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After UW's marching band bus crashed their rivals responded with a moving tribute.

The rivalry between the UW Huskies and the WSU Cougars runs deep—but not as deep as human kindness.

When people think of Washington state, they usually think of Seattle, with its hipster vibe and liberal political leanings. What many don't realize is that a mountain range separates the largely urban, rainy, politically blue sprawl of Western Washington from the largely rural, mostly politically red rain shadow of Eastern Washington, and the two areas are quite distinct.

Having grown up in Eastern Washington, I can attest to the physical and philosophical East/West divide marked by the Cascade Mountains. And that divide is highlighted every year during the Apple Cup, the football matchup between the University of Washington Huskies (West) and the Washington State University Cougars (East).

The Apple Cup has been played 110 times in Washington's history, with the location alternating between UW's big city Seattle and WSU's small town of Pullman each year. When it's held in Pullman, as it was this year, weather can be a big question mark. This year, it snowed cats and dogs (ba dum pum) throughout the entire game.

But inclement weather played a big role before the game even started.

A bus carrying members of the University of Washington marching band hit ice and crashed on Thanksgiving Day.

The Apple Cup is always played Thanksgiving weekend, which often means making the 5-hour drive across the state on the holiday itself. This year, freezing rain and icy road conditions east of the Cascades spelled trouble for a bus carrying UW marching band members on Thanksgiving Day.

That afternoon, one bus in a 6-bus caravan carrying the team's marching band overturned near George, Washington. (Yes, that's really the town's name.) Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured, but a couple dozen students needed to be treated for cuts, concussions, and pain. The rest of the travelers—more than 300 people—would have been stranded if it weren't for the kindness and hospitality of the locals.

The tiny town of George, Washington gave up their Thanksgiving night to provide shelter and food.

Shortly after the bus crash was reported, stories started pouring in of the kindness of the people of George. The town of approximately 500 people and others from surrounding small towns showed up in a big way, opening up the elementary school for the marching band and faculty to triage the injured and regroup after the accident.

In a remote area with few ambulances and all-volunteer fire departments, community members are used to doing what it takes to help in an emergency. Families brought food, blankets, and mattresses to the school. For the entire evening, the UW marching band was treated to warmth, hospitality, and kindness from those who were probably rooting for their team to get trounced by the Cougars the next day.

Colors are just that: colors.This afternoon, one of the 6 buses transporting the UW Husky marching band caught a patch...

Posted by Chiara Paul on Thursday, November 22, 2018

In addition, the WSU marching band learned the UW fight song and played it to kick off the Apple Cup.

To add even more warm fuzzies to this story, as soon as the WSU marching band found out that none of the UW band would be making it to the game, they took it upon themselves to learn their rival school's fight song—in less than 24 hours. Then they played it at the game.

WSU also marked off a section of the stands at Martin Stadium in Pullman, and left it empty in honor of the UW band members who couldn't attend.

The Cougs may have lost the Apple Cup this year, but they won the hearts of people everywhere.

I live in Cougar country and have witnessed the passion and fervor with which WSU fans cheer on their team, especially when it comes to the Apple Cup. It's impressive, if not a little scary sometimes.

But when tragedy strikes, rivalries quickly take a back seat to humanity. The good people of George stepping up on Thanksgiving and the WSU band playing the UW fight song turned a frightening incident into a beautiful story of people supporting one another. These teams who fight like cats and dogs (or Cougars and Huskies, to be precise) know that when it comes down to it, we're all part of the same family.

More of this, please.

Nature

Pennsylvania home is the entrance to a cave that’s been closed for 70 years

You can only access the cave from the basement of the home and it’s open for business.

Brian Marble/Facebook

This Pennsylvania home is the entrance to a cave.

Have you ever seen something in a movie or online and thought, "That's totally fake," only to find out it's absolutely a real thing? That's sort of how this house in Pennsylvania comes across. It just seems too fantastical to be real, and yet somehow it actually exists.

The home sits between Greencastle and Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and houses a pretty unique public secret. There's a cave in the basement. Not a man cave or a basement that makes you feel like you're in a cave, but an actual cave that you can't get to unless you go through the house.

Turns out the cave was discovered in the 1830s on the land of John Coffey, according to Uncovering PA, but the story of how it was found is unclear. People would climb down into the cave to explore occasionally until the land was leased about 100 years later and a small structure was built over the cave opening.

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Health

Oregon utilizes teen volunteers to run their YouthLine teen crisis hotline

“Each volunteer gets more than 60 hours of training, and master’s level supervisors are constantly on standby in the room.”

