Criminy!

My grandmother, a Norwegian immigrant who came through Ellis Island on her way to International Falls, Minnesota, used to say "Criminy" or "Oh, heck" in place of the more New Yorky "sh#t" or "f#ck" or "Jesus Christ." I think it was actually a shortening of the word Christ. A good Lutheran wouldn't take the Lord's name in vain, after all. She also said "Pshaw" a lot, which I assume was a shortening of "piss off?"

Anyhoo, I gets an email from the good folks at Spotcrime.com, a website that's both helpful and sinister. Helpful in that it provides some context for crime nearby, and sinister in that in a dense city it makes you feel like you're surrounded by criminals. As in, don't look at a mapped database of sex offenders. You might lose a night or two of sleep.

Today's email was alarming indeed! Check the date on all these thefts, robberies and burglaries (they're different you know, t,g&b's). All on one terrifying day of crime spree - January 31, 2015 - a day that will live in infamy.

Clicking through, though, I realize that all these crimes were listed as "crime date approximate." So I guess they all got logged at the same time. And yet...if you stand about 20 yards back, the pattern looks alarmingly like a mimeograph of the Shroud of Turin. A miracle? I'll let YOU be the judge.