Tearing through ... New York

I bought this card at the Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) on August 29, 2013 during a connection of my return flights from the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) to Las Vegas.  I was in Washington D.C. for the 50th Anniversary of March on Washington.

On the back of the card, it reads "the thriving metropolis of New York City is one of the best places in the world to let loose and go wild! With hundreds of shops, restaurants, night-clubs, shows and sights, there is so much to see and do, it is easy to get as excited as King Kong."

As the Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of all the summer activities, if you are in New York City, you don't want to miss World Stamp Show-NY 2016, an eight-day, once-a-decade international celebration of stamp collecting in the U.S. at the Javits Center from May 28 to June 4, 2016. It coincides the 28th Fleet Week New York in which United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard are honored for their sea services. The stamp show opened with presenting the colors by the U.S. Navy Color Guard and singing the national anthem by MFC Dan Smith of the U.S. Navy. Up to 300,000 visitors are expected to attend the show, which is free and open to the public.

Elsewhere, however, a gorilla related story turned out to be a tragedy: Cincinnati Zoo killed a gorilla to save a boy. It ignited debates on animal welfare, parental responsibility and adequacy of safety measure in the zoo.

Marilyn Monroe

Postcard US-1852497 to Ukraine shows a 1955 movie scene with actress Marilyn Monroe appearing in the Seven Year Itch where her dress blows up from the subway grate. It becomes one of the most famous Marilyn Monroe scenes of all time. The subway grate is marked at East 52nd Street and Lexington Ave in New York City.

Fifty three years ago on Saturday May 19, 1962, Marilyn Monroe sung "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" for President John F. Kennedy at a celebration of his forty-fifth birthday, ten days before his actual date on Tuesday May 29, 1962.

Less than three months later, Monroe was found dead at her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California on August 5, 1962. She was 36 years old.

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.

Prometheus Statue at Rockfeller Plaza

Outgoing postcard US-3169529 to Russia was a vintage card showing Paul Manship's majestic bronze gilded statue of the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind from the sun. Built in 1934, the 5.5-meter or 18-foot tall and 8-ton statue is a focal point of the fountain in the sunken gardens, which are noted for their trees and shrubs and flowers, at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole. The inscription on the granite wall behind was a paraphrase from Aeschylus that reads: "Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends."

Built by the Rockefeller family, Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres or 89,000 square meters panning the area from Fifth Avenue to Sixth Avenue and between 48th and 51st streets in the center of Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Today, the U.S. Postal Service issued the limited edition Batman Forever stamps at New York Comic Con 2014 at the Javits Center on October 9, 2014, in honor of Batman’s 75th anniversary as the protector of Gotham City.

Four versions of stamps feature Batman in four very distinct eras over the comic book history: the Golden Age (bottom row: 1939 - 1956), the Silver Age (third row: 1956 - 1969), the Bronze Age (second row: 1970 - 1985), and the Modern Era (top row: 1985 to the present). There are four incarnations of the famed Bat-Signal, the spotlight that Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon beamed into the night sky to summon Batman.

According to USPS, Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, at The Postal Store website at usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others, and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

Forever Batman Stamps
Special Events Coordinator
380 West 33rd St. Room 4032
New York, NY 10199-9998

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, customers have to pay five cents each. All orders must be postmarked by Dec. 8, 2014.

In 2006, the USPS issued a series of stamps featuring various DC Comics superheroes, including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Last year, Canada Post issued five Superman stamps on September 10, 2013 to commemorate Superman’s 75th birthday and his Canadian roots.

Outgoing postcard US-3017764 to the Netherlands shows a DC Comics book cover with Batman and Robin, purchased at DC Comics' Batman store at Zazzle.

400,000 March for Attetion to Global Warming in New York City

Earlier in the Sunday morning, People’s Climate March started with people lining up along 27 blocks on Central Park West, from 59th Street to 86th Street, in New York City. It was part of coordinated efforts, around the world from Hollywood, to London, Berlin, and Rio de Janeiro, that demand the governments and world leaders to take action on climate change.

It coincides with the United Nations Climate Summit that starts on Tuesday September 23, 2014. More than 120 world leaders will congregate in New York City to prepare a binding global climate treaty for the climate talks in Paris in December, 2014. The treaty aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing use of renewable energy. A similar effort failed in Copenhagen in 2009. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the marchers in New York. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the Climate Summit.

