Best of Good News Friday, 2021, Part 3: A man with Alzheimer’s forgets his wife, then falls in love with her all over again. A high school runner pushes her disabled brother in every race, literally. And a best friend cheers up his buddy after a terrible, no-good day.

Happy Friday, and happy last day of 2021, y’all! This has been yet another miserable year for so many, but compared to 2020, it has brought so much good. Vaccines! Seeing people again! Sports coming back with fans in the stands!

To finish off the last day of this year, one final installment of the “Best of Good News Friday, 2021” for you. This is always the hardest post for me to write, because there are so many of these stories I think are worthy of being the best of the best. But alas, we’ve narrowed it down.

Wishing you and your loved ones a fantastic New Year, and hoping 2022 gets us far beyond this Covid plague we’ve gotten so accustomed to.

First up today, I absolutely must share this story, from July, that I love so much.

Peter Marshall and his wife, Lisa, of Andover, Conn. have been married for a long time. But several years ago, Peter was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and of course started to lose his memories. Eventually, he didn’t remember Lisa.

But what happened next is so sweet, and so tender… I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you in this short video, but I think by the end you’ll be smiling.

What a wonderful love story.  I know some of you out there might question that this is “Good News,” but man I totally believe it is. A man, a woman, falling in love all over again. Forget the other stuff, THAT is a wonderful thing.

**Next up, from November, this was a story that I absolutely knew would be part of my “Best Of” blogs when I saw it. It absolutely gobsmacked me when I saw it.

There’s a wonderful TV reporter in Minnesota named Boyd Huppert, who does these superb human interest stories. The great Peter King of NBC Sports highlighted this terrific video tale Huppert did two weeks ago, about a 14-year-old cross country runner in Chippewa Falls named Susan Bergeman, who pushes her brother Jeffrey in every race she runs.

Jeffrey suffered sudden cardiac arrest as a toddler and was left with severe brain damage, so he’s confined to a wheelchair.

But the brother-sister bond he and Susan have has led her to this extraordinary quest.

“He’s excluded from a lot of things,” Susan said. “This is something we can do together.”

Just so beautiful.

3 yrs ago, best friends Stevie & Owen where separated when Owen moved to Missouri

Recently, Stevie had a bad day at school & asked to be picked up early. He had no idea Owen had traveled to Chicago & was waiting in the car to surprise him.🎥:Dianemstroudhttps://t.co/In1Uh5Q20U

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) October 3, 2021

**And finally, I wasn’t sure which of the other stories I loved to put here, so I gave final decision to my wife, who is far wiser than me.

She chose this one, and I can’t disagree.

It’s about the joy one can only know when one has had a truly miserable day: And that’s the joy of a surprise visit from your best friend.

From Upworthy.com, in October: “Eleven-year-old best friends Stevie and Owen hadn’t seen each other since 2019, after Owen’s family moved from Chicago to Missouri. Despite several phone calls and FaceTime video game sessions, COVID-19 had made keeping in touch difficult.

But their luck was destined to change last Friday. Stevie Stroud had no idea that after being picked up early from a bad day at school, his friend Owen would be waiting in the car to pay him a special visit.

And Owen had a really bad day, and he gets in the car and … this happens.

Best friends. Everyone needs one.

Best of Good News Friday, 2021: A sick kid who was never supposed to play baseball again, throws a no-hitter in his final game. The commercial of the year joyfully told us it’s OK to see people again. And a 94-year-old woman discovers singing recordings she made 70 years ago.

Today we continue our annual series during the final week of the calendar year, highlighting what I feel are some of the best, and my favorite, Good News Friday stories from the past 51 weeks. Hope you enjoy.

First I want to start with one of the most improbable Steve Hartman stories I’ve ever seen. This, truly, is unbelievable.
From April: So there’s a 17-year-old kid in Edgewood, Ky. named Walker Smallwood, and he’s grown up as a baseball fanatic. Loved the game, had all kinds of talent, and dreamed of playing in college and then maybe professionally. But then a few years ago, in 2018, he was diagnosed with a bone cancer in his leg, had a half-dozen surgeries and chemo cycles, and his baseball career was over.

But Walker is a senior this year, and after much discussion with his parents and coaches, he was allowed to pitch the first inning of a game on April 6 against Villa Madonna.

He got the first three batters out, so they let him keep pitching. And pitching, and pitching. Walker ended up throwing a NO-HITTER.

Watch the story above, with your jaw on the floor. Such a heartwarming moment.

**Next up, I know here in late December, with Omicron going wild and so many people we all know getting sick, it may be hard to remember those joyful early spring weeks when we were all finally getting vaccinated, and it finally seemed safe to go out into the world again, and see so many people we’d been missing.
But back in June this commercial came out and it absolutely made me smile and laugh from ear to ear, and I wanted to share it again.

