The best of Good News Friday: The cast of “Hamilton” team up to make a little girl’s dreams come true in an amazing musical number. A wrongly-imprisoned man for 36 years wows on “America’s Got Talent.” And an 11-year-old girl in South Dakota touches hearts of postal workers with her letters.

And hello and welcome to Part 2 of my “Best of Good News Friday, 2020” series I’m doing on the blog this week. Three more stories that were absolute favorites of mine in this crazy, awful year.

First, from April, TV star John Krasinski  started a TV show during the quarantine called “Some Good News,” and in one of the first episodes, he made a girl’s dreams come true.

A kid named Aubrey is a huge “Hamilton” fan, and was supposed to go see the show in New York in March. Of course, given the state of the world now, she couldn’t go.

Her Mom posted about it on Twitter, Krasinski saw it, and he arranged this magical sing-a-long with Lin-Manuel Miranda and much of the original cast.

Just perfect. A moment Aubrey will never forget.

Next, from May, I want to tell you about another amazing “America’s Got Talent” success story. Archie Williams was sent to prison in 1983 in Louisiana for a rape and stabbing he did not commit. Like thousands of other African-Americans who’ve been in prison for decades, the eyewitness testimony was false, the fingerprints didn’t match, and there was absolutely zero reason Williams was in jail.

But finally, thankfully, after decades of trying by the Innocence Project, Williams was released in 2019.

And now, Williams appeared on “America’s Got Talent” this week, singing a beautiful song and telling his story.

He didn’t appear bitter, or vengeful, just happy to be alive and free. What a wonderful story and one I’ll be watching.

**And finally today, this story, also from May, may have been my favorite good news story of the year.

This one moved me a great deal. I love enterprising, creative kids, and I love the United States Postal Service, and those two loves don’t normally coincide.

But I read this week about an incredible 11-year-old girl in South Dakota named Emerson Weber. Her Dad, through a wonderful series of Tweets, talked about how Emerson’s obsession with writing letters, and her kinship with their local postman, led to something amazing happened.

Here, in paragraph form, are all the Tweets from her father Hugh about what happened. Please, please, I implore you, stick with this through the end, it’ll restore your faith in humanity and goodness.

So, so wonderful…

Emerson, my 11-year-old, is on a bit of a wild ride with the @USPS and our local mail carrier, Doug. And, I think there’s a deeper message to it all.

First, the backstory… Em has a serious letter writing habit. She maintains active correspondence with over a dozen of her favorite people. And, if you’ve been the lucky recipient of one of Em’s hand decorated letters and envelopes, then you have a pretty good idea of the joy they bring.A letter from Emerson is likely to include some art, a joke or two, a mention of her younger brother, confessions of her love for Taylor Swift and enough questions to guarantee a response. So, when she decided to thank our mail carrier for the service he provides us, she left nothing out. In went Taylor Swift, in went the little brother, in went the jokes.

Sara said that, as an essential worker, Doug might not be able to maintain regular correspondence, but she sure could. Em started writing that very afternoon. This is when things get interesting. The next week, we got a letter address to “Mr and Mrs Weber.”

It seems that Sara had shared Em’s note as a “Token of Thanks” in the internal newsletter for the Western US and there were some postal folks that wanted to thank her. Today, we saw Doug getting out of the truck with two BOXES of letters from around the country. We snapped a quick photo through the door as he and Emerson met for the first time. It was a beautiful moment on silent reciprocity.

These letters are so deeply human. They are filled with family, pets, hobbies, community and an overwhelming sense of kindness.

Because Em was fully vulnerable, they were too.

Em shared jokes, so they shared jokes.
Em share her brother, so every gift that was sent came in duplicate.
Em shared @TaylorSwift13 and it turns out that the US Postal service is filled with lots of undercover Swifties. One maintenance manager from Minnesota wanted to inspire her to start collecting stamps so he sent along two stamps of his own from the bulletin board in his office to start her collection.
And, they sent stamps to be used as well. Stamps for her to write back. Stamps for her to write others. Stamps, stamps, stamps. (218 by Em’s count.)

But, there was something more in these letters. People felt seen – some for the first time in a long time.

“I work alone in a small rural post office…”
“My kids all live far away…”
“Not a lot of people think about how hard we work…” One wrote,
“I can’t tell you how much it means to read your letter…”
Another,“I have a son in Kuwait and if you have a second to send him a letter he would love it.”
And another,
“I know you can’t write back to all of us, but maybe I can drop you a line from time to time?” With dozens of new pen pals, Em did what she does best.
She wrote the dad.
She wrote his son.
She assured the secret swifties not to be embarrassed because her dad likes TSwift, too.
She acknowledged that there WERE a lot of letter but that she had time.
She sees them all.

 

The best of Good News Friday: An NFL player buys shoes for an entire school, and washes many students’ feet, too. A woman plays the violin during her OWN brain surgery. And an opera singer lifts souls in the early days of the pandemic.

