Post by ScootPost by Peter StraubNot in New York, for sure, where along with the self-employed, judges,
doctors, lawyers, and network anchors and weatherpersons get called up
I discovered an almost flawless method for being excused from jury duty.
The method used 20 years ago in Louisiana was to call a panel
for a week of service; potential jurors would wait in a big
smoky room and each trial during the week would call potential
jurors from the big room to be screened, and seated on a jury
if they were accepted.
My first day doing this, I wore a suit and tie. And I got picked
for a jury panel almost immediately. I had to pay attention to
the case for 2 days. And it occurred to me more than once that
if I hadn't been picked, I'd still be in the big room, reading
and relaxing.
So when the first trial was over, on my next day back in the
big smoky room, I dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a drug
slogan on it, and prominently kept my book for the day displayed:
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Hey, NOBODY wants a freak
like that on a jury panel, right? Wrong--I was almost immediatly
seated on another jury. (And this one a drug case at that.)
As with so much of the rest of my life's experiences, I got a
fair amount of data but was unable to draw any conclusions. :->
BTW, I read "lost boy" recently and was stunned. Right after
finishing it, I re-read "Shadowland"--which impresses me more
and more as the years go by.
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Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
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All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001