300 Sandwiches did jury duty this week.

Most people find it annoying. I thought it was a great block of time I could use to finish writing the 300 Sandwiches book (February 2015, people!). The Brooklyn courthouses all have wi-fi now, so you can take your laptop and get work done while you wait for you name to be called.

People-watching during jury duty is a sociological study—the courts assemble a cross-section of your peers each day to decide these cases. In fact, the New York Post ran a story a few weeks ago about how gentrification in Brooklyn is affecting the court system.

From my experience, I can report a growing subsection of jurors entering jury pools—raw vegans.

When I arrived, a guy who was about six foot two and looked like a computer programmer sat next to me. He and I were the only ones on Apple laptops for the first half of the morning. I thought I had a blood brother here at jury duty. Until he pull out a trough of raw carrots, celery and cucumbers. A huge bucket of raggedly cut raw vegetables—no proteins. It looked like Mr. Ed’s breakfast. He stabbed at the veggies in between typing on his computer.

Then, his name was called. Good luck, Ed!

Around 1 PM, we broke for lunch. In proximity of the courthouse are plenty of places to get a sandwich—Panera Bread, Potbelly’s, Hill Country BBQ, Shake Shack, and Hale and Hearty. I couldn’t bear the line at Shake Shack, but I grabbed a Thai chicken flatbread sandwich from Panera and felt quite satisfied for my $7.19, thank you very much. When I returned to the courtroom, I sat in the lounge area adjacent to the main courtroom where you’re welcome to sip coffee or have a snack.

Then, a woman with two nose rings and a blonde pixie haircut sat across from me. She took out her lunch—greens with cucumber, and cabbage. Next, she took out a side of alfalfa sprouts and splayed the sprouts on top of the salad. In her tote bag, another head of romaine lettuce, and in her other green tote were three or four cans of organic baby food and ANOTHER big box of alfalfa sprouts! By the way, she only used olive oil and black pepper for seasoning. I wanted to scream at her, “girl, you’re not doing life right. Go to Shake Shack!”

This is the civic minded Brooklyn public for you. Grass-eating, raw, organic and vegan everything. Let this be a warning to any defendants coming through Kings County courtrooms—you might want to rethink wearing those leather shoes during your trial.

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