Blogs are good for a lot of things -- not the least of which is for publicizing long-standing grudges! I was reminded this week of my legal education alma mater, Fordham Law School, and why it is I'll never have a kind word to say about that institution.

Back in 1993, Alane and I started school there -- I was in the day program (a three-year program) and Alane was in the night program (a four-year program). With all the personal tragedies, the career shuffling and hard work we had to endure over those years, completing our studies was no small matter. I finished in 1996; Alane finished in 1997. In the run-up to Alane's graduation, we discovered that Fordham had a policy of allowing alumni family members to confer a graduate's juris doctor degree at the actual ceremony. Normally, this tradition played out with long-ago graduates handing off sheepskins to their children or grandchildren. It's unlikely they ever had spouses requesting to participate in this tradition -- but considered all we'd experienced over the years (and the obscene sum of money we'd forked over to attend) we signed up for it.

It would be cool: I'd be on the dais as a 1996 graduate, and would hand Alane her degree at the 1997 ceremony.

To make a long story short, Fordham Law told us we didn't qualify. They never did quite explain themselves. Clearly, they don't consider marriage to be a sufficient family connection (itself deplorable). Or it could be that they were afraid that by honoring a traditional marriage they would next be challenged to honor a non-traditional arrangement (and being modern liberals they would incapable of distringuishing the two).

Whatever their reasoning, Alane and I decided Fordham Law is run by complete assholes -- and once we paid off our monumental law school debt, they'd never see another dime of our money.

And so it shall be. And now, thanks to this blog, everyone can know it too.

(I particularly enjoy receiving the "please send donations" mail -- tossing it in the shit-can feels sooo good.