She never understood it, but I still can recall that smell: suffocating, gagging. How is this? Simple. Because she always had a handkerchief, dabbed in her favorite perfume, in her purse. Imagine, an apple practically washed in perfume and left in the closed, windowless, warm, small place. Even as a little girl, I never touched her purse. Never rummaged through it, either.

 
Growing up I experimented with a few scents, because everybody else was wearing a perfume. I told myself: “It’s so ladylike, grown up, sophisticated”. I even liked some fragnances in the bottle, but not on the skin. Then I got tired of lying to myself and one day I gave it up altogether. Proclaimed myself fussy and hard to please, and accepted it.

 
While I enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass, fresh and baked apples, flowers and most of the food, it makes me irritant and gives a headache smelling a fragrance in the room 15 minutes after someone left it.

 
I asked my husband to stop using all of his colognes and creams. He balked at the beginning, but is perfectly content with it now. The cosmetic products we use are all unscented. A friend of mine, who stopped using his cologne, confessed that he can’t tolerate it anymore being close to anyone, wearing a perfume strong enough to be easily detected within standing distance.

 
Why I am writing about it? Because, while many people wear perfume, most of them were never taught, that it’s a very personal thing, and should not be so powerful as to leave a trace or being detected by everybody in the close proximity. Sometimes I think that perfume industry has changed and is employing stronger ingredients, than before. Then again, I have no problem spending a lot of time with my girlfriends, because, while many of them wear perfume, I can’t detect it without practically sticking my nose to their necks. And this is a correct way of wearing a perfume.

 
 Someone I know had strong and frequent headaches. She complained about it often, but would not even consider stopping using just for a week a strong very strong perfume, which she wore. After an extended period of time experimenting with food and medications, she stopped using her perfume. She didn’t want to admit that it helped.

 
Another thing, which many don’t recognize, is that people have allergies, and wearing a perfume is a good way to trigger it.
The times are changing, and if you noticed, many places, such as medical offices and gyms, require its patrons refrain from wearing any kind of fragrances.  Same applies, when having a job interview.

 
Yesterday, (Valentine Day!) in NY Times, I found an article about how the culture is changing its ways about a perfume use, and it made me very happy, because when publication as big as this is writing about it, it might get the results.

 
What results? Do I want everybody stop wearing perfume? Of course not, but for people to examine reason for wearing it, and learn a correct way when and how to apply and wear it.
The article discusses many other aspects, where fragrance wearing may not be a desirable thing and the declining power of scents in all.

 
“At a time when the number of perfumes on shelves has dramatically increased, consumption of fragrances is declining, industry analysts said. Last year, department stores carried 1,160 different fragrances for women compared with 756 in 2002, according to NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks consumer product sales.

 
Yet, last year in the United States, spending on upscale women’s fragrances declined, as part of a multiyear trend. The group said $1.97 billion was spent, down from $2 billion in 2002″. And this is a trend.

 
Please read the article here: www.nytimes.com and I would really like to hear your opinion about it.

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Considering all of the above I decided to write about a short segment I saw on the TV a few months ago.

 
Do you ever take a walk in the evening? Do you jog or walk the dog? Do you see other people walking or running? How about children? Do you pay attention what they are wearing?
Have you noticed most of the bicyclists and joggers are wearing clothing with the light reflecting features? The light from the passing cars would pick up a bright flicker and this alone may prevent an accident.

 
Some time last year, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko decreed: at the twilight and later, everybody must wear flickers: bright, light-reflecting stripes on the clothes.

 
Ministry of the Interior Affairs of Belarus requested all manufacturers to implement the flickers into the outer clothing, which is not only coats, but blouses, jackets, pants. Government proclaims, that all these measures are for the safety of the pedestrians.

 
Flickers come in different colors and shapes. Manufactures are already making all of the children clothing with flickers. In some cities local police drives around in the evening, stops people and gives out bright, flexible, magnetized stripes, which are easily coiled around the sleeve and stick to the clothing. Apparently, the increasing amount of accidents at the evening time, prompted Belarus’s president to take this extraordinary steps.
Already some rural clubs won’t let young people attend the disco, because they would have to go home, when it’s dark outside. Police also fines people for not wearing flickers.

 
While there are some complaints that not only clothes will be more expensive, but everybody will look very much like the policemen (who already wear stripes on their clothes), many residents, especially in the rural places, are approving the measure.

 
Some of the Source: Belarus/flikers

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The findings from a leading London psychologist show the male ego tends to  exaggerate cleverness while females seem happy to play dumb.
Professor Adrian Furnham, of University College London, examined the results of 25 studies on IQ and gender differences and found that the real intellectual difference between the sexes is all in the mind.
His overview backs the concept of what is known as the “male hubris, female humility” effect.