It’s for Extra gum, and yeah you might think “how good could a gum commercial be?” I thought that too when I heard about it.

And then I watched it, and watched it four more times, and it’s freaking fantastic. Two and a half minutes of pure magic.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, especially the two guys and how they look at each other at the :44 mark.

**And finally today, from April, I just love this story of a dream had, then lost for decades, then found again.

A 94-year-old woman named Madeline Forman once had big dreams as a teenager, as so many of us did.

She wanted to be a big singing star, and as a kid in Newark, N.J., she performed at local clubs, dreaming of being the next Frank Sinatra.

She even made a couple of records for herself at Hertz Studios, in 1946, and then put them in storage and forgot about them.

From this Times story: “At the beginning of lockdown last spring, Madeline Forman and her husband, Joseph, decided to downsize. While rummaging through a closet she found a dusty old box. Inside was a stack of recordings of the songs she made in 1946 and one of her singing at her wedding reception in 1953. They included jazz standards like “Nobody’s Baby,” “Can’t Help Loving That Man of Mine,” “Begin the Beguine” and Yiddish classics like “Oy Mama!” It was her voice, but from another era.

Ms. Forman, 94, was astonished.”

She had forgotten all about the records, and with some help, Forman had them converted into a much more current format, and her music is now on SoundCloud.

What a world we live in.

Best of Good News Friday, 2021: A longtime NYC cleaning woman who’s fallen on hard times gets a free penthouse apartment. A neighborhood honors a friend who hadn’t taken down her holiday lights. And a math teacher, a sick kid, and a beautiful adoption.

Hello dear readers! The calendar may say it’s Monday, but as always here at Wide World of Stuff in the final week of the year, it’s Friday all week. Good News Friday, that is. After yet another year filled with so much loss and suffering from Covid-19, I feel more than ever we need to be reminded of all the good things that happened in 2021. The acts of human kindness, the examples of the resiliency of the human spirit, and events that just made us feel good.

Today, Wednesday and Friday I’m going to re-share some of my favorite Good News Friday stories from the past year. With 51 weeks to choose from, and 3 posts a week, surely I’m going to leave off some of your favorites. But each of these, I feel, illustrates the maxim I always say on here: There’s SO much more good than bad in the world. SO much.

Thanks for reading, and I hope these stories make you feel just a little bit better today.

 

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A post shared by George 🇲🇽 Lopez (@georgelopez)

We start with the story in the video above, from January, of a hard-working New York cleaning woman named Rosa. You know Rosa or someone like her; someone who doesn’t complain, performs difficult jobs for little pay, and is still often cheerful in going about their day.
Well, Rosa has been working in this NYC apartment building for the past 20 years. Like so many millions of others, she had fallen on hard times during this pandemic. She had lost her housing and had to move in with her sister. She had been furloughed from her job but kept showing up to work.
The residents of the building had grown so fond of Rosa that they all chipped in to pay the rent for her to live in the building for the next two years.

In the video, she thinks she’s being asked to come upstairs and clean this new penthouse apartment, but it’s finally revealed that this gorgeous place is hers, rent free, for two years, as all the building’s residents chipped in to pay two years’ worth of rent for her.
Just a beautiful moment. People like Rosa are the backbone of our nation.

**Next up, this story from March gave me ALL the feels, and of course it was from the great Steve Hartman of CBS News.

It’s about a math teacher, a foster kid who was one of his favorite students, and a couple of amazing things that happened when the boy decided to open up and tell the teacher about his life.

Thank you, Mr. Finn Lanning, and thank you, Damien, for a wonderful happy ending we all need.

**And finally, from the middle of February, one of my favorite stories of this, or any year:

By mid-February, 2021, just about everybody has taken down their Christmas lights from around their house. But one family in Bethpage, N.Y., hadn’t. The Pascuccis still have their holiday decorations up, and recently Sara Pascucci received an anonymous note from someone.

“Take your Christmas lights down! It’s Valentine’s Day!!!!!!”

It was a mean and ridiculous note, but especially for the Pascuccis and the heartache they’ve endured.

Sara lost both her father and her aunt to Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in January, less than one week apart. So Christmas lights were not exactly her highest priority.

“No one really knows what is going on inside the house or why we didn’t take down the decorations,” said Pascucci, 31. “I couldn’t believe someone would do this.”

Where does the good news part come in? Right here. Pascucci posted a message on a local Mom’s Facebook group, explaining about the note, why her Christmas lights were still up, and castigating the anonymous poster for their cruelty.

Within the next few days, Pascucci’s neighbors all suddenly decided to start putting their holiday lights back up. Attics were climbed into, ladders were brought out, and suddenly it was mid-December again in the neighborhood.

