I just finished 400 years of history in 3 days checking a thing that was the Mayflower through the W. years.. that's more violence than I can take without a $3 beer special at the end of the day. And so.. before the special, before everyone else's Good Friday furlough, for two hours well-killed, I gathered the Concerto Form under oaks planted when Northwestern U. meant of the far-flung territories and read in the sun and under the rain of seedy tendrils clicking off 40 feet above, noting other things in bloom: hyacinth, tulips (some), forsythia, daffodils, magnolia (just starting) and a flowering white tree I'm not sure (dogwood?). This is my parlor trick for- supplements my lack of stamina- my running mate, naming things. I need to study up. On this day in history: lincoln was shot, the titanic hit the iceberg and a grade school bully was born.