Stacy Horn

1. Worship the belly that is Bean’s. (Come on. Go ahead and try not to love that little belly.)

Jonathan’s story about finding Bean is in this week’s New York Magazine.

I didn’t do too badly reaching people. The Vatican hasn’t responded to my email yet, of course. But my medical tests came back negative! Yay! I live to curse the universe yet another day.

(Look at that ridiculously cute doggie!)

Missing picture alert! Don’t know where it went!

I took that on 10th Street, walking home one night. It was prettier in reality than it is in this shot, alas. Today I did a lot of message leaving, or email leaving. It’s like it’s my job to bug people for stuff. Here a selection of the people or places I emailed today.

– The Vatican (!!). Always scary for this lapsed Catholic to contact the Vatican. But I need some stats about exorcisms.
– The Nassau County Police Department. This is for a piece about unsolved murder.
– The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More exorcism stuff.
– The NYPL. Yet another exorcism question, but this was about Gallup poll data to see how many Americans believe in possession.
– FDNY. Looking into a fire, related to my Long Island piece.
– Miami Cold Case Squad. About a 1967 poltergeist case.
– The detectives union.
– A woman named Peggy Lee in Virginia about a priest I’m trying to track down who had a poltergeist, maybe, in 1949.
– My doctor for test results. (Routine, nothing scary. hopefully.)

Let’s see how many people I actually reach by the end of the week.

Another missing picture! Don’t know where the picture that was once here went!

1. Worship the belly that is Finney’s.
2. Finish reading the 1950’s Duke correspondence.
3. Make a brow appointment.
4. Meet Ellen and drop off books.
5. Make next week’s to-do list.
6. Christmas decorate? Too soon?

UPDATE

1. Done.
2. Made a dent, got waylaid doing some interesting research.
3. Done.
4. Done.
5. Done.
6. Decided it was too soon. Next weekend.

What I did yesterday:

– About five minutes of reading/research for my book.
– Made a video of me singing to Finney.
– Talked on the phone with Chris for maybe an hour.
– Ate.
– Read The Cabinet of Curiosities for a few hours.
– Watched a few tivo’ed TV shows.
– Ate.
– More TV.

I gave myself a day off because a very very very nice retired NYPD lieutenant posted the following about my book on a blog called NYPD Rant. I’d been very nervous about The Restless Sleep coming up on NYPD Rant. It’s a no-holds-barred kind of place and God knows what they would make of my book. But my day was made beyond belief because of what he said.

“I don’t recommend books about the job much, but The Restless Sleep by Stacy Horn deserves one. It’s the story of the history of the Cold Case Squad, but in addition to covering unsolved murders, including PO Stapleton’s killing, it delves into NYPD politics which I thought the author had a pretty good handle on.

“I write true crime stuff myself, but Ms. Horn, who is a civilian (she works for NPR), did a better job than I could have ever done. Highly recommended.”

Can you believe it?? So, of course I immediately put my work down and sang to Finney. Note his go-away paw action and complete lack of interest.

This year I had Thanksgiving at crickets. Thank you, cricket! This is cricket carving the turducken. That’s Anne to her right, waiting with the gravy.

This is cricket and the soon to be famous Bean. Jonathan, who is to Anne’s right in the first picture, sitting down, wrote a piece for New York Magazine about her getting lost and thankfully found. It comes out next week.

I should make a “Things I’m Thankful For” list. But I’m feeling kinda lazy and trying to decide if I should work out and work on my book (that’s the good angel on my shoulder talking) or go to the movies and shop (the devil talking).

Partial list: My book contract, the cats aren’t sick, I’m not sick, none of my friends or family are sick, my rent stabilized apartment, my HDTV, my new glasses, Cute Overload, technology in general, cameras, computers, ipods, etc., coffee, good hair days, Bush’s days are numbered, all the cute clothes in the world, Tolstoy, Bach, Mozart, sparkly red nail polish, and the internet. Thank you for that, Department of Defense.

I’m a little sad that I missed seeing The March of the Wooden Soldiers this year, even though the only part I like is when the soldiers come to life.