David Hendrickson 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈🟦

Fully funded last night! Took only a day + a half! Great to see the enthusiasm for my work and excitement to get early copies! Onward to see what Stretch Goal rewards for all supporters. Thank you! ks.hendricksonwriter.com #Kickstarter #crimefiction #shortstories #mystery

I had a funny moment during today's carpal tunnel surgery (which by all accounts went well). At one point the surgeon asked a nurse for the "liposuction tool." I felt obliged to say, "Hey, I know I'm fat, but I'm here for carpal tunnel not liposuction."

On this day 56 years ago, three men fell from the sky in a freezing, half-dead spacecraft and landed in the Pacific Ocean. They had been given almost no chance of coming home alive. Six days earlier, astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise launched on Apollo 13, heading for the Moon. Two days into the flight, 200,000 miles from Earth, an oxygen tank exploded and tore a hole in the side of their ship. Within minutes, they were losing oxygen, losing power, and losing heat. There was no plan for this. No one had trained for it. The Moon landing was abandoned. The only question now was whether three men could survive long enough to get home. Their main ship was dying, so they climbed into a smaller attached craft that was only designed to land on the Moon. It was built for two people for two days. They had to make it last four days for three. The temperature inside dropped to 3 degrees Celsius. Water droplets covered every surface. They rationed drinking water to six ounces per man per day, less than a single cup. Jim Lovell lost 14 pounds in four days. Then the air started going bad. The filters that clean carbon dioxide from the air were running out. Without new ones, the crew would suffocate. The spare filters from the main ship were the wrong shape. Square filters. Round slots. Engineers on the ground grabbed the same materials the astronauts had on board, plastic bags, cardboard, duct tape, and a sock, and built a makeshift adapter on a desk. Then they talked the crew through building an identical one while floating in zero gravity, 200,000 miles away. It worked. To get home, they had to swing around the far side of the Moon and fire their engine at the exact right second. Too steep and they would burn up entering Earth’s atmosphere. Too shallow and they would bounce off it and drift into space forever. The entire world stopped. Over 40 million people watched on television. The Pope led prayers from the Vatican. On April 17, 1970, the spacecraft hit the atmosphere. For four minutes, all radio contact went silent. The heat of re-entry surrounds a spacecraft in a layer of superheated gas that blocks all signals. Controllers on the ground called out. Nothing. The silence stretched past the expected time. One minute late. Still nothing. At one minute and 28 seconds past the deadline, a voice broke through. The parachutes opened. The capsule hit the water. All three men were alive. They never reached the Moon. But the mission became the greatest rescue in the history of space travel. It proved that the most dangerous moment in any journey is not the one you prepare for. It is the one nobody saw coming. Jim Lovell never flew in space again. He never walked on the Moon. Years later, when asked if he considered himself unlucky, he said: “I think of the crew of Apollo 1, who died in a fire before they ever left the ground. I think of the crews who never got to fly at all. No, I regard Apollo 13 as a triumph.”

It just hit me. Maybe the best way to describe Red Sox fans to others. Sox fans want the Sox to win 90 games and make the playoffs but feel that losing 72 games is absolutely unacceptable

Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Mystery Lovers Group at the Brooksby Senior Living facility where my mother spent the last seven years of her life. A link to my "A Writer's Journey" talk follows. #writinglife #writerlife #mystery

@ChrisCotillo @TheBeatwriter Depends on the context but in general “declined comment” is preferable to the petulant-sounding “wouldn’t address reporters.”

Public survey: As fans, do you care to read that someone "declined comment" or "wouldn't address reporters" after a game? Does that move the needle and improve your understanding of the team you follow or does it serve as self-involved media drivel? Does it matter to you at all?

How awesome is this!

@ChrisCotillo The Sox SHOULD have stuck with their high valuation of Duran this winter. For playing time, he's going against two Gold Glovers (1 who's been their top hitter) and Roman Anthony. When Masa is inevitably traded, it'll be 4 guys for 4 spots. Sox will be glad they kept Duran.

Clearly Duran is the one most impacted by the wonky roster construction and crowded OF mix, at least to this point. IMO, the high trade value they placed on him this winter doesn't square with diminishing his role as they have.

