Apartment Choice

One moment you’re sitting on a couch somewhere in Jakarta, listening to the soft hum of the air conditioner. The next, you’re in Saigon, making your way through a street in war- torn 1960s Vietnam . Or perhaps, watching the sun rise and fall through a small window from a prison somewhere in the French-colonized Algeria. Stories have the ability to take us to places that we have never been, to see sights that we have never seen; an access to the foreign and strange and familiar, however brief and fleeting. Ultimately, literature tells us about how people lived. It tells us about what people have cried about, what they have lost. How people wake up in the morning and make their coffee, and how the moon looks before they fall asleep. It tells us about how things fall apart, and how people fall in love. It may even remind us of emotions that we too have felt; whether it be something that we vaguely remember feeling at some time and some place, or something that comes to us with such an i...

Utility worker jumps onto subway tracks, saves man just before train’s arrival Last week there was a news account of a woman crashing her car in New England as she swerved off of the road into a tree with an approximate three foot girth and with such force that it broke its top off twenty feet above her car from the impact of her collision. The car, then, caught fire. Driving by at the time was a man in his eighties with EMT ( Emergency Medical Technicians ) training. He stopped his car and ran down the hill to her vehicle while knowing fully well that at any moment the gas tank could blow up and kill him. He went forward anyway. The smoke was so thick that he nearly passed out from lack of oxygen and he couldn’t see the car’s occupant. So he felt around for her with his hands through the smoke and dragged her out of the car by the shoulders. My father undertook a similar action. He was near Albany, NY, USA. He saw a farmer’s truck carrying hay burst into flames on a bridge with the d...

An aspiring rapper who turned to music and songwriting as a way to cope with his mother’s drug addiction has reached millions with his inspiring lyrics about her recovery and the relationship they’ve built. Mark Henriquez, whose stage name is “Gremlin,” released “All For You (My Mom’s Addiction Story)” on YouTube and Facebook, where it was picked up by others in the industry.  The video, which features 25-year-old Henriquez and his 46-year-old mother Ruby Lanz , explores the struggles they went through as he was growing up. It opens with Lanz introducing herself and declaring that she’s been sober for 12 years, before Henriquez explains that he remembers his mom on meth and that he moved into his grandmother’s house to get away from her.  DIABETIC WOMAN ON TOUR OF MEXICO DIES FROM FOOD POISONING, FAMILY SAYS “Just a kid who didn’t want to feel depressed but momma I was still a mess, and you were still missed to death but I couldn’t see my mom like that,” he raps. “I hang up she call ri...

Melissa asks: Was there really a “Craig” who started “Craigslist” or is that just a marketing gimmick? Craig Newmark is the Craig of Craigslist whose estimated net worth as of 2010 was around $400 million. This is in direct contrast to his financial wealth during childhood, where his mother struggled to support Craig and his brother, Jeff, after the death of their father. Craig Alexander Newmark was born on December 6, 1952, in Morristown, New Jersey, to Joyce and Lee Newmark. Lee worked as an insurance salesman but after his death, Joyce had to move her two sons into an apartment. Craig was only thirteen years old when his father died. After graduating from Morristown High School in 1971, Craig had earned enough scholarships to fund his post-secondary education at Case Western Reserve University . There, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 and a Masters of Science degree in 1977. With his new degrees, Craig landed himself a job as a programmer with IBM for 17 years – ...

2017 NFL Draft on April 27, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)" /> Mitchell Leff/Getty Images RICHMOND, Calif. — Shortly after signing a contract with the Atlanta Falcons worth $10.22 million over four years, Takk McKinley did what a lot of people would do.  His money dance. Except he also did something most people probably wouldn't do. He videotaped the dance. And then he put it on Twitter. Takkarist McKinley @Takk To see my family struggle everyday growing up and now I can help change that..YES I'M HAPPY😊! Don't worry I'll be this happy getting sacks 🤗 https://t.co/LckhYSEkQ8 2017-6-1 16:40:04 The player so many fans fell in love with on draft night this year just keeps getting better. Who is this guy? "He's a big old kid having fun and living the dream," says Alonzo Carter, who coached him at Contra Costa College . "He doesn't get too caught up in himself, and he can give you a piece." Yes...

August 13, 2017 Cat and dog owners alike adore their pets. And though it’s not always obvious from their behavior and body language, dogs and cats do love their owners back. Sometimes, our pets show extreme bravery to save us from danger or avert tragedy. Want to meet a cat who helped stop a man from committing suicide? How about a dog who fought off coyotes to save his owner? Or a cat who alerted his family to a deadly house fire ? Read on to meet some of the most heroic pets who have made the news for saving people’s lives. ")}; 20. The ‘Hero Cat’ who rescued a child from an attacking dog A brave cat stopped a dog from attacking a child. | iStock.com/Steevy84 Sometimes, an animal attacks a child. And every once in a while, another animal comes to the rescue. That’s exactly what happened when a heroic cat saved a child from a dog attack in Bakersfield, California. The dog, which belonged to a neighbor, dragged the boy off his bicycle with his teeth. But the attack was cut sh...

When American doctor Stephen Yoon thinks of North Korea, he does not think of ballistic missile tests or the threat of nuclear war. He remembers instead a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, who suffered from spastic quadriplegia that made her unable to stand or sit. Five years ago, she went to Yoon's developmental-disability program at Pyongyang Medical University Hospital , where she received treatments from Yoon and his team of local doctors. After almost a year of exercise therapy and some surgeries, she walked out of the hospital on her own. The event was heralded in North Korean state media as a national victory, but it received no notice in the U.S., where few people even know about the roughly 200 Americans like Yoon who work and live under the rule of Kim Jong Un. Carefully monitored by the regime, they have come and gone for years, doing educational, medical or infrastructural work, and sometimes raising families in a nation that has been officially at war with the ...