Toddler Enjoys Lawyer-Themed Birthday Party
Well, this seems to have happened in January but didn't receive the publicity it deserves until the WSJ's Law Blog covered it recently. Obviously I need better sources in Prairieville, Louisiana.
That's the home of the Dobra family, whose youngest member apparently watches a disturbing amount of daytime TV, because according to his family two-year-old Grayson is an enormous fan of plaintiffs' lawyer Morris Bart-or at least his TV ads:
"Before he could walk or talk, every time the Morris Bart commercial would come on, he was just fixated," [Grayson's mom] says. "You couldn't talk to him. You couldn't do anything with him. He would just sit and stare at the TV. You could call his name, give him a toy. He didn't care. He just wanted to watch the Bart commercial. He's been that way ever since, and when he started talking he would say, 'One call' or 'Bart, Bart, Bart, Morris Bart, Morris Bart.'
"They were not his first words, but they were a close second and third," says Dobra.
So as Grayson's second birthday approached, the family had a ready-made idea for a birthday-party theme.
His mom even contacted Bart's office, asking if he might be able to make an appearance. The local paper says the firm's marketing director initially didn't think the request was for real, which is not surprising because it absolutely seems like something you might see in The Onion. (It isn't. I checked.) But Ms. Dobra was able to convince them, and while Bart couldn't make it himself he sent the kid a signed picture, a T-shirt and a variety of other goodies. "They were so nice about the whole process," she said. "They never once said, 'You're crazy. Leave us alone' or anything like that."
Neither did the bakery who made them this cake.
Grayson is said to have loved the party, although his mom admitted he was "kind of shocked" by the life-size cardboard cutout of Morris Bart when he unwrapped it. He seems to have gotten over that, although I don't think we'll know for sure unless we have a chance to talk to his therapist in a couple of decades. For now, though, he's fine.
"He still loves his Morris Bart shirt," [his mom] says. "If you put it on him, you'd better not try to take it off. He will throw a fit. He has his two photos on the nightstand, and he likes to give Morris Bart a kiss goodnight sometimes. He is literally obsessed with Morris Bart."
Well, he's probably fine.
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