 23, 1942.

He served from 1942 to 1946 — including a stint in the occupation government (“Office of Military Government”) in Wurttemberg-Baden — achieved the rank of Major, and received a number of commendations.  From his official record:

Decorations and awards

According to the letter to my Dad, he also received the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’Honneur from the French government for his service in that country.  I knew very little of this when we traveled to France together in 1981.  While there, he wore small colored bands in his lapel — called, I just learned, “lapel threads” — which turned out to be real conversation-starters and respect-generators among the French people we met.

Here are the Three Clendenins (Peter, Bruce, Clen) traveling in France in 1981.  Can you tell Bruce has (1) a cold and (2) a bad attitude about driving around France in a small car with his father, grandfather, and sister?

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Granddaddy’s military service provided a lifetime of interesting stories, deep respect for national service, and some of the weirdest political views I’ve ever encountered.**  After he left the army, he got a master’s degree at Colorado College, and taught and tutored in various locations.  He eventually retired to Wisconsin to fish,

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and when he could not live alone in a cabin in the woods, re-retired to my father’s house to write the definitive but sadly unfinished history of the Alger Hiss case and argue with my Dad over the proper number of squares of paper towel appropriate for any given use.  Here I am listening respectfully but skeptically to an in-depth, fully-researched, well-thought-out, utterly-off-the-wall political disquisition.

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Miss you, Granddaddy, and thank you for your service.

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* A bit of research on Wikipedia suggests that he meant “3-A” which was the classification that permitted deferrals for men with dependents. 4-A was for men who had previously served which, to my knowledge, he had not.  While it was very brave of him to change his draft status to serve, and I honor his service to our country, as a point of fact in 1941, he had dependents: my father and my uncle. He and my grandmother had divorced, and I suppose joint custody wasn’t quite as popular as it is now. Nothing’s ever simple.

** This will have to be the subject of a separate post.  After Granddaddy passed in 1997, we had his mail forwarded to me.  His political interests were such that he was on the mailing list of almost every fringe group on the far left and far right.  And God knows who buys what mailing lists, because he just received — at my address — an offer for $10 off an Old Chicago pizza

Old Chicago redacted

Facebook’s algorithm is waaaaay off today.

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In my newsfeed.

Colorado GOP

Love that it only has 837 likes, suggesting (1) that rank and file Colorado Republicans are not as bloodthirsty as their party; (2) that Colorado Republicans are so tech unsavvy that they aren’t on or don’t know how to use Facebook; or (3) that Colorado Republicans aren’t awake before 9:00 on a Sunday.

Governor grants indefinite stay of Dunlap’s execution.

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Following up on my post of a couple of days ago, I was very happy to learn that Gov. Hickenlooper granted an indefinite stay of execution to Nathan Dunlop.  While I wish it had been a full commutation, this is a good result. 

More coverage of our Hollister case

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Hey, you guys!  Check it out!  We made Jezebel!  OMG OMG!

Surprise, Surprise: Hollister Discriminates Against the Disabled

A federal judge has ruled that Hollister is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hollister’s stores are supposed to resemble Southern California surf shacks. Most Hollister stores in the U.S. feature entrances that are built to look like front porches. Front porches with stairs. And that’s where the problem lies.

And UK’s Daily Mail, in a section with the unfortunate name “Femail,” as well as Salon, and The Gloss:

Hollister Spent Four Years Refusing To Accommodate People With Disabilities Because Of Course They Did

If you’ve ever been near a Hollister store, you know that it reeks of mildewy cologne spilt in a hot bathroom. But you also may know that its storefront is inaccessible to those with disabilities, as they are made to look like porches to “surf shacks,” stairs included (as you can see above). After a four-year class-action lawsuit against the company for discrimination, a judge has ruled that Hollister’s stores violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Here is a link to the original story in the Colorado Independent.  Thanks to Susan Greene for the excellent coverage!
Updated to add Qusair Mohamedbhai’s blog post, providing some excellent context for the case.
Update 2:  It’s been picked up by something called Madame Noire.  (h/t Sam Bagenstos (@sbagen)).
[Cross-posted at FoxRobBlog.]

My $150 investment in figuring out I’m not a landscape photographer.

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So I took the Ferrari out for a spin — the fancy lens that I rented for our Las Vegas trip — and made an important discovery:  I’m really much happier with my Honda, photographically speaking.

That is, I really prefer macro-like or at least small-scale photography to landscape photography, at least for my own shooting.  I guess I should have figured this out, since my preferred photographic genre is Random Shit.  But I thought I’d see what I could do with a giant lens that could open up to f2.0 through the entire zoom range of 35-100MM.  (Photo nerds – did I say that right?)  A lens that was described in reviews as having “buttery soft bokeh, with a good nose, hoppy notes, and a peaty finish.”  Or something like that.

