Thursday, May 16

In Some Little Corner of The World -

The other day I clicked on the TV
to catch the Noon News a bit early . . .

ABC's The View was still airing. I was taken by complete surprise when the Welsh crooner, Tom Jones, arrived in the spotlight and began singing Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen. It blew me away. I kept saying "Oh, wow!" It was an unusual treat, now being shared on YouTube.

# Easy Rawlins is back! Tanya Ballard Brown reviews
Walter Mosley's new mystery novel, Little Green at NPR.

# And Carl Hiaasen's newest
offering, Bad Monkey, is expected
to make its debut around June 11th.

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MIA Gold Heist -

It's the kind of crime
you have come to expect from SoFlo:

a shipment of gold bullion snatched from transit through the Miami Int'l Airport. Last seen being wheeled around a corner, then it seemingly vanished.

Half a million in gold from Ecuador has become someone's much dreamt of pot of enchanted fairy fortune somewhere over the rainbow.

Miami is certainly the setting for a number of TV series in which crimes like this so often take place: Burn Notice, CSI Miami, and other such weekly dramas, which usually solve the mystery within their allotted hour.

But, contrary to appearances in this caper, SoFlo law enforcement officers are no amateurs in the transmittal of valuable shipments, whether it be armored car cash pickups or precious metals. Generally accomplished via convoys with elaborate strategic planning and military precision execution, these operations are actually not so unusual.

Thus, there is no reason to believe that this gold can move through the ether into a permanent state of Oblivion.

South Florida is now necklaced by a network of high tech highways which may lack gun towers, but are embedded with highly sophisticated surveillance equipment. If satellite cameras can photograph a pack of cigarettes in your shirt pocket, a shipment of gold does not have much of a chance of going too far AWOL for very long.

The FBI is coordinating the investigation.

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Tuesday, May 14

A Breezy Browse -

Matthew Walther reviews an enjoyable book of email exchanges between two literary figures: Frederic Raphael and Joseph Epstein at TDB.

# Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, a light and humorous beach read, is new in paperback for this summer.

# An essay about Italian caffe
espresso vs American coffee by Sara Davis.

# Patti Smith writes about a French
author who inspired her: Albertine Sarrazin.

# Mike Ripley's latest column.

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Sunday, May 12

Truth or Consequences, Italian Style -

The Prosecutor from Perugia, Dr Giuliano Mignini (JD), has filed a complaint against the Italian magazine OGGI for publishing excerpts from Amanda Knox's memoir in Italy which are alleged to contain false and defamatory claims about him, according to a new report by Andrea Vogt. John Follain has filed a report about this, too.

:: OGGI article in English ::

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