Good news/kindness only (please) thread

[neoplacebo]

Dolly Parton has asked the TN state legislature not to erect a statue of her at the Capitol. The local tv news had a story about it this morning. She also refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom a few months ago. I'm not exactly one of her music fans, but she's definitely a class act, which is rare in TN. Dolly has a tourist place (Dollywood) in Pigeon Forge TN (where they forge those pigeons).
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dolly-parton ... 44680.html

I enjoyed Dolly's performance in "Nine to Five".

She really is just the same good person she's evidently always been, and hasn't let fame and fortune change who she is. She gave damn near everybody in Gatlinburg TN a $6,000 check a few years ago when the whole town nearly burned down.

[Whack9]

NJ has officially legalized it.

[O Really]

Low-level marijuana arrests to stop in N.J. as Murphy signs legal weed bills

https://whyy.org/articles/low-level-mar ... eed-bills/


"Recreational marijuana will finally become legal in New Jersey under three bills signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday, more than three months after voters approved it by a two-to-one margin in the November election.

Monday’s actions mean police should immediately stop making arrests for small amounts of marijuana possession. But residents likely won’t be able to buy weed from a dispensary for “plus or minus six months,” Murphy said, as state regulators begin the process of setting up the legal marketplace and awarding licenses."

Three months to sign? For a pro-legalization governor? Good thing it wasn't some repuQ and keep dragging it out like DeSantis and the felon vote.
"Setting up the legal marketplace" shouldn't take long. It's not like there aren't already numerous examples out there. Everybody thinks they have to re-invent the wheel. But it's still good news - Whack9 can visit the fam more often, or at least enjoy the visits more.

[Vrede too]

... Three months to sign? ...

I can guess why.

More seriously, what he signed is enabling legislation passed by the Leg after the Nov public vote.

[neoplacebo]

... Three months to sign? ...

I can guess why.

More seriously, what he signed is enabling legislation passed by the Leg after the Nov public vote.

I think it would be interesting to find out who has been scrambling to establish the initial work in setting up dispensaries for the last 90 days. Historically, any legislation in this country that has the potential for huge piles of early and easy money......whether it was railroad routes or industrial development or anything else......that legislation always makes a few well connected individuals wealthy.

[Vrede too]

I think it would be interesting to find out who has been scrambling to establish the initial work in setting up dispensaries for the last 90 days. Historically, any legislation in this country that has the potential for huge piles of early and easy money......whether it was railroad routes or industrial development or anything else......that legislation always makes a few well connected individuals wealthy.

Nationally, Blacks have often been shut out because of criminal records. Many times, these "crimes" are pot offenses that are now legal.

[Vrede too]

Man rescues 500 people on icy Texas roads amid historic freeze
‘At 434 cars, I stopped counting. So many people are still stranded’

[Vrede too]

1st chemo dance


4th chemo dance- you should be dancing


6th chemo dance- Napoleon Dynamite

Interim dances


Surprise flashmob for last (16th) day of chemo!! Family, friends, cancer center staff and coworkers

Article

<sniff>

[Vrede too]

viewtopic.php?p=128928#p128928

Missing hiker found in Zion National Park (after 12 days!), family says

There's some dispute over her story, but so far no proof that she or her family are lying. We'll see . . . or not.

Not.

Something is missing in new reports about how hiker Holly Courtier got lost and found in Zion: Answers.
Park service documents are so heavily redacted that they reveal little new about the 12-day search aside from the $60K price tag.

:confusion-scratchheadblue:

[Vrede too]

...

Small world.

That’s amore

When Women of Weaverville posted a notice seeking a leader to coordinate a local Lasagna Love effort, it wasn’t just the alliteration that inspired WOW member Stacey Conley to say yes. Her friend Kim De suggested they do it together, and Lasagna Love Buncombe County was birthed. “It’s a national grassroots initiative started during the pandemic by a mom looking to help other moms in her community,” Conley explains.

That mom was Rhiannon Menn, who started delivering homemade lasagna to families needing some help in the San Diego area. More people wanted to participate, and in May 2020, Lasagna Love was official.

