Feel Good Friday

There are a lot of year-end photo collections. This is the one you need today. Hopeful Images of 2025.

+ If you missed this story, don’t. David Guavey Herbert: Playing Santa Does Strange Things to a Man. What It Did to Bob Rutan Was Even Stranger.

+ “Aria Moreno was excited when she walked into class on Hofstra University’s campus in Long Island. It was late August, her fourth week of medical school, and Moreno had volunteered to undergo an ultrasound as part of the day’s lesson on the gastrointestinal system. It probably saved her half a kidney.”

+ “Mr. Dirks did not have cell service, so he said he reached for a Garmin satellite messenger to send an SOS. He was unable to use Bluetooth to connect it to his phone, so he typed out his plea on the Garmin’s tiny keyboard.” Stuck in Quicksand, a Hiker in Utah Has His SOS Answered. (Reason 987,347 that I’m indoorsy.)

+ “While journalism as a major has seen shrinking enrollment for years and is even being dropped by some schools entirely, Baker, a senior at Stanford University, has doubled down on old-school investigative reporting, and it is paying off spectacularly.” Stanford’s star reporter takes on Silicon Valley’s ‘money-soaked’ startup culture.

+ American Lindsey Vonn became the oldest skiing downhill World Cup winner at St Moritz in Switzerland on Friday.

+ Letterman on Kimmel. So enjoyable.

+ How Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Are Made. (This is the first time my glucose monitor alarm was set off by a video.)