The Eclectic Chapbook

Leaky Patches (2#) -

2012-02-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

Patch is an ambitious venture into
Local News coverage. How's it doing?

If you want to believe the corporate hype, it's doing just great. Jim Romenesko has posted some entries about it, explaining that he had a fling with a local journo enterprise himself.

Patchers began leaving comments at Romenesko, and the corporate powers didn't appreciate the loose lips.

Adam Martin reports at The Atlantic Wire.

* * * * * * *

What happens when Tabloid
Show Biz columnists cover Terrorists?

Marina Hyde has the story at The Guardian.

...

Books: Their Own Write -

2012-02-09T23:06:00.000-05:00

Owen Bowcott reports that the
Nightjack blogger is planning to sue
The Times of London for damages.

Patrick Kingsley gives some
context and perspective to the case.

# The February issue of Bookslut has been posted,
including a feature article about Stefan Zweig.

# Nathan Englander has a new
book of short stories in bookstores.

:: David L Ulin reviews it at the LAT.

:: WSJ :: - - [ tablet ] - - [cap ny]

...

Wild Pig Welcomes Home Owner -

2012-02-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

After the police arrested the pair of alleged squatters last night, the wild pig managed to escape. An FPL employee who routinely comes equipped with dog biscuits helped to recapture the boar. Once the boar was finally secured, a pair of prairie dogs surfaced and then a tortoise appeared.

Police are investigating whether the human couple found in the home were squatters or legal renters victimized by some sort of rental scam. The New York owners of the property arrived at the residence to make the unexpected discovery that their home was already occupied and called the police.

The bomb squad confiscated the grenades.

...

Pig in The Wrong Blanket -

2012-02-08T02:34:00.001-05:00

It was a Tuesday evening. It was raining on
and off, when a call came in to the station house.

A man arrived at his Miami home to find a pair of squatters there with drugs, a handgun, some grenades, and a pig inside his home.

Trouble was that neighborhood had recently been rezoned as strictly residential and no domestic livestock is allowed there anymore.

:: Solution: Call the Bomb Squad!

...

SoFlo: Pill Walkathon Query -

2012-02-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

It may be a big story here this week, but it's not a novelty in law enforcement history when drugs from the evidence room escape into the wild.

In the case at hand, the Medical Examiner's Office is supposed to keep dangerously potent pain pills from those who've died of a drug overdose for a period of time.

Allegations have now arisen that the drugs were poorly guarded, accounted for, and maintained. Some may have gone missing and may even have been resold on the street.

No doubt there will be intense
scrutiny on this situation for while.

...

SoFlo Misery -

2012-02-05T21:36:00.000-05:00

A severe housing crisis, crime, and political
corruption put South Florida at the top of the
list of Forbes' most miserable cities in America.

:: The Sentinel doesn't seem
to link to the original article.

...

Destinations Without Maps (3#) -

2012-02-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

The Nightjack Case has never become strictly past tense. The betrayal of the police officer blogger still seems to resonate, so that we can't just turn the page and put it behind us. A much belated inquiry continues.

How's Jim Romenesko doing? Dan Reimold has written a nice feature piece at PBS on the former institutional blogger/aggregator. Romenesko's independent blog has been developing into a real destination. He blogs with a livelier hand, a newly recognizable voice, and a more conversational style. His new blog covers a wider range of Media-related topics, some of which may be viewed as a bit quirky.

It turns out that Romenesko came out of a somewhat quirky background. He used to document the world of Zines. Some might regard zines as a precursor to blogs. Reimold links us to this other world as Jim reflected on it last December.

...

Special Deliveries -

2012-02-01T00:02:00.000-05:00

Extra-Terrestrial Ambassador
Julian Assange, who was awarded the title of
Honorary Guide to Humanity in December,
is now up for another distinction.

He will appear as himself, though
in animated form, in The Simpsons
upcoming February 19th episode.

...

Book Briefs (5#) -

2012-01-31T02:11:00.000-05:00

Game Changer: Amazon could have a devastating impact on the publishing industry, according to Jordan Weissman.

# Victoria Janssen reviews a Historical Mystery set in 1936 Hungary called Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor.

# Susan White reviews a Mystery Novel about
Cults called The Color of Death by Michael Cordy.

# Sam Sacks reviews At Last by Edward St Aubyn. This is autobiographical fiction in which a person of considerable means nevertheless suffers hardships.

# Tim Parks comments on
the state of Contemporary Fiction.

...

A Loathsome Betrayal -

2012-01-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

The exposure of the police officer who was writing the Nightjack blog has come back to haunt us again.

The constable happened to be an outstanding writer. His Nightjack blog won the Orwell prize. One can't help but wonder if the reporters were envious of his talent.

The details of this betrayal are only now beginning to ooze out of the Leveson Inquiry.

The Public lost something of value in
the elimination of that constable's perspective.

...

A Weekend Rich in Books (6#) -

2012-01-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

Stirring The Pot: Jonathan Franzen, speaking at the Hay Festival in Cartagena Colombia, argued that e-books do not have the durability of the printed artifact.

"The lives of heiresses
are complicated matters."

Emma Straub reviews three
memoir books about Heiresses.

* * * * * * *
This weekend, the LA Times Book Review section is outstanding. Some of the highlights follow.

# Wael Ghonim's memoir Revolution 2.0 is reviewed by Scott Martelle. Described here as "an engaging read" of the inside story behind the Egyptian uprising against the Mubarak regime.

# A review of Gil Scott-Heron's memoir The Last Holiday. Lynell George writes that this book illuminates some of the heretofore obscure corners of the subject's thinking.

# A movie has been made of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, a ghost story, reviewed by Nick Owchar. Due to be released soon, Owchar says this is an effective, faithful rendering of a harrowing tale.

# A printed storyboard artifact linked to online multi-media is reviewed by Susan Carpenter. Chopsticks is being called a novel for young adults which presents a fictional romantic story in an inventive and compelling way.

...

Brief Links (4#) -

2012-01-25T23:49:00.000-05:00

Egyptian Tech Geek Wael Ghonim has written a book called Revolution 2.0 which is reviewed at TDB. Also reviewed there: Liberation Square by Ashraf Khalil.

# Should Crime Fiction have
a moral point? Several writers discuss
this question at Noir Nation Int'l.

# BV Lawson has posted about
a Breakthrough Novel Competition
and other interesting deals. [inref]

# Roy Greenslade on a famous tabloid headline.

I've had technical problems today. First, I kept getting disconnected, then the Net seemed to slow to a crawl for me. I don't know what was going on. Solar activity disruptions?

...

Notes From Florida (4#) -

2012-01-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

In an ever-spreading
surveillance network . . .

increasingly covering much of Florida, the NDI Technologies corporation has supplied about 50 police departments in Florida with cameras which scan license plates.

# A Columbian man who was pulled over by police in Kissimmee for his vehicle's registration, was arrested for possession of $6,500 in counterfeit U.S. money.

# During a recent party in his home, Raymond Gsell is believed to have been strangled and robbed. His wife Judy and her companion Dawn Ruthann Ross have been charged with his murder. The elderly man's body was later found in his freezer.

# A former 34-year-old Pinellas-Pasco prosecutor
has pleaded guilty to trafficking in oxycodone pills.

...

Dept of Obscure TV -

2012-01-22T23:05:00.000-05:00

I tried to watch an episode of Detective Beck Saturday night, but couldn't maintain focus on it throughout. I hadn't taken a nap before it and, possibly, I was overtired. This was one of the first detectives in the new wave of Scandinavian Crime series.

Meanwhile, I must have been surfing around the TV dial after that, because when I first turned on my TV on Sunday morning, I discovered a new weird show called Dark Oracle, which, I believe, was on the This TV channel at 39.4 locally. I had never heard of it before. It's of Canadian origin.

I've been having connectivity problems this evening.

...

Weekend in Jaipur (4#) -

2012-01-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

This weekend there is a major Literary Festival
in Jaipur, India. Margherita Stancati writes
about it at the WSJ here.

:: Oprah Does Jaipur ::

:: 10 Books To Take Away ::

:: At The Hindu ::

...

Casey: Elevators & Networks (2#) -

2012-01-19T15:18:00.000-05:00

Frothing rednecks screaming "Hide your kids!" descended upon the Cross Church Compound in Palm City FL, just a burning pitchfork removed from a hanging noose.

The Media Circus has come to town with their flashing lights, satellite trucks, and videocam jockeys, led by Miss Thing herself, Diane Dimond - isn't she special!

Although church officials have asked the Media to stay away, it seems like they're being ignored. Police are patrolling the perimeter of the compound.

This congregation can, of course, simply keep passing Casey Anthony around in their underground network indefinitely.

Some churches maintain such a network to aid battered women hide from violent and vengeful ex-spouses, a bit like the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves.

Meanwhile . . . back in Orlando, the Sentinel newspaper has herded the obstreperous Casey Reject crowd into their Entertainment section, where the vox pop has evidently fueled up on pork rinds, cheese curls, and beer to dispense their opinions, mostly repeating the same slogans over and over again.

It's the million dollar Private Elevator deal
which is winding them up this morning.

...

Casey Deal Rocks Palm Beach -

2012-01-19T03:11:00.000-05:00

A lawyer acting as broker for a consortium of private investors confronted critics, hecklers, and naysayers on Wednesday at The Palm Beach Post.

Staff Reporter Jane Musgrave disclosed that Delray Beach attorney Spencer Kuvin has been waging a bidding war for an exclusive interview with Casey Anthony. Kuvin, acting on behalf of a very tight-lipped Private Elevator Productions company, was offering a cool million.

The comment thread exploded!

Meanwhile, folks in Orlando have been reacting to claims by Diane Dimond that Casey Anthony has been given sanctuary in Pastor Steve Camp's Cross Church complex located in Palm City FL. Dimond's article at The Daily Beast was then referenced by the local Orlando Media.

I was busy for much of Wednesday and away from the Internet. When I did get back Online, I was surprised by these recent developments.

...

