The Law Offices of Marc L. Shapiro, P.A. - December 2019

Light Up the Night Why Do We Hang Christmas Lights?

Welcome to the 21st Century

W hen most people hear the words “cutting-edge firms are able to handle cases as effectively as they could. Thanks in part to our new marketing director, Emilio Feijóo, in the last year, the Law Offices of Marc L. Shapiro has made great strides in embracing technology and bringing our firm into the 21st century. No More Hide-and-Seek Documents handled by a law firm are often hundreds of pages long. When an insurance company sends a 200-plus-page document — sent the old- fashioned way, snail mail — our legal assistants spend hours scanning these documents into digital images and combing through each page for the case. To improve this arduous process, we’ve started using optical character recognition (OCR) software. OCR software takes these files and turns them into searchable documents. Instead of reading through documents page by page, our team can now search for keywords, locating important passages instantly. This software has boosted our team’s productivity immensely and allows us to tackle cases faster than ever before. 3 Ways Our Firm Embraces New Technology technology” and “law firm” together, they laugh. The technology at most law firms hasn’t been “cutting edge” since the first “Star Wars”movie came out. As a result, few

The first string of twinkling lights illuminating your neighbor’s house is always a telltale sign of the upcoming seasonal festivities. Christmas lights are a holiday staple, but have you ever wondered where this beloved tradition started? The tradition of hanging lights on the tree originally started with candles. Because this posed an immense fire hazard, Edward Hibberd Johnson, a close friend of Thomas Edison and vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, vowed to find a better way to decorate Christmas trees with light. In December 1882, three years after Edison’s invention of the lightbulb in November 1879, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue lightbulbs together and wound them around a Christmas tree in his parlor window. A passing reporter saw the spectacle and declared in the Detroit Post and Tribune, “One can hardly imagine anything prettier.”

Classic Roast Chicken

Johnson continued this tradition, increasing the number of lights each year and eventually putting them up outside. But because electricity was still a new concept, many years passed before the fad took off for regular Americans. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the tradition of lighting the National Christmas Tree, which spurred the idea of selling stringed lights commercially. By the 1930s, families everywhere were buying boxes of bulbs by the dozen. Today, an estimated 150 million Christmas lights are sold in America each year, decorating 80 million homes and consuming 6% of the nation’s electricity every December. Whether you’ll be putting up your own lights or appreciating the most impressive light displays in your neighborhood or town, let the glow fill you with joy this season. Just don’t leave them up until February!

Inspired by Ina Garten

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