Welcome, Good News Gnus!
Whether you’ve been part of our herd for a couple of years or you’ve just found us, we’re happy you’re here today! Settle in for some good news, some inspiring stories, and some laughs, too. And don’t skip the comments! That’s where some of our most thoughtful and inspirational (and hilarious) writing shows up, in The Best Comment Section on the Internet™.
Ruminations on responsibilities and rewards
I’d like to begin today with some thoughts on what writing a Good News Roundup means to me. BeeD’s roundup from June 25th described perfectly what the process is, though each of us writers has our own favorite sources. We search through all the current news to find those few stories (or many, if we’re lucky) that promote optimism, bolster hope, provide a good laugh, or highlight information that might be useful to all of us fighting against the evil-doing of the orcs squatting in the White House and soiling our nation.
I see this as a solemn responsibility. No matter how I feel when I’m putting a roundup together, whether I’m feeling drained and despairing or energetic and optimistic, I buckle down and concentrate on the task of finding good news.
And the result, not surprisingly, is that no matter how I’d been feeling when I started, I end up feeling better – happier, calmer, more balanced, readier than ever to wade back into the muck and do my part to clear it out.
Of course, this is also what everyone who is resisting this illegitimate maladministration is doing day after day. We agree that “we are the ones that we have been waiting for” and we each take responsibility for our own part, starting with being committed voters and extending to whatever else we feel able to take on, from petition-signing to phone banking to postcard writing to community organizing. And when we need to step back for some R&R, we can do that knowing that others will be covering for us. And the rewards? The relief and sense of well-being that comes from taking back our personal power and refusing to succumb to fear and bullying. The rush of hope that comes from taking positive action. The deep satisfaction, even joy, that comes from seeing our efforts make a difference.
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As I collected stories for today’s roundup, I found many that were inspiring and that made me feel calmer, happier, and more balanced. So I’ve chosen music that does the same, at least for me. I hope my choices resonate with you, too.
First musical interlude
This song, along with daily reading of the Good News Roundup, saved my sanity during the darkest days of 2017. I listened to it every day on my morning walk, and each day something different would resonate most with me – sometimes “start again,” sometimes “don’t dwell on what is past,” sometimes “they’re gonna hear from me,” sometimes “every heart to love will come.” And always, always “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Here’s Leonard Cohen toward the end of his life performing it in London shortly before he came to Portland for the last live show of his that I had the privilege of attending.
And one more thing before I get to the news. I always appreciate finding ways I can help people harmed by the horrific policies of That Thing in the White House. There was an excellent diary on Monday by TealBomb that encouraged the DKos community to donate to organizations helping the folks in Mississippi who were affected by the recent ICE raid that tore families apart on the first day of school. Here’s an update and the links to donate:
...we asked Daily Kos readers on our email list to chip in to five organizations mobilizing humanitarian support. And once again, our community showed up. As of this writing, we have raised $93,000!
Our goal is to raise $125,000 total. We're only $32,000 shy. If you can, please chip in whatever is meaningful to you to help these families rebuild their lives. [UPDATE: The $125,000 goal was reached yesterday!]
If you can't donate, please share this with your personal networks with a note about why this is important to you. We've found that personal asks have been very effective.
Each of these groups has been working around the clock to support the families and children impacted:
Even though the goal has been reached, all of these groups will continue to need more donations. Please donate if you can, and even if you can’t, please send this info along.
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Now on to today’s good news!
Good political news
From Raw Story:
‘They’re screwed and know it’: Naval War College professor blasts ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump sycophants
The conservative National Review, a longtime cornerstone of the conservative movement’s intellectual wing, quickly fell in with President Donald Trump after his election, and most recently has published a series of pieces clashing with Never Trump conservative Max Boot over the American right’s white supremacy problem — calling him and his supporters “self-loathing whites … paralyzed by intersectional deference.”
As another Never Trump conservative, Naval War College Professor Tom Nichols, put it, this is a microcosm of the “Trump-compliant right’s” realization that there is no way to divorce their supposed principles from Trumpism — and the future of their place in conservative thought looks bleak.
