Horror at the Boston Marathon - Two I knew were there - Of Birds and Men - Submissions

23,000 people entered the race. Three are now dead. Dozens injured. Theories are circulating about who did it.

A Facebook friend of mine, Beth Dougherty, ran in the race. I met her when we took our online Novel-writing class at Media Bistro in NYC. I bought a copy of her finished book, "The Blind Pig," and have it downstairs in my bookcase. Here's my review on Amazon.

My friend Carolyn Constable of Chalfont, PA, said her son Chris ran in the Boston Marathon. His entire family - wife Shannon, daughter Samantha and son Corey - all went with him.

"But, he's a fast runner," said Carolyn, "so he finished in three hours." He bested last year's time. This is his third year.

He did hear the explosion and had a difficult time figuring out how to drive home b/c streets were blocked off.

Many runners who finished jogged right over to the hospital to donate blood, said marathon vegan runner Scott Jurek on Facebook.

What altruists!

Which reminds me of a Marty Moss-Coane interview I listened to this afternoon while painting three bird houses.

Frans de Waal: Primates, evolution and morality April 11
Frans de Waal. Morality is not unique to humans.  Biologist FRANS DE WAAL has found ethical behavior like empathy, altruism, and fairness in chimpanzees, bonobos and capuchin monkeys.  De Waal is the director of the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta.

Hello Frans, b. in 1948, from Holland.

He spoke a bit about God, denouncing atheists for their dogmatism. It's impossible, he said, to debate with them - Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens - b/c of their dogmatism.

Frans himself is an "apathist," someone who doesn't give a good doggone about the God question. Raised Catholic, he left religion behind when he went to college.

Fortunately that college wasn't Bob Jones University. Better stay in the closet if you're gay! Cuz their Jesus just hates homosexuals.

Scott and I went searching for bird houses for my front yard. I've got one out there already with a very tiny door. Only pint-sized birds can live there. Not even enough room for a Bose Stereo or even a cell phone, should an emergency arise.

First we stopped at Petco by the Willow Grove mall. We saw colorful canaries, a cockatiel, playful ferrets, thousands of fish - goldfish are 15-cents apiece - but nary a house for birds.

We walked to Michael's, a few stores down, and found what we wanted.

Three bird houses, ready to be painted. They were poorly made and had rough edges that needed to be sanded. The hardest thing about painting, is setting up and then cleaning up. You can see my blue rubber gloves that Rich Fleisher bought for me. I used about three pair.

I wore my new blue Pennypack Creek Cleanup Shirt and PJ bottoms from Noah Levine, not caring if I got paint on them.

Kept the back porch door open to fumigate the place while I painted.

 Three little bird houses all in a row.

The middle one is for Grace Catherine. She likes polka dots so they're on the roof and the front. I put the initials G - M - D - on each side.

Let's see what they're all up to now.



Max is snoozing at Barnes and Noble.

 
 Here's Max Atticus in a "milk coma," said Nicole.

Where is my girl?
Oh, she's flying a kite with Daddy, who goes back to work tomro.

You'll be happy to know I was a good girl, today. My goal was to submit my short story "The Light in the Kitchen" to a prestigious online lit journal.

I did dat, after reading it to my octogenarian friend, Freda Samuels. Previous drafts I read to Scott, Judy L, Beatriz and CC.

While reading I made half a dozen changes.

Also entered another story, "May I Have Your Vote?" to another lit journal.

They take forever to let you know.... six months, they say, but usually they reject you sooner than that.

While I don't pray that my work is accepted, I'll send a few ESP messages right now.