A grab bag of sorts...

Okay, so it has not been a good two weeks for the blog. Last week I just couldn't manage to get a post together, and this week I had Internet issues. But, not to be defeated, I have "try try again"-ed and am now posting.

Without further ado... As Geekologie says, this is your daily dose of awwww. It's a video of baby Jonathan having his cochlear implant activated and hearing his mother's voice for the first time. It's a short little video but watching his reaction is just adorable.

The Chicago Tribune had a story on someone at the other end of her life. Sister Charitas Prince, a Franciscan nun, recently celebrated her 80th year of service - a milestone reached by no other nun in the 166-year history of the order. The 99 year-old woman will be joined by 14 other sisters on June 19 to celebrate their jubilees. Together the 15 women have 900 years of service to the order.

Finally, Yahoo! posted an article on Indra Tamang, an Nepalese man who went from rags to riches - literally. After befriending a rich American at the hotel where he worked, Tamang faithfully served his patron and that patron's sister for nearly 40 years. With the deaths of both patrons, Tamang garnered headlines and attention all over New York when the news broke he had inherited their estate. As I read that, I thought, "Poor guy. He'll never see a penny of it. The family will fight for years." But the article went on to say the woman's estranged daughter wanted no part of her mother's estate and had not contested the gift.

Child's play...

Something is called "child's play" if it requires minimal effort for adults. It's almost dismissive. Learning Spanish is child's play; try Croat. Now that was hard. Or Oh, you made roast duck with endive. That's child's play. I made spherical egg of white asparagus with false truffle.

It seems to me that children seem to have an easier time of things that are harder for adults. Like altruism. Take, for instance, a study published in the April issue of Psychological Science.

According to MSNBC, children as young as 21 months are more inclined to help people who also seem helpful. Kristen Dunfield and Valerie Kuhlmeier conducted experiments where children interacted with two women who varied in their ability and/or willingness to give the children a toy. The studies showed the children were much more likely to help the adult who shared their toys with the children.

Students in Salem, Mass., also seem ready and willing to help people they've never met. The Salem News reports children in Bates Elementary School have been donating their change to "Pennies for Peace," a program started by author Greg Mortenson. His non-profit has built over 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has a special focus on girls' education in that region. The children were inspired by Mortenson's children's book "Listen to the Wind," which chronicled his experiences.

Long Beach Middle School in New York is another school in the news a bit recently. A few weeks ago teen singer Justin Bieber performed live there as a reward for students who collected donations for a food bank. More recently, as reported on MSNBC, seventh-grader Miriam Starobin performed the Heimlich maneuver on her friend and classmate Allyson Golden after she choked on a piece of gum. The kicker is, Starobin was spurred into action by remembering a similar scene from SpongeBob Squarepants.

"You have 'em, I'll entertain 'em"...

And Dr. Seuss did just that, during his long life and continues to do so after his death. The "'em" in question, of course, is children. A lot of my friends and people I know who are my age are now having kids, as evidenced by them using photos of their kids as Facebook profile pictures (a personal pet peeve, btw).

Anyhoo, a quick troll around the Interwebs today found me three stories related to caring for children, and now you are brought up to speed on my method for finding today's theme. : ) I hope you enjoy regardless of whether you have kids at the moment.

In a nod to those out there my age and older (and those who are not the oldest child in the family), Northwestern University professors have found that exposure to and ingestion of dirt may not be the worst thing in the world, according to the Chicago Tribune. Their study of Filipino children who were exposed to a "healthy" amount of dirt and pathogens in childhood actually developed less of a chance of cardiovascular inflammation in adulthood and thus had less of a risk for heart attacks and the like. I'm not sure what a healthy amount of microbes is, but it does make me feel better about being an early adopter of the five-second rule...

Did you ever have to do that parenting simulation exercise in school where they give you a baby doll which is able to cry - at unexpected times - so you get the idea of what having an infant is like? I did, but I'm pretty sure my pretend infant had nothing on the Simbaby. The Chicago Trib reported on a recent alumnae donation to Elmhurst College's nursing program. The $50,000 gift allowed the program to purchase a Simbaby to better prepare its nursing students for the challenges in treating young children. "Baby Boo" allows the student nurses to get a feel for making their own decisions without the possibility of actually hurting a child if they make a mistake.

