Remember the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001, that changed our world forever!

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REMEMBER

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

Total killed - 2.977

Total killed on four planes - 246

Total killed in NYC - 2,606

Total killed at Pentagon - 125

Total Law Enforcement - 71

Total NYC Police - 23

Total Port Authority Police - 37

Total NYC Firefighters - 343

Total injuries - 6,294

Total locals died later from attack complications - 1,400

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Emma Freud and Richard Curtis are moving their family to America - for a while at least.

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My year of saying yes: why Emma Freud and Richard Curtis are moving their family to the United States

In the first of her weekly diary entries chronicling her New York adventure, Emma Freud reveals how the plan was hatched and ponders what to do with the pets and her inlaws' ashes

By Emma Freud

6:40AM BST 30 Jun 2015

I’m starting at the beginning here. Richard, who I live with, co-founded Comic Relief and I am now the director of Red Nose Day – yes, I know, I literally slept my way to the top.

2015 has so far been a mighty year. In March we mounted our biggest Comic Relief campaign so far, where we passed a total of a billion pounds raised since the organization began 30 years ago. In May we held the first ever Red Nose Day USA, which was the single toughest campaign of our lives.

In September Richard is working on the launch of the new Global Goals with The United Nations.
I am definitely fond of my boyfriend (it’s been 25 years, though I still won’t marry him in case someone better comes along.) But the workload this year has nearly killed him, and I can’t pretend there haven’t been rows, because there have.

I know, you aren’t supposed to argue with someone who is busy trying to save a life or two - but what about the fricking school run? After a year of 16-hour working days and an average of 30 meetings a week things got a bit shouty (a lot shouty) and a radical change became inevitable.

One night he finished work at 2 am and we discussed it seriously. I said I’d love to become one of those families who do brave and amazing things – like living abroad and having adventures instead of staying up all night re-editing fundraising films about mosquito nets. Richard said he promised to stop campaigning once these three events were done.

"I don’t believe you," I said, quietly (it wasn’t very quiet).

"It’s true," he said, tentatively.

"Let’s move to America in September for a year then," I said.

“What?” he said.

"Say ‘Yes’," I said.

“Yes”, he said.

It was a deal.

As a result, in nine weeks' time we’re taking our two youngest children out of school, swapping our mobiles for cells, packing one large suitcase each, renting out our West London house and moving to the West Village of Manhattan for a year of saying yes.

As yet, I’m not quite sure what we’re saying yes to, so last week we wrote a list of 10 things we’d like to embrace in this grown-up gap year. It read:

1. In a town with 24,000 restaurants, let’s never go the same restaurant twice even if we love it.

2. Let’s try to become movie experts – go to old films, festivals, talks and debates, not just films featuring the complete oeuvre of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

3. We should embrace American sports culture – baseball, basketball, American football, bowling, hot dogs.

4. Let’s forget TV (too many adverts) and go to a lot of music concerts and comedy nights instead – the smaller the venue the better.

5. Let’s be brave about weekends, go to places like Vermont and Woodstock, stay with people we hardly know, make fires and do foraging or rummaging or snuffling or whatever it is they do there.

6. We should be a screen-free family every evening, even though the last time we tried this we lasted about 13 minutes.

7. Let’s rent an RV truck during a school holiday – drive somewhere, camp and try not to argue in it like last time.

8. Let’s definitely and definitively finally find out whether my brother’s American wife’s name is "Patty" or "Paddy".

9. Let’s form a family band and perform songs like Edelweiss without even a hint of irony.

10. And let’s say YES to almost everything that is suggested at almost all times.

I emailed it to the children and asked them to send us their responses. Bizarrely only one of them replied: it was the youngest, 11-year-old Spike. and he wrote one word - it was "No". Good start, I thought, something to build on.

The hardest decision has obviously been what to do with the pets. We have four children, a dog, two cats, two guinea pigs, two rabbits, about nine fish depending on the time of day you are checking their tank/graveyard and several hundred nits.

After endless discussions, we have decided to take our three sons with us (the fourth child has already left home), put the rabbits, guinea pigs and fish up for adoption, exterminate the nits and take the dog and cats with us on the plane as cargo. However one of the felines, Badger, has become something of a problem.

The airline has said it’s happy to have any animals in the cabin as long as they weigh 6kg including their basket. The dog and The Normal-Size-Cat are laughing – but Badger is a big lad: he’s closer in size to a puma, measures around twice the girth of our dog, and has very clearly eaten all the pies.

He’s currently coming in at an embarrassing 7kg without the basket, so he’s been put on a diet which has so far been entirely unsuccessful. Every morning he gets the cat equivalent of a small bowl of 
Special K. And I’m beginning to suspect every morning when he has finished his food he goes to each of my neighbours' houses and eats the entire contents of their fridges. They probably don’t stop him because they assume he is a puma and may be dangerous.

Less of a problem but still an issue are our books. The new tenants don’t want any of them in the house. I would happily send most of them to Oxfam (if I haven’t read them by now, I’m not going to) but the Curtises are sentimental and like keeping everything they have ever enjoyed.