Hello all, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend, the final weekend of 2020 (thank God).

As I always do during the final week of the year, I’m kicking back, relaxing, and bringing you what I think were the best, and what many of you have said were your favorite, Good News Friday stories from the past 12 months.

And man oh man, did we EVER need good news in 2020. So today, here are three stories from the early part of the year that brought me so much joy.

First, from January, I absolutely loved this piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Ben Fredrickson, an e-migo of mine (“e-migo” is the wonderful term coined by Joe Posnanski for someone you’ve never met in real life but you talk to online and in emails) on Pierre Desir.

Desir is an NFL defensive back for the Indianapolis Colts, but once upon a time he came to America with his Haitian refugee parents, and settled in St. Louis.

He remembers fondly getting his first pair of new shoes, and how that made him feel.  So in addition to many other charitable acts he’s done in the St. Louis area, Desir came back to St. Louis last week to introduce Samaritan’s Feet,  a program he’s become an ambassador for after discovering it with the Colts.

The nonprofit started by Nigerian immigrant Manny Ohonme has, since its founding in 2003, given away more than 7 million pairs of shoes in 108 countries. Add 576 Northview Elementary School students to the list, thanks to funding from Desir.

But here’s the super-cool part: Desir showed up at the school and washed the feet of many of the kids who were getting new shoes.

“Our district is considered 100 percent free and reduced lunch,” said Patricia Guyton, the school’s principal. “To give them shoes? My goodness. We have some students come to school with shoes that are too big or too small. This will be something they always remember.”

A wonderful gesture, and a great display of humanity. None of us are too good to wash another person’s feet.

Next, from February, an absolutely remarkable story and piece of video that made me smile in awe.

A woman named Dagmar Turner had brain surgery in London recently. Turner is an accomplished violinist, and doctors (and she) were concerned that the delicate surgery might affect the motor skills she needs to play the instrument so beautifully.

So, and this blows my mind just typing this, they kept her slightly awake during the operation and had her play the violin during the surgery.

According to this story in The Washington Post, “Surgeons working close to parts of the brain that control important functions such as speech or movement routinely keep patients awake to best determine where tumor gives way to something vital.

King’s College Hospital, which treated Turner, often gives people language tests during such surgeries, said Keyoumars Ashkan, the neurosurgeon who oversaw Turner’s delicate operation, and who also happens to be a musician. But last month’s procedure marked the first time he’d presided over a private serenade.”

“Turner went under general anesthesia while they opened her skull. But the brain itself does not have pain receptors, and she was wide-awake for the tumor’s removal, playing Gershwin, Mahler and more”

This is wild. I mean, I’ve heard of surgeons humming music while they operate, but this is a live concert! In the OR!

I would guess at her next performance, no distraction from the audience would throw her off, you know?

**And finally today, from March, a month that saw all of our world’s change in a terrible way, comes a beautiful piece of music that lifted my spirits then, and now.

 Lauren Lugo (above), a young opera student from Laguna Beach, Calif., is studying her craft in Rome. And this week, she stepped outside her apartment onto her balcony, in a bathrobe, and belted out this exquisite number. Just gorgeous, a little more than a minute of pure perfection in the craft of singing.

Man, what I wouldn’t give to sound like that even once. So, so beautiful.

Good News Friday: Steve Hartman and Secret Santa give out a ton of $$$. A 95-year-old woman is one hell of an athlete. And John Krasinski and The Rock bring back “Some Good News” and it’s awesome.

A quick programming note before we begin: As always in the last week of the year, next week each blog post will be a “Best of Good News Friday” post, looking at my favorite, and/or the most popular, GNF posts of 2020. Never have we needed an extra reminder of all the good that’s in the world than we do now. I hope you’ll check it out.

Ho ho ho, and Merry Christmas to all of my readers who celebrate this joyous holiday. I hope wherever you are, those of you who celebrate are having a happy, relaxing day with your immediate family, and hoping and praying that next year will be so much better.

I want to start Good News Friday today with one of my favorite TV pieces every year: Steve Hartman of CBS News tagging along with a wealthy Secret Santa, who always gives out wads of hundred-dollar bills to complete strangers every holiday season.

This year, Secret Santa had to do things a little differently, given the coronavirus. So he took his generosity to a new level: He researched and chose essential workers from around the country, and sent them big envelopes of cash, but told them not to open it until they talked to Hartman.

The three-minute video above had me reaching for the tissues, as always. Just absolutely beautiful stuff. Secret Santa is one hell of a man, whoever he is.

Meet the oldest gymnast in the world — Johanna Quaas.

She lives in Germany and turned 95 this year.

Age is only a number…https://t.co/wNEVQeFDni

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) December 22, 2020

**Next up today, check out this amazing nonagenarian named Johanna Quass. She’s German, and she’s 95 years old. And look at what kind of gymnastic moves she can still do!