A much more low-tech version of soothing a baby has gone viral online. Anderson Cooper on CNN featured this video on his "The Shot" segment. The clip shows an Akita-like dog next to a baby bassinet or carriage, whose howls actually sooth the crying child in the bassinet, though I'm not sure which becomes more nerve-wracking, the crying or the howling...

(Photo courtesy of The University of Southern Mississippi)

Happy health news...

One of my favorite parts of my job is reading the thank you letters we get from former patients and their families. Hospitals are a last resort; you only end up here if everything else has failed. And that generally means you're in dire straits. So it's always nice to get notes from the people who walk out our doors well. Things do go wrong and that makes you sad, so hearing from those who had things go right makes it better.

A lot of the bad news coming out of Haiti now seems to be related to survivors' health, from crush injuries requiring amputation to the smallest of cuts turning into raging infections. The US and other countries have been helping with the injuries, but recently the US put a hold on medical evacuations due to concerns on the pressure they would put on our health care system. The Boston Globe reported on a group of doctors who went around that obstacle by flying three children with tetanus, pneumonia and third-degree burns to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia on a private plane. All were critically ill and would have died soon without the evac.

We have Haitian staffers in all of our hospitals in my health system, and many of them lost contact with family and friends after the quake. Some still have not reached their loved ones. Yahoo! News posted a first-person account of a group of TIME reporters who helped a friend send money to her 94 year-old great-aunt. France St. Fleur came out of the quake okay, but she was living in a tent outside her badly damaged house. The article details the challenges the team faced with tracking down St. Fleur when all their landmarks to her home were demolished.

One of the unfortunate consequences of natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti can be the rampant spread of disease. Microsoft's Bill Gates has pledged through his foundation to donate $10 billion over the next decade to finding vaccines. He and wife Melinda made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to a short article on MSNBC.com.

Kids do the darnedest things...

Kids are funny little creatures. They have the ability to speak the truth (see: new clothes, Emperor's) and the wonderful and total belief that nothing is impossible. It's something us old fogies would do better to keep in mind sometimes. My friend Blair sent me the following link to a story on CNN on the amazing Charlie Simpson. The seven year-old British boy wanted to do something for the people of Haiti. He decided to ride his bike five miles around a park near his home with a goal of raising 500 British pounds. Word of his efforts caught the Internet's attention, and he recently passed the $240,000 mark.

The Daily Mail highlighted another seven year-old British boy undeterred by potential limits. Kieron Williamson attracted buyers from as far away as Japan and Canada when his watercolors, oils and pastels went to auction in November. The pictures sold out in under 15 minutes and earned the boy 17,000 British pounds. His mother arrived late to the sale and missed it completely. This after another auction last summer netted him 14,000 BP. Kieron just decided to start painting after a family trip to Devon and Cornwall; he showed no particular interest or aptitude before then.

Finally, the video above, courtesy of YouTube, is just fun. I'm not entirely sure how old the boy is or where he's from, but he exhibits excellent coordination. I've never really seen the appeal of the video game "Dance Dance Revolution" beyond a funny scene in "The Big Bang Theory", but this kid is amazing. I could never do what he does.

Mile-wide smile indeed...

This morning I heard the rescuers in Haiti are changing their mission from rescue to recovery. Not exactly a bright way to start the day. There seem to be miracles around every corner down there, with new stories of improbable survival, so I worry about those still hanging on under all that concrete.

Logging onto Facebook this afternoon, my friend Nancy posted the following link in her status. The CNN video covers the heartwarming and smile-inducing rescue of a boy and his sister yesterday. Pulled from the rubble over a week after the first earthquake rocked the island, the seven year-old had to be coaxed out by a relative. Once he hit fresh air, however, his reaction is both precious and priceless.

I know this is a short post, but this video is such a day-brightener, I can't find anything in its league...

Happy weekend!

(Photo courtesy of the New York Post)

The flip side of conformity...

One of my cousins had the following as his Facebook status for this morning: "My wish for 2010 is that people will understand that children with disabilities do not have a disease; children with disabilities are not looking for a cure but ACCEPTANCE........93% of people won't copy and paste this."

Well, consider it copied and pasted, albeit not on FB. Tolerance and acceptance can be tricky. There are a lot of different people out there, and in general, people are afraid of things they aren't completely familiar with. The late, great Mitch Hedberg made a joke about that phenomenon, "Some people say 'I don't care if they're black, white, or purple...' Now hold on, we have to draw the line somewhere. F*** purple people!"

