"Come on BARBRI, Let's Go Party!"

For those who took the bar exam last week, you now have your life back. You can catch up on sleep, hang out with family and friends, binge your favorite streaming series, and go to the movies.

But beware: If you’re planning on watching “Barbie,” no doubt you’ll likely going to replace every instance of “Barbie” with “BARBRI.” And, worse, you might even find yourself singing about BARBRI:

I'm a BARBRI girl in a BARBRI world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

Come on BARBRI, let's go party! (ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on BARBRI, let's go party! (uhh-oh-uhh-oh)

Come on BARBRI, let's go party! (ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on BARBRI, let's go party!

If you haven't been interchanging these two words over the past few weeks, my guess is that you will now. And you're welcome!

Who wouldn't mix up the words? The two words are just a couple of letters from being one and the same. In fact, I swear my autocorrect function changes "BARBRI" to "Barbie." Of course, the two words are very different. “BARBRI” conjures up hours and hours of bar studying with no expectation of having a life until the bar exam is over. “Barbie,” on the other hand, wants to go party, courtesy of the can’t-get-you-out-of-my-head Aqua song, "Barbie Girl." (For the non-traditionalists, here's an updated, remixed version of Aqua's hit by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice called "Aqua World" from the movie's soundtrack.)

Let’s look at some words whose meaning is drastically changed by replacing a letter or two (like “Barbie” to “BARBRI”) or by adding (or subtracting) one letter from the beginning or end.

Abode / Abide (A defendant may be served by service left at the defendant’s usual place of abode with one of suitable age and discretion residing therein. A plaintiff must abide by all the service of process rules.)

Accept / Accent

Appeal / Appall (I suppose some judges could be appalled by an appeal.)

Assent / Ascent (Contract formation requires mutual assent. Ascent means to move upwards.)

Basis / Bases (Are there any rational bases for the rational basis test to fail?)

Cares / Caress

Claim / Clam

Court / Course

Custom / Costume

Cy pres / Cypress

Deed / Dead

Defect / Detect

Duty / Duly

Election / Erection 🙄

Exist / Exit

Expert / excerpt

Failed / Fabled

Gift / Gifs (Did you receive a testamentary gift or bequest that you weren't expecting? Picture the Homer Simpson "Whoo-hoo" gif.)

Good / God (Article 2 of the UCC doesn't apply to the sale of God.)

Guest / Quest (A person has standing to object to the search of a place only if the person has an ownership or possessory interest in the place searched or is an overnight guest in the place searched. So if you don't own or possess the property being searched, it's your quest to be a guest.)

Land / Laud

Lease / Least

Major / Mayor

Marital / Martial (I’m still wondering how former spouses are dividing martial property.)

Per se / Pursue

Plain view / Plane view (Granted, a view from a plane could lead to evidence being in plain view. But then there's the issue of being lawfully on the premises that might be hard to establish for this warrantless search exception to apply.)

Power / Dower

Prescription / Proscription (These similar sounding words have very different meanings. To prescribe is to recommend, and to proscribe is to forbid. Acquiring an easement by prescription is like acquiring property by adverse possession.)

Public / Pubic

Revenue / Revenge

Settlor / Settler

Skill / Skull

State / Stale

Statute / Statue (I’m guilty of inadvertently omitting the last “t” when typing “statute,” as in Statue of Frauds.)

Stirpes / Stripes

Stock/ Stick / Stack / Stuck

Taking / Taxing (These are both government powers, so the inadvertent mix-up could potentially still make sense in context.)

Trial / Trail (One lawyer goes to court. The other goes on a hike.)

Trust / Tryst (You can be a party to a trust or a tryst. You decide.)

Waited / Wasted