Today is Sunday, February 8 and there are only eight days until Presidents’ Day, the next three-day weekend.  Today we remember the birthdays of Samuel Butler, Jules Verne and Gary Coleman.  On this day in 1693 William and Mary College became the second college chartered in the US, in 1861 the Confederate States of America organized in Montgomery, Alabama and in 1969 a meteorite weighing one ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico.  In Norway it is Narvik Sun Pageant Day, it is Boy Scouts Day worldwide and in the US it is National Kite Flying Day.

While the Boy Scouts were founded in 1907 by Lord Robert Baden-Powell in Britain, the Boy Scouts of America celebrate their birthday today.  In 1910, Chicago publisher William Dickson Boyce filed incorporation papers in the District of Columbia creating the Boy Scouts of America.  Since then, the Boy Scouts have had a great impact on the US.  Many presidents and other dignitaries have been Boy Scouts.  A total of 181 astronauts have been a part of the scout program.  Just thought you might like to know that.

This past week I had to endure an experience that everyone dreads – Jury Duty!  The rule is that you can only be called after three years have passed since the last time you served.  I think that my name is on the must call list because it seems like I am called every three years.  I talked to people down there who had not been called for five years.  I met others who were there for the first time even though they were over 30 and have lived in the county since they were kids.  In the past I did not mind too much because it was a break from going to work every day, but now I am retired and they are infringing on my free time.  I could be sitting around watching TV or reading or playing games on my I Pad.  Instead I had to drive down there and sit around watching TV or reading or playing games on my I Pad.  Yeah, I know it’s the same, but it’s the principle of the thing.

So, there I am in a room with a couple hundred people and we are watching a video telling us how important our responsibility is.  The people on the video thank us for being there.  Like we had a choice!  I guess we did – we could be there or have a bench warrant issued for our arrest.  The video goes on to talk about us fulfilling our civic responsibility.  I always thought my civic responsibility was to shovel my walk after it snowed and not throw garbage in the street.  How much am I supposed to be responsible for?  … but I digress

The video finishes and a clerk comes into the room and swears us in as jurors.  We do not have to say our name and they have no way of knowing if we actually all say I do.  I wonder if a verdict could be thrown out if a juror claimed they never said I do when they were sworn in?  Oh well.  Now we all just mill around waiting for the dreaded ping on the PA system to let us know they are about to start calling names.  It comes and the first group is called for a case.  I was in the first group called.  Yippee!

Off we go to the assigned courtroom and you look around and can tell that everyone is trying to come up with something to say that cannot really be checked, but will sound plausible enough to get them thrown off the panel.  If I were a criminal I think I would opt for a trial without a jury.  I am not sure I would want a group of people who were angry because they didn’t want to be there, deciding my fate.  “He’s guilty!  If I have to sit here for two weeks and listen to all this stuff, then he is damn sure guilty, even if he isn’t.”  

Fortunately, I was able to escape serving on the case I was called for.  I went back to the jury room and spent the balance of the day hoping not to hear my name again.  I didn’t, but I did get told to come back the next day to try again.  The following day I was fortunate enough to meet up with a couple people who were in the same group from the day before.  We started to chat and the morning was going along nicely, when suddenly there was a ping and the first list of names was called.  We were not on it and had barely finished our sigh of relief when the next ping sounded.  We made that list and trudged off to the next courtroom.

One of the group got trapped and two of us escaped.  We got back to the jury room and were told our service was done and we could leave.  I beat it out of there as fast as I could just in case they realized they had made a mistake and called me back.  My civic duty was done.  I had shoveled my walk, I had not thrown garbage in the street and now I had served my term of jury duty.  I was so spent, I went home and took, what I felt was, a well deserved nap.

This week our fact tells us that if a person farted non-stop for six years and nine months and then lit it, he or she would produce an explosion equal to the power of the first atomic bomb.  My questions are – what would they have to eat to do this and why would anyone bother to figure something like this out?  I would think that the time figuring that out could be better spent figuring out how to keep this person from farting for six years and nine months or how to keep him or her away from matches or a lighter.