The Villains in my Home Town- part 12.

L eader of a paedophile ring. Committed indecent acts against twelve boys, the youngest only ten years old. "He was so brazen that one of his associates brought boys to meet him during visting hours while he was serving previous time for child molestation."


Pleaded guilty. Seventeen years.


*******
big piece in the Sunday NY Times on Nick Bertozzi's The Salon.
When Picasso Went Down to Georgia May 6.
"THE birth of Cubism may not seem like standard fodder for a graphic novel. But the painting breakthrough is at the heart of “The Salon,” by Nick Bertozzi, which quickly moves from art history to murder mystery with the help of a magical blue absinthe. Along for the ride are early-20th-century Modernist heavies like Braque, Picasso and Satie. And just as those artists provoked controversy in their day, the graphic novel has led to a skirmish about its depiction of nudity."
(Tom Spurgeon linked to this first, but if I'd been paying more attention to my own NY Times download I'd have noticed it before then)
*******

hayley campbell (who lost her capitals in sympathy with archy the cockroach, you may recall), used the word 'smirting' and when I demanded to know whereof she spoke she linked me to this:
Smoking ban lights up love life Sarah Hughes Sunday October 30, 2005
"Welcome to the practice of smirting (smoking and flirting), a craze which has swept Ireland since the introduction of the pub and restaurant smoking ban in January 2004. As it took hold, enterprising pubs and bars introduced outside areas for smokers to gather and with them came a more relaxed attitude to meeting people. Now, instead of spending time in crowded bars, people find themselves striking up conversations over a quick fag.
This increase in social smoking is one of the more worrying aspects of smirting. Anti-smoking campaigners believed that the ban would improve health and stop people smoking. But many young Dubliners admit that they have increased their consumption of cigarettes because of the social benefits.
'Definitely,' says Conlon. 'I'm not much of a smoker - I used to hate it when you'd sit around in a pub and it was smoky and you'd come home at night with your clothes stinking. Now you just pop out for a quick cigarette, meet some quality people and have a laugh.
'I met my last girlfriend in a cafe on Dawson Street. I had been talking to her briefly, then went out for a smoke. When I came back, she says to me: "Do you smoke ... coming out for one?" We went out for two months.' "