A little of this and that...

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.

Monday afternoon scramble...

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.

Love is in the air...

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. : )

Hand touching hand, reaching out...

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)

Best. weekend. ever...

So this past weekend (starting Friday) I was in Long Island for my college roommate's wedding. This is one I've been looking forward to since I heard they got engaged.

It obliterated expectations.

From the rehearsal dinner to the hotel afterparty, you could not imagine a more perfect wedding. What everyone shoots for (or should) is a wedding that pleases both bride and guest(s). Ninety-nine point nine percent of people fail at that. The balance is so hard. This wedding fell into that 0.01 percent. Classiness, elegance and fun shone from every facet of the weekend.

I could make a joke about how Michelle and Chris have now been married longer than most celebrities, but I would rather just end with a heartfelt congratulations to my two favorite newlyweds, wish them all the best and thank them for letting me be a part of such a terrific event and special moment for them.

Mimosas and Michelle...

So this past weekend I got a much-needed break from Boston and hopped in the car with a couple of girlfriends for a road-trip. But this wasn't just any road-trip. We were the Boston Bridesmaids, and we were headed for the wedding shower of one of our very best friends from college. 

I will not go into the details of the drive since this is a good news blog, but I can report that a fantastic time was had by all once we got there (due not entirely to the two-fer drink special at Chili's). 

It was so wonderful to see all of us together in one place again (it's been almost a year), and we were so happy to be there to celebrate Michelle's (and Chris') big day. The food at the shower was excellent, and the company even better. I can't wait for the wedding!

This post is a short one, as I've taken the day off from work (to enjoy the sunshine and not being in a seated position for hours on end!).  I hope you all enjoy your days as much as I am enjoying this one!

Lost and found...

There was a pattern at the end of last week, with stories being posted on things of great value that had been lost for a long time - in one case for centuries. However, I was firmly encased in my cranky pants on Friday and instead chose to be very lazy and just post a video my friend J sent me that has blown up into an Internet craze. Today, I am back to my usual posting self. 

Yahoo! News posted a story on a recent archaeological find in the Mediterranean. A team of archaeologists have found a "graveyard' of five nearly perfect Roman trading ships that sunk off the coast of Italy, and the earliest dates back to the first century BC. Underwater images show the well-preserved contents of the ships spilling out after the wood rotted away.

Also on Thursday, and as an addendum to the shipwreck story, Yahoo! News featured an article on two "new" works from Mozart. Apparently the International Mozarteum Foundation has had one of the works in their collection for a while, but only recently verified it was, in fact, written by Mozart as a young man. The results will be made public in a presentation on Aug. 2 in Salzburg, Austria, when an Austrian musician will play the piece on an original Mozart piano. The foundation also had a hand in authenticating another found Mozart composition in the possession of a French library last September.

Perhaps the sweetest of the three stories today concerns an object of less intrinsic value than those in the previous two articles. Once again, I mined Yahoo! to find this little gem... A love affair between a British man and his Spanish sweetheart was rekindled after 16 years when a missing love letter was found behind a mantle. The couple, who married two weeks ago, were reunited after the woman was brave enough to phone her former fiancee after discovering the letter.  

(Photo courtesy of www.about.com)

Wedding season...

My apologies to the person who sent this (and the two to whom I forwarded it) since it will not be a new blog to them, but it is the only thing that has made me laugh on this horribly gross and rainy day.

Independence Day, part zwei

One of my friends confessed to me once that she would like to be proposed to on a Jumbotron at a sporting event. Another of my friends used to work in sports marketing and would routinely reject requests from fans to do that very thing on the grounds that it is mortally embarrassing to all involved if the proposal does not have the desired response. 

CNN.com had a story on a man who was undeterred by the thought of being rejected. Aaron Weisinger proposed to girlfriend Erica Breder upon reaching the top of the newly re-opened crown of the Statue of Liberty on Saturday. The lucky (and newly engaged) couple were two of 240 people who got tickets to the first day the crown was re-opened to the public. Personally, for the record, I would not enjoy a public proposal, nor would I like to be forever captured wearing that stupid foam hat...

Remember the solider who was photographed a few months ago fighting the Taliban in pink "I Heart NY" boxers? Google News hosted an AP story that stated Spec. Zachary Boyd was home from Afghanistan in time for the Fourth of July. He spent a few days at home with his family before returning to Ft. Hood to begin training as a helicopter pilot. His boxers will soon be on display at the 1st Infantry Division museum in Fort Riley, Kansas. 

It is because of our protected freedoms I can post the following link to a project that is sure to tick off some people. Inspired by the fading flag bumper stickers visual artist Aaron Fein saw all around New York City after Sept. 11, he created an installation he calls "Surrender."  Fein wondered what would happen if all the nations' flags faded to white. "Surrender" is a growing exhibit that features flags of the world made entirely of white fabric. Just the small selection of flags in the photo on george.loper.org really does provoke the viewer into ignoring the map- and geography-based divisions imposed on these countries and think about new ways they are similar. 

(Photo courtesy of CNN.com)

KISS, SWAK, TGIF, TTYL...

I have no idea when acronyms first started showing up in written languages, but in today's fast-paced, take-no-prisoners lifestyle, they are everywhere. It began for me during university at, where else, BU. 

