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- "Siamo uomini o avvocati?"
194 Comments
1625
I'm a retired lawyer. One of the things I really am disappointed in is that it has been 30 years since I heard a good new lawyer joke.
I know this is Italian, not Spanish but I remember hearing a story about a kid who was bilingual in both English and Spanish because their babysitter was Spanish, and so would sometimes mix up the languages without realizing. Apparently one day they started shouting "I want an avocado!" which, in Spanish, like Italian, sounds like the word for "lawyer". So basically just imagine a little five year old kid screaming "I want a lawyer!" at the babysitter lmfao
1625
"Fruit of the testicle tree" is how I first heard it. There is some folk-lore about avacados and young women. Not ribald or racy or anything like that, but that the Aztecs didn't allow their maidens to go near the trees, something like that.
It would be an excellent excuse: Young lady becomes in a family way, and when the father demands to know who the father is - she points to the avocado tree next door, and confesses that she picked some avocados to give to her boyfriend, who had not ever laid a hand on her.
That's also known as being hoist by your own petard. What's a dad to do when the poor girl gives a perfectly sensible and innocent explanation for her physical changes.
642
1625
Personally disappointing that Harper Lee would do that to such a beloved figure in American literature and film. I haven't read the new book, because I don't want to be disappointed in Atticus Finch. I hope that the revelation about his bigotry is simply a look into his mind, not into his actions.
Still, your post raises an interesting point, one which is very current right now in American politics: Inherent in our constitution is the idea that one cannot judge professional conduct by personal political beliefs. (This has limits - no neo-Nazi's in the Justice Department is a good idea.) In particular, Trump is saying that anyone associated with the Democratic Party or who has Hispanic heritage cannot be involved in any legal proceedings about him, because they are biased.
If Atticus Finch disliked Trump, should Finch be allowed to either prosecute or defend Trump? Based on To Kill a Mockingbird, I'd say yes. Finch is a professional. His personal feelings don't enter into how he does his job. That's they way all good lawyers function.
A factoid in illustration: the Fred Phelps clan out of Wichita, Kansas, is an evil group of people who picket the funerals of fallen soldiers and protest against people like Bishop Desmond Tutu, saying things like "God hates fags [a derogatory term for gay people]!" They are a nasty lot who twist the Bible far beyond even the worst distortions wrought by many a white Evangelical Christian. To apply an assessment by Obi-Wan Kenobe: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
But - and this is a big but - the Phelps family has many lawyers in it, some of whom have specialized in civil rights litigation (which explains why nobody ever sues them for their nasty behavior). They have represented a goodly number of the down-trodden of this earth who have been subjected to some of the worst discrimination to be found in America - racial, disability-related, and others - and they have won. If the Phelps lawyers come after you because of some act of discrimination, you want to settle that case as soon as possible. They are fighters who really know what they are doing in a court-room.
So too with Atticus Finch. Does it really matter if he's a racist and a bigot, if he can do what he did in To Kill a Mockingbird ? You are who you pretend to be.
Duo's sentence can actually have a meaning obverse to what everyone is saying. Are you a man, full of mortal weakness, venality, greed, lust, envy, pride - or are you a lawyer, a defender of the rule of law, of ethical behavior, whatever failings you might have as a human?
The new book was actually the first version of the old book, before the publisher told her to rewrite it with a focus on Scout's childhood. So Harper Lee didn't do anything to him; people just dug up and publicized how she'd written him all along.
I think that the two books go well together, and Go Set a Watchman, although written first, should be read second. As a child, Scout idolized her father; as an adult, she can see his flaws. He's not the same Atticus Finch as the one that you know and love from To Kill a Mockingbird, because he doesn't live up to the ideals that he raised Scout with. The new book is about how Scout learns to deal with this.
I thought It was saying that the moral values of men and lawyers were different , like what they do and stand for. I don't necessarily think it was talking about there state of being or sex but once you become a lawyer you change as a person. Ex: becoming a criminal ,join the military, becoming Buddhas. But if one has to decide between man and lawyer I would think, giving they way media betrays lawyers it would be a bad thing, as a saying or joke.
1625
Do you not mean: "the way media portrays lawyers" rather than "they way media betrays lawyers"
1625
Sometimes you need a shark on your team. If I were being hassled by the Trump administration, I'd want the best damn shark I could find.
586
Bruciare! That was witty. Lingot for you.
Shakespeare was right... see Henry IV, part 2.
If you actually READ the play, you find that the line is uttered by Jack the Butcher, who is both a nihilist and an anarchist. William Shakespeare wrote that line uttered by a villain. He fully understood the value of the legal profession (professional advocates) You are culturally illiterate and historically ignorant. Goodbye.
398
I hope this doesn't count as clutter, but I've just got to say, I appreciate the real answers that are usually so helpful, but I LOVE the snarky responses. (My husband says my tombstone is going to say "she couldn't resist the cheap joke," and it's true!) Thanks, all!
110
Mutually exclusive, eh...such as "military intelligence" or "customer service" perhaps....lol
760
Yes, in general - though now wigs are only worn in criminal cases in the higher courts. Solicitors when appearing in these may also choose to wear a wig.
In Italian, an avvocato is not a solicitor - he is a lawyer. In the UK and Commonwealth countries, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers (who perform distinctly different roles in the legal system). Elsewhere, the profession of lawyer (US) or avocat (France) or abogado (Spain), encompass both (plus, the Code Law countries also have notaries who are generally restricted to conveyancing, document authentication, and similar paper-pushing roles that lawyers also perform in the U.S.).
513
Lawyers... definitely not human.
Yes I'm allowed to make jabs at lawyers, my mother is a lawyer.
I like CASAUBON's humor. I like all the jokes regarding this sentence, including this one: the stupidest sentence in any language. It is possible, of course, that the writers of Duolingo were joking also.
To Jeffrey 8857....Are we here to discuss political, ethical, or whatever issues, or the Italian language? Come on, take a deep breath and focus on what we all want: to understand, speak, and read Italian.
789
Duolingo cracking wise? I appreciate humor in the learning process. But I understand the risk of trying to be humorous. Snowflakes may somehow find a way to be offended and abandon Duolingo in search of a safe space.
The only people who might take offense are lawyers (although they probably won't because lawyers actually enjoy telling lawyer jokes to one another). I assure you that Snowflakes do not survive in the legal profession. They get their heads handed to them on plates and quickly find other means of making a living. There are no safe spaces in the profession. Pusillanimity is severely punished.