1. Is it time for a ’90s comeback?
Titanic is being re-released in 3D, The Cranberries have a new album out and the Backstreet Boys will play with New Kids on the Block to packed out crowds when they tour the country in May. Madonna just performed Vogue at the Superbowl, Friends re-runs are still all over the TV, there’s a Clinton in the US Government and according to Nat (Mamamia’s editorial assistant) you can still buy pop tarts at the shop around the corner from her house. And do we need to mention oversised denim shirts and Blundstone boots? Are the ’90s back? Daniel Ziffer from the SMH seems to think so.
What were you doing in the 1990s? Here’s a little gallery to jog your memory.
2. Writing on toilet walls. You can research that?
Apparently yes. Melbourne academic Jan Schapper studied the ramblings of women on the walls of 50 public toilet as part of a research project. She said women’s toilets were “unique examples in the West of cultural and gendered practice”. And JessieLuvsBaz4Eva symbolises…?
Have you ever written on the wall of a toilet? Ever read anything insightful?
3. Teen girl sentenced to life in jail.
Alyssa Bustamante was 15 when she brutally murdered her 9-year-old neighbour Elizabeth Olten, because “she wanted to know what it felt like” to kill someone. In an entry in her diary, she described the experience as “ahmazing” and “pretty enjoyable.” Today she was sentenced to life in prison with possible parole after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
It’s a terrible case, and the verdict is one we talked about at length in the Mamamia editorial meeting. At 15, was Alyssa old enough to fully understand the consequences of her actions? Or more to the point, what made her enjoy it like she said she did?