I was completely floored and overwhelmed,” said Pascucci, a receptionist for a dermatologist, adding that she had heard from a few others in the neighborhood who had received the same letter. “I didn’t post it looking for pity. But people should think before doing things like this, especially right now with everything going on in the world.”

Neighbors sent the Pascucci family heartfelt cards, flowers and meals, and a GoFundMe page was created to help cover mounting mortgage payments and funeral costs.

“A man and his wife came with roses and a letter,” Pascucci recalled. “He said: ‘Keep your Christmas lights up. I know what it feels like to lose someone and not want to put their things away. It’s very hard.’ ”

On Feb. 14, to mark Valentine’s Day, the whole Bethpage area is planning to simultaneously light up their homes with bright, colorful bulbs “in memory of my father, and anyone else who lost their lives to covid,” Pascucci said.

She is awed by the kindness of her community, she added, explaining that, ultimately, she is glad to have received the letter.

“I actually want to thank that person, for bringing me all this love and support in a time when I needed it most,” Pascucci said.

Just a really wonderful example of a community coming together to support one of their own. I hope Pascucci left those lights up until Memorial Day.

Good News Friday: A sixth-grader has two amazing hero experiences in one day. Kids in Harlem get rewarded for kindness. And an Iowa football player gives $30,000 NIL money to a children’s hospital.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! And a Happy Friday to the rest of us. I hope you all are happy and most importantly healthy today; my family and I took a lovely little trip into New York City on Thursday; we always take the train in from Long Island and do the touristy stuff this time of year, and while we were of course wearing masks and being Covid-conscious, we had a great time.

It was so jarring seeing the dozens of pop-up Covid-19 testing sites all over Manhattan; wherever we were, there were tents and lines of people waiting to be swabbed. Truly scary times we live in, but we have to be grateful for what we have, and for the joy that seeing my boys run across the “Big” piano at FAO Schwarz, for example, can bring.

For our final “new” Good News Friday of 2021 (remember, next week’s blogs will all be a “best of Good News Friday, 2021” so please check that out), I want to start with a pretty remarkable 6th grader.

Meet Davyon Johnson, an 11-year-old from Muskogee, Okla. Davyon is by all accounts a smart kid and a nice boy, but last week he had the kind of day even Superman would’ve been impressed by.

On Dec. 16, young Davyon saved a classmate from choking, and helped an elderly woman escape a house fire. In one day!

Check this out, from a story on Essence.com: The Enid News & Eagle reported, a student trying to refill his water bottle used his mouth to loosen the cap. The cap slipped into his throat and the student began to choke. The choking student stumbled into Davyon’s classroom.

Davyon jumped into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver. The bottle cap popped out.

The 11-year-old, told Enid News & Eagle he learned the Heimlich maneuver on YouTube, calling it a valuable procedure to learn. He said, “Just in case you’re in the situation I was in, you can know what to do.”

Then, later, while walking after school, Davyon saw an elderly woman trying to escape a house fire. Again, he rushed into action, helping the elderly woman with her walker get out of the home.

“I thought ‘oh, she’s not moving fast enough.’ So I ran across the street and helped her to her truck,” Davyon told News On 6 cameras.

Principal Latricia Dawkins called Davyon a “dual hero.”

“He has always indicated that he wants to be an EMT,” Dawkins said. “So he got to put that desire into action and immediately saved that young man.”

She said the recognition couldn’t have happened to a better person.

“He is just a kind soul and well-liked by his peers and staff alike,” she said.

Wow! What a wonderful young man. Think he got fitted for a cape when he got home from all that?
I see bright things in Davyon’s future. The world is going to be OK.

**Next today, check out this wonderful story from CBS News about an elementary school in Harlem, and a principal who has made rewarding kindness a huge priority, and has made being recognized for being nice into something highly coveted by the kids.

Look at the looks on these kids’ faces when being good can mean so much. Very, very cool program.

**Finally today, yet another example of how the ruling last year that allows college athletes to capitalize financially on their name, image and likeness (NIL) can lead to wonderful stories.

So the University of Iowa football field in Ames, Iowa, is located directly next to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital on campus. The hospital and the football team have become extremely intertwined over the years, leading to the wonderful tradition of everyone at Kinnick Stadium waving to the kid patients at the end of the first quarter of every home game.

Having been a part of this tradition, and moved by it, a Hawkeyes football player named Tyler Linderbaum decided to do something amazing last week. Linderbaum donated $30,000 in NIL earnings to the hospital.

Linderbaum is expected to be a first-round pick in the next NFL Draft, but it’s hard to believe anything he does at the next level will be as important, or meaningful, as this.

Way to go, Tyler.

A hysterical, loving obituary about a “Jewish redneck from Texas” cracks me up. The SNL “Christmastime for the Jews” skit always makes me laugh. And a “Ted Lasso” stop motion Christmas video is awesome.

