The ‘far away eyes’ of Amanda Knox

The Amanda Knox saga is quite interesting to me, from the railroad job being done on her, to the weird (or at least different than ours) justice system in Italy. It took another turn today.

The re-emergence of the case reminded me of the book I’ve been meaning to buy but haven’t yet: The Monster of Florence.

Ace has a great review of it in which he talks about this true-crime book being excellent, not for the crimes but the history and culture of that part of Italy. In this book, a Jack the Ripper type is running around killing couples parking in cars. And by "parking," you know what I mean. If you don't, your loss.

“And then there's the weird subcultures. Here's an example: When I first started reading I wondered, "How the heck can he find so many people (he killed 14, seven different couples) having sex in cars?" Well, there's an answer to that. In Florence, children -- adult children, I mean -- continue living with their parents until they're married. And they marry late. So there is a long period, say from age 17 to 27, when adults have no place of their own, and no sexual privacy, but are still, as you'd imagine, having sex. So it's a widespread tradition that dates -- even among engaged persons -- will end parking on country roads and having sex.

“Now, because of this custom of illicit activity in the country, another custom has become widespread: The "Indiana," "Indians" they're called in Italian, who creep quietly around in the night to... watch all the young people having sex in cars. These "Indiana" actually know each other and have dinner before their nightly outings, to talk about any sightings of "good cars" (cars where the more attractive women are having the more athletic sex) and share information about the best places to peep.”

As it were, a few nights ago I was sitting in my man-cave/library/spare room/greenhouse listening to XM and the Rolling Stones song “Far Away Eyes” came on. It got me trying to think of girls I may know with Far Away Eyes. A couple came to mind.

But today, when I saw those pictures of Amanda Knox again, I said to myself: “Self, THOSE are far away eyes.” She is who the Stones were talking about (never end a sentence with a preposition).

This is a great video of young Stones doing the song in 1978.

According to Wiki: In the lyrics, the lowliness of life and the possibilities in finding love are dealt with:

“So if you're down on your luck and you can't harmonize/Find a girl with far away eyes/And if you're downright disgusted and life ain't worth a dime/Get a girl with far away eyes.”