The beach for most Australians is not just a place to cool off on a hot day, it is a place for the tentative dips of the toes in the shallows of early childhood and a place where teenage rites of passage played out.

BBC: Shore thing: Australia��s beach obsession

Over the years, Giuliani has often spoken of his childhood in Brooklyn, giving special place to a story about the discordance of growing up a Yankees fan in the shadow of Ebbets Field.

NEWYORKER: Mayberry Man

The Lifeguard ( Liz W. Garcia): A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut.

FORBES: Sundance 2013: Women Directors Step Up