Roger O Green

Oscar Winning Films I Have Seen

Oh, why not?

1928 – Wings: no
1928 – Sunrise: no (read the Wikipedia explanation on this)
1929 – The Broadway Melody: no
1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front: Seems that I’ve seen parts of it on TV, not enough to say yes
1931 – Cimarron: ditto
1932 – Grand Hotel: no
1933 – Cavalcade: no
1934 – It Happened One Night: No, and given its pedigree(Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay), I feel that I ought to. I’ve seen that famous clip with Claudette Colbert showing Clark Gable how to stop a car dozens of times.
1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Saw this on TV years ago, but wasn’t the movie experience I need to really appreciate the film. This isn’t knocking the film, just the environment in which I saw it.
1936 – The Great Ziegfeld: Don’t think so.
1937 – The Life of Emile Zola: no
1938 – You Can’t Take It With You: Seems that I started watching this on broadcast TV.
1939 – Gone With the Wind: Started to maybe three times. Can’t, or deep down, really don’t want to. Seems I’ve seen the burning of Atlanta scene a number of times though, including the first time it aired on network TV a couple decades back.
1940 – Rebecca: no.
1941 – How Green Was My Valley: no
1942 – Mrs. Miniver: no
1943 – Casablanca: Now this is a film I’ve seen, and more than once. It may not have been the first time, but I recall seeing this film outdoor near Rochester with my now-lost friend Debi. I did enjoy this tremendously.
1944 – Going My Way: Saw this on video. It’s OK. Don’t remember it that well, to tell the truth.
1945 – The Lost Weekend: No, but I really want to.
1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives: I did see this, on TV. Didn’t know anything about it except the title. Found it moving, but left me a tad melancholy.
1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement: No, or did I?
1948 – Hamlet: I recorded it at some point. Still haven’t watched it.
1949 – All the King’s Men: Don’t think so.
1950 – All About Eve: I started to, on broadcast TV, but never finished it.
1951 – An American in Paris: Seems that I’ve seen it on PBS or something, years ago. The musical numbers were great and still vivid in my mind, but the rest felt somehow lacking.
1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth: I’m sure I saw it on TV as a kid, but don’t remember enough to comment.
1953 – From Here to Eternity: I’m afraid not yet.
1954 – On the Waterfront: Saw this sometime this century on TV. Quite good. Always liked Lee J. Cobb.
1955 – Marty: not yet
1956 – Around the World in 80 Days: Feels like more TV fare from my childhood.
1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai: I don’t know that I’ve ever sat from beginning to end, but I’ve seen great chunks of it, enough to appreciate its greatness.
1958 – Gigi: On TV as a kid.
1959 – Ben-Hur: ditto, should probably see again.
1960 – The Apartment: parts, on broadcast TV.
1961 – West Side Story – OK, a movie I saw in the movie theater at the time it came out! Sure it’s a bit dated, but I LOVE this movie. I’ve probably mentioned it on this blog about a dozen times. I’m heavily versed how the musical differs from the movie (the strategic switch of Cool and Gee, Officer Krupke), the dubbing by Marni Nixon. The ending still gets to me. Did I mention that I’m rather fond of this film? Own on VHS and DVD. Have both the Broadway and movie albums.
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia: On TV at some point, but probably didn’t do it justice.
1963 – Tom Jones: no
1964 – My Fair Lady: On TV, enjoyed it well enough.
1965 – The Sound of Music: This movie I saw fairly recently. Much more substantial storyline than I had recalled. And I LOVE the music, even if it encourages Gwen Stefani.
1966 – A Man For All Seasons: Saw years ago, don’t remember much at all.
1967 – In the Heat of the Night: Oh, my. I’m not sure it’s a great film, but it spoke about race in a way that hadn’t seen seen much in American cinema. The slaps in the face were jaw-dropping at the time. Here’s a review that pretty well reflects my opinion.
1968 – Oliver!: Seen bits and pieces.
1969 – Midnight Cowboy: I saw this film four times the first year it came out. Has my favorite line that I use to this day, “I’m WALKING here!” Don’t know if it would still stand up for me, but seeing the clips has a visceral feeling of awe.
1970 – Patton: broadcast TV, didn’t see enough of it.
1971 – The French Connection: Did I see this in Poughkeepsie? (Sorry, line from the movie.) Saw it in the movie theater. Don’t know that it was a great film, but I got caught up in it anyway, especially the chase scene.
1972 – The Godfather: Seems that I was in Binghamton, but that my friends Carol & Jon, and my then-girlfriend Nona drove to Syracuse to see this film. Undoubtedly a masterful work, but along with seeing Catch-22 and A Clockwork Orange, got me off most movies rated R for violence for nearly a decade. It was the horse, the dance that Jimmy Caan does when he’s character’s killed, the keyhole. Haven’t seen the movie since, and I still have too vivid recollections.
1973 – The Sting: In the theater. It was a fun film (with one disturbing scene, I think), the camaraderie was great, the music was great.
1974 – The Godfather Part II: No, still haven’t seen it. I’m sure it’s great.
1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Saw it in a theater years after its release. Great movie.
1976 – Rocky: Saw this movie in Charlotte, NC with my mother. I think it was a bit violent for her, but she liked it. I liked it. A bit cornball, but it worked.