The move at the :26 mark completely blows me away. What an incredible woman.

**And finally today, remember John Krasinski’s heartwarming Web show from earlier in the year, called “Some Good News?” Well, the former star of “The Office” has brought the show back for a holidays edition, and it’s magnificent.

There’s so much good stuff in this 20-minute show, including how one person’s decision to pay it forward at a Dairy Queen in Minnesota led to 900 people paying for meals for the person behind them in line. NINE hundred! And another story about a philanthropist in L.A. gave a homeless woman her own apartment.

But the segment with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is just so terrific. Krasinski introduces us to a dad named Jay, who is selling some of his favorite possessions to pay for Christmas presents for his kids.

Jay is a big fan of “The Rock,” and well, Krasinski arranged a Zoom interview and what Johnson is doing for Jay is just incredible. Watch this segment starting at 11:04, and realize just how much good there is in the world.

The Rock is just a wonderful human being.

The sequel to my favorite comedy ever is almost here, and I’m scared “Coming to America 2” will ruin a classic. Two days before Christmas, and it’s time for the Jews to go for Chinese food. And a Rosebud Motel theme from “Schitts Creek” wins the holiday season.

There have been precious few movie sequels that have lived up to their originals.

“Rocky II” was outstanding, and on certain days I might argue it was better than the original. Of course, “Godfather, Part II” qualifies as a classic in its own right, as does “Superman 2, and “Toy Story 2.”

But usually, sequels stink worse than a high school gym locker room after a spirited basketball game. They usually lack the creativity, humor and just plain originality of the original movie.

Also? There’s usually very little reason to make a sequel, except to make money because the first film did well at the box office.

And when you’re talking to me about “Coming to America,” my favorite comedy of all time, there is absolutely no reason to make a second one.

I think I’ve talked about my love for the Eddie Murphy-Arsenio Hall 1989 classic on the blog before, but it is a perfect movie in every way. Funny oozes out of this flick, between the incredible array of characters Murphy and Hall play, to the script, to the acting … even the bit part extras who have one or two lines are amazing (shout out to you, Jake Steinfeld, as the taxi driver!)

It is an amazing, timeless film that ends happily and with no cliffhanger or natural opening to make a second movie.

But, Eddie Murphy decided he wanted to get the gang back together, and so we have “Coming to America 2”, coming to Amazon Prime in March.

I so, so dread this. I don’t want to see Semi and Akeem as old men, hanging around Zamunda while wondering how their old apartment in Queens is doing. I don’t want to see McDowell’s hamburger shop turned into a high-rise office building, nor do I want to see the Soul-Glo empire crumble.

Don’t mess with perfection!

But, what the hell, if Murphy and Kenya Barris (a terrific TV writer) decided to make a film, I guess I should give it a try. The trailer was released this week and as much as I wanted to hate it, it wasn’t bad. It actually was good.

I am so, so afraid this movie will be horrible, and I’ll never be able to hear someone scream “Sexual Chocolate!” again without crying.

But after seeing the trailer, I’m now … cautiously optimistic.

**Next up today, it’s the day before Christmas Eve, which of course means two things: Jews like me are deciding at which Chinese restaurant to get Christmas dinner, and that I get to run one of my all-time favorite “Saturday Night Live” sketches, called “Christmastime for the Jews.”

Every time I watch it I get a new favorite part: Today it was when the Three Wise Men get “converted.”

So, so good.

https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1340869152119013383

**And finally today, a little holiday cheer that brings to mind one of my absolute greatest pleasures in this shitshow of a year, 2020.

Discovering “Schitts Creek” was such a wonderful surprise, an absolute gem of a show that was perfect in every way.
So of course I got excited when I saw this on Twitter the other day: A Rosebud Motel that is all decked out for the holiday season.

A man in Seattle named Richard Knowles decided to decorate his house and surrounding area to look like the famous “Schitts Creek” show locale, and it is awesome.

“I was just bored with the whole COVID thing,” Knowles said. “It’s something to do, really. I’ve always been kind of artsy. It just worked out.”

See? A few good things have come out of this year! Check out the pics here.

A major American newspaper apologizes for its awful historical treatment of African-Americans, with a powerful essay. Dr. Anthony Fauci adorably tells a kid he vaccinated Santa. And in the NFL, the Chiefs-Saints game lived up to the hype, and my Jets can’t even tank .

Confronting your own history, especially one as racist as that of the United States of America, is not easy for a lot of people.

We whitewash it in our school textbooks, we sanitize it, we give our children growing up only the barest details of the horrors that the leaders of this country inflicted upon everyone who was not born with white skin.

But one of the many positive developments of the last several years when it comes to race relations and owning up to our past is that old institutions have started to have a reckoning with how much they had to do with ignoring or minimizing the important contributions, or problems, that minorities in their community have had.

