Archive for October, 2009

Janam Din ki badhai, Julia Roberts!

Posted on  Posted by Josh on October 28, 2009 in General

julia roberts india 220109Today Julia Roberts is celebrating her 42nd birthday in India. The actress has been working on her new movie Eat, Pray, Love, which is being filmed in New Delhi. The movie is based on the memoir of Elizabeth Gilbert and set to premier in 2011.

While in India, Julia may have the opportunity to experience a unique birthday celebration this year. In the Hindu tradition, lighting lamps is a daily tradition for luck, so many people choose not to blow out the candles on their birthday cake. Charity work and feeding the poor are important parts of Hindu birthday celebrations, so many people celebrate their birthday with children in orphanages or with elders in retirement homes.

Thank you to Hindu-blog.com for the info on Hindu birthday traditions, and as they say in India, Janam Din ki badhai, Julia!


Lady Liberty (best birthday present ever) turns 123

Posted on  Posted by Josh on in General

Statue-of-LibertyOn this day in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States as a gift from France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and to recognize the 2 countries’ friendship, established during the American Revolution. Talk about a big birthday present! Here are a few facts from Squidoo and endex.com:

  • Lady liberty weighs 450,000 pounds (that’s as much as 27 elephants!). Her fingernail alone weighs 3.5 pounds.
  • The Statue is 305ft. 1in. from the ground to the tip of the flame. It is the equivalent height of a 22-story building. In 1886, it was the tallest structure in New York.
  • The Statue of Liberty was built in Paris, France, over a 9-year period starting in 1875 before being dismantled for shipment to New York.
  • Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the artist who designed the statue, was granted a 14 year US design patent for the statue in 1879. This patent covered small copies of the statue, which were sold to raise funds to build the main statue.
  • In 1885 the French Frigate Isere carried 214 crates containing the 350 pieces of the Statue to New York.
  • The iron framework which supports the outer copper skin was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who later built the Eiffel Tower.
  • Prior to the building of the statue, scale models were made. 2 of these can be seen today in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris and in the Brazilian city of Maceió.
  • The Statue was used as a lighthouse from 1886 until 1902 – with the light being visible as far 24 miles away.

This popular New York City attraction was fully reopened this summer, allowing tourists and New Yorkers to look out over the New York Harbor from Lady Liberty’s crown for the first time since 2001.


The New York City Subway turns 105

Posted on  Posted by Josh on October 27, 2009 in General

nyctransit051223apOn this day in 1904, the New York City Subway opened to the public. The subway is both a must-see attraction for tourists visiting from around the globe and a lifeline for the city that never sleeps. Here’s a bit of background on the events leading up to the subway’s construction, from the Library of Congress:

An underground transportation system for New York City had been proposed as early as 1868. Even then, navigating city streets clogged with pedestrians, horses, wagons and carriages proved dangerous and frustrating. Between 1870 and 1900 many private companies attempted to take on the project, but each time, legal, political, and financial obstacles proved insurmountable. While completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 and the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 eased traffic moving into Manhattan, congestion within the city remained a problem.

In the fall of 1894, New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for municipal ownership of the subway system, clearing some of the legal and political hurdles. However, funding and organizing such a tremendous construction project continued to pose a challenge. Finally, financier August Belmont organized the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, and, in March 1900, ground-breaking ceremonies were held at Borough Hall in Manhattan.

Today, the subway system has 468 stations, 842 miles of track, and carries over 1.45 billion people per year – wow! So the next time you’re in town take a ride on one of the oldest and largest public transportation systems in the world… just be sure to “stand clear of the closing doors”.


Tip Tuesday: Unique gift-wrapping ideas

Posted on  Posted by Josh on in Tip Tuesday

riffe_giftwrapMost everyone knows the standard procedure for wrapping a gift (if you need a refresher, check out this guide here). But once you’ve grasped the basics, how do you differentiate your gift from the next? Well, eHow has some answers (as always). Here are a few tips for making your gift stand out from the crowd before it’s even opened:

1) Think category wrapping first. Put gardening gloves in a terra cotta flowerpot with a long ivy strand tied around the pot in a bow. Or wrap baby items in a baby blanket with French ribbon.

2) Use unexpected papers: maps, art papers, cellophane, foil, shopping bags, wax papers, or comics. Don’t forget about paper you stamp, paint, write on or collage yourself.

3) Consider wire, rolls of stamps, string, sashes, old ties, belts, laces, lariats, leather strips, dog leashes, telephone wire,garden tapes, old cassette tapes and stickers to tie packages.

4) Use unusual containers. Wrap a silk shirt in a matching sweater, a diamond bracelet in a sock, a camera in a velvet wine-bottle bag, a book in a cereal box, or a watch in a makeup bag. A carefully cleaned egg could hold a ring.

5) Customize the wrapping to fit the sentiment. For example, you could wrap a rose in a newspaper from the day you met and tie it with a bright-red licorice whip.


Happy Birthday, United Nations!

Posted on  Posted by Josh on October 26, 2009 in General

general_assemblyThe United Nations Charter went into effect on this day in 1945, officially bringing the United Nations into existence. The United Nations replaced the failed League of Nations as the main body for coordinating matters of concern to the world as a whole. In the wake of World War II, organizers saw the UN as a means to ensure that no such war would ever happen again.

They enshrined this hope in the charter, the preamble of which reads in part:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

…have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Read the whole charter at the UN website. Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ is a little tricky when you represent all the people of the world, however. At the UN’s 60th birthday celebration in 2005, children sang the song in all six official languages of the organization: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.


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