Not Mere Rhetoric: Metaphors and Similes

1. Oregon Natural Res. Council v March, 677 F. Supp. 1072, 1073 n.2 (D. Or. 1987) (Burns J)

1.1. As I read the June 23 opinion of the Court of Appeals, the plaintiffs asset eight claims of error in my ruling. The Court found reversible error in five, but affirmed on three. In baseball, a batting average of .375 is enviable indeed. Judiciary wise, such an average sends one to the showers in a hurry.

1.1.1. Not every final judgment of a judge is correct but it sure is decided to the best of their ability.

2. 772. So. 2d 1243, 1273 ( Fla) (Harding J, dissenting), rev'd, 531 U.S 98 (2000)

2.1. We didn't lose the game, we just ran out of time.

2.1.1. Sometimes, a lot can be accomplished given the sufficient time and resources.

3. Pavlicic v Vogtsberger, 390 Pa. 502, 507, 136 A.2d 127, 130 (1957 (Musmanno J)

3.1. A gift given by a man to a woman on condition that she embark on the sea of matrimony with him is no different from a gift based on the condition that the donee sail on any other sea. If, after receiving the provisional gift, the donee refuses to leave the harbor, - if the anchor of contractual performance sticks in the sands of irresolution and procrastination - the gift must be restored to the donor. A fortiori would this be true when the donee not only refuses to sail with the donor, but on the contrary, walks up the gangplank of another ship arm in arm with the donor's rival.

3.1.1. A favor claimed is equal to a word that is given.

4. Bankcard Am. Inc v Universal Bancard Sys Inc, 203 F.3d 477, 479 (7th Cir. 2000) Evans J)

4.1. Football fans knows the sickening feeling: your team scores a big touchdown but then a penalty flag is tossed, wiping out the play. Universal Bancard Systems, Inc. knows that feeling firsthand after seeing not one, but two big touchdowns called back. The referree who waved off the first -- a $7.8 million verdict -- and then the second -- a $4.1 million jury verdict after a second trial -- was the Honorable Richard A. Posner, the circuit's chief judge who in this case was wearing, by designation, the robe of a district judge. Like the instant replay official, we now review the decisions of our colleague -- using the voluminous record rather than a television monitor and recognizing that our review in 1999 of a case that began in 1993 is a far cry from instant.

4.1.1. To evaluate a judgment on its merits needs to be a thorough process. It is a thing that cannot be inferred easily based from the face value of it reliability and validity.

5. 248n N.Y. 339, 352 (1928) (Andrew J, dissenting)

5.1. The spring, starting on its journet, is joined by trinutary after tributary. The river, reaching the ocean, comes from a hundred sources. No man may say whence any drop of water is derived. Yet for a time distinction may be possible. Into the clear creek, brown swamp water flows from the left. Later, from the rights comes water stained by its clay bed. The three may remain for a space, sharply divided. But at last, inevitably no trace of separation remains. They are so commingled that all distinction is lost.

5.1.1. Every part is important to be able to see a thing as a whole.