We ran down to see -- naturally -- and thankfully, the two people inside the craft were apparently unharmed, so there's just a pile of wreckage covered by foam (sprayed by firemen to prevent a fire, obviously) surrounded by a lot of police and fire personnel in the middle of the Street.

My partner and I both heard the copter as it sputtered and spiraled down just out of sight around the corner from our window, and we said simultaneously to one another, "That doesn't sound good at all." Then the craft hit with a very loud thud on top of a parked car, but fortunately nobody on the ground got hurt.

And even more fortunate, right across the street from the crash is the downtown fire station, so rescuers were on site to pull the two passengers out in a matter of seconds. How lucky is that!

Anyway, I was going to tell you guys about the soapbox preacher who was standing curbside downstairs, telling me as I walked back from a meeting two blocks away that "the lewdness of thy wh-redom is an abomination unto Him" -- but somehow, that just seems so mundane now.

Did anyone else have an interesting day today?

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis will testify Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee on the marathon attack and ask lawmakers for increased security funding, including for more surveillance cameras.

"Images from cameras do not lie. They do not forget," Davis will say, according to prepared testimony obtained by the Associated Press. "They can be viewed by a jury as evidence of what occurred. These efforts are not intended to chill or stifle free speech, but rather to protect the integrity and freedom of that speech and to protect the rights of victims and suspects alike."

Davis will also express concerns about protecting civil liberties in a time of heightened security.

Wants more money for cameras but ....

"I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality, with surveillance cameras attached to every light pole in the city," Davis will say.

Not sure how that will work.

Exactly why did the government throw the book at him again?

Pretty Awful that this guy is in jail for making a bad video.  

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in an undisclosed location outside the city of Worcester, police said Thursday after a frustrating weeklong search for a community willing to take the body.

"As a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased," Worcester police said in a statement. link

Good thing we went in, because the dentist discovered that she actually had a serious abcess. He treated it topically and prescribed her some heavy-duty antibiotics and accompanying pain medication, and she's now resting comfortably in her bedroom.

I'm so glad we found out what was wrong and got it resolved now, and not have it become an issue while we're all in upstate New York later next week. We were originally going to go to Santa Monica this afternoon, but instead we're staying here in Pasadena. My younger brother and his wife are coming over later, and we'll perhaps all go out to dinner if Mom's feeling better and up to it.

(Good thing I brought my laptop along on this trip, because this has proved the perfect time to catch up on my growing backlog of e-mail and other correspondence from work. Otherwise, I'd have left it all until I got back. And my partner just called and asked if I had time to participate in a conference call in an hour with a client. Well, I do now ...)

We're going to drive down to Carlsbad tomorrow to spend the day with my cousin, who's been making a remarkably steady recovery from leukemia since receiving a bone marrow transplant from her brother last year. It's supposed to be foggy along the coast in the morning, like it was last night when we arrived, but then clear up in the afternoon. I love springtime in Southern California.