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10 things that made us smile this week

10 things that made us smile this week
@Brink_Thinker/Twitter, @puffin_loves_binx/Instagram, @timukhinmax/Instagram

How's everyone doing right now? Doing okay? Struggling a little, or maybe a lot?

Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone is feeling full-throttle awesome during these days of pandemic upheaval. We can all use a little pick-me-up, right?

Thankfully, there are always things we can find to make us smile. Here are 10 just from this week.

Enjoy a little joy-scrolling:

1. New dad buys a used washer and dryer and finds an awesome surprise inside.

The $400 he paid the guy for it was tucked into the lint filter. "A gift for the new baby." Come on! People are awesome.

2. This toddler has the most infectious giggle ever.

I don't care who you are, farts are funny. But this little cherub's laugh makes them even funnier.

3. Who knew a dog kissing a fish could make us feel so happy?

Why is it so delightful to see different species of animals interact with each other? That fish just can't get enough dog lovin'.


4. Modern-day superhero rescues a sheep trapped in a barbed-wire fence.

Everything about this is perfection. The expertise in handling a sheep. The figuring out how to heave it over the fence. The Steve-Irwin-meets-Thor vibe. And of course, the bleat of thanks at the end.

5. High school football player stopped to stretch an opponent's leg when it cramped.

Good sportsmanship between opponents is always uplifting. Seeing it in young people in a highly competitive sport is extra heartwarming.

6. Preschooler brings ukulele to show-and-tell and puts on a full-blown rock performance.

Kiddo is ROCKIN'. OUT. Amazing.

@britaincovey Teacher didn't know how to react 😂
♬ original sound - Britain Covey

And to make it even better, someone added what it looked like he was hearing while he "played":


7. This traditional folk dance from the Philippines is just pure, joyful energy.

The Tinikling is a rhythmic dance that mimics a bird found in the Philippines called the tikling. I could watch this all day.

8. Puffin and Binx, two rescued cats, can't get enough of each other.

And we can't get enough of them. Puffin and Binx were rescued from a hoarding situation and they are inseparable. Just look at them hugging. Cue all the endorphins.

9. These babies were accidentally switched at birth, and how the families handled it was amazing.

What do you do when you find out you've been raising someone else's baby for three years? That happened to two families who found out their daughters had been switched at the hospital as newborns. After DNA tests confirmed it, they did the most extraordinary thing—the two families simply raised their kids together. Read the story here.

assets.rebelmouse.io

10. Let this 73-year-old skateboarder roll you into the weekend.

Those knees, though. Impressive, Igor. May we all carry this much joy with us into our older years.

Hope that brought some brightness to your day! Enjoy your weekend!

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

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A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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