Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

So many bastards, so little time.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

This really is a full service blog.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Make The World A Better Place / Good News Open Thread: That’s A Big Boy

Good News Open Thread: That’s A Big Boy

by | 67 Comments

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Just a few fun tidbits I’ve gathered the past week. (Just a note, this was all supposed to run yesterday, but breaking news pushed it to another day).

The entire thread was a great mood lifter (can’t be said about much of twitter these days)

Good News Open Thread: That's A Big Boi

Brian definitely has resting annoyed-face.

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Loved this and so appropriate on opening day:

Good News Open Thread: That's A Big Boi 1

Reading some of the comments, it sounds like this is quite a minor league tradition – a lot of adults still have fond memories of this from their childhoods.

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Such a cat thing.

I’m not fond of wandering cats, but some cats cannot be contained. I dropped a friend off last night and there, waiting for her, was the neighborhood cat, waiting to tell her that her husband had not given him his treats yet. Or maybe he had and this big boy was trying to scam some more treats – we had toyed with kidnapping this beautiful boy – but his owners have tried everything to keep him inside and he is constantly sneaking out – so all the neighbors look out after him.

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I learned so much from this. I didn’t know that if the egg sack had detached from seaweed, they usually don’t survive.


“I just wanted them a little bit long but they really shouldn’t be a pet for people”

Direct link to video if you can’t see it.  Youtube link to another version here. 

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More saving sealife:

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Rusty sent this to me a while ago and this seems like the perfect thread to share it:

Why are people throwing Puffins off of cliffs? 

Watching thousands of baby puffins being tossed off a cliff is perfectly normal for the people of Iceland’s Westman Islands.

This yearly tradition is what’s known as “puffling season” and the practice is a crucial, life-saving endeavor.

The chicks of Atlantic puffins, or pufflings, hatch in burrows on high sea cliffs. When they’re ready to fledge, they fly from their colony and spend several years at sea until they return to land to breed, according to Audubon Project Puffin.

Pufflings have historically found the ocean by following the light of the moon, digital creator Kyana Sue Powers told NPR over a video call from Iceland. Now, city lights lead the birds astray.

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And finally, loved this story about girls competing in wrestling and the benefits of this sport:

 

I have no animal photos for you today – I suppose I could have put the bunny ears on the Danes – but they are still upset with me for being out well after midnight last night ( I saw 1776 last night) and then diving right into work today without so much as an apology, LOL.

And today, I got to spend it with a friend, searching for a kitty edition to their crew. Nothing like snuggling a bunch of kittehs looking for the purrrrfect one for someone else. Including an 18+lb, I believe Norwegian Forest cat – hard to be sure because his paw was wrapped around his face – but he was the biggest cat I have ever, ever seen. He spilled over the cat tree he was snoozing upon. He wasn’t even processed yet and had 3 holds.

It was a nice distraction – I lost one of my uncles this week and really feeling it (I have a LOT of aunts and uncles, and sometimes it feels like they leave us – too soon – in quick succession).

ETA: they decided to adopt this one!

Good News Open Thread: That's A Big Boy 1

She’s a five-year-old blue-eyed long-haired Siamese. Very shy, but super cuddly. And I suspect once she’s settled will be quite the talker. She will be a big sis to Frank.

This is a good news open thread! Share some good news stories, discuss pets or other diversions. I think we can all use a little respite from the onslaught this past week.

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  3. 3.

    Geminid

    I just saw some good news! Staff member Joe Calvello announced on Twitter that Senator John Fetterman was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center and has returned home to his family in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

  8. 8.

    schrodingers_cat

    I have been experimenting with crayons and pastels. I have nothing to show you guys yet but I am having a lot of fun.  I got the Caran’dache set and also the toddler crayon set which is amazingly good actually. It comes in a bright yellow box.

  10. 10.

    Redshift

    Good friends of mine claimed their neighborhood cat, and he still likes to wander and visit people. He also likes to go for walks like a dog (meaning he’ll wait for one of his humans to walk with him.) A couple of weeks ago she was walking the cat, and a woman around the block called out “oh, he’s your cat!” It turns out a few days earlier he had come in the doggie door (installed by the previous owners; she didn’t have a dog) and wandered around and made himself at home, then curled up on a chair.

    The best part is that now they know he’ll use a cat door, which a lot of cats won’t. This is really important because he learned to knock on the bedroom window to be let in, and as they describe it “he’s like a toddler who hasn’t gotten to sleeping through the night, and wants to be let in and out every couple of hours.” They’re hoping if they get a cat door they can actually get some sleep again.

  11. 11.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    A reminder to people who get on planes with pets, some people, like my spouse, are so allergic they have had to deplane and take another flight when the flight attendants did nothing.  Be considerate of others.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    Not good news that Mark Russell died (at 90, so not that untimely), but the NYT has a good joke in his obituary. “He recalled first seeing Ronald Reagan ‘in the picture-frame department at Woolworth’s, between Gale Storm and Walter Pidgeon.'” I don’t remember him being that sharp!

  15. 15.

    Chris T.

    Those are good kitties!

    Meanwhile, I updated my Bumper Snicker slogan: “Trump/Capone – because two criminals is twice as good!”

  19. 19.

    Quiltingfool

    I got the staples out of the incision on my knee!  No more Frankenstein knee!  The doctor said my knee replacement looked good (x-ray) and he was pleased with my progress.  Today was a good day.

  23. 23.

    Dan B

    It’s drizzling today in Seattle but the forecast for the meet-up on the 4th is partly cloudy and 52°!  Yay!

