You go granny!

Thanks to reader AO for this one:

"Imagine having grandmotherhood on trial in your courtroom. This is the awkward situation in which Judge Neil Ross finds himself in Manhattan Criminal Court," writes Anemona Hartcollis in The New York Times.

Eighteen women calling themselves grannies (all old enough to have grandchildren, although apparently a few of them don't actually have urchins of their own) have been on trial in Manhattan Criminal Court for an anti-war demonstration in front of the military recruiting station in Times Square last year. In a scene that (as Hartcollis recognizes) mirrors Miracle on 34th Street, the grannies made the trial a referendum on grandmotherhood itself. Poor Judge Ross; he must have had visions of political boss William Frawley lecturing judge Gene Lockhart on what would happen if he were to rule that there is no Santa Claus.

The grannies not only had a clever legal strategy--their protest last October was clever too. They claimed that they went to the recruiting station to volunteer to give their lives in place of younger people. The police said they were blocking the station's entrance.

I love this description of the defendants: " These are not resort grannies, with dyed hair and manicures. For the most part, they have let their hair go gracefully, defiantly gray. Some carry canes; others use walkers. Ms. Runyon [a spry youngster of 91], whom the judge allows to sit next to the witness box so she can hear, wields the white cane of the blind."

It's a wonderful story. Follow the link above and read it.

LATE NEWS: The grannies won! Judge Ross, a jurist with a clear eye for truth, justice and the American Way (and maybe his political future as well) found them innocent, declaring that they had left room for anyone who might actually have wanted to be recruited that day.

Sometimes, the good guys (or good grannies) win.