FL: Rude Wakeup (3#) -

2012-01-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

A sleepy beachside Starbucks in Florida was invaded early this morning by a raging masked man wielding a hammer who lost no time in assaulting employees there along with a customer who tried to stop him. After a brief foot chase he was quickly arrested, but no one has determined the motive for his attack in Indian Harbour Beach.

# A 41-year-old woman has been charged with the theft of 130 sticks of men's deodorant in Fort Pierce. In a series of rapid raids, she hit a supermarket and a couple of pharmacies, after driving in to town from Fort Lauderdale.

# Samuel Kaye, the most recent owner of the famous Wolfie's Restaurant of Miami Beach died Sunday at the age of 94, according to the PB Post.

...

Between Poles & Pooches -

2012-01-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

Since recent reports have claimed that
Casey Anthony is living in Port St Lucie, an adult bar there has put out an invite for her to sign up as an exotic dancer.

I once knew a gal who worked her way through graduate school doing that.

I think she should volunteer at the local animal shelter and see if she likes working with animals. If so, maybe she could learn how to clip poodles and groom terriers.

Although there is sheer insanity raging in the Orlando Media over this, folks on the Treasure Coast seem pretty cool
about it.

...

Bookish Briefs (5#) -

2012-01-15T04:14:00.000-05:00

Set in one of England's large estate homes, the fictional Walbrook Manor, which is being converted to public usage as a museum and arts center, this novel resembles an Agatha Christie mystery with witty dialogue. Described as very entertaining. NPR's Maureen Corrigan reviews

:: A Charitable Body by Robert Barnard.

# David W, a library aide, describes a couple of Margery Allingham books he has just read, Mystery Mile and The Tiger in the Smoke, in a nicely written blog post from Seattle.

# Memoirs: The Tender Hour of Twilight
Richard Seaver was one of the movers and
shakers behind Barney Rosset's Grove Press.

# True Crime: The Case of Alyssa Bustamante.
A teenage girl murders her neighbors' 9-year-old child.

# The success of Amanda Hocking in self-publishing her vampire ebook has been all over the Net, but not like this. Chris Fowler has a blog entry about it which goes into more informative detail. I think it's a great development for people who want to do it.

...

Deadly Vortex (4#) -

2012-01-14T00:37:00.000-05:00

Casey Anthony is being stalked . . .

In tonight's breaking news, WKMG TV Orlando has posted a story that a reporter at People Magazine has announced that he's "figured out" that Casey Anthony is living in
St Lucie County.

A smartypants reporter at Scripps TC Palm adds sightings with specific particulars to the People reporter's announcement:

"The sighting occurred at the intersection
of Darwin and Port St. Lucie Boulevard."

Then it was posted at the Orlando Sentinel.

And it's on #CaseyAnthony at Twitter already.

Do you think they're
preparing for a badminton game?

...

Migrating To Soaps 2.0 -

2012-01-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

ABC's One Life to Live came to an end today . . .

It was an old fashioned Soap Opera from the era preceding Fan Fiction, the Internet, audience engagement measured in clicks, and viral memes.

But Soap Opera continues, morphing in ways more consistent with our contemporary culture, and the ABC TV Network has been no slouch at venturing into these new realms.

These days, ABC has been pioneering a combination of Reality TV, Soap Opera 2.0, and Mockumentary in their depictions of the cases of Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony,
and others.

...

Longer Reads (2#) -

2012-01-12T23:54:00.000-05:00

Is Boca Raton
an acquired taste like raw oysters?

Mystery writer Steven M Forman's protagonist retired there, but it wasn't the end of the road for him.

Eddie Perlmutter has reincarnated in South Florida as a Private Eye. And with all the crazy stuff that goes on down here all the time, his new career could never be boring.

Terrie Farley Moran writes about the Boca phenomenon at Criminal Elements.

# The Winter 2011 issue of Nieman Reports explores the transition from reporter to author. It looks like a heavyweight edition that doesn't lend itself to a straight read; more like a collection to dip into when you have some extra time to explore and see if there's anything interesting there.

...

FL Noir Net Stories (3#) -

2012-01-12T16:22:00.001-05:00

Net Used For Rolling John: A Florida woman has been accused of using an Internet dating service to arrange a rendezvous with a 27-year-old Daytona Beach man who was later found fatally shot and robbed of his identification, wallet, money and cellphone.

# Lee County Sheriff Deputies recently subpoenaed F*cebook and Comcast in order to determine the origin of threats to chop off a woman's head with a machete in the Fort Myers area of Florida.

# Sarasota city officials have been accused of secretly deleting emails to evade the Sunshine laws. The Sylint company which has been investigating the matter confirmed that a technical flaw in the system could have allowed the possibility of accomplishing this during a 24-hour window of time. An estimated 11,000 emails may have been erased from the public record by exploiting this flaw. Rumors of shady conspiracies are swirling.

...

From: The Dept of Obscure TV (2#) -

2012-01-12T00:20:00.000-05:00

MHz Worldview International Mystery series is about to undergo a change, although it's hard to predict how it will affect each individual branch of the network syndication.

They have announced that they are going to expand the series to a nightly basis instead of a weekly show.

Meanwhile, on Sundays we have been watching Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series. At first, I found it a bit jarring to hear German being spoken against the backdrop of Venice, but I learned to mostly ignore that. I liked the actor who played the protagonist for the first few episodes, but then a different actor took over the role.

Why is this series which takes place in Venice being produced in German? We usually presume in such a case that it's because the financial consortium which produces it got German money. But that's not quite the explanation here.

In another of Chris Arth's outstanding feature pieces, we learn that Donna Leon actually lives in Venice and was only sufficiently comfortable with a TV series which would be at some distance in order to better ensure her privacy and personal safety. I could really relate to that.

Venice is known for its qualities of light, so beloved to generations of painters. This production company has been blessed with a cinematographer who demonstrates a heightened sensitivity to almost elusive moments of beautiful shifting light.

In a recent episode he carefully captured the interior of a villa or palazzo, the walls of which had been washed with a pale pinkish rosy tint of a pigment like Tuscan Red and, for a moment, some incandescent bulbs radiated a yellow glow within the room's embrace.

The last episode showed what happens when Venice floods with Acqua Alta. It can be very messy to get around!

:: MHz International Mystery ::

:: Donna Leon ::

...

Books: Brief Mystery Links (7#) -

2012-01-10T01:48:00.000-05:00

Pico Iyer is haunted by the writer
Graham Greene and writes an essay
on how our inner landscapes influence us.

# Adam Woog reviews some new
books that pay homage to Victorian Crime.

# Hugh Ryan talks with the Danish authors of
The Boy in the Suitcase, a Scandinavian Mystery.

# Patrick writes about the biography of a
now mostly forgotten mystery author,
a woman who called herself Craig Rice.

# Matt Parish interviews William Gibson
for his new nonfiction collection,
Distrust That Particular Flavor.

# Donato Carrisi writes about the background to his new novel, a phenomenon he calls "whisperers." They are mastermind psychological controllers who influence suggestible people to commit crimes.

:: The Whisperer reviewed
here by Blogger Lauren. [Violin in a Void]

...

Straits: Visit Appeal (2#) -

2012-01-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

A Brazilian invitation to attend
a documentary film screening has
prompted Blogger Yoani Sánchez
to issue an appeal to Dilma Rousseff,
President of Brazil, to help her depart
from and return to Cuba in response
to the invitation.

Yoani has attempted to leave and
return many times before without success.

::Guardian:: - - - ::Telegraph::

...

Stolen Faces (2#) -

2012-01-08T20:13:00.000-05:00

"It was not authorized, therefore it had
to be obtained criminally by an illegal act."

--Casey Anthony's lawyer, Cheney Mason.

What does this mean?

To the best of my knowledge, when you possess photographic images or the likeness of someone, you are legally required to have a properly signed Release Form for the material. If you cannot produce a properly signed Release Form, you are not in Lawful Possession of that material. It does not matter how you came into possession of the material.

What happens if you cannot
produce the legally required Release?

What usually happens next is that the lawyers who have authority over the material issue a formal Take Down notice to you, with which you must comply or face the consequences, which can be very expensive.

Why haven't the lawyers
issued the Take Down notice?

Lawyers often work on multiple cases at the same time. They are probably busy with another case at the moment and haven't had the time to get to it yet.

Additionally, in my opinion, CaseyTrackers crosses over the line into the realm of the unacceptable. Stalking is a crime. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of behavior.

Casey Anthony is not "in hiding." She is living under the constraints of the Justice System, with which you should not be interfering.

Orlando really needs to get its act together because it is rapidly becoming the armpit of the nation with this case. Most normal people around the rest of the country think this kind of behavior is obnoxious, disgusting, and maybe even pathological.

...

Stalkers & Flash Mobs -

2012-01-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

More people have come forward claiming they posted
Casey Anthony's intellectual property for public viewing on the pretext that huge sums of money were being exchanged over the material, mandating the necessity to sabotage this financial transaction.

They are depicting themselves as righteous vigilantes who are correcting a perceived injustice. All they want, according to them, is to be celebrated as simple folk heroes for destroying Casey Anthony.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amelia Sobel is claiming credit for making some of Casey Anthony's material public because Sobel is angry that Casey Anthony is allegedly making $50,000 for the material, but Sobel has not provided any evidence of her allegation.

Another vigilante stepping forward to claim credit is "annechantal1," according to WKMG 6 in Orlando. Anonymous sources are attributed for this TV station's
latest story.

Fantastical gossip is being widely circulated and an entirely fictional soap opera has been invented to justify their stalking of Casey Anthony, her family, lawyers and anyone who has even a remote association with her. Stalking is a crime!

Evidence is no longer required to publish this plethora of obviously malicious trash and derogatory pseudo-psycho babble. And the reporters never question this imaginary junk nor do they ever make even a feeble attempt to disguise their blatant malice.

"She will get a life sentence soon enough
for torturing and killing her little doggie."

Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her child. There is no evidence that she has tortured or killed her little doggie.

Flash Mobs used to be fun. They were originally organized to do funny dances in normally quiet public places. They added a lively moment in the otherwise prosaic routines of everyday life.

More recently, though, we have seen them used to commit crimes like robbing stores.