The featured postcard shows an illustration of the Cumulonimbus Hot Tower by Graeme Stephens in 2003. Cumulonimbus clouds are the kings of all clouds, rising from low altitude up to more than 12,000 meters or 40,000 feet. Tehy grow due to rising and falling currents, with their top flattening out into an anvil shape. Cumulonimbus clouds are a sure sign of severe weather, with heavy rain and possible hail. NASA has deployed Cloudsat, a mission using advanced radar technology to study clouds. It is part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program. Along with other programs in NASA's Earth Observing System, it helps further understanding of the climate change issues.

American Papermaking 1690 - 1990

Postcard US-2849009 to the Netherlands was a postal stamped card to celebrate 300-years of American Papermaking from 1690 to 1990, issued by USPS at the annual meeting of the American Paper Institute in New York City on March 15, 1990. The American Paper Institute and the National Forest Products Association merged on January 1, 1993 and formed the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA).

The card shows a painting of the Rittenhouse Paper Mill, established near Germantown, PA in 1690. The painting was based on black and white photographs, circa 1770, of the most recent mill that lasted until the late 1800s. The original paper mill, first in America, was washed away by flood in 1700;  a second mill constructed in 1702, was destroyed by a fire. A reproduction of the original Rittenhouse watermark is featured on the left side of the card with a note "This watermark appears on the first paper made in the United States on this site in 1690."

According to an article in Times-News from Hendersonville, NC on April 1, 1990 and an article in Lawrence Journal-World from Lawrence, Kansas on April 8, 1990, collectors had until April 12, 1990 to obtain the first-day cancellations. It also noted that the Postal Services gave preferential service to customers who bought cards at a local post office, self-addressed them before sending them in for cancellation. If customers preferred to have the Postal Service supply the card, they needed to send, for each card ordered, payment of 15 cents in the form of a check or money order and a self-addressed, peelable label to a New York City post office. Now a days, USPS sells a postal stamped card for the face value plus a mark up. For example, a Tree Stamped Single Stamped Card sells for 38 cents with a first-class FOREVER postcard rate (currently at 34 cents) postage.

Coincidentally, the postcard arrived in the Netherlands yesterday when the Dutch National Soccer Team defeated Costa Rica 4:3 in Penalties at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

From the World Trade Center in 1994

I received an email today from TouchNote today, saying "it's been over a year since you sent this photo as a Touchnote postcard! It's probably still out on display somewhere being enjoyed, too! Why not make someone's day with another postcard?"

The postcard shows a sunset view from the top of the World Trade Center at Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, 20 years ago in 1994 when I first visited the Big Apple. The original World Trade Center featured landmark twin towers, opened on April 4, 1973 and destroyed in the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Beers Over Equality

St. Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious holiday that celebrates the death date of the most commonly-recognized patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick on March 17. While the festivals are underway this Sunday, Guinness became the third beer company to withdraw sponsorship of a major St. Patrick's Day parade in the U.S. because the organizers banned LGBT groups from openly participating in the parades.

Earlier, according to Boston.com, Boston Beer Company, which manufactures Sam Adams, announced on March 14 to pull out today's parade in Boston after South End restaurant Club Cafe said that it would no longer serve Sam Adams due to the brewer's sponsorship with the parade. Boston's Irish-American Mayor Martin Walsh skipped his city's St. Patrick's Day parade after failing to broke a deal with organizers to allow a group of gay and lesbian activists to march openly.

In New York City, Heineken ended its relationship with the 250-year old parade for the same reason; and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will not be marching in the parade on Monday, March 17 to protest the exclusionary policies, becoming the first mayor in decades to break the tradition.

Go ATOM Trefl Sopot!

ATOM Trefl Sopot is a professional volleyball team from Poland that won double-champion. The team is currently playing in Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV) European Champions League in 2014 for the third consecutive time.

Postcard US-2615864 sent via TouchNote to Poland shows billboards featuring the team in New York City, a composite image made by PhotoFunia with team photos from their Facebook page. Good luck ATOM Trefl Sopot! Maybe we will see you on billboards in New York City for real in the future.

