Some students are organizing a candlelight vigil tomorrow night to show support for the victims. So far, over 5,000 people have said on facebook that they're attending.

When I was in college, we had the mad brick dropper, who would go up to women and drop a heavy object in a bag on her foot. We rather thought "look out for the mad brick dropper" was some kind of urban legend, but then we started talking with a woman on crutches who felt rather ridiculous being an actual victim of the mad brick dropper. I think they finally caught him.

When I was in junior high, there was someone breaking into homes in the Joliet area and bashing teenage girls on the head. I don't think anyone died, but a friend of my brother's ended up with a metal plate in her head. The person sliced through her screen window to get into her room. Turns out the only thing all the victims had in common was that they had been at the local roller skating rink in the prior several months. I don't think they ever actually caught the guy.

re: penn state

I wonder if the details are as sketchy as Scola indicates. If two columnists are investigating this issue (including one who already reported a year ago on the Sandusky coverup) then I would like to believe this, but I'm preparing to hear the worst.

We had a mad hugger running around UCLA for a while. People want strange things.

when something really shocking and unexpected happens, I sometimes freeze, and can't act immediately.

This. I can't imagine, but in much, much less fraught situations my reaction was "danger get away scary things happening go go go." And I wasn't the target -- I think I've actually reacted better when I was personally threatened than when I was a bystander.

This is part of the whisteblower's dilemma, where if you don't react instantly, you're stained too. I definitely wish McQuery had done more, immediately or even days later. But he didn't know about the other allegations, while Schultz did. It's possible he thought, "It's my word against Sandusky's. One of us is a beloved figure with powerful friends, and the other one is me."

It also seems like he must have approached someone else eventually, right? I don't know how this works... What led the investigation to him? It seems like nobody else who knew about that night would be inclined to bring it up.

Gotta say, this is blackly humorous: [link]

Timelies all!

The whole Penn State thing is just...ugh.(sorry, I have no words for this)

Consuela, yep, it is pretty much that simple a flow.

It's possible he thought, "It's my word against Sandusky's. One of us is a beloved figure with powerful friends, and the other one is me."

...and I really want this career.