Oh Happy Day!

[Breathe]

Sometimes I just need some happy news and lately I've been running across a lot of it so I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!

You'd think that having AIDS would probably be one of the worst things that could possibly happen to you. You'd think that getting leukemia on top of it would be almost too much to bear. But what if your treatment for leukemia led to a cure for AIDS!?! It might all be worth it, huh? Well that's exactly what may have happened. When a 42 year old American AIDS patient living in Germany underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia, it seems to have also eradicated HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from his body. Since his treatment, over 600 days ago, doctors have been unable to find any trace of HIV or its antibodies in his blood. This is exciting news and all the more reason to register to be bone marrow donor the next time you give blood!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html

In these economic hard times, folks are getting laid off, wages and benefits are being cut, companies are being sold ... and if the family business you worked for, say, a ball bearing company, got bought out by a larger Swedish company in September, it seems likely that your Christmas bonus might actually be a pink slip. Well, not if that ball bearing company was owned by the Spungen family of Illinois. This Thanksgiving, in addition to getting the usual turkey each employee has received since the company's beginnings, employees also received a Christmas bonus -- a huge Christmas bonus! -- one paid directly to them from the people who didn't even own their company anymore. Each of Peer's Ball Bearing Company's 230 employees got a bonus based on their years of service that ranged from $10,000-$35,000 per employee. 6.6 million dollars worth of bonuses altogether! "My grandfather was always charitable," said Danny Spungen, grandson of Peer founder Nathan Spungen. He said Laurence and Florence Spungen and their four children decided on a bonus formula a year before the acquisition closed. Read more about it here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_us/big_bonus

Getting a birthday card is always a happy surprise. When you're 80, though, most of those cards are from people much younger than you. Imagine getting one from your third grade teacher 70 years after she taught you!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_surprise_birthday_card

Being a helpful and friendly server can lead to big tips, sometimes beyond your wildest imagination ... say, a college education?

http://niceone.aol.com/2008/11/21/waitress-gets-10k-tip/

PlayPumps! Imagine play healing the world's water problems, providing water to drought ridden villages and allowing girls to attend to school instead of spending their days lugging water to their homes. Then stop imagining and start playing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQu_Jppvzyk

A census reveals that the Gorilla population is actually growing! Yay!!! A 2008 census tallied more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the Congo which may double population estimates. Estimates from the 1980s had suggested fewer than 100,000 of the great apes had survived and many experts believed those numbers had been cut nearly in half by disease and hunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0fL4pPInE&eurl=http://www.happynews.com/news/11142008/census%20reveals%20gorilla%20population%20growing.htm&feature=player_embedded

So there is good news in the world. And if our media outlets are unwilling to share it, well, it's up to us!

Love to you,
Caroleeena

p.s. Patrick Swayze says that the news about his worsening cancer is also untrue. Another reason to celebrate! Yay!

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. .

:-)

[Subdivisions]

2. Very nice good news roundup, Caroleeena. Thank you! =) K&R n/t