From: rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 94 04:59:43 PDT
To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: Re: On the crime bill and remailers
Message-ID: <199409191159.HAA27375@zork.tiac.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


  Someone out there asked:

>On Sun, 18 Sep 1994, Robert Hettinga wrote:

>> Hey. I get it. Solon. Lawyer. Nym.

>I think it is too late in the day for me.  When you have a minute,
>please let me in on it so I too can "get it".

Sorry. Operating with sparse data in "terse" mode again...  Here's the
verbose, shaky memory version.

I think Solon (called after he died "the lawgiver") was a, well, tyrant, of
Athens. Tyrants in ancient Greece tended to be dictatorial in the modern
sense. They weren't born to the job. They stole it fair and square, so the
job was theirs. (BTW, the job "Dictator" comes from Rome, where it was an
ad hoc, special purpose office granted by the senate with unlimited power
for a finite term, usually 2 years. The finite term was supposed to be a
check against abuse. Ceasar liked the job so much he wanted to keep it for
life, so they snuffed him. Didn't do them any good.)

Anyway. According to legend, Solon wrote, by himself for the most part, the
laws Athens operated under during the Periclean, "golden" age of its
history. Can't remember whether he stepped down after he did it, but the
laws he wrote, including most of the ones we call "democratic", stayed in
place after he died.

So. SOLONg has several puns in "his" name. One, Solon "the lawgiver", like
"I speak law". Two, So Long, Solon, like, "so long laws". Since "his" first
post was a legal one, he (I'll take the quotes off because the original
Solon was male) must be a lawyer or a law student, or someone who is
neither who wants to sound like they are.

Basing the nym on Solon the lawgiver is a little pretentious, but, hey,
what you expect for what turn out to be free legal counsel on cypherpunk
issues, a focus-group-tested nym?

In the meantime, we have someone at least claiming legal credentials
willing to put an oar in here every once in a while. With our friend Vinny
"The Pro" Bono, (rumored relation to an ex-mayor), that makes two anonymous
lawyers on the list that I know of. That is good thing, I think. Time will
tell of course, whether that really is the case...

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga



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