I am in the camp that supports purple people, so I was really pleased to see the following two stories. Baltimore Magazine did a write up on the Allied Sports program a few months ago. The program is a Baltimore County School System initiative for high school students with disabilities. The 16 year-old program puts a 50/50 mix of children with physical and/or learning disabilities and children without them on soccer, bowling and softball teams. Eighteen of the 24 schools have at least one Allied sport. The program promotes "sameness," the chance to shine for children who often get lost in the background.

Canada's Parent Central website posted an article on a little girl's ballet class. Normally a common subject, this particular class deserves a second look. Founded by mom Sarah Nixon-Suggitt, it is Toronto's first ballet class for physically challenged little girls. Three year-old Katie Suggitt, who has cerebral palsy, wanted to dance just like her twin sister. Suggitt's occupational therapist Barbara Lynch worked with the dance instructor to modify the beginner's class for Katie and little girls like her. Each class is staffed by older dancers at the school who volunteer their Saturday mornings. "The best thing, the beautiful thing, is this lets Katie be like every other girl," says Nixon-Suggitt. "We know these girls with special needs can do it too. They just do it a bit differently."

(Photo is courtesy of Angelina Ballerina)

Little ones...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This past Christmas was the first in which my Christmas cards were divided equally between traditional holiday images and photos of my friends' children and/or pets. Being single and in a no-dogs apartment building, I have neither of those things. I've also noticed as more friends get married/have children, their Facebook statuses (stati?) now revolve entirely around what their child or children have said or done recently.

So with that in mind, today's post has a "little loved ones" theme. Because really, babies and puppies have an about-equal "omghowsupercute" rating.

When I first read "Polar Express," I was entranced. The possibility of hopping a train to the North Pole sounded amazing. And the movie made from that book is awesome (Can I have my copy back now that you've retired, Mom?). I mean, really, the North Pole in that film is great. I want to go there now as a full-grown adult. Children all over the US had a chance to get on a flight bound for Santa this past Christmas. MSNBC reported on plane-loads of seriously ill/disadvantaged children headed to Santa's workshop from cities all over the US thanks to airlines, the TSA and lots of "elves."

Jumping ahead to New Year's, identical twins Marcello and Stephano Velasco may just have been the last baby of 2009 and the first of 2010 in their hospital. The brothers were born just before midnight on Dec. 31 and just after on Jan. 1, respectively, according to MSNBC. Their father hit on the highlight of the twins being born in separate decades: two birthday parties.

And because some people's children are four-legged and furry, I had to include this last story from MSNBC. Due to movies like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Legally Blonde" and a certain hotel heiress, the state of California went Chihuahua loco over the last few years. However, as people realize these dogs are not the best with small children or as family finance dictates, they are dropping the wee pups off at shelters in droves. But thanks to lots of generosity, some of 4700 little dogs taken in over the last 12 months have found homes back east due to a slowly growing doggie relocation program.

You don't need to be Michael Phelps to have a world record...

You apparently just need to be able to pull a double-decker bus with your hair...Yeah, I don't know either. But folks around the world tried for their 15 minutes of fame on Nov. 12, the fifth annual Guinness World Records Day.

Children from the Carrs Glen Primary School in Belfast, Northern Ireland went for gold in a category they created - largest gathering of storybook characters. The Belfast Telegraph reported pupils from the school dressed up as everyone from Hansel and Gretel to the Gingerbread Man. The children were joined by an official Guinness judge and enjoyed a story-telling session before receiving their certificates.

Speaking of gingerbread men, this next story is a double dose of record-setting. Eight-foot, one-inch Sultan Koesen of Turkey was on hand at a Norwegian IKEA of all places to unveil the world's largest gingerbread man. The cookie weighed a whopping 1,435 pounds and beat the previous record-holder by about 100 pounds. Shockingly MSNBC filed this story under "weird news."

The London Times posted a little snippet of what could be called weird if you are at all familiar with stereotypes of the British. Known for their collective stiff upper lip, Brits broke tradition when they set the Guinness world record for longest group hug. One hundred and 12 people - a lot of them strangers - hugged for one minute at St. Pancras train station.

(Photo courtesy of MSNBC)

A whole lotta learning going on...

