I was walking the dog just now, and noticed a car that had... yellow tinted windows. And then I noticed that there was smoke curling off the front hood, like at the bottom of the windshield. And that it smelled of smoke.

Banged on the door, rang doorbell of the house it was parked in front: no response. So the guy two doors down called the fire department, and finally, just before they rolled up, the guy inside the house came out--apparently he'd been asleep.

I'm not sure if I saved lives, or even the car: I'm sure the interior was trashed. Weird experience.

That is weird, Consuela. Good on you for being a good citizen though.

FNL: Sparky, I agree that I wish they'd focused on keeping the characters complex and not the plot. I agree with AmyLiz that hitting the guy, even twice, was in character for Landry given the circumstances, but not the reaction afterwards.

I also love the interactions between Coach and Grandma Saracen, and Coach and Tami, and Coach and Matt.

I mostly just like Coach, I guess.

My point was, lots of people spend decades in prison for crimes they didn't commit, often due to prosecutorial misconduct or incompetence, and don't get $10 mil. apiece. Example: [link] Of course, lots of people aren't wealthy white college students with right-wing backing and very fancy lawyers.

Well, part of the problem here is that there is legal distinction between misconduct and incompetence. There's good policy reasons why a simple overturned verdict doesn't deserve damages, just as in any other unintentional tort. By going by the link in your example alone, I would posit that the distinction between that case and the Duke case (again, just a complaint, not a verdict, and the number is made up) is evidence of knowing misconduct. In the Duke case, politics or no, fancy lawyers or no, the misconduct appears clear enough to support a lawsuit. I mean, are you saying they shouldn't sue, that they shouldn't get damages for it? That an internal investigation is more likely to lead to the truth than civil discovery? Finally, there are plenty of fancy lawyers willing to take a 30% cut of a wrongful conviction suit. I don't see the politics here.

ETA: after googling, the plaintiffs are represented by Barry Scheck, who runs the Innocence Project, Emery Celli, where I have a good friend and most of their work is suing the city and state for individual rights violations, and Williams & Connolly, which I always thought of as a Democrat firm b/c of its Clinton representation, but probably swings both ways. In any case, I don't really see the rich getting richer if Scheck and Emery Celli get paid off on this-- they do incredible work for prisoners.

FNL: I hope that what we saw this week was just Landry in shock. And that he will confess to his father ASAP. I mean, I hated that they went in this direction but I hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel somehow. Also, loved the Saracens and Coach T at the grocery store. CT's hair was particularly emotive in that scene. And it was so hard to watch Tami crumble when Eric left. . . to go talk to BUDDY. What was up with that?

I do think that the internal investigation was more likely to lead to the truth than civil discovery. I'm not sure if that that is naive or cynical. The city council was pissed off at the BS report that the police put out, and threw it back at them and asked for the real truth. I think civil discovery will just get the BS. There will be more publicity and lawyerly posturing, and I've seen way too much of that already. I'm ready for it to be done. Nifong was disbarred; why sue the city (which can't pay to pave the fucking streets)? They have already settled with Duke, too, so they've had one payday already. It seems ugly and greedy and political. It may not look political from a distance, but down here there's this ugly, in some cases racist and right-wing, "our boys are innocent angels" thing.

Sumi, I was wondering about that last bit too. I was hoping he was going to ask about getting his high school job back, but got interrupted.

Emmett had his first wrestling tournament out in Concord today.

He won a silver medal, second in his bracket in his weight class.

Not too shabby for his first tournament!

Lee, that's what I thought!

And thanks for the VW info, Sparky. It's not a high impact crash, just a fender bender, but I want the driver to have to pay a bit (money she doesn't have) to get the bus's front end fixed.

but I want the driver to have to pay a bit (money she doesn't have) to get the bus's front end fixed.

Having experienced a lifetime of VWs, from vans to the Passat to my little racecar Golf, there's no question about that.

Robin, if it's not too late, I have a small 18V hand sander y'all can borrow!