Daily Archives: April 29, 2016

Good News Friday: Puppies bring joy everywhere. A 90-year-old widower is about to get married again, to a 40-year-old man. And the funniest joke each President ever told.

Happy Friday to everyone in Internet-land. As we anxiously await the start of the Cruz/Fiorina Presidential administration (as someone on Twitter wisely noted, “tomorrow Cruz will tell us the site of his Presidential library!”), I bring you three good news stories to take you into the weekend.

First up, it’s a pretty well-known fact that puppies make people happy. But every once in a while it’s nice to be reminded of that fact, especially when the puppies are adorable and show up somewhere en masse as a big surprise.

So take two minutes and watch these canines invade a senior citizens’ center, a pre-school, and a gym.

So freaking adorable.

wofford.nyt

**Next up, I thought this was a pretty astonishing story told by former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford in the New York Times on Sunday. Wofford was married for 48 years until his wife, Clare, died in 1996. He was convinced he would never find love again, until five years later, when Wofford was 75, he met a 25-year-old named Matthew Charlton on a beach.

From this wonderful, emotional piece: As we talked, I was struck by Matthew’s inquisitive and thoughtful manner and his charm. I knew he was somebody I would enjoy getting to know. We were decades apart in age with far different professional interests, yet we clicked.

I admired Matthew’s adventurous 25-year-old spirit. When he told me that I was “young at heart,” I liked the idea, until I saw a picture of him on a snowboard upside down executing a daring back flip. The Jackson Hole newspaper carried the caption, “Charlton landed the jump without mishap.”

We took trips around the country and later to Europe together, becoming great friends. We both felt the immediate spark, and as time went on, we realized that our bond had grown into love. Other than with Clare, I had never felt love blossom this way before.

Wofford is now 90. Charlton is 40. They’re getting married on Saturday. Wofford closes his beautiful essay with this (I highly recommend the whole thing):

At age 90, I am lucky to be in an era where the Supreme Court has strengthened what President Obama calls “the dignity of marriage” by recognizing that matrimony is not based on anyone’s sexual nature, choices or dreams. It is based on love.

Love always wins over hate. Every time.

**And finally today, the idiotic and wholly unprofessional White House Correspondent’s Dinner is this weekend, an event no self-respecting journalist has any business attending.

But it is a big deal, and often leads to some funny lines. To celebrate the dinner, the Washington Post did a cool story collecting what they felt are the best jokes ever told, by each President in history. Here are a few samples (I think Obama has definitely told better than the one they chose, I always liked his line about “I’m getting older; I’m not the strapping young Muslim Socialist I used to be.” )

Barack Obama, at the 2012 White House correspondents’ dinner

“I have a lot more material prepared, but I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.”

George H.W. Bush, at the 1989 Gridiron Club dinner

“People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.”

Lyndon Johnson, on Gerald Ford

“So dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.”’

Abraham Lincoln

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”

Check out the whole list here; some of them are actually pretty funny.