Wild Clutter

My Night in Court 15 Years Ago

2010-02-22T20:04:51-05:00

I just stumbled on an interesting NY Times investigative article about New York's justice courts. Here in NY, outside of the cities, we have old-fashioned justice-of-the-peace courts, straight from colonial times.

Justices hear small civil cases, mediate neighbor disputes, issue warrants, perform marriages, conduct misdemeanor and violations trials, and a lot more stuff. I dunno, I think most of the justices are honest and honorable people and they try to do a good job. But the NY Times wasn't impressed.

My first experience in a justice court was in my own town about 20 years ago when I got called for jury duty. Some guy got rowdy in a bar, and the bartender called the Sheriff. When the sheriff's deputy got to the bar, the rowdy dude attacked the deputy with a broken beer bottle. So he was on trial. I didn't get picked for the jury. Good thing. Turns out the guy on trial was a cousin of a friend of mine.

My next experience in a justice court was 15 or so years ago. Traffic ticket. One of only two traffic tickets in my life. (I'm a cautious driver). I figured I was going too fast, so I'd just go to court and pay the fine and get it over with.

Turned out to be a really weird experience.

The ticket said to be at court one weekday night at 7:00 p.m. Won't tell you which town it was.

This particular town didn't have a court facility. They held court in the town meeting room. Picture big old building constructed about 150 years ago. Wooden floor, wooden benches, ceiling fans.

I walked in at 7. The 70-ish judge was sitting up front at the big bench, leaning back in his chair, reading a newspaper. Nobody else was there. No one. Not even a court clerk. (Clerks take care of the business of the court, call cases, collect fines, etc. A lot of times the clerk is a relative of the judge).

So I gingerly sat down in the back. The judge put down his paper and asked me what I was there for. I told him I came to take care of the ticket.

So he said, no problem, c'mon up here, and we'll get this thing outa the way. Took a look at the traffic ticket and said, yeah, we'll get this outa the way real quick. Wanted to know how I was doing tonight, how the weather was outside. Buddy-buddy.

Then he said, "OK, so let's get down to business."

And then (and I am NOT making this up - this is exactly what happened) he sat up ramrod straight in his chair, adjusted his robe, picked up his gavel and banged it down and yelled at the top of his voice - "THIS COURT IS NOW IN SESSION. ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BUSINESS BEFORE THIS COURT, PLEASE APPROACH."

I'm standing there looking around. There is still no one else in the room.

And so then we got real official: "State your name for the record, sir." (Not that anybody was taking a record). "Do you understand that you have the right to be represented by an attorney and that anything you say in this court may be used against you?" "Do you understand that this court may impose serious penalties on you as a defendant, including substantial fines and imprisonment?" And on and on.

And finally - "How do you wish to plead?"

I told the guy I was going to plead guilty.

He banged the gavel down. "For the record (nobody was keeping a record), the court finds the defendant guilty. The sentence is a fine of $75."

Well, $75 is a lot of money. But it's not like it's earth-shattering. So I took out my checkbook and started to write a check.

Then: "Son, what are you doing?"

Me: "I'm writing a check for the $75 fine."

Judge: "A CHECK? You mean from a BANK???"

Me (wondering what the hell is going on): "Yes, sir."

Judge: "Not in this court. Don't believe in checks. Never have."

Me: "Umm, I don't have $75 cash with me."

Judge: "Well then, I'll take your driver's license and hold it. You get $75 cash money back to me in the next week or a certified postal money order drawn on the Government of the Yeeeeeeewnited States of America, and you can have your license back."

Which I did. I figured I'd rather give him a postal check drawn on the Yeeeeewnited States than a bunch of bills. And I got my license back, marked with a couple of infraction points for the ticket.

And BTW, nobody else ever entered that room during my traffic ticket appearance. It was just the good ol' judge and me.

That was that. My night in court. Strange.

My other traffic ticket also brought me to a justice court with an equally bizarre story. But this has gone on long enough. Time to quit for now.

Maybe the NY Times is on to something.

Silence

2010-02-16T20:03:15-05:00

Just finished reading A Book of Silence, by Sara Maitland. Great book.

She sets out to pursue silence in her life. She begins by spending 40 days of silence on a windswept hill high above the Scottish moors. And her pursuit of silence continues in other places near and far, and she reflects on the history and philosophy and spirituality of silence.

In many so-called primitive cultures, when you faced a turning point in life, you went off by yourself - in wilderness, in caves, in isolation - to find silence and learn its lessons.

Today we run from silence. We live in a noisy world. Fun, exciting, energetic, and the music and sounds are always on. But if we could return to silence and stillness, at least once in a while, I think we could become more spiritual beings. I think silence could teach us some secrets about our world and ourselves.

My Personality Profile

2010-02-13T10:43:08-05:00

Interesting site - Humanmetrics

It lets you take a short version (about 72 questions) of the Myers-Briggs personality profile (which is sorta based on the theories of Carl Jung, quasi-discipline of Freud).

So I took it, and my profile is I-N-F-J:

- slightly expressed introvert
- distinctively expressed intuitive personality
- slightly expressed feeling personality
- moderately expressed judging personality

Which means I ...

