My Happy Thought...

Thanks! ...

2011-01-31T09:51:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry for not posting last week, but as I said in an email, I've been swamped with school. And that's just one class. Tonight I start the first of three concurrent classes.

So in advance of what promises to be a very busy semester, I've decided to stop updating the blog. It's not that I think it's a not worthwhile thing to do. There were so many days where I managed to pick up my own spirits looking for stories.

But despite what it may look like, this does actually take me a while to do. :) So I hope you've all enjoyed reading my updates, and I'm sorry if I've disappointed anyone. If you found this blog after this post, I encourage you to read the archives. There are some good stories in there (and I can say that because I didn't write them!).

More found than lost...

2011-01-20T11:12:00.000-05:00

The title that immediately sprang to mind for today's blog was "Lost and Found." But then I thought about it, and the three stories I have today are more about found than lost. Which, when you ponder further, is definitely the cooler side of those opposites.

The YouTube video above came from Yahoo! News. Todd Bieber, a film-making New Yorker, found a canister of black and white film in Brooklyn's Prospect Park after the last blizzard. Out of curiosity, he developed the negatives and found a trove of exceedingly good images, seemingly taken by two men here in the US on vacation. Bieber made a video to post online in hopes of finding the men who lost the film.

Recently there was a spate of weird fish and bird deaths in the southeastern United States. I never found out if they decided on a recent for the mysterious genocide, but I was heartened by another Yahoo! story, one highlighting the discovery of a new species of crayfish in Tennessee. The sucker literally crawled out from under a rock and is five inches long, which is like twice the size of "normal" crayfish.

And now from something new to something very, very old. PhD candidate Brian Schubert found 34,000-year old bacteria living inside salt crystals. The crystals, dug up for climate research from Death Valley years ago, apparently grow very quickly and trap whats around them. The microorganisms suspended themselves in hibernation in the fluid inside the salt crystals but got right back to work reproducing and functioning after being released from the salt.

Medical miracles and reunions...

2011-01-13T13:30:00.000-05:00

There's a pleasing symmetry to today's stories. Well, pleasing to me, since I'm a nerd. : ) There is a story about a reunion, a story about a medical miracle, and a story about a reunion between a doctor and her medical miracle. I'm beginning to see why the Mayans thought 2012 would be the end of the world with what seems like more than the usual chaos reigning lately. But, as always, I'm finding little stories here and there that help keep a positive light shining.

Global conflict has been happening for centuries, but the last round - Iraq and Afghanistan - seems like it will never end. But thanks to Tostitos and the USO, some families got a break from it. Eight children were reunited with fathers they thought were still in Iraq during the halftime show of the BCS college football national title game. The Philadelphia Daily News reports the mothers were in on it, but the kids thought they had just won tickets and field passes to the game. Their fathers were hidden behind a banner until the big reveal, and the looks on the kids faces could have softened the hardest heart. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Something else that made me tear up this morning was a story from Yahoo!'s home page about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. According to Yahoo! she made a Herculean effort to open her eyes on Wednesday, to see her husband and three close friends. Her friends were talking about taking her out for a pizza and a beer when she recovered from her injuries when she started opening her eyes and reaching out for her husband. Her surgeon thinks she has a "101 percent chance of recovery."

Something that has been slow to recover is the island of Haiti. It's now been just over a year since the earthquake that leveled much of the Caribbean nation. Elections were marred by violence and then a cholera epidemic broke out. Talk about apocalypse. But CNN International reported on a doctor volunteering in Haiti during the initial earthquake who recently reunited with a baby girl who has made a miraculous recovery of her own. "Baby Jenny" survived four days buried in rubble without anything to drink and with severe head trauma and her chest caved in. Dr. Karen Schneider, on the island with the Sisters of Mercy, had just started a nap after a 30-hour shift when Baby Jenny was brought in. Schneider did her level best and then sent the child to the US for further care and had always wondered what happened to her.

New Year's news...

2011-01-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

This is about the time of year when new Congressmen and Congresswomen are sworn into office. I've seen a few stories on our local guys' and gals' swearings-in when I accidentally happen to catch the nightly news. So I thought it might be appropriate to use today's blog to post a couple nice stories about the government before this whole new crop has a chance to do any damage, err, affect change.

Yahoo! posted a story on the lieutenant governor of my old state, Tim Murray. He and his wife were driving through a town outside Boston when they spotted a mini-van on fire. Murray pulled over and sprang into action, pulling children from the van. He almost got punched by their grandma for his efforts, but luckily everything turned out fine.

While too young to run for office herself, two year-old Charlotte English is old enough to make a video go viral. The little girl is shown here in this MSNBC video naming different past presidents and quoting their most famous bon mots. She gets extra points for simply getting "Gorbachev" out of her mouth.

And this last story is not about the government, but I didn't want to wait until next week to post it. I love it. Another video gone viral, this time highlighting a golden-voiced homeless man in Columbus, Ohio. Drugs, alcohol and "a few other things" had sent Ted Williams into the street. A chance video interview, according to MSNBC, with a Columbus Dispatch under an overpass on Ohio's I-71 revealed Williams' honeyed speaking voice and led to a second chance for the ex- radio announcer. He has been offered lots of voicework and even a home by the Cleveland Cavaliers. But what excites him the most is the invitations to do the morning talk shows in New York has given him the opportunity to visit his 92 year-old mother in Brooklyn for the first time in years.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T12:04:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone! I'll be back next week with a new post. :)

'Tis the season...

2010-12-23T14:43:00.000-05:00

You better not pout, you better not cry. No matter how much the traffic and the mean people at the malls make you want to. At the very least you can read the stories in this post and maybe feel a little more jolly and a little less stabby.

If you're a parent, you're jumping for joy these days. It's the one time of the year children behave without being told to. :) The ever-powerful naughty or nice list has been looking over their heads for quite some time now, thanks to retailers starting the Christmas season in September. If you need a little reassurance that you're receiving something other than coal in your stocking this year, you can check Santa's Naughty or Nice List for yourself.

One of the traditions of Christmas is the annual tree hunt. When I was younger it used to include traipsing all over kingdom come to find the perfect tree. Lately, it involves my parents and a race to see if they can beat their time from last year. I believe they are down to 10 minutes, parking lot to tree to parking lot again. One of my favorite authors has this to say about her tree-hunting experience. Compare and contrast.

The Guardian reported a trend in the UK of purchasing replantable trees, calling them a "surprise hit." In fact, the demand has been so high, grocery market giant (and tree supplier) Tesco had to order more after running out the first week of December. The article touts their green and green-saving credentials.

Today is a big day around the country for office Christmas parties (or so the DJ on the radio told me this morning). Office Secret Santas are usually a yearly nightmare. Drawing names; landing someone you don't know, or worse, don't like; and then having to find that person a gift. But Yahoo! posted a story on the type of Secret Santa you can really get behind. An anonymous man in Kansas City had, at the time of the article, given away $10,000 in hundred-dollar bills to needy strangers - a police officer with terminal cancer, a homeless man, a woman who couldn't afford presents for her 27 grandchildren, and a woman who'd lost her entire family in the course of two years among others. The nameless giver doesn't talk about his own finances but expects to give away around $40,000 this year.

MSNBC had a story on a similar situation. A six year-old little girl in southwest Florida wrote a letter to Santa asking for just one present. Her family had been hit hard by the recession and, in an aborted attempted to find a job in New Jersey, had sold or given away nearly everything they owned. Postal workers were touched by the little girl's note and decided to provide a trimmed tree, presents and furniture to the family.

And finally, I was late with my Hanukkah presents to Jewish friends this year, so it follows I'm late posting a story about what one rabbi is calling a Hanukkah miracle. The Palm Beach Daily News wrote a story on the reunion of two women, old friends from neighboring Polish towns who had survived the Holocaust and subsequently lost touch for 65 years. The nephew of one of the women unknowingly attended the same temple as the other woman, and after a chance gift of a book to the temple's rabbi by that nephew, the two women reconnected.

I hope every has or has had a wonderful holiday! As a little gift to myself, I'm taking next week off from the blog and will return in the new year. So happy new year too!!

End of the year fun...

2010-12-16T14:42:00.000-05:00

So it's the middle of December. Time for holiday travel, overspending and ugly sweaters. It's also the time of year for countdowns and montages. Today's post packs in a little of everything.

I was more than overjoyed with Southwest opened a terminal at Logan Airport when I lived in New England. The cheap fares, decent customer service and funny flight attendants usually made up for the long lines, minimal service extras and grumpy TSA agents that come with air travel. So I had to click on this link from the Today Show this morning, showing a "flash mob" of Southwest employees kicking it to Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Oh, those crazy kids... (Note: Those who cannot handle Saving Private Ryan-esque cinematography should avoid this link.)

VentureBeat reported on the "biggest shopping boom since before the recession." I joined about a billion other people doing their Christmas shopping online this year. Aided by really good deals (and the motivation to avoid crowds at all costs), I, and apparently many others, pretty quickly finished my shopping and then sat back and waited for the presents to come to me. In the first 43 days of the holiday shopping season, consumers spent 12 more than last year, or $23.82 billion dollars.

I found the above photo on Google Images. There were so many, each much worse than the last. *gleeful giggle * I had such a hard time picking...

And finally, the first "Best...of 2010" image gallery came to my attention this morning via NASA on Twitter. Yes, I follow NASA. Yes, I'm a giant nerd. Popular Science had the 72 (??) best science images of this year collected on its website. I didn't flip through all of them, but there's a pretty cool acorn squid-thing around image 35. Fair warning, Mom, you will not like image number 1.

Going to the chapel...

2010-12-09T13:35:00.001-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This weekend I'm attending the wedding of one of my childhood friends. I've known her for around 20 years (frightening thought we're that old but anyway...), and I'm very happy for her and her future husband and wish them the best of luck. :)

So as I was casting around for stories today (Google Alerts let me down for this week), I happened to see two separate video stories on MSNBC's website. The first is about a couple in Pennsylvania who was too poor to afford to print their wedding photos when they first got married. Their negatives remained in the photographer's storage until he died 45 years later. The couple was encouraged by the man's son to come look for their negatives and finally print them. Little did they know exactly how large a haystack it would be...

The Today Show's Natalie Morales reports on the second story, about the holiday generosity of strangers via those ubiquitous red Salvation Army kettles. She notes all the things of massive value people have dropped in this year, including an engagement ring and matching wedding band. The video can be found on the text link and in the box above.

Hope and inspiration...

2010-12-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I was going to put up a "Happy Thanksgiving!" post on the day, but it got away from me and all of a sudden football was on, the fire was going and I was asleep in a chair...

So yesterday was World AIDS Day. Every year for the past 22 years, this has been a day to lament the disease's progress and the staggeringly horrible statistics. But this year, for the first time ever, there was some good news to report. The Victoria Times Colonist and the Greater Binghamton Press both noted the 20 percent drop in reported cases, the promising progress on a vaccine, and the fact the Catholic Church has said condoms are morally justified in combating the disease - a massive turnaround on an earlier stance. All of these things give you hope that one of the most deadly epidemics on the planet might be getting closer to being controlled.

The Daily Mirror posted a story on a different sort of inspiration. The paper had a long story on the four winners of the Northern Ireland Youth Achievers Award. Honored at a banquet on Nov. 29, Blair Richie, Rachel McStravrick, David Meehan and Jamie Johnston were all recognized for not only their efforts at helping others but for the way they have turned their own lives around.

Today's final story comes from Yahoo! News. In an unprecedented step for democracy around the world, Icelandic citizens have chosen to elect their own countrymen to a special committee to re-write their constitution. Inspired by their country's descent into bankruptcy after the credit crisis deflated their economy, everyday Icelanders have the chance to be part of a major event in their national history.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mirror)

Inbox clean out...

2010-11-18T13:40:00.000-05:00

I use Google Alerts to help me find the stories I post, and I can usually come up with a theme within a day or two, so I save the emails. But lately I've had a few orphans in my inbox, stories I thought were cool, but I couldn't come up with anything related to them. So I've decided to just put them all in this post. :)

Yahoo! News posted a story a little while ago that notes the stigmas attached with shopping at Goodwill or consignment and even using layaway are disappearing. Being budget-minded has apparently even caught on with the rich, Yahoo! noted, who are buying nearly a third more fast food than last year. People seem to finally have cottoned on to the idea that it's okay to say "I can't afford it."

Yahoo! also posted a story on what appears to be the oldest photo in existence of people. Granted it was taken in 1848, so that's not THAT long ago in the grand scheme of things but still pretty cool. The daguerreotype appears to show two men standing on a river's edge in Cincinnati. One man seems to have a foot resting on a wooden beam while the other is standing on the beam.

The last story is from CNN. While it dates from this past summer, it has only been sitting in the inbox for five weeks. :-P I promise. Four former Harvard students have found a way to harness the energy released from your foot when you kick a soccer ball. Their "Soccket" retains that energy and a plug in the ball allows you to power electronic devices like cell phones and lamps. The inventors believe it will do the most good in places like the Alexandria (South Africa) township where it was road-tested during the World Cup.

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo!)

A salute to the military and veterans...

2010-11-11T16:10:00.000-05:00

Veterans' Day is not necessarily a happy holiday but finding heartwarming and good stories was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I didn't even have to leave Yahoo! to find three of today's links.

Lt. Col. Chester E. Bear (ret.) is the subject of the first of two Yahoo! profiles in today's post. A veteran of three wars, Bear parachuted behind enemy lines in the Korean, Vietnam and Desert Storm conflicts. A gift from a little girl to her father's Air Force Reserves unit, the stuffed animal became a mascot, flying first on a humanitarian mission before moving on to combat, where he received many medals. Bear (above right and left) was even declared MIA for three weeks when the US Infantry found him after a jump and wouldn't give him back.

The second profile I read centered on a rifle squad composed of decorated veterans from two generations and three wars who attend the funerals of fallen vets to provide one last salute. Grown from the original patchwork six members, today's squad features 128 former soldiers spanning 30 years and all branches of the military who are believed to be the nation's only all-volunteer rifle squad.

My Yahoo! email contained a message from First Lady Michelle Obama's office marking Veterans' Day with a message and a link to Serve.org. It's a website full of ways to help military families across the country. One of my six rules to life is the absolute truism that one of the most sure-fire ways to feel better in your own life when you feel low is to help someone who is worse off than yourself. Military families often struggle to get by because of their nomadic lifestyles regardless of whether all members are stateside. Serve.org is a great way to see how you can make your own and someone else's lives richer, often spending nothing but your time.

ESPN alerted me to this last story. The universities of Maryland, Texas Tech and Utah have teamed up with Under Armour to raise money for the Wounded Warriors Project. All three teams wore or will wear custom camouflage uniforms in games last weekend and this which feature camouflage numbers and details. The players' last names are replaced with one of the core values of the armed services - duty, honor, freedom, courage, commitment, integrity, country and service. The jerseys will be auctioned off after the games in which they're worn, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Better late than never?...

2010-11-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, so first of all, my apologies. This week got a little crazy for me, and I didn't managed to post on Thursday. I started this blog when I had little to do at work, and now, oddly, that I'm less employed and a part-time grad student, I actually have far more to do in life than I did when I had a full-time job.

I composed this post mainly of four stories that are pretty cool. The first is a YouTube video which my friend Katie sent me. It's billed as someone who actually walked across the United States, but regardless of whether that's actually true, the music and editing on this video makes the few minutes you waste on it totally worth it.

Yahoo! Sports' Rivals blog had a story highlighting the fact sometimes you can have two winners at the end of a game (even when you're not playing soccer). Jarod Claybourn, head coach of Sterling (N.J.) High School's football team, managed to break a two-year long losing streak. He did it against Mike Karp and Gateway High School. But in the process, Gateway's own losing streak extended to 17 games - the length that Sterling had reached before snapping the skid. So what did Claybourn do with his longed-for winning game ball? He gave it to Karp and Gateway High...

The last two stories are related in topic and come from MSNBC.com. In both cases, the articles tell of thieves who had a change of heart. In the first, a homeless man who was held up in front of his shelter received his belongings back. In the second, someone burglarized an art gallery but decided to give the items back, leaving them with a note at a local church.

Reunion crazy...

2010-10-28T22:53:00.000-04:00

So I had an entirely different theme planned for today and then three separate reunion stories popped up on my Google alerts. It depends on your entertainment proclivities, but I imagine these stories probably qualify as good news to some people. They do to me, at least. :)

Recently a book came past me at the library called "Totally Tubular '80s Toys". It is hot pink and highlights all the greatest '80s toys by year. It was a fantastic trip down memory lane. So when I saw this story from London's Daily Mail, it immediately caught my eye and was like a little detour off that lane. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, better known as Bill and Ted, were spotted out at the movies together and there is talk of a third installment of excellent adventures...

The cast of one of my favorite '80s flicks also reunited earlier this week. Christopher Lloyd, Michael J. Fox, and Lea Thompson - better known as Doc Brown, Marty McFly and Lorraine McFly - recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fabulous movie "Back to the Future". It grossed $380 million dollars and was the biggest hit of 1985, according to CBS. To commemorate the anniversary, BTTF is coming out on Blu-Ray with never-before-seen-footage. Those are four of my favorite words in entertainment... :)

The Daily Mail seems to be all over the reunion stories. This afternoon, 45 years after "The Sound of Music" debuted, the movie version of the Von Trapp family - including Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer - joined Oprah on her show. The movie won five Oscars in 1965 and the enduring hatred of Plummer for its saccharin-y sweetness. But he seems to have softened in his old age, speaking (positively) about the movie for the first time in decades. The end of the article does little bios on what all the actors have been up to for the last almost-half century.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail)

Think pink...

2010-10-21T16:54:00.000-04:00

Every October, the landscape is blanketed not only with leaves but with everything pink. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2010, the effort to remind everyone about the dangers of breast cancer and women in particular about the importance of early detection shows up in anything from pink ribbons to men's athletic gear.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month began as a collaboration between the American Association of Family Physicians and other sponsors to promote the importance of self- and physician examinations in the hope that fewer women will be caught off guard and fall victim to the cancer. As the years have passed the awareness activities have grown, and the treatment techniques have advanced. London's Daily Mirror posted an article highlighting some of those advances in techniques and treatments for diagnosing and treating breast cancer.

