gracielee
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This is kind of O/T but since we are in the "verdict watch" period and it may be over before I get back here, here's my moderately interesting story.
When the OJ verdict came down, I was in Geneva presenting at the technical symposium at Telecom World '95. This is an enormous networking/telecom trade show in this massive exhibition hall called Palexpo. The size of the place is beyond description -- over 1M square feet. Some of the temporary booths within the hall are 3 stories tall and have elevators.
At every Telecom World event, there is some kind of detectable "theme" of bleeding edge technology. In '95, it was early digital TV (to become HDTV). So, there were these big splashy booths everywhere with dozens of TVs all over them showing off this new technology.
The verdict came very late in the day Geneva time -- probably around 6pm. Many of the visitors had left since the show closes at 6pm, but there were still some stragglers and thousands of people who work the show were still there. Some of those hundreds of TV's were tuned in to CNN International. When news of the impending verdict broke, all booths started changing their TVs to CNNI. Soon, the whole place was filled with the sound of CNNI.
To start with, it was mostly only the Americans who were paying attention to the verdict. But, like drivers stopping to watch a car wreck, people of all nationalities and races eventually stopped in their tracks to see what everyone was looking at. The place fell eerily quiet except for the sound of CNNI echoing through that massive exhibition hall.
So, I never will forget standing there in shocked disbelief hearing that verdict with people from all over the world. For a few of the following minutes, there was still near absolute silence as people were trying to process what had just happened and many of the non-Americans were trying to figure out what the big deal was.
It was just a surreal experience.
I remember the look of complete shock on Kardashians face. Even he couldn't believe it. He knew O.J. was guilty.