Dear 100 Hour Board,

re Board Question #23127

Just to clear things up here, the daytime TV court shows are a form of alternative dispute resolution called an arbitration. In an arbitration both parties to a dispute sign an agreement wherein they elect to present their case to an "impartial" third party. When signing the arbitration agreement, the parties agree that the arbitrator's ruling will be legally binding and cannot be appealed in court. So essentially it is a legal settlement that is facilitated by someone who presumably has legal expertise and has the capacity to decide the case impartially.

I know that the "judge" in People's Court, for example, (which happens to be one of the more "legit" seeming shows, if you can even say that), was actually a Judge in Florida before doing the show. In other cases the "judges" are certified arbitrators or mediators in the states where they are licensed to practice law.

The producers of these shows research case filings from around the country, usually looking at small claims courts. They try to find the most interesting cases and convince the litigants to have the case arbitrated by Judge Judy, Joe Brown, etc. However, I also think that since the popularity of these shows has skyrocketed, a lot of the litigants end up on the show without having ever filed in court, and instead contact the show directly about having their case heard.

Regarding Texas Justice, Judge Larry Joe Doherty is for real, and is a practicing lawyer in the city of Houston. I have a friend who has tried a case against him. He tells a hilarious story about Larry Joe getting himself so worked up during closing arguments that he picked up a visual aid and flung it across the courtroom, creating a surreal moment of horror for my friend who was a newly admitted attorney at the time.

- Some Guy

I heard that the old 'Times and Seasons' used to run an astrology section. If true, this is delightfully funny.

If you could produce an example of this from the Lee library's archives (I'm not in Provo to do it myself), that would be spectacular.

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I'll be traveling to Phoenix and I'm going to need to take a taxi or two while I'm there to get around. I'm wondering if taxi's take cash only or if there is a better way to pay the fare.

I'm leaving Thursday so if you can get me an answer before then I'd be much obliged. Thanks for your continued help with random questions!

- Doesn't like carrying cash

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Okay, I try to be a nice, generous person. I allow my roommates to use my cell phone without discretion for their long-distance calls. I still haven't ever used more than half my minutes--this isn't the problem. The problem is when my roommates leave messages for people (who almost always have stupid long-distance cell phones), and they call my phone instead of the apartment phone. My roommates say every time "this is my roommate's cell phone, so please call my apartment at" the number. But it's rare, if ever, that anyone actually does that.
I know that with cell phones it's way easy to just call back the number that called you, and lots of times people do that without even listening to messages. But I guess it just hit my limit today. I'm recovering from foot surgery(and was reading the Board at the time *grins*) when my phone rang in another room. I hobbled across my apartment in my half-fastened walking cast, barely answered my phone in time and was greeted with "Hi, [Snow White's roomate]?" I was in the process of saying "no, she's not here right now," when the person on the other line says, "Oh, there she is, I see her" and hung up.
Maybe I just needed to rant about this. But is there any way to make it any more clear to the people my roommates call that this isn't their phone? Am I allowed to just yell at these people and say "No, this isn't her, and why don't you get a local number, jerk"? I'm sorry, maybe it's the gimpy foot. But I can't take this any more.
--Snow White, who is breathing deeply and counting to ten

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Who chooses the daily quotes at the top of your site? They're great!

- Rwelean

Dear 100 Hour Board,

So a really long time ago I heard this song on the radio. Basically, it was about this dude who was starving and somehow ended up in this barn with this banquet, and the people there told him he could only eat if he would dance for them. Anyway, I know that the chorus part kind of goes "I can dance!"...but those are the only lyrics that I know. Anyway...my question is...what's the name of that song, and who's it by? I really want to buy it so I can hear it again.

- Lady Doomfiyah, whose Google skills aren't al they're cracked up to be.

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I want to get a video from a DVD onto my iPod. I thought this would be relatively straight forward but apparently it's a lot more difficult than I thought. I'm really not trying to pirate the video, I just want to get the practice videos for my ASL class onto my iPod so I can watch them at more convenient times. I'm guessing that's part of what's available with QuickTime Pro, but I'm a pretty cheap college student and I'm sure there are freeware programs out there that will do the same thing.

Thanks!
- TechieChic

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I read that question about the root beer and sticking your fingers in it and I remembered in my German class in high school the kids would say something to the effect of wiping your finger on the side of your nose and then wiping the sides of your beer glass. Now since I am not a drinking type and you probably aren't either, what is the point of doing that?

- The World of Alcohol Perplexes Me (Which Is Probably a Good Thing)

Dear 100 Hour Board,

There are at least six cities in the United States named Lynchburg. All but one of the cities (Lynchburg, Ohio) are considered to be below the Mason-Dixon Line. I've found resources saying Lynchburg, Virginia was named after one of the towns founders, and that Lynchburg, Missouri got it's name from the large number of lynchings that took place there in the past. What I'm wondering is, of the four remaining Lynchburgs, how many derive their name from the same sort of activities as Missouri's Lynchburg?

- Mania