I Often Wonder…

I just watched a video about this English chap who set out to visit the 7 Wonders of the World in just 7 days.

Before I actually began watching, I asked myself (and perhaps, you can do this same exercise), “What exactly are the seven wonders of the world???”

🤔

We’ve all heard of that phrase hundreds of times in our lives and, probably, read the list a few times as well.

I got 4 of them correct right off the bat, but my other 3 guesses were wrong!

One of the 7 Wonders I had never heard of (BTW, that’s old people talk for “I can’t remember!”), I was on the fence with another & the 3rd one I never imagined was on the list.

Go ahead…grab a pen & paper. (You still recall what those things are, right?)

And I’m assuming you still remember how to write.

No, it doesn’t need to be cursive!

(Why are the not-young-any-mores on this country so damned obsessed with teaching kids how to write in script/longhand? I can’t remember when I used it last!

Should we also teach the youngins how to dial a rotary phone? Rewind a cassette tape with a pencil? Moan every time we get up from the couch, too?)

Sheeeesh… 🤦🏻‍♂️

BTW, do you realize that I never learned how to type? I did this whole silly blog with 1 finger on my phone. I always imagined how much more productive I w/could’ve been at work had I ever advanced past using just 2 fingers on the keyboard!

And I never really mastered Excel, either, despite taking two separate instructional courses & more than one self-tutorial.

My mind is very Excel-oriented…just couldn’t seem to drive that stuff through my fingers.

And while I’m on this confessions tour…

I never really had any formal certification training on Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma. (I did take a 1-day seminar on Six Sigma & have attended dozens of working sessions.)

But I lived & breathed Six Sigma (preventing/eliminating defects) & Lean Six Sigma (process speed & efficiency) long before anyone coined those phrases & put some structure around those beliefs.

I lived process re-engineering throughout my career. Had I not been so stupid (lazy? stubborn?) regarding these disciplines, I could’ve added a whole bunch of initials after my name.

Yes, and learned a whole helluva lot more about this stuff than I already did.

I may have been accused, at times, of being intelligent, but in actuality, I was really pretty stupid.

Being smart has more to do with what you do, NOT what you know!

OK, back to the 7 Wonders thingie…

(And, pls, try to stay on topic!)

Have you completed your list yet?

Well, here goes (and I’ll follow the order that our video traveler took)…

***** MAJOR DISCLAIMER: There’s more than one list of the “7 Wonders of the World”! Holy 💩!

I’ll go through this one particular list now.

And it’s “gravy”, not “sauce”…and “macaroni”, not “pasta”!!! *****

#1) He hopped a plane to Rome & took a cab to the COLOSSEUM.

The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval amphitheatre in the center of the city. Built of travertine limestone, tuff, and brick-faced concrete, it was the largest amphitheatre ever built at the time and held over 50,000 spectators.

#2) He rushed back to the airport to grab his flight to Cairo to visit the PYRAMID AT GIZA.

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering present-day El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one to remain largely intact.

The Giza pyramid complex, also called the Giza Necropolis, also includes the Pyramid of Khafre & the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx of Giza.

#3) After that Egyptian adventure, it was off to Jordan for PETRA.

Petra is a famous archaeological site in Jordan’s southwestern desert. Dating to around 300 B.C., it was the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom. Accessed via a narrow canyon called Al Siq, it contains tombs and temples carved into pink sandstone cliffs, earning its nickname, the “Rose City.” Perhaps its most famous structure is 45m-high Al Khazneh, a temple with an ornate, Greek-style facade, and known as The Treasury.

#4) Next stop was Agra, India for a visit to the TAJ MAHAL.

The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.

#5) A long flight to China followed as he came upon the GREAT WALL OF CHINA.

The Great Wall of China is the collective name of a series of fortification systems generally built across the historical northern borders of China. It was constructed to protect & consolidate territories of Chinese states and empires against various nomadic groups of the steppe and their polities.

#6) It was now time to cross the Pacific & enter the Western Hemisphere in Mexico to go see CHICHÉN ITZÁ.

El Castillo (Spanish for “the castle”), also known as the Temple of Kukulcan, is a Mesoamerican step-pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichén Itzá archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán.

#7) His journey, successfully completed within the prescribed 7 days, finally brought him to Rio de Jainero, Brazil for CHRIST THE REDEEMER.

“Cristo Redentor” is a 98-foot-tall, Art Deco-style statue of Jesus Christ with His arms outstretched, created by an international team of artists.

In doing my research for this, as previously mentioned, I came across a number of different “Wonders of the World” lists.

Some of the “confusion” comes from the fact that there is a “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” compilation, which includes the aforementioned Great Pyramid at Giza, as well as…

> The HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON

For centuries, they were thought to have been built in the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon, because of their name. Some historians and archaeologists believe that the gardens were destroyed by war and erosion, while others believe an earthquake destroyed them.

> The COLOSSUS OF RHODES

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC.

> The TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS

The Temple of Artemis or Artemision, also known less precisely as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis. It was located in Ephesus.

> The LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria, was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, which has been estimated to be 100 metres in overall height.

> The STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA

The monumental statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece was created in the 430s BC, under the supervision of the master Greek sculptor, Phidias. The huge ivory and gold statue was bigger even than that of Athena in the Parthenon.

> The MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, or Tomb of Mausolus, was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC in Halicarnassus for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and his sister-wife Artemisia II of Caria. The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythius of Priene.

And to further complicate matters, the Great Pyramids at Giza is often excluded from the “modern list” & is replaced by MACHU PICCHU in Peru.

Machu Picchu is one of the most impressive sites on the planet. Built 7,000 feet above sea level, the ancient citadel dates back to the height of the Incan Empire in the 15th century. It’s estimated that only about 750 people lived here as it was a royal estate rather than a proper city. In the native tongue, Quechua, the name means “Old Peak,” but the excellently constructed site wears its age gracefully and is impressively maintained.

So there you have it!

There are other lists…”The 7 Natural Wonders of the World”, “The 7 Wonders of the Modern World”, etc. that you should look into.

(Pls excuse the fact that I ended that last sentence with a preposition.

Grammatically speaking, it should be “into which you should look”, but that sounds a bit haughty, no?

Besides, then I would be apologizin’ for every “gonna”, “hafta” & choppin’ off the last g with an apostrophe!)

I was gonna repeat the joke “Q. Well, what do most sentences end with??? A. Probation”, but that would be unnecessarily redundant, repetitive & extraneous.

Duh.

🧔🏻 🥊)

*receives a telegram…opens it…reads it aloud*

“Mike, you forgot the ‘7 Wonders of the Real World’! What an embarrassing oversight!

Sincerely,

I. P. Daley”

Oh, you mean…

Wonder Woman…Stevie Wonder…Wonder Bread…Boy Blunde, er, Wonder…Isitany Wonder…1-hit Wonder…and, of course, the Wonder Years!

So it’s no wonder that I’m gonna say…

Thank you so very much for listening!