THE ADVOCATE 635
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
reported in 1991: “The maze’s modern-day keepers point out with ill-
concealed glee that Lancelot (Capability) Brown, the 18th-century champion
of natural landscaping, once lived as the royal gardener in an apartment
overlooking the maze. He was ordered to keep his hands off it by
George III, who knew of his disdain for formal landscaping forms and, fortunately,
he obeyed, for the maze has been one of the most popular attractions
at Hampton Court since the palace was opened to the public in 1838
by Queen Victoria”.
Lindsay R. LeBlanc ascends to become chair of the Law Foundation, taking
over from Geoff White. She first joined the board of governors in 2017. In
addition, Sarah J. Runyon and Zara Suleman were both recently appointed
to the board.
Canada’s first permanent indoor labyrinth is located at St. Paul’s Anglican
Church in Vancouver. Built in 1997, it is a painted replica of the famous
stone labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral. There is also a Chartres-inspired
labyrinth at the Carmanah Point Lighthouse on the West Coast Trail.
Despite frequent disparaging use of “labyrinthine”, “labyrinths” are sometimes
described as more contemplative and calming than “mazes”.
Inspired by “a spell of pandemic boredom”, a 22-year-old college student
named Josh Swain created a group on Facebook made up entirely of people
named Josh Swain. Eventually an event was held in Lincoln, Nebraska,
where hundreds of people with the first name Josh showed up with pool
noodles to battle it out for the right to use the name Josh. The victor was
four-year-old Josh Vinson, Jr., known to all as “Little Josh”. The ultimate
right to use the full name Josh Swain came down to a rock, paper, scissors
battle between Josh Swain of Nebraska and Josh Swain of Omaha. The victor
was Josh Swain, the event’s organizer, whose solid rock-rock-scissorsrock
combination defeated Josh Swain’s controversial rock-rock-
scissors-scissors effort.
Quoting scholarly articles, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland applied
the “labyrinthine” adjective to defamation law in Gooch v. Maryland Mechanical
Systems, Inc., 567 A.2d 954 (1990): “This perplexing creation of the common
law was transplanted into the United States, where its complexities
multiplied in the state legislatures and courts, and its inconsistencies grew
multifoliate in the variety of soils provided by federalism. … Very little of
this labyrinthine forest makes sense when examined closely, and legal writers
have had few kind words for it.”