Ich bin Grammatiker gewesen

At the meeting of USPTO Toastmasters on Thursday, I was the Grammarian, and it was my job to listen for grammatical errors, and for especially good uses of grammar. Early in the meeting, I stood up and told people what I would do, but I did so in German, saying that I had studied grammar in four languages (I didn't say that I could actually speak four languages). I warned people that I would listen, and that I would complain about any errors. This created some amusement, and one member had me repeat my little speech in English. Someone asked whether I had been speaking Russian, and I said that it had been German.

The Red Queen's Race

I got one regular amendment this past week, and I finished Office Actions of one sort or another on three of them, ringing my docket of regular Amended cases down from seven to five. I also confirmed abandonment of one of my two Special New cases; the applicant did not attempt to do anything else after the Board of Appeals affirmed my rejection, so I'm down to a total of six amendments, one of them Special.

I have started work on my oldest Regular New case, and hope to finish that and another Regular New by the end of next week, and then try to find time for something else, like an amendment.