1977 – Annie Hall: Warrants its own post. Saw it four times in the theater. My touchstone movie.
1978 – The Deer Hunter: Was still avoiding the R-rated violence. Never saw.
1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer: I saw Dustin Hoffman on that Actor’s Studio show and he explained that the dialogue at the end was ad libbed. His performance and Meryl Streep’s kept this from soap opera. I felt the sense of frustration the Hoffman character felt. Saw in the theater.
1980 – Ordinary People: I remember liking it at the time, when I saw in the theater, as much for Mary Tyler Moore playing against type as anything. Depressing, though.
1981 – Chariots of Fire: I saw this in the theater the week after the movie won for Best Picture, with my girlfriend at the time, and her son, and we all felt “Is that all there is?” Pretty vistas weren’t enough. Here’s a case where high expectations probably ruined the film for me. I should probably watch it again.
1982 – Gandhi: Epic, moving, I thought at the time when I saw it in the theater, but I haven’t seen it since, and don’t specifically REMEMBER scenes, just feelings.
1983 – Terms of Endearment: Or as I am wont to call it, “Tears of Internment”. Actually, I probably liked the first half, when I saw it in the theater, but after that, pretty much hated it.
1984 – Amadeus: I liked it a lot at the time I saw it in the theater; didn’t care about the historical inaccuracies.
1985 – Out of Africa: Saw in the movie theater, thought it looked nice, but it never engaged me.
1986 – Platoon: Never saw, although I feel that I have.
1987 – The Last Emperor: Saw this in the movie theater and fell asleep. Maybe I was just tired.
1988 – Rain Man: I liked it when I saw it in the theater, thought that Tom Cruise was actually pretty good in it. Got into great debates about whether his character could change so much in a six-day car ride; I contended that it was plausible. Have the soundtrack; the first half includes great tunes I love, the second half standard soundtrack fare.
1989 – Driving Miss Daisy: Had real ambivalence about seeing Morgan Freeman’s “wise old black man” character as someone put it. It was good, but felt very stagy. Saw in a theater.
1990 – Dances With Wolves: I liked it in parts, but it was too long by about 30 minutes. In theater.
1991 – The Silence of the Lambs: Was visiting my parents and was watching HBO, started watching it, bailed.
1992 – Unforgiven: Ambivalent about seeing a western, but ended up liking this movie quite a bit. In the theater.
1993 – Schindler’s List -Oh, yeah. I did see this film in the theater. It’s a very good film. I will NEVER see this film again. I spent more time dissecting this film with the two people I saw it with than the film’s ample running time.
1994 – Forrest Gump: Talked about this here. Some of the others too, I see. The other thing about this movie is the soundtrack picked such the cliches (For What It’s Worth, Get Together) That said, I do own it – bought it used – for the songs that I didn’t own on CD.
1995 – Braveheart: Saw this on a huge screen at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, the place you’d want to see a film like this. Ultimately, though, there was at least one too many battle scenes. And that tortured messianic scene at the end – yuck. Made me know that I wouldn’t be seeing his films about Christ or the Amazon people, thank you.
1996 – The English Patient: My goodness, I forgot this won. I was bored to tears by this movie in the theater.
1997 – Titanic: A very schizo movie, part romance, part disaster film. Don’t know that I LIKED it when I saw it in the theater so much as admired the chutzpah of gambling big and pulling it off. Actually liked some of the incidental music, but I don’t expect to see this film again. Ever.
1998 – Shakespeare in Love: I liked it when I saw in the theater. Best picture? Maybe not.
1999 – American Beauty: I liked this one a lot at the time, when I saw it in the theater, but I’m not remembering why.
2000 – Gladiator: Didn’t see, wasn’t interested in seeing.
2001 – A Beautiful Mind: Liked it well enough when I saw it in the theater, but don’t imagine watching again soon.
2002 – Chicago: I was rather fond of it when I saw it in the theater. Occasionally very funny, and occasionally (as with the only woman probably innocent of the crime), somewhat poignant.
2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Saw the first LotR movie, thought it was fine, didn’t feel compelled to get through the other two. But then, I couldn’t get through 50 pages when I read The Hobbit, which I know to be grand treachery, but there it is.
2004 – Million Dollar Baby: This was the year Lydia was born. Really wanted to see this, but it just didn’t happen.
2005 – Crash: Lots of people HATE this movie, just HATE it. One of my office mates was going on about it recently, citing that it was just condescendingly telling us what we already know. Others hated it for the contrivance of the interlocking stories. For the former, I found that it rang true in my own life, the sibling thing, particularly – maybe Joe Biden should go see it – and for the latter, I was willing to accept the premise. Saw in the theater BEFORE the buzz.
And here’s my theory why Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash, which I, BTW, predicted: most Oscar voters saw it on DVD, where all that Western vista stuff might have been boring. To be honest, I was a little bored myself in the theater; the story didn’t really grab me until they got off the mountain, and Academy voters, with tons of films to view in a short time, might well have just given up on it.

