# It is implausible that pchaos is a lawyer and he should stop claiming to be one **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316 "2013-02-14T20:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 40
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/781 "2013-02-21T16:32:24Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Guys, give me a break. We now have two threads pitting me. Is there a limit as to how many threads that I can be pitted on. May I suggest we have no more than one going at one time. Then why did you just go and open yet [another](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=683060) one? Why…why…it’s almost as if you don’t actually, sincerely believe what you’re saying! ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/782 "2013-02-21T16:35:45Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There’s that pesky word again. Did you convert to Catholicism late in life or something? While I hate the thought of backing up **pchaos** on anything, I think he wins this one. See [Pastor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastor#Catholicism). ---
**Author:** ![pchaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/258eb7/32.png) [@pchaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pchaos)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/783 "2013-02-21T16:45:00Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Yeah but the point of being a lawyer is being prepared for that 1%. I know my parents had to prove their marriage (married in Taiwan) recently for insurance reasons via their work. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a lawyer - especially employment law - to know the standards of marriage in that state, especially since CA has a pretty rigorous Bar, especially if they went to Berkley Law. Don’t remind me that I went to Berkeley Law. I had two room mates at Cal. One of them is currently mayor of San Francisco. The other is now a federal District Court judge. I’m their loser room mate. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/784 "2013-02-21T16:53:30Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > While I hate the thought of backing up **pchaos** on anything, I think he wins this one. See [Pastor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastor#Catholicism). You say that, but none of the Catholics I know here in Texas have that usage, nor the ones over from Louisiana. They use “priest” and will use “Father Bob” or whatever to refer to their local parish priest. “Pastor” may be an accepted usage, but it’s not common at all. I’ll accept that maybe things work differently in California. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/785 "2013-02-21T17:00:40Z")
I wonder if this might be a usage typical of Catholic churches in the Chinese-American community. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/786 "2013-02-21T17:03:19Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Don’t remind me that I went to Berkeley Law. I had two room mates at Cal. One of them is currently mayor of San Francisco. The other is now a federal District Court judge. I’m their loser room mate. Again, do you not realize many records are **public**? Carl Douglas (or was that “Karl”?) - your “classmate” graduated law school in 1981 - never overlapped Edwin Lee or George Daniels (the only Federal District judge near the same time frame). Now, you claim for your former roommate Edwin Lee (current mayor of San Francisco) - Berkeley Law class of 1978, undergraduate at Bowdoin in Maine in 1974 and got hitched in 1980. Lee and Daniels were obviously classmates - both graduated in 1978. You also claimed your first year was wasted on Pac-Man - 1980. Edwin Lee couldn’t have been your roommate in 1980 at all, as he got married that same year (or you had an interesting household) and never overlapped Carl Douglas at all. Learn that adding pointless details and name-dropping public figures is counter-productive to good lying. These took 10 seconds on Google to figure out. Reflected glory only works if you aren’t easily caught in outrageous falsehoods. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/787 "2013-02-21T17:09:02Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Again, do you not realize many records are **public**? > > Carl Douglas (or was that “Karl”?) - your “classmate” graduated law school in 1981 - never overlapped Edwin Lee or George Daniels (the only Federal District judge near the same time frame). > > Now, you claim for your former roommate Edwin Lee (current mayor of San Francisco) - Berkeley Law class of 1978, undergraduate at Bowdoin in Maine in 1974 and got hitched in 1980. > > Lee and Daniels were obviously classmates - both graduated in 1978. > > You also claimed your first year was wasted on Pac-Man - 1980. > > Edwin Lee couldn’t have been your roommate in 1980 at all, as he got married that same year (or you had an interesting household) and never overlapped Carl Douglas at all. > > Learn that adding pointless details and name-dropping public figures is counter-productive to good lying. These took 10 seconds on Google to figure out. Reflected glory only works if you aren’t easily caught in outrageous falsehoods. By ‘classmate’ - he clearly means that the other person actually attended the school that he dropped by the campus of one day to do LDS during a free speech movement (or maybe bowel movement). ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/788 "2013-02-21T17:21:11Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Remember in high school how we used to take what our teachers said and our textbook as the gospel truth. I don’t. That you lacked critical thinking skills by high school is perhaps part of your problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/789 "2013-02-21T17:34:33Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > While I hate the thought of backing up **pchaos** on anything, I think he wins this one. See [Pastor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastor#Catholicism). You’re not Catholic, are you? While it _is_ true that the head priest assigned to a parish is the pastor of that parish, you will almost never hear a Catholic refer to him as such unless there is some reason to specifically state that he’s the top guy. