For this month’s spotlight, we are featuring Senior Equity Partner, H. George Kagan. Get to know George below, and check back next month for our next spotlight!
Hometown: Indianapolis (or as we affectionately called it: Indianoplace), Indiana
Favorite sports team: Jamaican Bobsled
Favorite movie: (tie) The Godfather (I & II)/Wizard of Oz/Gone with the Wind
Favorite legal term: (tie) ‘inclusio unius est exclusio alterius,’ and ipse dixit, and of course, “res ipsa loquitur”
First job: Besides helping in my dad’s grocery/deli (age 9); News Boy (at 14) then bag boy (at 15)
Random fact: It is sometimes fascinating to learn actual definitions of words or phrases we take for granted or use every day, such as in liquor/distilled spirits, the word “proof.” So what does it actually mean (besides the fact that it is twice the alcohol content generally), i.e., why not just say “45% alcohol” instead of 90 proof? The term originated in the 1700s when payments to British sailors included rations of rum. To ensure that the rum had not been watered down, it was “proved” by dousing gunpowder with it and then testing to see if the gunpowder would ignite. If it did not, then the rum contained too much water and was considered to be “under proof”. Gunpowder would not burn in rum that contained less than approximately 57.15% alcohol. Therefore, rum that contained this percentage of alcohol was defined to have “100° (one hundred degrees) proof”. Also, to be stored upon a British Naval Vessel at all, casks had to be a minimum of 100 proof to insure gunpowder would still ignite if, during battle or storm, the casks broke and the rum soaked into the casks of gunpowder!
Three words to describe you: creative, articulate, weird
Favorite quote: “Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., The Common Law
Favorite food: Anything on my plate during all-too-rare trips to Berns’ Steakhouse in Tampa and Chalet Suzanne in Lake Wales (Wife and Mom’s cooking excepted of course)
What’s on your playlist? Not much from current century; a very wide variety from the five prior ones. (huge cd collection, couple hundred ITunes, and I never left vinyl!)
What are your hobbies? Many interests/activities but not one “specialized” in: photo/music/nature/kayak/skiing/one or two video games and loving every drive in either my new (2010) or old (1971) ‘rides’ (Mustang Mach I: original owner) and following the car ‘world’ generally.
If you weren’t a lawyer, what would you be doing?
Wish: movie producer/actor, voice-overs for Godfather/Darth Vader/Yoda etc., spoofs
Reality: Dad’s deli
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