Marmalade Daydreams

I'm writing live and direct from the Brooklyn Criminal Court downtown, where I'm legally skipping school as I've been chosen to serve my fair city as a potential juror. Except I haven't been chosen for anything yet, so I'm sitting here dicking around on the computer. So far, the highlight of my day (aside from my 90 minute lunch break at The Brazen Head where I had some delicious brews & BBQ delivery) was a hilarious informational film entitled Your Turn: Jural Service in New York State that they showed us at the very beginning of the day. I walked in while they were demonstrating the medieval "trial by ordeal", by attempting to drown an alleged witch. Ed Bradley spoke to us (from beyond the grave, eerily enough) about the responsibility of living in a democracy. Images of Greek statuary accompanied his narrative about Aristotelian ethics. But then, the Romans abolished juries, and immediately, Jesus gets led away, hands bound, to the crucifiction. Pretty hilarious. This was followed by another religious image of a saint being martyred. I guess these qualify as Western history, but I think that if I were Hindu or something, I'd find the Christian symbolism out of place in the halls of a secular government...

Biked over here with frozen knuckles -- I guess winter finally came. A far cry from my bike ride two weeks ago, on a 70 degree Sunday, relaxing on the Brighton Beach boardwalk with delicious pastries, watching maniacs kitesurf, getting 10+ feet of air over the icy North Atlantic waters. But on the plus side, got to take some ski runs this weekend in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania...

Ooh! They just made an announcement that they're giving away NYS Jury System datebooks and calendars. Gotta run.