Happy Happy Joy Joy

Awhile back, I got a comment--"What a mean-spirited blog."--that bugged me for a few days (I do tend to dwell, which makes Mrs. F really cheery). Luckily, Mrs. F found a helpful link in the latest Readers Digest (a gift subscription from my Grandfather--it turns out to be fine bathroom reading) that might help make Cracks a bit more palatable to those hungering a bit of cheer and overfed on mean-spirited irony. I present to you--HappyNews.com! You see, not everything is doom and gloom, not every bit of news leaking from the BushCo administration is a paranoid nightmare--there's good, happy stuff happening out there. Here's my pick from today's top stories--Julie Andrews Day is declared in Chicago:

Mayor Richard Daley proclaimed Tuesday "Julie Andrews Day" in the city, calling the 70-year-old actress-singer an "entertainment legend."

"I love your city, and I'm very proud to bring our show to your theater and hope to come back many, many times," Andrews said.

And a few posts back, where I chose a black veil to see through the news of a $200,000 grant to China to retrofit buses and trucks to clean diesel (which was far more than the largest grant to a US municipality), HappyNews just focuses on the particulars of cleaning up the particulates in Beijing without bringing in any other worrying context:

The Southwest Research Institute will manage the Beijing bus retrofits, coordinating closely with EPA, the Chinese government, the bus company, and emissions control vendors. The institute, a Texas-based nonprofit specializing in technology transfer, is contributing matching funds to the project.

The retrofit project will demonstrate reductions in emissions of particulates and other pollutants, through the introduction of cleaner emissions control technologies and cleaner fuel. At least two technologies will be deployed, one that can reduce particulates by as much as 30 percent, and another that when used with low-sulfur fuel, can reduce particulates by more than 90 percent.

I've been a mean-spirited cus of a blogger, but maybe, just maybe, I can bring more of a happy face to the news, goshdarnit. Maybe.