The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Is That Legal – Yarn Bombing

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    Ruth Carter

    Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.  This blog should not be viewed as legal advice.  It is simply my experiences, opinions, and information I looked up on the internet.

    Yarn bomb - car antenna
    Image by Twilight Taggers via Flickr

    A few months ago, a friend sent me an article about yarn bombing.  It involves knitting or crocheting covers for public statues and sign posts.  It looks so whimsical and charming!  It looks like the best way to do it is to measure the item you want to yarn bomb, determine how many pieces it will take to cover the item, make the items, then go back to it and stitch the pieces around it to give it a snug fit.  At first, I thought this would be something that could only happen under the cover of night, but I was pleased to see pictures of yarn bombing happening during the day time.

    I have been crocheting for over 10 years.  When I heard about yard bombing, I immediately wanted to grab my tape measure and run downtown to start measuring things to yarn bomb.  I think it would be so much fun to drive down the street and see the post for every sign covered with colorful yarn.  My next thought, of course, was whether yarn bombing was legal.

    Is It Trespassing?
    It depends.  If what you want to yarn bomb is on public property, like a sign post on a street corner or a statue in park, it’s not trespassing to walk up to it.  If you want to yarn bomb a statue or monument, there might be a sign posted on or near it that says, “Do Not Touch” or “Do Not Climb.”  If what you want to yarn bomb is on private property, such as a lawn jockey in front of someone’s house, it’s trespassing to go onto their property without an invitation.  On the flip side, if the person who owns the private property likes what you did, it’s more likely to stay up longer than yarn bombing on public property.

    (cc) Refidnas

    Is It Vandalism?
    I doubt it.  When I think of vandalism, I think about graffiti spray painted on walls.  To get rid of it, you have to power wash it and repaint the wall.  Yarn bombing is less destructive and completely non-permanent.  I would argue that it is not even defacing property but rather a type of unsolicited public art, like artists who draw with chalk on the sidewalk.   Yarn bombing art can be removed in minutes with a pair of scissors.  I’d say, at most, it’s more like littering than vandalism.  Regardless of what you call it, I doubt the police would waste their time tracking down and citing a yarn bomber as long as they didn’t create any type of public hazard.

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  • A Day In The Life of Bar Prep

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    Ruth Carter

    I’ll admit it – studying for the bar exam is hard, lonely work.   My days are long and boring.   I’m trying to keep my stress in check, and it’s starting to be a challenge.

    I initially felt guilty when I banned everyone from house for the duration of bar prep, but now I’m so grateful I did that – and so is everyone else.  I can do my own thing all day without bothering anyone and then I decide when I interact with the world.  It sounds self-centered (and it is) but it’s necessary.

    In case you wanted to know, here’s what a day in the life of my bar prep looks like.

    • 5:45am: Get up, Work out, Shower, Breakfast, Check email.
    • 7:30am: Study – often using the Pomodoro Method.  I turn the French doors into my to-do list every day.
    • 11:15am: Lunch.
    • 12:00pm: Meet up with my carpool group.  The highlight of my day is getting to play with my friend’s dog, Oscar.
    • 1:00pm: BarBri class.
    • 5:00pm: Relax, Dinner.
    • 7:00pm: Study, sometimes in the pool when I need to avoid all distractions.
    • 11:00pm: Bed.

    Studying for the bar involves a lot of sitting which results in my body getting all types of sore.  During my study breaks, I often ice my sore back, neck and shoulders.  I’m grateful when my massage therapist, Thomas Porter, runs a special so I can afford him.  I told him that he needs to run one the week before the bar exam.

    My one weekly indulgence is still watching Deadliest Catch on Tuesday nights.  It reminds me that studying is nothing compared to working on a crab boat in the Bering Sea.

    Every so often I have a mini freak out and I reach out to my lawyer friends who have survived the bar.  Their calls and emails keep me grounded.  They all say that if I follow the BarBri program that I’ll be fine.

    Here are my tips for everyone who has a loved one studying for the bar:

    • If you’ve never studied for the bar, you have no idea what this is like.
    • A lot of the time, we’re not in a good mood.  Don’t be surprised if we have a short fuse when it comes to distractions and annoying things.
    • Don’t take it personally if we don’t have time to hang out or even return phone calls.
    • We can be optimistic about passing the bar and not be pleasant to be around in general.
    • If we’re in a bad mood, it’s not your job to make us laugh.
    • When we take a study break, there’s a good chance we don’t want to talk about how studying is going.  We may have nothing to talk about because all we do is study so fill us in on what’s going on in the real world.
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  • Is That Legal – Internet Wedding

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    Ruth Carter

    Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.  This blog should not be viewed as legal advice.  It is simply my experiences, opinions, and information I looked up on the internet.

    Photo by Sheila Dee

    My friend, Evo Terra, is an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church.  If you have five minutes and an internet connection, you can be ordained too.  He’s performed a handful of marriages over the years but this weekend he performed a most unusual marriage ceremony.  The bride and groom were in North Carolina and he performed the ceremony over the internet via webcam.  When he agreed to perform the ceremony, he put the responsibility on the couple to make sure that the marriage is legitimate.

    In California, Colorado, Montana, and Texas, you can have a marriage by proxy, where a third person stands in for the bride or groom who is unable to be there.  If it’s possible to get married when the bride or groom isn’t physically present in the room, is the marriage valid if the minister isn’t physically present?

    According to the law in North Carolina, all you need to have a valid marriage is a marriage license and a consenting heterosexual couple who freely, seriously, and plainly take each other as husband and wife in the presence of an ordained minister of any religious denomination.  The law does not provide any specifics regarding where the minister needs to physically be during the ceremony.  I would not be surprised if the couple signs their marriage license and sends it to Evo, who then signs in and sends it in to the appropriate recording office in North Carolina, that they would accept it without batting an eye.

    This issue boils down to what is does it mean to have a marriage ceremony in the presence of a minister.  I could not find a definition for “presence” in the North Carolina marriage laws.  Is a being present live via web cam enough or must the minister be physically present in the room?

    This issue reminds me of the use of proxy signatures on a will.  In Arizona, if a person cannot sign their will themselves, they can direct someone else to sign it for them in their “conscious presence.”  The requirement of conscious presence could not be fulfilled over the telephone, and probably not via web cam according to my Decedent Estates professor.   North Carolina only requires a proxy signature on a will to be completed in the person’s presence and at their direction.   I don’t know if the definition of “conscious presence” in Arizona is the same as “presence” in North Carolina.

    Did my friend perform a valid marriage ceremony this weekend?  I don’t know.  I called Wake County in North Carolina.  Someone there said that the marriage laws have not been changed since they were enacted; therefore the marriage isn’t valid unless the minister is physically in the same room with the bride and groom.  She basically said that since marriage couldn’t be performed over the internet in the past, they can’t be performed over the internet now.  I think that answer is incomplete and that this issue deserves some exploration.

    I don’t think this issue is going to have a legal answer unless someone goes to court and claims that their marriage that was officiated via web cam wasn’t a valid marriage.  That probably will not happen unless a spouse who was married over the internet dies without a will and someone who would get a larger inheritance from the deceased’s estate claims that the surviving spouse should not inherit from the estate because the marriage was not valid.