Newspapers have been doing a lot of that lately; my old newspaper in North Carolina, the Wilmington Star-News, has been very critical and self-examining of its role in the 1898 race riot in the city. The Hartford (Conn.) Courant has also critically examined its past coverage.

And Sunday, the Kansas City (Mo.) Star published an extraordinary apology and special section of stories examining just how white-centric, and how completely unfair to African-Americans, it has been over most of the 140 years of its existence. Editor Mike Fannin (who, fun fact, once sent me a very nice job rejection letter, one of the nicest I’ve ever gotten) wrote a powerful essay explaining why the Star has done this project, and what their self-examination found.

“Before I say more,” Fannin begins, “I feel it to be my moral obligation to express what is in the hearts and minds of the leadership and staff of an organization that is nearly as old as the city it loves and covers:

“We are sorry.”

Here’s an excerpt, but I strongly encourage you to read the whole essay:

Reporters were frequently sickened by what they found — decades of coverage that depicted Black Kansas Citians as criminals living in a crime-laden world. They felt shame at what was missing: the achievements, aspirations and milestones of an entire population routinely overlooked, as if Black people were invisible.

Reporters felt regret that the papers’ historic coverage not only did a disservice to Black Kansas Citians, but also to white readers deprived of the opportunity to understand the true richness Black citizens brought to Kansas City.

Like most metro newspapers of the early to mid-20th century, The Star was a white newspaper produced by white reporters and editors for white readers and advertisers. Having The Star or Times thrown in your driveway was a family tradition, passed down to sons and daughters.

But not in Black families. Their children grew up with little hope of ever being mentioned in the city’s largest and most influential newspapers, unless they got in trouble. Negative portrayals of Black Kansas Citians buttressed stereotypes and played a role in keeping the city divided.

In the pages of The Star, when Black people were written about, they were cast primarily as the perpetrators or victims of crime, advancing a toxic narrative. Other violence, meantime, was tuned out. The Star and The Times wrote about military action in Europe but not about Black families whose homes were being bombed just down the street.

Even the Black cultural icons that Kansas City would one day claim with pride were largely overlooked. Native son Charlie “Bird” Parker didn’t get a significant headline in The Star until he died, and even then, his name was misspelled and his age was wrong.

The whole essay is outstanding, and I read a few of the stories the Star published along with it.

Look, we’re never going to have a South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission in America, where people who perpetrated disgusting acts of racism will be called to account.

But things like what the Star did are very important, because they pull the cover off of the “whitewashed history” and show exactly how awful African-Americans and other minorities have been treated.

The apology is much-needed. And I would love to see more and more American institutions do what the Star did: Own your past, and vow to do better.

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1340443806387286018

**Next up today, this was a very sweet little moment from the recent Covid-19 town hall for kids, put on by CBS and “Sesame Street.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci was on, of course, and a 6-year-old from Illinois named Paxton asked him about how safe it would be for Santa to come down everyone’s chimneys on Christmas Eve this year, given that nobody is allowed into anyone’s house these days.

And Fauci’s answer was adorable and pitch-perfect.

**And finally, sigh, the New York Jets. The New York freaking Jets, ladies and gentlemen. My sad-sack franchise that has caused me so much heartache over the years I’ve got Pepcid on my Amazon subscribe and save, once again caused me anguish Sunday.

All they had to do, ALL they had to do, was lose their last three games, all to superior teams, and they’d get the chance to draft a generational talent, Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence. They’re SO good at losing, they’d done it 13 times already this season!

And yet, what happens? They go out to play the L.A. Rams, a very good team this season, and the Jets freaking win. They won, 23-20! And looked like a competent football team!

And now the Jacksonville Jaguars only need to lose two more games, and THEY will be the ones to get Lawrence, and he’ll probably win 3-4 Super Bowls for them and end up an all-time great.

Sigh. So damn frustrating. Well, Jacksonville plays the highly-erratic Bears next week, I guess there’s a chance they could win, right? Right?
Help me talk myself into this.

— The game of the day Sunday was expected to be Chiefs-Saints, and it was a thriller. The Fighting Mahomes’ won, 32-29, but Drew Brees came back from injury and showed he’s still pretty terrific, the K.C. defense doesn’t seem so solid lately, and I’d love to see a rematch between these two squads in the Super Bowl.

— So the Eagles certainly seem to have a new quarterback, eh? Jalen Hurts was phenomenal in the final three quarters, rallying Philly back to tie Arizona before the Cardinals and their sensational young quarterback, Kyler Murray, hung on to win. Hurts threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns, and because of that, Carson Wentz will be carrying a clipboard for awhile.

— Remember those people saying the Tampa Bay Bucs, with Tom Brady, could make the Super Bowl this year? They’re actually not that good. The men formerly in pewter barely beat a terrible Falcons team Sunday, and will squeak into the playoffs.

