Shhhh....it's the deaths

My grandparents called me early this morning to warn me that the heard on the news that the murder rate in Boston is has reached the 10- year high. My family and my grandparents in particular have long been a bit obsessed with death and everything morbid. My grandfather worked as a forensic chemist for the State Police, and where other grandchildren were entertained with tales of Grandpa walking uphill both ways to school in the snow, we listened to gory descriptions of crime scenes and accidents. Perhaps it's the Irish in us; they don't call the Obituaries the Irish Sports Pages for nothing. My sister Kerry told me that when she was visiting my cousins in Ireland, they had the radio playing in the kitchen one morning, and everyone was going about their business without paying it much attention, until someone said "Shhh....it's the deaths." and they all stopped and gathered around to listen to the announcement of local deaths. Not that death and murder are funny, because they aren't.