Word: souter
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...call Souter bookish would be like describing the Grand Canyon as a hole in the ground. In the ramshackle farmhouse nine miles outside Concord where he has lived since he was 11, groaning shelves of books on philosophy, history and the law have won the battle for space. Souter jokes that the room looks like "someone was moving a bookstore and stopped." Vacations are devoted to rereading as much of the work of a particular author as he can; he has plowed through Dickens, Proust, Shakespeare and Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legendary Supreme Court Justice. When he is not reading...
Like other aspects of his life, the unmarried Souter's social activities resemble those of an 18th century gentleman, when an unmarried relative was often the backbone of the community, with the leisure to do what those with children did not have time for. Like Henry Higgins, Souter may be happiest spending "his evenings in the silence of his room; ((in)) an atmosphere as restful as an undiscovered tomb...
...Souter had barely left the podium in the press room of the White House before Republican Party officials were raising "the 50-year-old bachelor thing," which was widely interpreted as a way of introducing speculation that Souter is homosexual. In fact the question has been dealt with twice: once in 1978, when Souter was about to be appointed a superior court judge, and then again in 1983, before he was named a state supreme court justice by then Governor John Sununu. During law school, he went out with Ellanor Fink, a student at Wheaton College. After he became...
...more serious question about Souter's ascetic ways is whether a man who seems to prefer books to people can empathize with and understand the problems of ordinary people. Former state attorney general Steven Merrill says he once feared that Souter lacked "the social context" to serve as a judge, but that concern dissipated once Merrill got to know him. Former girlfriend Fink says, "Having never married, I know everyone is wondering does he have the empathy to understand women's issues. He's not all brain. He's a friendly, warm person and extremely considerate." His former colleague Rath...
...Souter's belief system mirrors that of an aunt, a Simmons College professor and Cambridge dowager who swam Lake Winnipesaukee in her 70s, was conservative socially and politically but liberal in her concern for other people. Although she was an heiress of the Boston & Maine Railroad who didn't need the money, she became a pioneering medical social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital...