Wow! We were all shocked with Portugal lost to Greece in the opening match of the Euro Cup, and now they are headed to the final after defeating Holland. And guess who has a chance to meet them? Greece! The Czechs look like favorites, but what do I know? I picked England to win it all ...

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The Soup Factory in Middleton, Wisconsin -- described by The Isthmus as a brothateria -- has consistently great soup. Perhaps the best I have ever eaten, though I have never eaten soup at the Soup Kitchen International (apparently the basis for the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld). Last time I was at the Soup Factory, I had curry beef, but everything they serve is great.

This small restaurant was established last year by a couple with an entrepreneurial dream. The wife makes the soup. The husband, whom I have seen only once, fills in when his wife is otherwise occupied. They have a few employees. In addition to soup, they serve simple sandwiches and salads, but the soup is clearly the star of this show.

Things are not going so well for the Soup Factory. Two days ago, I was eating some soup for dinner with my daughter, who shares my enthusiasm for the place. (Cheeseburger soup is her favorite.) It was 6:00 pm and we were the only people in the restaurant. One or two other people stopped for takeout, but it was grim. The owner once told me that business had not been as brisk as she had hoped, but she was optimistic. This last visit, I saw her sneak into the business office. She was working on a spreadsheet, and I suspect that I know what that was about.

I took the opportunity to explain to my daughter some of the fundamentals of small business. We looked at the equipment, the space, the products, etc. and discussed the costs of running the business. Then we talked about revenues: our soups and drinks were $11. The margins are probably pretty good, if you ignore the fixed costs. But how to pay those fixed costs? Only one way to do it. If you are in the Madison area, haul over to the Soup Factory and get some of the best soup you have ever tasted. It's just off University in Middleton, across the street from Griglia Tuscany (here's a map).

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Which franchise would you choose? Having watched people choose franchises, I am always impressed at the power of the moment to overwhelm good business sense. Especially in fast food, where fads are plentiful. Starting and maintaining a food franchise that is successful over the long term is no small feat. Even a brand as established as Krispy Kreme, with roots dating back almost 70 years, has hits some speed bumps lately.

My hunch -- completely uninformed by data -- is that food franchises with a full menu (the various burger restaurants, for example) are more likely to have staying power than food franchises with a specialty product (pastries, juices, ice cream, etc.). It's also pretty clear that the oldest food franchises, like McDonald's, have lost a lot of their appeal. They still get a lot of business, but I wonder if purchasing such a franchise is still a great value proposition.

Which leads me to Gandolfo's Deli. Yesterday, while perusing a BYU sports board, I found an entry with the heading, "GANDOLFO'S COMING TO VEGAS!!!" This was followed by a response: "GANDOLPHO'S TO NORTH CAROLINA TOO." The caps belong to the writers. I had never heard of Gandolfo's, but that sort of excitement catches my eye. From the website (linked immediately above), this appears to be a company in heavy growth mode. The front page proclaims: "Start your own franchise and experience success." The focus here is on potential franchisees, not customers.

My initial response is to wonder whether the world needs another deli. Actually, Madison could use one, but still. Is this likely to be a long-term success? The nice thing about delis is that their menus have some room for play. And sandwiches are not going out of style anytime soon. This is a franchise that might be worth exploring.

Speaking of good franchises, a burger place that I still like is Culver's. They are now celebrating their 25th anniversary, so this is not a flash in the pan. They have a broad menu (considering the format) and high-quality food. Everything there is better than anything at McDonald's.

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This spring and early summer have been hectic, and I am grateful to be home again. Wisconsin can be really lovely in the summer, at least on days that aren't too humid and when the mosquitoes are subdued. Today was one of those days.

This was a big day for our family because my 16-year-old daughter earned her driver's license. We spent part of yesterday practicing parallel parking, and today we learned the fine points of a Y-turn. Talk about cramming! Anyway, she seems like a fine driver, but I am as nervous as I can be about this.

Now that all of my grades are finally in (apologies to all of the spring students who had to endure the delay, which is unprecedented for me), I am looking forward to completing a couple of symposium articles, and I am excited about the prospects for the new blog, Law & Entrepreneurship News, which I will be producing with the help of some student editors. Applications have been pouring in, and we should have an editorial board within a week.

Do I miss Germany? Some things. I like having the chance to speak German, unless I don't know the vocabulary, and then I get frustrated. I miss being able to watch the Euro Cup matches. I miss the great cheese section of the local grocery store, which made even Whole Foods and Brennan's look a bit skimpy. But it is nice to be back home again.