Presidents’ Day

Here’s a link to all of the Presidential Libraries. It, and the holiday, got me thinking about how I would rank the Presidents. Thing is, though, while I REMEMBER all the Presidents, and their years in office (very useful if you ever go on a game show), I don’t always recall just what they DID. I could look it up, but why do that when I have you to fill in the holes?
Washington- the Kelly Clarkson or Richard Hatch of Presidents. It’s tough being first. He could have turned the office into a quasi-monarchy. That he didn’t serves us well. He also came up with that two-term idea.
J. Adams- The fact is that I’m not recalling much other than the Alien & Sedition Act
Jefferson-I think he gets a lot of points for his pre-Presidential stuff, like that Declaration thing. It’s so fortunate that Napoleon was so hung up on holding on to Haiti that he’d sell Louisiana to us for a relative pittance.
Madison- Of all the wars the US ever fought, the one I probably understand the least is the War of 1812.
Monroe-He had some doctrine that said, “Europe, stay out of the Americas! It’s our turf now!” And, over the years, we’ve acted accordingly.
J.Q. Adams- Strange. I remember his controversial 1824 election, and his subsequent service (and death) in the House, but his Presidency doesn’t register.
Jackson- The guy who appears on the $20 bill wasn’t that fond of the national bank. He also believed in the spoils system.
Van Buren-the Herbert Hoovers of his half century, with the downturn in 1837, probably not his fault.
W.H. Harrison-Gave a killer of an inaugural speech.
Tyler-As the first person to become President after not being elected President, don’t think he had much leverage. (But his post-Presidential career really weirded out some guy in Buffalo.)
Polk-I read recently someone comparing his adventurism in Mexico to GW Bush’s actions in Iraq.
Taylor-Was he poisoned?
Fillmore-The last of the Whig Presidents (4 guys, 8 years). Don’t remember if the Fugitive Slave Laws were passed under his tenure or his predecessor’s. The guy pictured, as though you didn’t know.
Pierce-Another one of those ineffectual antebellum Presidents. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing new states whether they’ll be slave or free, didn’t help the situation.
Buchanan-The “bachelor” President. Way out of his league in stopping the war, or maybe it was inevitable.
Lincoln-On the one hand, he saved the Union. On the other hand, he used tactics suspending liberties that the current occupant seems to have purloined.
A. Johnson-From a different party from Lincoln. Impeached and almost convicted. Grant-Was he sober by then?
Hayes-One of my least favorite Presidents. Not only did the 1876 election vs. Tilden make Florida in 2000 seem like due process at its finest, but the end of Reconstruction was disastrous for freed blacks, as the rise of the KKK and other groups took place.
Garfield-Lived a while after being shot, which probably ground the government to a halt.
Arthur-Seemed like a competent public servant.
Cleveland-Definitely need to read up on this – I remember labor and currency issues abounded in the 1880s and 1890s –
B. Harrison-But I’m not remembering…
Cleveland-…the major issues of these administrations.
McKinley-Definitely the hard money, backed by gold, issue. Also the Spanish-American War.
T. Roosevelt-Environmental stuff, didn’t shoot a baby bear, won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Russo-Japanese War. One of my faves.
Taft-Even though he was TR’s VP, TR was so ticked off by him that he ran as a third party, giving the election to the Democrats.
Wilson-Kept us out of war, for his first term. Got us into war in his second. Was too ill to really push the League of Nations.
Harding-The first President elected after women’s suffrage, and I recall some historian saying “See? See? They should have had the vote,” as though they voted for him because he was (arguably) good looking. Teapot Dome.
Coolidge-Don’t know. They called him Silent Cal.
