Wednesday, June 14, 2017

unfamiliar surroundings









Woodward ------------------ [excerpt] ---------------- had been to the courthouse before.  The hearing procedure was an institutionalized fixture of the local court's turnstile system of justice:  A quick appearance before a judge who set bond for accused pimps, prostitutes, muggers -- and, on this day, the five men who had been arrested at the Watergate.





A group of attorneys -- known as the "Fifth Street Lawyers" because of the location of the courthouse and their storefront offices -- were hanging around the corridors as usual, waiting for appointments as government-paid counsel to indigent defendants. 


Two of the regulars -- a tall, thin attorney in a frayed sharkskin suit and an obese, middle-aged lawyer who had once been disciplined for soliciting cases in the basement cellblock -- were muttering their distress. 


They had been tentatively appointed to represent the five accused Watergate burglars and had then been informed that the men had retained their own counsel, which is unusual.




Woodward went inside the courtroom.  One person stood out.  In a middle row sat a young man with fashionably long hair and an expensive suit with slightly flared lapels, his chin high, his eyes searching the room as if he were in unfamiliar surroundings.




Woodward sat down next to him and asked if he was in court because of the Watergate arrests.




"Perhaps," the man said.  "I'm not the attorney of record.  I'm acting as an individual."


He said his name was Douglas Caddy and he introduced a small, anemic-looking man next to him as the attorney of record, Joseph Rafferty, Jr.  Rafferty appeared to have been routed out of bed; he was unshaven and squinted as if the light hurt his eyes. 


The two lawyers wandered in and out of the courtroom.  Woodward finally cornered Rafferty in a hallway and got the names and addresses of the five suspects.  Four of them were from Miami, three of them Cuban-Americans.




Caddy didn't want to talk.  "Please don't take it personally," he told Woodward.  "It would be a mistake to do that.  I just don't have anything to say." -------------------- [end, excerpt - All the President's Men, 1974 - Woodward / Bernstein] ----------------





He was sitting in the lounge --
of the Empire Hotel


He was drinkin' for diversion
He was thinkin' for himself


Little money rid-in' on the Maple Leafs
Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves --


She says let me sit down
You know drinkin' alone's a shame
It's a shame, it's a cryin' shame --


Look at those jokers
Glued to that damn hockey game


Hey honey -- you've got lots of cash
Bring us 'round a bottle and we'll have some laughs
Gin's what I'm drinkin'
I was raised on robbery ...





_____________________________


On Google, type in


raised on robbery, Joni Mitchell


and -- Play!





_____________________
{"Raised on Robbery" - written and performed by Joni Mitchell.  Album:  Court and Spark.  1974.  Included on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.}


-30-

No comments:

Post a Comment