The obsessive stalkers of Casey Anthony seem to suggest a new criminal use for Flash Mobs: they can be used to set someone up to be murdered.

Voila! You've got a Flash Lynch Mob.

...

Muzzled By Lawyer -

2012-01-07T02:47:00.001-05:00

more on Casey Anthony . . .

A Kansas man has just generated a vortex of controversy about his alleged connection to the hacked video blog made public on YouTube.

Rob Hensley of Olathe refused to answer any questions from Fox 4 TV based in Kansas City at the direction of his lawyer, Curtis Sample.

Fox 4 KC reveals that the YouTube description of the video material asserts that it was posted by a F*cebook user named Rob Hensley of Olathe, Kansas.

It was previously claimed by a man named Jon Briley that he "found" the video material on a pay-per-view website and made it public in order to prevent Casey Anthony and her lawyers from using it for financial gain.

Do either of these men have connections to any of the vigilante groups which have targeted Casey Anthony?

Death threats are not protected speech!

...

Media Vigilantes -

2012-01-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

Casey Anthony Windups . . .

Self-styled vigilante groups with names like
"Snuff Casey Anthony" have been permitted to spew their vile filth on the comment threads of numerous News and Entertainment websites since the video blog material was posted on the Internet.

WKMG Local 6 TV has uncovered one of the vigilantes who claims he posted the video blog excerpt on YouTube. Jon Briley claims he "found" the video material on a pay-per-view website and that his reason was to prevent Casey Anthony and her lawyers from financial profit. I don't believe any of that. I've never heard of anyone's medical records posted on pay-per-view before and I strongly doubt it happened in this case either.

It seems more likely to me that Briley posted the video material for public viewing to enable the other self-styled vigilantes to identify Casey Anthony by sight since she changed her appearance. They intend to stalk her, track her down, and put a bullet in her head. Any group calling itself "Snuff Casey Anthony" is not about cake decoration.

"Someone really needs
to kill this crazy b*tch."

-- from a comment thread on WFTS/TV

The Mainstream Media which has willfully provided a platform for these vigilantes has created a toxic Media Environment conducive to this kind of violence.

What's this all about? It's about bullying. A bully looks for someone weak and vulnerable like a wolf stalks a herd of sheep and targets the lamb that is limping. Casey Anthony looks like a damaged person. Bullies can sense that and are attracted to damaged people just like they would target a woman who has a club foot and a visible limp.

Death threats are not protected speech, but the bullies believe they can get away with it because some Media organizations are in the business of winding them up. And then things just seem to spiral out of control so that no one has to take responsibility for the results.

...

Hacked VLog -

2012-01-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Lynch Mob Louts Still
Fixated on Casey Anthony . . .

A volatile situation erupted here in Florida earlier today when the TV News at Noon broadcast clips from a Video Blog being kept by Casey Anthony in an undisclosed location.

Despite her lawyer's statement that the video material was hacked or released without Anthony's authorization, angry commenters on MSM websites complained that Anthony and her lawyers stand to egregiously profit from the material under a YouTube advertising revenue sharing program.

As a proliferating number of News and Entertainment organizations posted the information on their web sites, hysterical commenters flooded into the comment threads airing their emotional grievances, expressing unreasoning hatreds and issuing death threats.

The MSM's attempts to deliberately stir the pot with this VLog material only demonstrate that there are a lot of emotionally disturbed people poised to commit violence at large in our society these days.

But we already knew that!

:: Click Orlando: Leaked ::

:: Transcript ::

...

Pentacle Heist (2#) -

2012-01-04T19:44:00.000-05:00

Kingston Pierce was just blogging about a revival of interest in reporter Carl Kolchak and his investigations, when a case pops up here in Florida which looks like it might make Kolchak's nose twitch.

Sean Kinney reports from the Florida Keys that a suspect picked up by the police for robbing a McDonald's of almost two thousand dollars from the drive-through window claims he was forced to act by a black man wearing golden fangs and a pentacle emblazoned on his forehead.

:: Pierce on Kolchak ::

:: Keys: Kinney ::

...

Top Tens and Reviews (3#) -

2012-01-02T15:30:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year again . . .

One of the most popular reviews of the past year
in our region is written by humorist Dave Barry
at The Miami Herald. Enjoy!

This is a List of Florida's Weirdest Stories from the past year (in two screen pages) which was compiled by the AP organization.

Similarly memorable in a local context - just off the top of my head - was the story about a spectacular daytime raid conducted on a Home Depot store by a pair of transvestites, which I blogged about just after it happened.

A Cold Front is due to arrive here tonight and is expected to prevail for the next couple of days.

...

The Night They Burned The Books -

2011-12-31T01:18:00.000-05:00

On the night of
December 29-30 in 1940 . . .

the Nazis dropped incendiary bombs on London and burned down nineteen churches, thirty-one guild halls and all of Paternoster Row, the book trade district. St Paul's Cathedral survived, but an estimated five million books did not.

:: Wikipedia ::

:: BBC London ::

...

SoFlo: Odds 'n Ends (3#) -

2011-12-30T16:58:00.000-05:00

I am adding
a couple of links to the sidebar . . .

Alesh Houdek wrote a highly acclaimed local blog for a while which ended its run. Lately, Alesh seems to be concentrating more on his freelance writing, but he does still maintain a blog on which he posts entries once in a while. Alesh brings a different angle to the local blogosphere. Born a Czech, he brings a more European perspective to South Florida.

The Tampa Blab Ag apparently went toes-up. I am replacing it with the best substitute I could find, because I believe it is worthwhile to link to other hubs.

# Geniusofdespair from the Eye on Miami blog went on a field trip to visit Genting's Gambling Establishment in Queens NY. He describes the visit on a recent blog entry. Those who wonder about what may be in store for Genting's Miami Mushroom Complex may find some clues there.

# The professional journalists seem to think that the Casey Anthony Case was the biggest story in Florida over the past year. Well, it was big in the Orlando area, but not so much elsewhere on the peninsula. Here in SoFlo, more people seemed to focus on the glitzy Scott Rothstein Case, because folks here are more apt to go for the glitz.

...

Notes From Florida (4#) -

2011-12-29T20:38:00.000-05:00

.
Stuck in Fantasy Land . . .

The Orlando area of Central Florida: During the period between Christmas and New Years, many of the Theme Parks there reach capacity and have to be closed to any additional guests.

The Magic Kingdom and several other Fantasy destinations had to be closed yesterday for this reason. This situation can also result in massive traffic backups.

.
# Yore Outa Here!

A 69-year-old woman was arrested and thrown into jail because the police "did not know how to read" a printed temporary restraining order from a judge.

Although the woman has no criminal record, her attorney said the police were belligerent, sarcastic and irresponsible.

Florida and Mississippi are the two most pervasively illiterate states in the country. More from Tonya Alanez.

.
# Canine Calling . . .

A clever pug in Vero Beach dials 911
and can perform many other service tasks.

...

Tech Notes (6#) -

2011-12-28T18:27:00.000-05:00

Does your apartment complex, condominium or
neighborhood have its own Blog? If not, why not?

Jake Mooney describes what some real estate
agents and developers hope is a new trend.

# "Well, the long tail has hit
the book business, and hard...
Lots of choice, not a lot of whistles.
And no bells." Seth Godin explains:
:: the New Normal in ebooks.

# Have you noticed an overload of
infographics displacing text online lately?
Blogger Kevin Marks explains what's up wid dat.

And, as a bonus, we get to learn about some lulz.

# The AnonymousIRC Twitter channel
has a post stating that "Stratfor is not the
harmless company it tries to paint itself as."

Meanwhile, the AntiSec folks and
Sabu do a lot of trash talking on Twitter.

...

SoFlo's Horsey Priority (2#) -

2011-12-28T01:31:00.000-05:00

"This was someone's
Christmas dinner, no doubt."

Despite that astute assessment, ABC-Local 10 TV accords Horses the priority concern in this story, with absolutely no regard, compassion or empathy for the human beings who may have been hungry enough to kill the animal. I encountered such a human being last night, begging in a nearby parking lot.

I like horses, too. My extended family owns and maintains horses which are lovely creatures. But this news organization demonstrates its seriously perverted priorities in this story and gives commenters the opportunity to express contempt for hungry humans.

"Normal" people will eat almost anything if they get hungry enough: possums, raccoons, and even snakes. That's how a lot of rural people survived The Great Depression. And some people will even eat horses.

ABC-Local seems to be reporting from a helium-filled bubble somewhere in outer space like a bunch of decadent clowns.

:: Later, at The Miami Herald,
we discover it was an abandoned horse.

...

In The Air and On The Radio -

2011-12-26T18:45:00.000-05:00

I apologize for abandoning readers in the middle of what appeared to be an obituary, but I've been very busy today and still have some unavoidable tasks to take care of.

I think it was very tacky of The Miami Herald to publish such a downbeat article on what should be the joyous holiday of Christmas. Doesn't anyone in management there have any mature, adult judgement anymore? Well, it wasn't demonstrated this Christmas.

The passing of NYC Radio Talk Show Host Lynn Samuels marks the passing of an era. As the tributes pour in, I think her radio colleague Jay Diamond put it best when he said:

"I hope Lynn haunts me."

Lol, Jay, you are priceless!

Lynn had a special significance for me, because we were chronological contemporaries. Lynn was also a member of the War Baby Generation. There are relatively very few of us; thus, they often call us a "sliver" generation.

What played a role in the educational theories that helped to shape us was the reaction of Americans - especially German-Americans - to what the Nazis did to German children during the Third Reich. Educational leaders wanted to indoctrinate us in such a way as to make American children resistant to such efforts. Lynn's mother was a teacher.

It became one of the existential responsibilities of our generation to carry out that task and to encourage people to "think for yourself."

What was Lynn like on the radio? She sounded a bit like the woman who plays the voice of the mother in the cartoon TV series The Simpsons. Lynn was born and grew up in NYC and she never divested herself of her New Yawk accent.