Small sample/early math... but: Jarren Duran is on pace for 526 plate appearances this year after 735 in 2024, 696 in 2025. He has sat in 3 of 12 games so far. In 2025, his third non-start was on July 7 (he started 151, played 156). In 2024, his only two non-starts were the August suspension (started/played 160 G).

@ChrisCotillo I'm guessing you didn't buy because of their sarcastic editorial comment: "Photogenic."

En route back to St. Louis. Last time, I walked over to the Arch and went up in it. As a solo business traveler they paired me with a family of four, then excluded me from their end-of-tour photo. They forced me to take this by myself and then emailed it to me for purchase

This is the BEST, most hilarious breakdown I have seen of the absurd rationales I have heard trying to justify trump's idiotic war. BRILLIANT! 👏👏👏

El astrofísico Neil deGrasse Tyson lo resume con datos que no admiten mucha discusión: En la época de las cavernas, un ser humano vivía en promedio 30 años. Para 1840, la esperanza de vida apenas había subido a 35. Y eso que todo era “orgánico”: aire puro, agua sin procesar y animales de libre pastoreo. Aun así, la gente moría joven. Lo que realmente disparó la expectativa de vida no fue la “vida natural”, sino la ciencia: vacunas, antibióticos, saneamiento, tecnología médica y conocimiento acumulado. Por eso las expectativas razonables deben alinearse con lo que muestra la evidencia científica. Y si algo enseña la historia es esto: cada vez que confiamos en la evidencia, avanzamos; cada vez que la ignoramos, retrocedemos.

Three cheers for Artemis II. Three cheers for this image of the only world we have. Let's hope we take care of it now and in the ages to come. Photo credits: NASA HQ PHOTO/Flickr #space #Artemismission #ArtemisII

I will always consider space travel magical. As a little boy, I put together models of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. I remember exactly where I was that Sunday night when Neil Armstrong took humanity's first step on the moon. It's wonderful we're going back. #NASA

Agreed. The Red Sox are a much better team than they have played to date.

“We feel this alongside our fans. This is not the start we wanted to get off to.” - Craig Breslow, who expressed confidence in his pitching and defense, and said offense tends to go up and down in baseball. (via @NESN broadcast)

Artemis II: Closing in on the MoonThe astronauts of Artemis II are now truly venturing into deep space — and the Moon is getting closer every hour.They have already traveled more than 200,000 miles (about 320,000 km) from Earth. With every passing moment, our home planet grows smaller in their windows, while the Moon looms larger ahead. Soon, the Moon’s gravitational pull — its “sphere of influence” — will begin to dominate, gently tugging the spacecraft into its embrace.Right now, the crew is fully immersed in the demanding routines of deep-space flight: Running critical checks on the life support systems that keep them alive Testing communications with Earth across vast distances Practicing manual flight maneuvers And carefully preparing for the dramatic lunar flyby that lies just ahead This is the moment Artemis II transitions from leaving Earth behind to preparing for humanity’s return to the Moon — not just orbiting it, but getting ready to push the boundaries of exploration once again.The journey is entering its most exciting phase.

@ChrisCotillo Rafaela hasn't covered himself in defensive glory the last 2 days. Losing a routine fly ball in the sun, turning it into a triple, then getting a bad jump on Tatis's 9th inning liner? Tough plays, but if you're weak offensively and have a Gold Glove, got to make those plays.

Rafaela the odd man out vs. Walker Buehler: Anthony DH, Story SS, Duran CF, Contreras 1B, Abreu RF, Yoshida LF, Durbin 3B, Mayer 2B, Narváez C

I'm honestly SHOCKED at how the general public still has NO IDEA Artemis II is, right this minute, taking humans to the moon and will be the furthest humans have ever flown. Every non-space nerd I've talked to has no idea. WE MUST GET PEOPLE STOKED!!!! THESE FOUR HUMANS ARE FLYING TO THE MOON!!!

@timbhealey Saw all the Apollo missions as a kid and even made models of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. Wonderful that we're going back!

I can't even put into words how cool this is. We are sending HUMANS back to (the area around) the MOON. For the first time in our lifetime! And farther into space than we have ever gone before! Can you believe that?

Love getting my author's copies, although I call this one my author-and-editor copy. So proud of this anthology Annie Reed & I started. Proud of my story ("Playing for All the Marbles at the Frozen Four") and all the other stories by the 9 other terrific writers.#RomanceReaders