Teaching someone something often enlightens the teacher as well. And the younger the learner, the more the (usually older) teacher can learn. Kids' minds are elastic things; they can make connections between two seemingly disparate things and, in the process, open adults' minds to new possibilities.

The New York Times had an article today on students from the Harlem Success Academy who went on a field trip to a farm. On the face of it, that does not seem all that extraordinary.

What is different is the point of the field trip - to help the children get better test scores. Teachers at the Harlem charter school looked at the state exams and realized their students weren't doing well on some questions that involved rural life. So they decided to take the children, starting at age 3, to a farm so they could learn about cornstalks and where eggs come from.

Those children will no doubt turn out to be more well-rounded than if they did not make that visit. They may even inspire adults the way Rachel Scott did.

Scott was one of the students killed during the Columbine tragedy in 1999. Six weeks before she died, Scott wrote an essay on how one act of kindness can make an impact in someone's life, according to the News-Gazette. After her death, that essay prompted her father to start Rachel's Challenge, a program for area schools that invites the students to create a more positive environment by doing things like talking to students outside their "group" or helping a new student adjust to the school.

And finally, adults can learn something from students simply by studying them. MIT's Sloan School of Management published a news release, picked up by the Boston Globe, on a study of courtship habits. Assistant Professor Joshua Ackerman concluded a "tag team" approach to dating can improve success. He demonstrated partnerships of both the same sex and the opposite sex have a similar success rate. If you click through to the actual release, Ackerman's findings are both illustrative and amusing. : )

World's best kids...

Yesterday I committed a positivity blog post FAIL. I completely forgot to mention the 99th birthday of a man who has done a tremendous amount to change people's behavior to the positive. Former UCLA men's basketball coach and all-time great person John Wooden celebrated his birthday yesterday. He grew up in the Midwest and used the values and morals of his upbringing to mold his players into men. The LA Times Sports blog has a brief post about the man, the myth and the legend.

Okay, now I can get onto today's post. The children I want to highlight today are definitely following in Mr. Wooden's enormous footsteps. I pulled a story from the BBC online on a 16 year-old Indian boy is making a difference in 800 of his neighbors' lives. Babar Ali has been called the youngest headmaster in the world. He is the first person in his family to get an education, and he is not about to waste a bit of it. Called a model student in the article, Babarreturns home and runs a school of his own in the afternoon. His pupils are 800 of the children in his village who are too poor to go to even the government-subsidized schools. He began teaching some of his friends when he was nine, and now his school has 10 fellow teachers and is sanctioned by local authorities who have given Babar awards for his work in raising literacy rates in the area.

Great Britain runs at least two contests which reward its children for making a positive impact in the community. Harry Moseley, from Sheldon, Birmingham, won the title of Britain's Kindest Kid yesterday. The nine year-old was one of five finalists in the competition hosted by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and Five News, according the the CAF website. Moseley, who lives with an inoperable brain tumor, makes and sells beaded bracelets to fund raise for Brain Tumor UK. He decided to do his part after a hospital stay which parked him next to a 55 year-old man with the same affliction. Moseley has even launched an initiative that seeds bracelet-making clubs in area schools. Fifteen pence of each sale goes to the schools' funds while the rest goes to Brain Tumor UK. He received 1000 pounds in pocket money and 1000 pounds to donate to his charity. Ever the kind one, Harry plans on giving 200 pounds each to his brother and sister and using another 200 pounds for a wooden playhouse where he can make more bracelets.

Cambridge News reported on the Cambridgehire Young People of the Year award ceremony, which honored ten young people in their area for their selfless efforts. Sixteen year-old Sarah Bannister was named Young Person of the Year for her fundraising efforts for Crohn's disease despite her battle with it. Bannister is giving half of her 1000 pound prize to a Crohn's disease foundation. Cambridge News' article also gives snapshots of the other winners and what they've been doing to make the world a better place.

(Image courtesy of CAF)

What's your anniversary?...

In my life recently there has been a spate of friends' birthdays and anniversaries, which is funny because a lot of the stories I've been seeing in the past few days and weeks have to do with anniversaries of this or that. I guess it's not that much of a coincidence when you think about it; every day is most likely an anniversary of something for someone somewhere in the world...

