"Pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain. Cause actually everything is just about the same". What a theme song for tomorrow yesterday today. You choose one and fill in the blank. Choose a new one every day if you wish. It’s a great way to tell the truth to those who want to hear it, while letting the ones who wish you’d just go away and stop having problems, stop being a problem, can hear that there are really no problems at all. Things are pretty good. Everybody’s happy.

How many times can Scarlett tell herself that “after all, tomorrow is another day”? [2] She’s right, of course. When it’s today, tomorrow always is another day, as in fact is yesterday, and the day before that, and some day next week, next month, next year. Truth is truth, but it’s not always useful. Every day is another day but actually, everything is just about the same.

I look at my usual round of papers and websites. Six lawyers axed today at Baker & McKenzie. Rumors of massive firings at another firm. All to be expected. All in a day’s not working. I can’t complain. I’ve already done that. Everybody who reads what I write will say, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” [3] and unsubscribe from the Unemployed Lawyer list. That would make me unhappy.

This is a problem. This is trouble. I want to write my post, but actually everything is just about the same.

Fortunately, we lawyers (employed or unemployed) are problem solvers. Great crooks, great corporations, great agencies, great doctors, great lawyers, and great judges call upon us to solve problems. Everyman and Mr. Cellophane [4] want lawyers to solve their problems. Movie stars. Insurance companies. Restaurant owners. Credit card users. Shareholders. Environmentalists. Husbands and wives who wish to be relieved of one another. Even if you use a hit-man to solve your immediate difficulties, you will likely seek a lawyer’s services soon enough. You’ll just have a slightly different problem to solve.

We professional problem solvers start by determining what the problem is. I am particularly keen and cunning in this “area”, as they call it. Swiftly I cut  to the heart of the matter and determine that: 1) the news in the legal world is just about the same, just about every day; 2) such being the case, I have nothing new to say; but 3) I want to say something, because I like writing to you.

As you may have guessed, I am also extremely adept at solving an identified problem. So, quick as thought, I analyze the elements of the problem and realize that the only solution is to write about something else today. My choice is New Yorker cartoons.

There’s just something about a really good New Yorker cartoon that gets inside my head and keeps me chuckling all day long. Sometimes, most times, I can’t even explain why. It’s not visceral; it’s not really emotional at all. If anything, it’s the way that one black line drawing can pull out all my gloom and doom thoughts and feelings and instantly render them completely absurd. I become the butt of my own joke.

Today, I saw this week’s cover. A ragged, presumably destitute and homeless, man walks down a street that looks suspiciously like Madison Avenue carrying a sign that reads “End of the World Sale”. What more can I say? The drawing speaks for itself.

After that, I really am pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain.

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[1] John Prine, John Prine , Atlantic Recording Corp., 1971.

[2] Gone With the Wind , Selznick Int'l Pictures, 1939, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable.

[3] Id.

[4] Chicago, Miramax Films, 2002, directed by Rob Marshall, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly.