WHY

I need to get this one off my chest. I am obsessed.

Lets get the obvious part out of the way: my heart goes out to any and every little kid who something awful happens to, anything that ranges from getting lost in the mall, being forced to drink pomagranate juice, being in day care with mean kids, having to wear neon colors because their parents liked the 80s and obviously those who become victim of a crime. Now that this is out of the way, I just need to figure out a way to get Maddie out of my life but I just don't know how. I think I am part of the problem.

On my way to work today I passed not one, no, three stores, regular selling cheap booze and canned peas in Kilburn sort of stores with her picture in the window. Yesterday in the gym (the gym being the only place I get to watch TV due to the fact that we more or less live in a bomb shelter that no aerial antenna can penetrate), Sky News tells me that Maddie has her own category on their channel, no, not only is she not captured under "News" or "Politics" or "Media", all of which would be fitting, but instead she has her very own headline which is listed right under "UK News". So here are the topics in order of importance, "UK News", "Madeleine", "World News", "Pictures" and so on. It turns out yesterday she got 14% of hits on the web version of the channel which makes her a top story. Still. And that after 6 months or so of gone-ness. I don't know if that means that 14% of all Sky News viewers viewed that story or what, but it seems like a big deal. And she manages to hold that position in spite of riots in Paris, Musharraf's dealings in Pakistan, the finding of a book made out of human skin, murder of British student Meredeth in Italy which I had thought would take the lead, lets not forget that a cyclone just devastated entire parts of Bangladesh killing thousands, besides the ordinary UN scandal that is ever brewing (fair enough, I don't even care about that one), other children disappearing (do YOU know their names?) and last but not least the discussion whether or not Mourinho would make a decent England coach. Why? And How does she do it?

Yes, she is cute, yes, her Mom is pretty, yes, the whole family is pleasant and perfectly middle class, no, it's not entirely clear if friends/family know something we don't know, yes, Sir Richard Branson donated money to the campaign, yes, there is some reported tension between the British vs. Portuguese police, yes, the pope gave his blessing, yes, her Mom will get drug tested but why why why do I know all of this?

Because Maddie has her own category, because the media can't get enough, because people like me are the problem. BUT WHY?