:
FL VAMPIRE CASE
IN FRENCH TV MOVIE -

Some similarities to the Meredith Kercher
murder case in Perugia; nor is that unique:

*Vampire-cult leader Rod Ferrell claimed he would live forever... Ferrell's followers called him their "maker," wore black clothes, black lipstick and black nail polish, and drank one another's blood.*

French filmmakers are revisiting the case for a documentary set to air on French state TV in May.

:: SF Sun-Sentinel ::

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:
BRIEFS & LOOSE LINKS divers (6#) -

# On The Media: Their theme this weekend is the conflict in Iraq and the Media. "Finding A Voice" is the only segment which looks interesting to me. I'm not sure I want to sit through the rest of it. [otm]

# An interview with Dr Tawfik Hamid, 47, who
attended school with Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri. [pjh]

# Security concerns about the Pope's upcoming visit to
NYC in light of Skippy bin Laden's accusations. [nysun]

# A graphic presentation showing the spread of
mosques in Paris and throughout France. [brusj]

# Some internet surfers are expressing their dismay that western corporations seem to be engaged in complicity with China's efforts to identify and hunt down rioters in Tibet.

# In the aftermath of Iran's "elections," authorities have issued a new clampdown on the Media. Nine magazines have been shut down under orders from the judiciary, while another 13 have received a written warning.

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Bookish: WOULD YOU BELIEVE? (6#) -

# Evil organization named KAOS: "An obtuse chucklehead who nevertheless unfailingly got his man, secret agent Maxwell Smart was such an inspired creation that he has proved as indestructible as his two forebears, Inspector Clouseau and James Bond."

I believe they're promoting a DVD, but it's a wonderful, nostalgic and fun article about the Get Smart TV show.

# A Florida Mystery: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming Pools by Joshilyn Jackson is reviewed by Ann Oldenburg, who enjoyed it. A teen girl is found dead in a backyard swimming pool inside a gated community in Florida.

# Dark Doings & Misdeeds: An atmospheric Polish thriller, the first of the author's work to be translated into English. Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski, translated by Danusia Stock, published by Quercus, and reviewed by Claire Allfree.

# Brief reviews of three foreign mystery novels.

# SNEAKS: Sneaker Wars by Barbara Smit reviewed by Mike Esterl. A colorful history of the competition for the athletic shoe market, beginning with Adidas and Puma.

# And the last (?) word on the Paris Book Fair.

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:
SoFlo: THE ENGLISH DRAIN -

The latest news is more of the same:

Broward County FL is losing its population: 13,154 more people left than arrived during the past year, according to U.S. census estimates released today...

Since 2000, three out of every four new
Broward residents were foreign-born.

And very few people here speak any English.

:: SF Sun-Sentinel ::

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:
Bookish: TESLA, TERRORISTS,
and SOME SPRING PEEKS (6#) -

Synopsis: A terrorist bomb explodes in Grand Central Station. On the same day there is a hit-and-run death in Greenwich Connecticut. The police detective investigating the auto incident comes to believe that the young man who was run down was not a random victim, but the target of a killer. And the detective wonders if the vehicular homicide is connected to the terrorist attack in New York City.

In Otto Penzler's latest Mystery column at the NY Sun, he reviews The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross. He says this one is packed with lots of plot twists and gives it a thumbs-up as a thriller.

# Nikola Tesla is becoming a Modern Cult Figure! Paul Constant reviews the novel The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt and a few other books. He's got yer Tesla books on tap in Seattle... woowoo...

# For Book Worms: In The Library at Night, Alberto Mangel lovingly explores the enchanted domain of books, both ancient and modern. Review by Eric Ormsby.

* * * * *
Spring Previews and Roundups:

# In his roundup, Fiction's Travels, Benjamin Lytal grabs an armful of selections and covers a lot of territory which I won't even attempt to recap here. But at the end, he mentions some other new books to keep an eye out for this season, including: a Tobias Wolff by the end of March and a Jhumpa Lahiri in April.

# A Spring Book Preview
by Barbar Hoffert at the Boston Phoenix.

# Some Spring Book Picks
by Giles Harvey at the Village Voice -
which is not as good as it used to be.

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:
SoFlo: TV CORP GOING SPANISH (2#) -

Buries The Lede -

NBC Universal plans to sell their local English-language station WTVJ Miami, but they are keeping Telemundo, their Spanish-language TV station.

"In Miami, a major Hispanic population center, NBC Universal also owns the Spanish-language Telemundo network and Telemundo station WSCV-TV, which an NBCU representative said is not up for sale."

+ Will The Miami Herald be next? I hope not.

::marketwatch:: ...and... ::tvweek::

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MIAMI HERALD GOING ALL SPANISH? -

Is Miami about to become the first U.S. city
to have a Spanish-language-only newspaper?

Since the start of Sunshine Week, The Miami Herald has been throwing up a wall to block online readers of its English-language edition unless they surrender an E-mail address, which many are loathe to do.