  24. 24.

    Betty

    A vet school recently opened in Dominica and has been doing great work in bringing in stray cats and dogs, fixing them up and finding them homes. They get quite a bit of support through the local Humane Society which is getting funding from some local rich tech guys. They have even started finding homes for the critters in North America with potential adopters paying to transport them. Today they featured a dog who had lost use of her hind legs after being hit by a car and who has been completely rehabilitated.  So great to see the before and after videos.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    Quit my job today, via e-mail, effective immediately, now I am free.

    Ghosting the phone calls.

  29. 29.

    RedDirtGirl

    That Puffling looks traumatic for the birds; being chased, and grabbed, and dropped in backpacks. I hope they have short memories.

  34. 34.

    JGreen

    About the Sergio Romo autographed hat.  He was one of the star relievers on the team that pitched on all three of the World Series winning teams (2010, 2012, 2014–I never thought I’d live to see the day when the Giants would win the Series).  He signed with the Giants for just the spring, so he could retire as a Giant. He collected the autographs from the kids during spring training.

    He pitched in the last spring training game in SF before Opening Day and wore the cap on the mound.  There are some beautiful videos of his entrance (to his theme song “El Mechon”) and his leaving the mound taken out by another Giant favorite, Hunter Pence.  He didn’t get anyone out, but nobody cared.

    Romo and Pence may not get elected to the Hall of Fame, but all Giants fans will love them forever.

  36. 36.

    NoraLenderbee

    I got a 2.8% raise today. Small but it’s nice to have my work recognized. I still plan to retire this year.

  41. 41.

    Kayla Rudbek

    My quarter at work is complete as of today, and I was promoted up one level from where I started in March 2022.  Now on to working for a new supervisor next week as I transition out of the training office.

  42. 42.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    Each month a British astrophotographer, Alyn Wallace, does a youtube video of what astronomical events for that month and at the end he chooses a subject for the month and encourages his viewers to use the hashtag #WITNS(What’s in the night sky) to their Instagram post of that subject, he then selects 3 winners.  This month’s topic was the zodical light.  I tagged the photo that was featured in OTR this week and won second prize.

  43. 43.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Super cute that the owner carries him on, but I just want to know where the Big Boy pees and poops during the flight in his pet back pack…

  48. 48.

    Alison Rose

    @Ella in New Mexico: My question too. Especially with having experienced a cat crapping in its carrier on a like 30-minute car ride. Do they bring it to the bathroom and hold it over the toilet and tell it “okay, time to pee” or something? Cats aren’t like dogs, they’re gonna go when they wanna go.

  49. 49.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Sure Lurkalot: I saw early this morning before I went to bed that he liked the photo on IG, but I really didn’t think it would have been in the top three.  He says in the video that there were a lot to choose from.  So I watched the video this morning when I saw it on YouTube, and was quite shocked to see my shot pop up.

  50. 50.

    Jay

    @Steeplejack:

    No raise, I was supposed to get a 15% raise on completion of probation. They took away our coffee breaks. My job was to fix tools, but they just kept adding on tasks the previous manager used to do. I was supposed to be the “Mobile On Site Repair Tech” and it turns out they didn’t even have a budget to put tools in the truck. Had to actually “manage” the “fart room” at the Refinery, because neither the Refinery or the Managers at the Corp, bothered to “manage” the service, repair and certification of the toxic gas monitors, it was all reactive. “Gee, we have 127 gas monitors out of service, maybe we should call Jay, see if he can come out today”. When Gio left, I wound up having not a new boss, but 3 bosses, Gerry, the parts guy, Brendan, one of the other techs, (senior tech, 30 years younger than me with half the experience, but with 6 months more time on the clock) and Emmanuel, the new Manager. Then came write offs. Everything now has to go through the Manager, so before, if I needed gloves, or a roll of electrical tape, I would pull it out of stock, mark it down on Sam’s list, use it. Then it became having to pull it off the shelf, put it on the Manager’s desk, ask for a write off, explain why, (Duh, I need it!), then 2-5 hours later, get it on my workbench, when I needed it 2-5 hours earlier.

    Petty, petty BS, in a drip, drip, drip fashion. The last drop, was no more free coffee.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Good news Open Thread? Senator John Fetterman was released from hospital this morning! Yay!!

  57. 57.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jay: Yeah, a few weeks ago he was telling the Service Desk Lead that we wouldn’t be in this store very long, he was getting promoted to a manager at another store.  Just a tad arrogant.

    What happened is that he and an ASM chased after a shoplifter, somebody videoed it and it ended up on IG, corporate noticed.  With the recent death of an associate who got pushed by a shoplifter when just asking for a receipt, it was on the radar in Atlanta.  My DH used to be AP and thought he still was(he still had access to the cameras), he wasn’t.  Both he and the ASM(who I liked) were termed.

  62. 62.

    Jay

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA:

    during Covid, I had a bunch of negative interaction with “customers”, none of it was about shoplifting, had to testify in a couple court cases, never got “termed”, wound up being “the call” on the link.

    Kicked to the curb for making my DS, DH and Store Manager do their jobs. So many “fireable offenses”, (yoga pants, shirt with no collar, etc), so yeah, they found something.

    Like my most recent job, they only miss you when you are gone.

    The only shoplifters I cared about at my store, were the ones who would go to the washroom and strip the packaging, then flush it. We were low lying, so the washrooms would be out of order for a month, with porta-potties in the lot for a month.

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