• 7 Wonders

    Posted on October 18th, 2006 by and currently 1 commenting.

    Okay… this is so cool.

    When I was a kid, I had to do a skit one year about The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We listed them in a parody of “Cold-Hearted Snake” by Paula Abdul sung by a character named Felix the Cat-fish. It was weird. We also had to propose some new wonders – we chose things like tofu and the fall of the Berlin Wall (yeah… we defined ‘wonder’ pretty loosely).

    That was not the cool part.

    The cool part is that there is currently an initiative to define 7 new Wonders of the World. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people out there can’t even list them all (myself… I can only list them when sung to a tune by a former pop diva). Plus, of the current list, only the Pyramids in Egypt are still standing. Apparently this has been in the works for a few years – but the 21 finalists (and yes, the Pyramids are on the list) were announced in January, and now it’s time to vote for the top seven. Yes! Normal, average, everyday schmoes like me can vote on what should be considered the Seven Wonders of the World. The winners will be announced – when else? – July 7, 2007 (7-7-07). And it’s not just an online initiative. They are sponsoring a world tour of world wonders, offering certificates of your favorite wonder… I know it’s kind of hokey, but there’s something really thrilling in the site’s invitation to “be part of the making of history!” People from all over the world are weighing in – it’s a matter of history, it’s a matter of national pride, it’s a matter of just being a big geek… but either way, it’s a pretty amazing example of mobilizing interest on a pretty grand scale.

    Now hurry! You only have 262 days and 5 hours to cast your vote!

  • http://blog.creativethink.com Roger von Oech

    Provocative post. I’ve been to 14 of the 21 places nominated. I don’t mean sound blase — yes, Machu Picchu is a trip, and Angkor Wat* is really wonderful — but is this contest just a doozy of a way to promote exotic tourism, or a sincere attempt to figure out what exactly are the “new 7 wonders” of the world. Because if it’s the latter, then I would probably be nominating things like: high speed elevators, the (is it too obvious to say) Internet, cheap long-distance commercial jet travel, fMRIs to probe consciousness, etc.

    *BTW, You can see a picture of me at Angkor Wat: http://creativewhack.com