Thursday, September 01, 2011

Akin Gump: Ideas of Reference -- August 31, 1991

The following are handwritten notes that I prepared on Saturday, August 31, 1991 memorializing key parts of comments made by my supervisor, Chris Robertson, during a telephone conversation on the afternoon of Friday, August 30, 1991.  I had left the notes on the bed in my apartment on Saturday, August 31, 1991.  My supervisor had advised me that she was planning to create a computer program for use on the project to which I was assigned for the client Hoechst-Celanese (under billing partner David P. Callet, Esq.), and that she had chosen me as the “guinea pig” to test the new program.

I assumed that the phrase guinea pig related to Dr. Palombo who is, presumably, of Italian heritage.

It’s interesting that Akin Gump claimed it feared that my ideas of reference might be associated with a propensity for violence.  Here we see that my ideas of reference were associated with humor.

My employment was terminated two months later, effective October 29, 1991.  Akin Gump later claimed that I had been hired in 1988 to perform a document production task for the major client Eastern Airlines, and that after the firm lost Eastern as a client, my services were not needed.  Yet, this document shows that even two months before I was fired I was considered a pivotal employee by my direct supervisor, Chris Robertson.
_______________________________

[first page]

Guinea pig - Italians - Dr. Palombo

Computer bugs - vermin - Jews (psychoanalytically - younger siblings) (Bugs Bunny?)

Data conversion - religious conversion

Scroll down and scan - organ ogling [But we had reason to believe he’s a homo - “I know what I saw]

“It will be better for you” - same words stated to Miriam Chilton on Fri. Feb. 26, 1988 on leaving Hogan

“fine tuning” - phrase used by Dr. Palombo

Affected tone of voice - professional and mature - accused of being unprofessional

Apparently communication with Dr. Palombo on 8/30.

Something about his saying my personality needing fine tuning.

--accusation of anti-Semitism

Bugs imagery suggests self image as sibling NOT parent/supervisor, however.  Peculiar

Something about difficulties with supervisory personnel -- countered with my relationship with Miriam.

Racism - expression of extreme self-loathing -  Say what you will about the Jews - but don’t dare insult the Italians!

[second page]

Question for Dr. Sack: Why is it that its always the good looking one who have all the integrity??

Craig
Malcolm Lassman
JR
Red Meat
Earl Segal
Laurence Sack
Doc Palombo

Overcompensating litigators “We TRY harder”

There used to be a thriving Yiddish theater -- Why did it die out? -- Jews don’t know how to act -- not a clue

Bob, dear, how many Communists did you catch today? -- Never mind, Helen, put some more knishes on the grill!

______________________

See the following blog post:

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2011/05/letter-to-dr-pitts-april-12-1993.html

"7F.  On Friday afternoon August 30, 1991, while working in a private area on the 4th floor on the Hoechst-Celanese project, David Berkowitz stopped by.  We chatted briefly.  Our exchange was unusual.  While I was working at Akin Gump, it was exceptionally rare for a legal assistant to stop by just to chat.  The interaction with David Berkowitz that afternoon was welcome, but it struck me as peculiar.  (David Berkowitz is Jewish cf. paragraph 2F).  A brief time later I received a telephone call from my supervisor, Chris Robertson.   She advised me that she was in the process of designing a computer program that would enable me to enter data directly onto the computer system.  She stated that she had decided that I would be the “guinea pig” to test out the new program.  She used other words and phrases such as “scroll down and scan,” fine tuning,” and “bugs,” etc."

See the following blog post:

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/03/social-security-document-submission_03.html

"During the weekend [following Friday August 30, 1991], I made some notes about the call, recording some of the highlights. The notes also included some half-witted witticisms. I accidentally left the notes on my bed during the weekend. I had the vague suspicion that Mal Eno (not Elaine Wranik) may have seen the notes in my apartment and reported their existence back to the firm. I believe that was on Monday September 2, 1991, at about lunch time, that I saw Dennis Race standing near Malcolm Lassman’s office where I had been working [temporarily on the fourth floor]. Despite the distance between us, Dennis Race smiled at me. I had the self-referential feeling that he was reacting to my notes about Chris Robertson’s call. I had the thought, 'He must know the score. He knows what’s going on.'"

1 comment:

My Daily Struggles said...

Sander Gilman has examined Sigmund Freud, addressing the question of what role, if any, was played by Freud’s Jewish origins in his composition of the psychoanalytic corpus. Gilman’s thesis concerning this subject is that the prejudices of biology in the nineteenth century classified the Jew as being somehow feminine, a stigma that Freud sought to escape by carving out a scientific niche of his own. Licensed by his own brand of science, Freud could simultaneously lay claim to the manhood that the Viennese scientific establishment of the nineteenth century threatened to deny him, and also to the neutrality that was the warrant of its authority.

To make the case that contemporaneous anti-Semitism shaped Freud’s thought, Gilman provides a catalogue of the most egregious anti-Semitic stereotypes of the time and place, including straightforward documentation of certain anti-Semitic prejudices, such as the belief in Jewish male menstruation, as well as period depictions of anti-Semitic stereotypes in graphic media.