Cheers: to reaching for the stars. You have to be impressed by Madeline Salter. The 15-year-old from St. John’s has not even finished high school and she already has an album. The singer said after years of being bullied at school, music has given her a new focus and fuels her determination to realize her goals. She told The Telegram in a recent interview, putting out an album is “ something that I’m really proud of. … In the past few years, I’ve changed a lot as a person and also as an artist.” We wish you every success, Madeline, and perhaps you will inspire others to go ahead and dream big dreams. The sky’s the limit.
Jeers: to outrageous claims. Careful, Mr. President, your desperation is showing. There is only one constant in the American presidency of Donald J. Trump — just when you think he can’t say anything more outrageous, he trumps himself. As Jennifer Rubin wrote in her column in The Washington Post on Friday, Trump’s rhetoric was amped up beyond belief on Thursday, when he used a speech in Ohio as the launching pad for some ultra-over-the-top claims about rival Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. Rubin wrote: “The former vice-president, Trump proclaimed, would ‘take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything.’ … Trump added that Biden would ‘hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy.’”
Cheers: to bold moves. There are bores, there are boors and then there are wild boars. Apparently for wildlife, one of the rare upsides to COVID-19 is that there are fewer humans to disturb them in public places, and so wild boars are getting emboldened in the suburbs of Berlin. The BBC reported last week that a man sunbathing nude at a public bathing spot had to go on an unexpected streak when one of the beasts made off with a bag containing his laptop (after eating some pizza from his knapsack). His naked dash was — of course — captured on somebody’s camera and shared online with his good-natured permission. Cheeky buggers!
Cheers: to hugging trees. As climate change sees temperatures creeping higher, trees are being seen as more beneficial than ever, especially in cities, where concrete, metal, glass and asphalt can trap heat. A recent study by the U.S. Forest Service found that “Trees can lower summer daytime temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit.” There are so many benefits to trees — they harbour wildlife, offer shelter and shade, filter and absorb water, reduce noise, and can be fun to climb and sit beneath. The City of St. John’s has more than 50,000 trees and some of them are hundreds of years old. Go ahead — plant one; it truly is a gift that keeps on giving, with any luck for generations to come.
