Read from BBC: "Your Good Samaritan stories". Let's see if I can illustrate, if only with a collateral symbolic reference, these 10 true stories.

Read the whole article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12122809

Let's see if I can illustrate, if only with a collateral symbolic reference, these 10 true stories.

1. THE PASSING DOCTOR

"Virginia is for lovers", and the PORTABLE DEFIBRILLATOR is for restarting a heart. And a life.

2. THE PASSPORT OFFICIAL

A migratory bird flies across country borders without any passport stamp/visa...but humans may need one. Desperately. Bureaucracy vs. Open-mindedness.

3. THE MYSTERY DRIVER

Some say "we are what we drive". Others might say "we are what good deeds we can do (including while driving)". Such as quickly jumping into a car out-of-control. Then it doesn't matter "what you drive". It could be a beat-up truck, for example.

4. THE BUS PASSENGER

Maybe "the show must go on", but a bus must not, if a life is endangered and an ambulance is needed.

A bus can take you somewhere, or can have you taken somewhere.

5. THE SILENT WITNESS

You can have a fancy [motor]bike, but when you ran out of "petrol", even a 1 gallon gift can be a lifesaver.

6. THE ISLAND ANGELS

In Canada, as in any other country, some beings jump to attack you (like a hungry cougar - I mean puma or mountain lion...). Other beings jump to help you, and possibly save you from trouble.

Don't jump to conclusions until you see WHY you're being jumped.

7. THE GOOD NEIGHBOURS

It's good when you can afford to pay for your food.

It's also good to get a little help until you are able again to pay for your food.

Starving is avoidable, in many cases.

8. THE POLICE OFFICER

Some people become great winners, great champions, like Muhammad Ali. He never was an alcoholic or a smoker, said Lonnie Ali, his wife. His sports regimen and his religion did not welcome alcohol.

But even ordinary people can be winners at something, when they get good advice and gather enough self-will to conquer a potentially deadly addiction, such as alcoholism.

I could have used here, for this BBC story, the American stamp "Alcoholism: You can beat it!", but I don't have it. :)

9. THE SELFLESS STUDENTS

You don't necessarily need a sports car to be happy. Sometimes, a simple taxi at the right time is all the transportation you need to have a good time with friends and be happy.

10. THE THIRD MOTORIST

Pigs are not the only animals who produce a lot of manure. 

Sheep do it, too.

"Pigs" have also their own "manure".

The question is with whose "manure" should we put up, and for how long, if you get my drift. :)

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Winter joy: children building a Snowman. Non-traditional maximum card/ maxicard/ dorincard that I created with a greeting card, with a concordant pictorial postmark from Star, North Carolina.

There could be some people, somewhere in the world, who would say that this is not concordant in subject, because the morphology of the snowman differs between the card, the stamp and the postmark.

[Strikethrough typing, as element of style]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen Dudes and Dudettes:

What the hell  do you want me to do?

Find and use ONLY a card (real commercial postcard, no less; no greeting card!), stamp and postmark that show a snowman in the same, CONCORDANT configuration???

As if the children use a recipe, a Standard Operating Procedure for building a snowman exactly the same way every year!

http://www.zazzle.com/sheesh_postage-172193995595441185?rf=238693463283865848

:) :) :)

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A place to share YOUR hearts!

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Read from BBC: "Saudi Arabia 'detains' Israeli vulture for spying". Hands on the Griffon. See world stamps featuring the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus)

From my personal collection: Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) - Romanian stamp from a nice series of 8 stamps from 1967.

Yes, it's a CTO (cancelled-to-order) stamp.

So what? I like it - I keep it.

It would have been cool to have it really circulated, or still on a cover, or on a maximum card, but hey!...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12120259#

See other world stamps featuring the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus):
http://www.birdtheme.org/species/imagespage.php?spec=1206&fl=G

Gyps, not Gypsy
"The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae.

The Griffon Vulture is 93–110 cm (37–43 in) long with a 230–269 cm (91–106 in) wingspan, and it weighs between 6 and 13 kg (13.2 and 29 lb). "

"Like other vultures, it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks. It grunts and hisses at roosts or when feeding on carrion."

Don't mess with a Griffon while it's eating HISS food - it may become DISGRUNTLED.

CARRION, child!

The Griffon Vulture can live as long as a longeviv human.

Since when is CARRION a healthy diet?

"Little is known about the average life-span of these birds, but it is approximated at 50 to 70 years in the wild, but the oldest death recorded in captivity is 118 years old.^[1]

It breeds on crags in mountains in southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia, laying one egg. Griffon Vultures may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffon_Vulture

See cool maximum cards with Griffon Vulture (and dogs, and other subjects) in the photobucket album of my philatelic friend and fellow maximaphilist [strictly traditional FIP, I might specify :) ] "Tangorn", from Israel:

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa153/Tangorn/#!cpZZ7QQtppZZ16