Back in the dark ages when I attended Stanford Law School (from 1963 to 1966), several members of my class played guitars, most of us not professionally, and some of us - like Wylie and me - not very well. But we kept playing (or in my case "trying"). My fave performer after the Beatles and the Stones and Dylan and Baez was Rambling Jack Elliot and the only song I remember finger-picking was his "Railroad Bill.

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In law school, I was a real masochist and tried to play a 12-string Gibson, which I found impossible to do anything with but strum, but that was okay: in college, that is, strumming had been good enuf when you were getting drunk with a bunch of friends....

But I digress.

Just yesterday I received an email from Wylie Sheldon, a classmate at Stanford Law '66 who finger-picked on a six-string very well: 

The text of the email was: 

"A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor Guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responed: 'Good luck with that one pal.'

"So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube. The video has since received over 6 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: 'Good luck with that one, pal.'

"Taylor guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has led to a sharp increase in orders."

Click here to view the video.

Authors Bio:
I have a law degree (Stanford, 66') but have never practiced. Instead, from 1967 through 1977, I tried to contribute to the revolution in America. As unsuccessful as everyone else over that decade, in 1978 I went to work for the U.S. Forest Service in San Francisco as a Clerk-Typist, GS-4. I was active in the USFS's union for several years, including a brief stint as editor of The Forest Service Monitor, the nationwide voice of the Forest Service in the National Federation of Federal Employees. Howsoever, I now believe my most important contribution while editor of the F.S.M. was bringing to the attention of F.S. employees the fact that the Black-Footed Ferret was not extinct; one had been found in 1980 on a national forest in the Colorado. In 2001 I retired from the USFS after attaining the age of 60 with 23 years of service. Stanford University was evidently unimpressed with my efforts to make USFS investigative reports of tort claim incidents available to tort claimants (ie, "the public"), alleging the negligence of a F.S. employee acting in the scope of his/her duties caused their damages, under the Freedom of Information Act. Oh well. What'cha gonna do?