IT IS two decades this month since thieves talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and stole an estimated $250 million in works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Manet and others. The 13 paintings and drawings represent the world’s most valuable art heist.  A $5 million reward has been offered for their return and the statute of limitations has expired on the crime. Now, according to the Boston Globe, investigators are looking for a breakthrough with advanced DNA testing. The thieves used duct tape to tie up the two college students who were on guard the night of March 18, 1990. The FBI is hoping the criminals left their own sweat on the tape, which has been sent off to a lab for testing. These might be the most valuable perspiration traces in history. What are detectives supposed to say, we give up?  (more…)

SARAH L. WRITES:

I am writing in regard to your post on preferential hiring for men. It addresses something I’ve been uneasy about for some time, but have still not come to any conclusions.

When I was young, I could name many different ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up, but what I really wanted was to be a wife and mother. I did well in school, and assumed college was in my future, although I didn’t know what I wanted to study (I loved to write, and thought English was suited to me, but I ended up studying psychology, which was even more suited to me). Still, when my mother asked me what I wanted to be, I said, “A wife and mother.” Her response was that I needed to have a backup plan. (more…)

WHEN BRENT KING, the father of murdered California teen Chelsea King, stood before thousands of people at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night, someone shouted from the crowd, “We love you.” To which King replied, “We love all of you.”

Think of standing before a crowd with a microphone in one’s hands and placing grief that surpasses understanding on the altar of mass sentiment. (more…)

I RECENTLY talked to a female corporate executive who was unemployed. She had earned a handsome six-figure salary at her former job. She still had an annual six-figure income from her ex-husband and a six-figure income (or slightly less) from her current husband. Within a few months, after panic over her unexpected job loss, this mother of three young children found a new position in a dismal economy. Yes, it was a six-figure job too. (more…)

Hannon writes:

I really got a charge from reading Aservant’s post about chefs. While I foreswore I would never work in the “food service industry” and never have, I have great appreciation for Aservant’s sentiments and thoughts on the subject. My own work in another hands-on, unseen and “all labour” industry as a nurseryman is similar in some ways, especially in the technical knowledge and skill that only comes from experience. But it has nothing like the minute-to-minute demands of a kitchen. Still, I would wager that making good money – that is, a wage that allows homeownership at some point and obviates the wife earning wages-  is more difficult growing and selling live plants, mainly because of the low value people assign to them. 

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John Albert Gardner, the man held for questioning in the disappearance of San Diego teenager Chelsea King, was convicted of attacking a 14-year-old girl ten years ago and is a suspect in the disappearance of another girl. He is probably what is known as a repeat sex offender. Psychiatrists say that rapists and child killers are among the least likely criminals to be rehabilitated. Some argue this is proof they are suffering from a disease. (more…)

Jean-Paul writes:

I just read your comment on VFR about Chelsea King, the pretty young girl who disappeared while running alone in the park in California. [More comments can be read here.]

Some young girls know more things than others. 

I learned a lesson from my child when I walked down a crowded downtown street on a summer day a few steps behind her and her equally beautiful girlfriend. I had never really been aware of the ravenous, aggressive stares unaccompanied young women receive from a certain type of male. These were not looks of admiration, they were of another order entirely. It amazed me at the time because those same males were totally discreet when I walked on that street with my very attractive wife; their glances at her were of admiration and very brief. They are cowards, of course, since she was not alone and I am as big as them and I am unafraid of violence, win, lose or draw. They seem to be able to read this. 

Such a shame that it always seems to come down to the same nasty old thing; violence or the credible possibility thereof. Then they leave you alone.

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