 

Ho ho ho, and Merry almost-Christmas! A couple of housekeeping notes before we get started today: As always the blog next week, the final week of the year, will be a trio of “Best of Good News Friday” posts, where I scan all previous 51 weeks of GNF posts and find my favorites and/or the ones that resonated the most with you beautiful readers. So definitely check that out, starting Monday.

Second, a big shout-out today to all the health care workers, lab technicians, Covid testers, and the like who are being extraordinarily tested in this time. We are so appreciative of all of your efforts.

OK, on with the show… 

So one of my favorite things to find are wonderfully creative obituaries. Sometimes they’re written by a spouse, or a child, or my favorite, when people pre-write their own obituary, which is something I’ve definitely considered doing (I think about this kind of thing a lot)
This obit came across my social media feeds this week and it made me laugh out loud, multiple times. It was written by the son of a Texas woman named Renay Mandel Corren. Let’s just say it sounds like Renay was one heck of a good time. Here’s how the obit, written by Andy Corren, starts:

“A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday

Of itself hardly news, or good news if you’re the type that subscribes to the notion that anybody not named you dying in El Paso, Texas is good news. In which case have I got news for you: the bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriarch of a sprawling Jewish-Mexican-Redneck American family has kicked it. This was not good news to Renay Mandel Corren’s many surviving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of whom she even knew and, in her own way, loved. There will be much mourning in the many glamorous locales she went bankrupt in: McKeesport, PA, Renay’s birthplace and where she first fell in love with ham, and atheism; Fayetteville and Kill Devil Hills, NC, where Renay’s dreams, credit rating and marriage are all buried; and of course Miami, FL, where Renay’s parents, uncles, aunts, and eternal hopes of all Miami Dolphins fans everywhere, are all buried pretty deep. Renay was preceded in death by Don Shula.

Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren at the impossible old age of 84 is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash-reading, talking and watching woman in NC, FL or TX was not to be found. Hers was an itinerant, much-lived life, a Yankee Florida liberal Jewish Tough Gal who bowled ’em in Japan, rolled ’em in North Carolina and was a singularly unique parent

The obit goes on like that, talking about Renay and all her eccentricities. It’s a loving portrait of a woman who was not perfect, but was wonderful in her own way.

We only get one life to live, and Renay certainly lived hers to the fullest.

**Next up today, one of my favorite traditions here at WWOS is running this wonderful Robert Smigel “Saturday Night Live” sketch that Members of The Tribe like myself feel hits very close to home.

Ladies and gentlemen, as always, I proudly present “Christmastime for the Jews.” Take it away, Ronnie Spector! The 3 Wise Men getting “converted” slayed me again.

**And finally today, the good folks who bring us “Ted Lasso” and all the joy and humor that that television show injects into the world decided to do a short animated video for the Christmas season.

The drawings look exactly like the characters (except for Keeley’s, which seems just a little off) and I very much enjoyed a five-minute dip back into Lassoland after all the rough news this week.

I again urge you, if you’ve never watched the Apple TV program, to give “Ted Lasso” a try. It is SO worth your time.

 

A beautiful little story about widowed penguins, for your Monday morning. Paul Rudd hosts a crowd-less SNL, but the opener was pretty entertaining. And in the NFL, the Jets almost win, and of course the 1-win Lions crush the 10-win Cardinals.

 

It’s Monday, the beginning of the second to last week of the year, and I had a lot of thoughts on what to start today’s blog with, but then I saw this Martina Navratilova Tweet about penguins on Sunday, and it just knocked me cold.
I don’t know why; maybe because, as I mentioned last week, we had a close friend pass away two weeks ago. He was a wonderful man; smart and funny and kind, and only 42 freaking years old.
And we love his wife (I’m sorry, I can’t call her “widow” yet, it seems too soon) and daughter and I don’t know, this photo and description of the ritual of these two penguins struck me as really beautiful.

Read the caption, click in the Tweet to see all three amazing photos, and just hug someone you love today, if at all possible.

Wow 💓💓💓💖❤️🧡💛💚💜 pic.twitter.com/MH1k4oJtWr

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 18, 2021

**Next up today, it was a weird “Saturday Night Live” episode Saturday night, and that’s why I’m highlighting it here today. Paul Rudd was scheduled to host for his fifth time ever, joining an exclusive club.

But with Covid-19 cases running wild in New York City the last few days, the show’s producers decided to do the live broadcast without any audience, and with very few cast and crew members present.

So we had Paul Rudd come out for the “cold open” with a few legends of the show joining him, and Steve Martin and Martin Short (shouldn’t they just combine their names to save space, and go by Steve Martin Short? These are the kinds of things my brain thinks about) doing a special video, and I thought it was very funny and a lovely little moment in a rough time.

Hope you enjoy. And who doesn’t love Paul Rudd??

