Last September, we visited Arromanches-les-Bains in Normandy. This tiny town sits between what was called Omaha Beach, by the Americans, and Gold Beach, by the Brits. Farms stretch inland and the nearest city is Caen. 
There were 500 people living in Arromanches on June 6, 1944, and there are 500 there today, most involved with some aspect of tourism. 
We went to the beach, the museum and then up the hill to lookout points and a viewing of an incredible 360-degree film, made from news footage and new video of some of the same sites. There is no narration, just natural sounds. It was a harrowing experience just watching and listening. I can't even imagine how horrible it must have been to have been there on that day. 
The story of how the Brits made Mulberry Harbor was new to both of us. First, they sank old ships off the coast the create a breakwater. Then, they brought in landing platforms and created floating roads to move men and tanks onto the beach. Oddly enough, they met little resistance from the Germans, probably because they were otherwise engaged down the road at Omaha and Utah beaches. The sunken ships are still there, and so are a few landing structures. 
What amazed me in Arromanches was not only the bravery of the soldiers but that of the civilians trapped in this little town, with no way to escape the horror. A memorial stood across from where we stayed, listing civilians killed and local citizens sent to concentration camps. The streets are named for D Day heroes and civilians executed for spying on the Germans. Most were age 19 or 20. 
A very moving experience.

I had planned to write a post about the imminent loss of the huge aquifer that has been feeding parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, today, but needed to find some old photos of my family in Kansas and didn't get around to it this morning. Then, I worked on a story for another website, through most of the afternoon, while waiting to hear from a guy in Oklahoma City that I was supposed to interview. No calls. No emails. I was beside myself because I'm running out of time on this story.  
Then, this happened.
There are no words big enough to begin to talk about it, at least not tonight. 
Here's a pretty good explainer on the intensity of tornado that hit Oklahoma City area around 3 pm Central Time, written by folks at Smithsonian Magazine. The best description I heard today was that it had the force of a nuclear bomb, without the radiation. 

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/how-to-understand-the-scale-of-todays-oklahoma-tornado/

May 20, 2013 7:36 pm
How to Understand the Scale of Today’s Oklahoma Tornado
In Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, an incredibly powerful tornado just came and went, a nearly hour-long ordeal that, as of the time of this writing, has trapped 75 school children in their school, injured hundreds of people and left a city in ruins.
A meteorologist for the local news station KFOR called the tornado “the worst tornado in the history of the world.” That assessment is quite apt.
There are a lot of parameters by which a tornado can be deemed the worst, and by pretty much all counts today’s Moore tornado is up there. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration keeps a list of historical tornadoes—devastating twisters known for their size, their duration and their destruction. Though the Moore tornado doesn’t trump any of them, its combination of size, strength and duration made it an incredibly dangerous storm.
One factor that really set today’s Moore tornado apart was its staggering size. According to The New York Times, today’s tornado was “perhaps a mile wide.” Other reports put it closer to two miles in width. According to NOAA, the largest tornado on record hit Hallam, Nebraska in 2004. That twister was two-and-a-half miles wide. “This is probably close to the maximum size for tornadoes; but it is possible that larger, unrecorded ones have occurred,” writes NOAA of the 2004 tornado.
On top of its massive girth, today’s tornado was also incredibly strong. The Associated Press reports that wind speeds in the twister hit upwards of 199 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour). The record holder, says NOAA, saw winds peaking at 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour.) That storm, unfortunately, hit pretty much the exact same place as this one. It swept just north of Moore on May 3, 1999.
But while the wind speed of today’s twister falls below that of the May 1999 storm, the damage caused by a tornado isn’t all due to wind speed. The amount of time that the storm stays on the ground is also incredibly important.
Today’s Moore tornado was on the ground for 40 minutes. Most tornadoes last just a few minutes. But they can sit around for up to an hour. One of the most deadly tornadoes in history, the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, sat on the ground for a terrifying three-and-a-half hours.
Of course, while all of these parameters are a window into the destructive potential of nature, what matters most to many is the toll on human life. Though casualties are at this point still uncertain, FOX’s KDVR reports that “more than 171,000 people were in the path of the storm.” Several casualties have already been reported, but it will take time for the full destructive power of the storm to become known.
Fortunately, at least, casualties will likely be below the record set by the the March 1925 tornado that swept through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, the one that stayed down for 3.5 hours. That storm killed 695 people. Advances in early detection and warning systems have brought the deaths caused by tornadoes down over time, and one can only hope that people were able to seek shelter from the dark side of nature.

More from Smithsonian.com:
Surviving Tornado Alley
A Satellite View of Tornado Scars
This Might Be Why People Don’t Move Away From Tornado Zones

I was gonna send roses to all you moms or children of moms. But, alas, this little video holds up better over the long haul. 
Mavis never gave birth to children of her own, but it's clear she understands the strength of the bond between a parent and a child. I hope her song warms you, inspires you and thanks you for all you do and have done to raise a child, anyone's child. 

My brother, Bruce Hartman, has a new book out, for all you fans of psychological thrillers with a tie in to art and music. For those who don't know him, Bruce is an accomplished musician, composer, writer, avid reader and raconteur who probably would have been just as happy as a piano bar musician, if he had not gone to Harvard Law. Now that he's retired, Bruce is back polishing up all those novels he wrote along the way.  

The Rules of Dreaming, published by Swallow Tail Press, is featured today on The Next Big Thing Blog Hop (http://bit.ly/ZWeSl0). 

Bruce describes the book as having "three main themes: madness, music, and murder.  It takes place in and around a mental hospital where some of the characters are patients and some are physicians." 

What inspired him to write this particular book? He says"   

Years ago I imagined a story about a patient in a mental hospital who sits down at the piano in the patient lounge and flawlessly plays a difficult piece of classical music.  Although this usually requires years of instruction and practice, the patient’s psychiatrist discovers that he has no musical training or experience.  So the question I started with is:  Where did this music come from?  Where does any music come from?  Does music come to you as a kind of inspired madness, or does it come from outside the human mind?

The Rules of Dreaming is available May 23, online at the all usual places, or on order at your local bookstore. 

While spring plays footsie with us in the Northeast, here are some amazing photos to remind us what's ahead. Keith Carver, retired UMass professor and world-class photographer, shares his favorite bird photos. Enjoy them, share them, buy copies, buy framed copies, whatever. Just be sure to credit him. A comment on his blog would be nice. Be sure to mention you heard about his work on Birds on a Wire Blog. 

For the entire collection of 100 bird photos, go to http://kcarver.zenfolio.com

If you enjoy this blog, let me share my day-to-day findings in the news, on Twitter and from various blogs. I've put up a front page on Rebel Mouse, an aggregator, and would love to hear what you think of it. Drop a line, or leave a comment on this blog!