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OPENING STATEMENTS OCTOBER 2022 WWW.LAWYERSREADYTOFIGHT.COM 317-934-9725 | INFO@RDLAWOFFICE.COM
FROM THE DESK OF
John Razumich
WHO HAUNTS THE PRESIDENT?
October Holidays October 1: National Fire Pup Day October 2: International Day of Non-Violence October 3: National Unity Day October 4: National Taco Day October 5: National Be Nice Day October 6: National Mad Hatter Day October 7: National Coaches Day October 8: World Post Day October 9: Leif Erikson Day October 10: National Sausage Pizza Day October 11: Columbus Day October 12: National Stop Bullying Day October 13: National M&M Day October 14: National Dessert Day October 15: National I Love Lucy Day October 16: National Boss’s Day October 17: National Pasta Day October 18: National Chocolate Cupcake Day October 19: National New Friends Day October 20: International Day of the Nacho October 21: Back to the Future Day October 22: National Pit Bull Awareness Day October 23: National Reptile Day
TRUE STORIES OF WHITE HOUSE GHOSTS
I’m glad it’s finally October, the month of haunted houses and ghost stories. That means I get to share some unique trivia with you! Is the White House haunted? The answer is, in fact, yes!
Or, at least, we have recorded stories about ghosts in the White House.
In 2017, The Washington Post interviewed Jared Broach, the founder of Nightly Spirits. His company offers tours of haunted areas across the country, but upon their launch in 2012, the only tour they offered was of the White House.
According to Broach, the White House has the best ghost stories. “I’d call them the most verified,” Broach told The Post. “Honestly, we could do a 10-hour tour if we really wanted to.”
Many are verified simply due to all the preservation of documents that occurs when living in the White House. In a 1946 letter written to his wife, President Harry S. Truman describes a late-night ghost encounter on a lonely night. He went to bed at 9 p.m., then six hours later, he awoke to three knocks at the door. “I jumped up and put on my bathrobe, opened the door, and found no one there,” he wrote. “Went out and looked up and down the hall, looked in your room and Margie’s. Still no one. Went back to bed after locking the doors, and there were footsteps in your room whose door I’d left open. Jumped and looked — and no one was there! The damned place is haunted sure as shootin’. Secret Service said not even a watchman was up here at that hour. You and Margie had better come back and protect me before some of these ghosts carry me off.”
October 24: National Nut Day October 25: United Nations Day
October 26: International Artist Day October 27: National Pumpkin Day October 28: National Black Cat Day October 29: National First Responders Day October 30: National Candy Corn Day October 31: Halloween
Even without such detailed letters, many stories continue through common experiences and word of mouth. One of Broach’s favorite stories is about a man named David Burnes, who
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sold the land where the White House sits and whose voice has been reportedly heard in the Oval Office.
If you think there’s an afterlife in phantasmal form, then it might interest you to hear First Lady Grace Coolidge’s ghost account. After Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, Coolidge spoke in magazine accounts of seeing Lincoln looking out a window in what had been his office. Many more people have seen Lincoln’s ghost since then — even foreign royalty and politicians. One night in 1942, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was sleeping in Lincoln’s bedroom when she heard a faint knock on her bedroom door. She opened it to see the bearded president before she fainted. She wasn’t the first foreign visitor to notice Lincoln’s presence, however. In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed in the very same room. He stepped out of a hot bath with a cigar and little else and saw Lincoln by the fireplace. Famously, Churchill reportedly said, “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.”
Some ghosts were deeply personal to the president, such as Abraham Lincoln. Reportedly, Lincoln received regular visits from his son Willie, who died in the White House in 1862 at age 11, most likely due to typhoid fever. Mary Todd Lincoln was so grief-stricken that she stayed in her room for weeks, but she only once spoke of seeing her son’s ghost at the foot of her bed.
In his Post interview, Broach was asked if he believed in ghosts. “For sure,” he responded. “If I said no, I’d be calling about eight different presidents liars.” As it turns out, he’d be calling our allies liars too! So, that might be one of the best reasons to believe in ghosts I’ve heard yet. What are your favorite ghost stories? I’d love to hear yours. WHY EVERYONE NEEDS A WILL
Nobody likes thinking about their own mortality or the possibility of death, but the simple truth of the matter is that people pass away every day. That’s why it’s important to have an estate plan in place to ensure that your loved ones are taken care of. It doesn’t matter if you’re relatively healthy or have few physical assets — having a will is imperative, especially if you pass away unexpectedly. Here are two main reasons to make an estate plan today.
your kids. Additionally, pets are seen as property by the law, so you need to appoint someone to become their caretaker in your will. And you can’t leave your house to your pet, so you need to name the person to take ownership of your house in your will as well. Creating a will does not have to be a scary or stressful experience. If anything, it will give you and your family peace in knowing they will be taken care of if anything happens.