In Sweden it is the 30th anniversary of that country's ban on spanking children. The Swedes were the first of 24 countries to introduce the ban in 1979, according to Yahoo! News. The statistics are staggering - before the ban 90 percent of children were smacked compared to with 10 percent nowadays. Critics of the ban then and now claim it leads to unruly children and a rise in crime, citing the fear parents have of disciplining children in case they are reported. However, Mali Nilsson of the international charity Save the Children notes there is no actual legal punishment if "caught." Social workers are simply brought in to help the family. To swat or not to swat, what do you think?

For the both the young and young-at-heart, this year is the 70th anniversary of the movie "The Wizard of Oz." The Huffington Post has a Newsweek video interview with several of the people hired to be Munchkins in the Judy Garland classic. You learn a few fun tidbits about the movie, and seeing the spirited octa- and nonagenarians gives you a smile. Personally, the Munchkins were my favorite part of "The Wizard of Oz." I could have done without the flying monkeys.

This is a fun one ... This next February will be the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice - the US men's ice hockey team beating the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y. Several of the key figures in that movie played for my alma mater, and shortly after the 2004 movie "Miracle" came out, you would not believe the crackpots calling my office there asking to speak with our athletic director, Patrick O'Brien Demsey. Fun fact #1: Demsey is the actor who played Mike Eruzione. Fact fact #2: Mike Eruzione is not the athletic director. Seriously people? But anyway, back to the video. Four year-old Josh Sacco has become an internet sensation, as reported on www.cleveland.com, for his version of Herb Brooks' motivational speech just before the iconic game. The little guy has it bang on, down to the gestures.

Lesser-known heroes...

Often when I see stories of success or good news in sports, it relates to a game won or a professional athlete receiving word that his shoulder/back/knee/big toe is not as injured as previously thought. Maybe I'm cynical, but that kind of news about a person who is most likely going to get paid an absurdly large amount of money to play a child's game regardless of whether he is on the field or the bench does not warrant my attention.

However, I do love me some sports stories with unexpected protagonists. A lot has been made of the Oregon-Boise State nonsense, where the Ducks proceeded to punctuate a disastrous game with one of its players punching a member of the other team. Oregon head coach Chip Kelly's less-than-stellar debut was played over and over and over again on all the major networks. As Yahoo! points out, part of being a fan is taking the good with the bad, but sometimes it's so bad, it's not fair. Ducks fan Tony Seminary decided he wasn't going to go quietly into the night and fired off an angry but composed email to Kelly with an invoice for his travel expenses from the game. Much to Seminary's surprise, a few days later he received a personal check from the coach.

Boise State and Oregon's nascent rivalry has nothing on the drama going on between Puma and adidas. The two sportswear companies began as a single venture between two German brothers - Adolf and Rudolph Dassler. But shortly after World War II, the siblings had a falling out and formed two separate companies. The chasm between adidas and Puma was so bad, the town in which they were both headquartered literally divided itself in two; there were separate shops and schools depending on who you supported. According to WBUR, this past Monday employees from both companies temporarily buried the hatchet in honor of World Peace Day. They played soccer on mixed teams, and the team that had both CEOs on it won.

Staying in world news for a second, as reported by the AP on September 9, 64 year-old retiree Ruth Day shot two holes-in-one in one round, besting what some are calling 67 million to one odds. She made her first shot on the 149-yard third hole and duplicated the feat 10 holes later on the 161-yard 13th hole. Day, a former showroom manager in northern England, has now done something even Tiger Woods has not yet managed.

For perhaps the sweetest story of the day, we come back to the States. Imagine for a second being told your two year-old daughter has autism and may never speak. Now fast-forward five years and behold that same little girl standing in front of tens of thousands of people and belting out the National Anthem. Gina Marie Incandela's parents decided early on to aggressive treat her autism, enrolling her in occupational and intensive speech therapy. Progress was slow until Gina began music therapy; she connected with it, and not only her speech but her grades and social skills began improving. After seeing someone sing the National Anthem on TV, the little girl declared she wanted to sing at a ballgame. God bless her mother, but Michelle Incandela found a try-out for a Mets' spring training game. Gina aced the try-out, and her little career took off. Considered the good luck charm for the Orlando Magic last year, she sang at nine playoff games - including three Finals games - hockey arenas, conventions and the US Open tennis tournament, according to CBS News. Gina's performance at a Mets game, linked from CBS News, is darling, and her dress is adorable.

Bouncing baby boy...

