The A,B,C's of the News: "A" is for Anthony (Casey)

It's been almost a month since I woke up and allowed myself the freedom to once again know what's happening in the world.

The earth turns and I confess I find myself yawning. I'm not really following any of the going-on's as closely as I used to. I'll save the why and wherefore for another day.

Then there's how I'm relating to the recent past.

Surprisingly, at least to me, I've felt very little in the way of  a burning desire to find out more about what I missed from Sept. 11, 2010 to Sept. 11, 2011.

In fact, my ultra-long "lost weekend" feels like a burden.

I'd fallen behind and felt like I had all
this catching up to do...

I'm like a student who didn't do the required reading. Now he's contemplating slogging through a stack of textbooks and reading and absorbing hundreds of pages so he can take a make-up exam.

Maybe I'm just going to sigh and take an "F".

I did have one little indulgence this week as I dipped into what I figured would be 3 small stories, one each from the world of news, sports and entertainment that occurred during the past 365 days.

I thought I could learn about these not-too-great matters with a few computer keystrokes. If it wouldn't take too much time, then, yes, I might be motivated enough to learn my A, B, C's...

A: Casey Anthony Trial
I didn't know many of the particulars of the case since the body of Caylee was found in 2008 and that had been time enough to forget. I did remember how the media had seized upon the situation (Mom with missing child and contradictory accounts given to the police) and showed signs of turning it  all into a soap opera with breaking news crawls and talking heads analysis.

Each time I saw something like that on a TV screen when I was in an airport or store I walked on past without paying attention.

So I didn't know that throughout the spring of 2011 the judicial system and the media had been ginning up for a real, live televised courtroom proceedings that Time magazine would call the "social media trial of the century."

I lived through and watched many hours of the O. J. Simpson trial back in 1995. That was bad enough. I'm glad I slept through this one.

My quick Wikipedia catching up with the Casey Anthony saga told me about a foul odor emanating from a car trunk, garbage bags, a heart shaped sticker on duct tape, and an on-line search for "chloroform." There was also something about a removable swimming pool ladder.

The main thing--that every good story or movie needs--was the "shocking" verdict. Not guilty. Perfect! It allowed the entrance of indignation, furor and controversy and what happens now!

A not guilty verdict must have been a media ratings dream...

Learning about all this (besides nauseating me) led to a link to another trial that took place while I was asleep.

Nine years ago the body of missing Washington intern Chandra Levy was found in a park where she had gone jogging. Suspicion first fell on her lover and boss, Rep. Gary Condit, who soon left office. The last I heard the crime had not been solved and I assumed it never would be.

What I learned this week was that a man who had done time for assaults in the park where Levy's remains were found was put on trial last November. He was convicted. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison in February 2011. All of this happened while I was Van Winkled and I not even a murmur of it got through to me..

Unlike Casey Anthony there was no physical evidence connecting Ingmar Guandique to the body.

Unlike Anthony an enormous time had elapsed before the police fingered him as a suspect.

The only real evidence against him was it seemed he had an apartment near the park, had attempted to rape two female joggers there in the months before Levy disappeared. And he had told a fellow convict that he killed Chandra Levy.

Why did one jury convict this man and another jury not convict Casey Anthony who admitted to hiding her daughter's body, but confessed to this only after multiple stories (one claiming a kidnapping) fell through?

She finally settled on an improbable scenario of a drowning accident in the family pool and she didn't know what to do, so she lied, hid the body, and never mind that she didn't even report her daughter missing for 31 days, there was no murder. Got that? It seems even more exotic than O.J.'s "Columbian drug dealers" who his defense theorized sliced up Nicole and Ron Goldman.

I didn't sit through the Levy and Anthony trials. I don't know the answers to why the outcomes of these two trials were so different. All I have is the pictures.


Murderer

Innocent

COMING NEXT: B is for Brett: QB Enters the Sexting Hall of Shame.