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/790 "2013-02-21T18:02:31Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > You’re not Catholic, are you? While it _is_ true that the head priest assigned to a parish is the pastor of that parish, you will almost never hear a Catholic refer to him as such unless there is some reason to specifically state that he’s the top guy. Having been raised Catholic and having lived both in the deep south and NE, I can categorically say that a priest would never have been referred to as a pastor in any of the churches I belonged to. As was mentioned, if referring to the position generically, “priest” would be used while if a particular priest was being discussed it would be “father” or “the father.” So you would say the priest’s [homily](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homily) (sermon) or the father’s homily but never the pastor’s sermon. ---
**Author:** ![huck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@huck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/huck)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/791 "2013-02-21T18:10:06Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > You’re not Catholic, are you? While it _is_ true that the head priest assigned to a parish is the pastor of that parish, you will almost never hear a Catholic refer to him as such unless there is some reason to specifically state that he’s the top guy. Hruh, regional difference I guess. I’m the proverbial cradle Catholic (up until last year) and it’s very common to refer to the head of the parish as the pastor in the RC churches I’ve attended. “Preacher”? Never heard a Roman Catholic even use that word. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/792 "2013-02-21T18:29:46Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Don’t remind me that I went to Berkeley Law. I had two room mates at Cal. One of them is currently mayor of San Francisco. The other is now a federal District Court judge. I’m their loser room mate. Lying works best when those you’re lying to can’t check the facts. As a “lawyer”, you should know that. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/793 "2013-02-21T19:10:11Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > You’re not Catholic, are you? While it _is_ true that the head priest assigned to a parish is the pastor of that parish, you will almost never hear a Catholic refer to him as such unless there is some reason to specifically state that he’s the top guy. You’re absolutely correct - I’m not Catholic (atheist by belief, United Church of Canada by allegiance). I just got curious about his usage and wondered if actually had justification to use that term. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/794 "2013-02-21T19:35:02Z")
I grew up Catholic and I’ve never heard anyone refer to the priest as pastor. Priest, father or Monsignor (if applicable). If someone asked “Who is your pastor” I would certainly know what they are talking about but it is in no way the usual usage. ---
**Author:** ![huck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@huck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/huck)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/795 "2013-02-21T19:43:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I grew up Catholic and I’ve never heard anyone refer to the priest as pastor. Priest, father or Monsignor (if applicable). If someone asked “Who is your pastor” I would certainly know what they are talking about but it is in no way the usual usage. Don’t know about California but it’s extremely common usage in Chicago. Even the newspapers here will refer to a priest who is the head of a parish as the pastor. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/796 "2013-02-21T20:23:50Z")
> [@huck](#): > > Don’t know about California but it’s extremely common usage in Chicago. Even the newspapers here will refer to a priest who is the head of a parish as the pastor. well, sure, but you know - _Chicago_ ! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/797 "2013-02-21T21:16:20Z")
I am not and never have been Catholic but have associated, sometimes closely, with _many_ Catholics over six decades. I’d have to back up **Cheshire Human** ’s experience. A Catholic will nearly always say “my priest”; about the only time he will use the term ‘pastor’ to speak of a priest is when he needs to specify the authority of the chief priest of his parish, e.g., “If you want your college friend who’s now a Catholic priest to celebrate your wedding Mass, he can, but you have to get permission from both your bishop and your pastor.” What we’re discussing could be a California or San Jose regional usage … but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![huck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@huck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/huck)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/798 "2013-02-21T22:18:50Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I am not and never have been Catholic but have associated, sometimes closely, with _many_ Catholics over six decades. I’d have to back up **Cheshire Human** ’s experience. A Catholic will nearly always say “my priest”; about the only time he will use the term ‘pastor’ to speak of a priest is when he needs to specify the authority of the chief priest of his parish, e.g., “If you want your college friend who’s now a Catholic priest to celebrate your wedding Mass, he can, but you have to get permission from both your bishop and your pastor.” What we’re discussing could be a California or San Jose regional usage … but I doubt it. But even though you ar enot Roman Catholic, you recognize the monumental grooviness of St. Polycarp, no? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/799 "2013-02-21T22:27:09Z")
Like I said: troll. Now BANNED troll. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/800 "2013-02-21T22:31:43Z")
The OP and the troll he’s pitting, both banned in just over a day. That can’t happen very often. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316.md?page=41)