PBS YouTube Screenshot

Oregon utilizes teen volunteers to man YouthLine teen crisis hotline

Editor's Note: If you are having thoughts about taking your own life, or know of anyone who is in need of help, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 200+ crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 9-8-8. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

Mental health is a top-of-mind issue for a lot of people. Thanks to social media and people being more open about their struggles, the stigma surrounding seeking mental health treatment appears to be diminishing. But after the social and emotional interruption of teens due the pandemic, the mental health crises among adolescents seem to have jumped to record numbers.

PBS reports that Oregon is "ranked as the worst state for youth mental illness and access to care." But they're attempting to do something about it with a program that trains teenagers to answer crisis calls from other teens. They aren't alone though, as there's a master's level supervisor at the ready to jump in if the call requires a mental health professional.

The calls coming into the Oregon YouthLine can vary drastically, anywhere from relationship problems to family struggles, all the way to thoughts of self-harm and suicide. Teens manning the phones are provided with 60 hours of training and are taught to recognize when the call needs to be taken over by the adult supervisor.

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mental health
Pop Culture

Buffy Sainte-Marie shares what led to her openly breastfeeding on 'Sesame Street' in 1977

The way she explained to Big Bird what she was doing is still an all-time great example.

HollywoodNativez/YouTube

"Sesame Street" taught kids about life in addition to letters and numbers.

In 1977, singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie did something revolutionary: She fed her baby on Sesame Street.

The Indigenous Canadian-Ameican singer-songwriter wasn't doing anything millions of other mothers hadn't done—she was simply feeding her baby. But the fact that she was breastfeeding him was significant since breastfeeding in the United States hit an all-time low in 1971 and was just starting to make a comeback. The fact that she did it openly on a children's television program was even more notable, since "What if children see?" has been a key pearl clutch for people who criticize breastfeeding in public.

But the most remarkable thing about the "Sesame Street" segment was the lovely interchange between Big Bird and Sainte-Marie when he asked her what she was doing.

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sesame street
Family

Mom shares her brutal experience with 'hyperemesis gravidarum' and other moms can relate

Hyperemesis gravidarum is a severe case of morning sickness that can last up until the baby is born and might require medical attention.

@emilyboazman/TikTok

Hyperemesis gravidarum isn't as common as regular morning sickness, but it's much more severe.

Morning sickness is one of the most commonly known and most joked about pregnancy symptoms, second only to peculiar food cravings. While unpleasant, it can often be alleviated to a certain extent with plain foods, plenty of fluids, maybe some ginger—your typical nausea remedies. And usually, it clears up on its own by the 20-week mark. Usually.

But sometimes, it doesn’t. Sometimes moms experience stomach sickness and vomiting, right up until the baby is born, on a much more severe level.

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), isn’t as widely talked about as regular morning sickness, but those who go through it are likely to never forget it. Persistent, extreme nausea and vomiting lead to other symptoms like dehydration, fainting, low blood pressure and even jaundice, to name a few.

Emily Boazman, a mom who had HG while pregnant with her third child, showed just how big of an impact it can make in a viral TikTok.

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parenting
Joy

Christine from 'Sister Wives' asked her fans for advice about dating at 50 and they delivered

Here are the 11 best pieces of advice.

via Wikimedia Commons

The cast of TLC's "Sister Wives."

Dating is hard for just about anyone. But it gets harder as people age because the dating pool shrinks and older people are more selective. Plus, changes in dating trends, online etiquette and fashion can complicate things as well.

“Sister Wives” star Christine Brown is back in the dating pool after ending her “spiritual union” with polygamist Kody Brown and she needs a little help to get back in the swing of things. Christine and Kody were together for more than 25 years and she shared him with three other women, Janelle, Meri and Robyn.

Janelle and Meri have recently announced they’ve separated from Kody. Christine publicly admitted that things were over with Kody in November 2021.

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relationships
Pop Culture

Finally, someone explains why we all need subtitles when watching TV

No, you're probably not losing your hearing.

Vox/YouTube

Finally, someone explains why we all need subtitles

It seems everyone needs subtitles nowadays in order to "hear" the television. This is something that has become more common over the past decade and it's caused people to question if their hearing is going bad or if perhaps actors have gotten lazy with enunciation.

So if you've been wondering if it's just you who needs subtitles in order to watch the latest marathon-worthy show, worry no more. Vox video producer Edward Vega interviewed dialogue editor Austin Olivia Kendrick to get to the bottom of why we can't seem to make out what the actors are saying anymore. It turns out it's technology's fault, and to get to how we got here, Vega and Kendrick took us back in time.

They first explained that way back when movies were first moving from silent film to spoken dialogue, actors had to enunciate and project loudly while speaking directly into a large microphone. If they spoke and moved like actors do today, it would sound almost as if someone were giving a drive-by soliloquy while circling the block. You'd only hear every other sentence or two.

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subtitles
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