4 ms·

FWIW, the stories on this Web site appear to be fictional. I just read the lengthy https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/story-13-adverse-possession-and-glory

FWIW, the stories on this Web site appear to be fictional. I just read the lengthy https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/story-13-adverse-possession-and-glory https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/story-13-adverse-pos... which is about a retired machinist engaging in boat jousts on Shaw Lake in Golden Gate Park. There's no trace of a real person named Benjamin McIsserson, and no Shaw Lake in Golden Gate Park. (It's probably a stand-in for Spreckels Lake, which was built for model boats but which has never hosted combat between them.) So take it with a grain of salt.

ziddoap 3y ago
>There's no trace of a real person named Benjamin McIsserson I don't think this has any bearing on the whether the story itself is fictitious or not. I imagine all of the real names have been substituted in all of the stories, to prevent any unnecessary conflict/drama/liability/etc.
- blululu 3y ago
  Protecting a person makes sense, but a lake is not going to sue for its role in the story. These details feel sketchy, and that is sort of the take away from the original piece: when someone is unreliable in one area, they are more suspect in others. To be charitable, the author maybe lost that detail of the story, but they could easily have substituted a generic 'lake in Golden Gate Park'. Or they could just use Google Maps to find Stow, Lloyd, Spreckles lakes (Elk Glenn, and the Chain of Lakes lakes would be unsuitable for boat jousts).
- BryantD 3y ago
  If it was just a name, I’d agree. But there’s no way someone built a razor-sharp remote controlled boat and sent it running around a lake in Golden Gate Park sinking other boats without making the news.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    > accidently rammed one of the toy sail boats, shattering its mast, sinking the little vessel. "accidentally" doesn't sound like some asshole is just going around ruining kid's days with a demon boat. it's not too far fetched to imagine someone in the SFMYC accidentally hitting another boat and that not making the news. they're not the WWCC, which would go around sinking each other's ships and is active at Maker faire. SF model yacht club western warship combat club
robmerki 3y ago
Even if the story is fiction, the author has certainly come across the exact same type of embezzler that I have. As far as I can tell, these type of fraudsters are deeply wounded narcissistic people who were utterly twisted by their caregivers as children.
- robocat 3y ago
  > narcissistic people who were utterly twisted by their caregivers as children Please don't be too quick to blame parents - remember we used to blame autism on refrigerator mothers: https://en-wp.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory https://en-wp.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory -- society tends to victimise mothers and without knowing the people involved nasty stereotypes are unhealthy. Mayo clinic says: Although the cause of narcissistic personality disorder isn't known, some researchers think that overprotective or neglectful parenting may have an impact on children who are born with a tendency to develop the disorder. That is: parenting can be a cause but please don't jump to the harmful generalisation that parenting is always the cause.
lelandfe 3y ago
Perhaps Stow Lake?
- wglass 3y ago
  Spreckels is where people run the toy boats.
- rahimnathwani 3y ago
  BTW Stow Lake was renamed a few months ago: https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1696 https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1696
GauntletWizard 3y ago
Fictional, or simply "Names Changed"? An awful lot of public stories are done pseudononymously and with the names changed for the simple fact that it's harder to prove libel if it's not talking about real people. And in this kind of legal story, you can bet that the persons involved are going to be quick to sue for libel. The linked article lends creedence to this, it introduces the businessman/embezzler as "Eddie Chan (not his real name)"
ametrau 3y ago
He mentions in the article he uses pseudonyms. But that’s an obvious assumption to make also imo.
metalcrow 3y ago
Reading this story and doing some googling sadly makes me pretty confident that this linked one (about boat jousts) is fake. The ending details an explosion and there is no news article of that anywhere in the specified time period (which he says is a few months before the invasion of Iraq). Would love to be wrong though.
neilk 3y ago
According to the firm that redesigned the website in 2017, Lee Stimmel had written over 600 articles. https://www.baydesignassociates.com/article/website-redesign-results https://www.baydesignassociates.com/article/website-redesign... Mostly relatively dry discussions, but they do seem a lot better structured than the average blog post, and (thankfully) not AI garbage. He is a good writer. The story OP posted is tagged with "War Stories", and these do seem to be far more literary, with first-person perspective and novel-like dialogue. https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/category/lessons-combat-zone-lawyers-stories-moral/war-stories https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/category/lessons-com... I suspect the same writer really has written all of these. It may be the actual person credited, Lee Stimmel, but it impossible to know if it's a ghostwriter without other samples of Stimmel's writing. But I don't think the technical details of the law would be well captured by a ghostwriter. There is a distinct change of style between both kinds of articles, but to me it feels like the same person writing.
- BryantD 3y ago
  It’s all really fun writing and I lost a few hours reading through them. Love this kind of stuff.
hnfong 3y ago
I'm kinda on the fence with this one. I mean, the site is apparently a real law firm in San Francisco, so even if it's fictional (the names definitely should be!), the stories are probably based on real events. Unless one of the partners has a side hobby of writing fiction on stories about law! The stories are fascinating though, spent a couple hours reading some of those.
zem 3y ago
thanks for linking to that; real or not it was a great and absorbingly-written story
eszed 3y ago
I've been reading through these (number 15 is long, but worth it), and I'm pretty sure all of the "Phelps" stories are fiction, with a cast of interlinked characters. The others are... maybe, maybe not, but told straight. I'm glad to have found this site.

