And another. Still an excuse not to do any serious writing

.) My journal is called _____ because _____.
"Reflections of a stormy petrel", because, wherever I go, quarrels are sure to follow. I am the kind who would rather be correct than be President.

2.) My subtitle is _____ because _____.
"From sleep and from damnation/ Deliver us, good Lord!" It comes from one of my favourite hymns, by one of my favourite people, the one and only Gilbert Keith Chesterton, and is preceded by the immortal lines: "From all that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen/ From all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men/ From sale and profanation of honour and the sword/ From sleep and from damnation..."

3.) My friends page is called _____ because _____.
"Thank God for the following people", just because.

4.) My username is ____ because _____.
Fpb, because it's my initials, and, expecting that I would have quarrels with people, I prefer to have them in my own name and without hiding.

5.) My default userpic is _____ because_____.
A beautiful picture of a gorgeous original Greek statue of the goddess Athena, because I love the character and this is the best picture of her I could find. The idea of Reason in arms, ready to fight, says a lot to me.

Hey, what is this? Anywhere I go I get a meme!

20 years ago I...
1. Was studying to get through my last A-levels and my Oxbridge entrance examination
2. Was living in Oxford with an incredibly chatty and comic landlady
3. Had survived the Army and the horrors of a lost love.

15 years ago I...
1. Was proposing to the love of my life, D***** W******.
2. Was doing my second and final year at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
3. Was having trouble with people who were defaming me to the college authorities.

10 years ago I...
1. Was writing, drawing and reviewing comics almost full-time.
2. Was briefly in love with a butch lesbian, but...
3. ...then met D***** W****** on the steps of Tottenham Court Road tube station after not having seen her for three or four years, and it was like, "Hunh? C**** who?"

5 years ago I...
1. Was over the moon about having my first book of historical research published by a proper academic outfit
2. And made up my mind to commit myself to research, since I seemed to be getting someplace there
3. On the other hand, I could not get over losing DW finally and for ever.

3 years ago I...
1. Was moving towards the end of a gigantic research project about sixth-century Britain.
2. Had finally moved out of the worst house share of my life, thank God! (It was with a criminal and a drug addict.)
3. Thought things would be looking up from now on.

1 year ago I...
1. Knew things would not be looking up in a hurry.
2. Was evicted from a houseshare in Hackney, after a rotten year in which everything went wrong and I lost touch with all my friends.
3. Was becoming familiar with the Internet.

This year I...
1. Moved into a small flat in Ilford.
2. Suffered an atrocious disappointment after hoping to get into a job I would have loved.
3. Got sucked into the addictive vortex that is HP fandom.

Yesterday I...
1. Possessed myself of a book that I wanted by improper means.
2. Borrowed another, by marginally less improper means.
3. Spent most of the day reading.

Today I...
1. Had a singularly pleasant awakening.
2. Decided to do some writing.
3. Stumbled into this meme and found an excuse not to write.

Tomorrow I...
1. Go to Mass.
2. Do some writing - probably finish at least one more HP story
3. Scan some original Celtic material and do some analysis.

You couldn't make it up dept. 8: financial penalties for... you're not gonna believe this...

The following is a faithful translation of an article in today's Italian newspaper LA REPUBBLICA:

ROME - Two teen-agers are in love, want each other, but to have some time alone is impossible. So they run away, if only for a little while, to have a bit of an adventure for themselves. In manyh parts of Italy it is a consolidated habit, which Sicilians call 'Fuitina,' "mini-escape". Up to now, this kind of adventure only involved relationships and feelings; but, from now on, they are going to hit the lad who takes the girl away in the pocket. Whether or not she consents, he is guilty of threatening family unity and has to pay good money for it - money, not apologies or repentances. It is money that compensates the parental unit for "having tried to break," with the condemnded fuitina, "the relationship of the underage female with her family".

This, word for word, is the sentence of the Corte di Cassazione (Court of last appeal), which establishes a precedent for a genuine "cost" charged on the Him in question, for the 'fuitina': even if arranged in a most modern fashion as a brief holiday incommunicado from Her's parents, a minor but fully consenting, the mini-elopement is an assault upon the family unit and unity.

The highest court of appeal confirmed the sentence for "consensual abduction of minor" against Giovanni C., a lad a few days above age, who, in 1997, arranged for his fiancee Angela P., 17, to spend a few days with him in a seaside resort in Marche (central Italy), instead of going back to her parents, who were waiting for her in a village on the Piave (North-East Italy).

No compulsion or deceit. Angela was of one mind with Giovanni, who had also roped in his brother Luciano to find the love-nest for the few days to pass with his beloved.

Now Daddy and Mommy did not like the matter at all, and, in spite of knowing Giovanni and his family and being fully aware of the relationship between the two, had no hesitation in laying criminal charges against Giovanni and even against his "accomplice" brother.

So the matter ended up in the court of Ancona (Marche) and then to the Court of Appeal. Giovanni and Luciano were condemned - the amount of the penalty is not known, but Giovanni had a higher one - and also ordered them to pay, immediately, a large unspecified sum "as provisional damages" to Angela's parents.

Giovanni tried in vain to argue in Cassazione that "it was groundless to maintain that he had removed Angela to parental power, this being merely a short holiday, agreed among teen-ages as a brief romantic episode, with no intention to destroy the relationship of the fully consenting girl with her family".

As for Angela's parents, Giovanni pointed out, to reduce his responsibility, that "they were aware of the bond he had with their daughter and hardly unaware of her wide freedom of decision".

But the Highest Court - sentence no. 43191 - declared his appeal "inadmissible" and found "the argument groundless". In brief, according to the judges of the Sixth Criminal Section, those days by the seaside, even if Angela was 17 and consenting, had an "illegitimate finality", pursued at the danger of the serene relationship between the girl and her family. Therefore Giovanni will now have to grit his teeth and open his wallet to pay for his 'fuitina', seven years ago. Jail, on the other hand, does not seem on the cards, since it is conditional.

The Cassazione's own deputy prosecutor general Gianluca Favalli had unexpectedly but unsuccessfully tried to have the relevant article of law (article 537 of the Italian Penal Code) declared unconstitutional; the Sixth Penal Section declined to consult the Constitutional Court (Translator's note: in Italy, the Supreme Court - Cassazione - and the Constitutional Court are separate entities), and decided that the 'fuitina' is still to be regarded as unlawful.

(20 novembre 2004)