 
Women – especially the brainiest ones – underestimate their own intelligence by about five IQ points.

 
Prof Furnham said: “Whether men are brighter is another matter.”

 
He said men appear to be more confident, but not necessarily brighter, which “can have beneficial effects in the interview and even the examination room”.

 
In comparisons of how people guess their own intelligence men, especially the average-to-dim males, overestimated their intelligence, whereas often very bright women sold themselves short.

 
Both men and women tended to think their grandfathers were brighter than grandmothers, fathers brighter than mothers and sons brighter than daughters.”

Source: www.thelondonpaper.com

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RUNNER UP # FIVE:
THE LAPTOP STILL WORKS (Confirmed True by Darwin)
 ”Driving is not a time to be practicing your multitasking skills,” remarked CHP spokesman Tom Marshall, commenting on a 29-year-old computer tutor’s decision to drive along Highway 99 in California while working on his laptop. He drifted over the center line, and was killed by oncoming traffic. CHP officers found Oscar’s computer still running, plugged into the Honda Accord’s cigarette lighter.

 
RUNNER UP # FOUR:
SUPERIOR MOMENTUM (Confirmed True by Darwin)
 June 2007, Illinois. Two Valparaiso men tested their reflexes by playing “chicken” with a train. Which man could stay on the rail the longest in the path of an oncoming train? At the stroke of midnight, the contest was decided. The winner, aptly named Patrick Stiff, lost his life. The train continued on, as the conductor was unaware that it had hit anyone.

 
RUNNER UP # THREE:
BARN DEMOLITION (Unconfirmed by Darwin)
January 2007, West Virginia. Three friends set out to dismantle a dilapidated barn one bracing winter afternoon. Speaking of bracing… One industrious man fired up his chainsaw and ripped through a crucial support post. Carrying the weight of a full barn roof, those wooden support beams were all that stood between the demolition worker and structural collapse. It was all fun and games until the roof, sans support, succumbed to the pull of gravity and flattened the man with the chainsaw. As a consolation prize, the deceased was indeed successful at demolishing the barn.

 
(Darwin notes, this story is unconfirmed, but no disputes have come to my attention, as usually happens with bogus stories.)
Addendum: This was the year of the Squashed Darwin Award Winner. Two other groups of people attempted to remove the supports from beneath a water tower, and a heavy factory roof. In both cases, the structure collapsed without their aptly-named supports. Duh!

 
RUNNER UP # TWO:
MOLE HUNT (Confirmed True by Darwin)
January 2007, East Germany | One man’s extraordinary effort to eradicate a mole from his property resulted in a victory for the mole. The metal rods he pounded into the ground and connected to a high-voltage power line, electrified the very ground the man stood upon. He was found dead at his holiday property on the Baltic Sea. Police had to trip the main circuit breaker before venturing onto the property.

 
RUNNER UP # ONE:
WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN (Confirmed Double Darwin Award)
 June 2007, South Carolina. A passing cabbie found a 21 year-old deceased couple laying naked in the road an hour before sunrise. Authorities were baffled. There were no witnesses, no trace of clothing, and no wrecked vehicles present. But investigators eventually found a clue high on the roof of a nearby building: two sets of neatly folded clothes. Safe sex takes on a whole new meaning when you are perched on the edge of a pyramid-shaped metal roof. “It appears as if [they] accidentally fell off the roof,” Sgt. McCants said.

 
AND THE 2007 DARWIN AWARD WINNER IS…
THE ENEMA WITHIN (Confirmed True by Darwin)
 May 2004, Texas. Michael was an alcoholic. And not an ordinary alcoholic, but an alcoholic who liked to take his liquor… well, rectally. His wife said he was “addicted to enemas” and often used alcohol in this manner. The result was the same: inebriation. And tonight, Michael was in for one hell of a party.
Two 1.5 litre bottles of sherry, more than 100 fluid ounces, right up the old address!

 
When the rest of us have had enough, we either stop drinking or pass out. When Michael had had enough (and subsequently passed out) the alcohol remaining in his rectal cavity continued to be absorbed. The next morning, Michael was dead.
The 58-year-old did a pretty good job of embalming himself. Toxicology reports measured his blood alcohol level as 0.47%.

 
In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, a person must remove himself from the gene pool via an “astounding misapplication of judgment.” Three litres of sherry up the butt can only be described as astounding. Unsurprisingly, his neighbors said they were surprised to learn of the incident.

 
SOURCE:  Darwin awards

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Don’t forget to serve and say “Cheese” often, and the year of the Rat should be good to you.

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You see, today is a 2 months anniversary of my blog. In this short period of time I’ve learned a lot of new things, I’ve found many interesting sites, read countless fascinating stories and saw myriads of pictures. 
When I started this project I didn’t have any clear ideas as to why and what I want to accomplish. It was just something new to learn and share the new knowledge with those, close to me. I soon discovered, that people, other than my friends, are regularly visiting this site, which made me very happy. Now I try to publish a new post, which contains some useful or amusing information, every day.