— The Patriots lost, which means they won’t be in the postseason for the first time since 2008, and won’t have a winning record since (checks notes) the year before 9/11 happened. That would be 2000, 20 years ago.
That is insane. In this day and age of NFL parity, and teams being great one year and terrible the next … I am in awe.

— I want the Buffalo Bills to win the Super Bowl. Man their offense is SO much fun to watch. Can we get either Browns-Chiefs of Bills-Chiefs in the AFC playoffs, please?

 

Good News Friday: A Texas High school store accepts “acts of kindness” instead of money. Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife had been amazing in giving away money lately. And Dave Grohl’s “Hanukkah sessions” bring me much joy

Happy Friday and a happy snow day it was here in the Northeast on Thursday! My kids went sledding for the first time ever (the 6-year-old was a big fan, the 3-year-old didn’t enjoy crashing into the snow bank and getting the white stuff in his eyes and mouth) and we had a great little snowball fight in our driveway.

Everyone needs at least one good snow day a year off from school, am I right? Anyway, it was a blast.

It’s Friday, we’re nearing the end of the year but not nearing the end of a need for good news, that’s for sure. First up today is a wonderful tale of a high school in Texas doing so much good for its community.

A school called Linda Tutt High School in rural Sanger, Texas has a student-run grocery store. It  provides food and other necessities to students and their families while teaching essential job skills. The store doesn’t accept cash, relying instead on good deeds, and as no money is exchanged, students shop using a point system.

According to this story, with the help of local sponsors First Refuge Ministries, Texas Health Resources and the grocery store Albertsons, the school opened up. The store is stocked with shelf after shelf of canned goods, dairy products, eggs, and frozen foods, as well as other necessities like toothbrushes, toilet paper, and more. The high school students at Linda Tutt run the store themselves, as Principal Anthony Love told CBS Dallas Fort Worth, stocking the shelves and keeping inventory just as they would if they were working in a chain grocery store. Apart from one pivotal difference; they don’t accept cash, just referrals and points earned by performing acts of kindness.

“In Sanger ISD, there are approximately 2,750 students enrolled and about 43% of our student population is identified as economically disadvantaged,” Love tells Romper, adding that he was approached by people from First Refuge Ministries and Sanger ISD Student Intervention about putting a grocery store in the school.

“It was one of those questions that you don’t get asked everyday, but it didn’t take long to see that only good things could come from this and getting students to work in the grocery store just made the idea even more appealing,” he says.

Points can be earned through a number of good deeds, according to Love, and there have been many students stepping up to help feed their families. As Love shares, he’s seen students “encouraging another student who was having a hard time at home with their family, mentoring another student who was upset,” and “at lunch, a student was sitting alone and another student walked over and asked that student if they wanted to sit with them at their table.”

Families are initially set a number of points based on how many members they have in their household and can continue to earn more by doing these chores as well as excelling in their classroom, helping teachers, or even mentoring elementary students.

Soon, everyone in town will be able to grocery shop with their own acts of kindness. As of Dec. 15, the store will open to the entire community of Sanger, according to CNN.

This is so fantastic. Good on the school, and the community, for helping get this school store off the ground. It can be so humiliating for kids not to have basic necessities, so to be able to get them for your family just by doing acts of kindness? Fantastic.

I so hope this idea spreads across the country.

**Next up today, an amazing amount of money has been given away the past few months by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Now we know ultra-wealthy people give away large sums all the time, but this New York Times story about Scott just blew my mind: She says she has given away more than $4 billion in the last four months.

FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. IN FOUR MONTHS!

“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” Scott wrote in a post on Medium announcing the donations. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; she was a part of the company’s founding and Amazon’s first accountant. According to Forbes, Scott is the third-richest woman in the world, estimating her worth at $55.1 billion after her most recent donations.

The gifts are to 384 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico – all are unrestricted gifts, with no strings attached. Here’s a list of all the places she’s donated to

She’s given $40 million to HBCU Morgan State University, as well as to a number community development financial institutions — mission-driven financial institutions that benefit underserved communities. Scott also made gifts to 43 YMCA associations and the YMCA of the USA – donations for which the national organization’s CEO said they were grateful as Ys have been facing financial hardship during the pandemic.

This is just an incredible amount of giving. Good on Scott for doing so much, so quickly, and helping so many immediately.

**Finally today, there were a couple of things I thought of putting in this final good news story space: Major League Baseball finally agreeing to recognize the Negro Leagues as a major league, and the Cleveland Indians finally dropping their offensive nickname in favor of a different one.

But at the end of a long week, I feel like we all need a little Dave Grohl, who in honor of Hanukkah decided to cover eight songs by Jewish artists, in eight nights.

