Feel Good Friday

“The two newborn babies had the same critical heart condition and were placed in intensive care rooms next to each other at a Texas children’s hospital. Both sets of parents were told their infants had about a 40 percent chance of survival.” They both survived. And now they’re college roommates.

+ The first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years.

+ 14-year-old who invented soap to treat skin cancer named America’s Top Young Scientist. (Kid, please don’t apply to the same colleges as my children…)

+ You know how older folks complain about having to walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways? Well, this guy was understating it. “He was known as the Skiing Mailman of the Sierra Nevada and called “the most remarkable mail carrier in the world,” for delivering mail on skis across the treacherous and snow-covered mountains around Lake Tahoe in the 1860s. He’d ski up to 45 miles a day on the type of skinny wooden skis that today you only find on the walls of vintage diners and ski home rentals.” Behold Snowshoe Thompson, Tahoe’s wolf-fighting, skiing mailman.

+ A sea otter who captured hearts and surfboards this past summer has become a mother. (A lot of locals can’t wait until this kid starts acting up and giving mom a hard time.)

+ “Falling in love was gradual, but we formed a connection.” Luckily, it wasn’t too gradual. WaPo (Gift Article): At 96, they fell in love playing pool. She rejected his first marriage offer.