Hoover-Depression. If he never became President, he would have remembered much more kindly by history.
F.D. Roosevelt-Term 1: great programs to try to get folks out of the Depression. Term 2: the great overreach, with the Supreme Court packing plan. Term 3: TERM 3? WWII, of course. Term 4: TERM 4?! Died early on.
Truman-Dropped the A-bomb (yuck), instituted the Marshall Plan for post-war Europe (yay), was declared politically dead in ’48 (but wasn’t), fired MacArthur over Korea.
Eisenhower-selected Earl Warren to head the Supreme Court (apparently to his later chagrin). Sent troops into Little Rock, which is probably the first event I remember separate from things immediately in my life.
Kennedy-On one hand, Bay of Pigs; on the other, the successful (and ultimately peaceful) 13 days in October. On one hand, VietNam; on the other, coming around on civil rights, especially after the August ’63 March on Washington.
L.B. Johnson- Great Society (Medicare/Medicaid), civil rights, VietNam. But guns and butter didn’t work. In some ways, nearly as tragic as Nixon.
Nixon-EPA, China on the one hand; VietNam and Watergate on the other. He’s better than I thought at the time, or maybe his successors are worse than I could have imagined.
Ford-Revisionists now praise him for his courage in pardoning Nixon. I’m not convinced yet.
Carter-I thought he was saying a lot of the right things about conservation. Perhaps he didn’t communicate them well enough: his Moral Equivalent Of War became dubbed as MEOW. Then the 11/4/79 capture of the hostages in Iran sealed his fate.
Reagan-At the time, I thought he ought to have been king. He was a great cheerleader for America. His greatest accomplishment was surviving the assassination attempt in good spirits, for it generated the political capital to propel his budget-busting tax cuts in that first year that the election alone would not have provided. 200+ dead in Lebanon? Invade Grenada! After VietNam and Watergate, he discerned America needed a win! Even if it was some place most of them never heard of. Reagan was also helped, oddly, by the Carter-directed boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, for when the Soviet bloc retaliated at the 1984 Olympics in L.A., the US really cleaned up. Born in the U.S.A. indeed.
The fact that I disliked Reagan more than any President in my lifetime, over Star Wars, Iran-Contra, his positions on race, doesn’t negate the fact that, in large part, that people seem to have bought his message.
G.H.W. Bush-The ex-head of the CIA made me nervous going in. “100 points of light” SOUNDED good, but I’m sure that it really translated into policy. History, though, will be kinder to him, though, because while he did engage in war with Iraq, he didn’t invade Baghdad, which would show the geopolitical wisdom the next Republican President would seem to lack.
Clinton-“The first black President” – don’t know where that came from, but it annoyed the crap out me. Oh, where was I? Oh yeah, Clinton’s Presidency. First two years – a disaster over health care and “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” His successes in balancing the budget, albeit it with a Repub Congress will stand out. Monicagate, and the fact that THAT was the source of his IMPEACHMENT (as opposed to, say, a successor’s twisting of the truth to go to war) should make historians chuckle. I remember very specifically, during that mess, when he tried, and failed, to get Osama bin Ladin, and the general consensus was that it was a ploy to distract us from the importance of the stained blue dress.
G.W. Bush- After 9/11, with the world united behind the United States, this President had the opportunity to be a great President. And he blew it. Won’t even get into his dismal environmental record, which is actually mildly surprising, given his reasonably positive record – I hear – as Texas governor. Or his suspension of liberties, for which the Repub Congress in his first six years must share the blame.

