Love Is In The Air!

By: Veronica Leighton

 

The most celebrated Love Day throughout the world, the Valentine’s Day on February 14th, is a most disrespectful day attributed in honor of a religious saint, St. Valentine. It’s disrespectful because St. Valentine was a priest in 270 A.D,. who was persecuted by the Roman Emperor for not worshipping the Roman Gods and in performing Christian marriages and also helping Christians to escape the prison. He demonstrated his love when he died for his friends — the kind of love that Valentine’s Day is really about. But what seems to be difficult to figure out in these modern days of Valentine’s celebration is the omission of the word “Saint” for the honor of a religious martyr who died for the love of his humankind and whose name has been associated with the human feeling of “love.” So noble. In the Bible John 15: 13 reads, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” And that is just what St. Valentine did. But what happened along the way? Has St. Valentine’s memory of noble love vanished, now replaced by modern-generation’s equivalent of love that has now been associated or measured in terms of commercialism? As everyone has soft spot for true love, we have familiarized ourserlves with the amazing historic great love stories of Mark Anthony & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert, and modern lovers Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton, and Bonnie & Clyde, etc. Let us share with you some interesting stories of some famous and popular lovers and the homes that they have visited and left, with their love stories remaining intact and making those homes “the most romantic homes in the world”….(Hot Home News) “On the shores of Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago, is a mansion so grand that it once hosted the former King of England. Edward VIII was the English king who gave up the British throne in 1936 to be with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, the woman he loved. Edward and Wallis were guests here in 1939 and slept in a bedroom on the western end of this home’s second floor. Their bedroom looked out over a fountain court enclosed by ivy-covered brick and limestone walls. The story goes that, in 1917, as war raged in Europe, Chicago’s wealthy elite were still enjoying the bounty of the Golden Age. These families produced landmark American companies and many of the goods that we still buy one hundred years later. They also built fabulous mansions with a level of craftsmanship that is almost impossible to duplicate today. Such was the case of two important families, John G. Shedd, chairman of Marshall Field & Co. and donor of the Shedd Aquarium to Chicago, and the Schweppe family, heir to the carbonated beverage company. Since families of great fortune usually married into other families of great wealth, the marriage of Laura Shedd and Charles H. Schweppe seemed made in high society heaven. John Shedd gave his daughter this magnificent estate as a wedding present. Today, it is still considered to be one of Chicago’s most important homes. The grand 24,500 square foot English Renaissance mansion sits on 5.3 lushly landscaped private acres overlooking Lake Michigan with approximately 400 feet of beachfront. The 10 bedroom, 16 bath interior has 11 fireplaces, library, family-game room, elevator, sauna, leaded glass windows, and hand-carved limestone stairs, fountains and ballustrades. The exterior is graced with balconies, terraces and gardens with lake views, the Chicago’s Schweppe Estate on Lake Michigan that hosted Edward, Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, popular love stories of two ultra-rich, romantic couples. John and Jackie Kennedy were elegant, rich and the closest thing to a royal couple America has ever had. When they married in 1953, they stayed in one of the most beautiful homes in the world for their honeymoon. The 1920’s era Beverly House is huge at over 50,000 square feet in a blend of Spanish and Italian style and a fabulous history. Originally built for Union Bank & Trust executive Milton Getz, this is the home that actress Marion Davies bought in 1946 for her longtime partner, William Randolph Hearst, and where they lived until his death in 1951. When Jack and Jackie stayed here, it is said that they watched their first film together as a married couple in the mansion’s theatre – a Hearst-produced film from the 1920s. But how often do we see the evidence of just how far a man will go to prove his love by erecting remarkable buildings for her honor just for the name of love? The Taj Mahal or a European castle built by a knight to lure his love? All great feats for sure and definitely fodder for romantic tales.”

