Something Settled: OK, first thing's first: My friend did NOT go to jail. A somewhat, kind of, sort of reasonably equitable settlement of paying the guardian's fees was worked out.

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Something to be Grateful For: I haven't been able to find any news stories about this, but Linds reports that people who took the bar in Louisiana may be forced to retake it, "as the building that houses their bar exams [handwritten essays]...was apparently underwater for a few days."

Dr. Kevorkian, you have a call on Line 1, Line 2, Lines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16. And your inbox is full.

Having read this, I had to visit the Louisiana Supreme Court Committee on Bar Admissions to see what they said. Because it's written by lawyers, I'm providing a helpful translation of their "NOTICE TO ALL JULY BAR EXAMINEES":

The Committee on Bar Admissions has temporarily relocated its offices to 4000 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., Suite 607, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816.

No, really. There is a S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. What do you mean, you can't find it on the map? Sure you can! You took the bar. It's ridiculous to think we would go hide out from you folks. What would we have to be afraid of?

We anticipate having a new telephone number by September 15th.

In the meantime, we suggest Dial-A-Prayer.

While we will update this notice with that number, we ask that you please refrain from calling into the Committee offices so that we can concentrate our efforts on completing the July bar examination grading process.

We can only take twenty people calling in and moaning desperately, "PLeeeeeease tell me you found my bar exam, don't make me go through this again!" an hour.

We are having great success in tracking all bar examination papers

Some, we have tracked as being still in the building. Some were tracked floating down through French Quarter. But at least we know what we have and don't have!

and will be presenting a report to the Louisiana Supreme Court shortly.

You'd think that, since they seem to suggest in the first part of that sentence that they "are having great success in tracking all bar examination papers," no report would be necessary beyond, "Found 'em all!" A report indicates that different charts and graphs will be used to show that this many exams were found intact, this many were completely destroyed, and this many were found partially intact. You can hope that we lost that Commercial Paper question you had no clue on, but kept the Contracts question you aced. But things never work out that way, do they now?

While some examination papers were likely lost to Hurricane Katrina, our efforts reveal that the overwhelming majority are secure and grading is ongoing.

By "overwhelming majority," we mean the same thing as George W. Bush did when he said he had a mandate after the election last year.

The Court will determine how best to address any circumstances created by lost or destroyed examination papers.

Of course, that shouldn't be necessary based on our previous representations to you, unless our previous representations were in fact misrepresentations of representations we were representing.

Didn't understand it? Good!

We will continue to update you on our website and provide you with the most accurate and up to date information regarding bar admission issues.

No, we will NOT give you our home phone numbers.

One more thing to be grateful about: I didn't take the bar in Louisiana.

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Some Soup: Last night, almost immediately on walking out of our newly-opened store, my immune system received a command that it could stop defending me, and I started on a cold/sore throat/lowgrade fever. (I realized today I seem to get these frequently in September, although it's best when it has the courtesy to wait around until the baseball playoffs start, so I can happily sniffle away as I click my TV from baseball game to baseball game...only time I watch baseball is during the playoffs and Series.)

Anyway, I woke up at 3 AM and emailed my friend who was going to court today she might prefer I stay home and keep my germs to myself. She replied at 5:30 that me with my germs would be better than me not being there, which was good for the ego, if nothing else.

So, while we were waiting for decisions to be made, she looked at me and very sympathetically asked if there was anything she could do for me. I had just been thinking about chicken noodle soup, which she, fortunately, has a great recipe for. So, I had it for lunch and will probably have it for dinner as well. It was about the only food I can think of eating.

Seriously, I think I just need a bunch of rest, today, tomorrow and Thursday I am basically off, so I am going to be a bit of a bump on a log and do very little, I hope. Anyway, hope everyone else is having a good day.