The idea of wearing ribbons for awareness is believed to have started when people wore yellow ribbons during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. It is then somewhat interesting (and really good for women there) that the pink ribbons and wearing of pink has spread to the Middle East.

My friend Matt publishes a blog called the Middle East Alliance, and in his last email, there was a post from a Saudi Arabian female hospital worker talking about breast cancer awareness in her country. The post comes complete with a photo of her custom pink ribbon-edged abaya and pink Coach purse.

Today's last story is from the Rockford, Ill. Register Star. It profiled a local small business owner, Terri Johnston, who uses her successful battle against breast cancer as inspiration in her efforts to help other women deal with the effects of treatment. The pain and nausea from chemotherapy can be dealt with, but Johnston helps women work through the maybe harder issue of losing self-identity with the hair loss.

Sometimes they just write themselves...

2010-10-14T17:57:00.000-04:00

Trapped since August 5, all 33 Chilean miners and six rescuers have emerged from nearly 2000 feet below the earth's surface. The rescue was originally thought to take place near Christmas, but serious international cooperation brought the miners back to their families two months sooner than expected.

As the Christian Science Monitor notes, the rescue took advantage of drills and workers from Canada, NASA experts who helped build the rescue capsule Phoenix II, a huge drilling tool from the US and a drilling expert from Australia who had until recently been in Afghanistan, drilling wells there.

The Phoenix II capsule carried the miners up to safety and fresh air, but those who went down the hole aren't receiving perhaps the attention they deserve. The Sydney Morning Herald did a piece on Manuel Gonzalez, the brave rescuer who served as guinea pig, descending first into the pit housing the miners. Coincidentally, the Phoenix II reunited two long-lost soccer rivals. Rescuer Gonzalez had played professional soccer against miner Franklin Lobos Ramirez 25 years ago, and the pair hadn't met since, according to the Mirror.

Irish Central summed up the feeling evoked from the nearly miraculous and totally successful rescue fairly well in this opinion piece. It focuses on how the world doesn't so much have stories like this to rally around that often. Many media watch outlets have already noted how intensely the world watched on TV and online as Chile hauled up its miners one by one. Some of the viewers weren't the average nightly news' demographic; they were children. CNN had a story on touching reactions by children around the world.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

(Un-) Earthly delights...

2010-10-07T16:26:00.000-04:00

Today's post is a short one, featuring stories from both above and below Planet Earth. (Those DVDs, by the way, are phenomenal. Definitely worth a watch.)

MSNBC posted a story today saying the 33 trapped Chilean miners could be freed by Saturday. It seems they will finish drilling by this weekend and are contemplating putting in a steel sleeve through the hole before pulling up the miners. Originally estimated to be freed around Christmas, this is absolutely good news for the poor men stuck below ground and their anxious families above.

The second story isn't so much strictly good news as pretty cool. My friend Stef posted this on Twitter (different article though) - scientists have found a planet not that far from Earth which could sustain life. Called a Goldilocks planet (get it?), Gilese 581g orbits a red dwarf and is one of six planets in its little system about 120 trillion miles away.

(Photo courtesy of USA Today)

Thoughts on charity...

2010-09-30T18:19:00.001-04:00

As the Great Recession drags on, it can be hard to believe that people are doing anything other than keeping their own heads above water. But these three stories prove individuals and companies are keeping an eye out for others.

In a previous post, I mentioned Warren Buffett's and Bill Gates' "Giving Pledge" - the two billionaires calling on the richest Americans and other citizens of the world to contribute part of their fortunes to the less fortunate.

Recently, according to CNBC, the pair took their message on the road to what some consider to be the economic giant of the future - China. They met with 50 businessmen and philanthropists to find out about the charity work already going on there as well as talk about ways to get the traditionally skittish Chinese to develop their own methods of philanthropy.

MSNBC posted a story on the first-ever world-wide charity index. Australia and New Zealand tied for first, while the US tied for fifth (with 55 percent) in the ranking of 153 nations. The index measured the willingness of each country's citizens to donate time and/or money to charity. China ranked near the bottom, so perhaps Buffett and Gates can make some headway there...

Finally, in this time where companies are pinching pennies and slashing budgets, LEGO has taken a stand for its workers. The Wall Street Journal blogged that the Denmark-based company has begun holding an annual "Stress-Free Day" for its 600 employees in Connecticut. Workers there are encouraged to remember adults need playtime too by getting beauty treatments, playing sports or kicking back with video games. The day is capped off with a happy hour featuring a beer- and wine-tasting.

(Photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal)

Grab bag!

2010-09-23T18:48:00.000-04:00

Today's post is going to be a mixed bag - all sorts of different things. I want to start with a story on Scout.com.

The subject of the story is fans' behavior at University of Maryland - College Park football games. While not necessarily good news in and of itself, the fact it was written by my friend Sam, and featured on MSN.com absolutely is. Congrats, Sam!

MSNBC.com posted a feature on the newest world's oldest man. Walter Breuning, a 114 year-old Montana resident, recently addressed local dignitaries and representatives from Guinness Book of World Records, recalling his youth (which did not include electricity for 11 years) and imploring people to be more tolerant.

Finally, the photo on this post (courtesy of the BBC) is of the harvest moon. The BBC has a slideshow of images related to the moon, including some cool photos of a Chinese lantern festival celebrating the harvest. It's the brightest in over a decade and coincides with the actual fall equinox (which will not occur again until 2029).

What else is pretty cool is the fact the harvest moon coincides with an astronomical oddity - Jupiter and Uranus, though really very far from each other, are lined up right now. This article explains all the astronomy parts, but what it boils down to is there are some awesome things going on in the sky this week. Well, at least to my budding inner science geek.

Worldwide bulletin...

2010-09-16T18:26:00.000-04:00

I guess the big news this week is the release of the American hiker Sarah Shourd from an Iranian prison, where she and her two friends were imprisoned last year for allegedly spying. They were hiking along the Iran/Iraq border and apparently strayed into Iranian territory.

According to ABC News, part of the condition of her release was the potential for deteriorated health due to a precancerous condition. The Shourd family was reunited in Oman and hope for the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.

Iran isn't exactly known for its human rights record. But now, thanks to billionaire George Soros, The Human Rights Watch will be able to continue its fine work. Soros plans to give $100 million to the watchdog group to expand its work worldwide. It is the largest gift Soros has ever made and the largest ever received by the group. According to MSNBC, Soros has already donated $700 million this year to various charitable groups (including the gift to The Human Rights Watch).

On a completely unrelated note, everyone loves a party. Forgetting its drug issues for the moment, Mexico celebrated the 200th anniversary of its independence. The Washington Post blog has some incredible photos of the festivities, including the one that is featured in this blog. I'm particularly impressed by the "O".

The boys of fall...

2010-09-09T15:43:00.002-04:00

Kenny Chesney's new album, "Hemingway's Whiskey," dropped yesterday (yeah, I don't really understand the title either), but it has a song on it called "The Boys of Fall" about high school football. I think there was even a documentary made around the song as well. But it inspired my theme for today...

I picked up two of these stories through Facebook, via two friends who are in the sports info business. The Boston Herald profiled Boston College red-shirt freshman wide receiver Jonathan Coleman. As mentioned by everyone's favorite Boston broadsheet, Coleman has lived the hard-knock life - the NY Jets have nothing on this kid. Somehow, despite being sent back and forth between several states and in and out of the care of his drug-addicted mother, Coleman made it to one of the most highly respected schools and football programs in the country.

A former co-worker at Villanova posted a link to a profile he wrote of VU's senior men's soccer captain Nick Rouzier, who had a pretty cool answer to the question "What did you do this summer?" The engineering major interned with BKS, a company which builds major stadia around the world, including one of the stadia used in this summer's South African World Cup. Rouzier lived in SA and got the chance to see seven of the World Cup matches.

The Herald also had another story on a BC football player, this one slightly better known after his successful bout with Ewing's Sarcoma. Super-Senior Mark Herzlich missed all of last year, while he fought off cancer. He played video games through his chemo and took the field only as a student assistant. But through his battle, he became fast and strong friends with a very unlikely person - a Notre Dame nun...

(Photo courtesy of The Boston Herald)

Seeing red...and green...

2010-09-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

It's probably one of the hottest days of the year and the East Coast is facing one of summer's favorite natural disasters - the hurricane - but for some reason Christmas colors came to mind today.

MSNBC has a video story today on the world's largest tomato toss, and it all goes for a cause. I'm not exactly sure how the money was raised but lots of people got together in Reno to throw tomatoes at one another, raising $20,000 for the American Cancer Society in the process.

In another bit of fun, RTT News reports the Smithsonian has acquired the original Kermit the Frog puppet. Jim Henson's widow Jane donated the world's most famous frog and nine of his cohorts from "Sam and Friends" to the National Museum of American History. Kermit got his start on the show in 1955 and transitioned to "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" after "Sam and Friends" went off the air in 1961.

Pint-size giants...

2010-08-26T12:21:00.000-04:00

The bon mots and common sense wisdom spouted by small children can make them seem like mini-Buddhas to adults. Their miniature statures and simplistic worldviews can sometimes mask the fact little children are capable of doing big things.

Ten year-old Joey McGuire is perhaps the youngest successful CEO I've ever heard of. Inspired by one episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice", McGuire started not one but two businesses. He runs a shoe-shine venture that employs three part-time people, pays for his cell phone AND has allowed him to save $500 for college so far. Not content with the corporate world, McGuire is a budding media mogul as well. He writes and produces his own super-local news gazette. The original article on McGuire in the Chicago Sun-Times caught "The Donald's" eye, and while in town on business Donald Trump took time out to meet with t he little boy he inspired.

This next story from AOL is definite evidence that children hear and digest what you say, even if you think it's over their heads. After her father accidentally took an incompatible combination of medicines at home, three year-old Alesaundra Tafoya toddled two blocks to the fire station to tell the firemen her father was "frozen". The reason she knew to do such a thing? Her parents had pointed out the fire house as a place to go in an emergency...

Nine year-old Logan Hearn took similar initiative when his mother found his younger brother floating face down in the family's backyard pool. According to JEMS.com, two year-old Brendan had sneaked outside and fallen in. When mom Tabitha tried to do CPR while on the phone with 911, Logan realized his mother was doing it wrong. He stepped in, used his life guard training skills and saved his little brother.

(Photo courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times)

Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-20T10:49:00.000-04:00

Hi...I didn't manage a post yesterday (sorry about that) as I spent the day in the kitchen crafting my parents' anniversary cake - 10 layers of Smith Island cake goodness sandwiched with strawberry mousseline buttercream and frosted with chocolate buttercream.

But I will return next week with a new post full of fun, good news. :) Until then!

A world of good...

2010-08-12T12:14:00.000-04:00

In an effort to counter-balance all the bad news from around the world of late (mudslides, earthquakes, floods, etc.), I've found three good news stories that span the globe.

MSNBC reported on "Crazy Bake", uniquely located in the Beijing Chaoyang District Mental Health Service Center. Six patients work with one instructor to churn out loaves of bread and bagels which are sold to area residents. The bakery was formed five years ago by two foreign volunteers who had also started an organic farm project. The bakers work every Friday to produce their wares; originally begun as a way to provide structure and activities for patients, all six workers have shown marked improvement in their health and are now able to live in assisted living facilities off of the health center's campus.

London's Daily Telegraph found a glimmer of hope amidst the tragedy literally flowing through Pakistan. Nearly 1600 people have died in the massive flooding there, but a mother and grandmother to 30, Zainab Bibi, was saved from flood waters by, of all things, her cow. Sleeping in the farmyard, the waters picked Bibi up and carried her away, but from out of nowhere, Bhoori the cow floated up beside her. The two were carried along until they found higher ground.

MSNBC also has this last story - hope for Haitians. The island nation is still suffering from the effects of that devastating earthquake this past January. But the LA Galaxy and the Tony Sanneh Foundation brought smiles back to the faces of some 14 and 15 year-old boys through the world's game. A Haitian boys team was brought to Minnesota to participate in the largest youth soccer tournament in the country. Welcomed into host families, the boys were able to find happiness both on and off the pitch.

(Photo courtesy of MSNBC)

Faster than a speeding bullet...

2010-08-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

When you hear the word "hero", what immediately springs to mind? A figure in a military uniform, standing strong against the enemy? A man in a cape and tights, ready to take on the world with super-human powers? Well, today's post has both of those with a healthy dash of the world's most un-disgruntled postman thrown in there. Although "Un-Disgruntled Postman" sounds more like a band name then a member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

CBS News told the story of a group of heroes recently reunited after a stint in Iraq. However, this isn't your usual Army buddy story. National Guardsman Chris Duke befriended three Afghan mutts during his last tour of duty. But the dogs did a whole lot more than help him fend off homesickness. Serena, Rufus and Target set off a ruckus and attacked a suicide bomber when he tried to break into the barracks one night last February. Serena had to be be put down after suffering severe injuries, but Rufus and Target were nursed back to health and received tickets state-side to be reunited with Duke.

Asylum reported on the real-life rescue of a family by Superman. Well, a Superman comic, anyway. After the bank foreclosed on an anonymous family, it began to pack up its belongings for the move. Buried in the basement was an original Action Comics #1 issue - the first appearance of the Man of Steel. Expected to fetch $250,000 at auction, the family will now be able to keep the home which they have had since the 1950s.

And finally, the postal service has had its share of poor press with bankruptcy looming and unhappy employees - the latter of which inspired the phrase "going postal." But Keith McVey, a postal worker in Akron, Ohio, is both a model employee and human being. Over the last 20 years, McVey has saved three lives while on his route and each time, he has simply continued on with his day afterwards and delivered the mail. According to MSNBC, the most recent example of his derring-do was last week when he performed CPR on a man who wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse. Improbably, the man came to before the ambulance arrived.

(Photo courtesy of Asylum.com)

Sources of inspiration...

2010-07-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert once gave a talk on the concept and history of "the muse." It was pretty eye-opening for me, and while it didn't inspire me to paint a masterpiece or churn out the Great American Novel, it did make me examine things from a new perspective. Which I suppose is a type of inspiration.

Today's blog examines a couple different sources of inspiration. The first is poverty. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the partnership between Tim Jahnigen, his wife Lisa Tarver and Sting to create One World Futbol after Jahnigen was dismayed by a CNN report on the children of Darfur who played soccer with anything but a real ball since those quickly went flat. One World Futbol produces soccer balls made out of the same stuff as Crocs. For each $39.50 ball sold, another goes to a child in need around the world. The couple's goal is to give out 1 million balls in the next three years.

The other theme is the wisdom of others. London's Daily Mail posted a story on its 10 most inspirational speeches. It, of course, skews heavily toward British politicians, but it does reference the great speeches from Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Winston Churchill. You will have to Google for the full text, but the story gives a nice abstract of each one. On a less world-beating note, each year colleges and universities bring in famous, infamous and everyday speakers in one last effort to propel their graduates to greatness. My own university's graduation speaker was more embittering than emboldening, but other schools do better. Harvard, for example. The following link is one speech that manages to be both entertaining and energizing.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail)

Happy birthday, Mr. (former) President...

2010-07-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

I'm always a little slow to get on the bandwagon for things, particularly movies. I don't really go to the theaters anymore ($11 for a ticket, really?), so I have to wait for the movies to come out on Netflix.

So I just saw "Invictus" last night. Matt Damon is genius. That he can be a leading man and a character actor at the same time astonishes me. But what that movie really did for me was re-introduce me to a man I'd only been dimly aware of - Nelson Mandela.

I wasn't even in double digits when he was released from Robben Island, and really, the West's coverage of African news is pretty bad. So despite what a fantastic man and leader he is, Mandela made little impact on me. Clicking through stories for today, I found an article in The Guardian marking Mandela's 92nd birthday, which co-incided with Mandela Day - a day set aside to celebrate "Nelson Mandela’s life and a global call to action for people to recognize their individual ability to make an imprint and change the world around them."

As I'm sure everyone is aware by now, the movie title invokes the poem in which Mandela found inspiration during his 27 years of incarceration. He used the poem to survive prison, but I think it can be applied to anyone in need of inspiration for anything, particularly when trying to change the world.

I've pasted it below and linked to the original site (so I don't get sued). :) It's short but does pack a powerful punch...

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

(Photo courtesy of The Guardian.)

Thursday round up...

2010-07-15T13:57:00.005-04:00

My mind has been a little scattered with all the changes going on in my life lately, so I thought it was the perfect time for a round up post. Much like my thoughts, these stories have nothing in common other than I thought they were interesting. :)

MSNBC reported on what it is calling “the biggest fundraising drive in history.” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have joined their considerable forces to convince their fellow gazillionaires to give half their fortunes to charity. Begun as a secret dinner with the Buffetts, the Gates', George Soros, Oprah, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller and Michael Bloomberg, the Giving Pledge has now been extended to any of the other mega-rich members of society thought willing to explore charity of this magnitude.

This next story from the Belfast Telegraph is super-cute. The real-life story of Belfast zookeeper Denis Austin, who kept a baby elephant in her backyard during the blitz of 1941 has become the inspiration for a new children's story. Austin used to sneak nightly into the zoo to bring Shiela to the relative safety of her garden after the elephant escaped a ministry order to euthanize large animals who may wreak havoc should the city be attacked. Even after the arrangement was discovered, Austin used to visit Shiela every night during the Luftwaffe raids to rub the baby's ears to keep her calm.

And lastly, CNN posted a story on Palestinian female race car drivers. The story is a semi-profile of Noor Daoud, a 20 year-old woman who has been driving since she was 11. Daoud was one of seven women who recently raced in a field of 50 in Ramallah in the West Bank. She has the moral support of her male friends and has even fooled other men who think she's a man until she takes off her helmet.

(Photo courtesy of The Belfast Telegraph)

Out of Africa...II...

2010-07-08T15:39:00.000-04:00

The World Cup is coming to a close; the final between Spain and The Netherlands is set for Sunday, July 11 after yesterday’s La Furia Roja victory over Germany in the second semi-final.

South Africa has drawn a lot of attention as the host of the world’s most popular sporting event (sorry, World Series/Superbowl). A lot of people were concerned about South Africa’s ability to host such an event. Worries about infrastructure, finances and security abounded. But most of what I’ve seen coming out of S. Africa has been stories like this one from MSNBC.