We have shelves of unread novels, boxes of read novels, and skip-size storage trunks of yellowing newspapers each one kept for decades because it contained an article that had once been savoured.
Unfortunately I am no longer allowed to be in charge of book disposal since a day in 2002 when I gave to Oxfam a pile of books containing a first edition of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads, signed by the author. I admit it wasn’t my finest hour – I thought it just looked old and scruffy - but think how lovely it would have been for the purchaser who snapped it up for 50p.

We are also not sure whether to bring Richard’s parents with us. They currently live in a pair of urns in our study. His mum wanted to be sprinkled on the waters of the Varanasi, but we have yet to make the trip there. (NB we will never make the trip there).

And nobody can remember where my father-in-law said he wanted to be scattered so he is still residing in his urn. The current options are: they go into storage like our books (heartless); we donate them to Oxfam like the outgrown toys (weird); we leave them to be enjoyed by the new tenants in our home (weirder); we turn them into an hourglass or fireworks or paint or a diamond (those are all now a thing); or they come with us (insane).


I will let you know when an ashes decision is made because every week for the next 12 months I will be sharing the joys of this adventure: the horror on the face of my daughter who is a student in New York when she realises her parents are moving to within six blocks of her apartment, the rows about what (or who) to bin as we pack up the house, and the heated family debate about my decision to share the joys of this adventure with the readers of The Telegraph. It’s going to be an interesting year. 

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June 17, 1885 the Statue of Liberty Arrives in America from France

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Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde

It was 130 years ago today, June 17, 1885 that the Statue of Liberty arrived in America as a gift from France.  It took the French over a decade to assemble the pieces for shipment to America.

Origins of the Statue of Liberty

Around 1865, as the American Civil War drew to a close, the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye proposed that France create a statue to give to the United States in celebration of that nation’s success in building a viable democracy. The sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, known for largescale sculptures, earned the commission; the goal was to design the sculpture in time for the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876.

In 1885, Bartholdi completed the statue, which was disassembled, packed in more than 200 crates, and shipped to New York, arriving that June aboard the French frigate Isere. Over the next four months, workers reassembled the statue and mounted it on the pedestal; its height reached 305 feet (or 93 meters), including the pedestal. On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty in front of thousands of spectators.

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Tim Tebow joins Jeremy Lin as Christians in NYC Coliseum

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Casting is complete - Mayan Armageddon Set for NYC

Later this year, on December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar ends signaling to many the End of Times, or Armageddon in biblical terms for mankind.  Just in time for this greatest of all dramas Divine Providence has again demonstrated a preference for sports by moving mountains so to speak to demonstrate His might.

First a few weeks ago he snatched Jeremy Lin from his cousin's couch and cast him in a starring role with the Knicks.  A few weeks later the coach was fired and now the Knicks, with Lin, are settling into becoming a real team.

Somewhere along the way Lin was noticed praising the Lord for his opportunity to perform on the world's biggest sports stage and the success he has achieved in a few short weeks.

The fact Lin evolved from obscurity in the NBA to the front pages at the same time Tim Tebow was evolving from obscurity in the NFL to the front pages was a decisive indicator of the spiritual interest in these two "angels of the light" shall we say.

Yet that was not enough to give the Creator proper leverage as we approach the final End of Time because Tebow was doing his spiritual thing in the much smaller Denver media market while Lin had the task in the Sodom and Gomorra monster media market.

Apparently the Creator sent St. Michael in to renegotiate what was necessary to unite the two Christian gladiators in the den of sin, New York City, so all the world would know their every move.

Mike just had to remove one of the greatest quarterbacks in football from his team, Peyton Manning from the Indianapolis Colts, and get Denver to acquire him, which they did, thus allowing Denver to trade Tim Tebow.

Mike then stunned the sports world by getting a deal done with the New York Jets for Tebow, before most people knew the Jets were even interested.

Suddenly NYC, the New Jerusalem to many Bible readers, will have the two most talked about Christian athletes in the world showcased this fall when they are cast into the NYC Coliseums, Madison Square Garden and Jets Stadium, before the toughest fans and meanest media in the world.

Just in time for the end of the Mayan calendar December 21, 2012.

Ironically, when both became Poster Players for God over the winter they also became close friends and they both expressed delight they would be in NYC together doing the work of the Lord.

As if having the front line of defense (Lin and Tebow) against the ravages of evil is not enough, there are also rumors that yet another media superstar may be part of the equation as Tim has been seen socially with Taylor Swift, the rather unconventional queen of country music.

Perhaps this whole effort by Divine Providence is just a test for the ad and public relations agencies of NYC who have proven to be masters of the dark side, think how they protected Wall Street, corporate crime, pornography, and all the myths and lies in such professions as medical, money and war.

Now they are going to have to deal with two twin pillars of Christianity and neither is a loud mouth preacher or hypocritical zealot.

