For all you Tom Waits fans, Robert Siegel’s interview this week uncovered the exploding humor and wit of a treasured American singer/songwriter: "The flavor of whiskey is still in Waits’ voice, and his song lyrics still invoke the poets of the Beat Generation. Waits, who turns 57 in December, has released a new, three-CD set called Orphans." (All Things Considered – Hear the whiskey voice in RealMedia)
City Uses Kitchen Grease to Power Waste Treatment Plant
The City of Millbrae, California, celebrated the completion of a treatment plant that will use restaurant kitchen grease as a renewable power source to treat the city’s wastewater. Such a reduction in demand for electric power from utilities will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million pounds annually, the same as planting about 170 acres of trees. It is also an energy savings for the city of $366,000…
Blessed by a Burger
Many years ago during the very first days I had quit drinking, I joined a support group for help. They initially suggested that I not allow myself to get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (remembered as the acronym, HALT — also advice given to parents of small children).
After a card game at their club house I stepped outside to collect my thoughts and to try to calm those first day ‘jitters’. I was trying to decide whether to address my hunger at a burger joint up the street or go back inside and sooth my lonelines….
I then tried the support group’s further advice and said a quick prayer, “God, I really don’t know what to do right now. Help me out, will you?”
Not more than five seconds after my hungry plea to God, I heard a “flump-flump-flump.” A young woman pulled across the street with a flat tire. I looked back up to God and said, “You want me to change a tire? Okay…I guess.”
While changing the tire I was still faced with my immediate personal dilemma. I’m hungry but I don’t want to leave the comfort and safety of the group. Way too soon the tire was fixed.
The young lady then said to me, “Listen, I don’t have any money but I feel like you deserve something for helping me out.”
I replied, “Oh no, it was no bother. It’s done already, glad to help.” I didn’t get into God’s strange reply to my prayer.
But then she surprised me, “I got no money, but here…I do have a cheeseburger you can have.”
Thank you God!
Michael Kannon
Winnipeg Canada
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The Good News Network wishes all of you the blessing of the burgers — translation: ask and it is given — throughout this winter season. Thanks so much to Michael for his “Small World Story”.
Indians Using Google Earth To Save The Amazon
"Deep in the most remote jungles of South America, Amazon Indians (Amerindians) are using Google Earth and Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping to protect their fast-dwindling home… Indians log on to Google Earth and study images, inch by inch, looking to see where new (illegal) gold mines are popping up" …
Students Rule at This New York School
Wonderful story from AP about one innovative school that operates on the principle that “children are naturally curious and learn best when they want to, not when forced to… for parents and students tired of standardized testing, excessive homework, and overly rigid curriculums.”…
Secret Santa Revealed
The Secret Santa from Kansas City has long brightened the hearts of hundreds each holiday season by handing out hundred-dollar bills to strangers on city streets. Now, after 26 years and $1.3 million of anonymous holiday giving, he has decided to reveal his identity. He is weak from cancer and chemotherapy but Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is determined to pass on his belief in random kindness…
From December 2001, a Good News Network story:
Secret Santa Hands out Cash in NY
A big guy with a beard wandered the streets of New York handing out cash at Christmas. The man, wearing a red Santa hat, handed out $100 notes to dozens of people at random over three days. He distributed a total of $25,000 before flying home to Kansas City, MO. He says he has done this every Christmas for 22 years.
The anonymous businessman told the Kansas City Star that he was once destitute when the owner of a Mississippi diner handed him a $20 bill and said, “Son, you must have dropped this.”
“That fella just knew I was in trouble and helped me in a way that didn’t embarrass me,” recalled the Samaritan Santa.
Santa also gave money to fire stations, churches and charities. He also dropped $100 into the bucket of a dumbfounded Salvation Army worker, said, ‘Merry Christmas,’ and kept going.Now, read the full AP story about him in 2006 — how his giving nature was born around Christmas time after he’d lost his job, and why he wanted to reveal himself — and check out the photo gallery at KansasCity.com featuring the faces of his those he’s blessed. The photo used in this story is a wonderful example of the collection there and used to illustrate their tribute.
Larry started a Secret Santa Facebook Page, and has a tribute there about one of the sweetest men to live in this century, Buck O’Neil, of Negro League baseball fame, and also one of Secret Santa’s helpers on his many rounds…
(link submitted by GNN supporter, Sarah Cool – Thanks, Sarah!)