Poverty keeps townships kids from getting a lot of things those of us in the West deem essential to life, even a pair of sneakers. But a local organization started by a broadcast journalist and a man from the townships is aiming to make the kids’ soccer dreams come true - one uniform at a time.

I suppose all this attention on Africa has made me more sensitive to good news from that continent. Rwanda is one of the world’s poorest countries, known more for its 1994 genocide than anything else. But, according to Time, NYC cult hit Blue Marble Ice Cream has looked past the problem to help with the solution. Owners Alexie Miesen and Jennie Dundas have helped Odile Gakire Katese open Rwanda’s first ice cream shop as a way to bridge divides and remind Rwandans they deserve happiness along with their basic needs met.

Liberian Lovetta Conto fled her home country with her father when she was 18 months old and ended up in a Ghanaian refugee camp. An encounter with Cori Stern from the Strongheart Fellowship gave Conto a chance to make her fashion designing dreams come true. Her jewelry, made from bullet casings from the Liberian civil war, has adorned stars like Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry.

Pan-Pacific good news...

2010-07-01T12:14:00.000-04:00

Today’s stories come from all over the Pacific - Hong Kong, North Korea, and Australia. Yep, that’s right, North Korea...

As with most things related to the pariah state, this news needs to be read between the lines and carefully parsed, but luckily, The Washington Post is all over that. The Post reported that according to sources inside the country and to watchdog groups, North Korea appears to have abandoned, in practice, Communism. Dictator Kim Jong-Il appears to have admitted his government is unable to solve the food shortage and has told his citizens to start relying on private markets for goods.

Australia has undergone a change in leadership more so than policy, but that may be in the offing as well. After a vote of no-confidence, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been ousted by former deputy PM Julia Gillard. She is the first woman Prime Minister in Australia’s history (and apparently the second redhead). Newsweek has a laudatory article on Gillard and how her personality and leadership skills could bring a breath of fresh air to Australia’s politics. Let’s hope she has better luck than the Socceroos.

Hong Kong does not have a team in the World Cup; if it did, it would be nearly as much of an long-shot as its neighbor North Korea’s team. But Hong Kong does have an inspirational underdog off the pitch, according to CNN. Gordon Wong abandoned a career in health diagnostic equipment to make wheelchairs for fellow Hongkongers when he noticed foreigners had far better equipment than his countrymen.

(Photo courtesy of Newsweek)

Red, white and blue...

2010-06-24T13:41:00.001-04:00

This post was to be centered around good news stories from the Pacific Rim. No particular reason behind that other than a couple articles happened to wander past my line of sight. But then a couple of things happened in the wide world of sports I just had to note. My apologies to those who are non-athletic...

The small nation of Slovakia put together an incredible upset of defending World Cup champions Italy, 3-2, that sent the former republic of the Soviet Union to their first World Cup as an independent nation and the Azurri home to a very unhappy public. What turned out to be the game-winning goal came from Kamil Kopunek, a little-used substitute, who scored in the 89th minute on his first touch. ESPN.com and the New York Time’s Goal blog have excellent coverage of the match.

Then I found out via ESPN the absolutely epic Wimbledon tennis match between American John Isner and France’s Nicholas Mahut had finally ended. Isner was the second American to stage a comeback on the international stage this week. He pulled out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68 win in 11 hours spread over three days. Jim Caple has a funny article on ESPN.com on all that has changed since the match began “way back when.” The match set records for most games in a match (183), most games in a set (138), most combined aces (215), most individual aces (Isner 112) and, certainly, longest match. And get this, it was Isner’s first-ever win at Wimbledon...

And of course, one cannot help but mention the other (group of) American(s) who made a comeback yesterday. Striker Landon Donovan pulled the US back from the brink of despair by knocking in a goal in stoppage time to send the red, white and blue through to their first World Cup since 1930. I’m not even a soccer fan, and I may have cracked my knee on the bottom of my desk and yelled, albeit quietly, when I heard the “goooooooooal!” cry.

I’m sure you can find an endless number of stories about the game, so I thought I’d include some YouTube videos of the reaction around the country to the “goal heard ‘round the world” here (shot in the style of “Saving Private Ryan”), here (love the woman in the pink) and here (my favorite part of this one might be the dude in the front who lifts a bar stool into the air and then sprays the people around him with a random drink from the bar).

And in case you're wondering why I've included Slovakia in a post entitled "Red, white and blue" and whose other stories center on the USA, check out this photo.

(Top photo courtesy of Suzanne Plunkett-Pool/Getty Images)

Daddy's girl...

2010-06-17T12:41:00.002-04:00

Last year, I was late with my Fathers' Day post. This year, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Fathers' Day, I've made sure to be early.
Fathers' Day also came early for the families of the men rescued in Colombia. According to The Guardian, four former Farc hostages were reunited with their families, including one man who'd never met his two sons, this past Monday. The Colombian government sent 300 men to outnumber the guerrillas and raid the camp to bring the men home.

The Houston Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg wrote her column yesterday on her daughter's "father favoritism." Falkenberg cites mountains of research to tell you things any Daddy's girl already knows - we're more "confident and independent" and we have "advantages over others in academic achievement, in dealing with authority and pursuing goals and are more likely to avoid teen pregnancy, abusive relationships, eating disorders and problems with drugs and alcohol." She also notes "... good fathers and father figures are a precious treasure." Her account of her child and husband's relationship is adorable, by the way...

So thanks to my personal precious treasure for being an excellent father. At my newly advanced age, I am perfectly fine with saying you were usually right, and I turned out great because of it (even if I would have been loathe to admit that then). Happy early Fathers' Day!

(Photo courtesy of The Guardian)

To Sir, with love...

2010-06-10T15:02:00.000-04:00

"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

This is the definition of success coach John Wooden hit upon when frustrated by the grading system in place at the high school where he taught English. As definitions of broad topics go, this one is pretty succinct. However, in what became a hallmark of a storied life, Wooden was dissatisfied with it and strove to do better. He spent the next 14 years coming up with 25 behaviors he felt were essential to practice in order to reach success. He ordered them into a pyramid in 1948, and unlike so much in this world, that diagram has remains as relevant now as it was in the aftermath of World War II.

I am returning home to a small town to become a teacher and striving to find success in my life, but that is where the parallels between John Wooden and myself end. The man who single-handedly made thousands, if not millions of lives better, passed away a week ago at the age of 99. I sincerely doubt I, or anyone else in the near future, will make the kind of impact Mr. Wooden did. He was king of the sports world but never forgot he started out a peasant.

Many, many news organizations have eulogized Mr. Wooden, but the article I really feel captures how singular a life he led is Rick Reilly's from ESPN.com. Reilly's first line is about as accurate as a sentence could ever be - "The awful thing about knowing John Wooden was that when you left him, you realized how weak you were as a man."

The Wall Street Journal did a story on Mr. Wooden, which offers a little background on his life before winning 10 national basketball titles at UCLA. I think what I enjoyed learning the most from this article was that his nickname at Purdue was the India Rubber Man, because while he fell, apparently, a fair amount while dribbling - "He bounces back to his feet immediately and is away once more." That is a pretty good metaphor for how Mr. Wooden lived his life.

Mr. Wooden was known for his pithy but epically true suggestions on how to live your life, and ESPN.com listed ten of their favorites. My favorite from the list is no. 9 -"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team." Take that, Kobe/LeBron/Jeter/Big Ben/etc...

The LA Times's TJ Simers appears to have been close to Mr. Wooden, and his article reflecting on Mr. Wooden's life is a nice twist on the usual bestowal of sainthood. While John Wooden would have my vote to be a secular saint, Simers focuses on the devilish good humor that colored Mr. Wooden's life, mentioning at the end of the article how he used the occasion of a nationally televised special to give the author a singing bass.

A grab bag of sorts...

2010-06-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it has not been a good two weeks for the blog. Last week I just couldn't manage to get a post together, and this week I had Internet issues. But, not to be defeated, I have "try try again"-ed and am now posting.

Without further ado... As Geekologie says, this is your daily dose of awwww. It's a video of baby Jonathan having his cochlear implant activated and hearing his mother's voice for the first time. It's a short little video but watching his reaction is just adorable.

The Chicago Tribune had a story on someone at the other end of her life. Sister Charitas Prince, a Franciscan nun, recently celebrated her 80th year of service - a milestone reached by no other nun in the 166-year history of the order. The 99 year-old woman will be joined by 14 other sisters on June 19 to celebrate their jubilees. Together the 15 women have 900 years of service to the order.

Finally, Yahoo! posted an article on Indra Tamang, an Nepalese man who went from rags to riches - literally. After befriending a rich American at the hotel where he worked, Tamang faithfully served his patron and that patron's sister for nearly 40 years. With the deaths of both patrons, Tamang garnered headlines and attention all over New York when the news broke he had inherited their estate. As I read that, I thought, "Poor guy. He'll never see a penny of it. The family will fight for years." But the article went on to say the woman's estranged daughter wanted no part of her mother's estate and had not contested the gift.

A level playing field...

2010-05-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

College and professional sports are very quick to abuse and distort words that otherwise would have a deeper meaning - inspirational, hero, warrior to name just a few. Growing up surrounded by sports, I didn't really notice it, but once I started working in college athletics, it became abundantly clear. Particularly when I was tempted to call a comeback effort heroic.

In contrast, today's stories do actually feature athletes who have done something inspirational, and it wasn't hitting a 32-foot jumper at the buzzer to send the game into a second overtime.

College golf doesn't garner that many headlines, especially if it's NAIA college golf. But Yahoo! Sports featured a golfer very worthy of the attention (thanks for the story tip-off, Blair). University of St. Francis' Grant Whybark had the opportunity to lock up individual and team spots in the NAIA National Championship. But Whybark did something completely against the competitive drive athletes are supposed to possess - he deliberately shanked a drive so Olivet Nazarene's Seth Doran could go to Nationals too.

Awhile back, I did a post on Natalie Randolph, the Calvin Coolidge Senior High School head football coach. She is one of a handful of women nationwide who head up high school football programs. Randolph has more than held her own in the tests administered by outsiders and a few of her own players. But what has caught the attention of the New York Times this time around is Randolph's commitment to her players in the classroom.

I'm a little sick of professional athletes who whine about how tough their lives are or who only give 10 percent a la Hanley Ramirez. They should take a page from Rafal Krolczyk, a high school boys gymnast on the Niles' West junior varsity team, featured by the Chicago Tribune. "No Fall" Rafal, a moniker he picked up from teammates, competes in the pommel horse for Niles West, an event regarded as one of the hardest events to master. None of this distinguishes Krolczyk from thousands of other high school gymnasts. What does make him stand out from the crowd is that he does this (with full support from family and teammates) despite having cerebral palsy.

A lot of athletes out there do overcome personal hardships to compete at a high level. They even made "The Blind Side" out of Baltimore Raven Michael Oher's story. Now, as a Hokie by association, I naturally view askance anything that comes out of the University of Miami. But this time I really appreciated the Miami Herald story on Saints rookie Jimmy Graham.

Signed away to a group home at 11, Graham survived a rocky childhood after being taken in by a woman who could barely afford it but couldn't walk away from him. He went on to earn dual degrees in five years from Miami while playing four years of basketball (and one year of football) where he was known for his tenacious rebounding and defense. Now with the Saints, Graham hopes to reach out to troubled kids in New Orleans.

(Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune)

Up in the air...

2010-05-13T13:11:00.000-04:00

I have a tremendous fear of falling from heights. So I suppose it goes without saying that I hate flying and airplanes in general. The irony there is I love to travel. Perhaps I ought to try a cruise...Anyway, with this fact in mind, I also suppose today's blog topic is thus unlikely, at least for me.

Like a lot of people, I have a bucket list. Nothing formal, just things I keep in my head that I'd like to get done in my life. Needless to say sky-diving is not on that list, particularly not after this story. However, despite the outcome, Dave Hartsock can never be called anything but a hero.

According to CBS, Shirley Dygert hired him as a sky-diving instructor when she decided to shake up her life a little. Neither she nor Hartsock knew that trip out of the plane was going to change both their lives more than a little. After a parachute malfunction, Hartsock switched positions with Dygert before they hit the ground, taking the brunt of the impact and saving her from the paralysis he now suffers.

I've had enough issues in airports and on planes to know better than to jump out of one that functions perfectly well. Unfortunately the 92 passengers and 11 crew members of Flight 8U771 did not have a choice when their airbus failed to land properly at Tripoli International Airport on Wednesday.

But details are still emerging about the miraculous survival of eight year-old Ruben van Assouw, the sole survivor of yesterday's crash, according to CNN. The Dutch boy seems to have suffered only broken bones in his lower limbs.

(Photo courtesy of CBS News)

Way in advance of Memorial Day...

2010-05-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

For once it seems like of all the current disasters in the world, none of the headlines are focused on the military. Which I suppose is a round about way of looking for good news. Over the last two weeks I found some actual, straight-up good news stories out of the US Armed Forces.

I wanted to use this first one last week since it came out on my blog day, but I didn't have anything related, so I held it.

The Boston Globe reported the US Navy has quietly allowed women to begin serving in the submarine forces. Recently I've been reading Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation," which honors folks who fought in World War II. Several of the chapters in that book focus on the women who wrought quite an upheaval on the policy of females in the military. Now, there weren't any women in subs then (or officially recognized as in combat for that matter), but women in the submarine service is one of the last barriers to be broken.

According to the Globe, "the Navy plans to start by assigning three female officers each in eight different crews of guided-missile attack submarines and ballistic missile submarines." The reasoning being these types of subs are the easiest (read: cheapest) to retro-fit to accommodate living quarters for women. I'm a little claustrophobic, so I would never want to do this, but good luck to 'em!

One thing the members of the Greatest Generation and today's military have in common is the call to serve. I mean, you'd really need a strong sense of duty to put yourself in the line of fire for others. And as you read profiles of soldiers and sailors and such, you find out exactly how many of the people who answered that call are genuinely good and decent human beings. One such good Samaritan found himself in the headlines a week or so back. The New York Daily News posted a story on Army medic and Iraq vet John Stone, who performed the Heimlich maneuver on Toby Weiss at a Yankees game and saved the rabbi's wife's life.

Clearly these men and women who do so much for us at home and abroad deserve as much as we can give them when they're done serving. The Houston Chronicle has a story on Meredith Iler, a fundraising superwoman who is contributing in a major way to easing those vets' transitions back to civilian life. She founded Helping a Hero, a company that raises money and collects land and work donations to build handicap-accessible homes for severely injured war veterans. The veterans end up being responsible for $50,000 of the purchase price. President of her own public relations firm, Iler donates 50 hours a week to Helping a Hero and has built 18 homes since 2005 and raised money for eight more.

(Photo courtesy of the New York Daily News)

Child's play...

2010-04-29T11:24:00.000-04:00

Something is called "child's play" if it requires minimal effort for adults. It's almost dismissive. Learning Spanish is child's play; try Croat. Now that was hard. Or Oh, you made roast duck with endive. That's child's play. I made spherical egg of white asparagus with false truffle.

It seems to me that children seem to have an easier time of things that are harder for adults. Like altruism. Take, for instance, a study published in the April issue of Psychological Science.

According to MSNBC, children as young as 21 months are more inclined to help people who also seem helpful. Kristen Dunfield and Valerie Kuhlmeier conducted experiments where children interacted with two women who varied in their ability and/or willingness to give the children a toy. The studies showed the children were much more likely to help the adult who shared their toys with the children.

Students in Salem, Mass., also seem ready and willing to help people they've never met. The Salem News reports children in Bates Elementary School have been donating their change to "Pennies for Peace," a program started by author Greg Mortenson. His non-profit has built over 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has a special focus on girls' education in that region. The children were inspired by Mortenson's children's book "Listen to the Wind," which chronicled his experiences.

Long Beach Middle School in New York is another school in the news a bit recently. A few weeks ago teen singer Justin Bieber performed live there as a reward for students who collected donations for a food bank. More recently, as reported on MSNBC, seventh-grader Miriam Starobin performed the Heimlich maneuver on her friend and classmate Allyson Golden after she choked on a piece of gum. The kicker is, Starobin was spurred into action by remembering a similar scene from SpongeBob Squarepants.

"Take only photographs, leave only footprints"...

2010-04-22T12:11:00.000-04:00

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Begun in the '70s when environmental dangers were practically smacking us in the face (Ohio's Cuyahoga River catching on fire, anyone?), it is perhaps even more important today when the challenges are less apparent, and thus seemingly less urgent.

So with the invisibility of these dangers masking the importance of constant vigilance against them, I think today is an excellent opportunity for everyone to step back (even if it is for just a day) and remember exactly how important the Earth really is to us.

The Christian Science Monitor has an ode to the planet which somehow manages to be both cuddly and slightly thought-provoking. CSM editor John Yemma points out, even in this advanced age, how the Earth is vastly superior to any technology and that if it weren't for the Earth we wouldn't have the technology...

Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic volcano which erupted last week and has disrupted international air travel all over the world to the tune of $1.7 billion, is another example of the power of Nature over man. As British television host Laurence Llewelyn Bowen points out in a Daily Telegraph article, people are so used to being in control and being able to go anywhere at the drop of a hat. The enormous cloud of ash which grounded planes and stranded people is a real reminder that we are at Nature's mercy, so we should probably be nice to her. The Boston Globe has 35 photos of the effects of Eyjafjallajokull, which are just absolutely stunning. Particularly the first one.

NASA has come up with some eye-catching images of its own thanks to the new Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The spacecraft has sent back images of activity on the sun's surface and close-ups of solar flares among other things scientists have never been able to see before. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, it began a five-year mission to examine the sun's magnetic field and the effects it has on Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate.

(Photo credit: NASA/Reuters)

Death and taxes...

2010-04-15T14:55:00.000-04:00

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin believed those two things to be the only certainties in life. To those I would like to add "The person you are badmouthing is standing behind you." It may lack pith but is still true. Not that I've had any experience with it. None at all...

Anyway, today I will be focusing on the latter of Franklin's two certainties since today is Tax Day. Standing in line this morning at the post office, I noticed one twenty-something guy was furiously scribbling on an envelope. I couldn't imagine what inspired such intense focus until I caught a glimpse of the address - State Tax Bureau.

Good luck with that one, buddy.

In a self-generated stimulus package, some businesses across the US are taking advantage of the populace's general frustration by offering tax day freebies. CNN notes Cinnabun is giving away two mini-cupcakes, Starbucks is offering gratis brewed coffee to those who bring their own mug, and McCormick & Schmick's is offering dinner and a drink at the bar for $10.40.

