Prairie Gates
Prairie Gates's JournalIt's College Acceptance Season (Try to be Cool About It!)
Tomorrow, December 15, is one of the big days in the college application season, with many schools sending out their acceptances (and rejections) for students who sought Early Decisions (ED). Many students who applied early under Early Action (EA) have also been receiving answers over the last few weeks, with more coming out before Christmas and into January.
So, if you have high school seniors or other possible applicants in your life (or their parents!), be nice. Be chiil. Even if you're down on college, as so many here seem to be, be encouraging and congratulate and mirror their joy. These kids work incredibly hard these days, and many manage a colege application process almost infiinitely more difficult than the one you undertook. Top schools and even mid-range schools are way more difficult to get into now - yes, they are. These kids work their butts off.
It might also be a time of sadness for some, as their dream schools say no, or their parents say, yes, well, you got into X, but we really can't make that happen. Be supportive!
This is an exciting time! For students who ED'd, they are pretty much making their decision NOW. If they ED'd to UPenn, and they get in, they're pretty much pledged to UPenn. be happy for them. If they really want to go to Middle Tennessee (a good school!), be chill! Congratulate.
There will be a time for your opinions about this or that college, or college in general. But this isn't really it. This is a time to celebrate accomplishments.
Italian jewelry store owner sentenced to 17 years for killing two thieves
The basic story is this: three thieves rushed the store of Italian jewelry store owner Mario Roggero in Cuneo province (northern Italy, basically west of Genoa, south of Torino/Turin). This was back in April, 2021. They tie up his wife and ransack the place, but Roggero comes out of the back with a handgun, pretty much as they're leaving. Outside, he guns down two of them and shoots a third, who manages to get away but not far, with a bullet wound in his leg. Video shows Roggero shooting one of the theives in the head as he's on the ground.
He was convicted of murder and attempted murder, despite a defense argument of self-defense and legitimate homicide. Today, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Incredibly, he was also sentenced to pay the families of the thieves hundreds of thousands of euro in compensation. This includes the wounded thief, who is currently himself in prison for the robbery. Even more shockingly, the prosecutor only asked for 14 years!
It's interesting to see how different cultures adjudicate these sorts of things. No way this guy would be convicted in any state in the US, red, blue, or indifferent.
(Of the 17 years, he will probably serve 4-5, if that. He's 68 and could be given a compassionate release at any time. People usually do a fraction of their sentences in Italy.).
Italian link: https://www.rainews.it/articoli/2023/12/cuneo-uccise-2-banditi-durante-una-rapina-condannato-a-17-anni-di-carcere-il-gioiellere-che-sparo-d40a6b5a-1750-43f2-9244-6de8549ff19c.html
Student's Killing Pushes Italy to Confront Violence Against Women (NY Times)
The New York Times is finally on to the story I posted here a few days ago, the murder of Giulia Cecchettin that has been the major story in Italy for the last week or so.
Ms. Cecchettin went missing on Nov. 11, prompting a search that ended a week later with the discovery of her corpse, wrapped in plastic, in a ditch near a lake in the northern Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
She disappeared after meeting with an ex-boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, 21, at a mall; investigators put out a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of kidnapping and murder. He was picked up on Sunday by the police in Germany, who stopped him on a highway. Investigators have not spoken publicly about a motive in the case.
Mr. Turetta, who has so far not been formally charged, is awaiting extradition to Italy, which the German authorities say he has not opposed, according to his lawyer, Emanuele Compagno. Mr. Compagno said he had not spoken directly to his client.
More here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/world/europe/italy-giulia-cecchettin-violence-against-women.html
Any Italian language news source will be cover to cover with this story and the memorials/protests that are sweeping Italy.
The Weird Tolkien Fandom on the Italian Far Right
A few days ago, Giorgia Meloni, Italy's Prime Minister from the far right "Brothers of Italy" (FdI) party, visited a new exhibit dedicated to JRR Tolkien at the the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, one of Rome's premier museums. I have been a superfan, Meloni declared, and there were even things that I didn't know! She also added a political twist. With an eye toward her opponents on the left, she added gleefully that culture would no longer be the province and property of one political party. Those days, she inveighed, are over.
If you saw only that story, you could be forgiven for not knowing what in the hell Meloni was talking about. How would a retrospective on JRR Tolkien at a national museum be a reproach to some imagined ownership of culture on the Italian left? What in the world was she on about?
Well, in Italy, Tolkien was taken up as a far right wing hero, particularly among the neo-fascist youth groups to which Meloni belonged as a teen and young woman. Tolkien fandom is virtually a signifier of belonging to right wing activist groups (even youth paramilitiaries!). So the JRR Tolkien retrospective at one of Italy's most prestigious museums is viewed by the right as a massive cultural victory, complete with snide comments from the country's leadership!
Anyway, round and round we go. See this NY Times story for more. Meloni's comments appeared in the Italian press but were not added to the NY Time story.
Sad end to a story that's gripped Italy for a week (UPDATE: Killer arrested)
Since last Saturday, Italy has been glued to the disappearance of a young couple, Giulia Cecchetin and Filippo Turetta. The two disappeared last Saturday, with heavy hints that Mr. Turetta had attacked and hurt Ms. Cecchetin, his on-again, off-again girlfriend. A massive search has been going on across northern Italy for the two; Ms. Cecchetin was set to defend her (undergraduate) thesis this week, and did not appear for that, further suggesting foul play.
Unfortunately, her body has been found at the Lago di Barcis, a beautiful mountain lake about halfway between Venice and the Austrian border. Mr. Turetta has not been located, but there is now an all-Europe BOLO out for him, and a charge of homicide has been filed against him.
This has really been something like the Gabby Petito-Brian Laundry case for Italy, to some extent. I expect that Mr. Turetta may come to the same end.
For Italian speakers/readers:
La scomparsa di Giulia e Filippo
TWO UPDATES to this STORY
1) The boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, has been arrested in Germany after being stopped by police for a traffic infraction (it's also suggested he ran out of gas and was simply stopped in the emergency lane).
2) The police have revealed that this poor young woman was stabbed upwards of 20 times and thrown from the road into a ravine.
This caps off a year in which violence against women has become one of the top issues in Italy. The New York Times covered this a few months ago, focused on a number of shocking rape cases, but discusses the focus on femminicidio that's taken centr stage in Italian media and culture this year.
UPDATES (in Italian): https://www.rainews.it/maratona/2023/11/morte-giulia-cecchettin-filippo-turetta-arrestato-in-germania-217a8ae2-6f58-4f09-8f25-ba1c7a15b9dd.html
Eight Years ago Today: 90 Killed in Attack on Bataclan Concert Hall, Paris
131 killed in total across multiple Paris attacks. Nearly 500 wounded. November 13, 2015.
It's important to remember that these were also mass shootings.
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