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For my last post from Germany, I thought I should talk a little about our visit to the Appenzeller cheese factory in Switzerland. Appenzell is the region in Switzerland from which the cheese originates. This is traditional Swiss cheese, without the large holes. It is sold in three varieties, differentiated by the amount of aging: classic (at least three months), surchoix (at least four months), and extra (at least six months). None of the options is incredibly sharp, but all three are "uniquely spicy" (the company's tagline).

The cheese factory in Appenzeller is a Schaukäserei, which means that the public is allowed to view the production process. Here are a couple of pictures of the production process. We were mesmerized as we followed each step. (Could it be that I am training a new generation of cheese fanatics?) Afterwards, we purchased some souvenirs and some cheese, which was excellent. We skipped the Restaurant, which had the lamest children's menu I have ever seen ... and that is an achievement.

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This afternoon, my last in Germany for this trip, my two children and I were invited to attend an indoor fun park with a German family. Our host -- who has lived in the United States -- explained that such businesses were quite unusual in Germany, and that those who operated them did not understand how to attract customers. He had some very specific ideas about how to improve the business we were then visiting. So I suggested that he consider starting his own business.

His response: "Why would I do that? My job with the government pays well enough, and I have plenty of free time."

It would perhaps be unfair to suggest that this response is representative of an entire nation, but my experience here suggests that my host's attitude is commonly held. Admittedly, I am associating with a selective group, mostly lawyers, who do not seem an overly entrepreneurial lot in Germany. Nevertheless, Germany has not distinguished itself as an entrepreneurial hotbed.

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They are about to start the penalty kicks as I write this. What an amazing match! England lost Wayne Rooney to injury early on, but still led most of the match, 1-0. Portugal scored the tying goal in the 83rd minute. Portugal scored again in the second extra-time session, but England retaliated with a goal of its own, forcing penalty kicks. England's goalie is horrible, so it looks bleak for the boys from the island.

UPDATE: Portugal is looking like a team of destiny, and David Beckham is looking like a goat. For the seond time in this tournament, his missed on a free kick (probably) cost England the match. Exciting stuff.

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Some observations from driving in Europe:

* The German autobahn is great. We could use one in Wisconsin. When I reported to my students that I was driving at a top speed of 180 kph (just over 110 mph), they said in all seriousness, "So, you didn't go really fast?" The most amazing thing to me was how frequently and quickly I was being passed, usually by a Mercedes, BMW, or Audi going 250 kph or more.

* The Global Positioning System (GPS) is awesome. I am driving a rented Mercedes A-Class, which is equipped with GPS. This is my first experience with it and now I am convinced that I can't live without it. My next car will definitely have it.

* No right turn on red. What's with that? I found myself habitually beginning a turn when the person behind me started honking and pointing at the red light. Conscientious lot, these Germans.

* Traffic lights only on the near side of the street = no creeping. I have been trained to stop before I reach the traffic light because there are no lights on the opposite side of the intersections. It really threw me for the first couple of days because I am a creeper at red lights.

* This is not my first continental European driving experience, but driving in Germany is not nearly as jarring to an American as driving in England, which I did earlier in this trip. I have been told that the English drive on the left-hand side of the road because in olden days (Middle Ages?), people in horses and wagons wanted their right hands toward the center of the road, the better to fight with. Is this true? Hmm. I wonder if that's why we lefties are so rare. A sort of natural selection.

* The Corrs must be the most popular band in Germany, if radio play is the measure. I had never heard of "Summer Sunshine" before this visit, but I heard the song at least 10 times in one day while driving and scanning through stations.

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At least it is new to me. If you are interested in entrepreneurship in Europe, as I am, check out Loic Le Meur Blog. Good content, and lots of it. I have added it to my Bloglines.

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For the Euro Cup fans among you, how strange was Group C. Sweden, Denmark, and Italy were vying for two spots in the quarter finals. If Sweden and Denmark tied their match and Italy beat Bulgaria, all three teams would have five points, and which teams advanced would depend on the the tie-breaking rules. To make a very long story short, Sweden and Denmark could ensure that both of them would advance by tying with two goals each. And that is exactly what happened. The thing that makes this so strange is that some folks in Italy had expressed their concern before the match that the Scandinavians would collude to exclude Italy. Despite the unlucky (for Italy) result, those who actually watched the Scandinavians would testify that the teams were not colluding. It was a hard-fought match, and Sweden was lucky to make it.

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Germany looked good on offense, but they didn't get the bounces against the Czech Republic. And their usual reliable goalie Oliver Kahn looked lethargic and out of place on the two Czech goals. So, after entering the Euro Cup with high expectations, Germany is out. What seems to hurt most here is that arch enemy Holland is in. People are saying that this is low point in German soccer, but judging by the young talent on this team, they won't be down for long.