Some people may feel like the only way to pay what they owe on their taxes is to rob a bank. While no one is disclosing what drove Victor Anthony Fernandes to make just such an attempt, Pulitzer-prizing winning photographer Kim Komenich is being called a hero for foiling Fernandes this past Monday. When he heard the suspect ask for the teller's money, Komenich sprung into action, bear-hugging Fernandes and pinning his arms in his pockets, according to USAToday.

In an update to one of the stories I posted last week, the Today Show has tracked down the mysterious Frenchman who helped pull two year-old Bridget Sheridan out of the Hudson River. Julien Duret, a 29 year-old tourist from Lyon, France, told the New York Daily News he doesn't think he's a hero and anyone else would have done the same thing. While little Bridget will someday succumb to taxes, it appears we finally know who helped her cheat the other of Franklin's certainties.

Nice save...

2010-04-08T15:34:00.000-04:00

Welcome to My Happy Thought 2.0. After a nice refreshing break, I'm going starting up again, only this time as a weekly thing. Check back every Thursday or just wait for the alert. :)

My current personal happy thought is New England has decided to have a spring this year. We've had our share of April showers already but yesterday was 90 degrees, and today is sunny and in the 60s. The fact that it's almost time for gorgeous weather has been a saving grace for me.

Today's stories are about saves of a more momentous nature. Not so much the "Sweet! I don't have to wear a coat today" and more of the "Thank you for saving my life" variety.

My friend Michelle reminded me of a story I originally found on the Chicago Tribune's site. Her version comes from AOL. On March 26 long-time Jewel Osco Supermarket customer Dan Coyne successfully donated a kidney to cashier Myra de la Vega after learning de la Vega suffered from kidney disease and had been on dialysis. Neither feels any after-effects of the surgery beyond de la Vega feeling miles better than before.

Yahoo! News had one of the first stories I saw about the miraculous rescue of 115 Chinese miners eight days after they had been trapped when workers digging a new mine accidentally dug into an old one which had filled with water. Miners survived by eating tree bark and drinking the water, but according to Xinhua, China's official news organization, none are intensive care after the rescue.

And finally, Huffington Post put something up on a rescue that wasn't much publicized as far as I can tell. David Anderson was doing the tourist thing in New York and only turned away from his two year-old daughter Bridget for a moment when he realized she had fallen 20 feet into the icy Hudson River. He immediately jumped in to get her only to find an unknown French man was already in the water saving his daughter. After getting the little girl out and making sure she was okay, the mysterious hero disappeared into the crowd.

Win one for the Gipper!

2010-03-30T15:21:00.000-04:00

I'm probably about to induce the revocation of my sports fan card, but I have no idea who the Gipper is. However, he has been invoked more times than is probably known as coaches exhort their players to try their hardest.

Today's blog is about inspirational moments in sports. I apologize here for the lack of clever transitions in today's post, but the amount of rain I'm currently getting makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and rock back and forth, muttering to myself. It does not make me want to channel Steinbeck or Hemingway. At least not Hemingway's writing talent.

Cornell's men's basketball team made a fabulous run in this year's barely controlled chaos known as the NCAA Tournament. A friend of mine is responsible for generating media coverage for the team, so I'm fairly certain he's responsible for getting this little nugget out into the Interwebs. Remember Jason McElwain, the autistic teenager who played just four minutes in the very last game of his high school career and knocked down six threes on the way to 20 points? Well, it turns out he bonded with Cornell's head coach Steve Donahue, who has an autistic son. According to ABC, McElwain served as an advisor and source of inspiration for the Big Red throughout their tourney run.

Tonic provides a list of the top 10 most inspirational coaching moments on film and in real life. Ethan Zohn's column touches on everything from Jim Valvano's touching "Don't ever give up" speech at the ESPY's to Jim Belushi's rousing rant in Animal House. Zohn even managed to find Knute Rockne's famous "Inside 'em and outside 'em" speech (which may or may include the Gipper reference - the rain is making my Internet too slow to load a video).

Finally, this last item appeared in the Boston Globe this morning after I heard about it on the radio on the commute in. The Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., and the Perkins School for the Blind held the first known fencing competition among the blind yesterday. Coach Cesar Morales champions fencing for the blind students as a way to help them develop skills they'll need in every day life. Fencing aids the students in orientation, balance and navigation. Fencing has been taught at the Carroll Center since it opened in 1954 as the first civilian residential rehab center for the newly blind.

(Photo courtesy of The Boston Globe)

Monday Mashup...

2010-03-29T14:30:00.000-04:00

A light news day and rainy weather has led me to the conclusion its time for a grab bag post.

The saving grace of this rainy weather nonsense is that since it is rain (and not snow), I can be grateful it's spring and no longer winter. Flowers are starting to bloom; the daffodils at the MSPCA are abundant despite the constant visits from dogs' lifted legs. And it's always this time of year I wish I had some green space of my own. I want a garden. Badly.

I grew up in the country and got to see the wonders of plants shooting out of the ground and bearing either blooms or something yummy to eat. A lot of kids don't get that experience nowadays, which is sad. What is cool is kids at Princeton Public High School are now getting physical education credits for gardening. According to the Green Inc. blog on the New York Times, students have the choice between gardening in one of the 16 raised beds built last fall or participating in a traditional P.E. activity. The departments of the school have gotten into the act, each taking a bed and planting seeds that relate to their subject. The science department is planning to study which plants prevent erosion, while, get this, the guidance office is planting aromatics known for their calming powers...

The encouragement of gardening in schools would probably be something that would factor into the next story from The Walrus. Bhutan's king declared in 1987 that "gross national happiness is more important that gross national product." He has since abdicated in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley has taken up the mantle of promoting national happiness. Thinley enlisted two dozen holistic educators from around the world to design a Gross National Happiness (GNH)-based curriculum for the school system. Thinley hopes this new system turns out graduates who are “more human beings, with human values, that give importance to relationships, that are eco-literate, contemplative, analytical" who know that their happiness is tied up with the happiness of the rest of the world.

The reason Thinley convened the workshop of educators was to ground the curriculum without the use of partisan politics. Now I usually avoid politics and religion with a passion on this site since they the capacity to make people very unhappy. But I wanted to post this last story, from the New York Times, about the Seder in the White House since Passover starts tonight at sundown.

I liked that the White House Seder tradition started with Jewish men on the campaign trail but has expanded to include members of the staff who are not Jewish. I think this is a nice story of people of different faiths coming together to both celebrate and learn more about religion.

(My apologies on the lack of photo; Blogger simply was not cooperating.)

Mmmmm, doughnuts...

2010-03-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

According to Wikipedia, the origins of doughnuts (or donuts if you prefer) in the USA are murky. Some credit Dutch settlers with importing them, one remarkably bold fellow claimed he created the fried dough goodness in 1847, but an 1803 English cookbook lists the doughnut in its appendix of American recipes. So who knows, really?

What I do know is doughnuts may be a "sometimes" food, but they are a very, very yummy "sometimes" food. Twenty-ten is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the glorious institution known as Dunkin' Donuts. And while I, and pretty much anyone else not born in New England, do not believe "America runs on Dunkin'," I will grant you DD's coffee pretty much has been the only thing keeping me awake some days. My addiction did get to the point where I would enter my usual spot, and my coffee would be in the process of being made by the time I got to the counter.

So I read with interest the ode to Dunkin's written by Christopher Borrell in the Chicago Tribune. In his search to sort out why Dunks has lasted so long, he touches on the company's history and somewhat-adorably time-warped logo before settling on the fact that for all the change in America's recent food history, Dunkin' Donuts has remained pretty much the same.

For most of its existence, the doughnut has been pretty much the same - either cruller/bear claw shaped or round - regardless of who is serving it. Or where, for that matter. Worldwar1.com has a page devoted to The Salvation Army's doughnut girls, who brought a taste of home to America's soldiers serving in France during "the war to end all wars." Necessity really was the mother of invention here, when Ensign Helen Purviance wanted to make a treat for her "boys" but was limited by the ingredients she had on hand. A little creativity back in 1917 led to a Salvation Army tradition carried on today on battlefields and at disaster sites everywhere.

But lately, as with everything else food-related it seems, doughnuts are getting a makeover. Some trend-watchers are even calling them the "new cupcakes." No longer content to color the icing slathered on top or inject different fillings, doughnuts have gone designer. Shops like Frost Doughnuts in Washington State are popping up all over with, as Cakespy notes, flavors like Wedding Cake, Red Velvet and German Chocolate.

(Photo courtesy of www.worldwar1.com)

"You have 'em, I'll entertain 'em"...

2010-03-24T15:05:00.000-04:00

And Dr. Seuss did just that, during his long life and continues to do so after his death. The "'em" in question, of course, is children. A lot of my friends and people I know who are my age are now having kids, as evidenced by them using photos of their kids as Facebook profile pictures (a personal pet peeve, btw).

Anyhoo, a quick troll around the Interwebs today found me three stories related to caring for children, and now you are brought up to speed on my method for finding today's theme. : ) I hope you enjoy regardless of whether you have kids at the moment.

In a nod to those out there my age and older (and those who are not the oldest child in the family), Northwestern University professors have found that exposure to and ingestion of dirt may not be the worst thing in the world, according to the Chicago Tribune. Their study of Filipino children who were exposed to a "healthy" amount of dirt and pathogens in childhood actually developed less of a chance of cardiovascular inflammation in adulthood and thus had less of a risk for heart attacks and the like. I'm not sure what a healthy amount of microbes is, but it does make me feel better about being an early adopter of the five-second rule...

Did you ever have to do that parenting simulation exercise in school where they give you a baby doll which is able to cry - at unexpected times - so you get the idea of what having an infant is like? I did, but I'm pretty sure my pretend infant had nothing on the Simbaby. The Chicago Trib reported on a recent alumnae donation to Elmhurst College's nursing program. The $50,000 gift allowed the program to purchase a Simbaby to better prepare its nursing students for the challenges in treating young children. "Baby Boo" allows the student nurses to get a feel for making their own decisions without the possibility of actually hurting a child if they make a mistake.

A much more low-tech version of soothing a baby has gone viral online. Anderson Cooper on CNN featured this video on his "The Shot" segment. The clip shows an Akita-like dog next to a baby bassinet or carriage, whose howls actually sooth the crying child in the bassinet, though I'm not sure which becomes more nerve-wracking, the crying or the howling...

(Photo courtesy of The University of Southern Mississippi)

Protect and Serve...

2010-03-23T10:50:00.000-04:00

Today's title is the motto of police departments pretty much everywhere. And even though each branch of the military has its own tagline - "Be all that you can be;" "The few, The proud, The Marines;" etc. - I feel like "Protect and Serve" pretty much sums it up regardless.

The Philadelphia Daily News spotlights one of NJ's finest and his rather excellent sense of smell. Monroe Township officer Thomas Lucasiewicz was on patrol when he thought he detected the smell of marijuana. He followed his nose to a smoking chimney, called for back-up and uncovered the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey history. A ring of six homes contained over $10 million of cannabis growing indoors under artificial lights.

Going by the number of puns in the article, I'm sure Officer Lucasiewicz has since endured his fair share of jokes. Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge is no stranger to the British media's humor as well. Nicknamed Combat Barbie, Hodge has served in the British army for six years while competing in the Miss England pageant. According to CBS News, Hodge is one of only 10 women in her unit to be posted in Iraq, where she detained and disarmed a suspected militant with her bare hands. Her latest opponent is decidedly less formidable. With the backing of the pageant organizers, Hodge has succeeded in having the swimwear portion of the contest replaced by an athletic challenge.

Lately there has been a push to replace well-traveled fruits and veggies with their locally grown and organic, if possible, counterparts. Apparently this extends, in some measure, to the Indian army. Yahoo! News reported on development of a new non-toxic weapon against terrorism - spiciness. After field tests, the Indian military has decided to debut its ghost chili grenade. Made from The Guinness Book of World Records' world's spiciest chili, the grenades are supposed to smoke out militants from their hiding places by means of pungency.

Lastly, I found a quirky story/blog post from The Washington Post on how US military mission names are chosen. I suppose this came about after the recent release of the name of the end of the Iraq War - Operation New Dawn. Christian Davenport's post shows that thought does go into it, beyond "What sounds really, really cool?" Well, most of the time.

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink...

2010-03-22T13:57:00.000-04:00

In honor of World Water Day, I've decided to do a post on gratitude since the abundance of clean water we have should make those of us in the West extremely grateful we live here.

Aussie web news site The Mosman Daily profiled 94 year-old Anne Parcell. The grandmother of five is completely independent and even drives to her local nursing home to visit the residents there. Parcell began her volunteering back in 1955 as a social hostess before moving on to work with the blind and deaf, the homeless and the Red Cross. A quote from the story notes she is grateful for her volunteer work as it gives her a "new lease on life." Some of us nearly three-quarters her age should be shamed by that.

As math has never been my strong suit, I won't even try to figure out the fraction of Anne Parcell's age represented by the middle school students in the following Tampa Bay Online article. As part of Lenten festivities, Catholic school students in sixth and eighth grades participated in Operation Rice Bowl. Catholic Charities organizes this every year: Instead of a regular meal, substitute a meat-less meal and donate what you would have spent on the regular meal to Operation Rice Bowl. And the lesson is not lost on the pre- and teenagers: student Jodie Anderson said, "I'm eating this meal for lunch today, and it may not be much, but at least I know I'll have a regular meal for dinner tonight. Other kids won't be so lucky. I've learned not to take what I have for granted."

In professional sports, you tend to see an even split between spoiled athletes and grateful ones. However, as Yahoo! reported, former New Orleans Saint Scott Fujita just scored one for Team Grateful. Traded to the Cleveland Browns after winning the Superbowl, Fujita donated half his championship check to Haitian relief efforts and to coastal restoration in New Orleans. He and his family wanted to "protect" the city and residents they cared so much about.

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports)

It's a mad March...

2010-03-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the start of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tourney. Which means people will be mentally and physically checking out of work for the next few weeks. Research firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimate $1.8 billion will be lost to US companies in productivity as people tune into scores and games via ESPN or March Madness on Demand on CBS Sports online.

MLive.com posted a story on a way to recoup some of that productivity and not miss a minute of the action. Peppino's Sports Lounge in Grand Rapids, Mich., hosted a "work-in," where people could reserve a table for a few hours or the afternoon and bring their laptops while they watched. The proceeds of the event, around $4000, went to a local parks organization to refurbish the city's basketball courts.

Those of you watching Murray State/Vanderbilt yesterday definitely got your money's worth. A buzzer-beater by Danero Thomas turned into a bracket-buster for most people (myself included). Thomas's shot was one of three last-second salvage bids that helped turn yesterday into a tourney opening-day for the ages. But I'm willing to bet very few people know anything about Murray State. Dennis Dodd's column on CBSSports.com gives the reader a view into one of the country's tiniest programs in Nowhere, Kentucky. As they say and as you'll see, Murray State has a lot of heart.

And for those of you who don't have any interest in sports but like the competitive element, I offer Jezebel's version of March Madness: Cake vs. Pie. Site visitors are encouraged to vote for each match up daily, until only one pie and one cake remain. They will then battle for the title of...duh duh duh...Favorite Dessert.

Happy American Chocolate Week!...

2010-03-18T12:51:00.000-04:00

According to the National Confectioners Association, this week (March 14-20) is American Chocolate Week. Other desserts have their days - for example, Nov. 26 is National Cake Day - but chocolate deservedly gets seven in a row to itself. Alice Medrich and Jacques Torres went a little farther, each thinking enough of the sweet to devote a whole cookbook to a year's worth of recipes.

I read cookbooks like most people read novels, but I also frequent several blogs about desserts. One of my hands-down favorites is Cakespy, the award-winning Seattle-based blog by Jessie Oleson. She recently posted a list of chocolate-themed links and facts in honor of American Chocolate Week.

Now, some people list coffee as high as chocolate on their list of vices. For them, the French company Le Whif (I kid you not) may have found the answer, according to the Digital Journal. Last week, the organization introduced breathable chocolate powder, and this week has put breathable coffee on the market. Perhaps this gives new meaning to the phrase "coffee/chocolate is like crack to me." :-P

Happy St. Patrick's Day!...

2010-03-17T13:07:00.000-04:00

Top o' the afternoon to you. : ) Today everyone is Irish or so they say. It's Evacuation Day here in Boston, which I think is just an excuse to give city employees the day off for St. Patrick's Day. And I'm sure those same employees, along with a good majority of the rest of the city, will be taking a personal day tomorrow as well.

The Dropkick Murphys are an Irish American rock group closely associated with the Boston Red Sox. Closer Jonathan Papelbon did his famous/infamous jig to their song "Shipping Up to Boston." They make the list Lehigh Valley Live posted a list of Irish or Irish-themed music to put on your iTunes as you kick back with that green beer... There's also a list of movies on there too.

Salon.com columnist Francis Lam examines the controversy which swirls around corned beef and cabbage this time every year. The Irish on both sides of the Atlantic are split on whether this is a national food. I remember no such dish being served in non-tourist restaurants when I lived in Dublin, but Lam manages to come down right in the middle with his explanation.

I'll leave you today with a photo gallery from Huffington Post on the most ridiculous things spotted dyed green. And yes, folks, that is green crack... And no, I don't mean the Irish craic (good fun). Although some people might disagree with me on that one.

Back to school...

2010-03-16T12:44:00.000-04:00

It's Spring Break time for a lot of schools around my area. Most colleges and universities were closed either last week or this one, and I'm sure the elementary and secondary schools are heading for school vacation soon. So with education on the brain, I decided to do a post on good news coming out of high schools.

CBS News reported on Natalie Robinson, the new head football coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington, D.C. The biology and environmental sciences teacher used to play wide receiver and special teams for the D.C. Divas, the capital's pro women's football team. Robinson's students, athletes and school community seems to be behind her so far. So is her fiance, a football coach at a rival area school...

There is good news coming out of President Obama's hometown of Chicago as well. All 107 members of the Urban Prep Academy for Young Men senior class have been accepted to college. According to the Chicago Tribune, the academy is the city's only public, all-male, all African-American high school, and graduating its students to college has long been central to its mission statement. Urban Prep Academy's students come from the poorest neighborhoods in the area and are kids for whom college was simply a noun, not a goal. But incoming freshmen are assigned a college counselor immediately, and before even starting their first year, they are required to take a field trip to nearby Northwestern.

