Rural Manitoba, Canada

Here’s a big Happy New Year! to friends far and near… may 2010 bring you peace, good health, and much happiness. Be good to each other, OK?

Also, a hearty Thank You! for your visits to this blog during this past year—over 68,000 unique visits (75% from first time visitors) from 168 countries in 2009—that’s more than three times the traffic in 2008. A very special thanks to all who have contributed ideas and inspiration and have taken the time to contact me directly with your comments, thoughts, and suggestions.

Cheers!

(another one for you, Jennifer)

“There is only one difference between a madman and me.
I am not mad.” —Salvador Dali

(and a bit of passive-aggressive humour for you, Nicole… more here)

(meme-fighting greenwashing)*

*See Eddie Adams’ 1968 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo here of the (then U.S.-backed) Republic of Vietnam’s Chief of National Police, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, executing handcuffed Vietcong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém on a Saigon street—a history-changing image that became an anti-war icon and is now a powerful meme.

Camden Town, London (UK)

The renowned street artist’s latest(?) intervention, as seen along the Regent’s Canal…

New York, New York

The images above are but a few from a lovely post that I stumbled across by ephemera-nut Eric Baker on Design Observer.

(poster by the talented and prolific McRay Magleby)

Ypres, Belgium

95 years ago today, late on Christmas Eve in 1914, a remarkable impromptu truce took place on the Western Front of World War l. British and German troops entrenched in freezing mud began serenading each other with songs and carols. By the following day, a full truce was on, with soldiers and officers from both sides meeting in no-man’s land to bury fallen comrades, fraternize, and exchange gifts of food and drink. There was even an informal international soccer match played with teams comprised of warring soldiers… read more about this remarkable day of peace here. Find lots of video tributes and historic photographs by simply Googling “Christmas truce.”

The quotations above are from a first-hand account written by Henry William Williamson, who had just turned 19 at the time.