The Raw Story piece quotes a Twitter thread from Nichols, which ends with this:
By the time this is over, all that'll be left is Gorka, Anton, and the last few editors of NR at CPAC trying to clap along gamely while someone explains how Q is going to swoop in and arrest the abortion-loving gays during their attempts to make stem cells into omelettes
I think this is a good illustration of how tRump’s accelerating downward spiral is affecting not only his own fortunes (in every sense of that word) but also the fortunes of his enablers. They’re caught in a snare of their own making, and since the only way out is to admit that they’ve been conned, they’re unlikely to survive.
Progressive group launches $10 million online voter registration drive
From Politico:
Citing an urgent need for young people and minorities to vote at higher rates in Southern states where Democrats are coveting wins in 2020, the progressive group ACRONYM is launching a $10 million online drive to register voters in the South.
ACRONYM’s new program — which is being tested in Virginia’s down-ballot elections — will target Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Florida. The group is aiming to register and mobilize more than 100,000 young and minority voters online, reaching them via Snapchat, Instagram and other digital platforms.
“When you look at young people, when you look at people of color, they are spending a disproportionate amount of time online,” said Tatenda Musapatike, senior director of campaigns at ACRONYM, who is leading the effort. “It’s key that we are reaching people where they are. Young people spend more time on Instagram.”
This is smart and hopefully will get significant results.
Good news from my city and state
A Developer Planned to Build Mansions in the West Hills. His Daughter Talked Him Into Preserving the Forest Instead.
From Willamette Week:
A Portland real-estate developer has donated 22 acres of West Hills forest to the Audubon Society, preserving wildlife habitat where he had planned to build 32 multimillion-dollar homes.
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Developer Marty Kehoe says the property was appraised at $14 million. He had planned to build homes there—but his daughter, Katie, suggested he donate it instead.
"As a family, we talked a lot about this," Kehoe said in a statement. "We loved the property and felt that it would make a wonderful gift—not only to the Portland Audubon, but as a permanent gift to the whole city."
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The Audubon Society says [this] forest was one of the most at-risk habitats in the West Hills. Its steep hills are covered by fir and deciduous trees, it's home to birds like the varied thrush and the spotted towhee, and it includes the headwaters of Bones and Balch Creeks.
Portland City Hall is providing $500,000 to prevent future sale of the property and restore the banks of the streams. Creek bank erosion is one of the biggest threats to wildlife here—the city believes Balch Creek contains the healthiest population of cutthroat trout in the city.
In an era in which development seems to trump everything (pun intended), it’s heart-warming to read stories about people choosing community good over personal gain.
Delivering cleaner air on three wheels
Portland’s alternative weekly, Willamette Week, is using their website to highlight some businesses that are improving life in Portland. This is one of them:
B-Line: Delivering cleaner air on three wheels.
That doesn't even consider that B-Lines trikes reduce traffic congestion as well as noise pollution downtown. As we've all experienced, downtown suffers from constant traffic stoppages due to big delivery vehicles parking in an active lane; by contrast, B-line keeps the street moving with the bike's small frame that fits easily on the curb thus creating a model for cities all over the world to improve the livability of the urban core.
B-line is not just a greener delivery solution, it's also part of the local food economy network. ... As a business, you can support the B-Line mission by using the trike for your last-mile delivery [or] advertise with B-Line … . As a Portlander, you can help by supporting the businesses that are using B-Line delivery and giving a wave to fellow B-Line riders next time you see them going by.
I see these cute little delivery trikes all over downtown Portland, and it always cheers me to see them. Considering that they’ve been making deliveries for 10 years, I think they can definitely be considered a success!
As hate incidents rise, more states say, “Never forget”
From the Pew Charitable Trust’s Stateline, reprinted in the Oregonian newspaper:
Claire Sarnowski of Lake Oswego, Oregon, met Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener at a school event five years ago when she was 9 years old.
Because her aunt had arranged the talk by the Holocaust survivor, and served as his escort to the school and back, Sarnowski got to ride along when Wiener was driven home. The two started talking and formed an immediate bond. They kept in touch, with Sarnowski often persuading someone to drive her to see Wiener at his home in Hillsboro, Oregon, about an hour away from where he spoke. They shared meals and stories. Sarnowski became increasingly interested in Wiener’s tales of living under Hitler during World War II and his life since then.