Urban Prep Academy has extended school hours and requires more English credits than most high schools in order to graduate. Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Calif., also demands its students go above and beyond. In order to graduate, the students are required to do 150 hours of community service. Over the years, the school has donated millions of hours to the area, so much so, as NBC Nightly News notes, the charities, schools, and public service organizations have come to depend on the kids' help for essential tasks.

(Photo courtesy of the Chicago Tribune)

In (way) advance of Earth Day...

2010-03-12T16:14:00.000-05:00

I'm currently fostering a 4 month old kitten from our local MSPCA. That's her to the left, in the cone of shame. Poor little thing came to the shelter with chemical burns down her back. She has healed up pretty rapidly but is in the cone to keep her from damaging her new skin (and licking off all the triple anti-biotic ointment I have to slather her in.

I've never had a kitten before. I do have a cat, but when I adopted her, she was already a year and a half old and way past any zany kitten tricks. Having this foster has been an absolute delight (beyond her waking me up every hour on the hour because she is lonely/bored) and has taught me some of the previously unknown (to me) sides of a cat.

In today's stories, scientists and civilians alike are introduced to new or nearly/thought extinct species. I realize a kitten is neither of those things in general, but as one of the TV stations used to say "it's new to me."

A recent rash of Disney/DreamWorks movies exposed movie-goers to the cuteness of penguins. I do love me some "Happy Feet," in which, the main character, Mumble, is a penguin of a different sort. He doesn't sing to find a mate, he tap dances. However, a real, live King Penguin may be attempting to one-up the animated dear. According to Yahoo!, a National Geographic photographer spotted a "one in a zillion" all-black penguin in a species known for their formal wear.

It is also not very often someone spots a species which has been thought to be extinct for decades. But that's just what Australian Luke Pearce did, as reported by the AP. The fisheries conservation officer was out looking for a rare perch when he stumbled on a colony of yellow-spotted bell frogs, which officials thought died out 30 years ago.

And in the United States, the bald eagle was on the brink of extinction nearly 50 years ago. DDT and habitat decimation nearly did in the national symbol in the 1960s, but a series of measures, including the banning of DDT and passing the Endangered Species Act has helped the bald eagle mount a comeback. The Contra Costa Times has a nice overview story on the return of Old Baldie. : )

Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all...

2010-03-11T14:39:00.000-05:00

Founded in 1910, International Women's Day marked its 100th anniversary this past Monday. Begun by Clara Zetkin at the Conference for Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark, the holiday has evolved into a day to mark the progress women have made and to call attention to the work that still needs to be done.

To that end, I have a couple stories today marking women's progress and achievements. The first comes from Good Housekeeping. As part of the magazine's 125th anniversary (anniversaries all around this week, I guess), the editorial staff chose to recognize and celebrate 125 years of influential women in the April issue. The website Tonic quoted a press release that said the event GH is hosting, called "'Shine On,' will salute icons, visionaries, goddesses, and even 'hellraisers,'" including Susan B. Anthony, Sally Ride and Madonna. "Shine On" will be held to raise money to build the first-ever permanent location of the National Women's History Museum in Washington, D.C.

International Women's Day (which is a national holiday in places like Vietnam, China and Bulgaria...) was observed in D.C. by a number of organizations. Congress was not about to miss out on the action. The Boston Globe reported the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor, in a ceremony today. WASPs flew non-combat missions during World War II to free up male pilots for combat duties overseas. Thirty-eight of the more than 1000 women pilots were killed in the service of their country, yet never received military honors or recognition for their sacrifice since they were technically civilians.

Hanging out the shingle...

2010-03-10T13:52:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time (so I'm told), doctors not only worked out of their homes but made house calls. The doctors knew everyone in town, especially the younger people since they helped deliver them. If you were short on money, a basket of eggs or some homemade bread worked as payment until you were flush again.

I'm not entirely sure when this ceased to be, but now insurance companies and lawyers have gotten into the middle of the doctor-patient relationship. I was informed of my PCP's resignation for family reasons via form letter, but at least that was better than finding out by accident my health insurance changed my dental insurance without telling me.

The following two stories reminded me the conceit of small town doctoring is still out there, whether you are in the big city or the country.

CNN profiled the Moore family in Lexington, Ky. Like their philanthropic father before them, three of the Moore brothers are doctors and provide free outpatient surgical care for the uninsured on the third Sunday of every month. The Moore brothers have treated over 3100 people since starting their free services in 2005. On an average Sunday, they care for 25-30 patients with the help of volunteer doctors and nurses.

Dan Ivankovich is the Lone Ranger of service-oriented docs. The seven foot-tall, blues-playing, head-to-toe leather-wearing Chicagoan orthopedic surgeon does over 800 surgeries a year, nearly all for patients living below the poverty line. One of his quotes from this CBS News video sums it up perfectly - "You see a child that's crippled. You see a 50 year-old in wheelchair, and I can fix it. Why wouldn't I?"

(Photo courtesy of CBS News)

One year later...

2010-03-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone. Just a quick message this afternoon. It snuck up on me, but today is my blog's one year birthday.

My little corner of the Interwebs has changed quite a bit in the last 365 days, and I'd like to think for the better.

A lot of that is due to you. Thank you for the comments - both over email and in the comments section of the posts - as well as for the story ideas. :)

I hope you've enjoyed reading my happy thoughts as much as I've enjoyed (and benefited from) writing them.

I'll be back tomorrow with actual links, but for today I just wanted to say thank you. :)

Pop! goes the weasel...

2010-03-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

The rise of social networking gave birth to flash mobs. The next generation of raves (and the next-next generation of '60s Happenings), flash mobs organize on Facebook or Twitter or through email; all the participants show up at a given place at the given time and do whatever activity was planned. This YouTube video of a crowd of Romans singing a song from "Glee" in a mall is proof that, while usually benign, flash mobs are also usually a little pointless.

However, the New York Times Magazine profiled a group called a "crop mob" that is actually very handy. Run on the same premise as a flash mob, crop mobs mobilize to aid young, small farmers in getting specific tasks done. Forty to 50 20-somethings gather at the chosen farm for a day to box thousands of pounds of produce or prep greenhouses or even to clear rocks and brush from a field. The volunteers focus on building a community, and the only thing it costs the farmer is lunch.

Something akin to the flash mob but is decidedly more bourgeois is the pop up. Be it a store or a restaurant, the new trend in launching a business or testing out its feasibility is to "pop up" in someone else's spot. Practically always unannounced and often changing spots nightly, the pop up appeals to those who aspire to be "in the know." The LA Times published an article on the rules for finding pop ups as well as highlighting some of the more popular ones in New York. Hint: to find 'em, you gotta follow 'em. Score another for social networking...

(Photo courtesy of The New York Times Magazine)

The coolest women you've probably never heard of...

2010-03-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

Someone once said history is written by the winners. I'd like to make a minor correction - it is written by the winning side's major players. Nearly all of the "little people" involved in the big events get lost in the chronological shuffle. All three of my stories today examine the smaller players in macro themes or events.

A 12 year-old Chilean girl saved hundreds of her countrymen and women when she sounded a town alarm just before the tsunami struck her archipelago. The Latin American Herald Tribune reported on Martina Maturana, who learned of the earthquake from her grandfather who lived on the mainland. Just before the ensuing wave hit Robinson Crusoe Island, Maturana ran to the town square, rang the gong to wake up the residents and get them to move to higher ground.

Forbes posted an article on 20 inspiring women to follow on Twitter. I'm on Twitter, but I've yet to see the usefulness of it. I follow a few witty people, but the whole thing is a bit lackluster to me. Perhaps with the addition of a few of these women, I will find the site more relevant to real life. The article highlights women who have made positive contributions to the discussion of race, gender equality in traditionally male fields, healthy eating habits for children and space travel.

Speaking of gender equality in traditionally male fields, Rick Reilly has a column on ESPN.com profiling Kelly Kulick. Featured on ESPN and still don't know who she is? You're not alone. Kulick became the first woman to win a men's Professional Bowling Association tour title, and the only attention she's gotten over it was a free hair coloring at a local salon. Her achievement has never happened in the history of ball sports, and yet I don't remember a mention of it anywhere when it happened.

(Photo courtesy of ESPN.com)

Moneyball...

2010-03-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

Michael M. Lewis wrote the 2003 book of the same title about the Oakland Athletics, who used close analysis of statistics to help itself assemble competitive teams despite a financial disadvantage.

While that may be a very tiny niche - no one I know personally needs to assemble a professional baseball team, let alone do it on a "budget" - but the idea speaks to the general population. Most citizens of the US are not Rockefellers or Vanderbilts. We have to do a lot on a little. And it would, probably, serve us well if we used researched facts to do it.

Lewis is back with another money-focused book. An excerpt of it is published in this month's issue of Vanity Fair. It's incredibly long - eight web pages - but the story he tells of Mike Burry is fascinating. Burry is one of the few men in America, and possibly the world, who saw the sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent economic collapse coming. And due to a market wrinkle he invented, he made a lot of people rich.

The stock market is a funny creature. Some might call it a terrible beast when it doesn't go their way, but it seems to me, in all my limited knowledge of it, that you can really do something if you have the guts to ride it out.

Grace Groner sat on an $180 investment made in 1935 and turned it into a $7 million gift to her alma mater on her death. A survivor of the original Great Depression, Groner lived frugally her entire life. According to the Chicago Tribune, when she died at 100, Groner left a tiny house with a few pieces of furniture and a fortune nearly no one knew she had. She had made a small bequest to her college and had funded anonymous charitable gifts in the past, but the president of Lake Forest College was stunned when he received word of the donation.

Perhaps it is the Midwest monetary restraint that served Groner and another world famous investor well. Warren Buffett has made billions by being a value investor - something touched on in the first story of this post - and buying up stocks from incredibly undervalued companies while those stocks are cheap. Once the company "makes it," Buffett's portfolio shows an often significant bump. A lot of people have tried to imitate him, but no one has ever really succeeded. Nevertheless, Yahoo! has posted five rules that Buffett uses to guide his own investing. While I have no idea how I would use them, they do seem to make a great deal of sense.

Good news from where?...

2010-03-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, I wanted to do a post on good news out of the Middle East. I had a couple of stories that bordered on good news, but nothing I really felt strongly enough to post. So I scrapped it.

Today I'm trying again.

My first story was the tipping point for this second attempt. Google News hosted an AP story which profiles Abdullah Qazi, an Afghani immigrant to the United States who was frustrated by the lack of good news about his old country in his new one. He got sick of the suicide bombs, the fallen soldiers and families ripped apart and set up www.goodafghannews.com. Some of the headlines Qazi has up right now include the inauguration of a rebuilt runway, the on-going success of a campaign against opium, and the export of pomegranate juice.

Monsters and Critics, a site I have to admit I've never been to before reading the following story, posted a story on the Olympic women's alpine event. Columnist David Hein stuck around with dozens of other members of the international press between runs to talk to the second-to-last finisher - Iranian Marjan Kalhor. The 21 year-old was her country's flag bearer and is the first woman Iran has ever sent to the Winter Olympics.

Finally, WFIE 14 (out of who knows where) posted the AP story on a rare archaeological and biblical find. Two pieces of the Song of the Sea, a Jewish scroll from the "silent period," were reunited after centuries of separation. The 1300 year-old fragments make up the text of the song the Israelites sang after fleeing slavery in Egypt. Scholars are ecstatic to have the pieces together to give them a glimpse of the time between the third and 10th centuries, from which we have no extant writings.

Oh, the places you'll go...

2010-03-02T13:39:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Theodor Geisel took his readers to all sorts of magical, wonderful places inhabited by creatures only found in the imagination. The Cat in the Hat, the Lorax, Brown Bar-ba-loots, and Foo Foo the Snoo to name just a few (sorry, I had to).

March 2 is Geisel's birthday and this year he would have been 106 (Dr. Seuss died in 1991.). The National Education Association (NEA) has tied its Read Across America awareness and motivation program to this day, with educators and students from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. reading Dr. Seuss books and participating in Seussian activities.

The Christian Science Monitor has a brief article that outlines the NEA's program and gives a basic overview of Dr. Seuss and his works. I love his quote at the end...

In honor of Dr. Seuss, the Huffington Post has an article listing 15 of Theodor Geisel's more memorable quotes. Some of them I'm very familiar with, but I didn't realize he said them originally. My favorite just might be "I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"

And finally, I would be remiss if I did not include a link to his website. Seussville.com is a great resource for all things Geisel, including a biography, resources, book catalog and fun music. There is a Dr. Seuss sculptural garden in western Massachusetts, created by his step-daughter, which I think I will visit once the plants reappear. You can check that out here. The sculptures are all bronze, but I want some nice greenery in the background of my photos. :)

(Photo courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor)

A clash of not-exactly-titans...

2010-02-25T15:14:00.000-05:00

More like make-believe entertainment figures. But that wouldn't have made for a catchy blog post title. Robin Hood and Jed Clampett meet in today's post. How's that for an odd couple?

RobinHood702 has made it a practice of taking from the rich casinos and giving his winnings to the poor. Fox News broke the story of the Sin City do-gooder who uses his gambling skills to benefit those less fortunate back in 2008. His efforts were first noticed when he flew the Kegler family to Las Vegas and put them up in high style while he won $35,000 for them to cover their daughter's medical expenses. But now, RobinHood702 has added a Maid Marian and Little John to his posse (to take the metaphor just a little too far...).

Anyone over the age of 40 or with access to TV Land knows "The Beverly Hillbillies." Backwoods Texan family strikes it rich with oil and moves to Beverly Hills. Well, Yahoo! is reporting of a similar event (minus the dueling banjos and migration) in North Dakota. A massive oil reserve has been located under the Three Affiliated Tribes' Fort Berthold Indian Reservation which has brought money and jobs flowing into the area. Since oil was struck a year ago, over $179 million in lease payments has been made to the tribe and millions more in royalties and tax revenue have also come in. For the first time in anyone's memory, people are returning to the reservation for the opportunities which now abound there.

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Rob Williams' column in The Province, a Vancouver, Canada daily, uses the Games as a motivation to get fit. The kinesiologist and posture specialist does a little feature on a pretty motivating 76 year-old fellow gym-user who should be able to shame those of use more than half her age into exercising at least a little before listing several easy suggestions for getting moving. This comes at a good time for those who are starting to slip a little (or a lot) on those New Year's resolutions. You know who you are... : )

O Canada...

2010-02-24T12:52:00.000-05:00

The Vancouver Games have been a bit of a disaster, from the hydraulic issues that marred the Opening Ceremonies to the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain (until yesterday) and falling short of its boast to "own the podium" on home soil.

But these Olympics have produced its fair share of inspirational stories. As I've said before, the Games tend to bring front and center unique athletes who have compelling backstories. Host nation Canada is not devoid of such people.

Figure skate Joannie Rochette has been the center of world sporting events for the past few days. Tragically, she lost her mother to a heart attack just two days ago. Her efforts last night are the stuff of legend. Rochette took the ice and, to the delight and vociferous (and occasionally tearful) support of the entire crowd, skated the program of her life. She simply flew across the ice. The story on Yahoo! brought me to tears and it doesn't even include video of her performance. You can see it on NBC's online coverage of the Olympics here. FYI - I had to turn my sound all the way up to hear the commentators.

Rochette clearly poured her heart and soul into her performance. The other athletes at the Games also give everything they have for their event, though most do it with a much lighter heart. Canadian Jon Montgomery picked up the gold medal in what I consider the most terrifying sport on Earth - skeleton. I think lugers are just this side of crazy, but to speed down an icy chute on a thin piece of metal headfirst? That's just insane. As Yahoo!'s article points out, sports stars come ready-made these days. They are full of logoed clothing, sound bytes and publicists/managers/assistants/agents/coaches. Montgomery seems to break the mold, and not just because he drank a fan's beer on the way to the interview stage.

The Olympics seem to be a time still of unlikely heroes, despite the preponderance of prepackaged stars. Cross country skier Brian McKeever is one of those h eroes. He will compete in the 50-kilometer cross country race on the last day of the Olympics and then stick around Vancouver to compete next month in the Paralympics.

McKeever is legally blind.

The Philadelphia Daily News has a short article detailing McKeever's bout with Stargardt's Disease and how he has continued to compete regardless of the degenerative effect it has had on his vision. Near the bottom of the Daily News story, McKeever outlines what he thinks is the beauty of the Olympic Games. What I think is that he fits that ideal to a tee.

Three-point play...

2010-02-23T13:31:00.000-05:00

The three-point play is one of my favorites in basketball. No, I'm not talking about a long-distance bomb from a dude who usually has no business jacking up that shot and is then emboldened to take more after the rare make. I'm talking about the guy who crashes through the lane, makes the effort to finish his shot and gets fouled for his trouble. He then goes to the line and makes the free throw. To me, it's a beautiful thing.

My other favorite play in basketball is the extra pass - which is why I generally don't like the NBA. I have had protracted arguments with my friend Joel about my views on the National Basketball Association, which are generally stymied by the fact I refuse to watch NBA games to bear out Joel's theories that it's gotten better.

However, today's blog features two news articles that look on professional basketball with a positive or, at the least, neutral eye. And from reputable news sources, no less!

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at what it terms the "locker room nerds" - international players who are bringing reading back to the locker room. The article calls out many international (and some US) players by name for their reading habits, some of which are far more advanced than mine. While some may argue the Bucks players have more pressing matters to attend to on the court, the organization gave them Kindles for Christmas last year, and the player's association publishes a quarterly reading list. I do have to give Dwayne Wade props for admitting one of his favorite books is Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." Especially since the "handful" of Trail Blazers who read aren't comfortable acknowledging they do so.

The New York Times published a story in the Health section that examines the findings of researchers who have been focusing on non-verbal cues like touches. The scientists have found that a touch to the arm, a grab of the shoulder or a pat on the back not only emphasizes the feeling being conveyed in words but is also capable of conveying the same feeling without verbal communication. In an experiment a blind-folded participant was able to identify eight different emotions with 70 percent accuracy. Later in the article, the Times references work by Berkeley scientists who studied non-verbal communication in NBA games last year. They report, with a few exceptions, good teams tend to be touchier than bad ones (hello, Celtics and Lakers) and good players are also more likely to touch teammates during a game - fist bumps, chest bumps, high fives, etc.