O.K. – so the best Presidents, just based on their terms in office, not before or after- it’s hard not to put Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and the Roosevelts in some order. The worst? Aside from those who died too quickly (W.H. Harrison, Garfield), it’s difficult not to put those Presidents immediately before and after the Civil War, and of course, Harding. I’d pick Pierce, Buchanan, A. Johnson, Hayes, and old Warren G., in some order. Since his term isn’t over, I won’t muse about the current occupant as Rolling Stone did, but, absent a miracle in the next two years, bottom five land seems certain. Lucky Franklin Pierce.
***
Here’s what historians think, and more importantly, what Gay Prof thinks.

Walk Under Ladders

FEBRUARY 14, 2007, 9:15 a.m. – I had riding the stationary bike at the Y, rather than playing racquetball, because none of my cohorts bothered to show up. was it because we were under a winter storm warning, that virtually every school in the area, including the always-reluctant-to-close Albany School District, were closed? It wasn’t THAT bad out. The #27 Corporate Woods bus shows up, only about 15 minutes late – I was about to give up on it – and the bus driver transported his two passengers to the office.
9:30 a.m. – I was only one of 5 people present, out of 13 scheduled, and 15 total. My office has a great view of I-90, which looks perfectly clear…where did it go? The highway alternated from being fairly visible to being impossible to see from the snow and wind.
9:45 a.m. – I call my wife to let her know that the there’s rumors that CDTA will be pulling their businesses. That can’t be right. Their website is touting its availability in the midst of the storm:
When the rest of the world is standing still, CDTA is…Your Reason To Ride!

When severe weather hits, keep your car off the slippery streets and ride with us.

11:45 a.m. – We’re told that the main office for the Research Foundation downtown would be closing downtown at 1:30, and that we could do the same, if we chose. I choose.

12:30 p.m.- Call one of my sister. She works for a drug store chain, and as it turned out, I had a related reference question, and therefore a legit excuse to call her in California. I’m lucky.

1:45 p.m. – The last of my hardy colleagues leave.

1:55 p.m. – I’m thinking the bus comes at 2:05, but I check the website, just to make sure. IT COMES AT 2:00! I shut off my computer and run downstairs.

2:09 p.m. – The bus was late. I’M LUCKY. The normal pattern is that it comes by our building, makes a turn at a circle down the road, and then it comes back and the passengers from my building get on. For some reason, though, the other passengers and I went out to meet the bus. Since the circle wasn’t plowed , the bus didn’t turn around. I would have missed it had I waited. I’M LUCKY, because I’m not sure another bus came out to Corporate Woods that day; they were pulling their buses off the road, except for the core routes, because they kept getting stuck.

2:25 p.m. – I’m waiting at the corner of Washington and L;ark for the #10 bus to come home. There was a supervisor vehicle at the stop. I asked him when the next #10 was coming. He said I had to go down another block (to Central and Henry Johnson) to catch it. I’M LUCKY I asked.

2:55 p.m. – The masses huddled at the kiosk were trying to get more info from CDTA from their cell phones. Only one could not reach CDTA by phone; I had tried twice when I was still in the office. I’M LUCKY that I lived near two of the core routes. Took the #12 Washington Avenue bus, which got stuck for about five minutes, trying to make a right turn onto Washington Avenue. Some doofy guy was laying on his horn, AS THOUGHT IT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE. (Doofy, BTW, is a portmanteau from goofy and doofus.) I’M LUCKY we did finally get around the corner.
This bus meant a three-block walk. It’s technically illegal to walk in the street, and I scowl when people do it when we’ve had an inch or two of snow, but with a foot of the powdery stuff impossible to walk through, I was road-bound as well.
3:25 p.m.- Trudge home, drink hot chocolate. Carol and I watch an old Gilmore Girls.
4:50 p.m. – I’M LUCKY that I waited. My neighbor Dino plowed a path on our sidewalk and up to the steps. I still had plenty of shoveling to do, but it was made infinitely easier.

