"Remembrance and Rebirth" - The Essex County September 11, 2001 Memorial

"Remembrance and Rebirth" - The Essex County September 11, 2001 Memorial 

Eagle Rock Reservation - West Orange, NJ 07052

"Scores of people watched the September 11 attacks on New York City from atop Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange, New Jersey. To commemorate this tragic event and the people who lost their lives, a beautiful memorial was dedicated on October 20, 2002. The Essex County memorial overlooks the New York Skyline. The centerpieces consist of a bronze bald eagle with a eight foot wing span perched on a tree, a book with the names of those lost from Essex County, and a girl, Gabrielle, with a teddy bear. On either side are a fireman's helmet and a police officer's hat. Off to the left is a teenage boy holding a lantern and gazing toward the skyline with the words "Remembrance and Rebirth" on the pedestal. The concrete barrier wall was replaced by polished granite with the names and hometowns of all who were lost in the attacks. There are also seven dogwood trees along a side path for each of the four hijacked planes, the Pentagon and the two World Trade Center Towers.

The Essex County Memorial was designed and built by sculptor and artist Patrick Morelli. A resident of nearby Cedar Grove."
source of description above:www.rt23.com/Scenery/essex_county_memorial/in dex.shtml

9/11 - Day of Remembrance

It's hard to believe that it's been 8 years already since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.   I'm sure as this day approaches many of us think back to where we were that day and at those times of 8:46 am & 9:03 am.  I know that I will never quite forget what I was doing at those precise moments.  While looking over some of the coverage I came upon a memorial in New Jersey for the 9/11 attacks and thought that this picture was an absolutely beautiful way to memorialize them.  What do you think?  Where were you on 9/11/01?

Paula Abdul Wishes Ellen DeGeneres ‘Best of Luck’

Paula Abdul may be gone from American Idol but she got to give one last enthusiastic thumbs-up: to her replacement Ellen DeGeneres.

On her Twitter page, Abdul wrote in Webspeak: “I think Ellen will b a gr8 judge on Idol. She is wildly funny, talented and I wish her the best of luck!”

'Vanishing' Wired Writer Evan Ratliff Found

Wired writer Evan Ratliff decided to do his best to disappear, no small feat in today's heavily connected world. He publicized his debit and credit card information to the Wired readership, as well as his Twitter name, e-mail accounts, and of course, his physical stats. The magazine offered $5,000 to the person who was able to track down Ratliff despite his efforts live anonymously.

Well, the contest came to an end on Tuesday evening, only a few days shy of its September 15 deadline. NewsCloud founder Jeff Reifman and the Naked Pizza team, headed by owner Jeff Leach, managed to nab the writer on the lam in New Orleans. Most of the dirty work was done by Reifman; he identified Ratliff's aliases and secret Facebook, Twitter, andTumblr accounts.

Reifman conspired with a Hawaiian Realtor, a vegan pizza parlor, and wrote a Facebook app to trap the writer in this modern game of digital cat and mouse. On Twitter, Ratliff's secret account began following Naked Pizza in New Orleans, and Reifman contacted the pizza joint (and several other local restaurants) to be on the lookout for the writer. Some of the finer details are a little tough to follow, but if you're interested in the nitty-gritty, head on over to NewsCloud to read about how Reifman uncovered Ratliff's IP addresses and online aliases.

Steven Seagal has been a cop for 20 years?!?

The world has officially been turned upside down for me.

Apparently when he's not making bad-ass movies like Under Siege, Exit Wounds, or my personal favorite, Today You Die, Steven Seagal is a Deputy Sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana andhe's been doing it for 20 years.

Turns out that 20 years ago, while filming near his home in Jefferson Parish, he taught some cops a few skull-knockin' tricks and things turned out so well that they deputized him. The job stuck, because two decades later he's still at it.

America Voted: Audience Not Happy With Ellen on 'Idol'

Ellen DeGeneres is replacing Paula Abdul on 'American Idol,' after the 'Straight Up' singer quit her job this past August, but but the initial reaction to the news is that fans of the show aren't thrilled.

When asked if the talk show host would be a good replacement for Abdul, 55 percent of voters say no. Furthermore, when questioned if they thought it was fair that the singers would be judged by someone with no musical background, they answered that it was unfair.

Dressed to The Nines: Baby Arrives at 9 p.m. on 9/9/09, Weighing 9 Pounds

Henry Michael Berendes came into the world wearing his birthday suit, but he was still dressed to the 9s.

The LaCrosse Tribune in Wisconsin reports that the third child of local couple Chuck and Polly Berendes was born at 9:09 a.m. on Sept. 9 and weighed, of course, 9 pounds, 9 ounces at birth.

"I don't know how it happened, but it's pretty crazy," Chuck Berendes, 29, told the paper.

The couple joked about the possibility of a triple-nine birthday when Polly's doctor scheduled a C-section. Chuck even suggested how funny it would be if the baby arrived at 9:09 a.m.

He told the Tribune he forgot about the numbers until after little Henry was put on the scales for the first time.

"They measure in metric and the doctor did the math in his head, but to be sure, he had the nurse convert it," he told the paper. "When she said 9 pounds, 9 ounces, I started laughing and he started laughing."