Liveblogging The Bakesale

10:30 AM-- I'm sitting in Donor Lobby taking part in an age-old (I assume) Boalt Hall student group tradition: the Bake Sale. Shameless plug: BJCL will be peddling its wares until 4:30 PM today (9/29) for a dollar an item. I think that price is double what we charged last year, but hey, recession's a bitch.

I thought it might be nice to document this experience for two reasons. 1) It's my last year at Boalt Hall, and the Bake Sale epitomizes so much of what I love and will miss about attending this school. 2) No one besides Patrick has posted anything in weeks, and I have to assume you're getting bored.

10:40 AM-- Awkward encounter with M*ndi. She stopped by to ask if we had e-mailed the faculty and staff about our bakesale. After three years of dealing with various administrative hassles, my first response was a defensive, "I'm not in charge anymore!" Then I realized she was just asking so she could help publicize the event. Thanks, M*ndi!

10:50 AM-- Sure enough, various faculty members saunter up to the table, licking their chops. When I recommend the delicious coconut-chocolate concoction called "Magic Bars," nearly all of them express concern for what the "magic" modifier might indicate. I love Berkeley.

11:10 AM-- So far nearly everyone has donated an additional dollar or so, on top of the item price. "People downtown sure are friendly!" (Three points to anyone who gets that reference.)

11:20-- A student informed me that some other schools do not allow their students to sell homemade goods on campus, for various fascist health reasons. This is what happens in Obama's America! 9/12 Tea Party March! Never forget!

11:30-- A representative of ELQ stopped by to purchase nearly $20 worth of sugary decadence. She asked if that was enough to buy them some positive publicity. I guess it is!

11:45-- It occurs to me that if the member-bakers simply donated the money they spent preparing their caloric concoctions, we would probably have made $40-60 right there. Luckily, I think we're about to soar past that benchmark, and it's not even lunchtime.

12:03-- I'm wondering if the closure of various public spaces in Boalt, combined with the opening of the student center, has reduced traffic flow to the bakesale location. This got me thinking, why not take this show on the road? I bet if we used the baseball game distribution model, we could sell double. Would it trigger any solicitation restrictions to try to sell at Zeb, the Student Center, and North Reading Room?

12:15-- Someone suggested I liveblog from the brownies' perspective. Sorry, but that sounds like a bad horror movie to me. Given this trailer, though, I bet it would do ok!

12:25-- Living Boalt Hall legend B*b B*rring just stopped by. We described all the items in detail. He paused afterward, pointed to the magic bars, and asked, "So... what's the deal with these?"

12:30-- Well, my time manning the table is almost up, and this whole thing has gotten a little too Andy Rooney. But if Rooney's age entitles him to say whatever he wants, I guess we 3L bloggers deserve similar privileges.

I'll miss the Boalt Hall bakesale. It's the perfect example of law school's strange duality. You find yourself unwillingly reliving your childhood while being thrust unwittingly into your career. What better encapsulates that than a lemonade stand funding an academic journal? But I think my favorite thing about the bakesale is its connection with Boalt's people. Where else can you talk at length to staff, faculty, and students from all class levels about things entirely unrelated to law, while simultaneously absorbing the saturated fat from their homemade peanut butter brownies?

Delicious on so many levels.