This practice will inevitably reduce traffic to its English-language edition, the prospect of which may used to phase it out altogether as commercially unfeasible, leaving only its Spanish-language edition as its footprint here.

:: Miami Herald ::

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MEET THE NEIGHBORS (5#) -

THE POSTIES: William M Hartnett is the Online Innovations Editor at The Palm Beach Post and
he has a blog.

Hartnett is married to Kathleen Chapman
who also has her own website. [via]

* * * * *

THE RUSCOE FAMILY: A couple of thousand youngsters crashed the birthday party of an 18-year-old girl; their rampage causing thousands of dollars in damage and leaving the family in a state of shock.

"One chap was caught removing the refrigerator door."

Police officers with dogs eventually
dispersed and expelled the horde.

* * * * *

:: Twittering Tibet :: and more -
from Chris Vallance at Pods&Blogs.

...

:
CAMEOS OF IRAQIS -

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who we once knew simply as "G," has been shortlisted for foreign correspondent of the year in the British Press Awards.

In Tuesday's piece, he returns to the city where he was born to interview current residents there. This piece features a humble school teacher and illuminates the circumstances under which he is trying to teach.

"Ali was appointed principal of the school in place of the former Ba'athist headmaster who fled the area fearing for his life. The militia that appointed him now controls the streets and decide how the school should run."

:: The Guardian ::

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SoFlo: BLOCKING THE SUNSHINE (2#) -

It's the start of Sunshine Week "when newspapers nationwide shine a light on the need for open records and open meetings laws that keep elected leaders accountable and help preserve government of, by and for the people... Honor Florida's open government mandate with laws that expand access to information."

Sunshine Week illuminates free-speech issues: "As part of 'Sunshine Sunday' observances, Carrin has collected essays by students in a contest designed to get kids and teachers talking about how First Amendment freedoms belong to all - not just those who own printing presses or broadcast licenses. More than 800 entries have been screened by the Department of Education. Crist will announce a winner - awarded a $5,000 scholarship - on Tuesday."

+ It's an interesting coincidence that The Miami Herald's way of celebrating Sunshine Week is to start blocking its content on the occasion.

...

:
DECOUPLED & UNHINGED (3#) -

# Jennifer Harper gives us the rundown on a new report about the state of American Journalism, but it seems to really focus on the state of the American News Media Business. These two topics are not synonymous.

*Advertisers... have yet to migrate to the Internet... "The crisis in journalism, in other words, may not be strictly loss of audience. It may more fundamentally be the decoupling of news and advertising," the study said.*

# It is disappointing to note that the Romenesko Blog at Poynter Institute Online has been disseminating false and misleading information about The Miami Herald. Their recent descriptions of the current Herald practices would lead readers to believe that one must register in order to comment at the Herald website. This is not the case.

The Herald is now blocking all access to their website with a wall which demands an E-mail address. There is no legitimate reason why they need my E-mail address, and they're not going to get it. I guess I expect more from the Poynter Institute, which is based in Florida, than this kind of misinformation.

# "McClatchy Reports
Steep Declines in February" [E&P]

+ Demanding readers' E-mail addresses
and harassing us by trying to invade
our privacy is not going to help them.

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:
OVER THE WEEKEND (4#) -

# Saturday Night Live had a funny opening skit over the weekend, spoofing the Spitzer press conference. I watched it, but didn't stick around for the rest of the show.

# NY Magazine's Daily Intelligencer catches us up with the Spitzer story developments over the weekend, in case you've been suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Their recap includes some hyperlinks. And Spitzer is, of course, their cover story this week.

# At the WSJ Law Blog, Dan Slater elaborates on one aspect of the NYMag recap cited above: *the authorities are interested in hotel-room charges during trips Spitzer took to West Palm Beach, Dallas and Washington, where he might have arranged to meet prostitutes... [they] are now seeking records involving payments to Kristian B. Stiles, Spitzer’s political fund-raising consultant.*

# Also at the WSJ today, James Taranto: "We're now back in our Manhattan apartment with a broken leg and a wheelchair; all that's missing is Grace Kelly and a murder-mystery."

...

:
BOOK FAIRS: PARIS & RIYADH (4#) -

*Riot police were out in force yesterday for the opening of the annual Paris book fair in an effort to prevent trouble at a show that has become embroiled in the Arab-Israeli conflict... Le Monde, the most august French newspaper, finally denounced the boycott yesterday, calling it "an absurd, shocking, hostage-taking of literature." The Paris Book Fair regularly features 3,000 public book signings, 1,200 exhibits, 250 meetings and conferences and hosts 180,000 visitors.* Report from Charles Bremner in Paris.

RIYADH BOOK FAIR A SUCCESS: There may have been some gray movement under the radar, but my lips are sealed ;-) New trend noted: the popularity of author-autographed books. Report from Mariam Al Hakeem.

:: Ahmed from Saudi Jeans Blog attended
the Riyadh Book Fair. See his report here.

:: Fun Fact: Ahmed attended a conference in Cairo
in late Feb where he met the inimitable Sandmonkey!

...