Not long ago, I put up a post of some treats I made for a co-worker's baby shower. She wasn't due until September, but the little guy had other plans and announced himself on Sunday. In honor of my co-worker and her new baby boy, I've decided to make this post all about children. 

The Times-Standard in Eureka, Calif., had a story a little while back on a local woman who won the Dreyer's Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute contest. On a whim Lori Arias entered the essay contest, on why her community needed a little positivity, writing about how a local mill's closing had put her husband and about 200 others out of work. She had to go back to work to support the family, and a local day care took in her children. When she found out she won the ice cream block party, she threw the shindig at the day care center as a way to say thank you. 

Max Jones, a 12 year-old from Orlando, Fla., may be catching the next wave of journalism ahead of everyone else. Sick of all the bad news, Jones turned his closet in to an Internet good news TV studio and began writing stories and chasing down leads to broadcast online. According to Google News, his site has 5,000 hits a day, and he has a staff of unpaid interns across the country who work with him to produce stories. Jones was very active in the freeing of the two journalists from North Korea, and upon her return, received a phone call from Ling herself. 

Despite my brother and the Greek Olympic baseball team's mock war with Rick Reilly over his comments on their Greekness or lack thereof, I usually enjoy reading Reilly's column. He's not a ranter, and he can be relied on to shine a light on people who do good things away from the camera lights. In this case, he highlights a group of children who need to stay away from lights of any kind. 

Camp Sundown, a place for children with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) in Craryville, N.Y., recently had a night under little light at Yankee Stadium. Kids with XP cannot be exposed to even fluorescent lights; exposure to UV light causes cancerous tumors. Reilly wrote a wonderful article for ESPN the Mag about all the children live with and the precautions they had to take just to be able to play with the big-leaguers at 3 a.m.

An athletically inclined TV superhero inspired another child across the Atlantic. The Sun, an English paper, tells of Harley, a four year-old quadruple amputee who lost all his arms and legs after contracting meningitis. Harley is a huge fan of Lazytown, a UK children's show, and The Sun arranged for Sportacus, aka Icelander Magnus Scheving, to fly to Manchester to spend an hour playing with the boy. Scheving was accompanied by representatives of an Icelandic firm that produces prosthetic limbs. The company has offered the family a free pair of hi-tech "sprinting feet" for Harley. 

(Photo courtesy of the Times-Standard)

A few flowers poking out of scorched earth...

It is perhaps ironic that the first proponent of the "scorched earth" policy in warfare, William Tecumseh Sherman, is the one who said "war is hell." War is also an unusual topic for a good news blog, but might as well face it since we're surrounded by it daily in all parts of the world, whether it's a war of words between neighbors, a war of ideals like the controversy swirling around Burma/Myanmar's recent sentencing of Suu Kyi or actual war in "insert a Middle Eastern/African nation here."

All of these wars have obvious effects, but the stories I have for this morning shine the spotlight on a few little-examined or even forgotten "side effects" to war. 

CNN.com posted a story on a man named Brad Blauser, a Texan who went to Iraq as a civilian contractor and stayed as an angel for children. Bartering security consulting for room and board (read: no income), Blauser works with charitable organizations to distribute pediatric wheelchairs to disabled children. Most of these children were not injured by bombs or guns; they simply suffer from physical handicaps from birth or resulting from disease. They are stigmatized and receive little help due to the health care shortage from the war. Blauser has provided over 650 wheelchairs to children and their families over the last four years. 

Wheelchairs are a frequent sight around the American Links Veterans' golf course. Staffed and run entirely by donations and volunteers (who average 72 years of age), the golf course is a haven for soldiers who come home from battle to combat physical and emotional injuries. MSNBC.com posted a video awhile back that profiled the golf course; its resident pro, Korean war vet Pepper Roberts; and some of the former soldiers who now play there. 

According to Haaretz.com, a 13 year-old bar mitzvah boy from New York has donated the $40,000 he received from his celebration to the town of Sderot, Israel. Better known as "Missile City," Sderot sits on the Israeli border and has been hit by tens of thousands of Gazan rockets during the war. Benjamin Sternklar Davis traveled to Israel to present the donation to the town, which he has asked be used to build a playground for Sderot's children, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

(Photo courtesy of CNN.com)

Child's play...