Glamorous Public Toilets Open in Times Square
Today Charmin unveils the first ever, fully-staffed, deluxe public restrooms in New York City’s Times Square just in time for the holiday season. The Charmin Restrooms — an installation of 20 plush restrooms — are a treat for families and seniors who need toilets in the high-traffic shopping area during the busiest time of year. The Restrooms are staffed with attendants to service each stall after every use. Added luxuries include a lavish blue waiting area with flat-screened TVs in the walls, plush sofas and fireplace, baby changing stations,…
CNN Launches Series on Happiness and Health
Watch "Happiness and Your Health: The Surprising Connection," a Sanjay Gupta special, tonight, November 19 at 10 p.m. ET. Check out slide shows, articles and surveys all related to happiness at CNN.com.
Soldier in Iraq Says He Believes in Mankind
U.S. medic, Sgt. Ernesto Haibi, described the Iraq War as containing love and hate, peace and violence alike. In a radio essay, This I Believe, he said, "For all the death and destruction reported in the news, there are thousands of stories of kindness and caring that no one ever knows…I believe that by striving for a world that accepts its oneness, we can transform wars, intolerance, religious persecution and political extremism into memory and maybe even folklore." Click on Listen at NPR to hear this short but insightful essay. (RealMedia) He blogs at Candle in the Dark.
Beyond Positive Thinking: Larry King and The Secret
Thursday on CNN’s Larry King LIve, Larry hosts the second of a two-part series entitled “Beyond Positive Thinking”. His guests will explore The Law of Attraction and how viewers can use their thoughts and feelings to create what they want to experience in their lives. The shows ties in with a 2006 documentary movie, The Secret, which reveals the life-changing principles of The Law of Attraction. Here is a sneak peak of the film, and what you can expect on tonight’s Larry King Live… UPDATE: If you missed the Larry King shows, check out the posted comments for this article.
Catholic Charities Guts 1000th Home for Elderly and Disabled in New Orleans
After nearly a year of helping elderly and disabled homeowners begin the clean-up process in flood-ravaged New Orleans, Catholic Charities volunteers will gut their 1,000th home Wednesday.
To date, 6,848 Operation Helping Hands volunteers have gutted 999 homes and given 178,641 hours of service. Volunteers have come from across the United States and as far as Canada and England to join in this effort.
Iraqi Troops Bring Toys, Supplies to Children
The grin on the Iraqi soldier’s face widened as a little girl ran back to her house holding up a new stuffed animal and showing it to her parents… Children smiling and parading off with their new toys was a common sight as Iraqi soldiers took a break from their normal duties recently to pass out toys. Stopping in the village of Mukashyfa, near Samarrah, the soldiers not only cheered local children, they positively affected the opinion Iraqi adults have of their nation’s troops.
Lost Renaissance Masterpiece Found in Bedroom
Reuters featured this yesterday: “Two lost paintings by Italian Renaissance master Fra Angelico have turned up in a modest house in central England in a discovery hailed as one of the most exciting art finds for a generation.” One curator at the National Gallery in London described the find as breathtaking, saying, “It never ceases to amaze me how these things come to light!”
G is for Gay Marriage
EDITOR’S BLOG — As the editor, I need to decide what meets our standards of good news. I was stymied this week when reading about South Africa becoming the fifth nation to sanction gay marriage, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada.
I know for much of the public — here and in Africa — the subject of same-sex couples still evokes strong negative feelings and, for some, the issue has already been decided by their religion’s impression of “the word of God.” But, I have to admire, and thus promote to print, the way in which the African National Congress party leaders got down to brass tacks and established with certainty the standard with which this issue should be judged…
Election 2006: It’s All Too Much for me to Take!
This is what it felt like to be a Democrat last week… From Yellow Submarine, by the Beatles, 1969, It’s All Too Much! A flowery, lover-ly, Yessiree color explosion.
"It’s all too much for me to take
The love that’s shining all around here
All the world is birthday cake
So take a piece but not too much
Nice to have the time to take this opportunity
Time for me to look at you and you to look at me."
(Tears begin flowing from the Blue Meanie) [2:29]
Canstruction Makes Creations Out of Cans and Donates the Food
Designers and architects showcase their ingenious talents while feeding the hungry during annual “Canstruction” competitions where design firms test their mettle to see who can build the most astounding structure made entirely from full cans of food. Canstruction® events over the past ten years have combined the competitive spirit of a design/build competition with a unique solution for feeding people culminating in the donation of millions of pounds of food…
“An American Classic” (pictured above, photo by Kevin Wick) won the 2005 Juror’s Prize in NYC, using 6,394 cans.
