Tucker news: MSU receives letter "in anticipation of litigation"
September 28th, 2023 at 5:31 PM ^
Here's the letter- should have put this tweet in the OP.
September 28th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
Meanwhile, inside the MSU athletic department
September 28th, 2023 at 7:11 PM ^
September 28th, 2023 at 6:53 PM ^
This is not unusual.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:06 PM ^
Um, I've got some questions.
- Who indents the first line of each paragraph in a business letter?
- Why is the closing more than halfway across the dang page?
- Why two spaces after every sentence? I'm old and learned to type on a typewriter but I haven't used one of those since I matriculated at LS&A in 1988 and even this dog can learn new tricks.
- Why the heck did she add an apostrophe after her clients first name? Is it because of the Tuck Comin' catch phrase?
September 28th, 2023 at 7:18 PM ^
Two spaces after a sentence allow a lady or gentleman to pause for a brief moment to consider the importance of civility.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
We are not allowed to use "Ladies and Gentlemen" any more. It is "Michigan fans everywhere".
September 28th, 2023 at 9:48 PM ^
Ok, can we talk about this? What a bunch of bow-sheet. Grapentine should’ve called foul. Sad.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:00 AM ^
Doesn't Apple train us to use two spaces by converting two spaces into a period and a single space when we text? Then when we type prose elsewhere the habit of double-spacing continues?
Am I the only one?
September 28th, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
I am guilty of 1, 2 and 3. Why? I like the way it looks. There is nothing wrong with it although you may think it is old fashioned. Why are you so critical of people who are different from you?
I have no explanation for he apostrophe. Perhaps she thinks Mel is a contraction.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^
https://slate.com/technology/2011/01/two-spaces-after-a-period-why-you-should-never-ever-do-it.html
Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong. ...
What galls me about two-spacers isn’t just their numbers. It’s their certainty that they’re right. ...
“Who says two spaces is wrong?” they wanted to know.
Typographers, that’s who. The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences. ...
Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) ...
Is this arbitrary? Sure it is. But so are a lot of our conventions for writing. It’s arbitrary that we write shop instead of shoppe, or phone instead of fone, or that we use ! to emphasize a sentence rather than %. We adopted these standards because practitioners of publishing—writers, editors, typographers, and others—settled on them after decades of experience. Among their rules was that we should use one space after a period instead of two—so that’s how we should do it.
September 28th, 2023 at 9:45 PM ^
This is BS, because in the old, old days the monks left no spaces and the text is more or less unreadable. Go take a look at the medieval manuscripts and try to argue that little space between collected thoughts is better than more space. Putting two keyboard spaces just identifies that the sentence is over and is more readable, typographers be damned. I will die, figuratively, on this hill.
September 28th, 2023 at 10:11 PM ^
As noted in the Slate article, it's somewhat arbitrary, but it is the convention (across all style guides) nonetheless.
However, you're arguing that convention is dumb and should be changed to two spaces. (In other words, the law is an ass.) And your reasoning is that no space is unreadable, and therefore, more space is better than less space.
By that logic, three spaces is better than two. Four is better than three. Where does it end? I don't know, but you're only using two spaces. You're not even living by your own rules.
September 29th, 2023 at 12:21 AM ^
Here, here. It probably depends on the typing class a person took, or whether said person even took such an archaic class in school. And so what if I put those two spaces in?? Did I hurt you somehow?? (seems so looking at the article titles when searching for info on this important issue)
September 29th, 2023 at 8:29 AM ^
If you use two spaces, you're breaking the convention. Go ahead and break the convention, just understand and acknowledge that you're breaking the convention.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:52 AM ^
We don't use typewriters anymore. Two spaces is completely unnecessary. This is an objective fact.
September 28th, 2023 at 10:26 PM ^
Double post
September 29th, 2023 at 5:46 AM ^
My mind is blown. I've been prioritizing 2 spaces my entire adult life because I thought it was the decent thing to do. I had no idea I might be counter-culture and subversive with the execution of my responses.
I'm honestly questioning everything right now.
September 29th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
It's OK. You're good.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:37 AM ^
It's the legal profession. We have our own conventions. Have an issue with it? We welcome it and are more than willing to discuss, at a rate of at least $500 per hour to you and your client. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
Figures. The extra time it takes you type every extra space adds to your billable hours.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:27 PM ^
1. Pretty common in legal documents.
2. Allows the eye to move directly from the last sentence to the closing and signature. I personally don’t like the look of it either but again, pretty common.
3. In paragraphs with a lot of detail, it helps to give separation.
4. I don’t care to check into it but I’m sure “Mel” is short Melvin, which would be his legal name.
September 28th, 2023 at 9:49 PM ^
That is how we write in the world of law. Doing it differently would look like a damned dirty ape typed it up.