As some of you know, I have been sick for the last week. I only made it to work for four hours before today, so that would be the reason behind the uncharacteristically sporadic blogging this week. Most of my time has been spent watching re-runs of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Gilmore Girls," eating juice popsicles and throwing horizontal and rather pathetic temper tantrums. 

I'm not the best sick person; I am in no way stoic. And when forced to take care of myself while ill, I tend to revert back to childhood, spicing my whining and kicking the bedcovers with some decidedly grown-up swear words. In fact I had a bit of a temper tantrum this morning (vertically) when I realized I was better enough to go back to work. 

So it amused me when several of the stories I had for today involved children's stories and toys. 

The photo for the post today came from the accompanying Yahoo! News story about the possibility one of Aesop's fables may have been true. Famous more for their moral lessons than their veracity, one of Aesop's tales - "The Thirsty Crow" - may actually have been based in fact. The aptly named Christopher Bird of Cambridge University in England completed an experiment with three rooks and published the results in yesterday's issue of "Current Biology." Turns out rooks are capable of dropping stones into a tube of water to make the water level rise, just like in the fable...

The Fort Worth, Tex. Star-Telegram had a snippet in Wednesday's paper regarding a recession angel who, by investing in a toy store just before it closed, saved not only a woman's livelihood but brought joy to the area children. Sandy Challinor had decided to close her toy store due to economic worries and high operating costs, but on the second day of a three-day, going-out-of-business sale that brought browsing children to tears, an anonymous investor contacted Challinor and offered to help keep her going.

MSBNC.com posted a story a little while ago on American veterans who are bringing joy to foreign children. Former US military living in a retirement home near Denver, Colo., have banded together with a charity to make toys to send to children in some of the poorest regions in the world. This video highlights the distribution of toys by the Georgia National Guard to a destitute region just outside Kabul, Afghanistan. The smiles on the little boys' faces at the 2:05 and 2:13 marks are beyond precious. 

All around the world...

I realized this morning I've been monopolizing this blog with good news from the US. I suppose I'm fighting the US media bias of only reporting "local" news, but I've also been going with stories that came to me, rather than actively looking for articles. Today I did a little more of the latter and found a bunch of good news from other countries. 

The Washington Post (yay for the US reporting on something other than the US!) had a brief story on a new customer relations technique debuted in Japan - service with a smile. Now, you're probably protesting this concept is as old as the hills, but the Japanese have taken it to a new technological level. Employees at the busiest train stations - ones that serve hundreds of thousands of commuters every day - now have the option to check their uniform in the mirror and their smile on the computer. Software on laptops in 15 of rail stations can measure the employees' smile curvature to tell how broad a grin the individual is sporting. 

Also in the Pacific is news of a more far-reaching nature. Yesterday, the leaders of Taiwan and China exchanged their first direct messages in 60 years. The enmity between these two countries goes back a long ways, pretty much ever since China annexed Taiwan against the Taiwanese people's wishes. If I were Taiwanese, I'd be pretty peeved too. But according to USA Today, the Chinese president sent a congratulatory message to Taiwan's leader after he won an election to the ruling party's chairmanship. 

Moving a little farther west, presstv.ir reports that a mosaic depicting an angel has been uncovered in the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Originally a basilica before the Ottoman Turks took over the city in the 15th century, the angel (one of a set of six, it is believed) were covered after the building underwent its own religious conversion. 

Lastly, I finish up in the West - Canada to be more precise. The Toronto Star reports on some welcome relief to prospective adoptive parents. Recently, Imagine Adoption Agency, which was handling adoptions between Canadians and children in an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, filed for bankruptcy. That move halted the adoptions of over 40 families, many of whom spent years learning Ethiopian culture and language in preparation for their new child(ren). However, a mining company has stepped in and donated $100,000 to help the orphanage in Ethiopia keep going and facilitate the adoptions already in progress that were frozen. 

(Photo courtesy of presstv.ir)

I got sunshine, on a cloudy day...

I woke up this morning and once again, it was raining. In fact, I just looked out my office window, and it's still raining. It's that sneaky kind of rain where you have to unfocus your eyes to see it, like you're looking at one of those optical illusion posters. Since the constant rain (and the whole unfocusing my eyes thing) is giving me a headache, I thought I'd look for a little sunshine. 

While posting about the little girl who gave the Yankees player a bracelet the day he hit an inside-the-park home run, I stumbled across the organization who coordinated the visit between the player and the children, Project Sunshine. 