She also never forgot that one of her responsibilities on the radio was to entertain listeners. She performed, more or less, in the Free Form radio format. Sometimes she did some monologue and sometimes she interacted with telephone callers. And you never knew what might happen on her show.

Her passing marks another, much sadder, signpost on the road: some people could not resist making bitchy remarks about her in public. This shows how much the public discourse in America has coarsened over the last generation, which is not a welcome development.

I will try to post some links to tributes later when I have more time. Meanwhile, if you care to slog through them, there are many reactions already posted on the New York Radio Message Board.

:: wikipedia :: Lynn Samuels ::

:: New York Radio Message Board ::

...

OBIT: Lynn Samuels -

2011-12-26T14:11:00.000-05:00

.
New York City Radio Legend

Lynn Samuels has died.

Maybe more later . . .

:: David Hinckley ::

...

Drugs, Copper & the Hell Brueghel -

2011-12-25T17:03:00.000-05:00

This is surely the Christmas of
the Hell Brueghel here in South Florida . . .

"Evening soars down with
silent wingbeats, joining
A velvet Brueghel to this
Brueghel of hell." --Louis Aragon

As you make your way to the convenience store in the evening to replenish some small staple you've unexpectedly run out of, you can hear the moans of the tormented souls sleeping rough in the alleys here. They reach out to grab at your ankles. They haunt your passage in their pain and desperation. They fill not only the alleys, but the parking lots, the parks and hidden courtyards.

Law enforcement authorities here, in the midst of our current financial depression with soaring unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures, have embarked on a new anti-drugs initiative, especially aimed at synthetic opiates. The inexorable result of their crusade will surely be more copper thefts, disrupting all the regular services of telephone, air conditioning, and street lights, etc. As they push forward to cut off supplies of the opiates, they continue to degrade every last shred of the Quality of Life which tenuously remains.

As the habitable housing around us continues to be aggressively demolished so that the real estate can be flipped for profit, they manufacture hundreds more homeless people who have nowhere else to go. Churning the population here and keeping them transient effectively disempowers them by disenfranchising them of their vote, so that this machine can endlessly perpetuate itself and remain in control like a malignant tumor that cannibalizes the body it feeds off.

This is a holiday pageant of torturous Auto-de Fe.

:: Miami Herald :: The Pain Problem ::

...

Blogging Notes -

2011-12-24T19:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

And thank you to The Miami Herald for
fixing our SoFlo Community Blog RSS Feed :-)

Yes, they're baaack! What a pleasure it is to
be able to browse it once again. [see sidebar]

I discovered it's back up and running
yesterday, when a reader visited my
blog using it as the vehicle to access me.

So enjoy!

...

Brief Foreign Dispatches (5#) -

2011-12-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare and Company is a bookstore and hangout in Paris. George Whitman, its founder, died last week at the age of 98. Tim Martin writes a feature portrait about it.

# Egyptian protesters held a large rally in Tahrir Square demanding that the military step aside and be replaced by a civil government. Women played a prominent role in it.

# Will Oremus reports that Al-Shebaab in Somalia is now on Twitter. Should the Feds shut them down?

...

Late Media Briefs (3#) -

2011-12-22T22:28:00.001-05:00

In A Flash: Fans of the Community comedy
TV series gathered at Rockefeller Center
in New York City in a Flash Mob to persuade
NBC not to dump their favorite show.

* * * * *
A glowing report that the 154-year-old publication The Atlantic, home of Ralph Waldo Emerson, has been shifting to Cyberspace with great success.

Unexpected Halo Effect: "The dramatic growth in digital audience has in turn driven demand for the magazine, because so many more millions are now aware of it."

...

Klepto Journo Reactions -

2011-12-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

The battle is heating up between
The Miami Herald and The Huffington Post . . .

But what is this all about?

Bill Cooke, who blogged the original allegations
of impropriety, is primarily a photographer.

Mathew Ingram has reacted with
a sophmoric "you just don't get it!"

I'm afraid we do get it. We've been around this block already once or twice in recent years. There was a bitter conflict about this issue up in Boston recently, for example.

"these accusations are nonsense"

This is really a rather more complex situation than Mr Ingram espouses. One could emerge from a legal scrutiny process technically blameless and yet not smelling like roses in the eyes of the public.

Indeed, something like this just happened to Jim Romenesko. He didn't do anything wrong, but his employers tried to give him the appearance of that. Why?

Maybe they had a Pre-Nup with him and were looking for an excuse to wriggle out of it. There is often more to these situations than at first meets the eye.

Bloggers should try to become familiar
with the basic ground rules of Fair Usage.
And then, try to follow them in good faith.

How did this Puff Toast vs Miami Herald Incident start? The photographer Cooke may have felt that his livelihood was being threatened by The Puff Toast because its new existence could adversely impact The Miami Herald which may be a source of income for Cooke.

The edge here is to MClatchy, parent company of the Herald, because McClatchy is run by Gary Pruitt who was originally the company's FA lawyer. But Pruitt is not going to do anything rash.

People need to take the opportunity to discuss their differences and then try to work them out. Most of the rest of us really don't have the time to get deeply involved in these matters.

:: GigaOm ::

...

Notes From Florida (4#) -

2011-12-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

Sebastian Del Marmol reports that
Occupy Fort Lauderdale has intervened in a
seemingly strange Coconut Creek eviction case.

# Lamberti's Angels: One of the Reality TV gals is under investigation by Internal Affairs for shooting at an unarmed man during a traffic stop.

BSO Deputy Erika Huerta, who has been participating in the TLC Cable TV series Police Women of Broward County, remains on active duty.

The traffic stop was not taped
by the TV show's cameras.

# Ongoing Pluck Off Case: A Broward judge has slashed the $200,000 fine against a family for keeping some chickens in their backyard to $100. The family was accused of violating local zoning regulations. Tonya Alanez has the latest details.

# Creepy: Disappearing Panties Case vanishes.

...

More Klepto Journo Accusations (3#) -

2011-12-22T15:00:00.001-05:00

The Puff Toast has been caught up in a dispute with the NY Times over the use of the Parentlode name for Lisa Belkin’s new parenting blog.

The Puff Toast has now agreed to
drop the use of the disputed name.

The Puff Toast has also become involved in a dispute with the Miami Herald for allegedly violating the Rules of Fair Usage or for over-aggregating, Jim Romenesko reports.

Is this a Content Farm or a legitimate Blog?

I don't read The Puff Toast.

...

$120 Cigarette Hammer Attack -

2011-12-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

Police have made an arrest in the attack on Yue Kui Cen, a Miami convenience store owner, who was sprayed with a disabling liquid and bludgeoned with a hammer for two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes which may be worth
about $120.

The attacker caught on video tape in Alex's Mini Market is alleged to be 50-year-old Rodobaldo Sanchez, who has been charged with armed robbery and attempted murder.

:: WSVN ::

...

Quick Reading Links (6#) -

2011-12-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

Denise Gonzalez reviews Pharmacology
by Christopher Herz, which is about:
drugs, youth, culture, and the Internet.

# One Gal's Umlaut by Nora Ephron [via]

# LAT has fired blogging pressman, Ed Padgett.

# The Best CityReads of 2011

# Best Weird Fiction of 2011

...

Slammed For Smokes -

2011-12-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

Now that a carton of cigarettes costs over $50 in this area, the typical brutalization of our Quality of Life is escalating.

Over and over again we have seen people throw one another off roofs, supply trucks hijacked and their drivers shot dead, and all kinds of mayhem. At first, the Local Press covers it, but after a while, they claim it's not a novelty anymore, so they stop covering it and, instead, conceal it.

One customer at Alex's Mini-Market, a small convenience store in Miami, took a sledge hammer to the owner of the store, then grabbed two cartons of Marlboro Reds, and ran off. The more these ripoffs happen, the less the police can keep up with them all.

What is happening is the result of a deal benefiting the BigPharma companies. It is probably the largest government-sanctioned transfer of funds since the Nazi confiscation of Jewish assets during the Third Reich. They are sucking millions of dollars out of local neighborhoods like a giant vacuum cleaner. That money never recirculates through the local community ever again. And, of course, they are totally destroying people's Quality of Life in the process.

Boiling The Frog: The public's reaction to it is generally a growing desensitisation to the brutalization of their Quality of Life. At first, they claim such incidents are bizarre, then they shrug it all off. As a result, it only gets worse and worse.

The more the public accepts that cigarettes should cost $55 a carton and that a carton of cigarettes should be the price of a human life, the more hellish life will become.

:: WSVN :: - - - :: Miami Herald ::

...

Media Antics (6#) -

2011-12-21T00:23:00.000-05:00

Preservationists want the Miami Herald Building designated a Protected Landmark. It's a distinguished building? Really? Naaah. Just save the sign and mount it on another building.

It is unfortunate that the architectural drawing of the Genting Gambling Complex looks like a fungus colony, but this preservation tactic is not going to improve the situation.

# The Daily Mail does a Reverse Ferret on Foxy Knoxy; a clever reader nails it on their comment thread.

And The DM implies that Amanda Knox has a fan club!

I'm just guessing that her fans come from the same demographic niche as the fans of the Teen Slasher movies like Scream, Nightmare on Elm St, and the rest.

"It coulda been me instead of my roommate!"

Knox coulda just stepped out of one of
those movies from a teenager's perspective.

# Ira Stoll writes an analysis of the shift from Employee status to Independent Contractor or Freelance status and what's behind it at the NY Times. There's been a lot of this kind of thing going on lately elsewhere, too.

# There may not be a Foxy Knoxy perfume available this Christmas, but Reality TV character Snooki hasn't been a slouch about putting her magic touch to an array of goods.

It now emerges that her relationship with the company that was supposed to make the goods available in stores hasn't been very harmonious.

Snooki Polizzi, the diminutive guidette from the Jersey Shore Reality TV series, has been slapped with a $7 million lawsuit by the merchandising company that was supposed to market her stuff.

...

Notable Digital Migration (2#) -

2011-12-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

Clyde Haberman is transitioning . . .

from the local Metro section of the NY Times print edition to its City Room Blog Complex, which has several facets or channels. His channel is called The Day.