February 15

7 a.m. When i read on the CDTA website that only the core routes are guaranteed to operate, I decided to stay home.
8:30 a.m. Start a half hour outside, half hour inside regimen to dig out the car.
9:30 a.m. I’M LUCKY that my neighbors helped me with the digging.
11 a.m. Read the Times Union online: “Capital District Transportation Authority buses clogged the intersection of Central Avenue and Henry Johnson Boulevard, making it impossible for cars to get by.” That’s my route to work. I’M LUCKY I stayed home.

I’m lucky
I’m lucky
I don’t need a bracelet
No salt
For my shoulder
I don’t own a rabbit
No clover
No heather
No wonder
I’m lucky
***
Picture from Thursday’s newspaper. Check here for a Nightline segment with the Albany mayor.

Jury QUESTIONS

I just had to know, so this week, I called the ADA in the case I might have served on. Guilty on two counts of robbery. One count involved the use of a weapon, the second, the use of an accomplice. “Young Dewey”, as the defense asttorney kept referring to the defendant, hasn’t been sentenced yet, but he faces 15 years in prison.

Jury duty has informed my questions. Your answers to any or all questions in the appropriate location is appreciated:

What’s your job, your spouse’s/significant other’s job (if retired, what the jobs were)?
I’m a business librarian. My wife’s a teacher of English as a Second Language.

What’s the age of your children?
One child, almost three.

What are your hobbies?
Blogging, racquetball.

What are your memberships?
Vice-President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library; member of my church choir.

Have you been a victim of a crime?
Why, yes. I’ve had four bicycles stolen in Albany over a 25-year period. One in front of the Unitarian Church, one in front of the YMCA, one hidden behind the YMCA (that one was unlocked), and one in the vestibule of my apartment. I had a boom box stolen. I was assaulted when I was 16. (Sidebar to GP: If memory serves – it was a LONG time ago, and I’m no lawyer – the Marine probably COULD have gotten as much as a year in jail, but might also have gotten a suspended sentence.) Someone stole a bunch of my LPs and all of my baseball cards that were stored at my grandmother’s house. And when I was a kid, someone stole my coin collection; I was pretty sure I knew who the perp was, but couldn’t prove it.

Do you know anyone in the local police department?
There was a guy from my former church, but I’m not in contact with him presently. The name of one of the arresting officers in the case sounded familiar, though. I think he took my statement in the boom box case.

Do you know the local district attorney, or anyone in his/her office?
I worked on the campaign of the current DA, and met him once, briefly.

Also: have you served on a jury? Would you want to? Why or why not?

Jury Duty

A couple months ago, both Carol and I received a juror qualification questionnaire from Albany County, which we had to fill out and verify our address and criminal status (or, in our case, lack thereof). So it was not at all surprising to discover that, a couple weeks ago, I received a notification that I had to call to see if I needed to report for jury duty.

The possibility of jury duty has happened to me thrice before. In the fall of 1977, I lived in Jamaica, Queens (NY), voting as I was leaving town for Schenectady; a couple months later, Queens sent me a jury notice. I wrote back that I didn’t live there anymore. In 1991, I received notice to appear as a juror in federal court. I wrote back that I was in the middle of grad school; could I postpone for two months? Apparently yes, but they never followed up. Then about six years ago, I had to make calls every evening, but my number, which was in the 250s, never came up.

This time, however, when I called, I received this lengthy message. One group was to go to one place at 9 a.m., another group to another location, also at 9 a.m., and the group consisting of 243 to 411 ended up having to show up at 9:45 at the Albany County Judicial Center, a building built just a year ago, just behind the county office building; my number was 357. The woman giving instructions was very pleasant, but knew she needed to project to the large crowd in a big room, so her voice was at a constant near yell. (One of my fellow attendees thought it was a monotone.) She swore us all in.