I'd say Michael the Archangel pulled off some pretty slick negotiations to get both Lin and Tebow onto the front and back pages of New York media just in time for the Mayan Armageddon.

For the first time the Christians might just have a chance on the coliseum floor.  Much of the media, particularly those lacking faith, will have a difficult time trashing these Christian warriors.  The millions of New Yorkers who love an underdog, because most people in NYC are underdogs compared to Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Wall Street folks, have now got two heroes.

And somewhere up in Heaven the Creator is probably getting a good chuckle with Michael and the other archangels now that their missionaries are in NYC just before the End Times.  You see the Mayans are probably there too and they all know the truth about the Mayan calendar.  When they started carving the calendar they just had too small of a stone.  The rest of time is on the second Mayan calendar.

Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow - serve your Creator well and win a few for the home team.  In serving, you will reap the important rewards for your toils, the eternal spiritual retirement program in the Eternal Kingdom where media and politics don't exist.

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Another Yankee Legend joins the Century of Legends already Lost - George Steinbrenner

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The New York Yankees lost a legend today with the death of owner George Steinbrenner. As with everything done by the flamboyant King of New York, he went out in grand fashion on the day of the All Star game and just a few days before the Yankees were to meet for the annual old timers game.

The Boss bought the Yankees in 1973 for $10 million when they were in a streak of mediocrity, rare for the most successful sports franchise in the world, and rebuild the Bronx Bombers into the world champions where they belonged.

Under George the Yankees not only remained the most successful sports franchise in the world, with a value this year of over $1.6 billion, but they added 7 more World Series Championships and 11 American League Championships to their glorious legacy, giving them 27 World Series titles and 40 league championships since they were one of the 8 charter teams of Major League Baseball in 1901.



Hard nosed but loyal to his players, as long as the players were giving 100% effort, George made the Yankees the class act of baseball and the most popular and historic team in baseball history. There is simply no other team in any sport like the Yankees.

I was born a Yankee's fan, even though I lived in Iowa. One of the most fascinating trips in my life was going to NYC during the World's Fair in 1964 and having a press pass to the Yankees dugout. I spent most of two weeks hanging out with the players and watching practice from the dugout and during an Old Timers reunion I even got to meet and take pictures of Yankee legends Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel.



When I worked for the governor of New Jersey in the 1980's I got to be friends with Jersey natives Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto and at one reception even got to meet Steinbrenner. He dominated any room. He set out to rebuild the greatest franchise in baseball and did just that, with his Yankees winning the World Series the last year of his life.

Among the many things few people knew about Steinbrenner was that he paid for the college education of every child of New York City police officers killed in the line of duty and his Yankees Foundation has been involved in many NYC activities.



Yet another Yankee legend was lost just days ago, Bob Sheppard, the famed announcer of the Yankees who was known as the Voice of the Yankees, the Voice of Baseball -- even the Voice of God. Bob spent nearly six decades as the voice of the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

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New Jersey Super Pride - First Real Open Air Super Bowl to Meadowlands

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For the first time since the Super Bowl began it will be played in an open air outdoor stadium in the snow belt as New York/New Jersey broke the 47 year stranglehold of Super Bowls in domed or warm weather stadiums when they won the right to stage Super Bowl 48 at the new stadium in 2014.



The game, which will be played at the Giants' and Jets' new $1.6 billion, 82,000-seat home in the Meadowlands within eyesight of Manhattan and the number one city and metro area in the world, Metropolitan New York - New Jersey will get to show us what they've got.



New York/New Jersey was one of three bidders for the 2014 game. The other two were South Florida, which already has hosted 10 Super Bowls, including the most recent one in February, and Tampa Bay, which has hosted four. NY/NJ won on the fourth ballot by a majority vote by team owners over Tampa. South Florida was eliminated after the second ballot.





Newly elected New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Mayor Mike Bloomberg of NYC played key roles in breaking the 47 year hold the domed and warm weather stadiums have enjoyed and finally football in America will decide a champion based on the four key fundamentals of winning football at it's highest standard of competition. The fundamentals are the winner must exemplify true grit, determination and skill while overcoming the weather conditions to win.



Once upon a time the NFL championship games were played up north where weather was often as big a factor as skill and some of the most exciting games in history were barely visible to the viewers. But this is America and football is not a sport for creampuffs so it is only right the weather be a factor.



For the New York and New Jersey area this game will generate up to $100 million or more in new revenue which is needed. It is also appropriate that the first cold weather game be played in the newest, most modern and most expensive stadium in the world.



After nearly a decade since the 9-11 terrorist disaster in NYC it will also show the world that the New York New Jersey area is back in the spotlight as one of the most vibrant areas in the world.



Note to reader: I am definitely not objective about this story. Having lived in Jersey for 18 years and served with Governor Kean when the Meadowlands was first coming to the forefront as a major sports complex in the nation, it is great to see this vibrant and dynamic area be given such an honor and you can bet it will be one of the best Super Bowls of all time.

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