Al, I am not being my usual smart-arsed self commenting on spelling. Have you spelled <i>res ipsa locuitur</i> correctly? Because of your legal background and my use of the phrase (entirely to often) in my profession, I am worried that I have been misspelling this for a long time. I assumed it was <i>res ipsa loquitur</i>. Which is correct?

You are right. I was in my pre-caffine haze and was too worried about with it was "-or" or "-ur". <p>To divert attention, I will tell a story. Once in a law firm of my acquaint, a lawyer prepared a document for court by use of dictaphone. He referred to the doctrain of res ipsa loquitur. When he gets to Court the judge is giggling and asks where the medical witness was. Not understanding the court advised that the documents referred to a "Dr Res Ispaloquitor" as someone being relied upon in the heading. Drywall felt the lawyers pain upon his return.

One of my summer temp jobs was in a legal office doing exactly that, typing up dictaphoned reports, and only a few things gave me pause. Luckily, I was familiar with legal terminology from my university studies, and I'd be very surprised that a real legal secretary didn't known what he meant - the person doing the transcription must have been a temp even more unqualified than I was. But funny!

An update on the story - the Mounties have moved into the corporate offices.