June 10, 2005

You are on the invidual archive page of Daily linklets 10th June. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
Daily linklets 10th June

The I've got 3 hours in an airport lounge version:

As the elevator in Perpetual Opulence Mansions slows to a halt on the 12th floor. I make two predictions. Brian the British stock analyst will walk in. And he will mention the trial of Nancy Kissel, who is charged with bludgeoning her Merrill Lynch investment banker husband Robert to death, in time-honoured, crazed-expat-housewife style. And I am right. “Everyone’s talking about it in the office,” he tells me as he adjusts his puce tie in the mirror. “What do you think?” I can’t help but shrug. I am following it as much as I would any other alleged killing of a man by his wife in Hong Kong – as an instructive example of the dangers of marriage. The fact that the key players have white skin means relatively little to me, I admit to Brian. I didn’t know them. As we leave the elevator and stroll through the lobby out onto the street, I sense he is disappointed with my response. I think of two noteworthy points about the case that go beyond standard gwailo tittle-tattle. “First of all,” I say, “the prosecutor suggests Nancy Kissel was a traitor to her social class, discarding her successful, high-earning spouse in favour of a bit of ‘rough’ – a horny handed, blue-collared TV repairman. Normally in Hong Kong it would be the Filipino driver, or a trainee hairdresser called Andre. You can see how this strikes fear in the heart of every high-flying career man’s sense of self-worth, can’t you?” Brian nods attentively. “Did you ever read Lady Chatterley’s Lover?” I ask him. It appears not. “Second,” I continue, “there is something extremely mysterious about the way they say she drugged him. Something that raises all sorts of murky questions about what was really going on, deep down under the surface.” Brian waves a slowing taxi away and looks at me in anticipation. “Think about it,” I urge him. “What sort of grown man drinks milkshake?”
Don't miss the Bolivia/Peak connection to the case as well.
posted by Simon on 06.10.05 at 05:15 PM in the




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