Big Bird and the Truly Pathetic Fistfight

You haven't seen comedy until you've watched two out-of-shape tax lawyers throw five punches, miss four, and then wrestle to the ground. Also, how Big Bird fits in, and 7 other things worth a click.

We now begin the 2020 presidential election season in earnest—a season that feels like it might be most divisive, angry, combative election since perhaps the Civil War.

I hope that's an exaggeration. I fear it's not. So, two quick stories.

1. The first is about Big Bird.

2. The second is about a truly pathetic fistfight.

Actually, let’s do the fistfight first.

The fistfight

The fight happened in early December 2000. Looking at the demographics of this newsletter, I think most of you are er… seasoned enough (like me!) to remember what was going on in presidential politics then.

I was a very green attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division at the time, and my enduring memory is of two lawyers I worked with—nice guys usually, not super-excitable—who came to blows over the Florida recount.

You haven't seen comedy until you've watched two out-of-shape tax lawyers throw five wild punches at each other, miss four, and then wrestle to the ground over whether a hanging chad, 1,000 miles away,…