Law And More

The Jell-O "Curse" - Bill Cosby as Spokesperson Was Least of It

Public relations representatives and marketing communications experts warn clients about the downside of human spokespeople and influencers. 

The human kind, as opposed to a made-up mascot, can get involved in all sorts of scandals.

The classic example had been Bill Cosby. America's Dad had been the face of Jell-O.

However, that actually was a small part of the "curse" which has plagued Jell-O.

In the new book "Jell-O Girls: A Family History," Allie Rowbottom chronicles how the purchase of the Jell-O patent in 1899 had brought down extreme suffering to her family. 

It had been her great-great-great uncle who bought the patent for $450. Twenty-six years later it was sold for $67 million.

Along with the wealth that created for her family in LeRoy, New York, there has been a sustained history of premature deaths, suicide, alcoholism, drug use, sexual abuse, mental illness, and a predisposition to cancer. In connecting the dots, Rowbottom theorizes that the boredom generated by privilege helped bring the family down. 

It was Allie's mother Mary who began a memoir about the curse. But she died relatively young from cancer before getting all that organized. So, Allie took that up as a mission.

When a child Allie's mother had been sexually molested by teenage friends of her brother, raped by a cousin, essentially ignored by her parents, and did lose her own mother to cancer when very young. Later she suffered from hysteria, had bouts of drug use and alcoholism, spent time in a psychiatric facility, and was betrayed by her husband.

As Allie tells it, Jell-O has also inflicted a cultural curse on America. After World War II, its commercials reinforced the role of women as stay-at-home housewife and caretaker. Serving creative versions of Jell-O was positioned and packaged as helping those women be perfect in that role.

Later, low-calorie Jell-O was part of the ethos of extreme body consciousness by females. Allie herself got caught up in that and had to receive treatment for an eating disorder. 

In addition, the one-time corporate home for Jell-O - General Foods - also became cursed in complacency. After Philip Morris purchased it to diversify into food, eventually The General, as it was called, was gutted. Later the parts of it which were marketable were merged with Kraft. 

Of course, this isn't the only chronicle of the peril of wealth. In fact, with all the recent suicides in BigLaw, one might wonder if there is any correlation between the high compensation and self-destructiveness. 

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Eating Contests - Should They Be Globally Banned?

This could be bad news for the key promotional activity of Nathan's - its annual hotdog eating contest.

But, public opinion around the world should be gravitating toward banning all eating contests - amateur and professional.

The most recent death associated with them has been that of retired boxer Mario Oscar Melo.

He was on his third croissant in Argentina. Then he collapsed.

It has not been determined yet if that or his underlying diabetes was the immediate cause of death. But it certainly might have been a contributing factor. Why was a human being with unstable glucose levels downing so many high carbo items so quickly? Here are more details from the New York Post.

Not long ago the family of Caitlin Nelson sued Sacred Heart University, based in Connecticut in the U.S., for the death of their daughter. She choked to death after an amateur pancake eating contest at the university during March 2017. That was even though nursing students tried right there to save her. She fell to the ground shaking. 

Eating contests, in addition to being gross, are filled with danger - and possible death.

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Sacred Heart University Sued By Family of Student Who Died During Eating Contest

Eating contests seem totally Americana. Part of that is Nathan's famous annual hot dog one. Great wholesome fun, right.

Maybe it is for those participating who aren't "amateurs." That is, they know what to do to prevent choking on the large amounts of food being consumed in a short amount of time.

In March 2017, Sacred Heart University in Connecticut allowed such an amateur eating contest during Greek Week. It involved pancakes.

After ingesting four or four of them, 20-year-old Caitlin Nelson fell to the ground and starting shaking. A few days later she would die from what was lodged in her throat. That was despite emergency treatment at the scene by nursing students. Medical authorities commented that the pancakes were stuck in her throat like concrete.

Now her family is suing Sacred Heart University. Represented by law firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, the family wants to get out the message that amateurs shouldn't be allowed to participate in eating contests. Here are more details from the Daily Mail.  

That death was the second tragedy for the family. Nelson's father, a Port of Authority policeman, had died in the line of duty on 9/11.

Eating contests will join the growing list of not-to-dos associated with frat and sorority life. Nelson was vice president of Kappa Delta. 

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Michelle Rivera, County Attorney, Accused of Public Intoxication in Court Room

Sure, it's not the right thing to do to show up in the courtroom allegedly drunk. And, in that southern Iowa location of Oscelo, public intoxication is also a crime.

But, Michelle Rivera, county attorney there, may land on her feet. That is, voters will decide on November 6th if she will keep her job. That Democrat is running against Republican Adam Ramsay. Lots depends on how voters perceive the alleged inebriated behavior. After all, substance abuse is epidemic in the U.S.

