St. Patrick's Cathedral

Postcard US-3263831 to California was a vintage card showing St. Patrick's Cathedral, a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church and a prominent landmark of New York City, directly across the street from Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan and specifically facing the Atlas statue. The cathedral was completed in 1878, The cathedral and associated buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. According to a spreadsheet of NRHP list from the National Park Service, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 1976 with a reference number 76001250.

Vulcan Statue in Birmingham, Alabama

Postcard US-3038799 from Alabama shows the Vulcan statue, the largest cast iron statue in the world, and the city symbol of Birmingham, Alabama that reflects the city's heritage in the iron and steel industry. The 56-foot or 17-meter tall statue depicts the Roman God Vulcan, god of the fire including the fire of volcanoes, also god of metalworking and the forge. It was created as Birmingham's entry for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) in St. Louis, Missouri. Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer, as in this case while his left hand held a hammer at his side. According to Wikipedia, "the statue's naked buttocks have been source of humor for many years. A novelty song, Moon Over Homewood, refers to the fact that the statue moons the neighboring suburb of Homewood, Alabama." It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 1976.

American Museum of Natural History

Postcard US-2984204 from Texas shows the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), located across the street from Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York. One of the largest museums in the world, the museum has over 32 million specimens of plants, humans, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts in its collection. Only a small fraction of those can be displayed at any given time, in spite of its 1,600,000-square-foot or 150,000-square-meter exhibition space.

In addition to its permanent exhibitions at the Biodiversity and Environmental Halls, the Birds and Reptiles and Amphibians Halls, the Earth and Planetary Sciences Halls, the Fossil Halls including the two famous dinosaur halls as shown on the postcard, the Human Origins and Cultural Halls, and the Mammal Halls, the current exhibitions include: Countdown to Zero about several global efforts to contain, or eradicate disease; Nature's Fury: The Science of Natural Disasters; The Butterfly Conservatory; and Natural Histories. The museum is also home to the Rose Center for Earth and Space that features a planetarium, and the official New York State Memorial to New York's 33rd Governor and the 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. AMNH was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 1976.

The Museum will be closed on Tuesday January 27, 2015 due to a blizzard forecast. However, the early indication shows the incoming storm may be falling short of predictions.

The Answer

When I was assigned postcard US-2921298 to Maine, the recipient stated her loves of poetry in the profile and asked to include a line of a poem on the card. What came to my mind was from the Answer by a Chinese poet Bei Dao (北岛, born August 2, 1949 in Beijing): "卑鄙是卑鄙者的通行证，高尚是高尚者的墓志铭" that would be directly translated into: "Despicable acts are the passport for the Villain; Honorable deeds are the tombstone for the Noble." As Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets (朦胧诗), a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in China, he opens his 1976 poem by reflecting what a twisted world was where the Villain got a free pass and the Noble was met with death. You can read the full poem with English translation in a blog on sciencenet.cn or a blog on sina.com.cn.

Bei Dao has won numerous awards, including the Swedish PEN Tucholsky Prize, International Poetry Argana Award from the House of Poetry in Morocco, and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. He is a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, elected in 1996. He has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

While China is moving toward a more open and free society, thanks to many advocates like Bei Dao, it is not lost on me that such a twisted world could exist anywhere where the power is absolute and without supervision. That's why we need to vigorously safeguard our civil rights and civil liberties so that we can maintain a society where the Villain will be punished and the Noble will be honored.

Petroglyph Panel at the Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument

Petroglyphs by Native Americans

Postcard US-2359303 is traveling to Canada. The petroglyph panel shown on the card is believed to be at least 1,200 years old. It is located at the Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument in Utah, formerly a State Park. Some suggest that the first carvings were made as old as 2,000 years ago, left by Native Americans from the Archaic, Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, Anglo, and Pueblo cultures.

Newspaper Rock gained the "State Historical Monument" recognition in 1961. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Indian Creek State Park in 1976.