Poets, Dons and Burros

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

*** Roberto Saviano, whose tale I have been following for a few days now, is leaving Italy. Marked for death by the Neopolitan Mafia for his expose Gomorrah, Saviano has been under 24 hour police protection for 2 years now and apparently enough is enough.

*** As Paul Harvey would say, its' not one world. A Jordanian poet is in jail for insulting Islam by incorporating quotes from the Koran into his poetry. The poet, Islam Samhan, did not have approval of the Jordanian government to publish his book, which appears to be a big no-no in that part of the world. And Jordan is one of the more progressive regimes. On the other hand, there are certain subjects in the West that are equally taboo and can have just as harsh a consequence.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/21/jordan-poet-arrest.html

*** And since you are reading the news and comments of your friendly neighborhood bookseller via the internet, here's a timely book from Mafiaboy, the one time hacker who tells us all how to stay safer while doing exactly what you are doing right now. And he should know. In his day, Michael Calce was about as good (or bad) as you can get at your craft, namely, hacking websites.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/20/mtl-mafiaboy-cp-1020.html

*** If I had a burro...well, probably not even then. I'm just not that good handling animals with hooves. But I must applaud Luis Soriano for being one good guy!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/19/world/20081020BURRO_index.html

*** The Woman Who Censored Churchill by Ruth Ive. I have to admit that I had never before considered that during World War II the transatlantic cable connecting the USA and the UK needed to be monitored, but obviously that would, in fact, be necessary, to make sure no intelligence was given away, that no one had tapped the cable (pretty unlikely, I admit) and to record what was said. And, since I had never considered the need for this to be done, I had never considered the need for a Ruth Ive. But there she was here she is.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1079389/Churchills-secret-girl-THE-WOMAN-WHO-CENSORED-CHURCHILL-Ruth-Ive.html