As the New York Post reports, last Thursday Rivera was in the courtroom when a sheriff's deputy noticed she was slurring her words. The deputy demanded one of those breath tests. Rivera refused. She was then arrested and charged with public intoxication.

Afterwards Rivera told voters that she is going to fix the problem. They may believe her. And perhaps they should.

This run-in with the law, along with the humiliation, could motivate Rivera to get and stay sober. Those who understand the disease of alcoholism know that the excessive drinker has to want to stop.

It helps the motivation if there is a lot at stake. She certainly has that.

What I have observed in recovery programs is that those who have experienced success usually have the best track record for stopping drinking and staying stopped. Those without that kind of background tend to struggle to string sober days together and frequently relapse. 

Sure, some folks may be tittering about a county attorney alleging being drunk on the job. However, since consuming alcohol has become so mainstream and ritualistic binge drinking is cool, the odds are they too could wind up in the same kind of pickle. 

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Dying to Eat - Upton Sinclair and Harvey Washington Wiley Are Probably Weeping

Law-firm practices focusing on foodborne diseases represent a growing niche in the legal sector.

On the front lines is the Marler Clark firm in Seattle, Washington. Ever vigilant, Marler Clark founder Bill Marler warned about the peril of open salad bars. Recently, that issue had been the plot line for an episode in Dick Wolf's new "FBI" series.

Also high growth are public affairs agencies with special expertise in managing the crises of a food recall.

At the top of the list is kglobal in Washington D.C. One of its partners Gene Grabowski has been developing new insights about those communications in a digital/visual era. Here is one example. Often the court of public opinion has more influence and power than the court of law.

These developments reflect the lack of progress in food safety since Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle" and Harvey Washington Wiley instituted early reforms when the U.S.D.A.'s chief chemist. All that was more than a century ago.

Yet, all too often on the ABC 6:30 P.M. news David Muir is reporting on another food recall. Last week it was chicken with antibiotic-resistant salmonella. 

That represents the absence of enough scientific research to prevent contamination, regulation and punishment, corporate failsafe systems in food production and distribution, and anticipation of how sources of contamination can and do change. The technology of blockchain holds promise for tracing the source of contamination quickly. But the recalls have become standard.

Foodborne diseases can result in death, long-term health problems, and severe physical distress. 

The history of the beginnings of reforms on behalf of food safety has recently been published. That's "The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth-Century" by Deborah Blum. It ranks 2258 on Amazon. Obviously, there is recognition that there currently doesn't exist food safety in the U.S.

Here is the review in The New York Times by Eric Schlosser. And, here is how you can order the book from Amazon.

Meanwhile, it's not hyperbolic to assess the current situation as: dying to eat. Every time I swing by a fast food drive-thru or purchase a half pound of lean beef at the supermarket, all bets are off if I survive that meal. That's even though I exercise extreme caution.

In college, the five of us in the car traveling from New Jersey to our dorm in western Pennsylvania came down with food poisoning. It was the mid 60s. We were not sophisticated enough in consumer and legal matters to have reported it. However, after that I became dog-like, sniffing the jesus out of every food item before I purchase it. 

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"A Star Is Born" - It Makes Addiction Seem, Well, Worth It

The latest remake of "A Star Is Born" can convince the already-troubled that addiction is a small price to pay for success - even if that success peters out.

From the get-go, music star Jackson Maine had a tough go of it.

His mother died when he was born.

His father was a drunk.

His older brother who looked out for him was one of those guys we met in high school who had a sense of direction and determination that we less emotionally and socially didn't. Of course, we couldn't bond. 

In his early teens, Jackson even attempted suicide by hanging but the ceiling fan gave way. He fell to the floor. Later, his hanging himself with a belt in the garage does succeed.

So, the message of the film could be interpreted as: Without booze and pills, Jackson could never had been able to put it together to develop into a performer.

That could be way too seductive to youth whom the universe didn't bless with a loving, non-chaotic start in life. 

Not surprisingly - who hasn't been exposed to the Alcoholics Anonymous mantra - the substances took him over. Another factor was simple aging. The years aren't kind to most of those in the performing arts. We content-providers have it easier and a longer shelf life.

But, along the way, Jackson had it all. That included the authentic love of struggling song-writer/singer Ally. That's more than many of us from difficult backgrounds are able to grab onto from life. Currently, I continue to struggle.

A sort of heretic in a recovery program for alcohol abuse, way back in the early 80s I declared that boozing bought me time. In its predictable way it empowered me to function until I could access the tools I needed to create my own life. Eventually, as with Jackson, its role was counterproductive. I was fortunate. I could and did stop. I stayed stopped. 

So, what do members of law enforcement, the courts, high school guidance counselors, college mental health therapists, recovery experts, researchers, friends, and family tell at-risk youth and kids already in trouble about the dangers embedded in substance abuse?

That's the rub.

