I've been following this Pring-Wilson case on CourtTV's Web site. In summary, this pretty Harvard boy got voluntary manslaughter instead of murder when used his "Spyderco military knife" to stab Michael Colono, a young Latino teen father. Now he's out on bail awaiting a new trial, because the law now says the court can consider Colono's history of run-ins with the cops.
The story is that Colono and his cousin Sam Rodgriguez made some comments about Pring-Wilson's drunken state outside a Cambridge MA pizza shop, they got into a fight, and Colono got stabbed five times.
What should you learn from this? Obviously, to walk away from bullshit confrontations where people shoot off their mouths. And just as you shouldn't drink and drive or drink and dial (like that embarassing scene in Sideways) you shouldn't drink and stab.
What are the laws concerning use of a lethal weapon in self-defense in your municipality? Mas Ayoob covered some of these issues in his book In the Gravest Extreme, but that text is about 30 years old now.
Couple of news items caught my eye in the past few days:
Tennessee Escapee Caught: "Not Agressive Enough to be Real Amway Sellers"
Did you catch the story of the taxi driver who figured out who his prison escapee fare was because they didn't try to sell him on Amway?
"Amway people are all about Amway and when they didn't try to talk further about it that's when I figured they weren't with Amway and were doing something else".
That is just too funny.
And then there's the New York political scene:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton comes up for re-election next year, New York voters may well be choosing between a high-powered female attorney with a wayward husband and a high-powered female attorney with a wayward husband.
Evidently, someone has been reading The Paradox of Choice, figuring it's all in the best interest of the citizenry. Where's the Libertarian Party when you need it?
Just got the promo email for Sunset magazine's spinoff, Living 101. Evidently, this is the byproduct of the recent staff purge in Menlo Park. Supposedly the stodgy, old-school Classic Sunset writers were let go in favor of infusing some new blood into the publication.
Hard to tell what the new Sunset will be like--Living 101 just had some rehashed stuff from the parent pub. But the articles chosen for the quick taste have more of a Real Simple flavor than Classic Sunset, so maybe that's an indicator of the new editorial direction.
Frankly, I think there's a place for Classic Sunset, just as there is for new hipper mags like Budget Living or Ready Made. Classic Sunset had its regional focus and old-school family values (home, hearth, camping with the kids), something as familiar as your old room at the parents' house.
So we have yet to see what Time Inc will do with Sunset. I just hope it doesn't morph into a Real Simple clone.
Who called baseball a sissy game?
Man stabs five people outside Dodger Stadium after game
Associated Press: LOS ANGELES - A man is wanted for allegedly stabbing five people outside Dodger Stadium in a dispute over the sale of counterfeit T-shirts following the Dodgers' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, police said early Monday.
Wow. This one guy did so much damage? Good factoid to keep in mind when practicing those knife disarms or knife-vs-knife drills.