Welcome to The Good Stuff!
Consider this your happy place, your ray of sunshine, your own private beach where you can relax when you feel like the world is throwing you just a little more than you can handle. (Get the Good Stuff as an email in your inbox every Saturday. Click here.)
Our favorites this week
Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week
From booked to hooked
Extremely warm hats off to this man, who is proof that a crochet needle can be just as at home in a reformed convict’s hands as it is in your grandma’s. Kurt Stapleton learned how to crochet while in prison for armed robbery. Now that he’s a free and changed man, he uses his skill to make colorful hats for chemo patients. Is it sweet? Yes, but he would prefer you save the warm, fuzzy feelings for someone who needs them. “I’m just a guy making hats,” he says. “The people who are battling cancer are the heroes.”
Check out those wheels!
Let’s admit it. Despite her extremely impressive line of careers, not everything about Barbie has always been … realistic. (For instance, most people have articulated joints and actual eyeballs and far less voluminous hair.) But a new Barbie line featuring a doll in a wheelchair and another with a prosthetic leg are winning fans over for portraying more diverse and meaningful versions of beauty. The 2019 Fashionistas line also features different hair textures and body types so more kids can say, “Hey, that doll looks like me! And I. Look. Fabulous.”
She’s a survivor
This is either a miracle or the beginning of a very interesting superhero origin story: A baby girl in South Africa is completely OK after being found more than 20 feet down inside a storm drain. A rescue team had to literally chisel her out of the drain after a passerby heard her cries. The situation is a shame, because the little girl was only a few days old and she clearly didn’t get in the storm drain by herself. But her rescuers are calling her Sibanisethu, which means “our ray of light.” Here’s hoping her future’s as bright as her name.
Raise a glass to…
Two firefighters in Maryland who showed they can take the heat AND the ice. Jon Stillpass and Shaylor Taetz walked a mile over icy roads to get a traffic crash victim to the hospital after their ambulance skidded into a ravine. Luckily, the patient is fine, and the two heroes probably got the workout of their lives.
A bright idea
A bookseller in Italy has devised a nifty system for young readers: bring in stuff to recycle, get a free book. Michele Gentile, who owns the Ex Libris Cafe bookshop, spends the cash he makes from the recycling center to provide the free books, thus helping the environment and little literary minds. Patrons can also buy books from the store to donate to the cause. (Bonus fun fact: The concept of buying a book to give away echoes a World War II-era cafe practice called “suspended coffee,” where people would buy a coffee for themselves and then another as an anonymous gift to the next patron in need.)
You gotta see this
Behold, this enormous cabbage from Tasmania. We don’t know why, but this photo just makes us smile. That cabbage is almost bigger than the lady who grew it! And she and her husband are so proud! They should be — Cabbagezilla here took nine months and a shocking amount of tender loving care (and wallaby repelling) to grow.
Heroes among us
Misty Diaz has a severe form of spina bifida and her doctors once told her she’d never walk. Surprise – she’s doing a lot more than that! The 34-year-old has competed in more than 200 endurance and obstacle races, including some of those Spartan Races all of the big guys at the gym look forward to. And she does a lot of it on crutches! Step up your game, gym guys…
Wanna get away?
The new “Frozen 2” trailer has us feeling all kinds of Arctic vibes, so it’s a pretty glowing coincidence that Iceland is one of CNN Travel’s best places to visit in March. After all, even Disney magic doesn’t hold a candle to the aurora borealis.
Hear, hear!
“In this day and age, ‘family’ has become such a beautiful and versatile word. … Your trusted friends are family, those who share your ethnic background are family. Your local community is your family.”
- Adut Akech, a former refugee from South Sudan who’s now a famous supermodel. She says her experiences in a refugee camp, and later in the fashion industry, helped her see that family often goes way further than blood relations.
Tell us something good!
The Roseboro Fire Department photographed these two sweet kids taking a moment to say the Pledge of Allegiance as the department’s flag was being raised to full staff. The photo has gotten thousands of likes and positive comments on Facebook.
Shameless animal video
There’s always a time for cute animal videos. That time is now.
Since this is the inaugural edition of The Good Stuff, I’m taking full advantage and including one of my all-time favorite animal videos: a whiny little seal who doesn’t want to go in the water. Sound on!