NFL WEEK 13 2022

 Team USA fell to the Netherlands yesterday, the defense that carried the team to the knockout round disappeared when they needed it the most. We also believe that on offense the team does not shoot enough. They opt for that one last pass, trying to thread the needle, when a hard shot has a better chance of scoring, either directly or on a rebound. 

Here's the thing about the world cup- it's two 45-minute periods of uninterrupted play and excitement. It goes quickly and is enjoyable and thoroughly not amendable to the American style of sports where innings or timeouts are quickly followed by 30 0r 60 seconds of adverts. 

We are going to do our picks quickly and then get to something more important. 

Miami plays the best game of the day. A 4pm gem at San Fran. We are riding the Fins to the AFC championship. Take the Fins +3.5. 

Jets + 3.5 in Minnesota. The Vikes are the worst 9-1 team since the Steelers went 11-0 two years ago. What we win betting on Miami we lose betting against the Vikings. Not today. 

It's hard to pass up the Giants as a home dog getting 2.5 points. Vacation homes have been paid for in cash by betting home dogs. The Commies are 6-1 and on a roll. Their defense gives up 15.4 points a game, so we will take the under 41. 

Eleanor Jackson Piel:

Some lawyers spend their careers litigating the nuances of federal civil discovery motions. Others spend their careers making a difference. Eleanor Jackson Peil did the latter. 

In this NY Times profile in 1999, Piel is profiled as a lawyer who exonerated defendants, taking them off of death row, suing Florida for wrongful convictions, defending murder cases, and representing an eclectic group of clients including Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. "I always expect to get paid. I just never do" said Piel to the Times. 

In applying to law school Ms. Piel was at first denied admittance. A dean told her they didn't admit women because they suffered nervous breakdowns. Undeterred she got into law school and graduated and passed the bar. 

In 1945 she prosecuted war crimes in Tokyo.  She returned to California and began practicing criminal defense. Although she came from a socially prominent family, her wedding was announced not on the society pages, but in the local section: "Three youths freed and Lawyer Wed". Murder charges had been dismissed on the day she was married. 

In 1964 she went to Hattiesburg Mississippi "because they needed me" she said. A white teacher had been refused service at a lunch counter (before there was Uber Eats) because she was with three black students. Piel sued on their behalf and defended the teacher of the arrest for vagrancy. Piel took the case to the US Supreme Court which ruled in her favor, calling the vagrancy charge "groundless" and giving her the right to sue a private corporation under the 14th Amendment. 

In the 1980s Florida has geared up the death machine, so Ms. Piel comes to the Sunshine state. She takes up the notorious case of the "Death row brothers" condemned to die for the murder of a white woman. Hours before they are a set to die a Judge grants a stay of execution because he cannot read all the motions she has filed before the time of the execution. The brothers, who are in fact innocent, are later allowed to plead guilty in exchange for being released. In her pleadings attacking the case, Piel wrote that the brothers were arrested because "they were available and disposable." Brillant stuff.  Piel called the plea deal "a travesty". 

 In 1999, working with Barry Scheck and the innocence project, she obtained the exoneration of Vincent Jenkins/ Warith Habib Abdai serving life for a rape he did not commit. Piel discovered the physical evidence and then paid $3,000 from her own pocket for the DNA test that exonerated him. 

Piel and her client Abdai

At a party in Los Angeles, Ms. Piel was introduced by a stuffy male lawyer "as the best female lawyer in LA." Taking offense at the backhanded compliment, Ms. Piel told the New York Times "I didn't like that, so I hit him."

Eleanor Jackson Piel died this past week at the age of 102.  The NY Times Obit is here. Read it.