"Right on both counts."
"What the matter, you don't like books?"My memory ain't that great. Thanks to my computer, and the internet, I was able to transcribe that portion of the episode without having to go to DVD's that I don't have, or the Star Trek Books, which I also don't have. I delight in the instant access to information, to wander link by link into a topic o' interest...I'm always delighted by the serendipitous result. I wander Google Earth, spinning the globe, stopping, and exploring. I read the local papers from the towns of my far-flung siblings and look at the radar to check their weather. I engage in discussions, fruitful and frivolous alike. But damnit, I love a book. A good hardbound book, heavy in hand or lap, with several hundred pages of escape, the weight shifting from one side to the next as I progress through the tale, yearning to reach the end; but, at the same time, not wanting to turn that last page. No. Wait. Escape is not the right word. A change of perspective. Taking the synapses for a walk in a different neighborhood. Thought travel. I cannot get on an airplane without a book. I've been told by travelling companions that reading in a moving car is bad for my eyes; but these 46 year old eyes still do not use glasses. (Heck, the computer is much worse for my eyes.) And my office, and our bedroom, is as scattered with books as is Mr Cogleys. We've more books than shelves. I suppose I remain the middle child on this topic, I enjoy them both, the book and the 'puter. I'm just glad that I lived during the transition, the information revolution, and have gotten to know them both.
"I like them just fine, but a computer takes less space."
"Hmm, a computer...I've got one of these in my office. It contains all the precidents, the synthesis of all the great legal descions written throughout time...ah... I never use it."
"Why not?"
"I've got my own system. Books! Young man, Books! Thousands of 'em. If time wasn't so important I'd show you something: my library, thousands of books."
"What would be the point?"
"This is where the law is. Not in that homogenized, pasturized, synthesized...Do you want to know the law? The ancient concepts in their own language? Learn the intent of the men who wrote them? From Moses to the tribunal on Alpha III? Books. "
"You have to be either an obsessive crackpot who escaped from his keeper or Samuel T. Cogley, attorney at law."
"Right on both counts. Need a laywer?"
Star Trek, the original series, season one, episode 20: Court Martial, at 13:32 of 50:31.http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/video.php?cid=619493214&pid=NBzFRQim1g_aBM6QxrhTk_ds0U5Zz0rh&play=true&cc=0