This was my favorite so far, Grohl and his partner Greg Kurstin, doing Bob Dylan (aka Robert Zimmerman) classic “Rainy Day Women,” aka “Everybody Must Get Stoned.”

It’s entirely possible I listened to this song dozens of times in college while, umm, studying, yeah that’s it.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Joe Biden’s Cabinet picks so far: Meh. Where are ANY Progressives? A pretty awesome holiday commercial from Germany. And remembering the Sandy Hook tragedy, eight years later.

So with the Electoral College officially certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s (a proud Blue Hen!) victory in the Presidential election, I thought it would be a good idea to see who the new Commander-in-Chief has appointed to be in his Cabinet.

And let me preface this by saying that I think Biden is a good man, and will be a good President, and the phrase “breath of fresh air” isn’t strong enough to express just how much better he will be, in every way, in every part of the job, than the Orange Grifter we’ve currently got holding the office (Had to really sting Trump, by the way, that Putin offered congrats to Biden the other day. Always painful to get betrayed by your one true love, isn’t it, Donnie?)

But given that, I have to say Biden’s Cabinet picks so far have been underwhelming. While yes, I understand he needs to get them approved by, at best, a 50-50 Senate, there have been quite a few head-scratching choices, and a glaring lack of progressive voices.

Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, that’s fine, although I can’t imagine the mayor of South Bend has much public transportation experience. I have no problem with ex-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as Energy Secretary, and Tony Blinken as Secretary of State, who as I wrote here a few weeks ago hung out with Grover on “Sesame Street,” will probably be fine.
But Xavier Becarra, the California AG, as Health and Human Services secretary? He has very little health care experience. Another military general to lead the Pentagon in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin? No thank you. We’ve got more than enough problems with military generals leading the Pentagon.

And Tom Vilsack, who rightly is being skewered by African-Americans for his treatment of Shirley Sherrod back in 2010, and is a corporate farm guy to the nth degree? You couldn’t do any better than that for Agriculture Secretary?

At almost every turn, Biden has chosen either an “old hand” from the Obama years, or a moderate, non-ideological person to lead a Department.

Where are the progressives Biden promised to work with? Where are representatives on the left who will try to bring this country way back from the abyss that Trump and his cronies have taken us to?

As of yet Biden has yet to name an Attorney General nominee, and that’s a big one, or an Education Secretary, another very important position.

The next AG will have enormous work to do, helping strengthen and enforce current voting rights laws, and working to put back ones that Trump, McConnell and Co. have weakened or abolished. The new AG will also need to stop, or reverse, the disgraceful anti-minority policies the Trump administration has set forth. The new AG will also possibly be responsible with charging Donald Trump with some of the many, many crimes he’s committed while in office.

Look, I’m trying to give Biden the benefit of the doubt here. I know he’s far, far from a progressive, and I don’t expect his Cabinet to be filled with a dozen AOC’s or Bernie Sanderses.

But man, there has been very little outreach to a large bloc of the Democratic Party. I just hope his remaining picks are better (Doug Jones for AG, please.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ha1dtAFbAA&feature=emb_logo

**Next up today, this is one of the most moving commercials I’ve seen in a long, long time. A Dutch pharmacy company called Doc Morris has put out this amazing holiday ad, starring an old man, a kettle bell, and well … I am not going to give it away.

Two minutes of absolute perfection. Get the tissues out.

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1338466397849055232

** And finally today, most historical anniversaries pass without much fanfare, but the one on Dec. 14 every year always stops me cold, and hits me in the heart.

That was the date in 2012 when a gunman walked into Sandy Hill Elementary in Newtown, Conn. and killed 26 people, including 20 children, aged 6 and 7.

Absolutely one of the most gut-wrenching days of this century. I’ve told this story before but I remember exactly where I was when it happened; I was substitute teaching in New York City in those days, and I rarely ever worked in an elementary school. But that day I happened to be in an elementary school in lower Manhattan, and I had a free period in late morning, walked into the teacher’s lounge and checked news headlines on the computer, and my mouth fell wide open in shock.

It was unspeakable, and awful, and what burns me up so much when I think about this, almost as much as the tragedy that those beautiful kids had their lives snuffed out, is that NOTHING changed when it came to gun laws in America.

Eight years on, it’s still way too easy to get a gun, there has been NO meaningful gun control legislation passed in this country, and the NRA and the Republican Party continue to stand in the way of any meaningful safety measures.

I’ll never forget a Tweet I saw in 2015, after yet another gun control bill didn’t pass. It was by a British commentator named Dan Hodges (I admit I had forgotten his name and had to look it up), and it read:

“In retrospect, Sandy Hook marked the end of the U.S. gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”

Cold, hard truth. God bless those children who would now be in high school. And God help us that we cannot pass any meaningful gun control laws in their memory.

