The new blue books.

I just picked up one of my two stacks of exams, and I see we have snazzy new blue books. Before, you knew they were the blue books, because they were, like, blue, and they were books. Now each one says BLUE BOOK in giant block letters. I know, already. Are they trying to cheer us up with a brand new attitude toward taking and grading exams? There's also a tagline across the top:

USE YOUR IMAGINATION^TM

Just let your thoughts run wild ... as you apply the Erie doctrine. Or is that advice addressed to me? I am kind of using my imagination by writing a blog post about the front of the blue book, but no one needs prodding to think of new ways to avoid the task of grading, and being imaginative while grading would be evil.

And what's with trademarking the phrase "use your imagination"? As if all the other blue book manufacturing companies would want to horn in on the idea of printing bad advice on the cover.

All right. All right. I'll concede that there are some law school exam questions where some controlled use of imagination would be appropriate -- for the student. Never for the teacher.