They have WiFi in the jury rooms, for $9/day. I already had my PowerBook set up as a development machine, so I didn't have to have a connection to work on code, but it certainly helps.
It's pretty quiet, as things haven't really started back up for the year. Everyone who started yesterday was released today.
I walked around Chinatown during the lunch break. My favorite thing I saw: gas-powered rice cookers for sale whose boxes said "We're Changing The World!"
I had lunch at Chanoodle. I can't really recommend the soft-shelled crab, but the fried baby silver fish were excellent -- a bit like the little fish in the Italian fritto misto.
Now I'm back in the jury room. What's with all of the people using the desks to sleep on them? Of course they also choose the ones at the ends of the rows, so that one has to climb over them to get to a free one.
The building, 60 Centre Street, is beautiful once you look beyond the metal detectors and bureaucratic detritus. It was built in the teens of the 20th century, and designed by Boston architect Guy Lowell (1870-1927) in a Roman classical style. The handout they had in the jury room says he was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. There is a magnificent dome painted with a continuous mural showing the evolution of law from the Assyrians, culminating [sic] with the United States. He originally wanted to build it as a round building, but compromised and designed it as a hexagon. Economical considerations (a round building would cost more to construct), plus the fact that the judges were dubious of courtrooms with curved walls, forced the change.
