I don't have to tell you why. 

1. The average price of ground beef is down slightly compared to last year, and you know what the means: The occasional meatloaf!  

2. Seventeen days until spring! 

3. Canada has a fairly open refugee policy. I'm not saying that you should pack your bags now to be ready for election day, but I am saying, Canada has a fairly open refugee policy.

4. It's a good year for zingers, anyway. My current favorite: "[Chris Christie's eyes] were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss.. "

5. Reading this morning about Kanye West, I realized that I don't know what Kanye West sounds like, at all. It may be too late for you, but at least you'll have the comfort of knowing that it is possible to be this way.

6. A very serviceable Korean BBQ pork is pretty easy to make, it turns out. Oh, gosh, I'm talking about meat again. Well.

7. That hideous new president of Mount Saint Mary -- the guy who was apparently testing the theory that what people mainly want is to be insulted and abused and to pay a lot of money for the privilege of having a front row seat for the squelching of intellectual freedom -- has resigned, meaning a Catholic liberal arts community got together and said, "We think the world needs a Catholic liberal arts community." 

8. You can drink in the shower, as well as in the bath. Just put your drink wherever you normally put your soap, and it won't get watered down.

9. Big Hero 6 is getting a TV series, and the Finding Dory trailer is out. And, David Tennant is returning as the Tenth Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as his companion Donna Noble in three Doctor Who Audio Dramas!

10. It was Chopin's birthday yesterday (probably)  He was composing by the age of 8, which was in the year 1818. That means that someone, somewhere, has been putting the music of Chopin into the atmosphere of one very lucky planet more often than not for nearly 200 years now. 

11. There is such a thing as Ted Cruz bad lip reading.

12. Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, Tom Wolfe, Mikhail Gorbachev, and of course Jon Bon Jovi, which is good news because it tells us that the date of your birth has absolutely nothing to do with how your life will turn out, and you definitely don't have to worry about that, anyway.

13. Lent isn't over, yet. It's not even really almost over. If you've wussed out, you can totally hike up your pants and get going, and Easter will still feel like Easter.

One final thing: I asked my Facebook friends for good news, and people overwhelmingly shared personal things -- the birthdays of elderly, beloved relatives, and the long-anticipated births of lovely new babies; prayers answered, gardens growing, medical healing, Swedish fish and fresh baked banana bread. A new pet bunny. A perfectly ripe avocado. Sometimes, the threats and tumult in the larger world remind us to look to what we have, not in desperation, and not hiding our heads in the sand, but in gratitude. Deo gratias, there is always something to be grateful for.