With apologies to the talented writers and editors who put together the daily In the News column that appears on the front page of Arkansas' Newspaper.
LARRY RIDDLE got a treat instead of a traffic ticket when he was pulled over for not signaling a turn and found himself presented with a frozen Thanksgiving turkey donated by a local businessman in Billings, Mont., who asked the police department to hand out 20 of the frozen birds in time for the holiday weekend.
POPE FRANCIS is giving up $11 million a year that the Vatican collects in its duty-free souvenir shop and supermarket by stopping the sale of cigarettes there because "the Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people," getting the holiday off to an early and healthy start.
SCOTT SMITH, who couldn't wait an an intersection in St. Louis after the car ahead of him at a stoplight didn't move fast enough to suit him, hit his horn--but it turned out the other car was being driven by a police officer in an unmarked vehicle, and the cop did move then--to give Mr. Smith a ticket for violating a city ordinance against making excessive noise, leading one to conclude that this driver would have been better off following what his mother surely tried to teach him: Be nice.
SCOTT CAMPBELL taught all of us a lesson in good citizenship when he won his campaign for re-election to the North Pike School Board in Summit, Miss., by the closest of margins--90 to 89--demonstrating that every vote counts.
ELMER ALVAREZ, a homeless man, returned a $10,000 check he found in New Haven, Conn., after a real-estate agent had dropped it just because, as he put it, he wanted to "do the right thing"--and so he did, showing that the humblest of us can deport ourselves with honor.
RONDELL TONY CHINUHUK of Anchorage, Alaska, was arrested by police in Fairbanks and accused of trying to make off with a grocery store's motorized shopping cart, which can reach a top speed of 1.9 mph, so maybe what this country needs is a law against reckless shopping--though at least he couldn't be charged with speeding.
MIKE RITCH, chef and founder of Smokin' Angels BBQ Ministry of Adkins, Texas, says his congregation raised more than $91,000 for victims of the mass shooting in neighboring Sutherland Springs by selling barbecue at $10 a plate, so who says good people can't use good eatin' to shame the devil, for it's a practice that's been going on since church suppers.
Randy Bresnik, an American astronaut floating above the world on the International Space Station, said he can't wait for next year's Thanksgiving, for his wife's cooking down here on Earth is better than the pouches of turkey and mashed potatoes he choked down Thursday, and who could doubt him?
JEROME SMITH, who's both a veteran and a Marine, for once a Marine always a Marine, was asked to leave a crowded bar in Grand Rapids, Mich., just before Veterans Day and take his service dog Jo-Jo with him, even if man's best friend helps him handle his battle fatigue, and he got the apology he deserved.
JOHN WADE of Harper Woods, Mich., saw a crash that killed four people on an interstate, but also spotted the wreck's only survivor, a 1-year-old who was buckled into a car seat, a living reminder to all of us to buckle up.
EDWARD ROCHA of Manchester, N.H., ran and got a police officer at a nearby construction site to tell him a motorist had hit a utility pole, and the two of them raced to the car, smashed a window to get to the unconscious driver trapped inside, and worked on the victim until an emergency crew of first responders arrived, demonstrating that there are still Good Samaritans out there, unheralded though they may be.
FRANKIE BURNS, 8, in the Bronx, N.Y., happened upon a wallet with $1,700 in it, took it to his father, and between father and son they were able to find the wallet's owner, the victim of a mugging who'd dropped it after being treated for his wounds at a hospital, evidence that you're never too young or old to do a good deed.
Oh, what a creature is man--good and bad and in between, as varied as the names in the news.
Editorial on 11/25/2017