Provides Peace of Mind
Without a will or estate plan in place, your family will need to attend probate court to figure out who receives what assets. The court will name someone to oversee your estate, which could be someone who doesn’t have your family’s best interests in mind. With a will, you can name someone as the executor of your estate and lay out how your assets will be divided. It will help save your family time, money, and stress while providing them with ample time to grieve.
Decides Who Will Take Care of Your Pets, Home, and Children
If you’re a parent, you can use your will to determine who will become the guardian of your children. Without a will, the court may appoint a guardian who you don’t want raising
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A Cat Coauthored an Influential Physics Paper
THE TRUE STORY OF F.D.C. WILLARD
Cats defy the laws of physics all the time, so it’s only fitting a cat would teach us physics more directly — by coauthoring a highly cited, influential physics paper.
Thermometer! Take a break! F.D.C. Willard not only saved Hetherington from rewriting the entire paper, but also continues to inspire cat-related academia antics. On April 1, 2014, the American Physical Society (APS) announced all cat-authored papers would be made freely available. “Not since Schrödinger has there been an opportunity like this for cats in physics,” they wrote. We couldn’t agree more. The journal loved the paper, but the ruse stayed secret among his close colleagues until a visitor arrived to meet the authors. When Hetherington told them the truth, they laughed, and not long after that, the feline coauthor became quite famous. Of course, the name Chester wouldn’t look convincing as a scientific paper coauthor. So, he invented “F.D.C. Willard.” The initials stand for Felis Domesticus Chester. The last name, Willard, was the name of Chester’s father. The professor didn’t feel too guilty for trying to deceive the publisher: “Why would I do such an irreverent thing? … If it eventually proved to be correct, people would remember the paper more if the anomalous authorship were known. In any case, I went ahead and did it and have generally not been sorry.”
In 1975, Jack H. Hetherington was a professor of physics at Michigan State University, and he completed a paper on atomic behavior. However, he had a
problem: As a sole author, Hetherington had used “we” throughout the paper. A colleague pointed out that publishers reserved that language for papers with multiple authors. With today’s software, this would be a minor inconvenience. But to fix his error in 1975, Hetherington would have to retype the entire paper manually on his typewriter. Time was short, and Hetherington had done all the work himself.
According to Hetherington’s 1982 book, “More Random Walks in Science,” he explained, “After an evening’s
thought, I simply asked the secretary to change the title page to include the name of the family cat.” And that’s what happened; the professor named his Siamese cat, Chester, as his coauthor.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE From the Desk of John Razumich PAGE 1 Ghost Stories From the Oval Office PAGE 1
Why You Should Make an Estate Plan Today PAGE 2 A Cat Helped Write a Physics Paper? PAGE 3
Pumpkin Pie Parfaits PAGE 3 Age Is Just a Number PAGE 4
The Man Who Felt 20 Years Younger Wanted to Legally Change His Age
He alleged that he experienced age discrimination because, being 69, he is limited in what he can do. If he were 49, he could buy a house and car and work more hours, and his chances on the dating app Tinder would improve if he were younger. What was the court’s decision? Ratelband’s argument did not convince the district court in the Dutch city of Arnhem. The court said there was no evidence that Ratelband had experienced age discrimination. It stated that, unlike legally changing your name or gender, changing your age causes many problems such as the many rights and duties related to age, such as voting, attending school, military obligations, and pension. Although Ratelband has the freedom to feel 20 years younger, mentally and physically, he cannot legally change his age because of the legal and societal implications that would follow, the court added.
We’ve all heard about people legally changing their name or gender, but have you ever heard about someone trying to change their legal age? In 2018, a 69-year-old Dutch man named Emile Ratelband petitioned a court for permission to change his age. He wanted to alter the year he was born on his birth certificate by 20 years so he could be 49 years old. So, how did this case end? Let’s find out. What was his reasoning? Ratelband wanted to change his age because he argued that he felt 20 years younger. He said his doctors told him that he had the body of a younger man, and his health was far better than most men his age.
The district court rejected Ratelband’s request, but he plans to appeal.
In the Netherlands, the public doesn’t take Ratelband’s claims seriously. They even make fun of his international exposure and willingness to provide interviews worldwide to justify his wishes. So what do you think of this legal case? Is age just a number? Let us know your thoughts!
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