Since then, over 20,000 volunteers provide 3,500 meals a week in 50 states. “Lasagna is pretty easy to make, it’s hearty and most people like it,” Conley says. “It’s something you can do at home and is very rewarding.”

Conley and De have expanded their area to include Henderson and Madison counties. For more information, to sign up to become a lasagna chef or receive a lasagna, visit avl.mx/98u.

Mmmm, Lasagna Love.

[Vrede too]

Missing Roseburg (OR, 69 year-old) man found alive after 17 days in wilderness

[Vrede too]

Co-workers donate their kidneys to save each other’s husbands

A chance encounter in a bathroom at work turned into a lifesaving kidney transplant chain for two coworkers at an Atlanta hospital.

Susan Ellis and Tia Wimbush, who have worked together at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for more than a decade, both knew each other's husbands needed a kidney transplant, but it was not until they saw each other in the bathroom at work last fall and stopped to ask how their husbands were doing that they made a lifesaving connection.

During that conversation -- the first in-person conversation they'd had in several months due to the coronavirus pandemic -- the coworkers realized that Wimbush's blood type was a perfect match for Ellis's husband, Lance, and Ellis's blood type was compatible with Wimbush's husband, Rodney.

"My thought immediately was that we could help each other and stop the suffering of two families," Wimbush, 45, told "Good Morning America." "I called Rodney immediately and he and I were both just committed to moving forward and trying to help two families."



...

[neoplacebo]

I thought this was pretty cool....Dutch princess, heir to the throne, declines her $1.9 million yearly allowance. She turns 18 in December which is when the allowance would begin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/heir-dutch-t ... 24733.html

[Vrede too]

I thought this was pretty cool....Dutch princess, heir to the throne, declines her $1.9 million yearly allowance. She turns 18 in December which is when the allowance would begin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/heir-dutch-t ... 24733.html

I would have found that hard to do, especially in a nation with coffeeshops and smartshops. Does this mean she'll keep King Daddy's credit card?

This stood out to me:

... The princess' decision not to use her allowance comes after critics took issue with the idea of her receiving the money when she turns 18. Tatler reported that Amalia would have been the first Dutch heir to be given a salary.

Historically, only the king, queen, and queen mother have received salaries in the Netherlands.

The Dutch royal family is the costliest monarchy in all of Europe, according to a 2012 study from Ghent University....

I wonder why Princess and future Queen Amalia is the first. Are her 2 younger sisters also entitled and are they now appreciative or pissed off?

[neoplacebo]

I thought this was pretty cool....Dutch princess, heir to the throne, declines her $1.9 million yearly allowance. She turns 18 in December which is when the allowance would begin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/heir-dutch-t ... 24733.html

I would have found that hard to do, especially in a nation with coffeeshops and smartshops. Does this mean she'll keep King Daddy's credit card?

This stood out to me:

... The princess' decision not to use her allowance comes after critics took issue with the idea of her receiving the money when she turns 18. Tatler reported that Amalia would have been the first Dutch heir to be given a salary.

Historically, only the king, queen, and queen mother have received salaries in the Netherlands.

The Dutch royal family is the costliest monarchy in all of Europe, according to a 2012 study from Ghent University....

I wonder why Princess and future Queen Amalia is the first. Are her 2 younger sisters also entitled and are they now appreciative or pissed off?

Not sure about why she's the first to be given this salary. But I'm with you; I'd find it hard to deny it.....probably take at least part of it to be popular at the hash bars in Amsterdam.

[Vrede too]

Olympic gold medalist Tamyra Mensah-Stock makes mother's dream come true with $250,000 surprise (with 2:51 video)

(Better to watch than to read)

For Olympic champion wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock, her gold medal is a dream come true, but it's also just part of her plan.

"It honestly just feels like it was just meant to be," Mensah-Stock told ABC13's Adam Winkler this week. "I feel like this is something that's been in the making since I started wrestling. I always knew I could do it."

But Mensah-Stock, a former student at Morton Ranch High School, said she couldn't do it without the support of her mother, Shonda Wells.

Mensah-Stock said her mom sacrificed a lot for years in order for her to pursue her passion - a journey that's resulted in the first wrestling gold medal for an American Black woman.

