One of my favorite things about late December is all those “end of the year” lists.
I’m a sucker for Top 10 lists, top 20 lists, any list you want to show me, I’ll probably read it. (I think it’s a boy thing, this listing business).
Anyway, the folks at the great boston.com site “The Big Picture” have put together their photos of the year, and it’s beyond fabulous. Here’s a link to Part I, but all three parts are worth checking out (the photo above is of a lava lake in the Congo.)
**I know Christmas was over a few days ago, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t share with you a beautiful little story I saw on “CBS Sunday Morning” last week. It’s about an anonymous man in Reading, Pa., and the beautiful things he does around the holidays: He walks up to random strangers and gives them $100. Their reactions are priceless, as is the quick story of one man in particular whose life may have been changed by the gesture.
In the words of Andy Dufrane from “The Shawshank Redemption,” hope is a good thing.
**Finally, I haven’t linked to a great Joe Posnanski piece on a while, partially because he’s been busy researching a Joe Paterno book he’s writing (and right in the middle of his book research some little scandal broke out at Penn State, you may have heard of it).
But I really enjoyed this piece he wrote recently, about the small town of Hazleton, Pa., and Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon’s desire to make the place special again by healing some divisive ethnic wounds.
Wide World of Stuff 