Today I welcome a tongue-in-cheek guest post from Kevin Underhill, of the great legal humor blog Lowering the Bar that I posted about here. Over to you, Kevin!

* * *

The Reykjavik District Court has ruled that a 15-year-old Icelandic girl can legally use the first name “Blaer,” reversing a contrary decision by government officials. Iceland has strict naming laws that require, among other things, that names fit standard grammar and pronunciation rules and be gender-appropriate. According to the report, the relevant committee refused to approve Blaer Bjarkardottir’s first name because she is a girl and the panel viewed the name as “too masculine.”

Continue reading →

If you are over 40, and especially if you are English, you probably know the drink Babycham. A cute leaping deer with a bow… ring any bells?

Continue reading →

Australian Experts Report First Known Quintuple Negative

A person whose native language is said to be English created the following sentence recently:

Continue reading →

I thought it was time for another ‘lesson’ in legalese from nursery rhymes (see this post – Roses are Red), so here we are…

Jack and Jill

Went up the Hill

To fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down

And broke his crown

And Jill came tumbling after

Continue reading →

According to the Legal Post, the most-read Canadian court decision of 2012 is Langevin, 2012 QCCS 613 (CanLII). A claimant calling himself Sylvio Langevin (who has filed various claims under other names) claimed ownership of the planet Earth, as well as, in a separate application, the planets Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, in addition to the four largest moons of Jupiter.

Mr Langevin apparently “saw a unique opportunity in the planets“, and reportedly “thought he could start a collection, like other people collect hockey cards“. Since the five planets and four moons are “errant” the claimant was certain that the planets currently had no legal owner.

Continue reading →