She thought other kids should learn about them too and began a campaign to get a state law requiring Holocaust education in Oregon schools. Last month, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed that law, with Sarnowski, now age 14, looking on. Even though Wiener died late last year at 92, Oregon students will continue to learn the lessons he shared.
The story goes on to say that eleven other states have enacted similar laws in the past few years and bills are pending in another twelve states, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
This is great news, especially the fact that the impetus for the law in Oregon came from a young student. All students in all our schools need to learn the truth about the Holocaust, hopefully before their minds are poisoned by anti-Semitic propaganda and general “facts aren’t facts” idiocy.
Congressman DeFazio stands up to Barr
On Tuesday, Rep. Peter DeFazio sent this email to his supporters:
Today I sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding the legal justification for the reported surveillance of my constituents who are opposed to the Jordan Cove liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline and processing facility.
Recent reports indicate that the Department of Justice has been monitoring Oregon anti-pipeline activists who are peacefully expressing their constitutionally-protected free speech and assembly rights. Some of Oregon's tribes are also opposed to the project which raises the question: why is federal law enforcement tracking the actions of sovereign nations? You better believe that I'm fighting to get answers.
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Many of those protesting the Jordan Cove project are landowners – ordinary people – who are opposed to the seizure of their property through eminent domain. I've introduced a bill that would prevent eminent domain from being used in the future for projects of this nature and have been doing everything within my federal purview to support my impacted constituents.
I've demanded the legal authority for this surveillance, an appraisal of the current status of surveillance measures and all actions taken, and that the Department of Justice notifies all individuals and organizations who have been subject to this monitoring or surveillance.
This is one more proof, if we needed it, that electing Democrats to the House makes a difference not only nationally but also locally. Oregon is lucky to have DeFazio.
Good news from around the nation
The good news list from Americans of Conscience
As always, Jen Hofmann’s Americans of Conscience sent out a list on Sunday of good news she and her crew had gathered, and some of the items this week were ones I hadn’t seen elsewhere:
National
State
Local
- Wyoming Valley West School District apologizes for letters threatening foster care for students from families with lunch debt; the district also announces a new free breakfast and lunch program for all students. [Underlining mine – wow, what a great turnaround!!]
- The number of people sentenced to prison in Chicago has fallen by almost 20 percent since last year, while the rate of violent crime has fallen by close to eight percent.
- Yellow Springs Village Council in Ohio passes a resolution to include a ballot question that will determine if voting rights for local issues will be extended to 16- and 17-year-olds.
Corporate/business
- Public relations firm Edelman drops GEO Group as a client over their involvement in running U.S. detention centers.
- Eco-friendly clothing company Patagonia donates the $10 million it saved in tax cuts towards regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and protecting land from human development.
- NPR posts the Coming to America series, featuring immigration-themed student podcasts from their Student Podcast Challenge.
Groups and organizations
- Twinbrook Baptist Church donates $1 million in proceeds from selling its building to LGBTQ youth programs, Habitat for Humanity, hospice care, and other nonprofit organizations.
- Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) opens operations in Juarez, Mexico in order to offer legal services to people seeking asylum who have been forced to wait there under the administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Child sex abuse victims sue Catholic Church, other groups in New York after change in law
From Reuters:
Dozens of people in New York state who were victims of sexual abuse as children sued institutions including the Roman Catholic Church in New York on Wednesday, the first day a new law temporarily enabled them to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes.
About 85 people had filed lawsuits against the church in New York by late morning, according to New York County Supreme Court records. Most of them accuse priests of sexually abusing them as children and church leaders of covering up the priests’ crimes.
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The change in the law means people of any age in New York state have a year to file a sexual abuse lawsuit against an alleged offender. Previously, most victims of childhood sexual abuse only had till the age of 23 to bring criminal charges or to seek damages in civil lawsuits.
This is, of course, great news for the victims, who now have some chance of receiving justice. And just getting all the stories (some of which were covered in MSM news last night and are truly horrific) out into the open. where we can all see and discuss them, should give extra energy to other initiatives to bring a stop to child sexual abuse. This is a crime that thrives on secrecy and truly can’t stand the light of disclosure.