I do not know whether it is behind the paywall or not, but his latest piece is a nice example of his writing. It is about the evolution of a bookstore with lots of worthwhile contextual information.

:: NY Observer :: Haberman Moving ::

...

Books: In Truffle Time (3#) -

2011-12-18T23:51:00.000-05:00

Rich Westwood's favorite discovery of this past year is the crime fiction of French author Pierre Magnan, featuring the detective Commissaire Laviolette, as noted at Eurocrime.

# Speaking of the French . . .
Xavier Lechard is a big Mystery fan who
blogs in English from France at The Villa Rose.

# And, speaking of Bloggers . . .
Sarah Weinman has a new
Blog called Off On a Tangent.

...

Knox: Stressed Or Stoned? -

2011-12-16T17:31:00.000-05:00

Corriere della Sera has provided a synopsis of the written explanation report of the Italian Appeals Court verdict in English in regard to Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

So far, this report looks like a massive drugs coverup.

The principal engine behind the report seems to be the illicit drugs trade problem in Perugia. The report appears to be a maladroit attempt to misdirect the public's attention away from the illegal drugs involved in this situation by sanitizing the drugs out of Perugia.

:: Corriere della Sera ::

...

Knox: Explanation Released (5#) -

2011-12-15T22:19:00.001-05:00

The Italian Appeals Court has released its written explanation for overturning the first verdict in the case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

Caution: first reports sometimes contain errors or inaccuracies which are corrected in later reports. This information should be considered preliminary reportage.

The principal reasons for this verdict seem to be: inadequate evidence to support the Prosecution's case and lack of credible motive.

Different legal systems have differing styles of verdicts. In the Scottish system, for example, I believe they have a third alternative: Guilty, Not Guilty, and Case Not Proven.

We do not know at this point if the inadequate evidence refers only to the forensic DNA material or to something else.

It is the second reason which is apt to become a lightening rod attracting criticism and debate. The issue of credible motive may never be resolved to the Public's satisfaction. Because of the admitted involvement of illegal drugs, the case may be used by both pro- and anti-drug groups to advance their agendas.

By an informal consensus of those who have followed cases over a long period of time, two previous cases form a backdrop to this case due to some similarities and may help to shed light on some aspects of the case at hand:

These two cases are The Preppy Murder Case and The Lori Berenson Case. Those who wish to expand their understanding, may wish to read up on those two cases.

A distinction should be made between the legal case and the story. The legal case may come to be resolved, but the story may continue beyond the legal resolution.

:: BBC :: -- [A.Vogt] -- [N.Squires]

...

Bookish: Who Goes There? -

2011-12-13T22:20:00.000-05:00

"Whistle up the Devil has got to be
one of the most fiendishly ingenious
impossible crime novels ever written, period."

Patrick Ohl investigates an obscure
fan of John Dickson Carr who wrote
Whistle up the Devil as an homage to Carr.

In the process of his research,
Patrick discovers there was a lot more
to Derek Smith than he had expected.

Patrick decides that the hitherto obscure
Derek Smith deserves to be better known.

:: Patrick Ohl on Derek Smith ::

...

Cool Million For The Car People -

2011-12-12T15:52:00.000-05:00

The Poynter Institute in St Petersburg FL reports
that $1 million in donations has come forth to assist homeless children living in vehicles in Central Florida after a CBS 60 Minutes piece about them aired on Nov 27th. I didn't see that show.

What about the homeless people in South Florida? Here in Broward County we have homeless people sleeping in parks and alleys. We have well-dressed men in tailored suits sitting in parking lots weeping and begging, while the authorities here continue to aggressively demolish the housing around here.

I have to have faith that things will work out, but my current neighborhood looks like a horror comic book by Hieronymus Bosch.

When I first moved in here, they said they were planning to revitalize this neighborhood as an artsy area, convert empty storefronts into art galleries, and encourage creative people like artists and writers to move in, but they haven't lifted a finger to do any of that. Instead, they've expanded the blight.

There was a laundromat a block away; it's gone now. There isn't even a laundromat within a half-mile of here now. Across the street sits a vacant lot now on which they are storing some kind of huge industrial machinery which is a real eyesore. It's just gotten worse and worse here.

Because it's the Tourist Snowbird Season, there is bound to be a temporary shortage of lodgings here now, but after "The Season" ends, it's usually like a Ghost Town here.

The rosy picture they once painted to persuade me to move into this area is rapidly turning into dust.

:: Poynter: Million Donated ::

...

Bookish Briefs (5#) -

2011-12-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

Jake Kerridge writes a tribute to author Gilbert Adair who has just passed on. Adair concocted some high-spirited pastiche whodunits featuring sleuth Evadne Mount.

# Chauncey Mabe tells us that
Alan Moore and Frank Miller are feuding.

# Paging Doctor Who: "A new film version aimed at America has been mooted, with the BBC’s collaborators (who made the Harry Potter films) declaring that nothing is sacred."

# The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide

# J Kingston Pierce's Top 10
Mystery and Crime Novels 2011.

...

The Manipulated Mannequin -

2011-12-09T03:02:00.000-05:00

Meredith Kercher Murder Case -

A Distributed Conversation means a
conversation which takes place across Blogs.

Who says the body was moved?

Answer: The Silent Witness.

This means the evidence the victim leaves behind for the Forensic Pathologists, the Medical Examiner's Autopsy, The Coroner's Inquest, etc.

When death occurs, the heart stops pumping blood throughout the body, and the force of gravity prevails. The blood in the cadaver settles into the lowest points by gravity. The pattern of settled blood should match the position of the cadaver upon discovery. If it doesn't, it means that the cadaver has been moved. In the Case of Meredith Kercher, the cadaver was not only moved, it was manipulated as if it were a store window mannequin. It was played with like a Barbie Doll. Articles of clothing were rearranged and removed, based on blood marking evidence. People who play around with corpses tend to have very sick minds.

Every crime scene tells a story. This set of Crime Scene photos is among the most macabre I have ever examined. I have been following criminal cases since the Nuremberg Trials. Regardless of what some hecklers may spout, the Italian forensic pathologists on this case were not incompetent.

In the photos, there are indications that someone worked themselves up into a Frenzy. And this killing could not have been accomplished by one person, unless he was an octopus. Then, too, this was a victim who was killed and rekilled over and over redundantly. This was a crime scene that got completely out of control. It became Berserk.

How can a person behave one way in one town, but behave entirely different somewhere else? This phenomenon is called Fugue. Psychiatrists are familiar with it.

Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher were housemates; they were not friends. Roommates and friends are not synonymous. The fact is: they were housemates, not friends. To say that housemates or roommates are friends is pure fantasy. I've had numerous roommates at different times in my life. Maybe you've led a more sheltered life and don't know any better.

Too many people in America are doped up on psycho-active drugs, regardless of whether they are legal or illegal. They impede one's ability to separate Fact from Fantasy. Please, do us all a favor and get off the drugs.

Sharon Feinstein is doing research and investigation, which is very courageous of her. She should be commended, not harassed. Stories like the #7 Pergola Case do not end in an hour like the story on a TV program or in a Movie. In real life, the story will continue even after the Courts have their say. Life will go on, and the story will go on, too.

...

Knox: Lamp Apocrypha -

2011-12-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

Amanda Knox's desk lamp was removed from her room and transported to Meredith Kercher's room, where it was discovered by CSI.

The Commentariat on the Internet continues to mythologize the significance of lamp, often with wild flights of fancy and much embroidered Red Herrings. It has become clear over time that the purpose of most of these lamp speculations is simply to confuse the public.

Unfortunately, that desk lamp was the only source of illumination in Amanda Knox's bedroom, according to her own courtroom testimony.

Without that lamp, that room was in complete darkness.

Thus, no passerby would be able to see the lamp's location or even learn of its very existence in her bedroom.

Only someone who actually lived in the cottage would know there was a lamp in that room. And only Amanda Knox would know its location.

The judge actually stopped the courtroom proceedings to question Knox at length about the lamp.

It appears that the people in Perugia wanted to get rid of this case. Maybe that was because of the endless repetition about illegal drugs.

They decided that Amanda Knox was not going to be an Italian problem anymore, and I can't blame them for that.

How much can a Press Agent alter a situation?

They can dress a dancing bear in a tuxedo,
but they can't turn him into Fred Astaire.

...

Media: Ways and Means -

2011-12-08T19:47:00.000-05:00

Employees of the public relations company Belle Pottinger have gotten caught trying to remove negative information about their clients from Wikipedia.

Paid To Plug: Stealth TV commercials masquerading as TV News. Paul Farhi writes about an example of this practice.

* * * * * * *
Homelessness is an almost entirely taboo topic in the News Media of South Florida where the Press is strongly oriented toward pandering to the Tourist Industry and mostly emphasizes promotional material. CBS 60 Minutes recently did a story about Homelessness in Florida, but the focus was on Central Florida.

"Florida is home to one third of America's
homeless families living without shelter."

"That includes people who live
in cars, under bridges, in parks."

Actually, there are many homeless people sleeping in the parks here in SoFlo, in parking lots, and even in the alleys, but it is rarely if ever mentioned.

Connie Schultz adds in the comments:

"You also know that I question our country’s priorities when children like those profiled in the 60 Minutes story live in their fathers’ truck while a public university signs a new football coach to a $4.4 million contract."

Only children shouldn't sleep rough?
But it's just fine for adults?

The authorities here are still continuing to demolish and destroy habitable housing units and are aggressively manufacturing more homeless people, despite an already existing housing shortage, but no journalists are investigating their activities here.

...

Many People Are Concerned -

2011-12-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

The Amanda Knox Situation . . .

From Nick Provenza at The Seattle Times:

"Some folks have criticized Knox for trying to cash in on her ordeal and the death of her British roommate while others remind readers that her family and friends went into great debt to support her during her trial and incarceration. What do you think?"

Many people have said that they are concerned about this case because of what happened with Joran van der Sloot.

Most adults do not believe Amanda Knox is "cashing in," due to the high expenses of travel and legal fees incurred, etc. It has been reported that her grandmother remortgaged her house to help pay these expenses.

