Word: ashleys
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...think the law is already too much with us, brace yourself. In a new book called Oh Promise Me But Put It in Writing (McGraw-Hill; $10.50), Seattle Attorney Paul P. Ashley, 81, argues that most voluntary human relationships could benefit from written contracts?naturally drawn up by a good lawyer...
...What astute person," asks Ashley, "would consider it sensible to decide on an important business transaction while parked romantically beside a moonlit lake?" Because the answer is "practically everybody," Ashley suggests prenuptial contracts, agreements during marriage, separation treaties, post-marriage documents and agreements between lover-roommates of every conceivable gender. A premarriage contract, he suggests, might cover where the couple will live, who pays for what, how many children they will have. Cohabitants especially need legal agreements, he says, because the law has been slow to assist wronged partners in unconventional families...
Should love and affection be superseded by legal formalities? Ashley argues that a sensibly written contract strengthens a relationship by forcing partners to think problems out in advance. One woman, he reports, agreed to stop smoking but became so distraught when she tried it that her fiancé broke off the engagement. In that case, Ashley concludes, the contractual promises helped terminate a shaky match. And, he notes, the written word has coercive power: "There is a tendency to live up to a written promise?or at least to make a real effort to do so?when one might shrug...
...label homosexual acts as criminal, so a contract based on a homosexual relationship might be voided by the courts. The law also prohibits agreements that "facilitate" or "encourage" divorce, and any document listing property rights that either party will get in the event of divorce may do just that. Ashley counsels "skillful legal drafting," naturally done by a good lawyer, that refers to any eventual separation as the most loathsome" of all possible eventualities...
Martins is referring to Ashley's scrupulousness in performance, but she is candid in other ways. She knows that her technique is famous. "From the waist down, I'm terrific," she observes. "My legs just know what to do. But my allegro dancing wasn't enough. I had a kind of breakthrough a year ago. But my arms can still be lifeless. My head is not always right." She has been teaching her role in Emeralds to Ghislaine Thesmar, a French ballerina who is as elegant in a Gallic way as Ashley is in her very American...