SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

For the third time in 11 years, I'm at 100 Centre Street (New York Supreme Court), for jury duty. (Eight million people live in New York City, and I get called three times since I left California? Oh well.)

Some things are the same -- the jury assembly room; the sense of humor of the chief herder; the wonderful diversity of this city evidenced across the chairs. But what's different this time is that there are eight carrels along a wall of the main jury assembly room, and the entire floor offers free (and decently strong) wi-fi service.

Laptops are welcome, and the court has just changed its policy on cell phones that have cameras -- they are now OK, but you are chastised not to use the photo functions. (I suspect this reflects the reality that just about every smartphone now has a camera.)

Rumor has it that some sites are blocked, e.g., Facebook, but I had no problem logging on to that site, or Twitter. (The blocked sites may be on the handful of computers that are offered to potential jurors who can use them for 20-minutes at a time).

Jury duty still has a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, but at least it's a bit more productive -- last year and now!

Sat through hours of voir dire -- after which only 2 people were seated, (not me!) Interesting, frustrating, challenging, educational, annoying -- yes, yes, yes, I know -- civic duty, etc. -- but like everybody else -- to be honest, I'd really rather be at work. Yes, yes, yes -- I know.