Why not 49 years? And other observations...

If you happened to read the Daily Journal last week, you may have noticed that Labor Day marked my 50^th year as a judge. Yikes! I didn't think much about it until a month ago. It occurred to me, what is so sacrosanct about the 50^th year? Why not 49? I acknowledge that 49 1/2 is overdoing it, but what is so magical about the number 50, or any number for that matter? This prompted me to do some research on numerology. According to my superficial grasp of the subject, my birth date and my name in some mystical way had something, no, everything, to do with my character, my career and I suppose my retirement. But what if I had changed my name? What if the county recorder put the wrong name my parents gave me on my birth certificate? Sorry, I apologize to the numerologists among my readers for my naiveté on this complex discipline. But just one possibly related subject, whatever one's name or date of birth, what is so special about 50? I cannot think of anything other than when I was 50 a long time ago and...never mind. So, the 50^th something, like a marriage or an event, is considered golden. OK, fine. But what's so great about gold? People kill for it and look what happened to King Midas?

Enough, let's move on to something else. How about Arnold Schwarzenegger? He was California's 38^th governor and served from 2003 to 2011. I guess one could call him a celebrity. I met a few in my lifetime. Maybe more than a few. So what? People who brag about meeting or knowing someone famous are pathetic. They seek the prestige they lack by trying to suck up, like vampires, the prestige of others to enhance their own pitiful ... Sorry, I guess I got carried away. I usually, I mean never, suck up to celebrities. When I see them, I leave them alone.

Short digression. Once, a long time ago, more than 40 decades when I was Supervising Judge of the Los Angeles Traffic Court, I was a celebrity, sort of, for a short time. That's how it is with celebrities. Burt Pines, now a dear friend, was the Los Angeles City Attorney. He was a true celebrity. He advanced programs that protected women from violence and appointed capable people of diversity to high positions in his office. But he and I disagreed on one subject: appropriate sentencing for people arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol. He wanted first-time offenders to spend a weekend in jail. I wanted them to attend an educational program. Pines later became a respected Superior Court judge and Gov. Davis's legal affairs secretary.

The Los Angeles Times and all the news stations supported me. Here's where the celebrity part was questionable. It was a Saturday morning. I was unshaven, in shorts, wearing a T-shirt and sandals, shopping in a vitamin store. The salesclerk at the counter yelled so all the customers could hear, "Hey that guy is a judge ... and he's really cool. He sent me to a program instead of jail when I was in traffic court." Who would admit that? Well, it happened, and I got a different taste of celebrity. At the end of the week, I was once again just a regular municipal court judge. Municipal court was abolished by a voter's initiative in 1998. But traffic court remains with a much-changed law for the offense of driving under the influence, DUI. A much lower reading than in the 1970s is a violation. Beware of just one glass of wine.

Getting back to Arnold Schwarzeneggar, he regularly works out at the famous Gold's Gym in Venice. So do my wife and I. Two months ago, our paths crossed. We were face to face and I said, more like blurted out in substance, "Governor, I'm a justice on the Court of Appeal and I, and others, were concerned about a judicial election when you were governor. A candidate challenged an incumbent superior court judge with a hard-to-pronounce name. The sitting judge was rated extremely well qualified by the Los Angeles County Bar Association. The challenger, with a common name, a lawyer, did not practice law. I wrote about the election in my column and supported, as did many others, the sitting judge. We pointed out that a person's name, or political affiliation should have nothing to do with the election to a nonpartisan office. The challenger won, but you did the right thing and reappointed the defeated judge to the superior court. I want to personally congratulate you." It was his idea to take a selfie of us together and one with Barbara.