- hold deep convictions about weightier matters of life
- am an idealist
- am a champion of the downtrodden
- see friendship as deep, and transcending words
- have a fluency in language
- attempt to deduce the inner workings of the mind
- have some characteristics of "prophet" and "seer"
- am sometimes caught between candor and silence
- vent emotions in private, or with trusted allies
- quickly recognize good and evil
- like closure and completion
- put a lot of energy into thinking
- can be a doer and a dreamer
- am outgoing but have introvert tendencies
- have some weaknesses in "sensing"
- can get absorbed in intuition and overlook physical reality
- experience inner conflicts
- yearn to live spontaneously, but have trouble doing it

Famous INFJs:

- Jimmy Carter
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Mother Teresa
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Billy Crystal
- Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury)
- Nelson Mandela
- William Shakespeare
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Mel Gibson
- Jerry Seinfeld

Anyway, Humanmetrics. Check it out.

Toads

2010-02-02T19:45:10-05:00

Someone sent me this toad video the other day. (You have to click the link, I couldn't embed it - it's only 35 seconds long).

Toad-Petting

I learned a long time ago that the common toad (bufo bufo, the official name) is a lot tamer than people think.

As long as you don't make any startling moves, toads don't usually run away from you. You can even put a tiny piece of raw meat on the edge of a toothpick and wave it in front of the toad - and the toad will hop up to grab the meat. Will even hop into your hand. No frog is this tame, at least none that I know of.

I've raised a few toads (like Ivan, in the pic) and tried the food thing with garden toads.

Really amazing amphibians. And they're great around gardens - they keep a lot of pests away from plants.

Just some interesting stuff to share today.

Barren Fields

2010-01-30T17:05:43-05:00

Winter fields. Barren. Desolate. Windswept by arctic chill. All that stands are remnants of what was.

But what was will be again.

No effort required. Just time, just the cycle of Earth and Sun.

Catching Up

2010-01-24T07:33:10-05:00

Back online after a week of techno-hassles.

Seems I somehow download a trojan or two, probably a week ago. Don't know how - I don't spend all that much time online, go to strange sites, play online games, or do apps where the viruses and trojans lurk. And my anti-virus software is MicroTrend, which is pretty good.

Anyway, I tried to scrub out the trojan with the anti-virus software and then tried to manually uninstall the file but couldn't.

Ended up calling the computer guy. The trojan changed some of the config files, so he had to rebuild the drive.

He told me that no anti-virus software is 100% perfect. Sometimes a new threat comes out before the anti-virus companies get hold of it. Sometimes the trojans or viruses get buried in other files. Sometimes a bunch of them attack at once and the anti-virus software can't stop them all.

He said it's a good idea to have one or two anti-malware packages in addition to anti-virus (but never more than one anti-virus, because they conflict with each other). So now I have Trend Micro (anti-virus) and the free versions of Malwarebytes' Anti-Virus and Super Anti-Spyware. With the free versions, you have to download new definitions and run the packages manually; the $ versions do it automatically. So anyway, if you don't have anti-malware, might be a good idea to check it out.

The computer guy said the anti-virus and anti-malware software makers are getting really sophisticated. Used to be they combated bad stuff on the basis of names and code. Nowadays, the anti- software combats viruses and trojans on the basis of their behavior. He thinks that someday viruses and threats are gonna be a thing of the past - but that's at least five or ten years away.

Anyway.

Balmy weather around here. Might hit the late 40s today. And there's only 55 days 'til spring. And I might be catching a cold. Have that scratchy-throat, cough thing. Bummer.

Some things I read this past week ...

I read that Kate McGarrigle died (1946-2010). She and her sister Anna have been singing together since the 70s. They're sorta folk, with a touch of blues thrown in. Most of their stuff is under the McGarrigle sisters. Google them if you want.

Also keep reading about Haiti, and the heartbreaking stuff going on down there. Haiti was once a beautiful land, rich in natural resources. And over the last few decades, 98% of the land has been clear-cut, messing up the landscape and the economy. It will be years and years before that nation recovers.

Also read about a study showing that curiosity is one of the keys to a long life. Might mean I will live a long time.

And anatidaephobia is a fear that ducks are watching you. Just in case you're wondering.

The Barren Trail Just Before the Snow

2010-01-10T07:29:04-05:00

Beckoning

Empty

Dark

Suddenly Illuminated

Stillness

2010-01-08T20:48:03-05:00

Winter. Everything is quiet and still.

Bitter Cold

2010-01-03T14:44:38-05:00

This is one true winter weekend. Snow, coming down light but steady. Have shoveled three times.

And it's bone-chilling frigid.The kind of weather that takes your breath away.

The ice and snow is beautiful in its own way. But it's stark and powerfully desolate.

Hard to believe that seeds and bulbs and life all dwell in the frozen earth. Hard to believe that the first flowers of the year will greet the spring sunshine just 70 or 75 days from now.

About Fences

2010-01-02T15:11:19-05:00

Fences separate places and people. And ideas.

High winds can blow fences down.

High winds of the spirit can blow away fences of the mind and the soul.