INSIDE:

A New Look
At Sandy Koufax

Art
Entcrtment

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his craft at U-Nit

E

ERIN PODOLSKY
Special zo the Jewish News

,
piphanies occur in the most unlikely 4. places — when
the thousands of circumstances and elements that go into
creating a moment of truth coalesce into clarity:
For some it happens in the unexpected lull of a
crowds roar. For others, realization comes in a hospital waiting
room, or while sipping the world's best martini (shaken, not stirred).
For screenwriter and University of Michigan screedwriting pro-
gram coordinator Jim Burnstein, it carne as he drove from Detroit
to law school at the University Wisconsin in the fall of 1972, after
graduating from U-M the previous spring.
"It's a long drive to Madison," Burnstein says. "By Chicago I was
feeling like I'd made a mistake. Once we hit Wisconsin, I was pretty
sure. And by the time I was through with the orientation, I knew I
did not want to be {there]."
Burnstein spent the first days of his law school tenure testing the
waters -- and testing himself.
He knew he was in double when the first legal memo he had to write
posed a question about collecting damages for mental distress and pain
and suffering, and to prove they were real, he quoted Lady Macbeth.

SCRIPT

on page 54

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On The Bookshelf:
"Snowman's Children" .. 64