Thoughts on happy...

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...

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!...

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...

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...

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...

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!...

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!!!