March 30

Events

1844 - His verse was no match for his life when it came to fame. - The French poet Paul Verlaine was born on this day. He is notorious in literary history for having pursued and then shot in the hand his lover the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Dorothy Parker quipped that "Verlaine is always chasing Rimbauds." But before he shot Rimbaud, the two had lots of sex, even though Rimbaud was a mere teen at the time. Rimbaud is remembered for his poems; Verlaine for being a pedo and a bad shot.

1998 - Maybe jail would be better than this - On this date the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the case of 60-year-old Lee Eiring, calling him "one of Wisconsin's new lepers." Eiring, who had multiple convictions for molesting boys, was shunned by churches, neighbors and even a publicly financed handicapped transportation firm. The 48 different rules of his probation included a bright yellow tape glued against his back door, stating: "Police Line, Do Not Cross" and a black-lettered sign in his front window that emphatically stated: "No Children Allowed." He was not allowed to go out the back door of his apartment because it faced a neighbor's yard with children's play equipment. He spent a week in jail because he initiated a conversation with a newspaper boy who was delivering the newspaper at the same time he was getting his mail, another probation violation.

1999 - How about money for "Molested Moppets" - The Canadian federal government announced on this date that partnership projects targeting children and youth at risk of being sexually exploited would receive funding under the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention. Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and Lawrence MacAulay, Solicitor General of Canada, announced that the Government of Canada would provide a total of $350,000 for the projects "Stolen Lives," "Children in the Sex Trade" and "Out from the Shadows and into the Light." I guess you have to have a catchy name to get the big bucks.