We got the scoop on jury duty. For instance, the law requires the employers of 10 or more employees to pay us at least $40/day. The only folks who will get specifically paid for service by the state are those who are unemployed, retired, not scheduled to work the particular days, or the self-employed. (This is all explained here.) She noted how the law had changed so that there are far fewer automatic exemptions because of one’s profession, a good thing, I think, since a juror class of retirees and the unemployed is not really, a jury of one’s peers. A large part of the discussion was about parking; the Crown Plaza Hotel allows jurors to park for $6/day, rather than $14. We had been encouraged to take the CDTA bus down, but obviously many did not, for at the first break, lots of people went to move their vehicles.

Eventually, we went to the courtroom. After a few more instructions, Judge Herrick came in. He explained that while the jury trial was an important part of the system, he knows it’s inconvenient, so he appreciated our service. He asked if any of us had a problem with serving each day until 5 or maybe a little after this week. At first, only a trickle was in line, but the queue didn’t seem to get any shorter. I got in line myself, not because I didn’t want to serve, but because I had to pick up Lydia before 5:30 that day. No one else who was authorized to get her was in town, as Carol and her parents were all in Harpursville, near Binghamton, at Carol’s aunt Vera’s funeral. I stood off to the side as the judge, DA and defense attorney conferred. The judge waved me back to the bench and said that he didn’t expect that today’s session, involving jury selection – known as voir dire – would last past 4:30. Of all the people who came forward, I was the first to return to his/her seat, as opposed to out the door, only one of three total in that situation. So the pool of over 160 jurors was down to around 120; no wonder they call so many people.

The clerk empaneled the first group of 21, using a cage like one of those BINGO caller devices. The 21st person was Shawn Morris, president of the common council, Albany’s city council. By mutual agreement among the judge, DA and defense attorney, she was sent home, though she had made no effort to get off the trial.

The facts of the case were read. The defendant was charged with two counts of robbery, i.e., he was accused of robbing two named alleged victims at a specific address on South Pearl Street on a date last August, arrested by two named police officers.

The judge used to have jurors do a juror survey, but since he found that keeping them around might violate one’s privacy, he decided on the oral recitation by each juror of the:
Name, City, Job, Spouse/Significant Other’s Job (if retired, what the jobs were), Age of Children, Hobbies, Memberships
People forgot to mention all of these points a lot, especially their city.
The judge asked the jurors about the race of the accused – he was black – and whether that fact would influence their decision-making. No one said “yes”.
He also asked a series of questions such as:
Have you been a victim of a crime?
Do you know anyone in the Albany police department? (One woman was engaged to an Albany city cop.) Do you know the arresting officers?
Do you know the accused?
Do you know either attorney? Do you know the district attorney, David Soares?
What was interesting about the assistant DA in his presentation was that he made the point, over and over again, that if he didn’t make his case, that the accused should be acquitted. Both lawyers and the judge all emphasized that it was unnecessary for the accused’s to speak in his defense, and that one ought not to draw inferences from that, if he does not.
The defense attorney seemed to be trying the case when he asked if it would mitigate the circumstances if it were shown that the accused signed something (a confession, I’m guessing), but that the accused was shown to be incapable of reading.

The first panel of 21 started before lunch, wasn’t finished until after lunch, when 11 of the 14 needed jurors were selected. This required empaneling 21 more people, and I was afraid that picking up Lydia would become problematic. But all parties were more terse, assuming we all were listening. The 21st juror in this panel, when asked if he had been a victim of a crime, said that his girlfriend had been raped, and that he would be unable to render a fair verdict. Why he didn’t go to the bench and tell the judge this – that was an option if there were embarrassing issues – I don’t know. Anyway, he was excused, and another person was chosen. From that group, only three needed to be chosen, and that happened quickly. They had a juror of 12, plus two alternates. It was 3:30, and I was done for the day.

My feeling at the end of this long, tedious process, during which I got through five magazines, was that it made me more confident in the legal system, much to my surprise. So, I’m glad to have served, if even for one day. I was surprised, though, that at least one woman was having trouble with the notion of “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Didn’t she watch, as I did, any of these shows?
Perry Mason
The Defenders
Judd for the Defense
The Bold Ones – the lawyer segment
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
LA Law
Law & Order (regular, not extra crispy)
The Practice/Boston Legal

But as the trial progressed, if she had been chosen – I don’t think she was – the judge would have made that notion clear.