The Christmas Story

In regard to the slaying of LSU grad students Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, folks hoping for arrest of their killers can relax. As of Christmas, the reward for information leading to the arrest and capture of their killers has been lowered from $5000 to $1000. Apparently, a donor gave the extra $4000 based on the condition that the tip be given through Christmas Eve. With reward money lessened, and interest in the case dying, the possibility of the perpretators captured lessens.

In other news, their bodies return to India and were cremated on Monday, December 24th.

The Queen

Right now, news of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is still filtering through the media. Details are scarce, but reports state that almost two hours ago gunfire and a suicide bomber were involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Wire reports say as her car exited the rally site, her vehicle was attacked. At the age of 54, Benazir is dead, leaving behind a husband and three children, Bilawal, Bakhtwar, and Aseefa.

The Matrix

Facebook has undoubtedly become one of the biggest phenomenons on the information highway. Teenagers and college students are able to interact and network like never before. Nowhere was this more evident than in the case of Philadelphia’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde.’ As I’d mentioned earlier, almost instantly a group arose on Facebook entitled “Jocelyn Kirsch is scandalous.” Immediately former friends, enemies, and the curious began joining this group. Today, the membership is at four hundred twelve. The creator of the group stated the motivation was purely media-based.

Lovely Rita Meter Maid

Mayor Michael Nutter announced today that the Philadelphia Parking Authority has been persuaded to part with more than their original alloted amount for the sake of our darlings in the Philadelphia School District. That’s right, more tickets for the rest of us! Yippee! Just call it a special tax on the parents. Public school indeed!

Bonnie and Clyde

By now, many of you Philadelphians must have heard about Edward Anderton, the UPenn grad, and Jocelyn Kirsch, the Drexel student who stole the identities and money of numerous neighbors/friends/acquantainces.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published the following article: “Students: ‘Clyde’ took test for ‘Bonnie.'”

Alas, I found this fact out last week through my roommate, a Drexel student who sat next to Kirsch in their international trade course. She told me how Kirsch attended classes “dressed smartly” with her laptop, participated in classes, and then…. never showed up for the exam. She vividly remembered seeing Anderton take the test for Kirsch.

Boo hoo. Must blog more.

A Time to Kill (John Grisham at least)

John Grisham, New York Times best-selling novelist known most for penning legal thrillers is back with Playing for Pizza. His latest novel, continues with his recent trend and avoids the small attorney/big case genre that served him so well in the past. Grisham is obviously itching to branch out, exploring the idea of franchising on his hobbies other than law, mainly football and now apparently Italian cooking. Much like Bleachers, his semi autobiographical novel about playing football in a small Mississippi town, Playing for Pizza is about football. More specifically, Italian football.