CURRENT EVENTS

One of the best parts of traveling is meeting people from the countries you are visiting.  Here are a few Greeks, that I met on my travels.

LAST WEEK’S POLLS

BOOK OF THE WEEK

How to Think Like a Cat

By Stéphane Garnier

I found this to be a very insightful book.  Plus, after reading you will want to answer the forty questions, each on a 1 to 5 scale, to assess your cat quotient and learn what areas you need to work on.

 

Do cats worry about retirement? Nope. Do cats do things they don’t want to do? Definitely not. Do cats rush around at all hours of the day when they’d rather be licking their paws and looking out a window?  Calm, free, charismatic, wise, elegant, self-assured–our beloved feline pets strut those traits that we humans spend a lifetime aspiring to. No wonder everybody wants to be more like a cat.

Whether at work, at home, or in your social life, your cat can teach you how to manage stress, cultivate independence, and live life on your terms.  How to Think Like a Cat is an inspiring, humorous, and remarkably insightful guide to the subtle art of living like a feline. (Source: Book’s Overview)

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

I really liked the demeanor of both of the kidnappers and Jennifer Aniston always turns in a fine performance. 

This is an Elmore Leonard story and I recall once seeing him at the Borders Book store in Birmingham, MI a few years ago.

Life of Crime (2014)

Critics Consensus: It may not stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best Elmore Leonard adaptations, but Life of Crime has enough ambling charm — and a sharp enough cast — to get by. (Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

It starts a bit slow, but stay with it and you may get a kick out of it.  

Greek Dancing Performed by 

Stavros Flatly

ART OF THE WEEK

Chocolates

While on the way to Greece, I saw these chocolates in the Amsterdam Airport, wrapped in what looked like Euros. I just had to buy a them to bring home to share with my friends.  Packaging is an art.

  EXTRAORDINARY PERSON OF THE WEEK

Pericles (495 to 429 BC)

Bust of Pericles bearing the inscription “Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian”. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from c. 430 BC, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums

Pericles (495 – 429 BC) was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age. 

Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as “the first citizen of Athens”. Pericles  led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the “Age of Pericles”.

Pericles promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people. Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. (Source: Wikipedia)

THIS WEEK’S JOKE

PHYSICAL TRAITS

I was recently in Olympia, which was the site of the original olympic games.  Hera’s Altar (picture below) is the site where every four years, even now, the Olympic Flame is lit.

The Olympic fire is ignited several months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece.

Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a celebration at the Temple of Hera in which the first torch of the Olympic Torch Relay is kindled by the light of the Sun, its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror. (Source: Wikipedia)

CHARACTER TRAITS 

SOCIAL TRAITS 

LEARNING TRAITS

Day Cruise to the Greek Islands of Hydra, Poros & Aegina

It is alway good to go to some place you have never been to before.  Everything in Greece was new to us, but I am glad I added this day trip to these Greek Islands.  The picture below is of the ship we traveled in to the islands.

MISCELLANEOUS 

Delphi

Perhaps you have heard of the Delphi Oracle, for me it was a thrill to be at this ancient site, that had been visited by ancient kings to seek guidance.  

And the pathway used by these ancient kings is still being used this very day by tourists.

And the things on display at the Delphi Museum were just amazing.

BOOK 

Warning:  This book will not change your life, only you can do that.