Good news for our public lands from the NRDC
This good news came in an email yesterday from the NRDC. I couldn’t find it on their website, so here’s a quote from the email:
...today, I'm writing with good news (yes, good news) about several recent courtroom victories over the Trump administration that helped save public lands, coastlines, and endangered wildlife.
Here's a look at some of those groundbreaking legal wins:
- Defending our natural heritage in the Southwest: A federal appeals court ruled in our favor, finding that the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) illegally approved the drilling and fracking of oil and gas wells in the Greater Chaco region of New Mexico, a spectacular landscape sacred to indigenous tribes. The court reversed the approval of 25 drilling permits, and the landmark case has national implications for BLM decisions to allow drilling. Read more here >>
- Forcing energy giants to pay up: Another court blocked the Interior Department from trying to repeal regulations closing loopholes that enriched fossil fuel companies at the expense of taxpayers. The repeal would have let oil, gas, and coal companies avoid paying millions of dollars in royalties for mining and drilling on our public lands. Read more here >>
- Upholding President Obama's permanent ban on offshore drilling: A judge ruled that Trump illegally sought to reinstate oil and gas leasing in the pristine, sensitive Arctic Ocean and wildlife-rich Atlantic deepwater canyons. Read more here >>
I’m especially grateful for the good news about Chaco. My husband and I have visited Chaco Canyon and the Chaco Culture National Historical Park twice, and it’s a powerful and humbling experience to stand in these ruins surrounded by beautiful stone structures still standing after centuries of extreme weather. Here’s a photo:
School Superintendent is Using His First Ever $10,000 Bonus to Pay For Students’ College Applications
Good News Network posted this story on Tuesday:
Rather than pocketing his first ever $10,000 bonus, this public school system superintendent is using the money to cover the college application fees of his high school students.
44-year-old Grant Rivera, who has been the superintendent of the Marietta School District in Georgia since 2016, says that he is eligible for the bonus every three years if he receives a satisfactory performance review.
Rivera is donating the bonus to the Marietta Schools Foundation so that it can help students who apply to colleges ahead of regular application deadlines.
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Of the 500 high schoolers in the graduating class, Rivera estimates that 150 to 200 students will apply to college.
If the application fees of his students exceed the amount of his $10,000 donation, he plans on paying out of pocket in order to cover the additional expenses—if there is any money left over after his students have finished with their applications, then the funds will be used to finance college bus tours in Georgia.
This is a great example of how a generous action by one person can improve the lives of many others.
Good news from around the world
Scientists Discover New Cure for the Deadliest Strain of Tuberculosis
From the NY Times:
The trial ... was small — it enrolled only 109 patients — but experts are calling the preliminary results groundbreaking. The drug regimen tested ... has shown a 90 percent success rate against a deadly plague, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration effectively endorsed the approach, approving the newest of the three drugs used in the regimen. Usually, the World Health Organization adopts approvals made by the F.D.A. or its European counterpart, meaning the treatment could soon come into use worldwide.
Tuberculosis has now surpassed AIDS as the world’s leading infectious cause of death, and the so-called XDR strain is the ultimate in lethality. It is resistant to all four families of antibiotics typically used to fight the disease.
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... in the trial ..., nicknamed Nix-TB, patients took only five pills a day for six months.
Aside from the great news about the efficacy of the new regimen, the short treatment time is a great improvement over previous regimens, which required either 40 pills daily for up to two years or daily injections of antibiotics for months.
Europe Could Produce Enough Wind Farm Energy to Power the Whole World for 30 Years, New Study Shows
From Good News Network:
This exciting new data says that Europe has the capacity to produce more than 100 times the amount of energy it currently produces through onshore windfarms.
In an analysis of all suitable sites for onshore wind farms, the new study from the University of Sussex and Aarhus University reveals that Europe has the potential to supply enough energy for the whole world until 2050.
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“Our study suggests that the horizon is bright for the onshore wind sector and that European aspirations for a 100% renewable energy grid are within our collective grasp technologically.
“Obviously, we are not saying that we should install turbines in all the identified sites but the study does show the huge wind power potential right across Europe which needs to be harnessed if we’re to avert a climate catastrophe.”