**Finally today, we’re coming down the stretch of the NFL season, and the whole schedule was thrown into chaos by rampant positive Covid-19 tests. I really don’t know what the solution us; I got into a big debate with a friend this week who says that asymptomatic, vaccinated players should be allowed to keep playing even if they test positive, and that we’re always going to see lots of positive tests now but we should only make players sit out if they’re showing symptoms.

I argued he was wrong, that anybody testing positive, no matter who it is, shouldn’t play. But I don’t know, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if we’re not going overboard trying to protect healthy, vaccinated professional athletes from themselves.

Anyway, it was another wacky day in the NFL, that saw the one-win Detroit Lions (the Detroit Lions!) shocked the world by beating the 10-win Arizona Cardinals.

Maybe we should have had an inkling this might happen: Cardinals coming off a tough Monday night loss against a big division rival, then travelling across the country to play a Lions team that had been competing well lately.

But still, for the Lions to soundly trounce the Cards? Just one more reason to never, ever wager actual money on an NFL game.

Other Week 15 thoughts…

— Well I guess my New York Jets are showing “progress” in that they seem to play well on offense for an entire half at a time. After looking great in jumping out to a 17-7 lead against the Dolphins Sunday, the Jets offense completely stalled in the second half, and of course the green and white lost, 31-24. Three and eleven, and remind me again why I root for this team?

— Woeful showing by Tampa Sunday night, getting shut out by the Saints, who seem to have their number. Crazy that it’s only the third time in his 39 year career (OK it hasn’t been that long) that Tom Brady got held scoreless in a game.

— The 49ers suddenly look like a dangerous playoff team. Strong defense, Jimmy G. playing well at quarterback, they’re getting on a good roll. Both they and the Rams could do a lot of damage in the postseason.

— Finally, John Harbaugh confused me yet again Sunday. A few weeks ago, with his defense decimated with injuries, he went for two points down by 1 in the final seconds, and didn’t get it, and the Ravens lost.
Sunday, exact same situation, Baltimore down seven, backup QB Tyler Huntley leads a fantastic touchdown drive to cut Green Bay’s lead to 31-30, 42 seconds left, and Harbaugh again goes for two. Again it fails, and the Ravens lose.
I just don’t get it. Here, even if you DO get the 2-point try, Aaron Rodgers still has 42 seconds to get the Packers into field goal range. If you kick the PAT, you’re tied, and have a good chance to go to overtime. You’re putting way too much pressure on your team to get the 2-point conversion. Now the Ravens are 8-6 and no longer a playoff lock.

I get being aggressive, but that just seemed dumb to me. Then again, he’s won a few more NFL games than I have.

Good News Friday: Kids get to see their grandparents for the first time in 2 years, and reactions are priceless. The Pfizer Covid treatment pill is effective, and coming very soon. And a man drives to Kentucky to cook food for tornado victims.

Happy Friday, y’all! We are very close to the end of another calendar year, and we’ve got Covid cases rising everywhere, the word “quarantine” is popping up every day again, it’s seeming bleak in a lot of places you look.

So as a perpetual optimist it bothers me that this story didn’t get nearly as much play as the rising positive test numbers this week. There was absolutely great news from the medical world that the Pfizer pill that was in testing to see how it treated people with Covid-19 got truly outstanding results.

So that’s where I want to start Good News Friday this week. The medicine, called Paxlovid (where do they get these names from, anyway?) was, according to this NYT article, “found to stave off severe disease in a key clinical trial and that it is likely to work against the highly mutated Omicron variant of the virus. The results underscore the promise of the treatment, which health officials and doctors are counting on, to ease the burden on hospitals as the United States braces for a mounting fourth wave of the pandemic.”

“If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the drug, which could happen within days, then patients might begin receiving it by the end of the year. Although supply will be limited at first, public health experts are hopeful that the pills might curb the worst outcomes from the disease, no matter the variant.

“Pfizer said its antiviral pill was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 88 percent when given to unvaccinated people at high risk of severe Covid within five days of the onset of symptoms. The company also said that laboratory experiments indicated that the drug will attack a key protein in the Omicron variant, which is surging in South Africa and Europe and is expected to dominate U.S. cases in the weeks ahead.”

Eighty-eight percent reduction of risk of hospitalization and death. Eighty-eight percent! That’s huge. There should be a few hundred thousand doses ready by early next year, and this should go a long way toward preventing deaths.

I just wish the good news here would get trumpeted more.

"I'll be home for Christmas": Grandparents reunite with grandchildren after 2 years. They traveled from Australia to California. This reaction is priceless! 🎅🎄🎁❤

pic.twitter.com/ewPV3XKfHy

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) December 16, 2021

**Next up today, this is pure joy. A couple of boys in California hadn’t seen their grandchildren in two years, thanks to Covid-19. The grandparents live in Australia, and decided they finally could visit their beloved little ones.

