By the way, Happy New Year

I'm just too dang busy to tend to this blog right now. Maybe I'll be back one day, to protest an unspeakable injustice or celebrate a small miracle. The unfolding story of the unbearably brutal death of Reeva Steenkamp (her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, aka The Blade Runner, has been charged with premeditated murder) is on my mind, in part because of the rapidity with which his family hired a PR firm. Does this remind anyone else of another unbearably brutal death, that of Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy, in late 2007? Two of the three people convicted in the first instance trial of her murder were acquitted on appeal but Italy's Supreme Court will have the last word, in March of this year.

Both Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox have written books to pay off the high cost of running a trial by media strategy. Sollecito's was written by Andrew Gumbel, who seems to have merely scribbled down Sollecito's dubious claims. Sollecito now faces libel charges in Italy for some of the whoppers he thought he could get away with (after all, he got away with something far worse, according to many who followed the case). As for Knox, her book is scheduled for release in late April, at which time she'll be sitting for a disinfomercial chat with Diane Sawyer. In a recent tweet, Knox (or someone pretending to be her) committed a nice Freudian slip, referring to her book's title as "Waiting to Me Heard" instead of "Waiting to Be Heard". Either way, this is a very strange title for many reasons. For one thing, Knox does not seem to have waited at all; unlike Sollecito, she was only too happy during the trial to ramble on at regular intervals. For another, the world is all ears should she wish to offer up a coherent account of her words and deeds, including falsely accusing an innocent man of the heinous crime.

Sollecito's book is not very good and did not take the world by storm. His US book tour seemed more like an excellent vacation paid for by daddy, with a couple of lacklustre interviews thrown in for good measure. Now he spends his time dancing at what look to be sparsely attended school dances and then posting videos of himself dancing on youtube. He runs a FB page that is frequented by a small group of his diehard fans and his agent, the one who got him the book deal. Occasionally, he asks for questions from the audience but then folds his tent when they become too uncomfortable. Which they quickly do. He seems to be hungry for attention.

Maybe I'll get to the strange saga of Francesco SFORZA one day. He's the Perugian blogger who is a legend in his own mind. I briefly helped him edit his blog; that was a mistake. He turned on me after I dared to write for publication that Frank Sfarzo was his "stage name". It would seem that he was willing to be sold to the highest bidder. Since then, his fortunes have diminished, with at least two arrests in North America for assault... against people kind enough to host him! The fallout from this has been sadly hilarious to watch. SFORZA already faced charges in Italy, where he allegedly resisted arrest after his own mother and sisters called the cops to report domestic violence and then assaulted the arresting officers.

All of the above has been duly noted and discussed "on the internets", so anyone who is interested can read all about it.