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Former student Chris Schreiber alerted me to this commentary by Doug Kern suggesting that "the public decide who should and should not practice law." Kern has harsh words for law schools:

After dropping as much as $100,000 and spending three years obtaining a law degree, you probably don't know enough law to practice it professionally; most law school graduates don't. Now perhaps you're wondering: if the point of law school was not to prepare you for the practice of law, just what was the point of law school? Easy: the point of law school was to make money for the law school. Mission accomplished! Oh, and as a secondary matter, the point of law school was to flatter the egos and delusions of the brainiacs who teach there. And that, young law school graduate, is why you can pontificate at endless length on theories of critical legal deconstructionist realism as touching upon Marxist feminist radical queer Afro-Latino post-structural comparative gender issues, but you still can't write a damn will.

This is a sentiment often expressed by recent graduates, and I won't take the time to respond in this post, because I am more interested in Kern's take on the bar exam.

Here is part of the author's extended tirade against the bar exam:

I memorized trivia from a dozen different legal subjects, puked out my knowledge in a hot Columbus meeting hall, and passed the bar exam. And I still couldn't write a will. In principle, the case for certifying lawyers seems as plausible as the case for certifying any other profession. Just as you wouldn't want some Dr. Nick Riviera with a rubber-stamped medical degree carving out your appendix with hedge trimmers, so you wouldn't want some polyester-clad Lionel Hutz with a mail-order law degree and a head full of pine cones defending your DUI case. But do bar exams really weed out the dull and ignorant? The pass rates for bar exams range from 55% (California) to 85% and higher (Utah) -- not exactly Olympic-level competition. And there's no limit to the number of times a law school graduate can sit for bar exams. Any law school graduate without an untreated head wound will pass some bar exam somewhere after enough tries. Unlike scruples and honesty, dullness and ignorance are no impediments to the practice of law. (Humor, young lawyer padawan! Humor will keep the tort reformers at bay!)

Bar exams only test your ability to ingest and regurgitate legal information under stressful conditions. Admittedly, it takes at least a modicum of brains, motivation, and legal knowledge in order to pass. But no legal problem presents itself with multiple-choice answers, and few legal briefs are handwritten in twelve minutes or less. Given the innumerable different problems that lawyers confront, and given the myriad legal specialties that have arisen to resolve those problems, the idea of a single test for all prospective lawyers seems increasingly bizarre.

While I am sympathetic to some of Kern's points, his solution -- let the market take care of quality control -- is simply reflexive. Market forces currently exert pressure on lawyers, but only after they have traversed the bar examination. The only effect of eliminating this licensing process is to lower barriers to entry. If we were concerned about having too few lawyers, this might be a sensible solution, but how does it help improve lawyer quality? Will eliminating the bar exam help Mr. Kern learn how to draft a will? Of course not.

If we were really serious about lawyer quality, we might implement something like the German apprenticeship system. Two years spent rotating through various practice areas for the pay awarded someone working in the administrative staff. (Of course, Germans study law as undergraduates prior to this apprenticeship, so they are working as apprentices at an age when many Americans are still slogging through law school.)

No, I am not advocating an apprenticeship, even if it would improve the quality of young lawyers. I also don't mean to defend too strongly the system of state bar exams that exists in the U.S. One of my German students is interested in practicing in the U.S., and attempting to explain a state-based regulatory system in the modern U.S. economy was a challenge. It makes sense as an artifact of earlier days, when the practice of law for most was purely local, but I do not see much value in it today.

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Saving me the trouble of going through eBay, Benson Dastrup sent me a Gmail invitation after my post yesterday. Inspired by Brayden's testimonial, I am going to give it a try, though I agree with Mervyn's big point, which is that a competitive advantage in free email will be tough to maintain. I now have accounts with Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, the University of Wisconsin, and my two blogs. The accounts that route through Eudora are my favorites, though I use all of them for various purposes.

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The big entrepreneurship story over the past couple of days has been the space flight by Michael Melvill. Lots of people are uttering cautious words about how far this industry has to go before regular folks will be hurtling into orbit (or sub-orbit), but I am bullish on private space flight. Melvill's flight seems like an important step in making the possibility of private space flight concrete, even if it is outrageously expensive at present. People have long been enamored with the idea, but now the prospect of widespread private flights actually seems possible in my lifetime. I look for big things from this industry in the next decade.

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So, everyone seems to be getting Gmail accounts via invitations from existing users. People are selling invitations on eBay for $2 a pop, so they aren't exactly a scarce commodity. Yahoo! is now offering 100MB in storage ... not quite the 1GB offered by Gmail, but how many people really need that much storage? Anyway, I am thinking about getting a Gmail account and wondering if it is worth the hassle. I already have four email accounts, and I am not sure I need another. Any users out there who can offer some perspective?

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