The view from Alcatraz, this is what you'd need to swim across to get away.

I had a lot of fun poking through this site, reading about all of the escape attempts over the years. Victoria, who sends me all my Alcatraz cards, was right in pointing out that no one ever really made a clean getaway. The closest were a few that are unaccounted for...

The back says, "Throughout the federal prison years, 1934-1963, the men incarcerated in U.S.P. Alcatraz endured a restrictive daily schedule of endless headcounts and constant observation. Work assignments, reading material, and family visits were privileges, not rights, and were taken away upon violation of any of the numerous rules."

I'm thinking I should tell the kids this is the rule here, too, what do you think? ;-)

The back says: Orang Utan, or "Man of the Forest" found only in the island of Borneo is an endangered species fully protected in Malaysia.

According to Wikipedia, there are also orangutans in Sumatra, but that's pretty close geographically and the Sumatratran Orangutans are "critically endangered." So, I think that's pretty accurate for postcard science :-)

It's a little hard to see on this scan, but this is a photograph of Volvomom's cat at the bottom of the postcard waiting to attack the next Mii that pops up on the TV. I thought that was funny! Her cat gets more out of the Wii than I do, that's for sure!

An "official" from Australia. It was mailed from Adelaide, and I would LOVE to be on the beaches there today, doesn't that look relaxing?

Our Lady of Guadalupe. I love stained glass windows, and I love Catholic saints, so this one is extra special!

This is from a box of "buckwheat groats" from Poland. I love how all the writing is in Polish, except at the very top in elegant script is says, "Premium Quality" in English!

For the rest of it, "Kasza" is cereal, and "Gryczana" is either a trade name or my online translator is not hep to that lingo. "Tradycja smaku," means something like "Savory tradition." The other bits are cut off so I can't tell what they all say for sure...

This postcard is from Belarus. Alexander, the sender, says that he lives near that beautiful building in the center. The other buildings on the card are pretty interesting, too. I like the upper left and lower right ones the most, they're really different.

The writing says "Minsk," the name of this city.

This is a card made from magazine photos.

An upcycled Christmas card!

Another upcycled Christmas card.

The Peter and Paul Fortress (Петропа́вловская кре́пость)

Peter the Great called for this fortress in 1703 and it was completed in 1740. It was meant to defend St. Petersburg against Sweden, but was never needed for that.

Originally it served as a garrison for St. Petersburg's soldiers and a place to hold political prisoners. Until the Revolution in 1917, when all the prisoners were freed, then revolutionaries used it to hold the Tsarist officials. Then it went back and forth for a while, and was heavily damaged during WWII. It's been restored and now it's a museum.

The tall steeple there is the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It's the oldest landmark in St. Petersburg. Sts. Peter and Paul are the patron saint of the city. The steeple is 404 ft tall and is topped with an angel holding a cross.

This is Jing Jing, the mascot of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (Mascot of the Games of the XXIX Olymiad, to be official about it!)

I don't know if you can tell from the scan, but the card has irridescent holograms on it. It's really neat to look at! Hugh in China offered this one as a direct swap if I would send him one of the USPS Simpsons cards. Oh, the things we're known for around the world... Crazy, huh?

A North American Toad

This is the New Year's Eve Moon taken in Portugal!

This is the New Year's Moon from Arizona.

This is from a package of crackers that Carole in Canada served on Christmas. She says her two favorites on or the top right. They do look good!

Heather from Finland recommends that I read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.

The front didn't scan very well. It's an old fashioned writing desk scene and the photo is very grainy to emphasize the age, I guess?

This says, "Winter Greetings"

And Suomi is the Finnish word for Finland :-)

An upcycled Christmas card from Oregon.

An upcycled Christmas card from Virginia. The sender gets extra style points for skipping the traditional greetings, instead saying, "Live Long and Prosper." Yay!

I didn't realize we'd ever had a triangular stamp here in the US, but there it is in the corner, a 41 cent stamp honoring the Settlers of Jamestown!

There are other stamps from here as well as Russia, China, Israel, Finland, Malaysia, Qatar, Czechoslovakia, and the cute one in the middle with the girl kissing the fish is from Sweden.

How fun, a map of Japan! I want to go everywhere, it all looks interesting :-)

Ok, this person sent me a postcard about their favorite show. They are from Germany, and their favorite TV show is called Stromberg, and it's inspired by our show The Office.