Of course, I can’t blame the incredible lens for my lack of skill and preparation.  I actually did a lot of theoretical preparation — checked the time of sunrise on The Photographers’ Ephemeris and set an early wake-up call — to make sure I was at Red Rock Canyon for the beautiful early morning light.  But it turned out that I’d miscalculated sunrise, and I then found myself — this was both hilarious and devastating to my carefully-planned timing — unable to make the stove work in our hotel kitchenette,* requiring additional time to grab some breakfast on the way.

By the time I got there, it was long past sunrise, but I still got some pretty cool shots:

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And, um, WHEW:  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When I got bored with taking landscape photos, I took a couple of exposure-bracketed shots and had fun with HDR,** which at this point requires no talent whatsoever.  I toss three bracketed photos into Photomatrix Essentials, and voila!  HDR!

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But not just default HDR, “painterly” HDR:

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“surreal” HDR:

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and “black & white artistic” HDR:

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I’m a regular Ansel Adams!

HDR collage

Stop her before she noodles again!

At this point in the morning, I switched to my Nifty Fifty*** and took the sort of photos I enjoy both shooting and looking at later.  For example, I like the landscape on top of a cactus

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more than the landscapes above.

Here are some more sorta kinda**** macro — or at least small & random — photos.

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More fun with HDR:

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And some fun with Lightroom:

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I had hiked the first couple of miles of the 13-mile circuit through Red Rock Canyon, then hiked back to the car — that’s serious distance for this desk potato! — and drove the rest of the way around the Scenic Drive.

Red Rock Canyon

I stopped at the High Point Overlook for lunch and more amazing scenery.

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Met a couple of cyclists and convinced one to take a photo of me and my cool rental car.  One of them explained that he was going to do “18 or 19 miles today.”  I said, “wow – 19 miles!” He said — you saw this coming, right? — “No. 90 miles. 9-0.”

High Point Overlook

Oddly, I completely failed to convince Tim that I encountered carnivorous wildlife on my hike with either this photo

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or this one.

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As you can see from the previous two photos, the final stop on my Red Rock Canyon Adventure was the Visitor Center, where I strolled past a lot of the sort of informative displays that I’ve been studiously ignoring since elementary school field trips, but did get to meet Maxine the tortoise:

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All in all, a gorgeous and satisfying photographic outing!

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Extra bonus photo of Shibuya, the excellent sushi restaurant where Tim took me to dinner.  I love the food and the decor.  It feels like you’re dining in your own private tree house!

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*In my defense, neither could Tim or our assistant, Dustin, who can make *anything* work.  Nor did housekeeping have a clue — they had the hotel engineer come by later in the day and write out instructions.

** From time to time, I remember what this stands for.  Not just now, though.  But it means superimposing three differently-exposed shots to take advantage of the good exposure in each.

*** OK OK, Nifty Forty-Nine.

**** I don’t think the Nifty Forty-Nine counts as a macro lens, strictly speaking.

Sit! Stay! Code!

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Saguaro is all set to receive legal software training.

We recently needed to purchase a fourth license for our favorite legal software to install on our remote server.  Unfortunately, there are only three of us (me, Tim, paralegal extraordinaire Caitlin) and the company would not issue two licenses to one person.  I emailed our rep, “Hmmm.  No.  Just the 3 of us.  And the dog:  Saguaro.”

Demonstrating why we love this software and this rep,* she responded:

Ok, so……all kidding aside…I am going to have to assign the license to Saguaro.  LOL!  …  He is going to be contacted for training!

He got his license in the next email:

Dear Saguaro:

Thank you for being a registered licensee for [Software].

Here’s the link to download our … Suite of Software Tools:

. . .

Here is your [Software] Registration Information:

Registration Name: Saguaro Fox

Registration ID:

And, as promised, he was contacted for training.

Hi Saguaro,

My name is [Name], I work in the [Software] training & support department and will be your go to resource for [Software] questions.

I thought I’d check in to introduce myself and see how you’re doing with [Software] tools so far.

And so on.

If Chinook can learn legal research

Chinook on desk

Chinook on bookcase

Saguaro can master this software!

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And for your entertainment, my other attempts to pose Saguaro and a laptop.

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Aaaaaand “Why do you keep making me put my paws there?  I’m done now.”

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*Both the software and the rep will remain nameless, so as not to get anyone in trouble.  Suffice it to say, it’s not Summation:  in my experience, their reps have no sense of humor whatsoever.

We need a general anti-butthead law.

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With fee shifting.