With billboards, tweets, Philippines thanks world for typhoon aid

Tacloban (Philippines) (AFP) – The Philippines said “Thank you” on billboards around the world Saturday in gratitude for the massive outpouring of international help after a typhoon that killed about 8,000 people three months ago. Electronic billboards lit up with “Thank you” signs at New York’s Times Square, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing, London’s Piccadilly Circus and five other cities at 2040 GMT Friday, exactly three months after Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines. “The number of lives lost and affected is unprecedented. But ever since then, the world has been one with the Philippines in helping rebuild the nation,” the tourism ministry behind the ad and social media campaign said on its website. “The Philippines wants to say a big thank you to everyone who are helping us rebuild after Typhoon Haiyan,” the ministry said on its official Twitter page, where it later posted the billboard pictures. Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land, smashed across 171 towns and cities in the central islands with a combined land area the size of Portugal, wrecking the homes of more than four million people. The government is still collecting corpses and looking for nearly 2,000 missing people with 6,201 deaths already confirmed, many of them swept away by giant, tsunami-like waves unleashed by Haiyan on coastal communities. In the hard-hit central city of Tacloban, many shops have reopened in a frenzy of rebuilding but tents and lean-to structures remain the norm in many ruined neighbourhoods, most of which are still without power. “We’re traumatized but there’s nowhere else to go,” Helen May Gabornes, a 27-year-old mother of two, said as she cooked a meal of tinned sardines at a muddy school yard near downtown. The fisherman’s wife and her extended family are among about 500 people living in blue tarpaulin tents and on relief goods there. She told AFP her family went to live with Manila relatives on November 12, but returned after Christmas because they could not find jobs and were becoming a burden at her sister’s home. “We came back because we heard the government is giving free housing, but so far, nothing.” Amid the continuing difficulties, the tourism ministry urged the world’s 100 million Filipinos on Saturday to join its “PHthankyou” campaign on social media. It suggested they download some of the ministry’s “The Philippines says thank you” notes from its website and adorned with pictures of the country’s top tourist draws, and post them on Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social networking sites. Russell Geekie, spokesman for the UN disaster agency in the Philippines, told AFP the government-led relief effort has addressed many of the survivors’ most acute emergency needs. It was shifting to an “early recovery” phase with a focus on restoring livelihoods for millions of people, he added. However, “shelter needs remain enormous”. “Obviously we talk about resilient people, but the scope of the disaster and destruction is such that it’s very hard. There are remaining psycho-social needs that need to be met,” he said. These include finding the hundreds missing to give their families “closure”. The United Nations launched an international aid appeal in December for $788 million to finance the humanitarian effort for this year. Geekie said the appeal was about 45 percent funded. President Benigno Aquino has said the rebuilding effort would take at least four years and require more than $8 billion in funding.

Team USA Wins Bronze Medal in Inaugural Olympic Figure Skating Team Event

SOCHI, Russia (Feb. 10, 2014) – Team USA won the bronze medal in the inaugural Olympic Figure Skating Team Event Sunday in Sochi.

Team USA was led by twotime World champion and 2010 Olympic silver medalist ice dancers Meryl Davis (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and Charlie White (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), who won both segments of the competition and set a world record free dance score of 114.34 points. Team USA also featured 2014 U.S. champion Gracie Gold, twotime U.S. champion Ashley Wagner (Alexandria, Va.), two-time reigning U.S. pairs champions Marissa Castelli (Cranston, R.I.) and Simon Shnapir (Sudbury, Mass), four-time U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott (Aspen, Colo.) and 2014 U.S. silver medalist Jason Brown (Highland Park, Ill.), In the Olympic Team Event, each country consisted of one woman, one man, one pairs team and one ice dance team to be selected from athletes who had qualified for the Olympics in their individual disciplines. Each nation was allowed to make up to two exchanges after the short program/dance. Team USA opted to make exchanges in the ladies and men’s disciplines. Wagner and Abbott competed in the short program, while Gold and Brown were entered in the free skate. The team event consisted of the 10 best national teams from NOCs/ISU members. The five teams with the highest number of points after the short program/dance qualified for the free skate/dance. Athletes received points based on their finishes in each segment of competition. The team with the most aggregate points through eight segments of competition earned medals. Team USA will receive their bronze medals at a ceremony Monday evening (Sochi time) in Olympic Park.

2014 OLYMPIC TEAM EVENT STANDINGS
1. Russia – 75 points
2. Canada – 65 points
3. Team USA – 60 points
4. Italy – 52 points
5. Japan – 51 points
6. France – 22 points
7. China – 20 points
8. Germany – 17 points
9. Ukraine – 10 points
10. Great Britain – 8 points

U.S. Figure Skating is the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union. U.S. Figure Skating is comprised of more than 690 member clubs, collegiate clubs, and school-affiliated clubs and more than 900 registered Basic Skills skating schools representing approximately 165,000 members. U.S. Figure Skating is charged with the development of the sport on all levels within the United States including athletes, officials, sanctioning of events and exhibitions, and establishing the rules and guidelines by which the sport is governed. (Renee Felton, US Figure Skating Media Relations)

Residents and survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan decorate a giant lantern in Tacloban, Philippines on December 24, 2013 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)