Playful orcas, a hopeful chimp and sticky popsicles

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July 1, 2023

Psst, hi! It's Scottie Andrew, filling in for AJ this week. Let's get into the good!

It's popsicle season! Why I'm perpetually shocked when the temperature suddenly rockets up to the 90s in July, I'm not sure, but my body begins to crave all things frozen and fruity. Popsicles remind me of being a kid, giggling with friends in someone's backyard as we drip cherry-red popsicle juice on our T-shirts and turn our tongues an unnaturally bright color. We'd see who could slurp their Icee the fastest without getting brain freeze or who'd score the last Spongebob bar with the gumball eyes from the ice cream truck. Popsicles are sticky and messy and will stain your white clothes no matter how hard you try to eat them neatly this time, but they're a little piece of the past, too. So cheers to popsicles, cheers to summers past and present and cheers to you, dear reader!

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

Learn the queer language of flowers
This gem comes courtesy of our very own AJ Willingham: When societal norms make it impossible to be yourself without risk of violence or punishment, sometimes flowers speak louder than words. LGBTQ people have long used the language of flowers to express clandestine feelings or share their love in a way that couldn't be decoded by others; Sappho, the poet of Greek antiquity, even used violets throughout her poems about romantic relationships with women. Here are two of my favorite examples AJ found.

Pansy: The flower's name has for years been used as a pejorative for gay men, AJ notes, but in recent years, queer people have taken the term back. LGBTQ activist Paul Harfleet plants pansies at sites of abuse against LGBTQ people through the Pansy Project as a "comment" and "potential remedy" for hatred.
Green carnation: The Irish writer Oscar Wilde encouraged actors in and audiences of his 1892 play, "Lady Windermere's Fan," to wear green carnations to the show's opening without context. It's believed that the writer, who made few efforts to hide his sexuality during a time when it was socially unacceptable to be an out gay man, borrowed the trend from Parisian queer enclaves, where green carnations were likely a "sign of affiliation" among gay men.

Grandparents face off (and face-plant) in a foot race
And now for something extremely silly. Emerald Downs racecourse in Washington State doesn't just host horses — nay (neigh?), they also welcome grandparents to gallop out of the gate and best their fellow seniors in the Grandparents Derby. This year, two competing grandpas almost immediately face-planted in the dirt after getting an early lead, ruining their chances of a first-place finish. They were physically uninjured, though their dignity certainly took a pummeling. If grandparents on the run weren't enough, Emerald Downs also hosts corgi and dachshund races — it's especially hilarious when the short-legged, long-bodied pups quickly veer off-course and quit within seconds — as well as a Dino Derby, in which competitors don inflatable T-Rex costumes and careen down the track. Horses deserve a day off so grandparents, dogs and dinos can test their mettle.

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Raise a glass to...

... these very tired graduates with a dark sense of humor. Chinese social media has recently seen a surge of Ph.D. students and others who've spent years of their lives in school, defending theses and studying for most of their waking hours, posing slumped-over in their cap and gown. They're exhausted, they say, and they can no longer bear to stand up, not even for a graduation photo. These silly photoshoots reflect the relief and bone-deep fatigue that accompany graduating, as most college students can attest to, and they've encouraged other students to share their own exaggerated portraits. They're leaving school at an uneasy time — unemployment is a major concern in the country, which recently relaxed its Covid policies — so they've certainly earned the right to poke fun at themselves and the system.

You gotta see this

Ahlgrim Family Funeral Services has been a stalwart of its Chicago suburb since 1892. But it wasn't until the 1960s that the living youths in the neighborhood got interested. Welcome, brave golfers, to Ahlgrim Acres. It's a macabre mini-golf course that sits in the basement below the local funeral home, and it's decked out in coffins, skeletons and other creepy decor. Robert Ahlgrim (yes, that's his real name!) decided to turn the basement of his family's funeral home into a mini-golf course in 1964 and spent the next few years designing it. His family has maintained it ever since, and it's attracted many fans. The course is closed during services out of respect, but when it's too hot or too cold outside, the neighborhood kids flood the funeral home basement to putt some balls through the mouth of a skull or around the tombstones of a miniature cemetery. Neighbors seem to appreciate the family's sense of humor and the entertainment it provides kids in the area. Plus, it's free!

Wanna get away?

You know what they say about life in plastic. But so few of us ever get a chance to experience the extravagant life of a doll like Barbie — until now, that is, because the doll's famous DreamHouse was just listed on Airbnb. Barbie's second-fiddle Ken apparently is offering a one-night stay at the Malibu DreamHouse ahead of the release of the dolls' biopic, "Barbie." His girlfriend, it seems, is out of town for a night and chose to leave Ken home alone. The listing shows a much more practical version of Barbie's abode, which, in toy form, eschewed walls, had sticker versions of appliances in lieu of the real thing and required Barbie to exit some rooms via water slide. This mega-mansion has walls but is appropriately covered, from the first floor to the roof, in shades of pink. Oh, and there's a dance floor (duh) and a pool with perfectly manicured turf around it and — you guessed it! — a water slide, though it's not clear in the listing if it goes anywhere. There are also Ken-friendly accents throughout, like a life-sized horse figurine and a preponderance of cowboy hats. The exclusive stay at Barbie's place won't be easy to score — you'll have to best other grown-ups whose dreams of the DreamHouse were awakened when the listing went live. The rest of us will have to settle for the plastic miniature.

Who knew?

Perhaps you've heard of the rebellious killer whales who've started ramming into and damaging boats in the Strait of Gibraltar. They've destroyed rudders and, in a few cases, sunk the vessels. In all, there have been more than 500 recorded interactions be orcas vs. boats. But this "orca revolution" likely isn't one at all, experts say. There are two prevailing theories as to the whales' campaign against boats: That they're hungry, and the boats just happen to be in the strait at the same time as the whales' favorite prey, bluefin tuna, who move there during the summer. Or – the orcas are probably just playing. They're highly intelligent creatures, and as such, they know how to have fun — in this case, nudging and biting and damaging boats they encounter — and they also know how to share this behavior across whale pods until it becomes something of a cultural phenomenon within the orca community. But the orcas likely hold no grudges against the boats themselves and certainly don't want to harm the people on them, experts said. Plus, there are only 40 orcas, a critically endangered species, living in the strait, and trying to deter them could only hurt them more. Daniel Kriz, a veteran skipper whose boats have been damaged by playful orcas, said that he's Team Killer Whale: "Bottom line, we are in their territory," and we owe them respect. Just don't ask the orcas to stop "playing" with boats.

Rec of the week

Brought to you by CNN Underscored

52 products our editors tried and loved in June

In June, the CNN Underscored editors were introduced to a plethora of products, from a new Swiffer and Tide Pods to a very nice cat bed. Whether you're shopping for yourself, a loved one or your furry best friend, here are over 50 products our editors discovered and fell in love with last month.

Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

Behold, one of the most beautiful moments I have ever witnessed onscreen. This chimpanzee named Vanilla spent her entire 28 years in a five-by-five cage. It wasn't until she was rescued from a research facility by Save the Chimps that she finally got to see the sky for herself — and it wowed her. Watch as she bounds into the arms of a fellow chimp until she spots the blue heavens and her jaw drops in wonder. (Click here to watch.)