Er, happy Holocaust Remembrance Day?...

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)

Monday morning round up...

So the little darling to the left (who refuses to look even remotely happy in pictures) is my first foster, Boogie. Yes, I know that is a horrible name for a cat (not my choice), so I've started calling her Boo or Bug, as in love-bug, since all she wants in life is to be in my lap, snoring.

I have a bunch of good stories which in no way connect to each other (much like my intro paragraph does not transition to this one), so I'm going to post an unthemed round up for today.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. made the news yet again (he of the arrested for breaking into his own home/grabbing a beer at the White House with the president). His research for a documentary led to two South Carolina men being posthumously pardoned for a murder they were convicted of 94 years ago.

Boston.com posted both the above and the following story on a Utah high school marching band that overcame personal grief to sweep the awards at the Rocky Mountain Marching Band Tournament. American Fork High School band lost its woodwinds instructor in a fatal bus crash just days before taking top honors. Heather Christensen grabbed the bus wheel when she noticed the driver had passed out; the bus crashed, killing Christensen, but all the students were unhurt.

Last week MSNBC reported on the potential discovery of a Leonardo da Vinci painting. Bought for $19,000 at an auction in 2007, what was thought to be a sketch by a 19th century German artist has been called the first da Vinci discovered in over 100 years. Da Vinci used his hands liberally when working, and analysis done by a Canadian forensic firm has proven there is a da Vinci fingerprint on this piece of art.

And finally, a blog on TIME's website reported on the first US reunion of the (living members of the) Monty Python comedy group in 40 years. Apparently, the show started a little slowly, with the actors a little uncomfortable with direct contact with the audience, but it picked up steam and the jokes started flying. I wish I had seen the program; I started watching Monty Python movies and sketches in middle school. It may have been my first taste of British humor, and it definitely left an impression. To this day, single lines from sketches like "The Spanish Inquisition" and "The Cheese Shop," not to mention from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian" make me smile.

The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog...

I first heard that Carrie Underwood song on Pandora.com a few months back, and it makes me laugh because of the whole "funny 'cause it's true" aspect. With another good weekend gone too quickly and another return to the grind, this week with the boss present, I found myself having an "I hate people" morning that only intensified with the morning commute and the realization it's back to school this week, which means more traffic and more clueless/careless pedestrians. 

So I thought I'd turn my thoughts to the one species who has never let me down - dogs. Last week I found a story on a furry, four-legged Iraqi refugee who finally found a happy ending. Laia, a stray from Basra, was adopted by Major Steven Hutchinson after he shared a lunch with her while away from his base. Maj. Hutchinson adopted her despite the Army's policy on pets. Laia rode in trucks with him and slept on his feet at night. On May 10, 2009 Maj. Hutchinson was killed by a roadside bomb. He'd left Laia at the base that morning. Sgt. Andrew Hunt, a friend of the late major, stepped up and worked with the US Embassy and the SPCA to send Laia to the States where she now has a loving home with a man who worked with Maj. Hutchinson in Iraq, according to the Charleston Examiner. 

The Tulsa World had a story on a local rescue dog who made the top 10 in Purina's "Rally to Rescue" contest, which tipped me to the contest in the first place. People can go to the website and vote for their favorite rescue story. The contest was created to honor rescue pets and the organizations who dedicate their time and resources to helping animals. The winning pet, owner and rescue organization win a trip to the National Dog Show and the winning rescue group will get $5,000 in Purina products. 

And finally, one last plug for the strays - my favorite animals on the planet. The Animal Rescue Site donates 0.6 bowls of food to rescued animals for every click at their website. They also have a gift shop that donates part of its proceeds to rescues (if you are so inclined or have a friend/relative who is into animals).

(Photo courtesy of the Examiner)

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)