Dec.27

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Dem 47

   

GOP 53

This Week in Freudenfreude: You Have to Be Loving These News Stories

We thought that, for the last freudenfreude of 2025, we'd do a rundown of some positive stories from the last year. There's no overarching theme here, beyond that:

1. AIDS: One of the things that makes AIDS particularly tough to treat is that the virus hides itself within healthy white blood cells. Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, think they have found a way to overcome that "camouflage," which would allow for the disease to be completely cleared from a person's system, such that the 40 million people afflicted worldwide would not have to take a lifetime course of suppressants.
   
   
2. King Tut: Last month, the long-planned Grand Egyptian Museum opened to visitors. It is 117 acres, includes 100,000 artifacts—among them the tomb of King Tutankhamun—and is also within walking distance of the pyramids of Giza. Seems like a great vacation trip, and is much more guilt-free than seeing objects in a museum run by one of the nations that plundered them.
   
   
3. Putting the "Viking" in "EV": In Norway, 88.9% of cars sold in 2024 were electric. While we won't know for sure until that nation releases its annual report next month, it is likely that Norwegians will achieve their goal of going all-electric by the end of 2025. This was accomplished by giving generous incentives to EV buyers, while also imposing heavy taxes on cars with internal combustion engines. It also helped that all of the political parties in Norway are on board with the plan, meaning a change in government did not mean a change in policy. For other nations that might aspire to this goal, Norway will be a model of how to do it.
   
   
4. Age is Just a Number: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing involves more than 20,000 pensioners. Researchers have performed a standard battery of cognitive tests over the past 2½ decades. And this year, they published results that suggest a 68-year-old born in the 1950s has, on average, the same cognitive ability as did a 62-year-old born in the 1940s. Those two numbers are close enough to justify the headline that pretty much every outlet used: "70 really is the new 60."
   
   On a somewhat related note, Natalie Grabow of Mountain Lakes, NJ, is an 80-year-old grandmother of five. This year, she became the oldest woman to finish an Ironman Triathlon. That's a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, followed by a 26.2-mile run. On some level, Grabow was making up for lost time, because she did not learn how to swim until she was 59.
   
   
5. Reading Rainbow: For 26 years, the book-loving children's program Reading Rainbow was hosted by LeVar Burton, who is probably best known as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then, the money ran out, nobody stepped forward to take up the banner, and the show went away. Now, after nearly 20 years, and countless attempts at a reboot, it's back as a YouTube show, hosted by Mychal Threets, who is an actual librarian, and whose enthusiasm for reading leaps out of every frame.
   
   
6. Blind Football: Light for the World, the adidas Foundation, and the United by Sport program have been working to promote blind football around the world. The sport is played on a smaller pitch, with a ball that has a rattle in it, and with a strict rule requiring silence from viewers. Among the success stories, the South Sudan Association of Visually Impaired fielded its first team 5 years ago, and this year won the second division African championship. Next year, they will move up to the first division, with hopes of playing the Paralympics in 2028.
   
   
7. Heart Health: In the 1970s, scientists decided that Americans' heart problems were a national crisis, and that something needed to be done. Thanks to better surgeries, better medicines, better diets and and a big decline in smoking, the decades since have witnessed a 66% decline in deaths related to heart disease, an 81% decrease in deaths due specifically to coronary artery disease, and a 90% drop in deaths from heart attacks. As a result, 2025 was the first year in nearly a century where heart attack was not the #1 cause of death for Americans.
   
   
8. Always and Forever... Or Not: Polyperfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) were embraced by industrial concerns because they are cheap and are very hardy, lasting pretty much forever. They have thus found their way into many products, particularly the packaging. The problem, as it turns out, is that they are forever, which means they accumulate over time in places like the oceans. The other problem, as it turns out, is that they are carcinogenic. Now, scientist think they have found a cost-effective and safe way to break the PFAS down.
   
   
9. Fire Recovery: Southern California was hit by two terrible outbreaks of fire this year, one that hit the Pacific Palisades (on the coast) and another that hit the area around Altadena and Pasadena (about 10 miles inland, near Caltech and the Huntington Library). It will take years for everything to be rebuilt, but there were a couple of stories about resilience and human decency that have already made news.
   
   First, there is a youth theater troupe in the Palisades that began rehearsals for the Gershwin-written "Crazy for You" just one day before the fires. Many cast members, as well as troupe director Lara Ganz, lost their homes in the blaze. Still, they decided to soldier on, encouraged by a letter from the members of the Gershwin family. The play opened as planned, with most of the cast intact, and with the Gershwins even attending one of the performances during the show's 2-week run.
   
   Meanwhile, over in Altadena, six high schools were compelled to cancel their proms due to fire damage. However, a charity called Alice's Kids, with the assistance of actor Steve Carell, stepped forward to stage the proms, free of charge for all the attendees.
   
   
10. Closer to Home: Both of the staff dachshunds had operations this month. Flash had his spleen removed due to tumors. There was a two-in-three chance the tumors were malignant, which would have meant a prognosis of 6-9 months. But they were benign. Then, earlier this week, Otto had to have a tumor removed from his right leg. The surgery was successful in getting most of the mass, and the rest will be dealt with via radiation.
    
    Both dogs are still on some painkillers, but they have otherwise bounced back, and are basically 100% again. Not bad for two old fellas who both turned 15 this week.

Have a good (rest of your) weekend, all! (Z)