Watch the reaction on the boys’ faces when they open the door and see who’s standing there. Just so so great. I also love how the dog is all like “Hey! I’m here too! Someone hug me!”

"It just needed to be done."

A man who drove from a few towns away traveled with his grill and a truckload of food to give out for free to the people of Mayfield, Kentucky, following the deadly tornadoes. https://t.co/5bjqpf7e2f pic.twitter.com/ZE7D9APP50

— ABC News (@ABC) December 14, 2021

**And finally, one giant act of kindness in the aftermath of the horrible devastation of the Kentucky tornadoes.

A man named Jim Finch decided to drive to the middle of Mayfield, Kentucky, one of the hardest-hit areas, with a grill and a truckload of food.
This was the scene right before Jim Finch, the man in the video, set up his grill.  He stood there all day and cooked chicken, burgers and eggs for the people whose lives had just been destroyed.

Eventually, Jose Andres and the amazing World Kitchen people came and gave him more supplies. Just one person, doing what he can, to help out. That’s all the world ever needs.

Have a great weekend and stay safe.

A “Dash for Cash” among South Dakota teachers at a hockey game made me sick. Steph Curry is amazing, Part 4,232. And nine years after the Sandy Hook massacre, so little has changed.

Sometimes I feel like I’m piling on here with stories that have gotten a lot of news play. Othertimes, I’m so disgusted by something that even if you have heard about it, I want to make sure I bring it to your attention again.

This is one of those stories that absolutely revolted me. Maybe you heard about it. There’s a minor league hockey team in Sioux Falls, S.D. called the Stampede. And last week, they had a bizarre, offensive promotion called “Dash for Cash.”

And here’s how it worked: With fans cheering them on, 10 teachers from local public schools gathered around a large piece of carpet at center ice, where $5,000 in $1 bills had just been dumped out.

The teachers then had one minute to scoop up as many dollar bills as they could, stuff them in their clothes, and they got to keep what they collected to use for school supplies (video above).

Rooting around on the ground for dollar bills, LIKE THEY WERE POLE DANCERS!???

Of course you won’t be surprised to learn that South Dakota ranks 50th (out of 50) of U.S. states in average salary for teachers, according to the National Education Association union, which says the state spends $10,805 per student — 38th in the nation.

This spectacle was just so, so wrong. I know nobody held a gun to these teachers’ heads and made them participate but come on, they certainly wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t desperately need money for their classrooms.

It is such an indictment of our society with how little value we place on those who educate our children. Such a damn indictment.

South Dakota, and the hockey team that sponsored this, ought be damn ashamed of what happened. And maybe, just maybe, we can cut back on all these billions in military spending and spend a little more on teacher pay, eh?

 

 

From last night. No way. Just stop that. https://t.co/6W2p5GCEIv

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) December 10, 2021

**Next up, I feel like it’s always good to remind the world that Stephen Curry is the greatest shooter of a basketball that’s ever lived, and today seems like another good day to do that, since the pride of the Golden State Warriors set the NBA all-time record for 3-pointers made on Tuesday night, hitting his 2,974th from beyond the arc, breaking the record held by Ray Allen.

The fact that Steph broke the record in fewer than 500 games than Allen did is astonishing. Also, so is Curry doing stuff like this (above), which I’ve watched 10 times and still can’t believe.

It is such a joy to watch this man play basketball. A privilege.

 

On this day nine years ago, 20 first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School were killed, along with six school staff members, in a rampage that haunts the nation to this day. @JohnBerman and @kaitlancollins remember them.https://t.co/EsacQaRks4 pic.twitter.com/763U3WQKpF

— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) December 14, 2021

**Finally today, Tuesday was the nine-year anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in American history, and one I like to acknowledge every year. On Dec. 14, 2012, a monster walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and killed 26 people, including 20 first-grade students. 

Please read the children’s names, and remember them: Charlotte Bacon. Olivia Engel. Josephine Gay. Ana Marquez-Greene. Dylan Hockley. Madeleine Hsu. Daniel Barden. Catherine Hubbard. Chase Kowalski. Jesse Lewis. James Mattioli. Grace McDonnell. Emilie Parker. Jack Pinto. Noah Pozner. Caroline Previdi. Jessica Rekos. Avielle Richman. Benjamin Wheeler. Allison Wyatt.

The most senseless killings possible. And once again, we’re here nine years later, and this quote from a British broadcaster named Dan Hodges still rings true:

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

Yep. Now, there have been SOME laws changed, in certain states, regarding open carry, and “ghost guns,” etc. But these are all changes on the margins, not anything major or tangible.

Nine years later, my heart still breaks for those Sandy Hook kids. And it’s important we never forget them.