 
Sometimes it’s difficult to decide what kind of articles to post, so my visitors are interested. I don’t know anything about my readers, except, that they might be interested in some of the things I write about. I know, there are a few people, who come every day and even subscribe to the content by feed or Email. Thank you for that vote of confidence.

 
I achieved my goal of starting a site, which I didn’t plan on updating every day. Now I do.
What’s next? I am planning on starting a new category on luxury items, where I will write about expensive and/or unique products, services, objects of art and unique homes. Why?  Because some people need to see an object, dangled in front of them, to reach higher; some – need to know the trend to follow with a less expensive alternative, other – merely want to be informed, if time permits.

 
If you have any suggestions on the themes of the future articles, please, leave a comment. I’ll pay attention to the items named, and will include it in my future posts, when possible.

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A platinum coin estimated to be worth more than $1,000 was donated to Salvation Army by an unidentified person on Friday.
Since the coin wouldn’y fit into the kettle’s opening, the stranger just handed it to the bell ringer.
“The coin’s face value is $100, but the Salvation Army had it appraised, and initial estimates put its value at about $1,300. The coin is from 2006 and is stamped with an image of the Statue of Liberty.
The Salvation Army has also received at least eight gold coins in its kettles this year. One, a one-ounce South African Krugerrand worth about $800, turned up earlier this month in Washington.”
(Via The Associated Press)

 
Merry Christmas to All!

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Remember “Listen to the voice of innocence!” phrase from Andersen’s fairy tale
“The Imperor’s New Clothes”?

  
The innocence spoke again: plan your actions, when you change your plans, promptly inform those, who might be affected by the changes you’ve made, don’t be afraid to say “I am sorry” and your life and the life of those close to you will be a happy and a minimally stress free one.

 
Happy Holidays to all of you. May all your wishes come true!

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“The manuscript attracted only one bidder, Carlyle Group co- founder and Managing Director David Rubenstein, who offered $19 million before fees. Rubenstein said he would loan the manuscript to the National Archives in Washington.”
The document was sold by Ross Perrot, who bought it for $1.5millon in 1983.

 
“The Magna Carta sprang from negotiations between King John and rebel barons in 1215. John agreed to a charter of liberties certifying that the king was not above the law. The Magna Carta was later reissued with modifications. The 1297 version included provisions against taxation without representation and was the first Magna Carta confirmed as English law. ”

 
The price of history is invaluable and, as many things in life, the exact value is unpredictable…

 
“Perot said he had no idea that the value of Magna Carta would escalate so drastically.
“That’s a lot of money and a lot of opportunity,” he said. “It’s time to take that money and use it for good causes.”

 
The source: www.bloomberg.com

 
Another article here: afp.google.com

 
More facts on this subject at: Wikipedia.org. Magna Carta

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I googled it on Sunday morning. Here are a few results:
According to Wikipedia: “In historical terms, a legacy is something that is handed down from one period of time to another period of time.”
Read the entry in its entirety here: simple.wikipedia.org/Legacy.

 
“a condition that is left or created by an organization, individual or group of community leadership. A legacy can be negative, due to a lack of action and disagreement or positive, as a result of collaboration, strategic actions and commitment.”
www.connectsi.us

   
“Legacy was an American dramatic television series which aired on UPN from 1998-1999″. wikipedia.org (TV series)”

 
“Bequest: (law) a gift of personal property by will” princeton.edu  

 
Why was I looking for it? Because in a period of a couple of weeks I read a few very interesting articles, all applying to this term, and soon I was pondering a question: What is our, as individuals, legacy to the future generations in general, and to our own children in particular? Will it be a legacy of our deeds or the legacy of the amount of money? What is more important? Will the children appreciate the money left and forget the names of those, whose legacy it was? Or regardless of the monetary value, will they cherish what we’ve done?
It’s difficult to live in times of a fast and furious progress. The demands on the individuals sometimes are greater, than they can handle. The reports praising a 24 or less years old genius’s earning an obscene amount of money makes a 50 years old professional in some industries cry in despair. The long and traditional education, and years of work experience compared with the relatively short, but rich in computer science studies, produce the results, which put the economy and personal lives of people in a very askew perspective. The stress of achieving the success breaks many and makes few. 

 
To me, the history is a final product of a collective effort of human beings at one period, defined by the number of years or centuries. Every period in a history of humankind has its victories and inventions, wars and intrigues, songs and trends.
What do we see on the front pages of today’s newspapers? Loan crisis, foreclosures, political scandals, wars, countless articles on deficit mounting, speculation about who the responsible parties are, extensive coverage of medical insurance inadequacy and an uncertain future of the aging population, financial scams, children robbed of the happy future by the society, and weak schooling programs, etc.

