We don't know what it means either.
Blawgletter's trial in October and November allowed us to question potential jurors. The judge's protocol for voir dire — we say vore die-er in Texas — gave us all of 30 minutes. What to ask?
A half hour goes by in a flash. So, yeah, we had to prioritize. A bunch.
One thing we didn't try to do: convince jurors that our side should win. We saw our top job not as persuading but as finding the stinkers. And stinkers, as a rule, will clam up on you if you start arguing your case; they'll hide because they want on the jury to vote against you.
We also smiled, gave thank yous (especially for answers we didn't like), and generally tried to project knowledge, enthusiasm, and credibility.
The night before voir dire, our jury consultant made a list of questions. He also told me he really likes "the bumper sticker question". The BSQ = what bumper stickers do you have on your car?
The suggestion made Blawgletter roll our eyes. Also cringe. The BSQ seems so . . . goofy.
But we feel less skeptical now. We got through our other questions briskly and so had time for the BSQ. And what did we learn?
One guy said he had three stickers on his vehicle — including "Nobama" and "Read My Lipstick".
Another's advertised his interest in mountain-climbing.
A third said his bumper stickers refer to his involvement in iron-man type athletic events.
You could say that only the first venireperson's bumper stickers gave us useful information (and in fact we struck him with a peremptory challenge after the judge denied our challenge for cause).
But people who slap any bumper sticker on their car, regardless of what it says, tend more toward aggressiveness and narcissism. (Hat tip to How We Drive.) Can you say candidate for foreperson?