“King Richard” a very entertaining movie about Serena and Venus’ Dad, even with the factual liberties. A marriage proposal on a softball field unlike any you’ve seen. And in the NFL, the Chiefs are looking amazing again, and if Lamar’s hurt, Ravens are in deep doo-doo.

There are many, many memorable scenes in the fantastic new film “King Richard,” about the childhood rise of Venus and Serena Williams, and the dominating presence of their father, Richard, in every aspect of their lives.

There are some terrific competition scenes, some wonderful “life lesson” scenes with Richard and his girls, and of course lots of hokey sports movie “triumphing over adversity” scenes.

But the part of the movie that pleased me so immensely was about 2/3 in, when Richard has once again made a decision involving the whole family, by himself. And Oracene, his loving wife and biggest supporter, has had just about enough.

In a wonderful bit of acting between Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis, Oracene lets him have it. She rails at Richard over his overbearing decision-making, his pigheadedness, and his refusal to admit any fault. And she brings up his past, and punctures his ego quite a bit by referencing the family he previously had, and some of his failed business ventures.

You didn’t do any of this by yourself, Oracene reminds him. So quit acting like it.

The reason this scene startled me and made me realize that “King Richard” was an outstanding movie is because I was very afraid, going in, that this was going to be a hagiography. That because Venus and Serena were executive producers, that they’d gloss over the flaws and warts of their Dad, the rough edges that made him intolerable to so many, even as his prophesies came true.

And whatever else “King Richard” does, it certainly does not make Richard out to be perfect. He is an unbelievable pain in the rear to many: The tennis establishment, his neighbors, the coaches he constantly harangues to get them to give his daughters some lessons.

Even when he finally does convince a legendary coach named Rick Macci (played wonderfully by Jon Bernthal) to take Venus and Serena on as proteges, Richard still comes out on top by insisting the whole family also move to Macci’s academy in Florida, and give the family a home to live in, too.

I was dubious at first that Smith could inhabit Williams (who I got to interview once or twice many moons ago) but he does a fantastic job in the role. The sheer force of his personality wears people down, including those of his doting daughters. The two actresses playing young Venus and Serena (Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton) are terrific, and the script moves the film along very well.

Now, as you might expect with me being a huge tennis fan who remembers all the hoopla when the Williams sisters came on the scene, I was looking for factual inaccuracies in the movie. And there are a lot of them. There are a few invented scenes that never happened in real life (especially a pivotal one during Venus’ second-ever pro match, against Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario: What they said happened never did, in the middle of the second set), and there are a few more completely fictional plotlines, like the idea Nike would pull all offers from Venus if she didn’t sign immediately, and the film leaves out that Richard purposely moved the family from the California suburbs, to Compton, to toughen them up.

But the film soars past that, for me, because the story is so incredible. SI’s amazing tennis writer Jon Wertheim always says that the Williams sisters story is probably under-covered in American pop culture: Two young African-American girls, raised in Compton by a non-tennis-playing father, grow up to conquer an all-white tennis world and become global icons, winning championships and fans. It’s an IMPOSSIBLE story, that came true.

“King Richard” is a very good movie. It’s on HBO Max and in theaters now. I highly recommend it.

I consider myself a lesbian bon vivant, and in my 41 years of lesbianing, I thought I had seen it all. But no, I had not: pic.twitter.com/BBkZejBgEX

— Arlan 👊🏾 (@ArlanWasHere) December 11, 2021

**Next up today, this was pretty freaking fantastic. It came from a women’s softball game in Australia. A woman named Sara Riou was at the plate, and her girlfriend Jacinta Comande was in the crowd, and, well, just watch.

Very creative and awesome and so unexpected. They have a wonderful story to tell their future kids.

**Finally today, it was a day of a few overtime thrillers, and mostly blowouts, in the NFL on Sunday. And also, one huge statement made.

— Remember when the Chiefs looked terrible and couldn’t score and barely looked like a playoff team? Me either. Kansas City absolutely destroyed the Raiders Sunday, 48-9, and have won four straight games and look once again very much like the team that’s played in the last two Super Bowls. I would say they’re back.

— A couple of massive comebacks fell short Sunday, but turned routs into entertaining games. The Bills were trailing by 21 in Tampa before rallying, and putting themselves in position for the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds. But nothing is going right for Buffalo this year, they settled for a game-tying field goal, and then (stop me if you’ve heard this before) a fellow named Tom Brady led his team to a winning touchdown on overtime.
And in Cincinnati, the Bengals were down 20-6 in the fourth quarter to the 49ers, rallied to tie and send it to OT, then lost to San Francisco. I’m sure both Buffalo and Cincy players were like “we wasted ALL that effort coming back and we didn’t even get the damn win.”

