Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.
Using ‘The Road Not Taken' and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals error of their ways — and redemptive power of poetry.
"I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," said prosecutor John Quinn.
The vandalism occurred at the Homer Noble farm in Ripton, Vermont, US, where Frost spent more than 20 summers before his death in 1963. Now owned by Middlebury College, the unheated farmhouse on a dead-end road is used occasionally by the college and is open in the warmer months.
On December 28, a 17-year-old former Middlebury College employee decided to hold a party and gave a friend $100 to buy beer. Word spread. Up to 50 people descended on the farm, the revelry turning destructive after a chair broke and someone threw it into the fireplace.
When it was over, windows, antique furniture and china had been broken, fire extinguishers discharged, and carpeting soiled with vomit and urine. Empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia were left behind. The damage was put at $10,600.
Twenty-eight people were charged, mostly with trespassing. About 25 entered pleas — or were accepted into a program to wipe their records clean — provided they underwent the Frost instruction.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Chinese cabbie helps thief rob own home...
A Chinese cabbie unwittingly became the getaway car driver for a thief who robbed his own home.
Shen, of Huainan city, picked up the passenger at a bus stop at around 3 am and helped him load the things he was carrying into the boot of the cab.
That was when he noticed the man also had in his possession a fish without a tail - just like the one waiting in the freezer at Shen's home, reports the Daily Telegraph.
"I noticed he had a fish without a tail, and I thought how much it looked like the fish in my freezer at home. But then I laughed at myself for even having the thought," he said.
He put it down to freaky coincidence.
However, when he returned home, he was not prepared for the sight waiting for him.
He revealed that he had found his house broken into and his possessions - including the tail-less fish - missing.
Police later arrested a 56-year-old man who faces charges of burglary and theft.
Shen, of Huainan city, picked up the passenger at a bus stop at around 3 am and helped him load the things he was carrying into the boot of the cab.
That was when he noticed the man also had in his possession a fish without a tail - just like the one waiting in the freezer at Shen's home, reports the Daily Telegraph.
"I noticed he had a fish without a tail, and I thought how much it looked like the fish in my freezer at home. But then I laughed at myself for even having the thought," he said.
He put it down to freaky coincidence.
However, when he returned home, he was not prepared for the sight waiting for him.
He revealed that he had found his house broken into and his possessions - including the tail-less fish - missing.
Police later arrested a 56-year-old man who faces charges of burglary and theft.
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