Heads or Tails #89 -- a past theme

Barb has apparently noticed how frequently I've missed Heads or Tails in recent weeks and, in a new feature, "edge," invites us to revisit any past theme. I guess I'll go with "Once Upon A Time," which was HoT 87....

Once upon a time, in far off Chicago, lived a rather dumpy, middle-aged lawyer. He was reasonably good at what he did, and even fairly well respected, at least to the extent that lawyers ever command respect. But he was not particularly happy.

The lawyer found that he was often of the least help to people who needed it most. Sometimes it was because they had little or nothing to pay... and he had a family to feed. Many times, though, maybe most times, it was because people waited to see the lawyer until they'd dug themselves into such a deep hole there was simply no way to climb out. He tried, sometimes, despite the odds. Sometimes -- and this was hard for him to do -- sometimes he had to tell people there was no way out.

Some clients were pleasant people. Others were skunks. Many assumed that their lawyer would screw them in the end... and were thus determined to screw the lawyer first. Corporate clients were better than individuals; corporate employees understood that lawyers were sometimes a cost of doing business. A necessary evil. Individual clients often resented every dollar paid to the lawyer; corporate employees knew they'd be paid even though they paid the lawyer, too.

Our dumpy, middle-aged protagonist was a solo practitioner. That meant there was no one to leave business to when he needed a break. But, then, our lawyer had worked in a firm back in the distant past, when he was a dumpy younger lawyer, with more hair, and there were people there who were supposed to pick up the slack when the lawyer needed a break. They seldom did.

Our dumpy, middle-aged Chicago lawyer had a serious case of 'grass is greener' syndrome. He had so many outside interests... family... baseball... music... movies... comedy... politics (these latter two being often indistinguishable... even before Al Franken)... work just seemed to get in the way.

Our dumpy, middle-aged lawyer worked at an Undisclosed Location. But sometimes, during the day, he'd go out for a walk.

One day, he walked into the Blogosphere and never returned.

THE END

(With lawyers involved, you expected a happy ending?)