A Day After Moncton

Today is June 5th, a day after June 4th, the day Moncton, New Brunswick became known around the world. I know you all arrived here to look at postcards, and you will. But bear with me a moment. Yesterday, three members of Canada's national police force, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police,  were shot and killed in the line of duty. Two other officers were shot and are recovering in hospital. This update is dedicated to those five officers. Thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the murdered officers and to the officers and families of the wounded. The motto in Boston a short time ago was Boston Strong, well now we say Moncton Strong.  In Honour of those officers and all Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers , we salute you and your service. My first card for today is a card from my stock , not one I have received . It is appropriate for this occasion. A Mountie in his scarlet tunic sitting atop his horse, what's more Canadian than that.

Now the regular cards.

First is a British Airways Boeing 747. This aircraft G-BNLO was delivered to British  Airways way back on 25 Oct 1990 and still flies for them. Still a fine looking airplane. This isn't a recent card, it was mailed from Paris on March 16, 1998 to South Africa. Bruce thought it would be a great addition to my Airline/Aircraft Collection. And it is.

On this one we can see a nice 1997 Philexfrance 99 World Stamp Exposition stamp along with a definitive.

Next we have a map card of Finland. I haven't really shown many map cards. Lots of people collect them , but I think I'll stick to my world atlas. There's not much to say about map cards other than , there's Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere, Joensuu, and Turku. Turku is the hometown of the great N.H.L. goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, now retired.

Aimo  was visiting the Finnish Parliament Visitor Center in Helsinki on September 17, 2013 and realized that a stamp was to be released that day commemorating 150 Years of the Finnish parliament. Of course he took advantage of that fact and received the special First Day Cancellation on the stamp as you can see here.

Susan who lives in Sosnowiec, Poland dropped this next card in the mail. The city of 220,000 is located in southern Poland. Her card shows a statue of Jan Wiktor Kiepura ( 1902-1966 ). He was an acclaimed Polish singer and actor. He was born in Sosnowiec.

Susan used 2 larges stamps, the one on the left was issued in 2008, while the other was issued in 2007. Both stamps are from sets of 5 celebrating European Capital Cities. Copenhagen and London are the 2 shown.

My last card for today is compliments of  Johan and comes from Brussels. It's an old picture of the Agora Cinema , dated 1958. This was the biggest first run movie theatre in Brussels, located near the Grand Place. . It opened in 1920 as Forum Palace Cinema and soon became the Agora Cinema. First run films to play here include; “The Third Man” in 1949, “An American in Paris”, Charlie Chaplin’s “Limelight” , “From Here to Eternity”, “To Catch a Thief”, Stanley Donen’s “Funny Face”, and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". In 1959 it was destroyed by a fire and it was demolished.

Johan posted this card  on March 10, 2013- International Women's Day. He secured a First Day Cancellation on the stamp. This stamp sets a world record. It has achieved a Guinness world record for the most words on a stamp.
The most words on a postage stamp is 606 words in four languages taken from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The stamp depicts the face of a woman made exclusively from words. Only full words counted towards the total.
The stamp is nondenominated. The numeral “1” in a circle and the word “world” indicate that it pays the international rate for letters weighing up to 50 grams.

 

That brings to a close another update. Thanks for cards going to Aimo, Bruce, Susan, and Johan. All cards were great  and I'm a lucky guy to receive them. Take care and remember  "MONCTON STRONG '.