ziddoap 3y ago

>There's no trace of a real person named Benjamin McIsserson I don't think this has any bearing on the whether the story itself is fictitious or not. I imagine all of the real names have been substituted in all of the stories, to prevent any unnecessary conflict/drama/liability/etc.

blululu 3y ago
Protecting a person makes sense, but a lake is not going to sue for its role in the story. These details feel sketchy, and that is sort of the take away from the original piece: when someone is unreliable in one area, they are more suspect in others. To be charitable, the author maybe lost that detail of the story, but they could easily have substituted a generic 'lake in Golden Gate Park'. Or they could just use Google Maps to find Stow, Lloyd, Spreckles lakes (Elk Glenn, and the Chain of Lakes lakes would be unsuitable for boat jousts).
BryantD 3y ago
If it was just a name, I’d agree. But there’s no way someone built a razor-sharp remote controlled boat and sent it running around a lake in Golden Gate Park sinking other boats without making the news.
- fragmede 3y ago
  > accidently rammed one of the toy sail boats, shattering its mast, sinking the little vessel. "accidentally" doesn't sound like some asshole is just going around ruining kid's days with a demon boat. it's not too far fetched to imagine someone in the SFMYC accidentally hitting another boat and that not making the news. they're not the WWCC, which would go around sinking each other's ships and is active at Maker faire. SF model yacht club western warship combat club

robmerki 3y ago

Even if the story is fiction, the author has certainly come across the exact same type of embezzler that I have. As far as I can tell, these type of fraudsters are deeply wounded narcissistic people who were utterly twisted by their caregivers as children.

robocat 3y ago
> narcissistic people who were utterly twisted by their caregivers as children Please don't be too quick to blame parents - remember we used to blame autism on refrigerator mothers: https://en-wp.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory https://en-wp.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory -- society tends to victimise mothers and without knowing the people involved nasty stereotypes are unhealthy. Mayo clinic says: Although the cause of narcissistic personality disorder isn't known, some researchers think that overprotective or neglectful parenting may have an impact on children who are born with a tendency to develop the disorder. That is: parenting can be a cause but please don't jump to the harmful generalisation that parenting is always the cause.

lelandfe 3y ago

Perhaps Stow Lake?

wglass 3y ago
Spreckels is where people run the toy boats.
rahimnathwani 3y ago
BTW Stow Lake was renamed a few months ago: https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1696 https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1696

GauntletWizard 3y ago

Fictional, or simply "Names Changed"? An awful lot of public stories are done pseudononymously and with the names changed for the simple fact that it's harder to prove libel if it's not talking about real people. And in this kind of legal story, you can bet that the persons involved are going to be quick to sue for libel. The linked article lends creedence to this, it introduces the businessman/embezzler as "Eddie Chan (not his real name)"

ametrau 3y ago

He mentions in the article he uses pseudonyms. But that’s an obvious assumption to make also imo.

metalcrow 3y ago

Reading this story and doing some googling sadly makes me pretty confident that this linked one (about boat jousts) is fake. The ending details an explosion and there is no news article of that anywhere in the specified time period (which he says is a few months before the invasion of Iraq). Would love to be wrong though.

neilk 3y ago

According to the firm that redesigned the website in 2017, Lee Stimmel had written over 600 articles. https://www.baydesignassociates.com/article/website-redesign-results https://www.baydesignassociates.com/article/website-redesign... Mostly relatively dry discussions, but they do seem a lot better structured than the average blog post, and (thankfully) not AI garbage. He is a good writer. The story OP posted is tagged with "War Stories", and these do seem to be far more literary, with first-person perspective and novel-like dialogue. https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/category/lessons-combat-zone-lawyers-stories-moral/war-stories https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/category/lessons-com... I suspect the same writer really has written all of these. It may be the actual person credited, Lee Stimmel, but it impossible to know if it's a ghostwriter without other samples of Stimmel's writing. But I don't think the technical details of the law would be well captured by a ghostwriter. There is a distinct change of style between both kinds of articles, but to me it feels like the same person writing.

BryantD 3y ago
It’s all really fun writing and I lost a few hours reading through them. Love this kind of stuff.

hnfong 3y ago

I'm kinda on the fence with this one. I mean, the site is apparently a real law firm in San Francisco, so even if it's fictional (the names definitely should be!), the stories are probably based on real events. Unless one of the partners has a side hobby of writing fiction on stories about law! The stories are fascinating though, spent a couple hours reading some of those.

zem 3y ago

thanks for linking to that; real or not it was a great and absorbingly-written story

eszed 3y ago

I've been reading through these (number 15 is long, but worth it), and I'm pretty sure all of the "Phelps" stories are fiction, with a cast of interlinked characters. The others are... maybe, maybe not, but told straight. I'm glad to have found this site.