Friday, March 13, 2015

STRICTLY POSITIVE

I wish we could have a week, just one week, when I didn't feel the need to do this column. That the news was so full of puppies and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that this would just be unnecessary gravy on the cake. Alas, that is not this week, so here you go, some fun and frivolous things I saw, heard or read since last Friday:

Exhibit A:  Smiley is a Golden Retriever born with dwarfism and without eyes. He spent his first few years stuck in a puppy mill before being rescued, and now he's spending the rest of his life helping others as a Certified Therapy Dog. His owner takes him to visit the old and the young, particularly those with mental or physical disabilities, with tear-worthy results. She reckons Smiley has helped hundreds. As the article says, "What a dog."



Exhibit B:  Hat tip to Katrina Niidas Holm for this video of a poor drunk squirrel trying to make his way through the snow. I feel bad, but I laughed really hard at this poor character. Time to lay off the crabapples, little guy.

Exhibit C:  Guinea pigs like to swim. And now I have to buy a pool. And a guinea pig. Wait. MULTIPLE guinea pigs, because how can you have a pool and a guinea pig and not go full synchronized swimming team? Who volunteers to sew suits and caps?:



Exhibit D:  This one gave me chills. As usual, I needed a reminder there are good people in the world. Muharrem lives in a town of them. The young man is hearing impaired and on a normal day has trouble communicating. In a surprise set up by his sister, his entire town learned sign language so they could communicate with him easily for one perfect day. Granted, this is also an advertisement for Samsung, but still worth watching.

Exhibit E:  I struggled whether to include this one as it starts off with a big downer and a particular short-torquer of mine - bullies. But since it ends with jocks standing up to said bullies, I wanted to celebrate their actions. Desiree Andrews is a middle schooler in Wisconsin who happens to have Down Syndrome. While performing with the cheerleaders at a recent basketball game, she was bullied by some aholes in the stands. Luckily, the players on her school's team are stand-up guys. These gentlemen called a timeout, walked off the court and told the bullies to stop.  Not only did Desiree make new friends, but the gym has been renamed D's House in her honor. Huzzah. We Are Not Doomed.



Exhibit F:  Shark photo bomb! (big thanks to Julie Summerell for this one.) Look at that smile. He really does just want to be friends:


Exhibit G:  I love Will Ferrell, whether I love all of his movies or not. Yesterday, as part of his efforts to raise cancer awareness (and he ultimately raised $1 million on the day), Ferrell visited five different major league spring training games and eventually played all nine positions. This feat also honored former A's legend Bert Campaneris, the first major leaguer ever to play all nine positions in one game. Bert did it in 1965, and not only did he pitch an inning, he pitched both left-handed and right-handed (for those of you unfamiliar with Campy, his regular trade was shortstop). Ferrell's time with the Oakland A's was particularly fun for me to watch, as they are my hometown favorites and Campy was in town:




Exhibit H:  Obligatory Bird shots:

Max loves Bird:



Bird loves ball:



I love coming home to this:


That's all for this week, folks. Who knows if we will meet again next week, as the world may just explode in one huge nerdgasm on Pi day tomorrow. But it shall be glorious.  TGIF, y'all.

6 comments:

Chris La Tray said...

Re: Exhibit B, you'd have loved my rendering of the "morning after" that I delivered to Julia during our drive home last night. That poor squirrel....

Malcolm Avenue Review said...

I'm guessing it was candle-aroma inspiring. :)

Laura_Benedict said...

Oh! Smiley made me cry. What a lovely story.

Malcolm Avenue Review said...

ME, TOO.

April @ Bookishly Speaking said...

I love these posts so much. <3

Malcolm Avenue Review said...

Thanks, April, I needed that today. Have been having trouble finding the gumption to do the post this week with dog health issues going on, but you've spurred me to it. Thank you!

About Malcolm Avenue Review

I was lucky enough to be born and raised in a nifty, oak-shaded ranch house on Malcolm Avenue, a wide-laned residential street with little through traffic, located amid the foothills of Northern California. It was on that street and in that house I learned most of my adolescent life lessons, and many grown-up ones to boot. Malcolm Avenue was "home" for more than thirty years.

It was on Malcolm Avenue, through and with my family and the other families that made up our neighborhood of characters, that I first learned about and gained an appreciation for the things I continue to love the most to this day: music, animals, photography, sports, television/movies and, of course, books.

I owe a debt of gratitude to that life on Malcolm Avenue. It gave me a sense of community and friendship, support and adventure. For better and worse, life on that street likely had the biggest impact on the person I've become. So this blog, and the things I write here, are all, at their base level, a little bit of a love letter to Malcolm Avenue.

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