Oh, you ANGEL! Thank you, ma'am.

Oh, and watch your mail, today or possibly tomorrow: you had someone who wished to remain anonymous donate to the hurricane relief effort in your name, and there are cookies on the way.

Deb! Just want to let you know my company has set up a relief fund where they will match our contributions dollar for dollar. So, my donation is being doubled. Whee!

Oh, excellent! And I'll have espresso cookies here for you at the end of the month.

I'll have espresso cookies here for you at the end of the month.

You do realize you're encouraging me to drool on my keyboard and it's got enough crap on it already, don't you?

Nah, just something to look forward to....

[link] Picture Number Nine drabble

Detective Sullivan studied the picture they'd pulled from Ginelli's pocket as the mobster had cooled and stiffened on the sidewalk. Ginelli and a kid, both dressed fancy, like respectable people. The kid watched Ginelli, maybe thinking "I'm going to be just like him."

Sullivan told himself it was just a neighborhood kid, a "hero"-worshiping nobody. In his gut, though, he knew that somewhere a kid was about to find out that his father was dead, that he'd fallen to the cops. Somewhere a kid would look at his weeping mother, would look for his father's weapons, would join his father's cronies, and keep the whole sick wheel turning.

Connie, I love that last paragraph.

I've got another gangster drabble percolating. It's good to feel the writing loosen up again.

What's the difference between a mobster and a gangster?

Not all gangsters are mobsters. Mostly, now, it seems to break down ethnically with mobsters being more likely to be the old-school neighborhood Italian, Jewish, and Irish wiseguys. Gangsters can be black and Hispanic... Maybe actually it's an organization thing...gangsters not being able to trace back to the Five Families and such. Dude, I'm "Rain Man" with brass knuckles and a bag of chronic.

Dude, I'm "Rain Man" with brass knuckles and a bag of chronic.

You are a font of arcane and specialized knowledge. People get paid for that sort of thing.