The first Covid-19 vaccines arrive in the U.S. today: let’s pause and acknowledge that miracle. Daveed Diggs with a pretty funny “Hanukkah” song. And in the NFL, Washington is in first place, and Patrick Mahomes shows he’s mortal.

 

There is so much negative going on in the world right now, and I get it. Thousands of people are dying every day of coronavirus; we’ve got millions of people either having been evicted or about to be evicted; the economy is still in a shambles, so many people can’t work, and oh yeah, we’ve got a President who, in his final days in office, continues to scream and yell from the Twitter rooftops that the election was stolen and he was re-elected.

So I get how easy it is to be negative, and down about everything. But I have to tell you, it was very inspiring to me to see photos, videos and stories Sunday about the first doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine being prepared in a warehouse in Michigan, packaged up, put on trucks, and then loaded onto FedEx planes to be mailed all around the nation.

Think about where we were eight months ago: The virus had just started ravaging the world, no one had ever seen anything like it before, and we knew very little about how it was transmitted, how contagious it was, and what could be done to stop it.

Scientists all over the world stopped everything they were doing, and went to work. The average vaccine takes at least 4-6 years to get developed, tested, and released to the public. We have gotten this vaccine in a matter of months, and within, oh, 6-8 more months, around 70-80 percent of Americans will be vaccinated.

In the immortal words of Jesse Pinkman from “Breaking Bad,” “Yay, science!”

If you drown out the noise, sometimes you just notice something incredible. Like this vaccine, arriving so damn fast.

**Next up today, under the category of “things I never thought I needed,” may I present talented actor Daveed Diggs (of “Hamilton” fame, he played LaFayette) singing a song about Hanukkah.

Called “Puppy for Hanukkah,” it’s about a boy, wanting a puppy, for Hanukkah. And it’s pretty great, and hilarious. I especially liked the part about the socks.

**And finally, it’s Monday, and we’re getting down the home stretch of this NFL season, a regular season that looks as if it’ll actually be completed despite Covid-19 wreaking havoc with America. Gotta say, I’m very surprised the NFL has gotten these games in.

Lot of surprises Sunday, although certainly Seahawks 40, Jets 3 was not one of them (“3 more losses, 3 more losses!” My fellow Jets fans, or any fan of comedy, will enjoy this SNL skit from Saturday night on the “alternate reality” that show the Jets are undefeated).

Are you prepared for the first-place Washington Football Team? Despite losing starting quarterback Alex Smith, the WFT beat San Francisco Sunday to improve to 6-7 and, with the Giants’ loss to Arizona, take over first place.
Smith is an amazing story, having come back from his serious leg injury a few years back, and I want to root for him to succeed. Then I remember the team has a disgusting, awful owner in Dan Snyder and a toxic as all hell culture and I stop myself.

Still, it’s a hell of a thing, Washington actually being good this year.

— Patrick Mahomes is mortal. The best QB in the NFL threw a whopping three interceptions on Sunday in the Chiefs’ win over Miami; for comparison he only had two picks the whole season before Sunday. I mean, the Chiefs still won, but nice to know the guy is human.

— You see the Bears crush another team Sunday, with incredible skill position players like Allen Robinson and David Montgomery, and a strong defense, and you think “if they got even mediocre QB play, they could be a Super Bowl contender.” But their quarterback play has been so, so dreadful that it’s understandable why they’re 6-6.

— Indianapolis is a super-fun team to watch, and will be dangerous in the playoffs. The Colts are getting great play from Phillip Rivers, have an aggressive D, and a strong head coach in Frank Reich (why couldn’t the Jets have hired him?). They’re 9-4 and looking really, really good.

— How good is Buffalo? Pretty damn good. A couple of years ago my Bills-fan friend Matt was so upset his team had drafted Josh Allen, as he, like me, was convinced he’d be a bust. But the dude is a stud, with the latest evidence being Sunday night’s win over 11-1 Pittsburgh. He’s got a huge arm, but now he’s accurate and confident. Bills are going to be a very tough out in the playoffs.

— Finally, looks like the Eagles might have a new quarterback. Carson Wentz benched, rookie Jalen Hurts comes in to start Sunday, and shockingly, Philly beats the Saints, who hadn’t lost since September! Hurts wasn’t amazing, throwing for 167 yards, but he didn’t turn the ball over and hey, sometimes that’s good enough.
Just a year or two ago, Wentz was the franchise QB, and the hero of the city. Now, he may never start again. Cold, cold business, this NFL.

Good News Friday: A couple who owns a Christmas tree store gives back. A 7-year-old girl wins the fight to make female toy soldiers. And a remote class makes a Professor feel very loved.

 

And a Happy Friday to all of you creatures of Earth! Hope all is well with you; we’re at the beginning of Hanukkah, the Christmas lights are up all over my town which always makes me and my kids happy, and we are, mercifully, only a few weeks away from the beginning of the Biden Presidency.

