Many people on dating websites tell little white lies—putting a positive spin on their age, weight, income or the reason their last relationship broke up. Some profiles are fakes, created by scammers looking to defraud individuals. Take Keith Samuels. After breaking up with his long-time girlfriend last year, the Washington, D.C.-based senior manager at an import-export company says he decided to try his chances on dating site eHarmony. Before long, he connected with a woman he says looked like a model. She said she was 28 and worked for a British travel company. "I was very flattered that a younger, attractive woman started paying me attention," recalls Mr. Samuels, 45. jobs and interests. They never met in person. Then one day, she wrote and said her mother was very sick and she was trying to raise money to pay the hospital bill. She asked for $5,000. Mr. Samuels wired it to her. "I thought I was being the protector," he says. Almost immediately, the woman's profile disappeared from the site. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it gets thousands of complaints a year from people who have been fleeced by people they met on dating sites. At the FBI, one Cyber Division section chief, Tim Gallagher, says most scammers operate from abroad, especially West Africa and the former Soviet republics. In a typical scenario, the scammer creates a fake profile using photos of an attractive individual, in many cases lifted off social-networking sites. Often, the written part of the profile is copied verbatim from a real profile or a recycled template. Almost always, it is designed to tug at the heartstrings, the FBI says. Scammers want to make an emotional connection. At first, they flatter and fawn. Once you are hooked, they hit you with some variation of several well-worn sob stories, Mr. Gallagher says. Sometimes they say they live abroad and desperately want to visit you, but their country's banking system is broken. Or they're at the airport and their credit card has been declined. Some scammers even pretend to be U.S. military service members trying to get back home and low on cash. Their stories all end in same place: Please wire money, and they will pay you back. Read the whole story by Elizabeth Bernstein at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576300973195520918.html

When we travel, we look for libraries, museums, and local restaurants.
On our recent trip to Michigan, we found:
Lobdell's, a teaching restaurant--operated by students in the Great Lakes Culinary Institute of Northwestern Michigan College--open to the public
715 East Front Street, second floor Traverse City http://www.nmc.edu/resources/lobdells/index.html
Soul Hole eclectic Southern food 408 S. Union Traverse City
http://www.soulhole1.com/
Alden Bar & Grille a social hub 9149 Helena Road Alden http://www.visitalden.com/restaurants/aldenbargrill.html

Elk Rapids District Library 300 Isle of Pines Elk Rapids
The charming library is located in the Island House, an 1860s country home built by Edwin S. Noble (1838-1922). Noble leveled off two hills, and built a single-story home, adding rooms until it measured 112 feet long with a basement of the same size. In 1949, a portion of the Island House became the Elk Rapids Library. The library is cozy, comfortable and well-lit with each room serving a different purpose. Librarians invite you to try the glassed-in porch with books, rocking chairs, tables and puzzles. http://elkrapids.lib.mi.us/

Peninsula Community Library (PCL) is a township library located on the beautiful Old Mission Peninsula in Northern Michigan. The library is open to the public as a dual-use library within Old Mission Peninsula School. The library's mission is to serve all segments of a diverse rural community by providing access to information and support for personal enrichment in a friendly, welcoming environment. Wonderful natural lighting and helpful librarians make this a destination rather than a place.
http://www.peninsulacommunitylibrary.org/

Humpback whales not only sing, they imitate the singing of other whales. And some of their tunes turn into worldwide hits, with whales all over the Pacific Ocean picking them up. Several genetically different groups of humpbacks, separate populations with little interchange among them, live in the South Pacific. Researchers recorded 11 different song types in the region from 1998 to 2008. The study, produced in 21 Current Biology 687,26 April 2011, found that each year, songs spread from one group to another, moving east from Australia to French Polynesia. They believe that this is the first observation of a cultural change transmitted repeatedly on such a large geographic scale. Why this happens is unclear, but the lead author, Ellen C. Garland, a doctoral student at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the reasons probably have to do with sex. Only male humpbacks sing, and each group of whales sings its own tune If you change your song, you stand out,” she said. “We could speculate that that could be more attractive to the females.” The consistent eastward movement of the songs is another puzzle, but the scientists speculate that the larger population near eastern Australia might have greater influence. Although sounds travel only a few miles, it is possible that some individuals get close enough to be heard. This minimal contact could be enough for males from another group to pick up the new melody.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/19obwhale.html

Amsterdam's favorite folk singers, the pearls of the Jordaan district: Willy Alberti, Johnny Jordaan ("Better broke in Amsterdam than a millionaire in Paris"), Tante Leen, Manke Nelis and Johnny Meijer
See links to history, things to do, music in Amsterdam and more at: http://www.amsterdamtourism.net/amsterdam_townhall.html

All about Amsterdam's special vibe, a spirit of contented contradiction at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279133547139122.html
Invisible Cities (Le città invisibili) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. It can be considered an example of the magical realism style. The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by the narrator, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of Polo's descriptions (1-3 pages each) of 55 cities. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics including linguistics and human nature. The book is probably based on The Travels of Marco Polo, his travelogue of the Mongol Empire written in the 13th century, which shares with Invisible Cities the brief, often fantastic accounts of the cities he visits, accompanied by descriptions of the city's inhabitants, notable imports and exports, and whatever interesting tales Polo had heard about the region. The book was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975. http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Invisible_Cities
Note that Calvino's restaurant in Toledo is named for Italo Calvino.

A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) American author
Named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the United States
http://www.dcfaward.org/Biography/index.htm

Q: Who started Mother's Day?
A: Anna Jarvis of Grafton, W.Va., organized Mother's Day observances in Grafton and in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day in 1914. U.S. Census Bureau
Q: Where is the nation's oldest lighthouse?
A: It is at Sandy Hook, N.J., south of New York Harbor. It was built in 1764 and stands 103 feet.
U.S. Coast Guard
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/May/JU/ar_JU_050211.asp?d=050211,2011,May,02&c=c_13