Happy News Open Thread

My friend Paul, this blog's Official Middle East Correspondent, and his wife, Helen, just had a baby, which they (well, he) announced to the world via the new tradition of changing his Facebook status message. Paul, Helen, and baby Ray are all healthy and unironically happy, so congratulations to the whole family.

And on that note, I'm declaring this a Happy News Open Thread. Leave a comment saying something positive.

(Yeah, I know, this is lazy blogging. But really, every other topic-of-the-moment just makes me grumpy, and there's no real reason why I should be in a bad mood, let alone inflict a bad mood on all of you.)

Tags

More like this

We've lost one of the lively voices of freethought. HELEN KAGIN died early this evening following complications from cancer surgery. She was 76.
Helen of Troy by Betta
tags: What do You Remember About Mt St Helens' Violent Eruption?, volcan

Positive news on the local front:

My garden is blooming; the iris are purple, the California poppies are gold and the orange tree is covered with blossoms. The air smells *good*.

Positive news on the political front:

Our president and his wife met many foreign leaders and comported themselves with the dignity that is appropriate to their station. We suffered no international embarrassment!

My current research project's going pretty well as is my newest hobby of joke-writing.

I've been asked to write a textbook on the basis of my "How to teach visual rhetoric" posts! Guaranteed publication! Woo!

Haven't gotten around to posting this on my own blog yet but, I defended my thesis -- and passed -- and got a job with the same company (and more importantly, in the same city) as my husband. Especially in this economy, it seems like very happy news to me...