It's not money the public is concerned about at all.

The Sun People believe they are at war against The Mud People. Knox is wearing a prominent sun symbol emblazoned on a tattoo between her shoulder blades.

Some people are concerned about a possible repeat of the #7 Pergola incident here in the United States.

This has been The Airhead Edition of the News.

Now, back to your regular programming.

...

The Credibility Gap Years -

2011-12-05T19:28:00.000-05:00

DC-based lawyer Robert Barnett is reported
to be orchestrating the book-packaging of a
Foxy Knoxy Not A Spaghetti Slasher Memoir.

But former lover Raffaele Sollecito is
not about to be lost in the dust of yore.

He is said to have inked a packaging deal with
Seattle-based Martin Literary Management.

:: The Daily Mail ::

...

Knox Case: Astroturf Veto (4#) -

2011-12-05T12:16:00.000-05:00

The Infestation This Time . . .

A British freelance reporter has produced a piece of investigative journalism on the Perugia Case for which, it now appears, the publication in which it was published secured only the UK Print Rights. Since the writer retains certain rights to her own material, she subsequently posted it on her own website where it is being made available to readers beyond the UK.

The practice of copyright law today is becoming increasingly complicated. Here is a partial list of the issues which can be involved: print right, first rights, international rights, serial or syndication rights, electronic distribution rights, audio rights, etc.

Investigative Journalist Sharon Feinstein travelled to Perugia where she interviewed the warden and former cellmate of Amanda Knox when the young woman was remanded to the Capanne facility as a Guest of the State.

The reporter is currently being mobbed on the comment thread of her blog by those who are trying to bully and intimidate her into stopping any further enterprise investigative journalism on this case.

This kind of phenomenon is also being experienced in the Orlando area lately. Every time the Sentinel newspaper there publishes an article on the Casey Anthony Case, a mob shows up on their comment thread with similar behavior. That mob is now being referred to there as "the mouth-breathers." The St Petersburg Times has experienced similar difficulties because of a cult located in their area.

Any enterprising reporter who newly comes to this case at this point obviously needs to bring a can of some kind of repellent spray.

...

Islands In The Sphere (2#) -

2011-12-03T13:12:00.000-05:00

A couple of quick foreign updates . . .

Egyptian Blogger Big Pharaoh declares
the new Republic of Heliopolis. [humor]

The current regime in Cuba
has established a digital social networking
destination called Red Social which is
closed off from the rest of the world.

...

The Get List (2#) -

2011-12-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

Massive Vampire Slayer Fascination!

Well, did she or . . .
didn't she slay the vampire?

One would have thought that interest in Amanda Knox had subsided by now, even though she recently appeared on three very high-traffic destinations: TMZ, The Puff Toast, and The Daily Mail. But not so. Evidently, there is still a strong interest in her.

Barbara Walters has put Amanda Knox on her
list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2011.

I suppose that means that Walters would love to interview the former study-abroad coed. And, of course, Walters is not the only one who would like to snag that "get."

Foxy Knoxy's Press Agent must be kvelling!

Yahoo! has announced their Top News Searches and Stories in 2011. The Casey Anthony Trial is topping the list at #1. And the Amanda Knox Trial comes in at #5.

Oh, there's just one more question . . .
as Lieutenant Columbo might say.

...

Notes From Florida (3#) -

2011-12-01T03:43:00.000-05:00

Santeria Sorcery Plot . . .

Employees of the North Miami Beach
Police Department may be fired for their
attempts to perform a bird seed ritual.

# Sarasota Mural Provokes Controversy:
::: Critics claim it is promotes bad values.

# Carl Hiaasen comments on the
::: Florida Destination Casino fight.

...

Sleepless In Heliopolis (3#) -

2011-11-30T02:39:00.000-05:00

Expat Carina flew back to Cairo to participate
in the vote there, but is a bit dazed by it all.

Nevertheless, she's sent in a wonderful dispatch.

:: Ahram Updates ::

:: Sandmonkey ::

...

Characters In The News (3#) -

2011-11-29T23:48:00.002-05:00

The Bing Search Engine discloses that
the Casey Anthony Trial was the top
searched news story of the year for them.

According to PEJ, the Amanda Knox Verdict occupied about 2% of the newshole, while the Casey Anthony Verdict occupied about 17% of the newshole, when each was issued.

The two cases are often linked together; they are both hot local topics, Anthony in the Orlando area and Knox in the Seattle area. The cases each have an additional niche readership of followers who are located beyond their immediate geographical bases.

While Casey Anthony has kept a low profile, Knox has become a minor media character because her parents hired a press agent for her and she gave herself a catchy nickname in the social media.

Americans love self-invented characters. A few years ago, a guy called Joe The Plumber kept popping up in the national news. Some foreigners do not seem to understand the American Media Ecology and have sometimes expressed a lot of irritation about this.

* * * * * * *
An Editor Explains:

A paid obituary isn't a news story;
it's from the advertising department.

...

A Foxy Knoxy Thanksgiving (3#) -

2011-11-27T21:57:00.000-05:00

It looks like she's in the news again, because one of her lawyers helped rescue a Drexel study-abroad youth who was recently arrested in Cairo.

TMZ has posted a nice snapshot of her with her family out running holiday errands with the remark that she "has a lot to be thankful for this year." Yes, that's quite true.

FYI, paparazzi usually take these snapshots with a long telephoto lens; they don't normally invade their subjects' personal space. There is no indication here that they were bothering the Knox Family. Yet, some of the young people on the comment thread are in an uproar about snapshots on the public street. One of them (#59) expressed the idea of going after the photog with a tire iron!

In the snapshot, she's wearing a blue watch cap hat, which her boyfriend has also been photographed wearing, a somewhat tailored parka-length dark coat, slacks, and lace-up boots that resemble Doc Martens.

Is Amanda Knox a celebrity?
What makes someone a celebrity these days?

If someone has been on TV for at least 15 minutes, it seems like they are certifiable as a celebrity. There may also be a possible recognition factor involved. But even if you are a celebrity, you may not be an A-List Celebrity; you could be a D-List Celebrity, from what I understand.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if she turns up
as a regular in the new Reality TV publication.

...

Some Bookish Notes (4#) -

2011-11-27T04:10:00.000-05:00

Phoenix Jones is a self-selected Superhero
who dons a costume and then patrols the
very real streets of Seattle, Washington.

:: Jon Ronson has written a book about him.

# Jenny Diski wonders whether ETs are
visiting us or trying to communicate with us.

# Blogger Yoani Sanchez writes a letter from
Cuba describing the atmosphere there lately.

# Leeds Noir: Mick McCann has found a way to become a small press publisher via the miracle of modern computer technology and he blogs about it at Guardian Books.

...

Fluffy's Snuff Shopping, etc (3#) -

2011-11-26T20:25:00.000-05:00

A marathon montage of violent shopping episodes from Black Friday opened our TV News this morning. Evidently, Fluffy and his gang of fake reporters found the montage vastly entertaining.

The most important thing, we were given to understand, is that experts estimate a rise of about 6% in merchants' revenue - even if we lost some American shoppers who were shot, crushed, pepper-sprayed or killed in the process.

I was not entertained by the montage.

:: Violent shopping episodes
occurred in at least seven states.

# Behind The V Mask: His name is Alan Moore; he was the creator of the comic book V for Vendetta, the original source of the stylized mask seen at many of the Occupy demonstrations.

Tom Lamont has produced an interesting interview with Moore, who shares his reactions to the spreading popularity of that Vendetta mask.

# Tahrir Situation: Dr Walid Phares gives us a relatively economical synopsis of the current Egyptian situation which largely matches my own impression at the moment. I think he sheds some light and clarity on the topic for those who may feel vague or confused about it.

...

Notes From Florida (3#) -

2011-11-26T01:15:00.000-05:00

Upscale Vultures Circling Twinky . . .

If wild boar foraging on the golf course don't faze you, what about vultures shadowing your pocket pooch?

Residents of a ritzy downtown Orlando apartment building are nervously keeping their tiny pet away from the windows and off the balcony, because they fear Twinky could get snatched as a tasty morsel by the big birds.

# Golf Cart Chop Shops are proliferating across Central Florida's affluent retirement communities, according to reporter Martin E Comas.

# Skewl UnCool: Who could have guessed that proficiency at World of Warcraft does not necessarily improve spelling skills?

Another School crossing sign is misspelled in SoFlo.

Maybe some eye-to-hand coordination problems are going on. Or could this be Dyslexia?

...

Tahrir: Gas Masks & Updates (3#) -

2011-11-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

Egypt's Military Council [SCAF] has
appointed 78-year-old Kamal al-Ganzouri
to the position of "Interim Prime Minister,"
according to reporter Ray Gustini.

:: O/R Books is compiling live tweets
from Tahrir Square in Cairo
for those who are interested.

:: Who's following these tweets,
in case you can't? Alex Nunns has
been following them for the Guardian.

Here's his/her recent compilation.

...

Somewhere Out There (3#) -

2011-11-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder."

X-Files' John Neville Dead at 86 . . .

Best known in the United States as the rather patrician conspirator in his recurring role of The Well-Manicured Man, who was supposed to be a member of some secretive elite syndicate.

"I'm a member of a kind of consortium.
We represent certain global interests."

* * * * * * *
Investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe reports that the Kansas City, Missouri, area was visited by a wave of strange lights in the sky and a retired police detective, who does not want to be identified, encountered a diminutive ET in his backyard. [earthfiles]

...

Tahrir: Mona Free - update -

2011-11-24T15:08:00.000-05:00

Journalist Mona Eltahawy has been freed.

Her ordeal has been compactly "Storified"
by Johns Hopkins Fellow Walter Rhett.

:: Mona's Ordeal ::

...

Tahrir: Mona Eltahawy Arrested -

2011-11-24T02:15:00.000-05:00

I have some good news and some
bad news about the Egyptian situation . . .

