Fifteen Minutes of Fame

it all started innocently enough…when I read that I could get my hands on an autographed copy of Why Evolution is True on Professor Coyne’s blog*, simply by donating to Doctors without Borders and sending on proof, I was all in – especially since he was not only offering to autograph a book and send it to me, but he was going to include a sketch of a cat with the inscription!  Doctors without Borders is already one of the charities that I donate to regularly, but this was just the motivation I needed to do my donating out of cycle 😉

Anyhow, the donation was made, the proof was forwarded via email and then I kinda just forgot about it…until shortly after coming home from my Rhinebeck trip and receiving a box in the mail.

Inside the box was a copy of Why Evolution is True complete with hand-drawn feline and personalized inscription (blurred to take out the names of my husband and herd)!  If you happen to be a reader of Jerry Coyne’s blog, you will know that he happens to be quite the feline fan.  Knowing this, and suspecting he might enjoy a note of thanks from one of our household, we propped up the book along with our most photo-accommodating cat and snapped a few quick shots – the best of which was sent off with an email expressing our appreciation for his fine artwork.

Much to my surprise, Dr. Coyne posted our photo on his blog for all the world to see! When I saw this, I responded as any “proud parent” might – and I invited the cat to sit next to the monitor…and snapped another photo…which, I of course, sent back to Dr. Coyne as a nod to the infinite cat project.  He, being the fine cat fancier that he is, posted the photo to his website along with the original one – and invited me to take one more!  So here they are…plus a couple of outtakes…

*offer was only available for a limited time, but he indicates he’s going to be offering up some other awesome things to benefit Doctors without Borders!