Category: Candy Says

Behind the Verdict: What Jurors Really Think

Behind the Verdict: What Jurors Really Think

by | Aug 5, 2026 | | 0 |

How Court of Public Opinion reveals not just what jurors decide, but why When a jury reaches a verdict, the decision is only part of the story. What matters just as much is how jurors got there: what evidence captured their attention, which testimony they trusted, and whether different groups of jurors reacted in different ways. Without that insight, attorneys are left making educated guesses about what resonated and what did not. Court of Public Opinion eliminates that uncertainty. Our tools are designed to look beyond the verdict, providing data on juror attention, credibility assessments, and demographic patterns. These insights not only strengthen trial preparation but also provide attorneys with leverage in mediation and arbitration, where understanding strengths and vulnerabilities can drive settlement outcomes. Rate-My-Case / Relevancy Meters In a recent focus group involving a fire injury case, the central question was who bore the greater share of responsibility: the...

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My Back Goes Out More Than I Do.

My Back Goes Out More Than I Do.

by | Aug 3, 2026 | | 0 |

Laughing through the parts of aging that no one warned us about. Aging sneaks up on you. One day, you’re pulling an all-nighter for fun, and the next, you’re pulling a hamstring tying your shoes. The signs come quietly at first: you start turning down the radio to see better, menu fonts seem to shrink every year, headlights at night feel like staring into the sun, and somehow you’re emotionally invested in weather apps. You can’t sit down without grunting. You can’t get up without feeling like the Tin Man. And one day you start saying things like, “We should head out soon to beat the traffic.” But if you’re lucky, you begin to laugh at it. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s better than crying. This first installment is a collection of those laughs. One-liners from the battlefield of midlife, where our knees betray us and so do our favorite foods. Gravity hits different in your 50s. It’s not just pulling you down; it’s actively trying to keep you there. There’s a moment in every...

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Two Episodes In, and Outlander: Blood of My Blood Already Has My Heart.

Two Episodes In, and Outlander: Blood of My Blood Already Has My Heart.

by | Aug 3, 2026 | | 0 |

Photo by Bjorn Snelders on Unsplash Meeting Jamie and Claire’s parents in the Outlander prequel feels like opening a door to the past I never thought I would walk through. Two episodes into Blood of My Blood, and it already feels like slipping back into a world I’ve lived in for years, only now I’m seeing it from the other side. For years, I only knew them through Jamie’s memories and brief mentions in Claire’s story. Now they’re right in front of me, alive, young, and real in a way they’ve never been before. It’s surreal in the best way. I’ll be honest, I was nervous going in. Outlander is a story I love in both the books and the show, and a prequel could have easily felt like a pale imitation. I worried it wouldn’t live up to the original, but so far it’s outstanding, fresh, and new while still carrying the soul of the world we’ve known for years. The casting couldn’t be more perfect. If it gets any more perfect, I’m sending Starz my dating profile....

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Would you like to donate $1 to guilt and shame? [Yes] [No]

Would you like to donate $1 to guilt and shame? [Yes] [No]

by | Aug 3, 2026 | | 0 |

Because nothing says “good person” like being cornered by a checkout screen. Sometimes the donation screen pops up in a place you don’t expect, buried right in the middle of the payment process, so you end up hitting “yes” without realizing it. No one else can even see that screen, but if you accidentally donate, you have to walk over to the self-checkout person and explain that you didn’t mean to. And that’s the worst part. You feel like a complete asshole asking someone to refund a donation to hungry kids or pets or whatever it is. Then there’s the other kind, the one they ask out loud right at the register. “Would you like to donate a bag of food?” or “Would you like to add a dollar to your total for the children’s fund?” They do it in front of everyone. And if you say no, you suddenly feel like the villain in a Christmas movie, standing there with your debit card and your cold heart. It’s manipulative. It’s pressure disguised as kindness. And half the time, you don’t even know...

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Following Through On a Boundary I Should Have Set Years Ago

Following Through On a Boundary I Should Have Set Years Ago

by | Aug 3, 2026 | | 0 |

I followed through on a boundary this month, and I’m actually proud of myself. It wasn’t easy. I felt guilty for not helping someone, but at some point, being taken for granted hurts more than the guilt ever could. For five years straight, I decorated someone’s house every holiday season. Not lightly. Twelve hours of climbing, lifting, bending, arranging, and basically killing myself to make their home look beautiful. I am not twenty anymore, so the next day was always rough. And I still had to decorate at my own house. Every year I said yes automatically. Every year I convinced myself it was fine. Every year I ignored how much it drained me because saying yes felt easier than feeling guilty. There was one moment that really stuck with me. They said the decorations were “for all of us,” and I remember responding, “But I do not live here. This is not for me.” Hearing myself say it out loud was the first time I realized how upside down the whole thing was. The truth was simple. I...

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Compassion and Choice: Watching a Loved One Find Peace.

Compassion and Choice: Watching a Loved One Find Peace.

by | Aug 3, 2026 | | 0 |

Watching the storyline in The Pitt about the woman who wanted to die on her own terms brought back a lot of memories. There are a lot of opinions about that storyline in The Pitt with the woman who wanted to die on her own terms. But when you have actually lived something like that, it does not feel complicated. I watched someone I love be in that level of pain. There was no fixing it. No getting better. Just suffering. It always strikes me how differently we treat people compared to animals. When a cat or dog is at the end of their life or in unbearable pain, we show compassion and let them go peacefully. We accept it as the kindest choice. But when it comes to people, society often expects us to prolong suffering, as if our discomfort with death matters more than the person’s pain. Living through that made me wish humans could be granted the same dignity and compassion. And when the time came, a doctor helped her go peacefully. It was not controversial to us. It was...

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