Fifth installment by Jim Atkins, FAIA, on Fallingwater, the nation’s most famous house, including a few lessons on the structural properties of reinforced concrete, both initially and over time under the cyclical duress of sagging, cracking, and weathering—properties much better understood today than in 1935. Thanks, Paul.
http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/1016/1016d_fallingwater.cfm

res gestae (REEZ JES-tee, RAYS GES-ty) noun
facts incidental to a case, admissible as evidence in a lawsuit—for example, exclamations uttered by a robber during a holdup From Latin, literally, things done.
novation (noh-VAY-shuhn) noun
the replacing of an obligation, a contract, or a party to an agreement with a new one
From novare (to make new), from novus (new). Ultimately from the Indo-European root newo- (new) that is also the source of new, neo-, novice, novel, novelty, innovate, renovate, misoneism (fear of change), and novercal (stepmotherly).
Feedback
From: Rita Spillane (ritaspillane@gmail.com)
Subject: curtilage
Def: an area of land encompassing a dwelling and its surrounding yard
One of the words this week, curtilage, is one of my all-time favorites! I am a prosecuting attorney in California. I recall in law school (circa 1977) listening to my professor in Real Property (Jerome Curtis RIP) teach us this word. According to him, in the European Middle Ages the curtilage was an area defined as that portion of property that was within a bow shot (arrow) from the center of a manor estate. Isn't that a great visual image? Imagine an individual shooting an arrow from the center of the manor courtyard and then circumscribing that area. That area would be considered "within the curtilage". This would be an important fact in determining what crime was or was not committed within that space. For example, a theft within that proscribed area may be charged as a burglary; outside that area a mere theft. The penalties would be different.
From: J. Jarvis (jay.jarvis@gmail.com)
Subject: Res gestae
Def: facts incidental to a case, admissible as evidence in a lawsuit
Thank you for your inclusion of this oft-misused phrase. As a judge still suffering from schoolboy Latin, I misuse it frequently myself. As said by the late California Justice Robert Gardner (known as the "surfing judge" and revered for his pithy and sardonic appellate opinions): "Older practitioners will remember the popularity of the phrase 'res gestae.' ... However, the new Evidence Code, modern writers and modern courts have abandoned the use of this rather ill-defined phrase. Res gestae has now gone the way of the great auk, the passenger pigeon, and high button shoes. It was, in its time, a handy gadget. When an attorney could think of no other reason for the introduction of hearsay, he would simply utter the magic words 'res gestae' and, often as not, get the testimony in." (People v. Orduno (1978) 80 Cal. App. 3d 738, 744, fn.1.)
From: Bruce Schoenberg (bruce@schoenberg.net)
Subject: Barratry
Def: the practice of stirring up of groundless lawsuits
Closely allied to barratry are the offenses of champerty (the purchasing of causes of action by a disinterested third party for the purpose of prosecuting litigation) and "maintenance" (the advancement of legal expenses by an attorney to fund a client's litigation). The prohibitions against champerty and maintenance have weakened in this day of contingent fee litigation and litigation financing companies, but the practices are still illegal or unethical in many states. The third definition of barratry—sale of ecclesiastical offices— is also known as "simony".
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Altered photographs are common
In August, 2009 a Microsoft Corp. ad that had been edited to change a man's race from black to white was shown in Poland. This summer officials in Toronto had to defend their own decision to deceive its audience when it was learned that they had superimposed the face of a black man over that of a white man to make a recreation brochure look more inclusive. In 2000, the University of Wisconsin admitted that it had doctored the cover of a brochure to make the school look more diverse. Into an image of mostly white students cheering at a football game, it digitally inserted the face of a black student, Diallo Shabazz. Jet magazine quoted Shabazz as saying that he had never attended a football game at the university. Time magazine darkened the color of O.J. Simpson's skin on the cover of its June 1994 issue. A picture on the cover of an August 1989 TV Guide combined the head of Oprah Winfrey and the body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 photograph. Martha Stewart's head was placed on top of the body of a slimmer model who had been photographed separately in a studio. In 2005, Newsweek magazine placed the image on the cover of its magazine. In August 2006, the Associated Press had to pull a photo when an editor added an extra set of hands on an Alaskan oil pipeline worker. The photo captured a BP employee scanning a section of pipeline that had leaked 200,000 gallons of oil earlier that year. An editing error apparently gave the worker four hands instead of two. These stories and more at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/11-photo-editing-flubs-digitally-altered-photo-disasters/Story?id=8780937&page=1

