Tuesday morning roundup...

It's a rainy Tuesday morning on what my friend Joel and I have termed the longest week of the month. I'm more than a little sleepy and just a tad lazy, so I'm going to stick with a relatively random group of links today. I just really don't have the energy to find a theme or common thread beyond the obvious. I'll try harder tomorrow, I promise. 

Yahoo! had a story up yesterday about a man who bought a ledger for $200 that may contain the original formula for Dr. Pepper and now stands to make $50,000-$70,000 from auction. Personally I think the whole history aspect of finding a nearly 130 year-old book with such significance is cooler than the making a huge profit thing, but that may just be me.

Continuing in the food vein for a second, gourmetretailer.com gave a nod to the slowly recovering economy. The site noted retail sales in general rose in the last few months (excluding auto sales). Anytime the economy stays in the black, even if it's only by another percentage point, it's a good thing. 

I could be completely wrong about this since I did not pay much attention to the rest of the world as a child, but I could swear the Summer and Winter Olympics both used to occur every four years. I have no idea why I continue to cling to this thought, but a story I saw yesterday reminded me the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are coming up. Canada has chosen its first Olympic torch-bearer for the Games. Ironically it's a man whose wife applied to be a torch-bearer for the 1988 Games and didn't get picked (Calgary Herald). 

And finally, May 3-9 is Be Kind to Animals week. The American Humane Association has been celebrating the relationship between animals and humans and trying to reach out to the community on this subject since 1915. Businesswire.com had a press release on the six children from around the country who won the AHA's "Be Kind to Animals Kid" contest for their efforts in volunteering and helping homeless animals. 

The Benton Courier had a story on kindness towards both humans and animals. Two women helped return a man's beloved dog who went missing in Arizona after the pair took a trip from Arkansas. Not only did they rescue the dog from being euthanized, they paid for his plane fare back to Arkansas when they found out the dog's owner couldn't afford it. 

Image from perpetualkid.com

Weird, wild and wonderful...

Good morning from a fabulously, legitimately spring day. Yesterday was wicked hot for most of the day, and I was afraid we'd skipped spring like we did last year. Today is still supposed to get to 78 but I have a nice, cool breeze coming in through my office window. I'm a happy girl. : ) 

Today's stories aren't so much strictly good news as they are just kinda unusual. Each of them caught my attention for a different reason, but the theme of the day was definitely just left of mainstream.

I was at the animal shelter yesterday, having a ball with the dogs. I took one named Ernie for a walk. He was a mix of miniature doberman and something else, and he definitely had a Napoleon complex. He practically marched around the yard with his little chest out. Fortunately, he, like several others there, had been adopted and was waiting to go to his new home. The Corning Observer tells the story of Weaver, a mutt with a special challenge, who had a similar happy ending.

The first story I found today peaked my interest from an historical perspective. I nearly majored in history in college before wondering what exactly I would do with that later...I grew up in a family that took a lot of field trips to local Civil War monuments, parks and sites, and as I've grown I've taken my own interest in that particular period of American history. I was intrigued by the story reported by CBS 3 in New Jersey of a woman who received a family bible back as a gift from a book collector 150 years after it was lost.

MSNBC's story on the successful removal of a tumor from a Saudi Arabian woman isn't exactly for the squeamish. I did pick a story with a less, shall we say, graphic photo of the woman, though. The thing is, the tumor was 40lbs and located in her pelvis. She was told she had no hope by the doctors in Riyadh, but five operations later, doctors in Berlin have erased all of the malignant growth.

Finally, CNN reported on a revival of a practice I didn't think was especially legal. Apparently small towns across America have begun to print their own currencies. Common during the Great Depression, people today have set up complementary currencies to encourage local spending and support area businesses. Printing one's own money does have a necessarily narrow scope in terms of helping the economy, but I say times like these call for creative solutions. 

Photo credit: ASPCA.com

It's the Economy, Stupid...

So goes the famous saying on James Carville's white board in the 1990s. That could be the answer to a lot of questions these days as well. It's made us rethink a lot of our habits and patterns in all areas of our lives. I am definitely guilty of it; anyone who knows me knows of my obsession and conspicuous consumption of kitchen tools. I actually spent part of this afternoon's lunch explaining to my coworker how to use a grapefruit sectioner. To which our administrative assistant replied, "I just use a knife." 

Fair enough.

But I also have caught myself examining my habits as well. Knocking on any and all available wood, I have not (yet) been affected by the economy, so when I get the mail every day and see another letter from a charitable organization, I remind myself I do not, in fact, need a (insert latest-gadget-from-Williams-Sonoma-I'm-drooling-over here) and could instead send $10 to the MSPCA or Save the Children. The one thing I do wish they would stop doing is sending me address labels. Oh, March of Dimes, you want to offer me free address labels? Thanks, but the World Wildlife Fund, the Mass. State Troopers and the Red Cross beat you to it...

The stories I found today revolve around people who share my mind-set of remembering others before spending on myself. I am personally of the opinion that this is the silver lining to this current crisis. The Duluth News-Tribune highlights local restaurant owners who, working together with the community, sponsor once-a-week free lunches for veterans from a local rest home. The gratitude the husband and wife ownership feel for the veterans' sacrifices really come through in the interview.

The Toledo Blade appears to be doing a series on how local people are coping with the economy. This installment concerns a retired couple who are helping their less fortunate neighbors wherever they can since they themselves have not yet suffered a massive loss in the stock market. 

A volunteer writes a first-hand account in crosscut.com of a man she helped as he turned his life around after serving a prison term. The story, based out of a tent city in the outskirts of Seattle, reminds you that it is possible to turn things around with some hard work. 

The last story isn't strictly people reviewing habits, but I thought it was a nice little roundup. The Columbia County News-Times published a list of local good news and accomplishments. Maybe it's because I'm from a small town and I grew up in economic prosperity, so these types of things actually were news back then, but I really enjoyed just reading about all the little things the county appreciated.