Jet-setting...

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...

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?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)