A trio of good stories for you this week on Good News Friday, two of them in the spirit of the holiday season. First up, a great story that Peter King of NBC Sports put in his column this week, from ABC World News Tonight. 

A couple named Chad and Dana Akenhead of Corrales, N.M. normally have a tree farm this time of year, selling Christmas trees to locals.

But this year, because they know so many are hurting financially, they’ve decided to give away their trees, as well as make donations to local businesses from donations given to them for the trees, nearly $5,000.

“Money is cool but making people happy … nothing can beat that,” Chad Akenhead said.

What a wonderful gesture from two people with good hearts. Watch the story above.

**Next up today, my old favorite “good news” supplier Steve Hartman of CBS News with a terrific tale of a little girl making a big statement. Vivian Lord, a 7-year-old girl from Little Rock, Ark., wondered why there weren’t any toy army soldiers that were women, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

And got some great results. Check out the power of a little girl’s persistence. (As an aside from me: It’s kind of amazing that, in 2020, there are still products made “only for boys,” or with only boy models. It’s ridiculous.)

fully crying in the club rn pic.twitter.com/w7hgxrvMKm

— Rachelle D'nae (@heyydnae) December 10, 2020

**And finally today, this was heartwarming, as we come to the end of the college semester. College student Lauren Herrle recently shared a video on TikTok she had taken of her last day of Zoom class with her “sweetest professor,” Dr. Brown.

The video starts off with only Dr. Brown’s screen activated and he is asking calmly, “Is this the new cool thing to do? Not turn your camera on?” When no one’s cameras come on he says hesitantly, “Here we go… seriously, is it my fault that you have your cameras off?”

And then, well, the students do the most wonderful thing.

I’ve said it before and will say it again: Teachers are often the most important, impactful people in our lives. And during this pandemic, well, their importance has been made even more clear.

Well done, Dr. Brown. You must be one amazing educator.

A man in Russia figures out the answer to his breathing problems after 50 years. Hanukkah is almost here, so break out the Adam Sandler! And a powerful speech from a TV character doctor on Covid-19’s dangers.

Some weird news stories, I hear about them and read about them, and I’m left with more questions than answers.
But still, I’m intrigued and want to know more.

So check out this story I heard on this week’s NPR “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me:” A 59-year-old man in Russia was having some breathing difficulties, and so went to the doctor to see what was going on.

The physician took a scan of his nasal cavity, and found something impeding his right nostril: A coin.

Apparently when the man was 6, he stuffed a coin up his nose and was “too scared” to tell his parents about it. The coin stayed there, the man forgot about it for a half-century, until he recently started having breathing problems.

Rhinoliths – stones in the nasal cavity – had formed around the coin, constricting his ability to breathe. Medics carried out endoscopic surgery under general anesthetic, removing the stones and retrieving the Soviet one kopek coin from his nose after 53 years.

I mean … SO many questions. First of all, how in the hell, even at age 6, do you stick a coin up your nose and FORGET it’s there? Like, maybe for a few hours, but don’t you like, sneeze, or cough, or something and realize it’s there? Question 2: I get being scared of telling your parents you did something dumb, but wouldn’t you think after like a week or so you might want to tell them?

Question 3: So you’re telling me the coin was so small and snug in his nostril that for five decades, it NEVER came out? Like, he never got conked in the face, or banged his head on something, to loosen it? What, did he put like SuperGlue on it when he was 6?

And my final query: Once the coin came out of his nose, what do you do with it? Do you frame it under glass or something? Give it to a museum? Stick it in a drawer? There really is no protocol for this.

At the very least, you know that surgeon is going to be telling that story at cocktail parties for the next 10 years.

**Next up today, tomorrow night is the first night of Hanukkah, when nice little Jewish boys and girls all over the world happily rip open wrapping paper, admire their gifts for about five minutes, then turn to Mom and Dad excitedly and say “We get more tomorrow night, right?”

Beside the gluttony of presents, Hanukkah also means we get to hear Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song” over the radio often, at least one of the versions, that is.

This is version No.2, my personal favorite, if only because of the Lenny Kravitz/Courtney Love line.

Here’s a powerful scene from the @blackishabc season premiere.

Please social distance. Wear a mask. Be a good teammate…https://t.co/iosnwNdsxa

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) December 7, 2020

**And finally today, my wife and I used to really like the ABC show “Blackish” for the first few years it was on the air. It was sharp, funny, well-acted and had a lot of heart. Then we sort of lost the plot with it; the storylines became too outrageous and unbelievable, and we just didn’t find it funny anymore.

Still, I’ve always admired that “Blackish” isn’t afraid to talk about real-world issues, and this clip from the season premiere that was making the rounds on Twitter this week was pretty powerful.

Tracee Ellis-Ross’ character, Dr. Rainbow Johnson, is listening to her son plead to be allowed to hang out with his girlfriend during Covid-19. Really, really good stuff here.