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Amazing Night Skies at Your Fingertips
You keep thinking you must book a winter trip to that Norwegian island above the Arctic Circle to see the majestic displays of the aurora...

Steven Hansen
Aug 19, 20211 min read


Uplifting History
According to the Roman architect Vitruvius, elevators have been around since about 236 BC, when Archimedes built the first primitive...

Steven Hansen
Aug 7, 20212 min read


Ear Bliss #3
Relax and take a well-deserved aural vacation listening to these five specially chosen selections that will help you escape a dreary or...

Steven Hansen
Jul 20, 20213 min read


Enter Our 'Happy Place' Video Contest!
"Go to your happy place!" When you close your eyes and imagine your happy place, what does it look like? A private tropical island? The...

Steven Hansen
Jul 16, 20211 min read


Yummy Origin Stories: Potato Chips
We love food! We especially love creative food treats that were invented to make us happy, if not necessarily healthy. You just know the...

Steven Hansen
Jul 9, 20212 min read


Spirits of Our Heroes
Some well-oiled merrymaker once said, “You can’t buy happiness, but you can prepare a cocktail. And that’s kind of the same thing.”...

Steven Hansen
Jul 5, 20212 min read


One-of-a-Kind Bookstore is Reborn
A Broadway institution reopens its doors at a beautiful new location.
HA Staff
Jun 19, 20211 min read


Yummy Origin Stories: Soft Serve Ice Cream
Soft serve ice cream was an accidental discovery!

Steven Hansen
Jun 14, 20212 min read


Happy Hideaways: Saint-Marc-sur-Mer
The places that promote carefree joy – and often deliver it – fashion themselves to be beyond the reach of the humdrum world. And they...

Steven Hansen
Jun 11, 20213 min read


Bemelmans Bar: A Storybook ‘Nursery’ for Grown-ups
Ludwig Bemelmans, the author and illustrator of the popular “Madeline” books for children, was commissioned to hand-paint whimsical...

Steven Hansen
May 31, 20212 min read


Street Fun: "Pssst…Look in here!"
Urban writer Charles Montgomery says that, “Happiness is a house with many rooms, but at its core is a hearth around which we gather with...

Steven Hansen
May 21, 20211 min read


Big Bird Chills Out
A big blue version of Big Bird from Sesame Street has landed on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The...
HA Staff
Apr 25, 20211 min read


Ear Bliss #2
Falling snow, a cat purring, jazz harp, New York traffic noise and a tiny love story. Listen and smile from ear to ear.

Steven Hansen
Apr 24, 20212 min read


Home Is Where the Art Is
In the early spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to rage, widespread quarantines kept people inside their homes, and closed...

Steven Hansen
Apr 20, 20212 min read


90 Seconds of Joy: Roller Coaster Open House
To launch their daily “House Promoter” project in style, Amsterdam’s ABN Amro Bank made sure that house viewings at one house in Ermelo...

Steven Hansen
Apr 13, 20211 min read


Yummy Origin Stories: Frito Pie
We love food! We especially love creative food treats that were invented to make us happy, if not necessarily healthy. You just know the...

Steven Hansen
Apr 10, 20212 min read


Choirboy Inhales Helium
On April 1, 2014, the legendary Choir of King’s College Cambridge found a possible solution enabling older choir boys to continue to hit...

Steven Hansen
Apr 3, 20211 min read


The Rambunctious Fun of OK Go!
OK Go, the L.A. rock band, born in Chicago, is known to millions of adoring fans the world over as much for the mind-bogglingly fun music...

Steven Hansen
Apr 1, 20211 min read


Yummy Origin Stories: Chocolate Chip Cookies
We love food! We especially love creative food treats that were invented to make us happy, if not necessarily healthy. You just know the...

Steven Hansen
Mar 24, 20211 min read


Retro-pedaling: A Look Backward
If you’ve seen people walking backward in the park on a nice sunny morning, you probably thought they were either severely disoriented or...

Steven Hansen
Mar 1, 20212 min read
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