I’ve been a juror twice. The first was a criminal trial; a guy was accused of breaking into a school and stealing some computers. He was caught outside the school with a screwdriver in his hand, next to a window that had been pried open. The computers were nowhere to be found and there was no evidence the guy was ever actually inside the school. There were two separate charges - Burglary, for which we found him not guilty; and Possession of a Burglary Tool, for which we found him guilty. Afterward, one of the jurors asked the judge if we’d gotten it right. He paused, then said, “the verdict was consistent with the evidence presented at trial.” I don’t think the prosecutor was very competent.
The second jury was a civil case. A landlord was suing a tenant who had not paid rent in over two years and was ignoring an eviction order. The tenant claimed she was being harassed because she was a trans woman and also had a laundry list of specious reasons why she was withholding rent. She represented herself, and her defense was inconsistent and often incoherent. I learned later that the landlord was a notorious scumbag, but unfortunately the evidence was in his favor, and we found that she had to vacate the apartment and was liable for back rent.
I have had the full range of jury duty experiences:
Got a card in the mail, but dismissed before having to report to the courthouse
Reported to the courthouse and sat around for a day and then was dismissed
Was one of the 12 initial jurors in the box, but got dismissed
Was called from the gallery to be one of the 12 jurors in the box and was selected for the jury
Jury foreperson
I have decided I am done with jury service for a while, thankyouverymuch - I think I have done my time. Next time I am questioned by the attorneys I will ramble and maunder so they will find a reason to dismiss me - keeping quiet with brief answers didn’t seem to work last time.
I get that now. But most of my Monopoly playing took place as a kid with other kids, and we weren’t apt to think things through that far. We were also apt to just haul off and quit playing at any time when enough people got tired of playing. If a winner was apparent then there was a winner, and if not then whatever.
Yeah, when we were kids we took the shortcut to getting to the fun part of the game - building houses and hotels and getting rent. At the start of the game, just deal out the property cards like a game of poker, everyone trades until all monopolies belong to someone, everyone build to the best of their resources, then roll to see who goes first.
Might be on-topic for the faulty memories thread too. In my case I have 2 memories from at or before age 2, a memory of a trip in my parents’ car at age 10 months where they verified the specific details later (my tiger in the clouds), and seeing that 1964 World’s Fair sphere when we drove through the ticket gates, age 2.
Rather than find ways to shorten the game, we usually went out of our way to extend it as long as possible. We would play after school or on weekends, and when someone got called for supper, or other interests interfered, we left the game set up on a card table - usually at my cousin’s house in a spare room. The bank would run out of money sometimes, and those with lots of cash would loan (interest-free) money to the bank. We also allowed loans to other players.
Somehow we never heard of the “put fines in the Free Parking kitty” idea. I was an adult before I ever heard of that. Of course that would have aggravated the bank-out-of-money issue, so we probably wouldn’t have done it anyhow.
I was an only child with few other kids my age around, so I mostly played monopoly as a four-player game by myself. That worked fine to pass the time, but I didn’t have a system for managing auctions.
Yeah, to play Monopoly properly, no $ goes on free parking- that just delays the game. And of course if you land on a property but cant or wont buy it, it goes to auction.
We used to play with the Free parking $, but found out how much that slowed the game.
I was on the Civil Grand Jury for a year. I was a defendant in a couple cases that were dismissed.
I’ve been a witness at a trial multiple times. Not as many as one would think. I have been a witness for the grand jury many times. I have never been a juror or a defendant. I have worked as court security/bailiff and will do so more soon.
I’ve had some tangential association with some well known cases. Not crime of the century cases but known. Never been to or participated in a well known trial.
Heh, I forgot about that! I wanted to fight a ticket, but I had to go to a “court” that was in a strip mall to get on the court docket to fight the ticket. The kid who took care of me was obviously very new and didn’t know what he was doing. But with the help of his supervisor, I got a court date. When I got to the court on that date, everybody except me was taken care of, and the judge was moving on to people who’d just shown up that day. I told the bailiff that I hadn’t gotten called on, and he went to talk with the clerk. I had to wait through at lease three other miscreants (would have been very entertaining if I wasn’t so stressed) before he came back and told me I was taken care of. That is, no fine. No ticket. All gone bye-bye.
I think the new kid didn’t do something that would have notified the CHP guy to show up. Since he wasn’t there, I automatically won. Yay!
I had forgotten; but I think I once went to court with a traffic ticket, in order to bring in the proof that I’d gotten whatever was wrong with the car fixed (maybe a turn signal?), which meant I didn’t have to pay it.
I don’t know that that counts, though. It didn’t seem like a trial.
– what I say if someone close to me asks how I’m doing and I’m having a bad day depends on several factors; among them whether I feel like talking about it and whether I think they’re having an even worse day. I’m not going to straight out lie and say ‘great!’ (to a good friend; I might to the checkout clerk), but I might do anything from saying ‘so-so’ to launching into a multiparagraph rant.
I’m not sure whether I would address two women as “guys” under some circumstances. I think it would depend on the women, and the circumstances; but maybe I just wouldn’t at all, though I wouldn’t be startled or upset under most circumstances if I were one of the women so addressed.
I was managing a unit with two female and one male workers. When I started, I did say “You dont have to call me Mister Deth” and “Do you mind if I call you all “guys?”” And they all said that was fine.
They may have all felt it was fine partly because you asked.
By asking, you were acknowledging that it’s wrong to just assume default male terms. “Guys” in that context is by now gender neutral for a lot of people, so somebody addressing such a group as “guys” may just think of it as a gender-neutral term; but for a significant (I suspect) number of people it’s still gendered, so a different person addressing a mixed group or even a female one as “guys” may be using the Default Male (in which male is supposed to be the norm, and so can be used for everyone if considered as a group, no matter what their actual gender is.)
I said no I wouldn’t say “you guys” to women, but it’s sort of my instinct too, anyway. I always have to catch myself. I work with almost all women (including myself) and it feels weird to say, “Thank you, ladies!” I’ve noticed some people saying, “folx” instead. There’s not an elegant solution. At this point I think what I most say is “ya’ll.”
That would be really weird to me, also. “Ladies” always strikes me as either stilted or class-related – maybe because I’ve run into it in so many contexts (admittedly mostly old ones) in which it’s definitely class-related.
Something over 40 years ago a friend of mine went to a learning institution which had the men’s restrooms labeled “Men” and the women’s labeled “Ladies”. She put up a sign saying “Women Against Ladies”. (I don’t think she would have if the men’s room had been signed “Gentlemen”. It was the difference that struck her.)
“Folx” not “folks”? And if so, why? If there’s something gendered about “folks” that’s removed by changing the “k”, I don’t know what it is, and am curious.