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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few days, you know that the USA men's ice hockey team defeated Canada by two goals on Sunday. While clearly not of the magnitude of the 1980 US men versus Russia, this was definitely an upset. The Boston Globe mentioned in a blog that five year-old YouTube star Josh Sacco attended a team dinner before the match up. Sacco is known for his oddly affecting and remarkably accurate impression of Herb Brooks giving his famous locker room speech during the "Miracle on Ice." I enjoyed watching Sacco the first time I saw this video. Here it is if you would like to see it too.

Thoughts on happy...

2010-02-19T12:08:00.000-05:00

Amy Bloom has an interesting and decidedly non-committal Sunday New York Times book review. In her review, she talks about both the proponents and opponents to the happiness phenomenon. As she mentions, for as long as people have been seeking happiness, there have been people making fun of the first group. Bloom discusses several book titles from each camp. This being a positive blog, I'm more interested in the pro-happiness ones, but to each their own...

Bloom's review mentions happiness guru Deepak Chopra. I've personally never read any of his books, but he had a column in the San Francisco Chronicle last week. In this column he tackles the thorny issue of how to have a good life. His advice? Have a good day. Chopra gives five specific elements that he considers essential to having a good life.

Chopra talks about how interpersonal communication is a key to helping people have a good day in the above article. Researchers at UPenn took that a step farther, analyzing the New York Times' most-emailed stories to see if readers liked to propagate good news or bad. The researchers found people sent stories with an overall positive tone and/or ones that were about intellectually challenging subjects. John Tierney's NYT column on these conclusions goes on to say the researchers found, most of all, readers like to send stories that inspire awe.

The science department of another news organization, the BBC, published an article that suggests happiness deters heart disease. It cited research by US scientists which said those who were anxious or depressed were the people at highest risk for cardiac issues. The research, published in the European Heart Journal, could not conclusively prove being happier would protect an individual but did say it was worth the effort.

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Sports Illustrated noted yesterday that Wednesday may have been the greatest day in Winter Olympics history for the US. Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis, and Shaun White each grabbed a gold as the US registered six medals in one day. No other country has ever garnered more edals in a single day. The article also notes that the last time the US competed in a Canada-hosted Games (1988), America only had a total of six medals for the entire Olympics.

(Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated)

The deep blue sea...

2010-02-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of ocean-themed tales for today...

This is another example of how my themes just sort of come together. I'd been holding this first story for a couple weeks since it didn't really seem to fit into my recent posts. I suppose I could have just dumped it in somewhere since it's an update to a story I posted awhile ago, but I just didn't pull the trigger for some reason.

The Boston Globe did a follow-up to the story about Baltic, the dog found floating on an ice floe in Poland. He was safely rescued, but they were trying to figure out who he belonged to and how he ended up in the middle of the Baltic Sea. While it is unfortunate the second question probably won't be answered, the first has been...sort of. After meeting with several impostors, Baltic has been adopted by the seaman who saved him.

My friend Michelle sent me the next story from a website called Gadling.com. This is one of those random stories that makes you sit back and think, "Who does this happen to? Really?"

In Oct. 2008, the Gregorys were on the Queen Mary 2, taking photos of the Queen Elizabeth 2 which was sailing beside them. The article isn't specific on how, but their camera soon fell into the ocean off the coast of Ireland. The article also doesn't say exactly where Benito Estevez was when the fisherman netted more than just his seafood. Estevez fished the camera out of his nets, tracked down the couple and returned the camera and the memory card, which was remarkably undamaged.

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Yahoo! Sports' Olympic blog posted a story on Tanith Belbin, the US ice dancer, yesterday. Blogger Maggie Hendricks notes Belbin's change in eating habits which has added 10 pounds to Belbin's frame and improved both her strength and her lifts. The post includes a quote from Belbin about her eating issues, which I think is important to get out there. The more eating issues are talked about, particularly by famous women, the more they become de-stigmatized.

(Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe)

Do you believe in miracles? YES!...

2010-02-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

So I've noted my dislike for Valentine's Day, mildly on the blog and more emphatically to friends and family. So much so, apparently, that any V-Day cards I do receive come with a disclaimer from the sender - I know you don't like the holiday, but I'm sending it anyway...

Then I suppose it's a minor miracle that I'm doing not one but two Valentine's Day-themed posts. While I guess I shouldn't be surprised at what can make the Guinness Book of World Records, I was intrigued by a story in the Boston Globe about setting a world record in hugs. Jeff Ondash set the WR for most hugs in a day with 7,777 hugs in 24 hours. The 51 year-old native apparently stood on a street corner in Las Vegas and collected hugs under the pseudonym Teddy McHuggin, in support of the American Heart Association. I'm a little surprised you can do that these days and not get hauled off to jail, so well done, Jeff...

And the San Diego Zoo has a new little bundle of joy to love, according to the Globe. A male African baby elephant was born around 2 a.m. on Valentine's Day. The other elephants in the enclosure announced the bouncing baby pachyderm by trumpeting awake campers in the area. He has not been named yet and is the sixth calf to be born to this pack since it was imported from Swaziland in 2003.

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In honor of the US men's ice hockey team's first win of the Olympics last night, I decided to post the following feature from NBC's online Olympic coverage. We're all familiar with the "Miracle on Ice" (as a former employee of the university that produced Mike Eruzioni and Jim Craig, who featured prominently in a certain Disney flick, and was thus forced to answer phone calls from a lot of stupid people, I am more aware than most). But what I, and I'm betting a lot of other people, don't know of is the "Team of Destiny" from the 1960 games in Squaw Valley. This US men's ice hockey team had an eerily similar story to that of the Lake Placid team but seems to have been completely forgotten by history.

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

The fattest Tuesday...

2010-02-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

My blog post title is a paraphrase from a line in an article I read this morning. It referenced how this year's Shrove Tuesday seems to be the perfect combination of joy - the usual MG madness together with the still-going euphoria of the 2009 Superbowl champion Saints.

NOLA.com posted an editorial this morning that really reaches out to the reader and gives them all the reasons they need to get out and dance, regardless of which state in the Union they happen reside.

The image to the left is taken from Carnival Fete-ish, a site which actually has a really good, even description of the history of and current events surrounding Mardi Gras in Louisiana. If nothing else, it taught me that the connection between the names "Mardi Gras" and "Fat Tuesday" is simply that Mardi Gras means fat Tuesday in French.

Because we all know New Orleans knows how to throw a party, Blogcritics.com posted an article looking at three classic cocktails which came from establishments in New Orleans, complete with drink recipes (for those of you still digging out in the DC area).

And another tradition of Mardi Gras has made it all the way to a training base in Mississippi. WDSU Channel 6 reported on "Operation King Cake," in which the news station partnered with a local bakery to send 100 King Cakes to Camp Shelby and some Louisiana soldiers in training. The bakery donated the treats to the 3000 men and women far from their beloved Bourbon Street this week.

If you want to take a gander at some of the festivities going on today, you can catch the action via one of the many web cams trained on various spots in New Orleans. This is one of the few live cameras I found which was in working order this morning.

Finally, my Olympic addition for the day is this short post from Yahoo! Sports. Apparently the Norwegian men's curling team is taking its sartorial inspiration from, of all people, John Daly. And I thought the Czech Republic's pants were bad in the Opening Ceremonies...

Snow and the Olympics...

2010-02-15T09:52:00.000-05:00

Not that the Olympics are getting a lot of snow at the moment. One area of North America which is getting slammed with snow is the Washington, DC area. Last year, Pres. Obama gently mocked the East Coast's inability to handle snow as well as his hometown of Chicago. It seems the 44th president has changed his tune now, coining the phrase "snowmagedon."

But it seems some residents of the metro area made something out of nothing, courtesy of Facebook. The Jerusalem Post reported on a massive snowball fight Ami Greener and Michael Lipin organized on Dupont Circle last week. Greener, an Israeli army veteran, worked with Lipin to organize the winter battle to take advantage of weather the pair didn't see much of as kids. Nearly 2000 people showed up after the snowball fight was announced via blogs, FB and other forms of social media. Called the largest snowball fight in Washington history, all missiles were aimed in good fun.

In other news out of Israel, archaeologists recently announced the find of a 1400 year-old, extremely large and unusually shaped wine press. Found in what was the center of an agrarian area, the 21x54 foot, octagonal wine press appears to have been used for producing wine for export. According to the Yahoo! article the archaeologists believe the technology employed by the sixth to seventh century wine press is more advanced than previously assumed.

And now for something completely different...Since feel-good stories pop up more often than usual during the Olympics, I will most probably put random Olympic happy thoughts in amongst otherwise unrelated themes for the duration of the Games. Today's one-off story is from the New York Times, detailing the men's moguls results. Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal at a home Olympics with his inspired last run. Fast, aesthetically pleasing and technically perfect, Bilodeau beat turncoat countryman Dale Begg-Smith to the top of the podium. Bilodeau said before the race he was dedicating his efforts to his older brother Frederic, who has cerebral palsy (CP).

(Photo courtesy of the Jerusalem Post)

A little of this and that...

2010-02-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

So I couldn't decide on a theme for today - Olympics or Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day or Olympics? I decided to do both. I'm such a multi-tasker. : )

(PS - I have emerged from my technical difficulties with an entirely new power cord, so sorry about my absence yesterday...)

Author Debbie Robbins, who may have the most creative self-help book title I've seen, posted an article on Huffington Post listing 14 tips to surviving Valentine's Day. These tips are aimed at single and coupled people alike, which is nice, because usually these articles are for "lonely hearts." Robbins has a refreshingly upbeat and no-nonsense tone, and she's kinda funny to boot.

Robbins points out in her article that one way to get through V-Day is to be kind to people who you are not in a relationship with - coworkers, mailmen, dog walkers, etc. Well, that is the entire point of one article at reliableplant.com. If you work in an office building, I defy you to read this article and not recognize your own company in some of her examples. There's a reason whole films and books have sprung up over office angst. Liz Jazwiec provides some solutions to those problems in this story.

USA Today made an attempt to tie its article about the US Olympic figure skating team to everyone's favorite Hallmark holiday (hint: the effort is smack in the middle of the story). Nevertheless, this is a neat little article examining the backstory to the pairs teams. Each of them have a unique rise to where they are today.

And finally, the Baltimore Sun provides an Olympics crib sheet for anyone who has some last minute cramming to do. The story lists notable movies and books either about the various Olympic Games or by Olympic athletes. Gratifyingly (to me), the first movie listed is "Cool Runnings," which holds a near-and-dear place in my heart as referenced here.

Snow day!...

2010-02-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Boston finally joins in on the fun. If you need me, I'll be under my comforter with a big mug of hot chocolate. See you guys tomorrow!!!

Chocolate and beer...

2010-02-09T13:16:00.000-05:00

Don't scoff. According to a lot of my foodie news sites, that is the new "it" combination. Think about it. The same countries - Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Holland - known for their beer production also produce some pretty good chocolates. Really, though, how can you go wrong?

Yahoo! News reported on the new analysis of a range of beers. The study concluded beer is a good source of dietary silicon, which is good for bone density. The researchers tested 100 commercially available brews and came up with the recommendation to drink in moderation to improve bone density. Apparently "hoppier' beers are better for your bones, as they contain more silicon. So maybe kick back with an IPA the next time you turn on ESPN?

CNN.com posted a video interview with Tom Aspirino, a New England-area mortgage-banker-turned-candy-peddler. Sick of the mortgage field, he went into business producing Rhode Island Rocks - chocolate-covered pretzel clusters. This is an excellent example of a small business succeeding in a recession. Aspirino seems to be following a passion, so good for him.

Time Magazine has an article on the new revolution in Peru - chocolate. Previously known as a major producer of cocaine paste, Peruvians increasingly have been turning to producing cocoa beans. Peruvian chocolatiers even earned a prestigious aroma certificate from the Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Peru is the second-largest coca producer after Columbia, but the Andean nation increased cacao exports over 400 percent in the past decade. This year the output will be around 35,000 metric tons, which would make Peru among the top ten cacao producers in the world.

(Photo courtesy of Time)

Who dat sitting at her desk all sleepy?...

2010-02-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

So, like 90 percent of the country, I am beyond tired this morning. I debated calling in sick, but I couldn't justify it as I'm more anti-Colts than pro-Saints. However, I am very pleased for the city of New Orleans and the Saints franchise.

As a former advertising copywriter, I usually look forward to the Superbowl ads since the are really the pinnacle of that industry's yearly body of work. However, this year I was less than impressed. The Doritos ad above turned out to be my favorite, followed closely by the e*Trade baby commercials.

I promise tomorrow I will be back with actual news stories, but today I just couldn't be sure of being coherent...

Superbowl Sund-, er, Friday...

2010-02-05T14:05:00.000-05:00

Since I don't post on the weekends, I thought I'd do a football-themed entry today. My friend B mentioned this morning it doesn't feel like it's time for the Superbowl. I'm not going to lie, I actually forgot it was this Sunday. I've been in a baking frenzy, trying to assemble 120 iced cookies into 40 baby shower favors, so I'm not really sure what day it is, much less what's on TV. However, I shall spend the weekend on the other end of my apartment from the kitchen, parked on the couch, watching as much TV as humanly possible. : )

I will, in fact, be rooting for the Saints. Not that one of the highest-powered offenses in football is an underdog, but somehow, a franchise's first trip to the big game (despite the ridiculous numbers put up by that team all year) do not compare with a four-time league MVP and multiple trips to the Superbowl in the last few years. (PS - This is one reason for the dearth of Colts stories in today's post...The other is I'm from Baltimore.)

The following Reuters article is fun to read for its educational tone alone. Aimed at explaining the hoopla to non-Americans, the story nicely juxtaposes the Saints' success with the struggles of New Orleanians post-Katrina. Pay no attention to the Danny Downer somewhere in the middle of the story; focus on the "Saints Salve."

The Saints have been a big part of helping to rebuild New Orleans from the inside out, particularly in terms of education and the well-being of the city's children. As this story on www.NOLA.com tells, New Orleans teachers are returning the favor. Schools of all levels throughout the area are teaching their children through football-themed lesson plans. Some of the more creative ideas include third-grade math students learning how far $4000 goes for people attending the game, music students wrote lyrics to a Saints mambo, and one class of fourth-graders will Skype with their counterparts in Indianapolis.

This last little one isn't necessarily Superbowl related, but it's a nice thought (and good excuse to get on Facebook during a slow day at the office). St. Jude is partnering with Target and Facebook to help the kids at the hospital. Target is giving away $1 million to St. Jude's and other charity partners via its Super Love Sender app. Facebook users have until Feb. 14 to send football-inspired, customized video cards to family and friends (up to 10 per computer per day), and St. Jude will get one vote for every card sent which designates the hospital as the sender's charity of choice.

Citius, Altius, Fortius...

2010-02-04T13:52:00.000-05:00

I have been assured the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are coming. I'm not entirely sure when they will invade NBC, but judging by the repeated (and curious) Michael Phelps Subway commercials the attack is imminent.

In anticipation, or failing that preparation, I've come up with three stories connected to the upcoming Olympics. Remember the Jamaican bobsled team? The one that inspired the Disney movie "Cool Runnings"? Well, this year's unlikely hero may just be Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong. He is Ghana's entire Winter Olympic team. According to Yahoo! Sports, Nkrumah-Acheampong will compete for the small African nation in alpine skiing events. He is the first Ghananian in the Winter Olympics and only picked up skiing six years ago after taking a job at a ski resort in England (of all places).

The New York Times highlighted an American bobsledder who will be competing in the Games despite some incredibly long odds. Steve Holcomb succeeded in driving a bobsled at speeds over 90 mph regardless of the fact his vision factored in at 20/500 due to a degenerative disease called keratoconus. But two years ago, when his vision reached its nadir, Holcomb feared he'd have to retire. His coach, Brian Shimer, connected him with a surgeon who was able to correct Holcomb's vision back to 20/20. Now he is back, ready to compete and take aim at the German favorites for the gold medal.

Dorothy Hamill earned the nickname "America's Sweetheart" after winning a gold medal in figure skating at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria (and started a fad with that hair...). She turned professional shortly after her triumph, and remains active in skating to this day, despite a bout with breast cancer. Hulu.com has a video from the Today Show that highlights Hamill's latest venture - I-Skate. The program helps children with cerebral palsy, brain damage or paralysis receive therapy through ice skating. It's a short video, so I really hope you watch it. The grins on these children's faces throughout the feature cannot fail to make you smile.

We should all be like Mylyn...

2010-02-03T14:09:00.000-05:00

Ever since I got a normal, 9-5 job, I've had Netflix. I wanted to catch up on all the TV I missed while working 80-hour weeks. Consequently my queue is constantly, like, 27 titles long. My current rotation is Eureka, NCIS and JAG.

Don't judge.

Anyway, one of the current plot lines on JAG is a character becoming an amputee after stepping on a land mine. The season I'm on is set in 2002, so obviously, they're factoring in the war in Afghanistan. The show tried to be honest but sympathetic to the Navy, and this storyline is no different. While the writers picked the most good-humored character to have this happen to, it did explore the ramifications on his career, on his marriage and with his friends. I think sometimes televised war numbs you a little. It's good to be reminded those who are injured are people, not statistics.

The Journal Gazette - Times Courier out of Illinois had a story on an Iraq war veteran's (and double amputee) new home, built by dozens of volunteers from "Homes for our Troops" and "StormHawk Construction." National Guard Sgt. Cameron Crouch suffered his injuries after falling from a roof in Iraq onto marble floors. Presumably, he was in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Crouch fell 70 feet and required 25 surgeries. Later this year he is set to marry his fiancee Christy.

Risks for injury do not just occur on the battlefield. EJ Poplawski was competing in the 10th annual US Telemark Extreme Freeskiing Championships when his last descent over a cliff broke one of his skis, according to the Ski Channel. He subsequently hit a tree and shattered his knee. Poplawski didn't get to the hospital quickly enough to save his lower leg. But that didn't stop him from continuing to ski and race. He recently competed in the Winter X Games and tours the country as a motivational speaker.

