So let me take you by the hand...

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I'm in the very strange position at the moment of actually enjoying doing some research for an essay. Writing about the portrayal of London in the 18th century (The Dunciad, since you ask) means investigating a fascinating period of history. Tracing street names, working out where houses stood and rivers flow... all made the more hi-tech by the handy map programme on Google: it's the first time my essay notes have ever taken the form of an Ordnance Survey.

That said, it doesn't have to be in until Tuesday, so actually committing words to the page is proving slightly more difficult.

On an entirely different matter, I'm starting to find the whole Madeleine McCann "story" as baffling as it is annoying. Once again, the British media have successfully crafted a mountain out of a (tragic, yes, but not extraordinary) molehill.

Firstly, people go missing all the time, so why has this one story received so much prominence? Is it because "Maddy" happens to be a cute little 4 year old girl (awww)? Or because it happened abroad (those bastard foreigners)? Or because her parents happen to be influential, well-spoken doctors (oh, it shouldn't happen to them, it really shouldn't)? Of course, it's all of these things that have come together to form a very convenient story for the media to report on. Those journalists must hate being in sunny Portugal, especially just as the summer begins.

Here's some things we don't hear: why the hell did the parents leave their children alone in a hotel room? Why did they just take the girl and leave the others? Why aren't we asking if the father looks a bit shifty, rather than just suspects who fit the "stereotypical" paedophile description? Why do people think that by putting posters cut out of The News Of The World in their windows in Daventry and Milton Keynes that will do absolutely anything at all to help?

I recognise the irony: by writing all that I've contributed even more to this ridiculous saga, but it's painfully clear that this story will not end satisfactorily -- that will most likely lead to another "Princess Diana" situation, where normality will be suspended whilst the fanatics take over the airwaves. People have died in the time I've spent writing this of curable diseases, but they don't matter because they don't have such adorable eyes.

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