The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Volokh Conspiracy

Ah, the poetry of the law!

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


I often used to tell the law students in my classes that they should read more poetry, because nothing hones one's skill at extracting meaning from text better than reading poetry, and extracting meaning from texts is one of the things lawyers have to do, all the time.

While this isn't precisely what I had in mind, in the spirit of navigating the waters where poetry and law meet, here are "88 Weird College-Owned Trademarks,Arranged as a Poem." It's a pretty lousy poem—as the author, Steve Kolowich, freely admits, though he nicely adds: "How better to honor the college experience than to compose bad poetry?" It's an appropriately absurdist take on an absurd phenomenon—there's a college out there that has registered "Robotuna" as a trademark? "Zounds"? "Planet Janitor"? "Poo Gloo"? Who knew?