The Gooey Decimal System

The subject of this week's strip is a recent discovery by me, but by no means a recent phenomenon in law school. Once during my senior year in college I had to print out some Supreme Court opinions for a Legal Studies paper I was working on, and the only place on campus that had U.S. Reporters, oddly enough, was the law library. As I approached that hallowed hall of legal knowledge my hopes of judicial enrichment were thoroughly dashed by a large, unforgiving, German Shepherd of a sign that plainly told me that I was not welcome without that I was a law student. And I became sad. I had mono at the time, so trudging all the way to the library from my apartment was a chore unto itself, and having realized that my efforts were for naught I sat on a chair, sulked, and rested up for the long journey home. After a few minutes I saw somebody breeze past the security desk without flashing an ID. So I did the same, and in I was. The trick to life is to look like you know what you're doing.

Anyway, a while later I had a conversation about undergrads using the law library with a friend of mine who was an actual law student at the actual law school. She took the opportunity to rail against lesser scholars invading her sacred space, and I meekly responded, "But... Legal Studies... Gregg... Fuhrman....," at which point she acknowledged that non-law students with a legitimate reason for being in there were less irritating than the run-of-the-mill MCB majors who wouldn't deign to study among the rabble of the Main Stacks.

And now, I am the snobby law student. Every evening for the past week I've found myself in nests of undergraduates studying things not at all related to the Law. I should say that I don't really object to this on principle. It's not like I ever have trouble finding a seat. In fact, the UCLA Law Library is large, spacious, and very handsome, and something that people affiliated with the law school take every opportunity to nut over. What I object to are the behaviors hinted at in this week's strip. There's the cliche cell phone annoyance, but when you're sitting next to someone and their cell phone rings five times inside of a half hour and they answer it every fucking time, it becomes less of a cliche. The undergrads also seem to be particularly inclined to disobey the rules against food and beverages, which in addition to attracting vermin and ants and everything also adds crinkling wrappers and plastic bags to the cacophony of cell phone rings, mildly hushed whispers, and crunching mandibles.

So there's that. Of course, I'm not square enough to actually narc on these people, so instead I exploit them by asking them to watch my stuff while I whizz.

As for the reasons why these young women (they're almost exclusively female) decide to study in the law library rather than the nearby main library, I think it has more to do with snobbery than with landing themselves a man, but sex sells comic strips.

Let me also say something about the recent adoption of color in the strips. The aesthetic effect is barely this side of awful, and believe it or not it actually adds a significant amount to the time it takes to make these things. So I may not keep it up. If you have an opinion either way, please let me know.