Using social media to tackle extremism
From Positive News. Fatima Zaman, the author of this piece, has written a book about this effort:
In 2016, I was one of 10 people to be selected to form the Extremely Together group – a Kofi Annan Foundation initiative aimed at empowering young people to fight extremism – in order to respond to [the] online epidemic [of using social media to recruit young people to extremist groups].
We launched the first ever [Countering Violent Extremism] Toolkit – of the youth, by the youth, for the youth – which is available online. ... By focusing on a CVE campaign with a specific emphasis on the digital aspect, we are able to seriously negate the online propaganda of extremist groups.
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... we created a targeted counter narrative to that of violent extremists, created by youth on the ground and online where extremists actively recruit. ...
This approach enabled myself and Extremely Together to enter a space that until then was comfortably occupied by radicals and by extremists without competition, without dissent and without voices that offer hope and unity instead of division, hate and violence. Hopefully we are disrupting that space and making a real impact in tackling extremism.
This is a relatively new initiative, so it will be interesting to see what results emerge from it. In any case, it seems to me to be well worth trying.
Innovative uses of cardboard to create recyclable products
Also from Positive News:
Recyclable festival tents
When they heard that hundreds of thousands of tents get abandoned at festivals across Europe every year, a team of Dutch designers got scratching their heads to devise an alternative. They came up with the KarTent, a temporary festival tent made entirely out of cardboard, which can go directly to recycling once the music has faded.
What if it rains? High-quality cardboard featuring long wood fibres is used, which, the team says, makes tents resistant to both water and humidity.
The main KarTent measures 2.4m by 1.6m, and costs €54.95 (£49). Using cardboard means the structures can be easily printed with the festival’s logo or sponsor, which encourages event organisers to consider buying them in at no cost to the festival-goer.
Flatpack furniture
Seoul-based studio Pesi has designed a series of tables using planks of cardboard that have been made to look like wood. The structures are designed to be easily assembled
and, once no longer needed, recycled. While cardboard furniture is usually folded like origami or laminated, said the designers, they wanted the aesthetic of their tables to be different.
To cut sections for the Lumber table, Pesi used a die-cutting press, before rolling the cardboard into several rectangular shaped ‘lumbers’ and fixing them together with PVC rivets. They come in five colours.
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Second musical interlude
This is another all-time favorite. “Águas de Março" (Waters of March) was written by the great Antonio Carlos Jobim, and it is performed here by him and Elis Regina, considered by some to be the greatest Brazilian singer ever. I was delighted to see among the comments on YouTube one that said “Maybe it's just me but it's just about impossible to be upset while listening to this.” That’s how it affects me, too.
By the way, the words are wonderful. Here’s a link to the Portuguese lyrics and an English translation: www.uky.edu/...
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Celebrating animals
Goat yoga!
The Oregonian newspaper ran a story recently about goat yoga in Oregon, a delightful trend which is now unfortunately running into zoning problems here. But rather than talk about that, I want to share a couple of photos from an earlier story about their first class a few years ago:
The first pose looks like pure delight, but the second one – ??? The goat is clearly enjoying it, but I’m not sure how those sharp little hooves would feel on my lower belly. However, the woman looks like she’s smiling, so I guess it’s all good.
Opossums Deserve Our Love
From Mother Jones:
They’re the heroes of the animal world and should be the heroes of the internet.
Hear me out.
Sure, they’re ugly. They’ve got beady eyes, a hairless tail, and dozens of pointed teeth. ...But opossums do more for us than we recognize. “Just because they’re ugly doesn’t mean that they’re not important and worthy of protecting,” David Mizejewski, a naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation and author of the book Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, tells Mother Jones. “If you just open your mind a little bit, you can see them as beautiful creatures.”
In fact, opossums protect humans by eating ticks, dead animals, and venomous snakes. As nature’s trash collectors, they play a vital role in the ecosystem, all while protecting humans from disease. A 2009 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences found that opossums are exquisitely good at removing ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, from their bodies and gobble up an estimated 5,000 ticks per season that may otherwise latch onto humans.
“Despite, again, their appearance and stereotype, they’re not filthy animals,” says Mizejewski. “In fact, they’re fastidious groomers.”
