Hey! Scottie Andrew here, subbing in for our dear AJ. Let's dive in!
Have your neighborhood birds seemed especially enthusiastic this week? The tiniest chirpers have some of the loudest voices — there's been a near-constant symphony of sparrows singing their avian hearts out right outside my apartment. Perhaps they're ready for spring to get here already, too, and are tweeting their way through this seasonal transition. Or maybe they're just as confused as the weather has been. In any case, my days are significantly cheerier with their music.
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Our favorites this week
Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week
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An author gets his due, thanks to TikTok
Here’s a gem courtesy of our very own AJ Willingham: Retired Vermont lawyer Lloyd Devereux Richards spent 14 years plugging away at his literary opus, a crime thriller that follows an FBI agent on a serial killer’s trail in rural Indiana, called “Stone Maidens.” (A hardcore name for a hardcore story.) But when Richards finally published his masterwork in 2012, there was little fanfare from readers or critics. And so there it sat for years, in the depths of Amazon’s Kindle store, when his daughter, Marguerite, decided to give her dad some free TikTok publicity. It worked better than she could’ve imagined — the initial video about his work has earned more than 48 million views, and “Stone Maidens” ascended to the second spot on the Amazon charts this week. “My dad wasn’t really sure what TikTok is, but he has been so pleased and grateful,” Marguerite said. “I love how people are appreciating him.” As for a “Stone Maidens” sequel, Richards is keeping mum — but with renewed interest in his work and a newly devoted fanbase, he might just turn it into a series.
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A matriarch's heroic secret is revealed
Belle Irvin-Partridge (pictured farthest right in the image above) regaled her children for years with stories from her time in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. But there was an important detail she left out, one that her daughter Brenda didn’t uncover until after Belle’s death: She was an integral member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-women, predominantly Black unit to serve in Europe during the war. Brenda did some digging on the internet and stumbled upon a black-and-white photo of her mother in uniform alongside the other women of her battalion. Though the women didn’t see combat, their time in Europe wasn’t short on danger: They dodged German U-boats in the North Atlantic and survived a rocket explosion upon their arrival in England. The women worked tirelessly to sort and send mail to US service members stationed overseas. It took decades for their work to be recognized but last year, President Joe Biden awarded the surviving members of the battalion the Congressional Gold Medal, and Tyler Perry is directing a film about the women. To Brenda, though, Belle Irvin-Partridge was just her mom — a quiet hero whose humble work made history.
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Animals find paradise in the DMZ
Leave it to the ever-ingenious animal kingdom to transform a barren landscape devoid of human activity into a wildlife haven. The more than 6,100 species within the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea have made their homes in the space between the two countries, which has become a sanctuary in the decades since the DMZ was created. Google street-view images of the birds, reptiles, mammals and plants that live in the DMZ were shared for the first time to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which helped establish the DMZ. Among the DMZ's residents: Mountain goats, otters, golden eagles and musk deer — in all, 38% of Korea's endangered species are found there. Seung-ho Lee, president of the wildlife advocacy group DMZ Forum, told CNN that the region has become an "accidental paradise." Thousands of creatures would agree!
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A round of applause for ... |
... Two super-smart twins. Gloria and Victoria Guerrier were respectively named valedictorian and salutatorian of their New York high school this year for their exceedingly high GPAs. These gals are young Einsteins – neither has ever earned a grade lower than 100, per their school. JEEZ! When the dynamic duo isn’t one-upping each other in the classroom, they’re competing in three varsity sports -- earning All-County and All-State honors for track. In the fall, both sisters will head to Yale University and plan to study computer science. “It’s like the saying, ‘How iron sharpens iron,’” Gloria said. “We really use each other to improve upon ourselves.” There's nothing like a little sisterly competition to make high school academics somewhat fun.