— This was a pretty special and cool moment: One of the all-time great Denver receivers, Demaryius Thomas, shockingly passed away last week at only 33 years old. So to start the Broncos-Lions games, Denver lined up with only 10 men in the huddle, with the 11th player, a wide receiver, standing on the logo of Thomas’ old number, 88, on the sideline.
The crowd chanted Thomas’ name, the Broncos got a delay of game penalty, declined by Detroit, and a man’s memory was honored. Sweet.

— Zack Wilson isn’t improving for my Jets. Not sure he’s regressing, but he sure isn’t improving. I’m so glad I didn’t watch either Jets or Giants game Sunday, what absolute dreck.

–Finally, I have zero clue who’s going to win the Super Bowl. These playoffs are gonna be more wide open than receivers against the Jets.

 

Good News Friday: Praising the most generous city per capita in America, per GoFundMe donations. Nicholas Kristof’s annual guide to holiday charity donations worth your money. And a father surprises his daughter by coming home while she asked Santa for just that.

Happy Friday, my fellow inhabitants of Planet Earth! I hope all is well in your world; it’s been a tough week on a few fronts here at WWOS headquarters. We suffered the death of a close friend from the scourge of cancer, I had oral surgery, and some other “fun” stuff happened. So more so than other weeks, I really need a healthy does of Good News on this Friday.

We begin with what I thought was one of the more interesting “year-end” emails we all get every year, from different organizations and networks giving us a summation of their activity and trends and what not over the last 12 months.

Like millions of others, I’ve contributed to various GoFundMe campaigns over the years, so I’m on their email blasts. Normally I glance and delete, but this one caught me eye this week: It was a year-end report of where all the money from their various campaigns came from, and which cities and states were the most generous.
The states that were the most generous, according to GoFundMe, were Massachusetts at No. 1, Vermont in second, and Connecticut in third. I find that fascinating that all three are in the Northeast, so it’s possible that despite what I’ve believed my whole life, Boston Red Sox fans really are loving, giving folks who I should stop talking badly about. Washington and Rhode Island (there’s that Northeast connection again) round out the Top 5. (My beloved home state of New York was only eighth, which bothers me. My people have to do better!)

What I found most interesting was the list of Top 10 most generous cities, which was based on donations per capita. The Houston suburb of Spring, Texas was the most generous town in the U.S., when it came to supporting individual GoFundMe causes. In 2020, Spring was the second-most generous, so clearly there’s something in the water there. Marietta, Ga. was No. 2, with Silver Spring, Md., Miami, Fla., and Alpharetta, Ga. rounding out the Top 5.
I thought for a few minutes tonight about why Spring might be the leader. Sure, there’s lots of money in the Houston suburbs, but it takes more than having money to make people generous. Maybe there’s a ton of community spirit and togetherness there, with people helping local families and projects.

Whatever it is, it’s wonderful to see how many people have donated this year. A scroll through the full report gave me lots of smiles, as the organization told individual stories of people’s college dreams coming true, their houses being saved, and other wonderful, uplifting signs of humans helping humans.

It’s heart-warming to see.

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1468285518177832966

**Next up today, these videos always are wonderful this time of year. This was posted on TikTok by a user named soldiercominghome99, and apparently their whole account is just videos of soldiers returning home and surprising their families. Yeah, I spent some time on their tonight 🙂

This is a recent video, not sure where it was filmed, of a little girl asking Santa to bring her dad home for Christmas, and the Dad sneaking up and surprising the heck out of her.

Just beautiful. A moment that kid will never forget.

**And finally today, while reading about that GoFundMe report I thought it would be great to also share today Nicholas Kristof’s annual column about the charities and organizations that could most use your help this holiday season.

If you’re tired of just buying sweaters and electronic gadgets for your family at the holidays, Kristof, the former wonderful NYT columnist now running for governor of Oregon, has once again put together a list that is worth looking at.

His top pick this year is the Seva Foundation, an organization that restores people’s eyesight:

From the column:

“Restore sight. I chose Seva Foundation because I’ve seen so much anguish caused by blindness, ever since as a law student I met a blind man in Fez, Morocco, who was led around by his granddaughter to beg. Some 43 million people worldwide are blind, and hundreds of millions more have moderate to severe visual impairment that can be inexpensively prevented or fixed.

When people go blind in a poor country, they can no longer perform chores, care for children or earn an income. They often must pull a young child or grandchild out of school to escort them. So sight-restoring surgery gives two people their lives back.

The most common cause of blindness is cataracts — which through Seva can be removed in a 15-minute surgery that costs about $50 per eye.”

Kristof highlights many more great causes in here, including a hospital that helps fight sexual violence, and a wonderful organization called Per Scholas, which runs free, intensive training programs to prepare struggling young people for high-paying jobs in information technology, cybersecurity and software engineering.

Here’s a look at the whole list; I hope you’ll consider supporting one of these if you can.