The article goes on to point out more surprising things about opossums, including that they’re resistant to snake venom and may hold the key to protecting humans from snakebites. My own experience with opossums happened when I was a volunteer at the Oregon Zoo nursery, where we cared for abandoned baby animals (best volunteer job of my life, bar none). We got some opossum babies whose mother had been killed, and I have to say I loved those little guys. Totally endearing, once you got over the “ick” factor of that scaly tail.
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A few laughs
Wonkette’s Stephen Robinson finds some hilarious idiocy on FiveThirtyEight
I looooove Stephen Robinson. One of the smartest and wittiest folks on the intertubes.
FiveThirtyEight: Is Any Democrat Man Enough To Challenge Ubermensch Trump?
From Wonkette:
We're often told that because a woman lost to Donald Trump last time, the only way Democrats can safely slay the Trump-beast next year is to nominate a powerful, strapping working-class hero such as Joe Biden. That's just what we're told. We never said it made sense. However, FiveThirtyEight argues that no matter which man pulls the sword from the stone, he'll still have to contend with Trump's flaming virility.
Excuse us a second.
OK, we're back.
The apparent thesis of Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux's article is that Trump governs like John Wayne, Vito Corleone, or even Regina George from Mean Girls. Trump sits around eating Big Macs and rage-tweeting about people who are mean to him on TV. Even if we accept toxic masculinity as a positive trait to admire in a president, we wouldn't describe a woman president who behaved identically to Trump as "tough." She'd be dismissed as "hysterical." Let's imagine President Donna Trump gushing over a "beautiful letter" she received from a brutal dictator.
Read the whole piece. As Wonkette would say, “You’re welcome.”
It’s AI Weirdness time!
If you’ve read my last two G.N.R. diaries, you’re already familiar with Janelle Shane and her delightfully nutty passion for giving neural networks (artificial intelligence) tasks that they can’t quite succeed at doing. The results are mostly absurd, often funny, and always unpredictable. This past week she turned them loose on “Tasty British Snacks” – which, as you might know, is a category already rife with absurdity and humor. (Have some Cadbury’s Dinky Deckers, anyone?) Here’s a small selection of what the algorithms came up with, starting with some sorta-kinda okay ones:
Puff-o-Matic Gobblers
English Grumpy Dumplings
Downright Cheeky Bunchies
Dutch Ducky Whiskins
Dry-Spindly Snacking Bits
Duck-a-Doodle-Doo Stix
Others were more iffy:
Hydro Glittering Taffy
Grapefruit Sushi in a Jar
Dr. Muffin’s Glitzy Spiced Sausage Flakes
And finally the Really Bad Idea snacks:
Deadly Squashies
Muffin Poops (Sizes: 12, 15, 20)
Slimy Twinkles
Eclectic Stinky Wuzzies
I don’t think even the Brits would be into Slimy Twinkles, but Dr. Muffin’s Glitzy Spiced Sausage Flakes definitely sound like they’d be a hit.
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Random holiday heads-up for August 15
August 15 boasts several “National Days,” and one of them is perfect for the Gnusie herd:
National Relaxation Day
National Relaxation Day is observed annually on August 15th. It is time to slow down, unwind and relax!
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Sean Moeller founded National Relaxation Day in 1985 as a fourth-grader. In an interview with Valerie Monson in The Des Moines Register, Sean suggested people shouldn’t do anything of real value. Cleaning and real work are not part of relaxation.
I guess Sean’s criteria would apply to activism, too. So maybe we should all just chill out today and then get back into the fray tomorrow.
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Celebrating beauty
I’ve always loved photographing flowers, and because I always take my phone on dog walks, now I can easily take photos almost every day from spring through fall. Here are some random photos of flowers from the gardens in my neighborhood. (Fortunately, our dog has learned to sit patiently while I interrupt her walk.)
Beauty is everywhere. All we have to do is notice it.
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Closing music
Being a musical omnivore, I love pianists in every genre. But if I were forced to choose my favorite pianist of all time, it would be Bill Evans. This piece of inspired improvisation is one reason why. It’s what I choose to listen to when I need to remember that beauty and goodness will always prevail.
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Thank you!
As always, I’m honored to help keep Old Hippie Dude’s Thursday chair warm by writing a once-a-month G.N.R. while eagerly awaiting his return.
This community means the world to me, and I’m grateful to each of you for being part of it.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! ❤️💙