Kenmore, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Outgoing postcard US-3208612 to Germany was a vintage card showing Kenmore, a plantation house built in 1752 at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It is a beautiful specimen of colonial architecture with ornamented ceilings and mantels designed by George Washington. It is home of Col. Fielding Lewis and his wife Betty, the only sister of George Washington. George Washington sent two Hessian prisoners to carry out his artistic conception.

The house was added to National Register of Historic Places on June 4, 1969, and was declared a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970.

There are similar cards from the Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection at Boston Public Library.

MoreSpace

Postcard TW-1466040 from Taiwan was an advertising card for MoreSpace (摩爾空間), a personal storage company established in 2008. The Super M dog shown on the card is the guardian mascot for customers' properties.

During the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday on February 1, 2015, there will be a showdown among the big game ads as well, where a 30-second commercial spot reportedly costs $4.5 million. In the past, the ads were secrets until the game day. However, today many commercials are already being released online before the kick-off.

Budweiser's "Puppy Love", a follow-up to last year's popular theme, was among the early favorites. On the other hand, GoDaddy's controversial "Journey Home", also featuring a lost puppy and apparently a parody of the Budweiser ad, had already been pulled after protests and outrages from social media.

Great Lakes Naval Training Center

Outgoing postcard US-3202777 to Poland shows an event on Ross Field, carrying on a long tradition of Naval Ceremony at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (NTC), home to the Navy's largest Recruit Training Command as well as the largest Service School Command. The NTC was dedicated in 1911 and is located on Lake Michigan, just 35 miles north of Chicago and 45 miles south of Milwaukee.

The Great Lakes Naval Museum, one of fifteen official U.S. Navy museums, is nearby.

Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio

Outgoing postcard US-3202778 to Czech Republic was a vintage card showing the Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the early multi-purpose stadiums built in 1930. Opened on July 1, 1931, with a capacity for baseball of 78,000, it can also seated 81,000 for football. The stadium was closed on December 17, 1995 and demolished on November 4, 1996 to make way for the new FirstEnergy Stadium that currently occupies the site.

Wrigley Building, Chicago, Illinois

Outgoing postcard US-3202774 to Finland shows the Wrigley Building at the Northern end of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, built in 1920 to house the corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company, a chewing gum company. The backside of the postcard reads: "It towers 398 feet above the ground and is shown in magnificent splendor by being entirely illuminated at night." However, it was noted on Wikipedia that the 30-story south tower, completed in April, 1921, is 425-foot or 130-meter tall. The Wrigley Building was sold to a group of investors in 2011.

On a side note, Chicago marks anniversary of 1967 Blizzard that lasted 17 hours and dumped 23 inches snow 48 years ago on this day. It was the largest single snowfall in the city's history. About 50,000 cars and buses were abandoned on the streets and expressways; thousands of people were stranded. It took several days for schools and airports to re-open.

While blizzard warnings expired for New England, heavy snow continues under winter storm warnings and advisories. On the other hand, Chicago only had freezing rain this time, which still caused dangerous driving conditions. Some sunshine is expected in Chicago tomorrow afternoon.

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.

Go Buckeyes

Unfazed by freezing weather, 45,000 Ohio State University football fans celebrated the Buckeyes' national championship at Ohio Stadium yesterday.

The event honored the Buckeyes’ victory in the inaugural College Football Playoff (CFP), a postseason tournament in American college football for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which started in the 2014–2015 season.  Using a 13-member committee to select and seed the participating teams, CFP is different from the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) used by FBS from 1998 to 2013. BCS used computer rankings and coach polls that sometimes, e.g. in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, caused controversy.

Never give up. Ohio State Buckeyes was only 16th in the first CFP rankings. However, they managed to bulldozed Wisconsin Badgers 59-0, which allowed them to bypass Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs and Baylor Bears for a final playoff spot. Then they went ahead to beat the odds by overcoming a 21-6 deficit and upsetting Alabama Crimson Tide with a 42-35 win. In the showdown with No. 2 ranking Oregon Ducks on January 12, 2015 at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX, the Buckeyes won decisively 42-20, despite Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota scored early during their first drive.

It is the first national title since 2002 for the Buckeyes. Previously, they did have three BCS championships under their belt. It is also the third national title for coach Urban Meyer who won BCS championships twice when he was the head coach for Florida Gators.

Postcard US-1844593 to the Netherlands shows a map of The Oval at the Ohio State University campus. However, North is on the right side, and West is on top of the postcard. Ohio Stadium, northwest to The Oval, would be on the upper right of the postcard.