Now, it's time for the wrestler to reciprocate.

"I just wanted to help my mom's dream come true like she's helped mine come true," said the young athlete.

Five years ago, when Wells was cooking and selling BBQ out of a pit on two wheels, Mensah-Stock promised her a food truck.

The plan was to use her Olympic winnings to purchase a $30,000 truck.
Well, those plans changed faster than Mensah-Stock pinned her opponents.

"I did my research on her and fell in love with the person she was," said Cameron Davies, owner of Cruising Kitchens.

Davies is a Houston native who now lives in San Antonio and operates Cruising Kitchens - the largest manufacturer of mobile assets in the world.

His team will design, build and donate a $250,000 food truck for Wells.

ABC13 was on a Zoom call with Davies and the family the moment Wells learned the news.

"It's time for you to take care of her, because she's been taking care of you," Davies said to Mensah-Stock.

"Oh my God, I can't believe it," the mom said through tears. "Thank you so much. This is a dream come true."

"I've been wanting this for her for so long," Mensah-Stock said while sobbing. "I pretty much forgot about my dreams - just wanted hers to come true."

Now, with a gold medal and some giving - both Mensah-Stock and her mother's dreams are coming true.

It's all just part of the plan.

[Vrede too]

Polish Olympian auctions silver medal for infant's heart surgery, but winning bidder won't accept it

Not even two weeks since winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk put it up for auction to help save an infant's life.

On Monday, she announced that she exceeded her fundraising goal. And she's keeping her silver medal thanks to the donor who put her over the top.

Andrejczyk announced the auction on Facebook on Aug. 11, five days after securing the silver medal in javelin. She wrote that she chose to raise funds for Miłoszek Małysa, an 8-month-old boy who needs to travel from Poland to Stanford University in California to have life-saving heart surgery. She didn't know Małysa, but wrote that she knew his cause was the right choice after reading online pleas for help from his parents....

Sniff .

[neoplacebo]

CA beachfront property to be given back to heirs of black family it was taken from nearly 100 years ago.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/prime-califo ... 26077.html

[Vrede too]

CA beachfront property to be given back to heirs of black family it was taken from nearly 100 years ago.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/prime-califo ... 26077.html

March/April articles:
viewtopic.php?p=136374#p136374

[O Really]

Nobody has posted much in the Good News thread, so here's some. I'm totally impressed with Safeway (Albertson's, Vons, etc.) We had an incident in their pharmacy yesterday so I wrote in to the generic complaint line the following summary:

: My wife and I booked an appointment for a Covid booster shot through the online appointment system. We received email confirmations, completed the required paperwork, and drove about an hour to the Crescent City, California store. When we arrived for our appointments, the pharmacist scoffed, saying "nobody is doing shots today." I showed her our confirmations - she said no, we're short-handed. She said the people who run the appointment system don't know anything about the stores. I offered to let her work us in between whatever else she was doing (no other customer was around at the time), but she continued to refuse. She suggested we might try CVS. In booking our appointments, we gave our email and phone numbers. Couldn't somebody have sent us a text saying all 10/31 appointments were being cancelled? Couldn't the pharmacist have even offered to work us in if we were willing to wait, since we'd driven an hour to get there? I understand stuff happens, and maybe people don't always show up for work, and maybe pharmacists have a cranky day, but the way this situation occurred and was handled was totally unacceptable.

So within a couple of hours, I get back first a semi-generic response:

Thank you for writing to us about this matter. My apologies for the inconvenience. This is not what we want you to experience.
I know your time is very important and I completely understand the frustrations you had from your scheduled Covid booster. This matter will definitely be addressed.

Please know the issue you experienced will not go unnoticed and will be reviewed, providing us the opportunity to improve our service, I have notified the Divisions Pharmacy Manager in charge for immediate action. Rest assure that this will not happen again.

Should you have more concerns, please do write to us. Your feedback is very important to us.

Thank you for shopping with us. Stay safe!

And then this morning, by 9:30, I got a phone call from the store manager, with whom I had a good discussion. That's slightly more than 12 hours from writing to Albertson's corporate email - on a Sunday - down to a call from the store manager.

Impressed? Fershure.