Foreword

I wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. Not so long ago, as far back as I could remember did not seem so long ago. Now, alas, it is ancient history.

The first thing I remember writing was a skit for the local PTA meeting back about 1955. I was 10.

I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember it was called “Romeo and Juliet and Izzy, The Used Car Salesman.” I narrated it while several of my classmates acted out the various parts. It got some laughs, as that was its principal objective, but I have no idea whether the laughs came because the material was funny or because it was simply preposterous.

If anyone had told me in the middle 1970s, when I first started writing this humor column, that I would end up writing some 300 pieces, I would have thought them nuts. Now, after having done it, I wonder if the only one who was nuts was me.

Much as the way the members of my class acted out my first little skit, my colleagues, many of them much against their will, have acted out much of what I have written here. Many of them are just daily heroes, some of them reached dizzying heights, and some are just slobs. Oft times, though, the labels interchange with a rapidity and unpredictability that challenge all the laws of the cosmos. Most did the best that they could do and the best that they could do was almost always admirable.

The one thing I loved more than being a lawyer was writing about it. This website, as far as I can tell, contains every S. Sponte piece I have ever written. I am not practicing anymore, and aside from the adrenalin rush of being in a courtroom, I don’t miss it much. What I do miss, though, is the camaraderie and companionship of my colleagues. Next to writing these pieces, that was the most fun I had practicing law.

This then, such as it is, is a meaningful part of my professional legacy. I enjoyed writing every single word, and it is my fervent hope that you enjoy them with even just a fraction of the pleasure they have brought to me. I would like that a lot. DJM