That earthquake in Italy

Anybody who lives in Southern California, where the so-called experts who really don't know much if you try to pin them down have been predicting the Big One any year now, has to have a certain degree of empathy when we hear about an earthquake in another part of the world. That it should happen in Italy, in the Abruzzo region, so close to the 1915 earthquake that scarred (or at least imprinted) the life of the great novelist Ignazio Silone seems, as this Register editorial notes, especially piquant. My wife and I had hoped to visit Italy this year (though we were thinking more Tuscany than Abruzzo), but with the uncertainty in the newspaper business it's probably not going to happen.

This is an example of the kind of "obligatory" editorial that you simply have to do for a general-circulation newspaper, even though there's no particular issue or principle involved. I think it's something of a test to be able to make them have a little style and not just sound like a rote expression of sadness. See what you think, and let me know.