I started freshman year doing a program called FYSOP (First-Year Student Outreach Program). Then I started class in CAS (College of Arts & Sciences) before transferring to COM (College of Communication - yeah, I know the letters don't work out...). Then I started working in sports, and I had to calculate things like GAA (goals against average) and 3FG (3-point field goals). And the acronyms flowed from the athletes themselves. I had one women's lacrosse player who seemed to only speak in them - BGT (big game today), LGT (let's go Tigers), etc. Some student-athletes used them so they could swear without getting in trouble - FH (f***ing h***).

One day my old roommate from college emailed me a link to a website called FML (F*** My Life) where people post short bursts of experiences that were the worst things to happen to them that day, week, month, year... Some of them were funny enough to make me laugh out loud in a "dude, that really sucks, but I'm glad it wasn't me" way. Others were kinda sad/pathetic. But eventually I had to stop reading because some of them were just mean. So I was glad to find a story on pr.com yesterday about a new website called GMH started to counter FML. Givemehope.org is the same concept, but it is only for positive stories. Inspirational or grateful messages left by people who had random acts of goodness/kindness show up in their lives. I may add this to my daily troll through the Internet.

Another nice story I read came from the LA Times. It was more of an opinion piece, one more voice adding to the din surrounding the President and Mrs. Obama's "date night" in New York. But this woman took the angle that the Obamas were just doing a classed up version of what every American does or should do with his/her sweetheart - a night out in a dress or suit jacket with good food and quality entertainment. You don't have to do the Met or a restaurant you need to mortgage your house just to pay the bill, but dusting off your heels and opening the door for your lady isn't something you should neglect these days. My hat's off to the First Couple for making time for each other even while he's running the West. 

This past weekend was the anniversary of D-Day, or a large reason why the West is not speaking Russian/German. The Tennessean posted a story featuring a local WWII veteran and his connection to Normandy and its beaches. William Simpkins landed on Utah Beach June 6, 1944 and was one of the few members of his unit to survive the invasion. Simpkins has been back to Normandy six times since crashing the beaches and has a real connection to the French citizens and towns on the coast.

Right in my wheelhouse...

Looking at the three stories I found today, the theme would only be apparent to me. Yes, all three are good news, and yes, I did find them all the same way. But a theory of communication I learned in college that is coming back to me now quite randomly and only vaguely holds that stories in the news grab people's attention more quickly and for longer when people have a tie to or stake in them. 

Last night I was at a meeting at the MSPCA about a certain breed of dogs which I have mentioned a lot on here, so I won't do it again. : ) I want a dog terribly, so this story in the LA Times about the two dogs which stopped traffic on a NY expressway yesterday caught my attention almost immediately. It seems the mama got hit by a car, and her son made sure to stay between her as she lay on the ground with a broken leg and anything that came nearby - human or car. Mama is recovering nicely, and the son has been taken home.

The inspirational story I found in Florence, Ala.'s Times Daily about a cancer center nurse who contracted breast cancer and proceeded to beat it grabbed my attention since my father and uncle are both recovering from cancer, and I just found out a friend's boyfriend's mother has been diagnosed with it. Jamie White started her career as an ER nurse but moved to oncology after having a baby. Her grandfather went through his cancer treatments at her center and recovered before she herself was diagnosed. White went through her treatment at her own center and became an inspiration to the other patients by encouraging the nurses to share her story with them. 

My last homegrown tale comes from msnbc.com. President Obama has made a firmer commitment to rescuing the Chesapeake Bay with his latest executive order. Citing the Clean Water Act, he put the Environmental Protection Agency in charge of restoration efforts. The Bay is in very poor health and is in danger of becoming unable to support not only the wildlife who call it home, but the watermen who make their living off the estuary. Obama's order will send funding and oversight to the cleanup efforts at the watershed and hopefully will put pressure on the surrounding states to do more.

(Photo credit: www.usc.edu)

Going global...

I found out today that May 1 is the fourth-annual Global Love Day. I had never heard of this. The website is a bit touchy-feely, but I think the concept of focusing on love and understanding is a good one. The main idea is "Love begins with me." Simple but effective. So for today, I will be showing the love to the international community. All the stories come from outside the US. : ) 

Beginning on the continent of North America, the Montreal Gazette does a weekly feature on a local teacher who has made a difference in the lives of his or her students. The article I found profiles Gail Gagnon, a woman who came to teaching later in life and now works with adults who are learning while working full-time jobs. They credit her with creating a vibrant and welcoming learning atmosphere.

We'll cross the Atlantic and then the Irish Sea for the next two stories. Walesonline.co.uk tells the story of a 70-year school reunion for the students enrolled in a Welsh school in 1939. The students of an all-boys grammar school were too young to fight in WWII, but they were not unaffected by the constant danger. However, the boys thrived under the guidance of a good headmaster and went on to succeed in their chosen professions.

Siliconrepublic.com, an Irish tech website, highlighted the recent launch of Eurocreator, a YouTube-like site for educational purposes. It was created in line with the EU recognizing 2009 as a Year of Creativity and Innovation. The site encourages kids to create their own media, but all submissions are moderated and the creators are offered constructive feedback. 

The last story comes from Africa and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Researchers have found "super reefs" in the waters off Madagascar, northern Mozambique, Tanzania and southern Kenya. These reefs not only survived a "bleaching" event, but they appear to have thrived under a ban on commercial fishing. Bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures (aka human-caused global warming), so for these reefs to basically reconstruct themselves with some simple help from people is a very good sign.

(Photo credit: blog.onboardinfomatics.com)