George Herbert Walker Bush, R.I.P.

I voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988, although with some misgivings (I don’t think I’ve ever voted for any presidential candidate without misgivings). In 1992, I voted for Andre Marrou, the Libertarian candidate. Bush could be ambitious, he could engage in dirty politics, he could show a lack of that vision thing, and he could be flexible in his positions, according to what he thought the voters wanted that year. With all that, he was a patriot, a decent family man, and an adult with a sense of responsibility.

Comparisons with the current occupant of the Oval Office are left as an exercise for the reader.

Holiday Party

There was a holiday party Thursday afternoon for Technology Center 3600 of the Patent Office. I mingled, I chatted, I indulged in too much chocolate, and I groused about the rock group inflicting amplified ugliness on the gathering.

I also met a former examiner and old friend who said that he would be rehired in February. He had quit to fight cancer, but he said that he was better, and no longer had chemo brain, which had rendered him unable to think. It was an unexpected pleasure to see him alive and healthy.

The Red Queen’s Race

I got one amendment this week, and I didn’t work on any, so I now have seven amendments, all on my Amended docket.

I’ve been working on on my one Special New case; I’m not finished, but I hope to be before Monday at 3:00
PM. This, by the way, is my first ever 16 series case. As an explanation, the Patent Office assigns applications eight digit numbers, and when I was first hired, I was put to work on 08 series cases, like 08/567,123, to make up a number. Later, we moved on to 09 series cases; the first case to be published as a patent with my name as primary examiner (not assistant examiner) was application 09/152,837, published as U.S. Patent 6,594,634. Regular New cases for me to work on are now 15 series applications, although I still have 14 series and earlier cases as amendments.

But this Special New is my first 16 series case; the inventor paid a fee and submitted a petition to get it worked on earlier than it would be normally.