A holiday miracle, a Thanksgiving tradition and a dog-powered phone

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A holiday miracle, a Thanksgiving tradition and a dog-powered phone

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November 20, 2021

It's the season for family, and family can mean so many things. They can be the people you're born with, the people you choose or the people fate somehow chose for you. Families gather together, celebrate together, break bread together; they love each other and annoy the heck out of each other in equal measure. But above all, they take care of each other. This week, we have some great stories of people looking out for one another in this great big human family of ours.

The Good Stuff is taking off next weekend, but we'll see you back here December 4. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a wonderful Hanukkah, and as always, thank you for being a part of our Good Stuff family!

If there's something you'd like to see here, shoot us an email. Know someone who could use a little Good Stuff? Send them a copy! We hope you love it as much as we do.

Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

A Thanksgiving tradition
Five years ago, Wanda Dench sent an accidental text message that sparked one of the internet's most beloved holiday traditions. Dench, from Mesa, Arizona, sent a text inviting her grandson over for dinner -- except it didn't go to her grandson. It went to Jamal Hinton, a high school kid at the time in the same area. They had a laugh over it, and then Hinton jokingly asked if he could still come over. "Of course you can," Dench replied. "That's what grandmas do ... feed everyone." Since then, the pair have connected every year, and Hinton posts about the get-togethers on social media. "Blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives," he wrote in 2019. Even last year, after Dench's husband Lonnie passed away from Covid-19 in April 2020, Hinton was still able to connect with her for the holiday. This year, they'll meet once again, to share life's trials and joys together.

Light it up
You know those neighborhoods where people go all out with the Christmas decorations? We're talking, slow-down-the-car, don't-look-at-the-electric bill kind of stuff. That's the kind of neighborhood where Dale and Julie Marks live, in Des Moines, Iowa. The couple has had a hard year -- they both caught Covid-19, and Dale survived two strokes and a heart attack while battling the disease. After all of that, putting up Christmas decorations seemed like an impossible task until a group of volunteers stepped in with kindness and muscle to spare. Local contractor Bob Coffey heard about the Marks' situation, so he and four of his employees came out to do the work for free. With some direction from Dale, who observed safely from the porch, they strung light after festive light until the house looked like they all knew it should: Full of holiday cheer.

Safe trails
There are two words every Boy Scout knows: Be Prepared. Twelve-year-old Scout David King was the pure embodiment of that motto when he and his mom Christine came across a couple in distress during a hike in Kailua, Hawaii. The couple was lost, out of water, their 100-pound dog Smokey had cut up his paws and was unable to walk, and darkness was fast approaching. David and Christine shared their water and brainstormed a way to get everyone out. Like the model Boy Scout he is, David saved the day by building a stretcher out of some large branches and t-shirts to carry the dog, a skill he learned from his brother while getting his First Aid merit badge. After a lot of coaxing, an understandably confused Smokey settled into the stretcher, and the group was able to make it to safety.

Raise a glass to...

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who will become the first Black woman on the International Space Station crew when she launches into space in April 2022 on the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. Watkins began preparing for the mission in 2017 and has many other out-of-this-world accomplishments. She started at NASA as an intern and worked as a member of the science team for the Mars rover, Curiosity, when she was postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. She and three other crew members will spend six months in the ISS microgravity laboratory conducting scientific research.

A bright idea

Inventor Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas knows what the people want, and the people want even more ways to be obsessed with their dogs. So, Hirskyj-Douglas, a lecturer and assistant professor in Animal-Computer Interaction at the University of Glasgow, invented the DogPhone. It's exactly what it sounds like! Well, kind of. The device is operated by a sensor hidden inside of a ball. When a dog plays with the ball, it triggers a video call. Hirskyj-Douglas tried it with her own dog Zach, and by the end of the experiment, he was calling her up to five times a day. Did Zach know what he was doing? She's not sure. But it sounds fun! Dogs can also "answer" a video call by moving the ball. Zach did not do this, but there's always room for improvement. Maybe he was just busy.

You gotta see this

Photo credit: Chu Han Lin/Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2021

Ah, nature is so majestic. Observe the dignified and not at all bizarre behaviors of mudskippers in Taiwan, or a mother otter dragging her baby through swim lessons, or an eagle that just kind of ... missed its nest. These are some of the winners of this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. More than 7,000 images were entered in this year's contest, and 10% of its total net revenue will be donated to Save Wild Orangutans, which works to safeguard the endangered animals in Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo.

Heroes among us

CNN has chosen the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2021! For the next few weeks, we'll be highlighting each of these incredible people who are using their unique skills and experiences to make the world a better place. Voting is now open to determine the CNN Hero of the Year, so be sure to read about each one here and cast your vote before the big reveal in December! (PS -- You get 10 votes per day and can vote multiple days.)

Michele Neff Hernandez turned her grief after losing her husband to a tragic accident in 2005 into a network that has reached more than 4 million people worldwide. She created Soaring Spirits, a non-profit that connects widows and widowers, allowing them to heal in a community that understands the pain of losing a partner. Her program, Camp Widow, has grown to include 70 regional chapters all over the US, as well as pen pals and programs specifically for the LGBTQ community. Read Michele's story here.

Zannah Mustapha has spent more than a decade providing hope for children caught in the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. Even as the militant group continues to target teachers, students and schools, Mustapha and his staff have educated more than 2,000 students from both sides of the conflict at the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School. Mustapha was also involved in the release of 103 kidnapped schoolgirls last year when he mediated between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Read Zannah's story here.

Hear, hear!

By standing together, we can have a future that's stronger than anything we thought possible.

- Billie Jean King, tennis legend and activist. King says business leaders should be stronger allies for women of color -- a mission that can benefit every aspect of a company. But she also says the responsibility lies with us, the individuals, to be active champions of that progress.

Wanna get away?

I'm a new Text block ready for your content.

Not ready to travel again yet? You're not alone. But your bucket list could use a good update, courtesy of National Geographic's newly-released list of top destinations for 2022. They picked several amazing places in each of five categories: Culture, Sustainability, Nature, Adventure and Family. High on the culture list is the Japanese island of Hokkaido. This destination is renowned for its natural beauty, stunning waterfalls, rich wildlife, and the unique culture of the indigenous Ainu people. (Of personal note: Maryland's eastern shore, where I spent many a childhood summer, made the family list. So I can personally vouch for that. Also on the culture list: Atlanta, where The Good Stuff is based! Y'all come visit, now!)

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Shameless animal video

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Warning: This baby harbor seal is so precious, it is almost physically painful. I am obsessed with videos from the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in British Columbia. Their TikTok is even better, if that's where you prefer to do your baby animal binge watching instead. (Click here to view)