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Sometimes, scents make a place. Disney World purportedly pumps artificial cookie smells throughout Magic Kingdom; Washington, DC, in the spring smells like sweet cherry blossoms in bloom; the streets of New York City at night often reek of garbage. But New Mexico might become the very first state to have its own official aroma if a new state bill passes. The scent of green chiles could soon join the yucca flower and roadrunner as a symbol of the southwestern state in an effort to popularize New Mexico's lucrative chile crop. “The new state aroma could help draw visitors away from Colorado, which, for some reason, thinks it has green chile comparable to that of New Mexico,” a fiscal impact report for the bill snarkily read. So what does a roasting green chile smell like? I guess we'll have to head to New Mexico to sniff for ourselves.
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This is not an ancient art installation or a failed playground apparatus. It's not a leaky bathtub or an abstract depiction of an elephant kneeling, either. Out of guesses? Behold — what may be the world's first flushable toilet. This 2,400-year-old commode was uncovered by archaeologists in China in the remains of an ancient palace. The elites of the time could afford a toilet, complete with a pipe that transported waste to an outdoor pit, per experts — and this was thousands of years before indoor plumbing became the norm. "The flush toilet is concrete proof of the importance the ancient Chinese attached to sanitation," scientist Liu Rui said. It's also got the same simple, clean aesthetic that some restroom users might seek in their toilets today — so abstract that it doesn't even look like a toilet at first glance. Chic!
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Attention, thrill-seeking vacationers: Would you rather use traditional travel means to make it from the airport to your hotel — a cab, maybe, or a bus — or zip line right into your room, luggage be damned? In Cambodia, visitors can travel a quarter of a mile down a zip line at up to 31 miles an hour, with jungle greenery beneath their feet, before landing at an upscale tent camp. Oh, and did we mention guests must first jump off a seven-story tower to start zipping? If that method of arrival is too daunting, consider traveling to Hong Kong's Peninsula hotel, where guests can opt to get picked up in a pricey Rolls-Royce Phantom, or take a traditional longtail boat up the Mekong River (pictured) to arrive at Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle in Thailand. For most of us, traveling to such luxurious digs is wishful thinking, though I'm quite content to not be in midair, on vacation or otherwise.
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Consider this next one a call to action: Americans collectively have $21 billion in unspent gift cards. Yep — those assorted gift cards you may've thrown in a pile on your desk and forgotten about probably still have some money on them. Apparently, two-thirds of Americans have a gift card loaded with money somewhere, and half of those people lose them before they can use them, CNN reported this week. So ransack your drawers, sift through every purse and dig through loose papers in search of your old gift cards. True, some of them may only contain 50 cents or so, but you also might stumble upon gift card gold!
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This week marks the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and former CNN Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon is reflecting on what she's learned from the crisis. The way the world has responded with care and aid throughout the devastation is unlike anything she's ever seen in a military conflict, she said: "The way people responded to Ukraine is the way that we should be responding to people in crisis. That should be our standard." So she started the nonprofit International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance (INARA) to serve people in Ukraine, Turkey, Syria and other countries facing crises with humanitarian assistance for victims. Whether it's therapy for families who've experienced trauma or emergency medical treatment, INARA is now one of the groups on the ground providing aid and encouraging those of us at home to contribute. Readers can continue to donate to verified organizations in Ukraine, Turkey and Syria through CNN's Impact Your World.
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Rec of the week
Brought to you by CNN Underscored
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Have a bathroom with no ventilation? Try these 14 products
Living with a poorly ventilated bathroom can be a miserable experience. With the help of HVAC experts, we’ve rounded up 14 products — including live plants — that you can add to your bathroom to help with circulation and airflow.
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Shameless animal video
There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.
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This baby raccoon in the Florida Keys somehow wandered into the ocean and, after finding refuge on a passing kayak, quickly fell asleep in the kayaker's tackle box. Come for the swimming raccoon -- stay for the adorable snoozing. (Click here to watch.) |
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A newsletter for the good in life |
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