Recently in my Discord, and again over on the Patreon, I asked for a little assistance from the folks that have followed my stuff for a while. It wasn’t much of an ask, but it was probably an important one for me to make.
When I started Lawyers & Liquor it was under the moniker of the Boozy Barrister, a foul-mouthed lawyer who tried to make observations about the law, legal occurrences, the practice of the same, and things of that nature. It evolved over time, I believe, especially when the readership went from some lawyers, judges, and legal professionals to a lot of laymen wearing fuzzy suits. It turned more into a profane discussion of the law itself as it applies to things pertinent to that user base.
Then, of course, the podcast – Boozy’s Legal Funhouse, available wherever mediocre self-serving vanity projects are streamed – overtook a bit of that with the help of a dear friend and performing partner. As time moved on, Lawyers & Liquor took more of a backseat to the myriad of other things I was working on doing. To the extent that, while I always maintained the domain, I let the site itself go down for years before restoring it a couple years back with the grandiose concept I would slide back into the weekly written word format some of you remember but many of you who found me well after the fact have completely forgotten: profanely and angrily discussing areas of law and the application of the same with the help of a trusty straw man.
So I loftily promised a return to the written format, the grand re-emergence of a sarcastic, angry, and profane sentient whiskey glass turned cartoon badger. I sat down and started one article…then another…then another…then another…then – okay maybe it’s just easier to say my Google Docs folder is filled with a lot of random articles that have anywhere from a couple sentences to several paragraphs and that I walked away from each one because when writing them it just didn’t feel right.
See, the Boozy Barrister – and to no small extent the origins of the character of the Boozy Badger – came from a place of anger, frustration, and no small degree of isolation. It was an outlet, a way for the person behind those characters/personalities to vent. I have always said that Boozy is me, just me turned to 11, and I think the same is true when I look back at older work, routines, and written pieces. Boozy has mellowed as I have mellowed, Boozy has calmed as I have calmed, and Boozy has found community as I have found community. So when restarted this site I didn’t take that into account – I tried to start writing the same things I had written before, in the same voice, and in the same character.
I failed miserably at doing that. Because I am not the same person I was when this site started, dear weird readers, and we first took a journey together. I’m older, wiser, more relaxed, and honestly quite a bit more comfortable than I was then. Only took me about fourteen fucking abandoned articles to realize this – I can’t write with that voice anymore, because I don’t hear that voice anymore.
Which leaves me with a bit of a quandary, because you see I have this site, and this site means a lot to me. I don’t think I would be exaggerating too much to say this site, and what came from it, effectively saved my life to no small degree. It gave me back things that I had been missing from my life through the connections and community I found as a result of it and – to no small extent – parrots and sovereign citizens. So I don’t want to let it die.
But I don’t know what to do with it anymore. I want to write, but I don’t know what. I want to start it, but I don’t know how. I want to talk about the law profanely and amusingly, and about the life of lawyers, but I don’t want to be bitter and angry nor do want that to be all I talk about. That, honestly, is where the Discord and Patreon discussion came in: what do I do here?
I used to be a boat guy and I have stories to share. I used to sell pulp horror fiction, and maybe I can write that again. I know much about the law, and I want to share it. But I’m not sure how.
So here’s the deal: We’re gonna try this like a vanity project for a while. I’m gonna post something once a week, mostly on Saturdays, at the least and we’ll see what happens. Maybe it will be law. Maybe it will be a discussion of community. Maybe it’ll just be my grocery list. And, as always, you’ll let me know if you like it or if you don’t and I’ll make a decision as to whether or not I give a shit about your opinion (spoiler: I really don’t).
Hope you’ll hang around for it. If you don’t that’s fine, Boozy as he is isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if you do, I’m looking forward to hopefully amusing you at some point.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a picnic today.
-Boozy
