The severe lateness of this week's newsletter has nothing to do with anything we're doing on the web sites. It was purely logistical problems of a more personal nature. Namely, I was held up doing other things that couldn't be put off and had limited computer access much of the time.

This week marks the initial unveiling of our newest site, MoreSatisfyingMusic.com. As mentioned last week, you already have access using the same credentials you already use for our other sites. It is still a work in progress but if you have any interest in learning more about music please check it out and join us as we develop this exciting new part of the More Satisfying family of web sites.

Main Tip - Photographing Theme Parks and Amusement Parks

Theme parks and full-time amusement parks (but usually not traveling carnivals) make wonderful places to take pictures. In fact, with a little care, it becomes difficult to take a bad picture at these places.

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Quick Tip - Close Focus

Simply being able to focus closely and fill the frame with some small object does not automatically make for an interesting photo.

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Photo Essay - Mummer's Parade

Every year, weather permitting, Philadelphia plays host to one of the most unusual New Year's Day parades going.

Over the course of more than a century, the Mummer's Parade has evolved...

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Despite the presence of beer in the early morning on a cold New Year's Day and the occasional tendency toward racy humor,

Trivia Bit - Washington, DC

• The city was originally laid out as a perfect square with the corners pointing in each of the cardinal directions -- north, south, east and west.
• In 1847, the city of Alexandria was reassigned from the District of Columbia back to the state of Virginia (where it had been established prior to the existence of the District.)
• Thanks to the loss of Alexandria, Washington, DC shrunk from its original size of 100 square miles to its present size of just 68 square miles, less than twice the size of Walt Disney World in Florida.
• Every public park in Washington, DC is a national park.
• Capitol Hill was originally known as Jenkins Hill, prior to the city's construction.
• "The Presidential Residence" didn't come to be called The White House until 1901.
• Almost all of the early city was built using slave labor contracted from landowners in Maryland and Virginia.