The Fittest City in the U.S.

The American Fitness Index (AFI) recently released the ACSM American Fitness Index Data Report, offering a scientific snapshot of the health and fitness level for the major metropolitan areas in the US. Washington D.C., for the 3rd year in a row, ranks as the fittest city.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation have considered such factors as what percentage of the city's population reporting exercising within the past 30 days and accessibility to parks and green spaces, in order to determine how fit a city is. The top 10 cities are:

1. Washington D.C.
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Denver, CO
4. Portland, OR
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Boston, MA
8. Salt Lake City, UT
9. Hartford, CT
10. San Diego, CA

Las Vegas ranks 41st among the bottom 10 cities.

Postcard US-3971221 to Germany shows a black and white map drawing of the D.C. area with a matching diamond shaped 37¢ commemorative stamp issued by USPS on September 23, 2003.

Tom of Finland Got Stamp of Approval

Breaking the tradition again, I am blogging a postcard that I don't own yet. It is part of the Tom of Finland packing - postcards and stamps issued by Posti, the postal service company in Finland.

Stamps commemorating homoerotic artist Touko Laaksonen, known as Tom of Finland, went on sale on Monday, September 8, 2014. With pre-sale from 178 countries, the stamps become the country's best seller so far. Great oversea interests come from Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France, according to the number of orders placed outside Finland. 

Designer Timo Berry told Finnish public radio station YLE: “It’s great that these images, which in the past had to be sold under the table, can now be openly stuck on an envelope or a postcard.” Similar to the Harvey Milk stamp issued in the United States on May 22, 2014, Tom of Finland stamps celebrate the freedom of expression and mark the progress of LGBT rights. 

76th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge Opening

My postcard US-2005787 to Finland features the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in a black and white drawing. The Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge and part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, links San Francisco to Marin County. It is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States; and possibly the most photographed bridge in the world. The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937 and lasted for one week, as seen on this Youtube video.

The postcard was purchased at SFMOMA along with US-2011378, and US-2165886 as a coloring postcard pack. I was hoping recipients of those postcards would coloring them and send me a picture after they done so.