This next little girl should motivate all of us. One night, three year-old Mylyn Beakley, herself an amputee, saw Haitian children on TV who had also lost legs, and ran into her bedroom. The little girl retrieved a prosthetic leg she had grown out of and told her mother she wanted "to give it to Haiti." The hug she gives one of the staffers at the 1:10 mark in the NBC video is precious.

(Photo courtesy of The Journal Gazette - Times Courier)

Happy health news...

2010-02-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite parts of my job is reading the thank you letters we get from former patients and their families. Hospitals are a last resort; you only end up here if everything else has failed. And that generally means you're in dire straits. So it's always nice to get notes from the people who walk out our doors well. Things do go wrong and that makes you sad, so hearing from those who had things go right makes it better.

A lot of the bad news coming out of Haiti now seems to be related to survivors' health, from crush injuries requiring amputation to the smallest of cuts turning into raging infections. The US and other countries have been helping with the injuries, but recently the US put a hold on medical evacuations due to concerns on the pressure they would put on our health care system. The Boston Globe reported on a group of doctors who went around that obstacle by flying three children with tetanus, pneumonia and third-degree burns to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia on a private plane. All were critically ill and would have died soon without the evac.

We have Haitian staffers in all of our hospitals in my health system, and many of them lost contact with family and friends after the quake. Some still have not reached their loved ones. Yahoo! News posted a first-person account of a group of TIME reporters who helped a friend send money to her 94 year-old great-aunt. France St. Fleur came out of the quake okay, but she was living in a tent outside her badly damaged house. The article details the challenges the team faced with tracking down St. Fleur when all their landmarks to her home were demolished.

One of the unfortunate consequences of natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti can be the rampant spread of disease. Microsoft's Bill Gates has pledged through his foundation to donate $10 billion over the next decade to finding vaccines. He and wife Melinda made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to a short article on MSNBC.com.

Leave it to the Globe...

2010-02-01T13:46:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it can be feast or famine when looking for good news stories. Today happened to be a feast. I even found extra stories I can "put by" for later. The articles on today's post are only tied together by the fact I found them all on the Globe website, and they are all fun and quirky.

I know it's not cool, but I have long been a proponent of the Slanket, aka: the originial Snuggie. I have had my royal blue, fleecy slice of heaven for about four years now, and I've been made fun of for it nearly as long. However, I refuse to part with it. With the weather the way it's been for, well, ever up here in my frozen corner of hel...er, Boston, it's necessary to my survival. It appears the blanket with sleeves is finally gaining some traction. Somerville hosted the Boston-area's first Snuggie Pub Crawl this past Friday. Nearly 100 people, clad in Snuggies and the occasional piece of pirate gear, crawled their way through Union Square bars. You can view photos here.

After a long day in my cube-like office (that occasionally does not have heat - do not even get me started), I slip on the Slanket and watch Netflix. That is my version of TLC. For the turtles on the Cape, however, Dr. Charles Innis, provides his own brand. Increasingly rare Kemp's Ridley turtles migrate between New England and the Caribbean, but some of them get lost and end up tossed on shore by the tide. These turtles often end up at the New England Aquarium's marine care center where they get top-notch, state-0f-the-art care.

Julia Child never had any recipes for turtle (that I know of, thank goodness), and neither does Bubbe, the 83 year-old Jewish grandmother who is becoming an Internet sensation. Two years agao, Bubbe thought the Internet came from the air and had no idea what an email was. Now she is a YouTube star and is knowledgeable about Twitter and Facebook to boot. Her grandson, Avrom Honig, filmed her originally for a demo tape while looking for a job. Bubbe now has over 30 episodes on cooking kosher and a legion of fans who want to adopt her. Honig now has a job. : )

(Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe)

Jet-setting...

2010-01-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

I knew it was supposed to be cold this weekend. But that didn't prepare me for the high of 19 today. It's not supposed to get much better over the weekend, and that does not factor in the wind chill of the gusts of 30-40 mph we're having today...Super.

All of this definitely had me second-guessing my decision not to take that cheap trip to Portugal advertised by @cheapgirlboston on Twitter in the past couple days. Round-trip $474 (plus taxes of course, but still). Anyway, I guess I'll have to make do by turning up the ol' office space heater and taking a gander at the following articles.

Baltic the dog definitely had it worse off than I do. Somehow, and no one is sure how, he got stuck on an ice floe and ended up in the Baltic Sea. Polish firefighters tried to rescue him originally, but it took an inflatable raft and some pretty intrepid researchers (who were for something entirely different) to pull the dog to safety. They had a couple of misfires, including one where Baltic ended up in the water under the boat, but persistence paid off, and he is now warm and safe. The first link is to the story on the Boston Globe. This link is to the British paper The Guardian, which has a video interview with the researchers. You'll have to turn your volume up kinda high (or at least I did), and it's in Polish, but there are subtitles.

My parents are headed on a little European vacay later this year, and I've been doing my level best to give them more places to go to than they possibly have time for. However, I think this next suggestion is an absolute must-see, knowing you, knowing me...Even if you are no dancing queen... Thanks Boston Globe! :)

This past December, my mom and I took a day trip to NYC. We must have walked almost 60 blocks all told, but somehow we missed the Library Walk on east 41st Street. Since we're both book nerds, it is a bit of a disappointment. In fact, I would argue with E.B. White that it was as discouraging as both literature and chickens. The Papercuts blog on the New York Times has a link to see actual plaques and the quotes on them.

I've traveled a lot, but I'm sure if I ever sat down to make a bucket list, more travel would be on it. I feel like I'm too young to make such a list, but a group of college-aged, Canadian men felt no such limitation. I suppose that is why they now have a show on MTV, and I don't. Ben Nemtin and Duncan and Jonnie Penn teamed up, asked for donations and hit the road in a purple RV to do the things on their bucket lists. Along the way they realized it is just as gratifying to help others do things they've always wanted to do as well. The Frugal Traveler blog on NYT interviewed Nemtin on the genesis of the idea and what the trio has been up to since starting out in 2006.

A season for miracles and saints...

2010-01-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

People usually associate the phrase in the post title to the Christmas season, but I think it's fair to call every survivor of the Haiti quake a miracle, particularly after the world got a look at the mess that is Haiti's architecture and over-populated cities.

But today, an even larger miracle occurred - a girl was pulled alive from the rubble of the first quake. Fifteen days after the earth first shook, teenager Darlene Etienne emerged from the shattered remains of a house near her university. Doctors have no idea how the girl lasted for so long but say she now has a 90 percent chance of survival. MSNBC says Etienne is stable, drinking and eating yogurt and mashed potatoes to the amazement of her medical team. She was found after a neighbor came back and heard a faint voice and saw her hair through the debris.

Alain Armand joined rescuers like those who found Etienne after Armand, a Haitian living in the US, could no longer simply sit and watch the news. Better known as @thehaitian, Armand flew to Haiti after the quake and has been making an impact there one person at a time. Carrying only a backpack and his Blackberry, Armand uses Tweets to find and help individuals around Port-au-Prince.

And finally, an update on Charlie Simpson, the little boy who raised over $320,000 by riding his bike around the local park. Simpson and his family took a trip to Number 10 Downing Street this week to meet the Prime Minister's wife and tour the residence. They even let him ride inside the house! While there, Charlie met with PM Brown's two children and talked about bikes. All of Charlie's funds will go to UNICEF's Haiti Earthquake Children's Appeal, according to the BBC.

(Photo courtesy of the BBC)

Er, happy Holocaust Remembrance Day?...

2010-01-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

It seems wrong to wish someone well for a day that reflects on the epic tragedy when millions of lives were extinguished. But it's an important day. People need to remember what occurred so it doesn't happen again.

My friend Michelle sent me a link to an article from the English version of Der Spiegel, a German news magazine. Esther Bejarano survived Auschwitz, where she was forced to play in a girls' orchestra as people destined for the gas chamber arrived on the trains. Bejarano escaped on a death march, filled the rest of her life with music and spent the majority of her adult life speaking about the Holocaust. In the past, she collaborated with her two children on albums of Jewish and anti-fascist songs, but her latest creation is distinctly street. Bejarano teamed up with the Cologne-based Microphone Mafia (the children of Italian and Turkish families who emigrated to post-war Germany) to produce a hip hop album to combat the work of those who prefer to pretend the mass murder never occurred.

Bejarano's survival of the Holocaust is mirrored to a degree by that of Ena Zinzi, a 69 year-old woman pulled from the rubble of the earthquake in Haiti seven days after it struck. The woman survived untenable conditions, and her first words to her South African rescuer Ahmed Bham upon reaching sunlight were "Je t'aime". According to those around Bham Zinzi, she then began singing a song of praise. The South African Gift of Givers group had partnered with a Mexican rescue group after a dog scented Zinzi among the debris. Bham had helped with the rescue efforts in Pakistan two years ago when an earthquake there resulted in thousands dead, according to the newspaper The Hindu. He went on to describe Haiti as "much, much worse," and thus seemed all the more grateful to find Zinzi alive.

(Photo courtesy of Der Spiegel)

Kids do the darnedest things...

2010-01-26T14:29:00.000-05:00

Kids are funny little creatures. They have the ability to speak the truth (see: new clothes, Emperor's) and the wonderful and total belief that nothing is impossible. It's something us old fogies would do better to keep in mind sometimes. My friend Blair sent me the following link to a story on CNN on the amazing Charlie Simpson. The seven year-old British boy wanted to do something for the people of Haiti. He decided to ride his bike five miles around a park near his home with a goal of raising 500 British pounds. Word of his efforts caught the Internet's attention, and he recently passed the $240,000 mark.

The Daily Mail highlighted another seven year-old British boy undeterred by potential limits. Kieron Williamson attracted buyers from as far away as Japan and Canada when his watercolors, oils and pastels went to auction in November. The pictures sold out in under 15 minutes and earned the boy 17,000 British pounds. His mother arrived late to the sale and missed it completely. This after another auction last summer netted him 14,000 BP. Kieron just decided to start painting after a family trip to Devon and Cornwall; he showed no particular interest or aptitude before then.

Finally, the video above, courtesy of YouTube, is just fun. I'm not entirely sure how old the boy is or where he's from, but he exhibits excellent coordination. I've never really seen the appeal of the video game "Dance Dance Revolution" beyond a funny scene in "The Big Bang Theory", but this kid is amazing. I could never do what he does.

Monday round up...

2010-01-25T16:24:00.001-05:00

It's been a little while since I've done one of these. I've been on a streak of themes lately, but alas, it came to an end. Much like the Jets' and Vikings' seasons last night. My team was out of the play-offs before last night, so I had no real rooting interest. However, I am glad to see New Orleans make it to the Super Bowl after how much its citizens have endured since Hurricane Katrina.

Another disaster is never far from our thoughts these days, and Ontario's Chronicle-Journal had a short article posted about a member of its Canadian Forces who survived the Haiti quake. Posted in Port-au-Prince as part of the UN efforts there, he was one of the few to get out of the collapsed UN headquarters alive. Lt. Commander Shekhar Gothi dug himself out of the rubble before being airlifted to the Dominican for medical attention. After a brief stint at home in Ontario, he has returned to the island to help with the recovery efforts.

From one side of the world to another, the Guardian reported on supermodel Erin O'Connor's work with some of the garment industry's most oppressed workers. O'Connor has become the spokesmodel for SEWA, the All India Federation of Self-Employed Women's Associations, which represents the women who work out of their homes, creating amazing (and time-consuming) hand embroidered and beaded clothing and home accessories. The middlemen of the fashion industry were exploiting this group, but with the help of SEWA and O'Connor, the women's wages have increased by 100 percent, and they've been able to gather to exchange ideas on family and finance.

And finally, I'm a little obsessed with the following link. I couldn't get the site to work with the first set of puppies, but the Shiba Inus who took the Interwebs by storm are back. Well, a new litter is here. Five puppies eat and sleep and play and wiggle, all on a live stream from their home in, purportedly, San Francisco. You wouldn't really think the lives of dogs which are less than 3 months old would be that captivating, but it's mesmerizing. I cannot explain it. They're just so darned cute...

(Photo courtesy of The Guardian)

Mile-wide smile indeed...

2010-01-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

This morning I heard the rescuers in Haiti are changing their mission from rescue to recovery. Not exactly a bright way to start the day. There seem to be miracles around every corner down there, with new stories of improbable survival, so I worry about those still hanging on under all that concrete.

Logging onto Facebook this afternoon, my friend Nancy posted the following link in her status. The CNN video covers the heartwarming and smile-inducing rescue of a boy and his sister yesterday. Pulled from the rubble over a week after the first earthquake rocked the island, the seven year-old had to be coaxed out by a relative. Once he hit fresh air, however, his reaction is both precious and priceless.

I know this is a short post, but this video is such a day-brightener, I can't find anything in its league...

Happy weekend!

(Photo courtesy of the New York Post)

The flip side of conformity...

2010-01-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

One of my cousins had the following as his Facebook status for this morning: "My wish for 2010 is that people will understand that children with disabilities do not have a disease; children with disabilities are not looking for a cure but ACCEPTANCE........93% of people won't copy and paste this."

Well, consider it copied and pasted, albeit not on FB. Tolerance and acceptance can be tricky. There are a lot of different people out there, and in general, people are afraid of things they aren't completely familiar with. The late, great Mitch Hedberg made a joke about that phenomenon, "Some people say 'I don't care if they're black, white, or purple...' Now hold on, we have to draw the line somewhere. F*** purple people!"

I am in the camp that supports purple people, so I was really pleased to see the following two stories. Baltimore Magazine did a write up on the Allied Sports program a few months ago. The program is a Baltimore County School System initiative for high school students with disabilities. The 16 year-old program puts a 50/50 mix of children with physical and/or learning disabilities and children without them on soccer, bowling and softball teams. Eighteen of the 24 schools have at least one Allied sport. The program promotes "sameness," the chance to shine for children who often get lost in the background.

Canada's Parent Central website posted an article on a little girl's ballet class. Normally a common subject, this particular class deserves a second look. Founded by mom Sarah Nixon-Suggitt, it is Toronto's first ballet class for physically challenged little girls. Three year-old Katie Suggitt, who has cerebral palsy, wanted to dance just like her twin sister. Suggitt's occupational therapist Barbara Lynch worked with the dance instructor to modify the beginner's class for Katie and little girls like her. Each class is staffed by older dancers at the school who volunteer their Saturday mornings. "The best thing, the beautiful thing, is this lets Katie be like every other girl," says Nixon-Suggitt. "We know these girls with special needs can do it too. They just do it a bit differently."

(Photo is courtesy of Angelina Ballerina)

Somewhere out there...

2010-01-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

When I was little, one of my favorite movies animated movies was "An American Tail." In it, a young Russian mouse, Fievel Mousekewitz, gets separated from his family after emigrating to America and must find them again while navigating a brand-new country. I have no idea why this resonated with me so much; I've never emigrated and at that point in my life I'd barely left the state much less the US.

Judging by my current inability to watch "Ratatouille," I clearly hadn't yet developed my aversion to mice, so that must have piled on to the sympathy I felt for poor little Fievel. Regardless, when I saw the following two news stories, the signature song from the movie "Somewhere Out There," immediately began playing in my head.

Scripps News posted a story today on the 53 Haitian orphans who flew to Pittsburgh to finish up the adoption process. All but seven of the children aged up to 12 years old were nearing completion of their adoptions when the earthquake hit and leveled their orphanage. Jamie and Ali McMurtrie, sisters from Pennsylvania, ran the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

Their messages home spurred the state and national government to action. Governor Ed Rendell himself flew to Haiti with a medical team to bring the children to the UPitt Medical Center. The children cleared diplomatic and bureaucratic red tape just in time to use their time slot on the runway and take off for their new homes in the US, Canada, and Spain. They appear to be big fans of chicken fingers but not so much of snow.

A lot of families do emigrate to other countries as a whole unit, like Fievel. Somali families have fled their home country for years, leaving behind war, famine and poverty. According to the Boston Globe, 5000 Somalis and Somali-Americans have settled in Lynn, Mass., so the state government has built a Parent-Child Home Program, in which visitors come into the immigrants' homes and teach them skills to assimilate into their new society. One key, and often overlooked, component to the program is teaching the parents and children how to play. For various reasons back in Somalia, parents simply didn't convey this basic skill to their children. The Parent-Child Home Program helps family read and play so their children become school-ready.

MLK still speaks today...

2010-01-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. It is a fabulous thing to have a short work/school week in January so close to the Christmas/New Years holidays. It does help you get through the dead of winter, particularly when you wake up to an unexpected 4 inches of snow on your car (yes, I'm talking to you Boston).

But I think the meaning behind having a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. has been lost. I was among many who worked yesterday, and in catching up on my tasks, I missed most of the articles and stories on the man we were supposed to be recognizing. The day just sort of passed.

The above video is admittedly long. But it is worth turning off the iTunes, ignoring Twitter feeds and getting off Facebook to watch and absorb the scenes captured. In this speech, and in all his speeches, Dr. King exhorted his fellow citizens to be great. Have courage, stand up and do what needs to be done to right a wrong.

The crisis in Haiti is not one simply of the question of race, though that played its part a long time ago. But the basic message Martin Luther King, Jr. preached nearly 50 years ago can be applied here: Have courage, stand up and do what needs to be done to right a wrong.

September 11th and Hurricane Katrina showed disasters of this magnitude can be hard to handle. There are no dress rehearsals that can approximate the logistics and management needed in these situations. But texting Haiti to 90999 and donating to the Red Cross are great ways to be able to help both those affected and those in charge. The New York Times published a link to a site called Charity Navigator, which helps those who want to donate to learn about the charities which have responded thus far and how they are helping the Haitian people.

The outpouring of aid and money so far has been staggering. Four hundred million dollars from 20 countries, including $100 million from the US alone. It's so good to see that even when the whole world struggles, it can still have courage, stand up and do what needs to be done to right a wrong.

The light in the middle of the winter tunnel...

2010-01-13T14:51:00.000-05:00

As I write this, it is thinly flurrying outside my office window. At first I thought I had a bunch of those floaters you get when your eyes are misbehaving, but squinting like Mr. Magoo proved I wasn't at risk of an imminent retinal detachment. Which is good. However, the snow reminded me it is still, in fact, winter, despite the feeling that it's already been winter for quite some time.

