Speaking of bloggers returning from a long silence, here's one. This is, once again, Isabella V., who describes herself as an heiress on the lam from her wealthy, and extraordinarily nasty, father. Her latest entry: a loopy discourse on state fair carny rides as a metaphor for life, which wouldn't look out of place on Bellona Times. Which is a stylistic departure, but... so what? At least it's an interesting read.

I've never known quite what to think of this blog. On the one hand, the story hangs together a great deal better than some scoffers give it credit for (particularly if you assume she went to one or two prep schools in the midwest which line up unusually well with some of her, or her character's, professed oddities). And she put unusual effort into setting up the blog; the domain name is registered to a privately owned Panamanian corporation to avoid tracing the author's legal identity (though the technical contact is a real guy). But on the other hand... there are more really good pranksters in the world than heiresses on the lam.

And frankly, while some people would rather it be real, I'd rather the whole thing be an interactive network performance piece -- if the author's real situation is anything like what she describes, it's No Damn Fun At All. Why wish that on anybody?