Isn’t AFL taking itself too seriously?

So, the Mad Hatter said to Alicia, “Now that it’s 2012 at last, what’s up with AFL? Is it advertising or what?”       Alicia, who deemed herself Queen of Arizona’s Finest Lawyers, smiled, and said, “Well, silly, it is plain as the big red nose on your face. We are the first edition of who’s who in Arizona law. But we cannot call ourselves that. It’s pompous, don’t you see, and we mustn’t be that. We’re going to write their names down in a little book.”      “What kind of a book? Will it have pictures, and games, and cutouts?”      “Mr. Hatter, you are quite mad aren’t you—quite mad. No, our little book will compile biographical information on hundreds of Arizona lawyers, professors, legislators, mediators, and such others as we find suitably excellent in the law. But it won’t be just practicing lawyers, you know. That would be silly, don’t you think? After all, we are not chasing fees; we are chasing excellence.”      “But, but, that’s radical,” said the Mad Hatter.     “Too true,” said Alicia, coyly with a wave of her delicate little wrist. “You see, no one has done that. So, by doing that, we will give Arizona lawyers something to think about, won’t we?”      “Maybe, but heck,” said the Mad Hatter, “Who cares about a dusty old list stuck in somebody’s bottom drawer? Is that what Arizona’s finest lawyers really want—just to be on a stupid list?”      Squinting at her friend with the copper nose, and one eye askance, Alice explained, “Why, we won’t stand for being stuck in a drawer. We will be what they call a “reference value,” up there on Earth.      “Huh?” What’s a reference value? Can you eat it? And will it . . .”      “Stop that. Just you listen. Reference values are grown up things up there on Earth. They use them to see if people are prominent in a specific area of occupational endeavor, coupled with a significant and lasting contribution to their society. That’s an awful lot of words, don’t you think?”      “So, we’re gonna do a social register of the legal profession. Is that it,” asked the Mad Hatter, squinting like a suspicious judge at a repeat offender.      “Whatever am I going to do with you, my hopping-about friend,” said Alice. “We are not ranking, or hyping. We will compile a list of everyone who has distinguished himself, or herself, or even their selves, in the very important world of Arizona lawyering. Our list can be tacked to the trees in Wonderland, sung by our bees, or even made into little droplets for our tea. Won't that be nice?"