Self Censorship

I can't deny it, the most recent story on The Sleaze was cobbled together at the last minute, using bits and pieces from this blog. Most of those bits, in turn, had originated with a highly unsatisfactory story from the early days of The Sleaze which I'd never bothered to archive, due to its many flaws. Whilst the resulting story is a vast improvement on its predecessor, it isn't the story I'd intended to write. That was going to be a football-themed piece to coincide with the closure of the transfer window, once again drawn from something previously published here. Now, maybe I'm getting old, but when I looked at the material again, I just felt that it crossed a line taste wise. I know that might seem unbelievable, coming from the man who has published such gems of good taste as They Stole Jacko's Brain, Die, Lady Di and Hijab Halloween, to name but a few. But what made those stories different, in my opinion, was that they satirised public figures or groups, all of which had chosen to put themselves in the limelight.

What made me uneasy about the football story was that it referenced the kidnapping of Tottenham midfielder Wilson Palacios' brother. Whilst the whole business of kidnapping relatives to extort money from the rich and famous in South America is a legitimate target for satire, Palacios' brother, I felt, wasn't - he hadn't asked to be kidnapped, or knowingly put himself in a position where he was at risk. Moreover, the fact that he was subsequently murdered by his captors simply was simply horrendous. I just couldn't justify trying to get laughs from such appalling misery. So, will the story ever get written, (bearing in mind that some stories on The Sleaze have spent, literally, years in development)? Well, the central concept is still good, the problem lies in the fact that, as originally conceived, the Palacios business was central to the plot (I hasten to add that the original blog piece was written well before the murder of the footballer's brother). If I can find something to replace it, then the story might yet appear.