>Another gun massacre in the U.S., this one bigger than usual. 14 dead and about 50 wounded at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, which opens today. The movie is expected to be the blockbuster of the year and opened with midnight showings around the country. (My younger daughter was at one of them, although fortunately not this one). At a multiplex in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, a heavily armed man, reportedly dressed in black and wearing a mask, entered through a side door, tossed a smoke bomb into the theater, and started shooting. This happened just a few hours ago and details are still emerging.
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>The parallels between the event and the movie series are a little eerie. A mask, a sudden attack terrifying citizens, mass carnage. It seems like a scene straight from a Batman movie. Except it wasn't up on the screen, it was in the theater. And there was no Batman to swoop down and stop him.
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>Aurora is on the southeast edge of the Denver metro area, about 25 miles from Columbine High School. Maybe that Rocky Mountain air is a little too thin.

Maybe I should just turn away but I am still following this story closely. A few snippets from here and there ---

Matthew R. McQuinn, 27

McQuinn died trying to provide cover for his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, during the shooting at the movie theater, according to family attorney Robert. L. Scott.

Yowler and her brother Nick, who also was trying to protect her from the bullets, both survived.


A full-page newspaper ad heralding the opening weekend contains a pull quote from Marlow Stern, assistant culture editor of Newsweek, which says, "A monumental conclusion to the epic trilogy. Audiences will be blown away."


[SKIPPED -- the gun control debate has reignited, some colorful quotations, but I am not going to go there.]


https://twitter.com/jessicaredfield

Haunting. Real name, Jessica Ghawi. The media seem to have already focused on her as the poster child of this tragedy. Yeah, that's dead souls territory there, picking out a photogenic one, but I can understand why. Personally the transcripts hit me hard because they remind me so much of my daughters. Young, vibrant, always texting. That's exactly the way they talk online. "This is the voice of a new generation." And then lights out just like that. I thought I learned a long time ago as a parent to keep fears like that at a distance to avoid going nuts, not to mention raising a fearful child. Once in a while some horrible real life event like this brings it back.


It has been reported that the gunman had dyed his hair bright red and told the police he is The Joker. Not sure how reliable that is given that he also reportedly wore a gas mask, a helmet, and a neck protector of some sort. W + X + Y + Z = what?


The news media I saw -- CNN on the TV screen, lots of different news sites online -- did as credible a job as they could have IMO under the circumstances. It happened in the middle of the night in a place where no news was expected. This was not Damascus or even Los Angeles. They went on the air and the CNN anchor was barely hanging on by the time I started watching the TV in late morning. She was still in far better control than the on-site correspondent who was surely airlifted in that morning. From outside of town, obviously, because he said on the air that Aurora is west of the city of Denver. In fact it is east. And he was in Aurora at the time. I am not just jumping on an error of local geography, which could happen to any out of town reporter, but his moments on the air in general were not good. "Reporting from a movie theater parking lot behind the police tape lines, this is Whomever Whatever for CNN News." Too bad we couldn't somehow conjure up Edward R. Murrow from the great beyond to give this guy a baleful look.