So the story I found on the website Voices (while tailored to the state of Connecticut) made me inordinately excited and got me to wondering which of my friends/coworkers has a little girl around the age of eight. It's Girl Scout Cookie time!!!!!!!!! This is actually one of the gastro-highlights of my year. They will never be featured on any hip restaurant menu unless Adrian Ferria deconstructs them into liquid or something, but Tagalongs, Samoas, and Thin Mints rank very high on my all-time favorite foods list.

And (to steal from one of the best comedy sketch shows ever) for something completely different...the economy! I found a couple stories recently which examine the effects of the Great Recession on children, teens and 20s. Experts are pointing to comparisons between this generation of people and the one which came of age during the Great Depression, citing a larger importance of family and frugality. Others featured in the Sun Sentinel's story are talking about how due to technology and the issues of the day, kids really care and have opinions about broader issues, like free speech in China and carbon footprints. They've seen Wall Street escape relatively unscathed from the mess it created, and they know companies no longer retain workers for 30 years. Their attitudes about fundamental things are being shaped, and it will be fascinating to see how they turn out.

Speaking of valuing intangibles, the New York Times did a story on the reappearance of the early bird special. Once the domain of thrifty retirees, dining before 6 p.m. is mounting a comeback. The phenomenon is experiencing its quickest rise in hard-hit Florida. Restaurants all over the Gulf Coast state which offer EBSs are seeing a younger crowd come in and bring coupons with them. While some restaurants are doing a little rebranding of the term - twilight dining, early dining - whatever you call it, the chance to go out and spend time with loved ones without spending a mint is certainly appealing.

(Photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Glass-bottomed boat...

2010-01-12T12:56:00.000-05:00

I take today's blog post title from a Doris Day movie of the same name. The plot is a little zany - girl meets true love at a generic NASA but must dodge mistaken identity and real Russian spies to win the day, singing sporadically - but I love Doris. She managed to be both independent and quirky and very feminine at the same time. She can take care of herself too. In this movie she does all the heavy-lifting of defeating the spy for whom she has been mistaken.

Anyways, that is a very long-winded introduction to today's theme: bizarre sea creatures. None of the following beauties would Doris have been able to see from her movie father's glass-bottomed boat...

Yahoo! News posted all three of these articles (must have been a run on seafood stories that day). It seems researchers/scientists in have found a new species of crab off the coast of Taiwan. This one bears a striking resemblance to a strawberry with its little white bumps all over its red shell. The scientists only found two examples, and it's unclear where they have been hiding all this time.

A part of scientific research has been rocked with the recent discovery of fossilized tetrapod footprints that date from way before scientists thought mammals crawled from water to land. The footprints were found over a period of five years in Poland and have been duly examined and verified. Theories have been bandied about as to what led creatures from water to land, and now they will have to be questioned; but in true scientific form, researchers are cautioning people not to get all excited just yet - these footprints could just belong to the world's earliest adopters....

Back to water-dwelling creatures for a second, the journal Science has published findings by a group of researchers that states a certain type of fish appears to have "manners." These fish, which clean parasites off bigger fish, seem to practice third-party punishment. This fascinates me since I never really thought fish were all that advanced in their thinking, much less thought at all.

Monday afternoon scramble...

2010-01-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

Good Monday to you all. I hope you had nice weekends. A perusal of today's good news stories showed no discernible pattern or theme, so I decided today I would take a cue from "Glee" and do a mash-up.

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristoff centered his column inches around Costa Rica last week. The many polls/surveys/studies out there have named Costa Ricans as the world's happiest people. It seems no matter which way you slice it, those Central American natives consistently rank at the top of the happy charts. Remarkably, back in 1949 the government decided to disband its army and since then has spent the available funds on wildlife preservation, education and tourism.

A reporter for Australia's ABC News simply couldn't escape her profession on a recent vacation to NYC. Fulfilling a long-held wish to visit the Algonquin Hotel, famous as a haunt for the foremost writers, thinkers and actors of the Roaring '20s, Pip Courtney met a fellow Australian couple celebrating the 25-year anniversary of their engagement. Courtney's article is liberally laced with witticisms from Dorothy Parker, which will make you chuckle. Parker may be the originator of the concept of "funny 'cause it's true."

I recently went over to the dark side and joined Twitter to see what the fuss was all about. The answer: not much - people are not generally as witty as Dorothy Parker, myself included. However, in my Tweet trolling, I came across the following story on The Chef's Cookbook profile about Toni Poulos, who bakes birthday cakes for foster children. Now a mother to seven of her own adopted/foster children, Poulos spends up to $30 per cake and 60 hours a week in her kitchen to produce her gratis cakes. She started the non-profit Cakes for Kids and has made over 200 cakes since.

Old is new again...

2010-01-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

The universe may be expanding but history seems to repeat itself. I knew I was old when my childhood toys - My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake - cycled back around to be enjoyed by a new generation of tots. A few years ago when I saw the return of ankle boots, I cringed. I firmly believe '80s fashion does not need to be repeated (nor do my childhood photos in said fashion need to be produced)...

But things have a way of turning up even after they have seemingly faded off into the gloaming. According to News Blaze, the Library of Congress has recently put nearly 60,000 books online from the depths of its collection. These books, deemed to brittle to handle, were carefully digitized by specialists using newly invented techniques and posted online for the public's (free) enjoyment. The books include first-person historical accounts from the eighteenth and nineteen centuries as well as a trove of genealogical data among others.

The New York Times has been doing something similar of late, delving into its dining archives and recycling found material into posts to its Diners' Journal blog. They have republished articles examining the public's hatred of garlic and how one turn-of-the-twentieth-century housewife put together a Christmas dinner on $2.50. This past Wednesday's installment examined the menus and dining traditions of the Ichthyophagous Club. Peopled by some of the more prominent members of New York society, the club was committed to the sea delicacies that were, at that point in time, out of favor with the general populace. The dining club received a tremendous amount of publicity from the Times and is credited with introducing such things as skate and whitebait to the general appetite.

And CBS reported on a nice mix of old and new when it profiled an Amish barn raising. Not necessarily news since the Plain Folk have been doing it for hundreds of years. But this time, hundreds of Amish locals turned up to help rebuild John Helmstetter's barn after it was burned to the ground. Long a landmark in western Maryland for train buffs, one in particular - Carl Franz - helped raise $41,000 to pay what Helmstetter's insurance wouldn't to rebuild the structure.

(Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Weird news...

2010-01-06T13:20:00.000-05:00

There is actually a sub-category with that same title on MSNBC.com. Probably the most descriptive sub-head on the site, you can count on that page for articles that will have you scratching the ol' noggin. As someone with an extremely active imagination, I particularly love that page since it does actually contain things even I couldn't make up - and they're true!

Today's post is an homage of sorts to MSNBC's Weird News. So we'll start with a monkey who has better dental hygiene than me. Which I guess isn't saying much since, to steal a phrase from my friend Sam, I'm an Anti-Dentite. I have gotten much better lately, but Chonpe, a Japanese macaque, may be one of the first primates to discover the art of flossing. She has three methods of cleaning her teeth and appears to be a particularly inventive little girl since she appears to be devising a method of removing splinters according to MSNBC.

Livescience.com joined the rest of the written world with a top ten list from 2009, science style. The website examined the "year's most obvious discoveries." Chiefly among them are that children are affected by their parent(s') depression, lots of meat eating is bad for you, and, drum roll please......high heels cause foot pain later in life.

And finally, Brett Martin at GQ examined the effect of the "gottahaveitnow" syndrome on food. Martin, an apparently wide traveler, decided to test the true limits of immediate availability when it comes to food. He enlisted friends all over the world to FedEx him the foods he craved. The story is three pages long, but it is totally worth it for the wry retelling of Martin's battles with the USDA and dumbfounded food service proprietors.

(Photo courtesy of MSNBC.msn.com)

Little ones...

2010-01-05T14:19:00.000-05:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This past Christmas was the first in which my Christmas cards were divided equally between traditional holiday images and photos of my friends' children and/or pets. Being single and in a no-dogs apartment building, I have neither of those things. I've also noticed as more friends get married/have children, their Facebook statuses (stati?) now revolve entirely around what their child or children have said or done recently.

So with that in mind, today's post has a "little loved ones" theme. Because really, babies and puppies have an about-equal "omghowsupercute" rating.

When I first read "Polar Express," I was entranced. The possibility of hopping a train to the North Pole sounded amazing. And the movie made from that book is awesome (Can I have my copy back now that you've retired, Mom?). I mean, really, the North Pole in that film is great. I want to go there now as a full-grown adult. Children all over the US had a chance to get on a flight bound for Santa this past Christmas. MSNBC reported on plane-loads of seriously ill/disadvantaged children headed to Santa's workshop from cities all over the US thanks to airlines, the TSA and lots of "elves."

Jumping ahead to New Year's, identical twins Marcello and Stephano Velasco may just have been the last baby of 2009 and the first of 2010 in their hospital. The brothers were born just before midnight on Dec. 31 and just after on Jan. 1, respectively, according to MSNBC. Their father hit on the highlight of the twins being born in separate decades: two birthday parties.

And because some people's children are four-legged and furry, I had to include this last story from MSNBC. Due to movies like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Legally Blonde" and a certain hotel heiress, the state of California went Chihuahua loco over the last few years. However, as people realize these dogs are not the best with small children or as family finance dictates, they are dropping the wee pups off at shelters in droves. But thanks to lots of generosity, some of 4700 little dogs taken in over the last 12 months have found homes back east due to a slowly growing doggie relocation program.

Love is in the air...

2010-01-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

So it's the new year. A time for resolutions and new beginnings. However, though we are approaching Valentine's Day, somehow I just don't normally associate love with the middle of winter. But there have been a spate of love stories popping up in my inbox and on Facebook, so I will surrender to the power of kismet and post a love-themed blog nowhere near Feb. 14.

My friend Michelle posted the following link on her Facebook profile. It comes from lemondrop.com, a site I will admit to never having heard of before. It strikes me as a combo of Huffington Post and Star magazine, but I could be completely off there as I only visited the site once - after clicking on her link.

Regardless, it seems the airlines still have a heart, even if the TSA doesn't. The story never mentions which airline played cupid, but John Kilpatrick enlisted the help of ticket agents and two flight crews to propose to his girlfriend Erin. John booked a flight ahead of hers, so he could surprise his sweetheart in her seat once her plane landed in Dallas.

MSNBC had its own unusual proposal story posted as well. The Weather Channel's meteorologist Kim Perez and now-fiance Marty Cunningham became engaged on-air after the police sergeant moseyed on set during between her forecast for the southeast and the football forecast. The weather map behind Perez changed to "Will you marry me?" as Cunningham dropped to one knee.

The Florida Times-Union reported on a marriage partially brought about by Facebook. Now, before you get all those creepy stories about online dating popping in your head, this is a reunion story. Leslie Jones and Doug Williams were high school sweethearts back in the late '80s before they drifted apart in college. A little social networking on the Internet giant led to a reconnection and (sigh) a wedding. : )

Happy New Year!!!...

2009-12-31T10:43:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve has always seemed to me (at least once I was old enough to really go out) to be a night when everyone tries desperately to have fun because they're supposed to, but in the end, it isn't really all that great.

Nevertheless, I will be out celebrating with friends in the hope that this is the year NYE is all it's cracked up to be. I wish everyone a happy and safe 2010, and may this be the year you accomplish all your resolutions.

The Wall Street Journal published an article today with six tips to help you keep your resolutions. As is the norm with the WSJ, the suggestions are common sense and illustrated by three examples of real, live resolution-keepers.

As I said above, I will be celebrating the end of 2009 with friends tonight. However, I am old enough to know better than to stay out all night and smart enough to heed my own advice. However, for those who still want to party like they are still 18, the French government has decreed all French nightclubs are now allowed to stay open until 7 a.m.

Prior to this surprise new law, local officials held sway over the clubs' business hours, which meant confusion and a lot of drunk driving as revelers traveled from one club to another in the wee hours of the morning. According to the Boston Globe, this new law is supposed to curb all of that. Bon chance!

A friend of mine is choosing to ring in the new year in Times Square with several million of his newest close friends. Being extremely enoclophobic myself - ie: really hate crowds - that sounds like a level of hell that Dante missed. But I guess there is a certain allure to being in New York City and seeing the ball drop. The New York Times published an article on a tour one of its reporters took through the "vault" - the storage facility 50 feet underground which holds New Years balls from years past. The story is a bit confusing in the middle when it talks about how many balls there actually have been, but it is enlightening in terms of NYE trivia.

I used to be all nostalgic, sitting and remembering all the things that happened to me over the year. But the past two years have not been necessarily something I care to remember, so I think for 2010 my resolution is going to keep going forward (see, Stef, I did make one!). Sucky things are undoubtedly going to happen to me, but I'm going to charge through them.

What about you? What are your resolutions?

Have a happy and hangover-free New Year's Day! I'll be back with a new post on Monday, Jan. 4.

Exponentially cool...

2009-12-30T14:18:00.000-05:00

This man to the left is Stephen Wiltshire. Diagnosed with autism at an early age, his teachers at school noticed he communicated to the world through art. One eventually taught their formerly mute pupil to speak - at age nine - by withholding his art supplies to get him to ask for them.

He progressed from animals to motor vehicles to buildings. Wiltshire has been featured in several documentaries on the BBC, including "Fragments of Genius" in which the BBC filmed him flying over London then creating a meticulous, to-scale drawing of the city within three hours.

He has created similar aerial illustrations, including one of Tokyo on a 10-meter long sheet of paper.

Entirely from memory. Again, ENTIRELY FROM MEMORY.

His artwork has been shown all over the world, and he has his own personal gallery in London in addition to multiple published books. The third, "Floating Cities" (1991) made the London Sunday Times Bestseller List.

PS - His birds-eye panorama of Rome may just be my favorite of his aerial skylines. The store section of his website is one that keeps you clicking through. Some pieces appear in color, some are oil paintings and some are simple black and white sketches. But all are amazing. I'm not much for art made after 1750, but I'm now Wiltshire's newest fan.

Hand touching hand, reaching out...

2009-12-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

Sweet Caroline is my karaoke song. I only sing it, in a group, in Boston since the entire bar jumps in and sings both the words and the bah, bah, bahs. But the line from the chorus which graces my post title really encapsulates my theme for today: people connecting.

The Daily Record in the UK is based out of Scotland and had a story on the power of photographs. It seems there is a cancer center there which aims to connect its patients with reminders of the joy of living. The center has established a scrapbooking program in which participants choose photographs that mark the highlights of their lives. The story features three women - Freda Wilshaw, Elaine Doran and Christine Hague - who share their photos and the stories behind them.

Several of those women's photos are of them men they loved. One San Francisco couple got a second chance at first love, as recently reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. After a separation of 30 years, Darrell Holdaway and Nevin Valentine reunited just before their 30th high school reunion. Holdaway and Valentine each married and had children after breaking up in high school but found themselves single as the reunion approached. They met for coffee, and the rest, as they say, was history.

CNN reported on another reunion, one that has caught the nation's attention and held international trade implications. David Goldman was granted custody of his son after his former wife took the boy to her native Brazil for a two-week vacation that never ended. The little boy has been living with his extended Brazilian family after his mother died in childbirth. Goldman and his nine year-old son were reunited on Christmas Eve and planned to spend Christmast together in Disney World after flying home from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

(Photo courtesy of Stroller Derby)

Cheerio, pip, pip...

2009-12-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

I'm a little rusty after my week-long holiday break. I'm not sure if it's due to getting in late last night or just the typical holiday hangover, but I'm going to apologize in advance for any choppiness or lack of coherence in today's post. I promise to do better tomorrow. : )

I know I did a post recently on weird, wild and wonderful sea creatures, and this next story from Yahoo! is along the same lines. Australian scientists have recorded an octopus collecting coconut shells for shelter. The little leggy creature emptied out the shells and then carried them up to 65 feet before reassembling them for a hiding spot. The scientists believe this is the first recorded instance of an invertebrate using a tool.

Staying in the British Empire (and Yahoo!) for a moment, the search engine giant's news arm reported Great Britain has started to phase out checks as a monetary conveyance. The British governmental body in charge of such things has chosen 2018 as the target date by which they hope to no longer use checks. While this is not great news for the elderly - some of whom have never used an ATM - I'm a huge fan of this spreading to the US.

A lot of children's stories have spread the world over - including Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Wind in the Willows. All of those stories and several others had their birth in and around the English city of Oxford. An anonymous benefactor has donated 2.5 million British pounds for the building of the real-life home for the Museum of Storytelling. Previously housed online only, this donation allows the collection to find a permanent, brick-and-mortar home. The new museum will allow children to hear stories and to walk through exhibits of their favorite tales, according to the Guardian.

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo!)

Is your house on fire, Clark?...

2009-12-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

That is one of my favorite lines from the holiday classic "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Aunt Bethany utters it after Clark Griswold finally gets his 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights going and blazes the neighborhood.

One of my favorite things to do every Christmas is check out the lights and displays along Hampden, Maryland's 34th Street. Every Christmas the whole street gets into the act with traditional and artsy holiday displays. It's not a neighborhood association thing, people just participate because they get into the spirit. The photo on the left is from someone's Flickr account and shows the (in)famous street.

For the past couple of years, people have posted videos online of lighting displays timed to Manheim Steamroller. But this year, as my friend Michelle forwarded to me, someone has timed his lights to Guitar Hero. Featured on Holidash, Ric Turner, a former Disney special effects engineer, found a way to plug his Wii into his Christmas lights. Visitors can try their hand at playing "Cliffs of Dover" by pushing the doorbell. God love this guy's wife...

Visual displays are a common way to spread Christmas cheer. As written about in the New York Times yesterday, a lot of people have turned to picture cards created on any number of online photo-sharing sites. However, a few photographers banded together to share Christmas tidings the old-fashioned way (and do some good in the process). PBS posted a story on the PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association - hundreds of photographers - which has volunteered to take free portraits of military families. Deployed soldiers keep photos of their loved ones close to their hearts - often literally - while on missions, so these will be particularly welcome gifts this season. The network will show an actual new story sometime near Christmas.

And finally, Xerox has a promotion online where individuals can send holiday greetings to our fighting men and women overseas. Xerox is taking designs created by children and printing them on postcards. All you have to do is pick a card and then a greeting (or write your own), and Xerox will print the card and mail it for free. It only takes a few minutes and will brighten a soldier's day. If you only click on one link today, I hope it's this one.