Or, read the first 20 pages of Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, in which a long-lost older son returns to home and hearth -- he contacts the nice, respectable family lawyer first, because he is polite that way -- and because he is the older (of twins), he inherits and his brother gets practically nothing. Sort of explains (to me) old-school British lawyering and the weird way property works in Britain, all in one.

Trinkets from Spain: there is a particular kind of damascene pottery made in Toledo, which is black pottery with intricate gold-wire twirlies on the side, made almost exclusively these days for tourists. Cordoba seems to be where people buy swords, if they're going to buy swords. All I can remember that they sell in Barcelona is flipflops, which you can get anywhere.

Also, if the Giles is in England, he would probably be a solicitor, not a barrister.

That means civil law, not criminal? Or not?

It's more of a split between trying cases in court and focusing on the things that happen outside of court, as I understand it. I'll try to dig up a link for you that explains the differences.

Yeah, I think a barrister is basically a litigator and a solicitor isn't.

Oh, ok. Cause even being a Christie, Marsh, and James fan I've never been clear on that.Thanks.

Erika, This should help. Though it is a little snarky.

This might be better.

What every fanfiction writer needs to know.

t winces so hard her face falls off

I have a sudden urge to challenge people to use as many of those phrases as possible in a fanfic. There should be a Harry Potter fic that uses the phrase "Roasting the Broomstick"; something from Smallville featuring Lex with his "Motor Running"; and a Firefly story in which Mal uses as list like that as a way of insulting Inara without ever using the word "whore". Also an AtS story where Wesley or Lorne discovers the use of the word "Angel" listed on there, and decides to act on the information.

And yet it's incomplete. It's missing "pego".