 
When we read about somebody, who’s selling a rare painting, which has been in the family for centuries, what do we think? When we read about somebody’s auctioning an important historical document, what do we think? Who and why buys or sells it? Will they give money to charities? Well, charities are abundant and very difficult to monitor. Too often they betray the trust, which people put in them.
It sure feels good being able to donate to charities, but why don’t we see the life getting any better?
If you click on the link, leading to a WSJ, you’ll read about rich people being concerned about charities, too. blogs.wsj.com

 
Here is Warren Bufett’s view on life and taxes: business.timesonline.co.uk

 
As for the legacy, let’s train the memory on the name of our ancestors and descendants, because the times we live in are big on the progress and miniscule on the human happiness and what it’s made of. Family heirlooms are sold to make present generations to retain the quality of life their parents have enjoyed.

 
“For nearly two centuries, the descendants of American Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette have guarded closely a gold medal given to him by the family of George Washington, allowing it to be displayed in public only a handful of times. Now, they have decided that the family’s future is more valuable than its past.”
That’s one of the scenarios, read about it here:
www.iht.com

 
And then there’s Magna Carta, which is going up for auction on Tuesday.
It’s a document of unique historical value.
“This will be the first time any version of the Magna Carta has ever gone up for auction, according to David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s. The Magna Carta is expected to fetch at least $20 million to $30 million”.
That’ll be a very expensive piece of paper, because it’s the legacy.
“Magna Carta…”the most important document on earth…” “I can call it the birth certificate of freedom,” he said.
“The charter mandated the English king to cede certain basic rights to his citizens, ensuring that no man is above the law.
Many believe the Magna Carta was the first document to recognize the legal right to freedom from tyranny, an influential concept to American political philosophers – from the founding fathers to the modern presidency… The document was first devised in 1215, but not confirmed into English law until 1297 – the year this version was issued and sealed by King Edward I.”
“The version up for auction rested for six centuries with the Brundell family in Deene Park, England, until being bought in 1984 by businessman Ross Perot. Since then, the Perot Foundation has kept the copy on display at the National Archives in Washington.”

 
“The Perot Foundation plans to distribute the money from the auction to various causes such as medical research and helping wounded soldiers.” cnn.com 

 
“Written in ink on a 710-year-old sheet of animal skin vellum and bearing the wax seal of King Edward, the manuscript has held up surprisingly well. Although it is marred by some staining and missing words, Sotheby’s Magna Carta, or Great Charter, is about 14 inches wide by 16 inches high and features 2,500 Latin words densely packed into 68 lines of text. Most of it is legible, particularly if you use a magnifying glass. The now-sepia-colored handwriting is exquisite, in an elegant chancery script with flourishes on perfectly formed letters that are only about one-eighth-inch high.”
“Quite frankly, the reason it’s called Magna Carta is it’s big,” said Redden, noting that because the document was long and vellum was valuable, scribes had to write in the most economical manner possible.
But, he added, “In a very important way it doesn’t matter what it looks like because what one is offering is one of the most important symbols of world history.” chicagotribune.com 

 
Was there a point in today’s column? Yes, of course, musing on the subject of legacy. What is mine? What belongs to other people? What’s government’s? Only I really doubt, that the pieces of a puzzle on legacy will ever be put snugly together by anybody. Many opinions, many rules, many income tax brackets. While having the best intentions in our hearts, we’ll never be able to realize what our legacy will be on a global scale.

 
P.S. I wrote this article in the morning, then I did some chores, and later dropped by my parents’ home. We talked about some absolutely unimportant things, and then as I was getting up to go home, my father picked up a thick album from the side chair and dropped it on the table. I instantly knew what was in it: my legacy. I saw all these pictures and documents before, but now all of it in one place, it made sense.

 
It downed on me in completely different sense.
That album contained pictures of my grandparents, of which I knew only one, and my parents’ pictures. Those were pictures, making one family’s history.
There were pictures of my father as an officer during WWII and later, of my very young and unfamiliar looking mother, but the most treasured, was a piece of old, yellow with time, glued with a scotch tape at the lines where folded, newspaper dated March, 1944. In 3 places sides are carefully thorn out, leaving a glaring empty square space: those pieces were used for the handmade, rolled up cigarettes. The legacy itself is printed in the paper: my father’s name, #14 on the list, among a few, who got a medal for the battle of the Stalingrad, among many, who died, protecting their motherland from Nazi’s.
He was saying again, how important this paper was for him, looked at this relic smiling and proud of the deeds done, and at that moment I thought again: this is the legacy he leaves to me and I am perfectly content with it, it’s a treasure. I was standing there, living through one of those moments, when fathers and children are one.

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