SO WHERE DOES ONE GO FOR GOOD NEWS THESE DAYS? After yesterday's depressing show from hell we thought we'd lighten things up a smidge today. So here we go.
THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS AT 2 And we are going to "urge" the Big Wheel to stop on a positive page.
HEY TEACHERS MICKEY D'S HAS SOMETHING FOR YA! This week you can get a free breakfast at McDonalds every single weekday if you want! Find out what you can order here.
A TRAINER GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND TO FIND A VERY SPECIAL NECKLACE Green Bay Packers Running Back Aaron Jones lost his dad to Covid-19 in April and had some of his ashes made into a necklace he could wear during games. During a touchdown celebration this past Sunday he lost the necklace in the end zone. The Packers head trainer, who Jones said had been a rock for him since his dad died, took to the field until 1:45am to find it. And he did.
A DUTCH GROCERY STORE ADDED CHAT LANES FOR OLDER PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE LONELY OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. The grocery store chain Jumbo in the Netherlands has a COO who is worried about loneliness in elderly people, so she created a thing called Kletskassa, or Chat lanes. Chat desks are especially for people who are not in a hurry and who like to have a chat during the checkout. COO Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd is the driving force behind the National Coalition against Loneliness and just read what she said about why Jumbo is creating these:
“Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely.As a family business and supermarket chain, we are at the heart of society.Our stores are an important meeting place for many people and we want to play a role in identifying and reducing loneliness.We do this in various ways, including our Kletskassa's.We are proud that many of our cashiers like to take a seat behind a Kletskassa.They support the initiative and want to help people to make real contact with them out of genuine interest.It is a small gesture, but very valuable, especially in a world that is digitizing and getting faster and faster.”
Hey King Soopers, Safeway, Walmart and others, instead of getting rid of everyone, why not do this instead?
THINKING OF FLYING OVER THE HOLIDAYS? HERE ARE SOME HELPFUL TIPS And some of them are going to annoy you, but the more you know will hopefully make your holiday travel easier. Read them here.
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE COFFEE TALK? About the history of the magic elixir most of us adore. Most of us. Not Dave.
REMEMBER WHEN BOND THEMES WERE REALLY GOOD? I do. Like when Connie Francis sang Goldfinger on the Ed Sullivan show.
WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A BIONIC ARM OR A BIONIC LEG? No news story here, just really want to know what you'd choose.
A CHINESE SUPERMARKET MAY BE BUILDING THE WORLD'S FIRST FARMSCRAPER and this thing is COOL. It's a big glass office building with a hydroponic farm on the windows. It could grow enough food to feed 41,000 people a year if it's fully operational. This is just super cool.
AN INDIAN GIRL GOES AFTER POLLUTING IRONING CARTS WITH SOLAR I am literally doing this story because I had no idea such a thing as ironing carts existed. India has over 10 MILLION of them in operation and they are exactly what they sound like. The ironing cart shows up, you give them your laundry that needs ironing and the iron it for you. Genius. The issue is that these carts heat their irons using charcoal, which really does a number on the air in these very polluted cities in India. A fourteen year old girl is a finalist for an Earthshot award for inventing an ironing cart that runs on solar power. Good for her. Now where can I find an ironing cart???
AND NOW THE BEST SOLDIER HOMECOMING SURPRISES I'm not crying, you're crying. We all need to remember the sacrifices EVERY member of a military family makes.
A SHORTENED WORK WEEK WAS A SMASHING SUCCESS IN ICELAND But I should be clear, Icelanders work an average of 44 hours per week, so they are already ahead of us in that respect. However this experiment is very interesting because companies offered workers classes on time management to keep them more focused during their actual working hours so pro ctivity didn't dip at ALL as workers did things like working half days on Fridays. The workers LOVED it, but more importantly, sick time went DOWN, making bosses love it too.
UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS DROPPED TO BELOW 300,000 FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE PANDEMIC and this is very good news, though one must wonder where all the workers ARE since so many businesses are struggling to find workers right now. Read the details here.
AMERICANS ARE BACK TO SAYING THEY WANT SMALLER GOVERNMENT And thank GOD for this because the nanny staters looked like they were gonna win last year. I actually think the government's overreach on covid is a big part of this shift. Thanks, Dr. Fauci!
CAPTAIN KIRK IS BACK FROM SPACE And I'm pretty sure it's not to save a whale this time. William Shatner flew to space for a four minute ride on the Blue Origin penis-shaped spaceship and came back waxing poetic about the entire adventure. So is this what Blue Origin is going to be? A super fantastic carnival ride? I'm genuinely curious. Shatner is now the oldest person to ever visit space, which is pretty cool for him.
SPEAKING OF SPACE, THE FIRST MONKEY CELEBRATED A MILESTONE THIS YEAR Sixty years ago last January a chimpanzee named Chop Chop Chang became the first primate to go to space and survive. Chop was called "No. 65" by NASA because they figured if the chimp died people would care less if it was just a number. Perhaps they learned from the Laika disaster when the Soviets sent a dog up that died in space. It was a bit of a PR disaster for the.
MICHAEL CAINE READS RUDYARD KIPLING'S IF You need to be classed up and inspired today.
DIVERSITY QUOTAS ARE AWESOME...UNTIL YOU MENTION FOOTBALL Campus Reform did it again.
HOW DOES AUTOPILOT WORK ANYWAY? Click on this link to see the video of a pilot explaining how it works, it's super cool.
TOMORROW MARKS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF I LOVE LUCY And if it's been a hot minute since you watched I Love Lucy, you really should give it another look. Aside from being wildly sexist, which the times were, it's wildly funny still. Lucille Ball was an absolute genius. Read about it here.
PIZZA AT HOME IS THE NEW OBSESSION And if you want to know the secrets of perfect dough and what you need to make the perfect pie, click here.
LATE ADDITION: THE CHEETAH CUB CAM! There is a new litter of cheetah cubs at the National Zoo in DC and you can watch them here!