Random Thoughts: Insane New York

1. Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett raised the salaries of their first-year associates to $160,000. Soon after, the top elite NY law firms followed, including the "whiteshoe" Sullivan & Cromwell, which now pays their senior associates $310,000 according to a recent article. Utterly ridiculous. There are over 300 law schools in the United States and a significant amount (hundreds of thousands?) of "lawyers" that enter the profession every year. A small percentage of the lawyers end up working for large firms (300-1300 lawyers) and many of them never worked between college and law school. This just befuddles me. I always think that, perhaps with the great exception of the medical profession (in some circumstances), everyone could use some business acumen and a sense of appreciation for human resources no matter what profession they belong. More importantly and specifically, a sense of direction, organization and a sincere UNDERSTANDING of what the hell you are supposed to do could benefit lawyers and even convert law firms into more efficient business organizations. The fact of the matter is, in most of these firms, you don't do squat for the first few years in your career. Yet, you earn 6 figures. I know, I know, who am I to rant? I get my bonus and raise this Tuesday.

2. I was hanging out with two of my co-workers, both NY natives, when they told me that they like it when their man puts them in their place. One said, "I hate it when men say, 'whatever you want honey,'" while the other one said, "You need some explosiveness in your life you know?" GEEZ. It makes me wonder why I hadn't moved to NY at an earlier age. Last I checked, my past few girlfriends were relieved to have broken up with me because I put them in their place once in a while. Maybe I'm just too relentless when I go off all angry about things. That's effin' awesome (who uses "effin" and "befuddles" in the same writing?)- although I think I have to take it easy on the road from now on. My luck on the road has run out - major car accident, carjacking incident, carnapping incident, dude with road rage (who was an amateur boxer) punched me, another major car accident where I hit a police convoy transporting recently arrested drug syndicate members, ... I digress.

3. One of my co-workers took me out for karaoke with her boyfriend and some friends. So maybe this doesn't fit under the NY theme since the bar was located in Stamford. Damn. I couldn't believe the crowd. For the most part, they were receptive and would sing along with just about everyone, but then again 75% of the patrons could carry a decent tune. The unbelievable part of the evening was when the 25% came up. It wasn't so much that they were horrible - one girl had sung an entire song on one note that wasn't even really a "note," had no concept of timing, and couldn't even read the damn lyrics of the karaoke screen - it was more of the fact that if you couldn't sing, people would BOO you. What the hell? This is karaoke not American Idol. Lame. Tough crowd. It's a good thing I busted out some signature songs to get the crowd going and thus save myself from the wrath of the Stamfordites. Very unforgiving.

4. I hear it's bad luck to have things in threes. So I'm going to add this fourth random thought just for the hell of it: I hear it's bad luck to have things in threes.