American Merchant Mariners Memorial

Postcard US-2489809 to Finland shows the American Merchant Mariners Memorial at Battery Park, New York City, near the line to board the ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was designed by Marisol Escobar, based on a photograph from a true event during WWII when a German submarine attacked and sank an American merchant vessel. The submarine surfaced and took photographs but did not pick up the survivors. All mariners were eventually lost in the Atlantic Ocean.

The memorial was dedicated on October 8, 1991.  The memorial depicts the after-attack scene where three mariners on a lifeboat, with one mariner trying to reach another mariner in the water, which is best appreciated by viewing the monument over time. At high tide you can only see the mariner in the water with a hand sticking out of the water; at lower tide you can see the hand and the mariners' head; and at the lowest tide his entire upper torso will show. As described at Lost At Sea Memorials dot com: "as ships pass by, the waves created give the memorial a sense of life and motion. The seaman’s head bobs above and below the water’s surface, as the arm of a seaman in a lifeboat strains to save his shipmate. Two others on the lifeboat are looking directly at the submarine, which will eventually submerge again and leave them for dead."

The memorial is considered an overlooked gem among the monuments in New York City. I have been to New York City and seen the memorials several times. However, it was not until my 2011 trip to New York City on the BluePass by Jetblue when I decided to take a closer look to learn what it was about. The photo on the card was taken on November 21, 2011.

Ellis Island

Postcard US-2452555 to Japan shows Ellis Island, gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States and the busiest immigrant inspection station in the country from 1892 to 1954. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965. Together, Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island was designated a U.S. National Register of Historic Place on October 15, 1966. The island has been closed to the public due to damages from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. It is scheduled to re-open in 2014.

The photo on the card was taken during my trip to New York City with my BluePass by JetBlue on November 21, 2011. The postcard is overdue with a dozen of others (see my blog on November 18, 2012) that were sent out around October 14, 2012. A replacement card has been sent recently.

United Nations Day

President Barack Obama, as every President of the United States has done each year since 1946, proclaimed October 24, 2013 as United Nations Day to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations. 
Postcard US-2373503 to Russia, shows the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, arrived in 62 days. It was sent to the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City for mailing with the United Nations stamps on August 20, 2013. For procedures on how to send mails through UNPA, see my previous blog.

Some other postcards sent under a separated envelop on the same day, survived a mail catastrophe and arrived their destinations without any postmarks.

Peking at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City

Outgoing postcard US-2452506 to Germany shows Peking, a steel-hulled four-masted barque which is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts, at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.

Built in Hamburg, Germany in 1911, Peking is one of the famous "Flying P Liners" of F. Laeisz Lines. Used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade, Peking made voyages from Europe to the west coast of South America around the often treacherous Cape Horn with general cargo and returned filled with guano for use in the making of fertilizer and explosives. Peking was made famous by the Irving Johnson film Around Cape Horn which documented her 1929 passage around the southern tip of South America in hurricane conditions.

The Peking was retired in 1975 and sold to Jack Aron, for the South Street Seaport Museum. However, the Museum does not have the Peking included in their long-term operational plan. In 2012, an offer was made to Hamburg, to return the ship to its port of building as a gift. The plan was not successful as the effort to raise an endowment in Germany to ensure the preservation of the vessel fell short.

The photo on the postcard was taken on November 20, 2011 when I traveled to New York City with a JetBlue unlimited BluePass. The ship, still moored at the South Street Seaport as of 2013, is in need of extensive repairs. The museum is opening Peking to the public every Saturday 12:00 - 4:00 pm from September 7 to October 19, 2013 with $5 suggested donation. With its future uncertain, today (October 12) and next Saturday (October 19) may be your last chances to visit the ship on board.

International Day of Democracy

Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street Protest Camp Site

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to observe September 15 as the International Day of Democracy for the purpose of promoting and upholding the principles of democracy. Part of the resolution reads: “ while democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy and that democracy does not belong to any country or region... democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life."

I made this postcard to commemorate the International Day of Democracy from one of my photos at Zuccotti Park, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest camp site, in New York City in 2011.