How can they replace the "help" which addiction seems to be delivering at the time? Already, youth probably knows that the success rate of traditional program Alcoholics Anonymous is quite low. Here is the iconic The Atlantic article on that. Most courts route substance abusers to that mode of treatment: X amount of meetings a week and have the attendance verification document signed. 

Meanwhile, the whatever which does create and reinforce sobriety is less available in 2018. That includes affording college, being able to pony up the rent to live away from the toxic nuclear family, landing work with a future, and hope. 

Those committed to rescuing youth from despair have to reimagine their message. That could start by analyzing how Jackson could have prevented the start of his addiction or could have found a sustainable way out of it. Love, obviously, was not enough.

In that other new film "Unbroken," that path is giving up the illusion of control and surrendering to some higher force. 

As the uncontained opioid epidemic hammers, traditional approaches aren't effective. The times are different from when the recovery movement has been launched in the 1930s. Yet, there has been no Big Woke.

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Halloween - BigLaw Has To Lobby To Keep This Holiday Family-Free

Celebrating Halloween has become a big-spending day.

Think $9 billion.

And, about $480 million of that will be ponied up, no pun intended, for our pets' costumes.

Likely our animal companions will be invited to multiple parties. Hosting them will be vets, pet supply retailers, and property managers for residential rentals. Here are more financial details from the New York Post.

My hunch about why Halloween has evolved into the holiday to throw ourselves into is that it's family-free. At least for now.

And, so far, there probably aren't traumatic memories of Halloweens marred by dad throwing the turkey against the wall. 

Yes, the long season of Family Horrors kicks off on Thanksgiving. Then there's Christmas. Next Easter. In between are birthdays, graduations, weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Family members are forever. 

The most recent funeral I was involved with I ran into a brother-in-law whom I hadn't spoken to for a decade and two nephews who should have known who I was but didn't. Folks from the old neighborhood, who had been "like family," brought up, of course, my weight. Since age five, it has always been my weight which has been the issue with family and the family-like. 

There must be a temptation for businesses such as special events firms to transform Halloween as it is now into a family-centric one.

They will create packages for entertaining  families of up to 20 on this holiday. The odds are animal companions will not be welcome. Halloween will be rebranded as a heart-warming extension of Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

BigLaw firms increasingly have gotten into the federal lobbying niche. The Jones Days and DLA Pipers can take on preventing Halloween from becoming a family holiday pro bono. Unfortunately, I predict corporations will push hard for making it a family affair. The newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court will probably allow that.

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"FBI" Produced by Dick Wolf - Too Much Action, Not Enough Relationship Dynamics

The standard formula for successful fictional crime television programming has been: Among the good guys are oddballs who form complex relationships with each other while catching the bad guys.

On "Without a Trace," there was shut-down Jack Malone. Essentially, he took his subordinate Sam as an emotional hostage.

On "Criminal Minds" Spencer Reid is on the autism spectrum, plus being recovering from drug addiction. Members of the BAU are protective of him. 

And, on Dick Wolf's own "Law & Order SVU" there was Elliot Stabler who could only connect to work and partner Olivia Benson, not his family. Benson tried to help him grow into being a husband and father.  

Those oddballs are missing from Dick Wolf's new series on CBS - "FBI."

The characters on the show seem, at least so far, perfectly normal. There is one atypical agent - a Muslim. But he doesn't seem to be troubled in the usual Wolf-character way.

In addition, as yet there is none of that intense bonding which happens among oddballs in high stress public service jobs.

Every hit show is really about relationships. Not the plot line. That's what the audience cares about. For "Boston Legal," we were riveted by the nuances of what went on between Denny and Alan. Both of them were outlier type characters.

Tonight "FBI" started off in a promising way.

In a courtyard on Wall Street, one after another, people are collapsing. The scene is graphic. A number will die immediately. The rest will struggle for their lives in the hospital. The salad bar in a deli had been sprayed with poison. 

Incidentally, years ago, plaintiff lawyer Bill Marler of Marler Clark, which specializes in foodborne diseases, had warned about salad bars. They are sitting ducks for deliberate food contamination. Yet, salad bars still exit.

In public affairs, kglobal partner Gene Grabowski has made it his mission to educate organizations about preventing breakdowns in food safety.  Although Grabowski is known as the "crisis guru," he is equally skilled at helping clients' situations from tipping into crisis. 

Of course, the audience for "FBI" suspects terrorism in the spraying of poison at the salad bar. And that it is. However, connecting the dots is too linear and happens too quickly.

We aren't engaged the way we are when those in "Criminal Minds" or "Law & Order SVU" chase false leads. Our engagement includes being upset that the detectives are wasting precious time as the miscreants are out there causing more suffering. 

Many series have a slow kick-off. "FBI" can pull it together in the coming episodes.

