Tea and Vitriol

Blood is thicker than water. It is also harder to get out of the carpet. As of this writing, Rochester has just celebrated its sixth homicide for the year so far. Homicide has become the new norm for our dying city. We are the deadliest city in New York State and the ninth deadliest in the USA. That is no mean accomplishment for a mid-sized city of 200,000 souls.  We have become accustomed to violent car jackings occurring almost daily; of deadly feral urban humanoids driving along streets, shooting into houses, unconcerned about who might be wounded or killed; of revenge killings; of robberies and drug deals gone bad, resulting in corpses littering our streets and sidewalks; of homicides that were the results of mistaken identities or of passers-by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, when caught, the murderers usually have arrest records as thick as phone books, which reflect our government and judiciary's unwillingness to protect law abiding citizens from s

 In 2015, three people were shot and killed at Rochester's Boys and Girls Club while exiting a basketball game. It was a drive-by shooting. Three others were injured during that incident. Three men were eventually charged in connection with that triple homicide: Johnny Blackshell, Jalen Everett and Michael Mathis. Only Blackshell was convicted for his part in the triple slaying. The other two were eventually acquitted. Not everyone believed that they were innocent. Two years after his acquittal, in 2019, Everett was shot to death in a car in Rochester's historic Maplewood neighborhood. It used to be so peaceful and quiet there. Just coincidence? Or was Nemesis at work? Nemesis was the ancient Greek goddess who personified retribution. She is notoriously slow but ultimately effective when the laws of men fail. This past Saturday, January 22, Nemesis struck again.  The result was Rochester's second homicide of the year. The victim? Why none other than Michael Mathis, the othe

 Prince Harry's long anticipated and dreaded ghost-written memoir was officially released today. The title, "Spare," refers to the custom of the Royal hierarchy to refer to the first born as the heir and the second as the spare. Apparently, his position as the spare has bothered Harry for a long time, even before (he says) he married a not famous or important mattress actress whom many accuse of pulling his strings. That's because Harry is not particularly intelligent or well-educated and still, while pushing forty years of age, has not gotten over the death of his mother more than twenty-five years ago. He has been rehashing that over and over again over the years and continues to do so in his memoir. In short, Harry has failed to put on his big boy pants and grow up. But then, it's hard to be the second son of the sainted Princess Di, saddled with a cold father and an evil stepmother, encased in a cocoon of enormous wealth, privilege and prestige, at least in hi