Occupy Wall Street is a protest movement that focuses on issues such as social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government, especially from the financial industry. It uses the slogan "We are the 99%" to highlight the income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters acted on consensus-based decisions made in general assemblies which emphasized direct action over petitioning authorities for redress. The moment symbolizes a democracy process with the freely-expressed will and the full participation of the protesters.

The postcard shows the protesters gathering in the park by "Joie de Vivre" by artist Mark di Suvero, a 21.3 m or 70 ft tall sculpture of bright-red beams.

The Knotted Gun: A Symbol for Peace and Non-Violence

Postcard US-2373509 to Virginia, US shows the knotted gun, a bronze sculpture formally named as Non-Violence" and placed outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 1988. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Laureate said: “The sculpture Non-Violence has not only endowed the United Nations with a cherished work of art; it has enriched the consciousness of humanity with a powerful symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple curves, the greatest prayer of man; that which asks not for victory, but for peace”. 

The knotted gun was originally created as a memorial tribute to John Lennon for his vision of a world with less violence when he was shot and killed outside his home in New York City on the December 8, 1980. 

In his song Imagine, John Lennon centered around the message of a world without violence and invite you to join the effort for Peace.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I am not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one…”

The Non-Violence sculpture has been placed at more than 30 strategic locations around the world so far, including, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Peace Park in Beijing, China. If you have a postcard or photo of the knotted gun sculpture in your country, I will appreciate it if you can send a copy to me.

I Love New York

New York

I love this postcard US-2319552 from New York very much. It has a simple yet elegant black and white design, and features all my favorite places: Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. It was designed by Studio Zake, New York.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from U.N.

A PostCrosser friend traveled to New York City and tried to send me a postcard from the United Nations stamps and post office. However, when I received the card today, the card was sent through a US post office with a USPS stamp. It turns out that a guided tour ticket for visitors is now required to enter the UN Headquarters Visitor Center where the stamps and post office is located starting June 2013. A ticket costs 16 US Dollars; however the tour tickets are NOT sold on the spot.

Another notice from the United Nations Postal Administration says: "As part of the renovation project for the General Assembly Building at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the UNPA Stamp Shop has been relocated to a temporary Visitor's Centre in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library on the south end of the campus. Due to security limitations, visitors are not allowed into the Centre without prior notice of arrival. To schedule a visit to the UNPA Stamp Shop, please call 212-963-7698 or 1-800-234-8672 for access instructions. The updated UNPA Stamp Shop will reopen to unannounced visitors in the Fall of 2014." Send me an email if you have successfully scheduled a visit without paying the guided tour. I will update the information here.

You can still forward your prepared mails to the United Nations Headquarters to be released in the mail streams there by following the steps mentioned in a previous post.

From Greenwich Village to Golden Gate: a Journey of 44 Years

Today is the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that members of gay community protested against police raids at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early morning of June 28, 1969, It marked the beginning of the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

Same-sex marriage resumed today in California after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the lower-court ruling that struck down the state’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, followed a US Supreme Court decision two days earlier.

This rainbow fist postcard symbolizes a 44-year's journey of struggle with determination, highlighted by the above bookend-like events. The postcard was purchased at Zazzle.com.

A Postcard from the United Nations

Postcard sent from UN Headquarters in New York City

Yesterday, I received a postcard mailed through the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA). According to UNPA: "Human rights, the environment, endangered species and peace are all subjects of universal concern to the peoples of the world. They are also subjects which the United Nations Postal Administration has promoted on its stamps". You can purchase United Nations stamps from their online shop. Postage rates are identical to those of the host nation. Therefore, It is has the same domestic and international rate for mails originated from US as the US Postal Service; however, United Nations stamps in US dollars can only be used for mails sent from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

If you wish to send postcards from UN but do not live in the New York City, you can: 

• purchase UN stamps first from the UNPA's online shop or other stamp dealers, 
• prepare postcards by affixing UN stamps and adding intended addresses, leaving the address blank if you want the postcards to be returned in a self-stamped self-addressed (SSSA) envelop,
• prepare a larger SSSA envelop if you want the postcards returned to you directly 
• put stamped and addressed postcards (and the SSSA envelop if you have prepared one) in an envelop (outer wrapper),  mark the outer wrapper: FOR MAILING, and mail it to: 

United Nations Postal Administration
United Nations, Room GA-35
New York , N.Y. 10017
U.S.A.