This is a quote from the main character of the show, but I think I may be missing something from the translation. I even tried to look it up in other ways but no dice. So, here it is. I'm going to have to try to catch this show with subtitles or something...

"Thinking boundless, even to ten square meters, is my outstanding strength!"

Beautiful!

The sender says she's reading Ein Liebender Mann by Martin Walser, which sounds like it could be interesting. I wonder if it will available in English any time soon?

A nice Happy New Year card from Texas!

The postcard says "Beautiful Laboe," the name of the resort. The sender says this is a nice beach even in the winter!

Haifa, Israel as seen from Mt. Carmel. The gold dome in the forefront is the Baha'i Shrine of the Báb.

The aurora borealis, from Finland!

The moon, December 31st, Florida 9:30pm.

Part of the Show Me the Moon swap.

The Harz National Park in Germany.

This is a resort town in Brisbane.

An empty cell at Alcatraz Prison. I can see how you'd want to swim to freedom.

A sunny postcard from Florida, which according to the news is having a record cold snap. Yikes!

A Christmas card from Lithuania!

The sender translated it for me:

Christmas and New Year
This is a time when hears are getting warm
when candles are burning at home cosily
and the gentle scent of spruce branches
and people share the goodness and love...

Blue Jays

This is an unidentified portrait by Pamela Coleman Smith, who is best known as the designer of the Rider-Waite tarot deck.

This is a woodblock print from Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) called Travelers on the Tokaido Road at Hodogaya.

The sender says he is one of her favorite artists. I had never heard of him (feeling like a bumpkin here) so I looked him up. He was a Japanese Ukiyo-e painter, a style which is pretty interesting in itself. He was extremely prolific, and is art is kind of familiar-looking because the style has been copied on a thousand cheesy Asian restaurant menus. But, his is interesting and different. Just go have a look, it's good stuff!

The sender of this postcard says she is a mail carrier, and that Swap-Bot is like job security for her! I'm going to keep doing my part :-)

This postcard shows a stamp from the USPS 2005 release To Form a More Perfect Union: Seeking Equal Rights for African Americans. From the website:

The To Form A More Perfect Union stamps recognize the courage and achievement of the men and women who, during the years of the civil rights movement, struggled to bring the vision of our founding fathers closer to reality. Ten important milestones of the civil rights movement—Executive Order 9981, Brown v. Board of Education, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock Nine, Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, Freedom Riders, March on Washington, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Selma March and Voting Rights Act of 1965—are commemorated with the To Form A More Perfect Union stamps.

Executive Order 9981 integrated the U.S. military. The art is a silk-screen print by William H. Johnson called "Training for War."

The sender says this postcard reminds her of a day last year when she and her daughter traveled to see the butterflies, and there were 5,000 of them! That's got to be something to see!

It's not obvious, but this one's an oversize card. Most are 4x6, but this one is 4x9! The photographer is Thea Schrack, according to the back of the card. I'm going to have to look for more of her work, this is lovely!

This one looks really nice right now when everything here is cold and brown!

It says, "Santo Domingo Plaza, Mexico City, 14th Century."

This is the Plaza de Santo Domingo in Mexico City, Mexico. Most of the wikipedia article about this deals with how this is apparently a great place to get falsified documents, so I'd just skip it because I'm betting that's not your thing. There is a good bit about how the fountain there has a statue of Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, a heroine from the Mexican War of Independence.

Julie, who sent the postcard, says that the Plaza is also a cool place to see concerts, and that the best one she's seen there was a band called "Los Explosivos." I think this is their Myspace page. They look like fun, I think it would be very cool to see them at this venue!

Randy & Cindi wrote an interesting bit on the back of this postcard from Arizona:

"I haven't had direct contact with a coyote, but have seen the results of many coyote attacks. I work at an emergency animal clinic and we get mostly dogs that have been attacked. The majority of them do well."

I love postcards that I learn from!

Scottsdale, Arizona

"A Thousand and One Images of Buddha at Sanjusangendo Hall, Kyoto"

The 1,001 images are of Avalokiteśvara, a special form of the Buddha that encompasses "the compassion of all Buddhas."

According to the first article: "In January, the temple has an event known as the Rite of the Willow (柳枝のお加持), where worshippers are touched on the head with a sacred willow branch to cure and prevent headaches." I wonder if there's still time to get on a plane and make it for the ceremony? If it works, I'm willing to give it a try.

I want to go to a slumber party at this girl's house!

This is a detail from a sketch page by Marcel Dzama.