Merry Christmas?

Natalia sends a Christmas card in the summer! And she wonders...

What is the weirdest gift you ever received?

I guess that I have been an incredibly fortunate gift recipient: I have never gotten a truly weird, "what the heck is THIS" kind of gift. But, I would surely love to hear about other people's gift getting (and gift giving) experiences!

A Riddle! (I love riddles!)

Julian, a very clever and articulate chap from Malaysia, sent this charming card and a riddle in verse:

I have a thousand faces - maybe more.

I'd love to visit a thousand places - then some more.

Alas, my minder would've none of it

The choleric dude who wears his heart on his sleeve.

And I don my thoughts on my back. What am I?

The first post crossing card!

Check out Julian's blog: www.wickwax.blogspot.com

Problem is... I never LIKED pink

Astrid, on this delicious-looking card, explains that these confections, called "beschuit met muisjes" are traditionally made to celebrate the arrival of a baby.

Naturally, girls are celebrated with pink "muisjes" and boys with blue ones. Or is it "natural"?

Astrid's question is "Why is it pink for girls and blue for boys?"

I turned to the clarifier of all things obscure: Cecil Adams of the Straight Dope website. Here's the link:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2831/was-pink-originally-the-color-for-boys-and-blue-for-girls

Dreaming of the miraculous

If a dream comes true, is that a miracle?

(That's my question...derived from these questions:

Do you believe that dreams come true?

If you could perform one miracle, what would it be?

My dream is PEACE (it always is) and that WOULD be a miracle.

Walking to the beat...

Warning: Objects in this window are larger than real life (at least I hope so!)

Groetje, from Germany, sent this lovely creature and asked:

What's the first thing you would do if you could suddenly walk on water?

Steven, from Connecticut in the US, has stranded me on the desert island again. (I think I've been there before.)

If you were stranded on a desert island, what three CDs would you bring with you?

I think I would employ my newly discovered ability to walk on water to get off the island, particularly if it's occupied by creatures like the ones on the German card!

When one question answers another...

Rebecca wants to know:

What's the biggest problem in the world today?

To which Joris replied by asking this question:

Why do people always vote for politicians who promise the most for the crowd and actually do the most for themselves?

I'm hardly even needed in this loop!

Visions...

Today's postcard trio is all about what you see...

Amanda: How would you feel if you only saw the world in black and white?

Chris: I lost a shoe in a dream. Will I ever find it?

Laurence: What is the vision of the inner eye?

I hope that the visions shown me by my inner eye are in color, and that one day I'll see all the things I've ever lost, most importantly people.

Heliotropic coffeespoons

I defy you to find a more inscrutable blog post heading than today's: Heliotropic coffeespoons.

A postcrosser from Japan, on a lovely sunflower-bearing card, wonders why the sunflower blooms in the direction of the sun. That's heliotropism in action. (Gosh, I love it when I get to use a swell word such as heliotropism!)

Another postcrosser, this time from Portugal, wants to know why the French move their coffeespoons to the left while the Portugese move them to the right. I figure it's because the French are following the sun, from east to west or from the right to the left.

See? It all comes together: heliotropic coffeespoons!

Where do we start, why are we here, and where are we going?

A "simple Ukrainian guy" (his words, not mine) wants to know:

If you could choose a country in which to be born, what would it be?

An 8-year-old from Australia wants to know:

Why are we made?

A couple from Russia want to know:

Where would you travel?

Right now, I'm happy to have been born here, to stay here, and to contemplate why I was made in the first place!

Grateful for the essentials

More related questions (at least in my mind)!

Two from the Netherlands: What is the one material thing you could not do without? And what is the one non-material thing?

One from Finland: What are you grateful for?

I've got terrible vision! If I had to spend a day trying to make sense of the world without wearing contact lenses or glasses, I'd be completely befuddled. So, my material items would be my glasses or contact lenses. Those contact lenses allow me to exploit the non-material "thing" that I would miss the most - and one of the things for which I am most grateful - my curiosity! I couldn't read or write or draw or paint or see anything around me at all! And THAT would make me NUTS.

An unseen eye in the sky?

I managed to confuse two recent questions ... one was about what I would do if I were invisible and the other was about where I'd go if I were able to fly...

What I answered the person asking about invisibility was that - because I could fly, I would never be late again.

I began to answer the person asking about flying, and I realized that I was confused. Clearly, just thinking about high altitudes deprives my brain of the oxygen it needs to think clearly.

Going to heck in a handcart?

I wonder if Katarina considered how well the illustration on the front of her card matched the question on the back of her card! It seems pretty clear to me. You see, she asked,

So.... what is life in America?

Sometimes I think life in America is a lot like the picture on the card. Some people are looking forward; some people are looking back; everyone is heading for an unknown destination with no real control of the course, speed, or journey!

English, anyone?

Lots of people, it seems! Tauty, from Belgium poses this question (on a card designed to help a person learn (and love) English):

Why has English become the language of Post Crossing?

According to listverse.com, English is NOT the language spoken by the most PEOPLE in the world. English is number 2 in that contest; Mandarin is number 1. However, English is spoken in the highest number of countries.

Three times the luck

I guess there's more bad luck out there than I would have believed. Way back in November 2010, and then again in February this year, people asked about bad luck along the lines of this question from Nancy in Canada:

Is it genetics or karma or what that makes a person have continual bad luck?

I'm not sure... are some people just born under a dark cloud?