Filippa Hamilton, a 5-foot-10-inch, 120-pound model was fired by Ralph Lauren after eight years with the fashion designer. The 23-year-old Swedish-French model, who had been working for Lauren since she was 15, said she had no intention of going public with her complaint, but changed her mind when a Photoshopped image of her in a mall in Japan (with her head showing larger than her hips) on the Internet site BoingBoing.com. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33307721/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/

Artist Shepard Fairey has admitted to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press. Fairey said in a statement issued October 16 that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his "Hope" poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama. "Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image," Fairey said. "The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another." New filings to the court, he said, "state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used...and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images." In February, the AP claimed that Fairey violated copyright laws when he used one of their images as the basis for the poster. In response, the artist filed a lawsuit against the AP, claiming that he was protected under fair use. Fairey also claimed that he used a different photo as the inspiration for his poster. After Fairey's admission, a spokesman for the Associated Press issued a statement saying that Fairey "sued the AP under false pretenses by lying about which AP photograph he used." Fairey said that his lawyers have taken the steps to amend his court pleadings to reflect the fact that "the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/10/shepard-fairey-admits-to-wrongdoing-in-associated-press-lawsuit.html

Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on February 17, 1844 in Chatham, New Jersey. When he was about nine years old, his father, Sylvester Ward, moved the family to Niles, Michigan, where Aaron attended public schools. In 1865, Ward located in Chicago, worked for Case and, a lamp house. He traveled for them, and sold goods on commission for a short time. Chicago was the center of the wholesale dry-goods trade, and in the 1860s Ward joined the leading dry-goods house, Field Palmer & Leiter, forerunner of Marshall Field & Co. He worked for Field for two years and then joined the wholesale dry-goods business of Wills, Greg & Co. In August 1872, with two fellow employees and a total capital of $1,600, he formed Montgomery Ward & Company. He rented a small shipping room on North Clark Street and published the world's first general merchandise mail-order catalog with 163 products listed. Ward's catalog soon was copied by other enterprising merchants, most notably Richard Warren Sears, who mailed his first general catalog in 1896. Others entered the field, and by 1971 catalog sales of major U.S. firms exceeded more than $250 million in postal revenue. Ward fought for the poor people's access to Chicago's lakefront. In 1906 he campaigned to preserve Grant Park as a public park. Grant Park has been protected since 1836 by "forever open, clear and free" legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings.[3][4] Ward twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones.[5] As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, Crown Fountain and the 139-foot (42 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restriction because they were classified as works of art and not buildings or structures. Montgomery Ward died in 1913, at the age of 69. His wife bequeathed a large portion of the estate to Northwestern University and other educational institutions. Despite the collapse of its catalog and department stores in 2001, Montgomery Ward & Co. still adheres to the once unheard philosophy of "satisfaction guaranteed" as an online retailer. The Montgomery Ward catalog's place in history was assured when the Grolier Club, a society of bibliophiles in New York, exhibited it in 1946 alongside Webster's dictionary as one of the hundred books with the most influence on life and culture of the American people. Forbes magazine readers and editors ranked Aaron Montgomery Ward as the 16th most influential businessman of all time.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Montgomery_Ward

It’s the brand that just won’t quit. Montgomery Ward, founded in 1872 as the first retail mail-order catalog, will re-emerge a second time this month (from September 2008 article) as a retail e-commerce site operated by its new parent, The Swiss Colony Inc. The relaunch by Swiss Colony, which acquired the venerable brand last month from Chicago-based Direct Marketing Services Inc. at an undisclosed price in a foreclosure sale, will mark the second time Montgomery Ward has re-surfaced this decade. In 2001, Direct Marketing acquired the rights to the retail brand after the original Montgomery Ward company ceased operations, then relaunched the brand in 2004 as a retail e-commerce site. http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=27600