However, there is also the possibility that Wolf can't conjure up the old magic. His recent "Law & Order: True Crimes" has been put on hold. If "FBI" is a miss, then that's yet another setback for CBS. 

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Too-Cute Nicknames, Saints Dianne/Sheldon, The Cory Look, Run From The Questions, Rabbit, Run - "SNL" Is Back

It went into a slow, then much faster decline from too much Trump. 

Even loyalists to the satiric network tabloid stopped tuning in.

But, fortunately for those who no longer bother with "SNL," there's an online video of Matt Damon's truly funny simulation of Brett Kavanaugh's performance art before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Its signature is the rabbit-nose nervous whatever Kavanaugh couldn't shake. There are enough but not too many tears. The main prop is the calendar tracking all the activities with his buddies with odd nicknames.  Here is that online video. 

The Damon version of Kavanaugh transmits an overwrought guy who probably shouldn't have been admitted to the state bar. Never mind, confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The meme of beer dominates. That's a severe blow to the beer industry. Likely college students watching "SNL" made the decision to switch to cheap wine.

That returns them to the counterculture years.

Back then at the free (propaganda-filled) outdoor concerts we all had bottles of 99-cent Boone's Farm sweet flavored wines, such as apple. After all, we grew up on Coca-Puffs cereal. And, you bet, we wouldn't have been seen with beer. We had been to Europe where we learned to discern wines. 

Good news for nostalgia buffs: Boone's Farm, in sweet flavors, can be ordered online from Walmart. Inflation has galloped since the end of the 1960s, though. A bottle will set you back $3.33. Click here and return to the final days before we had to knock off all that fun and go to work. Even then there were student loans to pay off. 

A clever retirement community in the Hudson Valley, New York, could organize a special event, serving Boone's Apple Blossom and having the talented musicians there lead a sing-along of "Puff The Magic Dragon." Yes, I can be hired to live-tweet/live-blog the event. 

Meanwhile, back at "SNL," no one got all the hook.

Democrat Saint - Dianne Feinstein - was alluded to as one of the oldest white folks in the Senate.

And the Democrat who brought the nation state-level class action public nuisance lead paint litigation - Sheldon Whitehouse - looked like a nerd trying to look cool.

His early-adopter advocacy for children with lead in their blood also qualifies him for sainthood.

Now that the lead issue returned via California, Whitehouse should re-promote his commitment to wiping out that health hazard. Among the supposed "bad guys" are Sherwin-Williams, convicted in the bench trial of "Santa Clara v. Arco."

Go after 'em, Saint Sheldon. Along the way you might catch the Whitehouse in 2020. Sure, I will volunteer in your campaign. (In 2005-2006, I had blogged the second run of the lead paint litigation in your home state of Rhode Island. The hotels, restaurants, and parking lots made out like bandits.)

Let's just hope that "SNL" knows when to let go of the Kavanaugh fun. Humor, like everything else in a digital era, has only a moment in time. 

There are myriad other topics to deride.

At the top of the list are those elite prep schools in New England rural areas where both professors and administrators dipped into the pool of youth for sexual frolics. The victims didn't rat. Not at the time. Now they have hired high-priced law firms to gnaw at the reputations of those who were No Mr. Chips. 

Guess, way back then, they were afraid the predators would retaliate with bad grades and lousy recommendations. That would have been the end of their careers proudly leading the nation's courts, BigLaw firms, Congress, Fortune50, and fine research universities.

Full Disclosure: From the hood, I went to public high school. Since I had no advantage I had no reason to put up with exploitation. Kavanaugh and all his buddies with those too-cute nicknames would have known to steer clear of me. Yes, they would have smelled a rat. 

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Safe Bet: No Job Offers Endorsing a Beer Brand for Brett Kavanaugh

She said. Then he said.

After a week, the FBI might be able to share with members of the U.S. Senate data and sworn statements which support some of the contentions or defenses. In journalism, we are trained to have at least two sources before going public.

So, right now, we know nothing. The great emotion which has gripped the nation essentially is based on speculation.

The exception might be that it is a safe bet to assume this: No beer company, at least one which values its branding, will make a job offer to Brett Kavanaugh to promote its product. Repeatedly during his sworn statement in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee he praised beer.

However, the tone and content were, well, brittle. The persona was nowhere near a Harrison Ford or David Muir type we love explaining how he enjoys the simple pleasure of a beer. Or, on the female side, the over-90 Betty White kind of phenomenon attributing longevity to X brand of beer. 

Actually, in his seeming belligerence and lawyerly way of not directly answering questions, Kavanaugh might have delivered a setback to how the nation perceives beer-drinking. 

Likely ad agencies are already factoring that in for their clients' SuperBowl ads.

Full Disclosure: I had been a barmaid on Calle de San Francisco in Barcelona, Spain. Human beings connect with the label on their drink.

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