The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Rich:

"What, was that something along the lines of "knowing how sausage was made" ruins a person for regular jury duty? I remember they usually don't like pertinent subject matter experts on juries either. "

I don't think so - the Grand Jury and the petit jury have completely different functions, different procedures, differing standards to be applied... They're really not similar at all.

For just one example, Grand Juries sit and consider dozens of cases that they hear in dribs and drabs, fits and starts, over the course of weeks. A trial jury is selected for one case and one case only.

Patrick,

Alrighty.

I am assuming your jury's term of service was over.

I am an ADA in Brooklyn, and was probably one of the ones you saw scurrying about in the last two weeks.

I didn't happen to be indicting anyone last week, but I was over in the Grand Jury a lot in the last two weeks, because it's a good place to intercept police witnesses for a quick conversation.

Any general comments?

Teresa,

Just so you know, expect a large group of first-time readers - you've been added to Gorilla Mask for today's web finds.

(and thanks for the effort in compiling this!)

Plus, the odds are slim - there are between 5 to 7 juries sitting at any given time (depending on a heuristic prediction of case intake based upon general reported crime stats), plus the extended jury which also sits for months at a time....

well, I must confess, I find this very interesting.... cuz I work "in the area."

We'll have to chat when your term is over. About generalities.

(As to John Sifton and you possibly sitting in the same room, it depends on when he sat - the Grand Jury moved to the current building in late summer 2007.)

I have created an airborne parasite that I called "Phage Worms" (which is a horrifying concept really) that is symptomless that managed to infect everywhere but Mexico, and is surprisingly non-lethal. Oh well.

That Skywhales video is... just a tad disturbing for some reason.

John at #219 -

This is an old chestnut, I know, but I hardly think that Betan culture is as hard-nosed and controlling as that - I always thought that Dr. Mehta - the one that tried to drug Cordelia - was just overzealous.

The rest of what we've seen of Beta - to its enclaves of herms, its advanced scientific and medical schools specializing in things like radical gender re-assignment surgery (cf Lord Dono), the codified earrings that communicate sexual availability and preference to the gosh-darn Orb of Unearthly Delights are all so completely orthogonal to a society that brainwashes dissenters that I can't even understand how people arrive at that idea.

ethan at #3 -

"Senescent Dominion is totally my next band's name."

I claim it as my guild name on World of Warcraft!

(or maybe, when I am a wealthy man of property, my palatial estate)

East at #5

I had a sudden image of a Pride and Prejudice where Lizzie disguises herself as a man, goes in search of Lydia and Wickham, only end up in a metal bikini chained to Jabba the Hut. And Darcy comes to save her.

I would totally read that book.

He was my gateway into fantasy reading as well, and his huge rabid internet fanbase (of which I was a huge and active member, back in the day) introduced me to many of my good friends.

Strange to think that I first happened on his books when I was in high school - I will admit I lost interest in his series, over the last :gasp: seventeen years, but barely a day goes by that I don't participate in some forum that is populated by people whom I encountered through our mutual enjoyment of his books (there is a whole expatriate community on livejournal, for example).

I should go to bed now; I am getting more and more depressed as I continue to poke around my old WOT haunts.

"This would also be a good dress for the corpse bride/dead bride."

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?

Somewhat on topic, just added to the New York Times site:

Lifting Corporate Fingerprints From the Editing of Wikipedia.

Wikiscanner strikes again.

Hmmm - the link got munched:

Lemme just try this:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/transportation/am-stor0809,0,5606496.story?coll=ny_home_ugc

I am surprised that this story isn't getting more play.

I drove past it this morning as I left my apartment in Bay Ridge.

