Jury Duty

WASHINGTON Ã?Â? Vice President Joe Biden breezed in and out of a Delaware courthouse Monday after being called for jury duty. The vice president's office announced Monday morning that Biden would "participate in the standard jury selection process" in the Superior Court of Delaware "in his capacity as a private citizen. " A White House aide said he was dismissed, along with the rest of his jury pool, at about noon without being called to serve on a trial. According to the Wilmington News Journal, if Biden had been seated on a jury, it would have been for a misdemeanor trial, which typically lasts one or two days.

First of all, it's very loud. Loud enough to trigger menopause in mice. And the audience has this look, the same facial cha-cha you see in the third period of epic hockey games, when the fans' eyes start to suds up from too much beer. In this case, it's too much of everything — frilly burlesque, caffeinated comedians, masked wrestlers pinwheeling into the crowd. "Twisted serendipity" is how one performer describes Lucha VaVoom, an L.A. revue that has to be seen to be disbelieved.

Kudos to Ghislaine Iliff for honorably accepting her jury duty notice (letter, July 19). My wife felt the same way when she got her first notice. She went and did her duty and was a better person for it. But then she somehow (I can only assume) ended up on a list of potential jurors who are eager to do their duty and started getting notices at least once a year and sometimes twice. Let's see how eager Iliff is to answer the call the next time and the next time and the next time, etc. JON ROE Los Angeles

Recently I had jury duty, and during jury selection something remarkable occurred. Early in the proceedings, the judge posed a hypothetical question to the 60 or so potential jurors in the room: "If I were to send you out now and ask you to render a verdict, what would it be? How many of you would vote not guilty?" A few raised their hands. "How many would vote guilty?" A few more raised their hands. "And how many would say you didn't know enough to decide?" Every remaining hand — about 50 people — went up immediately.

If Cook County, Ill., had its druthers, President Obama would be showing up for jury duty today. But court officials were told several weeks ago the prospect was a no-go, a White House official said Sunday. The summons arrived at the president's Chicago home. Obama, a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School, president of the Harvard Law Review and later a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, would have been bound for the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview had he not been otherwise occupied.

As prospective jurors milled about in a court hallway recently to see if they were going to serve on a gang case, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy assigned to the courtroom apparently had no qualms sharing his views of the defendant. "You can look at him and just see he's guilty," one juror heard him say. The deputy suggested the case was a waste of time, another juror said. "I don't know why we're here anyway," the second juror quoted the deputy as saying. "He's guilty.

WASHINGTON Ã?Â? Vice President Joe Biden breezed in and out of a Delaware courthouse Monday after being called for jury duty. The vice president's office announced Monday morning that Biden would "participate in the standard jury selection process" in the Superior Court of Delaware "in his capacity as a private citizen. " A White House aide said he was dismissed, along with the rest of his jury pool, at about noon without being called to serve on a trial. According to the Wilmington News Journal, if Biden had been seated on a jury, it would have been for a misdemeanor trial, which typically lasts one or two days.

College recruiting Re "Cal State at the pulpit, " Jan. 15 It does not make sense for Chancellor Charles B. Reed to be recruiting students for the California State universities with all the budget cuts that have been affecting public education. The reality is that these prospective students will face issues such as class cuts, the diminishing of certain majors, higher tuition, less instruction time and limited admission rates. In the long run, these issues will only set up students to drop out of college, creating a bigger issue.

If Cook County, Ill., had its druthers, President Obama would be showing up for jury duty today. But court officials were told several weeks ago the prospect was a no-go, a White House official said Sunday. The summons arrived at the president's Chicago home. Obama, a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School, president of the Harvard Law Review and later a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, would have been bound for the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview had he not been otherwise occupied.

Obama's war escalation Re "Obama vows to break Taliban," Dec. 2, and "Obama puts Afghan plan in motion," Dec. 1 At last, a president who speaks to us as if we are adults. It seems clear there are no good choices regarding Afghanistan, but we know the president listened to multiple points of view and required participants to provide alternatives and data to justify those alternatives. I have believed we should get out now, but the president made clear that the situation in Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons, is a key element driving his decision.

Let's say three moments per week an average American concludes that, in this life, you just can't win. I'll follow up on that later. Recently, I was Juror No. 6 in an Inglewood courtroom. Late into a third day of jury selection, the prosecutor, whose questions had been crisp and pointed, suddenly went off script, asking, "Does anyone feel they cannot judge the facts fairly?" My hand disobeyed my brain and flinched -- then backed down like an umpire deciding the pitch wasn't really a strike.

Jinko Takahashi stares with trepidation at the six oversized, black-cushioned chairs in a Yokohama District Court room. The 49-year-old has just finished a four-hour program designed to prepare citizens for Japan's new jury system. Like many potential jurors across the world, Takahashi is not particularly enthused about her potential fate. "To be completely honest, I don't want to be on a jury," Takahashi said, sighing.

Never get mixed up in the problems of random strangers. It's survival rule No. 1 in this crazy metropolis. Tailgating freeway lunatics, assorted hoodlums, stressed-out moms screaming at their kids in public: We give them a wide berth and look the other way. Then an envelope comes in the mail. It's called a summons for jury duty. That slip of official paper forces us to get close to the messy lives of others.