This is basically a group of over 10,000 volunteers who offer their time, their talents and themselves to children and their families who are coping with serious medical challenges like cancer, HIV/AIDS and other chronic and life-threatening illnesses. These volunteers create the materials and go to the sites (in 100 cities in the US and five around the world) to help children laugh and feel like a kid again, even if it's just for a few hours or an afternoon. 

Children in the program can participate in arts and crafts to help them express their feelings about being sick and in a care facility. Those who love to read can be part of the Book Buddies program where they are paired with volunteers to read books or they can join the book club and meet the authors of the books they read. Volunteers are encouraged to sew Surgi-Dolls, so children can better understand (by coloring and decorating the dolls themselves) the procedures they will have. Even the parents receive some TLC with spa days at the facilities. Parents and caregivers who are relaxed in turn help the children stay relaxed and get better faster. 

Call me a soft touch (and lord knows most charity organizations certainly seem to think so given the amount of mail I get), but this is an organization I really feel like I need to support in some way. Just skimming their website while writing this post made me feel better about life...and ignore the rain falling outside my window. 

(Photo courtesy of Project Sunshine)

I cheered up when I just realized it's not Monday...

I am a very sleepy girl today despite the fact a train could have chugged through my room last night, and I would not have heard it. I guess it doesn't help the weather is kinda gross, but I have been dragging more and more as the day has gone on. You, my unfortunate readers, now have to put up with my lacklusterness (yes, I did just make that up), which will probably come through your computer in bits and bytes. For that, I apologize.

Nevertheless, skimming through my stories to pick which ones to post today did lift my spirits somewhat. The adorable little boy at left is featured in theislandpacket.com's story about him receiving a specially designed tryke to help him negotiate his way in the world. He was born with all sorts of medical problems, but "L.B." has gained confidence and improved in motor skills and learning because of this little bike.

Another remarkable young boy recently graduated from a Los Angelos college...at age 11. I'm pretty sure I still hadn't learned to type by then. The story on NBC Los Angelos' website talks about how Moshe Kai Cavalin started classes at East LA Community College at 8 and then began tutoring his classmates (19 and 20 year-olds) shortly thereafter. He's also a martial arts whiz.

You all know I'm a sucker for a good news story about animals. WWLTV.com in New Orleans posted a story last week about a man and his dog. Jessie Pullins and J.J. were separated when Katrina rolled into town, and Pullins was forced to leave J.J. behind. He left food and put the dog up high thinking, like most other residents of Louisiana, that he'd be back in a day or two. Four years later, Pullins and J.J. were reunited after the dog was rescued and accidentally put up for adoption in California.

Wacky and Wonderful...

A few days ago I was extolling the virtues of the mysterious force on the Interweb that seemed to make themes appear whenever I went looking for happy news. That was not the first time I've marveled at this phenomenon on my blog.

Today is not one of those days. But they're all pretty cool.

I know it's June and Opening Day was ages ago, but I just stumbled onto this video on ESPN.com that shows Charlie Brown throwing out the first pitch at a Pirates game. While Charlie's struggles lay with kicking a football, the metaphor is apt for the Pirates, whose struggles often lay in both pitching and hitting. My old boss two schools ago was a huge Pirates fan, so I was kept up-to-date on baseball's buccaneers all summer regardless of whether I cared, but now I will admit to not having a clue how they are faring this season. Everyone loves Charlie Brown, so maybe some of his universal appreciation will rub off on the Pirates.

When I clicked on the following story, I thought it was the Metro paper that is ubiquitous to T stops all over Boston.  One of my roommates was actually featured in a "man on the street" survey months ago. But this link turned out to be to a Metro newspaper from the UK, and it had a story on a man who suffered a stroke six years ago, becoming an art genius after ensuing surgical treatment. The man says he couldn't draw so much as a stick figure before his stroke, and now he's, in his words, "Michelangelo." 

The Toronto Star had a neat story on May 31 about a class project , and the link to the story was "Boy writes to Heaven, receives response." That just begs to be clicked on. Turns out as part of a class project, the Canadian equivalent of fifth-graders were directed to write letters to God and tie them to helium balloons before releasing them. Bailey Pinto's letter landed in the yard of a lawyer a few towns away who was so touched by the contents, he wrote back in a "Yes, Bailey, there is a God" theme. 

(Photo credit: Metro.co.uk)