First, the good news: Catching up with our old blogging pal Sandmonkey, we learn that he's planning to run for the Heliopolis District parliament seat. There had been an election planned for November 28th, but because of the current chaos, who knows what will happen. [gpost]

And now, the bad news: According to recent tweets, journalist Mona Eltahawy has been arrested, and the State Department has been informed. AJE confirms the reported arrest. Hash tag in use: #FreeMona

:: Dima Khatib writes
about Mona's arrest on her personal blog.

Free Mona!

...

Notes From Florida (3#) -

2011-11-23T18:04:00.000-05:00

Occupy Fort Lauderdale . . .
may have to evacuate their camp site between 2am and 7am from now on due to a new Elf 'n Safety regulation, but they are conferring with their lawyers about their compliance. Brian Hamacher reports.

# High School Shooting Planned: A Central Florida teen who claimed he had been bullied at school has been arrested for making Columbine-type threats online. He was allegedly planning a mass shooting in the lunch room for April, but police have not recovered any guns in their investigation so far. Jeff Weiner reports.

# An angry Mount Dora landlord has been arrested after crushing an inhabited mobile home on a child with his bulldozer. Henry Pierson Curtis reports.

...

Mixed Links (6#) -

2011-11-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

Three American college students in Egypt
on an exchange program have been detained
by the authorities for participating in
Cairo's Tahrir Square protest activities.

:: Journalists there have been attacked.

:: The situation seems to be deteriorating.

# An indepth look at the Newsweek
Magazine situation by Tom McGeveran.

Is there still room for a national news weekly magazine besides Time Magazine? And, if so, what kind of publication should it be?

# Robert Birnbaum interviews Pete Hamill about tabloids, journalism, the current state of the press, and more.

...

Further Reaches (3#) -

2011-11-22T05:52:00.000-05:00

Ballardian: John Biggs gives us
a tour of the Foxconn factory campus.
Watch for the suicide nets. [tcrunch]

# Mattathias Schwartz describes the alleged inside organizers of the Occupy Wall St Movement: Kalle Lasn, Micah White, and other key players.

# Dana Rubinstein describes the NYC authorities' efforts to control the Narrative about what transpired in Zuccotti Park, which was cleared by the police.

...

Books: Ripple Effects (4#) -

2011-11-21T03:21:00.000-05:00

The 7/22 Massacre -
What would Varg Veum do?

Andrew Anthony reports the reactions of some of Norway's top mystery authors to the mass murder that took place on an island there last July.

# An aging, recently retired police detective goes up against a New Age cult guru in The Great Leader by Jim Harrison; reviewed by Tim McNulty.

# Eddie Vega and some of his pals have started a new online publication called Noir Nation: International. Dennis Tafoya interviews one of the editors working on it.

They've got quite a collection of sidebar links to other blogs and such in French and in other languages.

...

Florida Occu-Mom Arrested in NYC -

2011-11-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

Stacey Hessler from DeLand . . .

who joined the Occupy Wall Street demonstration front in downtown Manhattan has been arrested and turned into tabloid fodder by the NY Post.

The 38-year-old mother of four, who is described as a banker's wife, was hauled off for booking by three NYPD officers to the snarling delight of the Murdach Mudbath.

The NYPD has a history of these operations, such as: the battle to clear Washington Square Park of "dangerous" folk singers and the police riot of Tompkins Square Park during which they covered their badges as they ran through surrounding streets wildly and indiscriminately bashing bystanders with their batons, to name just a couple of highlights (or lowlights) from the past.

The current mayor, who comes off like a B-Movie prison warden, cited "elf and safety" reasons for the military-style operation.

:: NY Post ::

...

Notes From Florida (3#) -

2011-11-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

Lamberti's Angel Andrea Penoyer has married a law enforcement fella nicknamed Ozzy, Jose Lambiet reports.

The couple will have a blended family; each has children from previous relationships. Best wishes to all of them.

# A "trog" who has been commenting colorfully on the website of the St Petersburg Times turned out to be a Pinellas County Commissioner.

The guy has been moonlighting with this alter ego persona to promote his own prospective blog, which he has been planning to launch at some vague point in the future.

There is some controversy about whether it was proper for the newspaper to unmask him. David DeCamp reports.

# Lawyer Jose Baez has denied a National Enquirer report that his client, Casey Anthony, experienced an assassination attempt.

...

Reports From The Field (2#) -

2011-11-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

Anders Behring Breivik exhibited
no remorse in his court appearance Monday.

A chilling portrait of the man who stands accused of killing several dozen young people on a Norwegian island in July, reported by Gerald Traufetter from Oslo for Spiegel.

# Rapper Ali G may have put Staines on the map of worldwide recognition, but not necessarily in a good way.

The Surrey town wants to distance itself from Ali G by changing its name to Staines-upon-Thames in order to improve its image. Alistair Foster reports from the Spelthorne District Council there.

...

Castro's Cone of Silence (3#) -

2011-11-17T01:10:00.000-05:00

From The Dept of Wacky Complaints . . .

The Cuban regime is whining that residents there may be getting free internet access from CIA-supplied Wi-Fi and that they are smuggling satellite dishes into the country disguised as surf boards, according to Bill Ray at The Reg.

Could DARPA really do something like this?

Yes, they could; but why should they bother?

Castro is out of touch with contemporary reality in the rest of the world, where various kinds of Wi-Fi blanket much of our neighborhoods in a loose network of nodes. Most folks in the Free World consider this a good thing and an amenity they look for.

I first got interested in this issue when CentCom announced they were going to fly Commando Solo over Iraq and I've continued to keep tabs on the topic ever since.

It isn't necessary to immediately jump to wacky CIA conspiracies, when there's probably a much more prosaic explanation for this.

Don't most large vacation cruise ships come equipped with Wi-Fi these days? Some Cubans may be able to catch some rays off these ships passing through the Caribbean area.

Blame it on the Norwegians! Those dastardly Norwegians operate a Cruise Ship Line which could be spreading their rays all over. Wi-Fi is ambient in many places and nearly ubiquitous lately.

The Cubans can't afford to turn tourists or cruise ships away, since they're deriving necessary revenue from these visitors, so they'll just have to put up with it.

We can't turn off all the Wi-Fi that might be floating around the Caribbean just to suit some Cuban big shot.

Anyway, they don't even need dishes anymore. Ever hear about the old phone-in-the-shoe trick? It's called the Thuraya satellite phone nowadays.

...

What Meaning Has This Light? (3#) -

2011-11-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

In 1974, Sci-Fi writer Philip K Dick had an experiential epiphany which he struggled to understand for the rest of his life. Out of it, now comes this new book edited by Jonathan Lethem and Pamela Jackson.

:: Ryan Britt blogs his appreciative
reaction to The Exegesis of Philip K Dick.

:: Chris Ziegler's reaction ::

:: Kirkus Review ::

...

When There's No 2nd Shoe (2#) -

2011-11-15T14:16:00.001-05:00

imo: Casey Anthony & Amanda Knox . . .

In movies and TV shows, legal cases are configured into a story which has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In real life, cases do not always have a satisfactory closure; they are not always wrapped up in a neat little package.

Reporter Anthony Colarossi, who has been covering the Casey Anthony case, got his hands on a copy of former prosecutor Jeff Ashton's new book on the case, Imperfect Justice, and tells us about it at the Orlando Sentinel.

* * * * * * *
Amanda Knox went
grocery shopping in Seattle!

But why is this news? It appears that the Tabloids have decided to treat her like a Reality TV celebrity - as if she is like Snooki from the Jersey Shore TV series.

This situation is likely to get worse before it gets better, because the Boca-based company that owns The National Enquirer and Radar is planning to produce a new publication devoted to this new type of celebrity, as I noted in yesterday's entry.

...

Loose Links (3#) -

2011-11-15T02:17:00.000-05:00

The Sanctuary Bookshop is a totally enveloping environment which includes a Bed & Breakfast and lots of old books. Christopher Fowler discovered it recently and has posted a blog entry about it.

# Frederik Stjernfelt, a Danish Semiotics professor, writes about reactions to the recent arson attack on the French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. The professor seems uncomfortable with much of the European Media's treatment of this issue.

# Sometimes in life, we experience an incident, but we don't really understand what is happening or why it is happening. And then, many years later, more information is revealed to us. This is a grim story about a criminal case which took years to unfold its secrets; written by former crime reporter John Davidson.

...

Media Briefs (3#) -

2011-11-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

Need more Snooki, Kim, and Victoria?

American Media Inc will debut
Reality TV Weekly, a new tabloid
magazine, in January 2012, according
to Jeremy W Peters at the NY Times.

# WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hired the Stockholm-based public relations firm Ulllman, in anticipation of his return to Sweden to face charges.

# Hasan Fathi, an independent news commentator who contributes to the BBC Persian service has been arrested in Tehran.

...

Books: Stories From Here & There (5#) -

2011-11-13T18:55:00.002-05:00

"Stories have to be
told and read and written.
That's how we make sense of the world."

Mitchell Kaplan, owner of the local indy bookstore Books & Books, is venturing into the small press publishing field.

Somewhat along the lines of Johnny Temple's Akashic venture, which produces the famed Noir series of regional Mystery story collections, Kaplan is producing a collection of local SoFlo-based stories compiled and edited by John Dufresne called Blue Christmas: Stories for the Rest of Us in an affordable soft cover edition.

# Stories about Londoners collected and transcribed by Craig Taylor, a Canadian immigrant using an Oral History approach:

:: Iain Sinclair Review ::
:: Sukhdev Sandhu Review ::

# The Angel Esmeralda - A group of stories
by Don DeLillo; reviewed by Steven Poole.

# A collection of Travel Stories by Paul Bowles in paperback; reviewed by Christopher Reynolds at LAT.

...

Romenesko: A Fishy Flap (6#) -

2011-11-11T20:54:00.000-05:00

In everything that's been written so far about the Romenesko flap, no one seems to have noticed that this flap was instigated by Columbia J School, which has been associated with a competing aggregator operated by PEW called the Daily Briefing.

In his rush to publish, Jim Romenesko may have overlooked a few punctuation marks, but there was no intent to deceive, according to universal consensus. This is a deplorable affair which should have been handled behind closed doors.

