The Tenth Sexiest Professional You Sort of Know

I'm appalled to discover that I haven't posted since last Wednesday. Amusingly, notwithstanding my recent silence, I saw a hell of a spike in traffic yesterday and to a lesser extent today, thanks to people googling the United States Supreme Court's long-awaited decision in Ashcroft v. Raich and finding my comments regarding that case's potential effects on the Court's pending (next term) decision of Oregon v. Gonzalez directly, or alternatively finding me through the generous link to my post supplied at the excellent Drug War Rant's treatment of Raich. (And if you're hitting me now, I strongly urge you to visit that site for further discussion now that the decision has issued.)

I've been absent, of late, because I've found myself at once underwater and utterly thrilled with my new position. It's one of those lifetime-to-master things, as are many jobs in the law, but this one perhaps more than many others because it requires me to be a pure generalist, think globally, anticipate the virtually unforeseeable consequences of sloppiness and do my best to avoid them, and then to help my colleagues do the same. There's so much to learn and so much to do.

I woke up with a viciously sore throat Friday morning, and headed to work thinking I'd do a half-day, grab some reading, and go home for the weekend to work in my puddle of misery unobserved. Instead, I was in the office until 6 on Friday and put in nearly two days worth of work over Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, I awakened sicker than ever, headed downtown to pick up more reading, returned home and read for 14 of the remaining 16 hours of my day. Today, in until 7, once again.

And still sick.

Now if I worked in a big law firm this would be par for the course. But as friends and regular readers know, I don't. With public service and a lower salary typically comes a significant reduction in workload and pressure. And to be fair to my new supervisors and colleagues, no one explicitly has burdened me with undue expectations. But it's the desire to excel that's returned to me to a degree I haven't felt since perhaps my second year of law school, when excellence still might improve one's prospects and enhance one's knowledge. By third year, we were all phoning it in; studying for the bar, one of the world's most agonizing pass/fail tests (along with, say, life itself), while fraught with anxiety really didn't compare, since the equivalent of a D on that exam was as invisible to the world as an A+. Shooting for C was just about right, and just about what I did. Proving that I could ace an exam that bore little resemblance to the actual practice of the profession licensure to which was guarded by this ridiculous half-multiple-choice exam simply wasn't a priority. Getting it over with was everything.

And I've done that at many jobs over the years. But not this one. And while I'm only in my fourth week, the nature of the excitement, the elements that feed it, aren't going anywhere. I hope my enthusiasm remains, though I confess that I hope (and have reason to believe) that the crazy hours are more a function of catching up than standard operating procedure.

In any case, that's why I'm kind of loving my chosen profession again, and why I've been so negligent with regard to this site.

Now, a propos, and by way of reintroducing myself, I bring you Salary.com's top 10 sexiest jobs, based on a poll of AOL users ('cause yeah, that's a representative sample). Here's the list:

1. Firefighter
2. Flight attendant
3. CEO
4. Reporter
5. Interior designer
6. Event planner
7. Nurse
8. Teacher
9. Doctor
10. Lawyer

I think we can all agree this invites certain questions. For example, how many AOL users are gay that interior designer comes up at 5 ahead of nurse? I think firefighter also suggests a gay constituence as well, though I don't mean to minimize the thrall in which phallic helmets (you know what they say about men with big helmets) seem to hold women and men (who like men) alike. The two serious anomalies, as I see it, are at 4. and 8. I mean, when did reporters become sexy? Was it when people started mistaking the pretty, perfectly symmetrical, blowdried blowhards on television for "reporters," or when reporters stopped doing anything to piss anyone off like, you know, critiqueing blatant falsehoods in lieu of parroting them? And if teachers are so damned sexy, why won't anyone arrange to pay them as well as, say, firemen? And event planner? Shit, that wasn't even a job 20 years ago, that was just an intrusive mother of the bride. I guess we can thank J-Lo. for that. Thanks J-Lo!

Anyway, I'll have you know none of this is sour grapes. I'm happy to be at 10, and I think it confirms that women tend to like men who are shitty to them, since I guarantee that the same sample would rank lawyers in the top 5 sleaziest professions. But just for the record, doctors and lawyers are HOT, except of course when they aren't. And teachers rock too.