Consider the following case:

Damian Garcia

A senior at an Albuquerque Catholic high school identifies as a boy and wants to wear a black gown — along with all the other boys — for graduation.  Unfortunately, his birth certificate identifies him as a girl, which is the only criterion his high school considers in dictating that he wear a white gown, the color assigned to girls.

This case, although likely tough to bring under current antidiscrimination law, would be resolved on a plaintiff’s summary judgment motion under the Anti-Butthead Act, the key provision of which reads, “Don’t be a butthead.”  The high school, although fully entitled to implement whatever religious principles it wants,* is being buttheaded about a very simple thing.  Let the kid wear whatever damn gown he wants.

His family says

they’re not expecting the school to change policy by next week, but hope the school would consider eventually having all students wear the same colored gowns to avoid the situation all together.

Laudable non-buttheaded thinking!

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*I am completely unqualified to opine on Christian doctrine, but I thought it had more to do with loving your fellow human than what color gown he’s wearing.

The upside down logic of executing Nathan Dunlap

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Arapahoe County DA George Brauchler lives in an upside down world where strapping someone to a gurney and injecting him with lethal chemicals is “courageous” and deciding not to do this is “cruel and unjust.”

In a letter to the governor supporting the execution of Nathan Dunlap, Mr. Brauchler

questioned the motives and ethics of those who have argued on Dunlap’s behalf, and those who diagnosed and treated him for mental illness.

“Questioned the motives”?  Questioned?  The motive is, um, to keep Colorado from executing Mr. Dunlap.  Not sure what’s in question.  It’s right out there in the open.

Pause for disclosure of my motive:  My view is that the death penalty is wrong and that my state should not execute Mr. Dunlap.  Even if you generally favor or are undecided on the death penalty in the abstract, however, there are many, many reasons why it would be wrong in this case. You can read the clemency petition here, write to Governor Hickenlooper, or call him at 303-866-2471.  5280 magazine published a long article in 2008 that spelled out the history of the case.

Back to snarking on the DA.

Mr. Brauchler decries the “abandonment of professional ethics.” The ethics of trying to keep someone alive?  I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.  I have scoured the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct and can find nothing suggesting it is unethical to urge the governor not to kill someone.

The DA characterizes as “convenient ‘scientific’ epiphanies” — the scare quotes around “scientific” are his — the now widely-accepted conclusion that Mr. Dunlap had a severe, undiagnosed mental illness when he committed the crime for which he is to be executed.  The diagnosis at which Mr. Brauchler sneers is one that has, since Mr. Dunlap’s sentencing, been confirmed and treated by Department of Corrections doctors.

More scare quotes.  Can’t you just see him wiggling the first two fingers of each hand when he complains that

our state’s leaders are asked to accept as ‘objective’ evidence the conclusions of the anti-death penalty movement’s ‘best and brightest’ experts, and to ignore their obvious collaborative biases . . .

Well, the movement does have some excellent (“best”) and very smart (“brightest”) people, who work together (“collaborate”) to do what they think is right (“bias”?).  Ouch!

And his letter

called assertions by the defense that race plays a role in imposing the death penalty in Colorado “vile, disgusting and offensive.”

Those are the adjectives you use when you don’t have facts.  In fact, as of 2010, 41% of prisoners under sentence of death in the US were black, while only 13.6% of the population as a whole is black.  There are three people on Colorado’s death row; all three are black.  Studies in other states have shown that blacks killing whites are much more likely to get the death penalty than any other permutation, and that prosecutors are much more likely to seek the death penalty for black defendants.

Ultimately, it is the racism in our criminal justice system that is vile, disgusting, and offensive; not the act of calling attention to that fact.

The clemency petition provides measured, fact-based arguments why it would be a very bad idea to execute Nathan Dunlop. Many people, of many different faiths and backgrounds, agree with this:

Dunlap letters

All the DA has to offer in return is a salad shooter of insults: cruel; unjust; slap in the face; questionable motives; unethical; “objective” “scientific” evidence; collaborative bias; vile; disgusting; offensive.  And the unsupported pronouncement that Mr. Dunlap “took the lives of four Colorado citizens, and justice requires he now pays with his own.”

There is no good reason for this execution; just the satisfaction of the primitive desire for revenge.  Guess that’s my bias.

QOTRSTI:* Eddie Izzard on being a transvestite

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I’ve grown comfortable with it.  If anyone has a problem with that, they can see a psychiatrist  and work on their problem.

In Vanity Fair, June 2013.

Reminds me of this excellent SNL parody ad.  Homocil:  Because it’s your problem, not theirs.

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* “Quote of the Randomly Selected Time Interval.”  Because “Quote of the Day” would be too much pressure.