I believe that Moos is guilty of inappropriate over-sharing. If, by transparency, you mean that I have to look at the scars from your gall bladder operation, the transparency is unwelcome; instead, I regard it as inappropriate over-sharing.

And I don't think Columbia J School is an entirely disinterested party in this matter. A burning question: Was this feature story on Jim Romenesko intended to be a hit piece or hatchet job from its inception? It's beginning to look that way.

Later . . . Erika Fry from Columbia J has her say. And, just as I suspected, there was something fishy about this flap. It turns out that over-aggregation was Erica's main concern, not incomplete attribution.

But we're not quite finished yet, because Management always seems to try to release these nifties after 5pm on Friday. Thus, from Nieman Lab we now learn:

"He [Romenesko] also shared with the Washington Post speculation that Poynter was trying to discredit him 'so advertisers wouldn’t touch me.'"

Oh, wonderful -- as if Poynter didn't look so bad already without this additional little poison pill.

Some people are calling for Moos to resign.

:: Fans Fume: Estes ::

:: Scooped: Wemple ::

...

Has Left The Building -

2011-11-11T01:17:00.000-05:00

Longtime Journalism Aggregator Jim Romenesko has resigned ahead of schedule, due to a kerfuffle on Thursday about his style of so-called incomplete attribution.

Yeah, too bad he wasn't a complete robot.

:: paidContent ::

...

Phantom Appendages (4#) -

2011-11-10T18:16:00.000-05:00

The British ASA has banned a fashion designer's perfume advertisement which features teenage actress Dakota Fanning, because of complaints that it provocatively baits pedophiles.

The photo shows her holding what appears to be a hugely engorged phallus topped with a prominent crimson rose between her legs.

# Eric Deggans reports a dustup over proper blogging practise concerning Attribution with some personal perspective on the issue.

We've recently had a bit of a fuss here in SoFlo over
a local blogger being accused of violating Fair Use.

...

Straits: La Imperialista (2#) -

2011-11-09T14:32:00.001-05:00

Mariela Castro, daughter of the current Cuban regime's Raul Castro, attempted to exercise an imperious rebuff of Blogger Yoani Sanchez on Twitter by refusing to accord Yoani personal agency in order to dehumanize Yoani.

Ladies, please elevate
this discourse to an I-Thou level.

Thank you!

* * * * * * *
:: Guardian: Cuban Twitters ::

:: personal agency ::

...

Potpourri of Mixed Links (7#) -

2011-11-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

"Among the minority who dominate
the online conversation is the digital
equivalent of the loudest drunk in the bar."

:: Alicia C Shepard :: Online Comments ::

"But should we give all views equal credibility, even if you are just sitting in a darkened room, naked except for a jumper you found in your garden, randomly bashing a keyboard with your flaccid genitalia?"

:: Prof Henry Brubaker asks ::

# Laura Santana reviews the book Suburgatory.
:: Verdict :: Fantastic and Hilarious!

# Nathan Matias from MIT Civic Media Lab attended MozFest in London and posted a blog entry about his experiences there.

# The front page of tomorrow's edition of Charlie Hebdo features a male cartoonist kissing a bearded Muslim under the headline: L'Amour plus fort que la haine (love is stronger than hate).

# When Ledes Go Wrong: brief blog entry
at CJR's The Kicker which is very funny.

# What is a Reverse Ferret?

...

Notes From Florida (3#) -

2011-11-08T00:30:00.001-05:00

Authorities are demanding an audit of South Florida Polytechnic's expenditures after their life-sized Sci-Fi statue collection made its recent debut. The collection includes:

a 7-foot-tall Darth Vader,
an Imperial Stormtrooper,
and an E.T. replica.

USF Poly explained that it needs the Sci-Fi collection to "encourage inspiration beyond conventional thought."

:: Kim Wilmath reports at the SPTimes.

# A 16-year-old girl is accused of trying to hit an assistant principal with a hammer at her Central Florida high school last month.

A search of her bag revealed: a steak knife, "eyebrow" razor, box cutter and a homemade stabbing device with an 8.5-inch blade known as a shank.

# Bloody red meat was smeared
all over Orlando City Hall Sunday
morning. Police are investigating.

...

New Semi-Reality Casting (4#) -

2011-11-07T20:01:00.000-05:00

Further Adventures
of Foxy Knoxy . . .

It looks like one of the side effects of
the TOWIE and Jersey Shore successful
ratings is a new blend of celebrities . . .

This past week, while paparazzi fave Lindsay Lohan was unavailable, Amanda Knox became steady grist for the media mills which "feed the beast."

Even so, a small but noisy contingent of dissidents invaded some comment threads to object to the coverage. And they attempted to influence two of the most recalcitrant media organizations in the West: Hearst and the Fleet St DM.

Hearst is probably most famous for
an apocryphal quote often attributed to them:

"You give us the photos,
and we'll give you the war."

Anyone who knows anything about the history of this organization would know that it is futile to try to make them stop covering something they want to cover.

The Daily Mail has also made it their business to cover Knox. They are the last outpost of the almost entirely disappeared Fleet St, but they still won't surrender their flag, even if they have to pay out legal settlements
once in a while.

There must be Big Money in this, if the settlement just visited upon Rebekah Brooks is any indication of how much moolah may be involved. Didya catch that Golden Parachute which Brooks is supposed to have gotten?

Brooks "received £1.7m in cash, the use of a London office and a chauffeur-driven limousine as part of her severance package from the newspaper group."

I'm not much of a Celeb Watcher, so I'm not
an expert on all of this; just a casual observer . . .

The latest development which emerged today is a media war Nick Denton's Gawker has started against the DM, which Prof Greenslade adeptly points out with the observation that Denton has a "stalker" feature baked right into his Gawker website.

NB: "If you were a saucy reporter..."
I think the Gawker writer meant cheeky.

Despite Gawker's criticism, its sister site Jezebel is still covering Knox on a regular basis with the typical snark associated with Denton's organization, but his Jezebel writers add:

"The reporting on Knox's
post-acquittal love life has
officially gone too far..."

and

"Reporters have to stop
tailing Knox at some point..."

No, they don't! Hearst (the Seattle PI) and Fleet St's DM are 500-lb media gorillas who, for all practical purposes, can sit just about anywhere they want to.

Let's try to understand this more clearly: The paparazzi follow LiLo around because she has a track record of doing screwy things - like when she pasted the obscene message on her fingernails which accompanied her into court. The paps follow LiLo around because they figure the odds are pretty high that she's going to pull another screwy stunt.

They are probably following Foxy Knoxy around for similar reasons. Foxy has a track record of doing cartwheels in a police station, for example. She could avoid the coverage if she were more circumspect in her behavior, but she doesn't seem to care.

Do Hearst and Fleet St's DM know something we don't know? Yes, they probably do. These media organizations have a lot more cumulative institutional experience than most of us have.

:: Footnote: :: TOWIE ::

...

Missing Heiress -

2011-11-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

Has someone committed
the perfect murder? Let's hope not . . .

An attractive middle aged real estate agent whose hobby was moonlighting as a TV extra has gone missing and is feared murdered near New Castle Upon Tyne, England.

Although Janet Brown inherited a hefty fortune, she has neither collected it nor even attended her parents' funerals.

Friends fear the worst.

...

The Eclectic Chapbook

Leaky Patches (2#) -

Books: Their Own Write -

Wild Pig Welcomes Home Owner -

Pig in The Wrong Blanket -

SoFlo: Pill Walkathon Query -

SoFlo Misery -

Destinations Without Maps (3#) -

Special Deliveries -

Book Briefs (5#) -

A Loathsome Betrayal -

A Weekend Rich in Books (6#) -

Brief Links (4#) -

Notes From Florida (4#) -

Dept of Obscure TV -

Weekend in Jaipur (4#) -

Casey: Elevators & Networks (2#) -

Casey Deal Rocks Palm Beach -

FL: Rude Wakeup (3#) -

Between Poles & Pooches -

Bookish Briefs (5#) -

Deadly Vortex (4#) -

Migrating To Soaps 2.0 -

Longer Reads (2#) -

FL Noir Net Stories (3#) -

From: The Dept of Obscure TV (2#) -

Books: Brief Mystery Links (7#) -

Straits: Visit Appeal (2#) -

Stolen Faces (2#) -

Stalkers & Flash Mobs -

Muzzled By Lawyer -

Media Vigilantes -

Hacked VLog -

Pentacle Heist (2#) -

Top Tens and Reviews (3#) -

The Night They Burned The Books -

SoFlo: Odds 'n Ends (3#) -

Notes From Florida (4#) -

Tech Notes (6#) -

SoFlo's Horsey Priority (2#) -

In The Air and On The Radio -

OBIT: Lynn Samuels -

Drugs, Copper & the Hell Brueghel -

Blogging Notes -

Brief Foreign Dispatches (5#) -

Late Media Briefs (3#) -

Klepto Journo Reactions -

Notes From Florida (4#) -

More Klepto Journo Accusations (3#) -

$120 Cigarette Hammer Attack -

Quick Reading Links (6#) -

Slammed For Smokes -

Media Antics (6#) -

Notable Digital Migration (2#) -

Books: In Truffle Time (3#) -

Knox: Stressed Or Stoned? -

Knox: Explanation Released (5#) -

Bookish: Who Goes There? -

Cool Million For The Car People -

More Brief Bookish Links (4#) -

Bookish Briefs (5#) -

The Manipulated Mannequin -

Knox: Lamp Apocrypha -

Media: Ways and Means -

Many People Are Concerned -

The Credibility Gap Years -

Knox Case: Astroturf Veto (4#) -

Islands In The Sphere (2#) -

The Get List (2#) -

Notes From Florida (3#) -

Sleepless In Heliopolis (3#) -

Characters In The News (3#) -

A Foxy Knoxy Thanksgiving (3#) -

Some Bookish Notes (4#) -

Fluffy's Snuff Shopping, etc (3#) -

Notes From Florida (3#) -

Tahrir: Gas Masks & Updates (3#) -

Somewhere Out There (3#) -

Tahrir: Mona Free - update -

Tahrir: Mona Eltahawy Arrested -