Good Samaritan of the Day Award!

It is sweltering in DC today.  There were promises of thunderstorms, but they have not yet materialized, and to step outside is to begin to melt like butter, or candles, or lard, or anything greasy that melts in a sufficiently unpleasant way.  I had to run a quick errand for the sake of Personal Development, and as I passed the house of a charming family I chat with near-daily, my heart melted — but in a super-awesome-pleasant way, like chocolate for fondue or ice in a stiff happy hour beverage.

I knew these were Good People ever since I met their pugs, but this clinches it.  In front of their gate, and lining their (beautiful) garden pathway, they had stacked coolers filled with bottled water, and put a big sign up saying “Postman, UPS, FedEx, couriers, friends and neighbors — It’s hot outside. Please help yourself to some water.”

SEEEEE?  This is going straight on my list of why humanity still has some good left in it!  I think it is #4 or 5, but someday I’ll actually put the list up and we’ll know for sure.

Janine, coolest lady ever

A few years ago, I met one of the coolest women in the world.  She’s one of my grandmother’s friends, and she is hilarious and fascinating and generally awesome.  She’s had a very intense life — escaped the worst bits of the Holocaust by moving first to France, then to Cuba.  The trip to Cuba was via boat, and their ship almost got sent back, like the St. Louis (ages ago, I was in a play about the St. Louis, which got sent back to Germany — complete with mocking telegrams from Hitler — it always stuck with me).

I knew that her daughter had written a book about her, which I’ve been wanting to read, and while I was googling it I came up with a great article about her return to her old German town (also by her daughter) that I want to share.  Enjoy!