Competing teams, lead by architects and engineers design giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the exhibitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.
Structures, ranging in size from 1,000 to 13,000 cans, must be built in a single evening by stacking a variety of can sizes and shapes using the product labels as the color pallet. Structurally self-supporting, the only other materials to be used are 1/4” leveling, cardboard, tape, rubber bands and wire.
2005-06 Canstruction competitions took place in 45 cities across North America yielding 1.5 million pounds of food from the building of 500 structures. During the new cycle from July to June 2007, more than eighty Canstruction® Competitions are scheduled to be held in North America. Anyone can sponsor an event by applying with organizers.
New York City hosted their 14th annual competition this weekend, by far the largest of the contests held nationwide, showcasing 42 teams using 153,000 cans of food. Last year’s big apple event collected a record breaking 98,597 pounds of food for the Food Bank For New York City with 34 entries.
This year’s top winners in New York included a “canstruction” of a lion and a lamb lying down together. It was built by the team from Butler Rogers Baskett Architects.
The sculpture, titled “If They Can, We Can,” was made of Bush Bean cans and meant to send a message of peace among adversaries to Washington, D.C., said Cheri Melillo, president and executive director of the event. It was made of about 5,500 cans, she said. (AP, via Wash Post with photo)
The exhibit opened Thursday at the New York Design Center. It is slated to run through Nov. 22 at the center, located at 200 Lexington Ave. For a schedule of nationwide events see the canstruction.org Web site.
The 2003 winners included a huge tuna fish jetting out of the water (Give a man a fish feed him for a day; Give a man 1,238 cans of tuna, feed him for 1,238 days.), a yellow VW bug (Food Drive), and chess board (Make your move to check mate hunger).
DON’T MISS the gallery of winners on their Multimedia page, and learn how to organize your own event to fight hunger.
Comic Relief to Raise Money for Katrina
Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams are back raising money while making people laugh. This time it’s for Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. After an eight-year hiatus Comedy Relief, launched originally to help the homeless, will celebrate its 20th anniversary. The trio will perform live in Las Vegas on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006. Catch the simlulcast on cable’s HBO and TBS. The rest of the lineup looks good.
Roseanne Barr, Lewis Black, Louis C.K., along with cast members from “Desperate Housewives” and “Entourage will join the talent lineup for the all-star Comic Relief 2006.
Donations are already being accepted at the toll-free number 1-800-5281000, or at Comic Relief’s website here. Thirty bucks gets you a Comic Relief 2006 tee shirt.
For 20 years the Comic Relief organization has produced more than 80 shows, including the first eight major “Comic Relief” events seen on HBO from 1986 to 1998, which raised more than $50 million for programs aiding the homeless throughout the U.S. In 1992, Comic Relief mounted the first major benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Andrew, which raised $2 million in one night.
There are still tickets for the three-hour concert to be held at Caesar’s Palace, the culminating night of The (week long) Comedy Festival.
For more, check out the full AP story in WY’s Star Tribune and an interview with Whoopi Goldberg regarding the reunion in this week’s Newsweek. Laughing is good for your health so mark your calendars!
Photo: Comic Relief 2006 Website
Dogs and Cats Comfort the Homeless, and the Vet Who Volunteers
"There are those who volunteer at food banks to nourish people in need. And there are those, such as Dr. Stanley Coe, a retired veterinarian, who nourish the souls of people by volunteering to keep their best friends — and sometimes only companions — healthy. The pets, he says, "probably give some people a reason to live.’" (photos and full story at Seattle P-I.com)
Young Voter Turnout Surges in 2006
2006 showed with certainty that young voters ages 18-29 are a genuine force in American politics as participation climbed for the second straight major election. Many were surprised after the presidential race in ’04 to see the number of young voters surge 11 percent from the previous one of 2000. Now, this year, a total of 10 million young voters showed up, the most in 20 years of midterm elections. (Rock The Vote)
‘Get Your Arab On’: Comedians Chip Away at Ethnic Fears
‘Get Your Arab On’, a festival tonight in New York features Arab-American comedians chipping away at ethnic fears. These Americans, many raised Christian, but now profiled as in airports, are using humor to show the futility of vilifying others because of their culture, creed, or color. The fourth annual Arab-American Comedy Festival is featured today in Christian Science Monitor. (photo) Festival Co-founder, Maysoon Zayid, performing, by Johnny Farraj