First, a gripe and a kvetch: having descended down into the 86th St train station to ankle-deep puddles up on the mezzanine (before even going down further to the platform), I realized some nascent catastrophe and promptly went back up and phoned a colleague who lives nearby, who then opted to drive (who knew it was a city-wide mess-up? Not us, not at this time – thanks, MTA!) - the 'R' train routinely gets all soggy and screwed up during the summer monsoon season, but usually because of tunnel flooding down near the Downtown Brooklyn area under which the trains pass through on the way into the city, because the stations downtown are several stories below ground and so the water has to collect *somewhere* - but this was unusual. Anyway, the slow, arduous slog down 4th Avenue brought us past this church –

Trees were overturned, rooves were dangling and tar-paper was flapping and... the huge window of the church that faces the street was blown out. There were large, scary hunks of glass *everywhere*: embedded the tires of parked cars, in the trunks of the trees, sides of houses, nearby awnings were shredded. How no one was killed last night, I'll never know.

Of course, I did check NY1 and the MTA website this morning prior to stepping outside and nope, no warning about a system-wide shut-down. Had I known that it would be a four hour odyssey. I'd have stayed home but for the fact that I had a matter to wrap up before a grand jury. I finally get downtown - no quorum in the jury, so couldn’t do anything with the few wet, testy stragglers who were there. Sigh. I really coulda, shoulda had gone back to bed.

C'est la vie.

I was very satisfied to see that Neville really manned up in this book, but I've long been a Neville proponent, so, yeah, Go Neville Longbottom!

Luna also has matured nicely, I thought. She was still slightly spacey, but she was so calm and reserved even after her captivity, and she goes such a pithy, slightly goofy yet profound eulogy for Dobby.

There were several articles floating about the Internet that Rolwing's world is somewhat sexist, and even though she shows us powerful witches, none of them are adept or puissant as say, Dumbledore - There were inklings that she meant to create Madam Bones, the Head Auror, as Dumbledore-esque, but she killed her off-screen quickly and with no real fanfare.

However, she certainly gave Minerva McGonegall her rousing scenes in this one, and I was thrilled to see her taking on Voldemort personally (although with some help). The leading of the charge of the mobilized desks with her hair down and blood on her face was awesome. I also really, really enjoyed Neville's matter-of-fact description of his Gran taking out the Death Eater who came for her with utter ease.

Go Granny Longbottom!

(I, however, remain 'enh' regarding Molly Weasley and Bellatrx Lestrange)

How about this one.

Hoopla, then no hoopla.

I encountered, years ago, in now defunct Omni magazine, an alt-history "sequel" of sorts to Pride and Prejudice called Resolve and Resistance in which England has fallen to Napoleon, and the Bennet sisters form the core of the resistance, with Lizzie as the mastermind (natch'), bookish Mary busily inventing all sorts of explosives, and Lydia and Kitty acting as courtesans, seducing French officers to learn military secrets.

I also remembered additional details like Mr. Darcy and/or Mr. Bingley being dead/off fighting in the Caribbean colonies, and Caroline Bingley being a collaborator, serving as a French governor's mistress, but when I actually tracked down the short-story (novella?) these facts appeared nowhere in it. Huh.

I have long wished that the author would do a full-fledged book on this premise. There is an awful lot of dreck out there when it comes to Jane Austen "sequels."

And once in a while a second 'm' finds its way into amendment, but I have no idea how it gets there, honest.

A second 'm' finds its way into the first half of 'amendment,' I meant to say.

Jeez,

I cannot be the only person with a pathological fear of parallel, can I? I know there is a double consonant in there, but is it a double 'r', or is it a double 'l', and if so, which 'l' - and why does it seem to switch from time to time? Hmmmm....

I would also like to point out that the supersede/supercede controversy is always a constant source of strife at my job. We occasionally file a 'superseding indictment' which is, you know, an actual legal instrument filed with the court clerk, with the words 'Superceding (sic) Indictment' emblazoned on the first page (it was coded incorrectly in the software we use to prepare our filings); the lawyers are evenly divided between the wise Superseders and the ignorant Superceders

I must also confess to often turning 'independence' into 'independance' (see also, 'independent' as 'independant' - because 'pendant' is a word, and 'pendent' is not. Hrmph) And once in a while a second 'm' finds its way into amendment, but I have no idea how it gets there, honest.

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