September 29th, 2023 at 2:26 AM ^
I love that (in theory) time was taken to spell Schmidtke and Veidlinger correctly but couldn't be bothered to check how many L's there are in Alan. It would be the most MSU thing ever if they burned all the documents and said that Alan Haller did it instead of Allan Haller.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:40 AM ^
There is a time and place to burn money on irrelevant legal arguments. Believe it or not, there is also a credibility cost.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:07 AM ^
This is off topic, but I have close associates I care about who have spent their entire lives arguing with the federal government that their name is Steve not STEVE and therefore do not need to pay any taxes to the government since they do not exist since legal federal documents capitalize everything at birth??? Something like that.
The argument is fascinating and bizarre but not nearly as much as the fact that there is a whole subculture that “believes” this and argues this in a court of law with lawyers, etc.
PSA - I don’t recommend going this route as they recently lost their house to the Feds, which is sad.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:56 AM ^
Except for the apostrophe this looks like a very run of the mill letter drafted by an attorney.
September 29th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
When I saw the very first statement Tuck released from his lawyer I thought “What kind of bargain bin lawyer did Tuck get?” Alas, my stance has not changed.
September 28th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
Anytime 70, 80, or 90 Million, etc, is at stake, you better believe a lawyer/legal team is going to be involved.
People make these expenditures even to save face, as just acquiescing, from the outside, can look like an admission of guilt, which wouldn't look good to future employers (and no one can predict the future).
In general, life is very stupid!
September 28th, 2023 at 5:40 PM ^
One day, when resources are no longer limited by silly governments, inept leaders, and technological limitations...
Our only currency will be our integrity.
September 28th, 2023 at 5:34 PM ^
MSU: I wish the media would treat our football team like a big-time program.
Monkey's paw curls
September 28th, 2023 at 5:36 PM ^
Tucker v state ✅
tracy v state: tba
tracy v tucker: tba
tracy v state: tba
September 28th, 2023 at 6:06 PM ^
And now the lawyers get rich.
September 28th, 2023 at 9:24 PM ^
Tracy sues them twice?
September 28th, 2023 at 11:09 PM ^
Should have said Tucker v. Tracy
September 28th, 2023 at 11:12 PM ^
I lost, Mr. Beeks. I bet my brother a single dollar that no one would pick up on that.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:02 AM ^
Waiting for the state vs. tucker countersuit.
September 28th, 2023 at 5:39 PM ^
One of many legal thrusts and ripostes. Gonna be a fun (or not) sword match to watch unfold.
Hopefully Tugger can keep his to himself.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:03 AM ^
touché!
(that doesn't make any sense in this context, but it's really the only additional sword-fighting term I know that has made it's way into common language).
September 28th, 2023 at 5:39 PM ^
This will be quite interesting. I wonder how long it will take to resolve - and, whether the settlements that will be reached will fall under / be accessible through FOIA requests.
I’ll have plenty of popcorn 🍿…
September 28th, 2023 at 7:17 PM ^
If MSU is like any other org, they'll have some boilerplate rule in the employee code of conduct against relationships with subordinates and vendors. Which means this is a slam dunk based on what Tucker himself admits to, whether it was consensual or not.
September 29th, 2023 at 2:37 AM ^
I’m guessing this goes all the way to trial and halfway through the first day Tucker whips it out, starts going to town and claims he thought the judge winked at him so it was consensual.
At this point his own lawyers ask for the death penalty.
September 28th, 2023 at 5:52 PM ^
Lawyer here: this is the most standard of letters in a dispute between parties. It can maybe be viewed as posturing for litigation to ensue, but the obligation to preserve evidence attaches to parties well before a suit is filed. A legal hold notice like this will often be attached to a settlement demand letter from a lawyer. We knew Tucker would be looking for a parachute. This particular letter means basically nothing.
September 28th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
Spoliation letter for the uninitiated.
September 28th, 2023 at 8:40 PM ^
I read MGoBlog for UM sports and I learn a whole lot of big new words!!
It's a blog/thesaurus 😃
September 28th, 2023 at 7:24 PM ^
Aren't public universities required to retain records for X period of time anyway? My company is required to do so, and I imagine a public school who must abide by FOIA it should be doubly so.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:47 PM ^
Not every document in a public body is subject to FOIA.
September 28th, 2023 at 8:10 PM ^
Depending on state law, there are specific sanctions and remedies that may be available to the party who sent the spoliation letter if discoverable information is disposed of. Also, certain records that aren't otherwise required to be preserved, such as surveillance video that gets recorded over like a dvr for example, have to be preserved once put on notice.
September 30th, 2023 at 8:09 AM ^
"this is the most standard of letters in a dispute between parties. "
Really? Lawyers regularly describe civil contract disputes as "illegal"?
Exactly what law would MSU have broken by violating Tuckers contract?