By Scottie Andrew

Greetings from Atlanta, where the players play. We just observed “404 Day” in Georgia, a nod to one of the city’s area codes — and April 4th. It’s a time where residents acknowledge everything that makes our metropolis special. 

Atlanta is where lemon pepper wings, OutKast and CNN were all born. It’s an urban oasis canopied by towering live oaks and dogwoods. It’s a city built on the civil rights movement, where Black culture is nourished and celebrated. It’s one of the friendliest, most beautiful places I’ve ever lived. I’d toast to Atlanta any day! 

Whether you’re living in your hometown, whose every corner you’ve memorized, or a brand-new city that’s still unfamiliar, I hope you’ve found what makes your home base special. Maybe it’s you.

Here are some good things that happened this week.

Alyssa Pointer/CNN

Dance it out!

In Jasmine King’s class, dancers check their worries at the door, strap on some comfortable shoes and get in line. King teaches a popular line dancing class in Atlanta where students, most of whom are Black women, are dancing to embrace joy — and as a form of resistance. Many of them fall under “the 92%,” the percentage of Black women who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Instead of despairing over the unstable state of our country, King’s students are dancing together, nurturing themselves and abandoning, even momentarily, the burdens they shoulder.

“Instead of taking a knee in protest Black people are using their feet,” CNN’s Lisa France Respers writes. “A movement by way of movement — in a way that’s actually not new.”

Dance is a powerful form of catharsis, y’all. Don’t be afraid to jump in the line!

Antonio_Diaz/iStockphoto/Getty Images

Sweet dreams with stuffies

Sleeping with a stuffed animal as an adult is nothing to be ashamed of — and it might even be good for us, experts told CNN’s Madeline Holcombe. They’re nostalgic symbols of experiences or significant times in our lives, or shortcuts to connection when you’re far from a person you love. They help us self-soothe and regulate our emotions, too, which can set a positive example for young children, experts told Holcombe. 

Sleeping with a stuffy might even be a 21st-century version of an evolutionary need, some experts said: “Social sleeping” made our ancestors feel safer. It’s no wonder that we might be comforted or able to fall asleep more easily when we’re snuggling up to a soft toy. So consider this the OK to grab your childhood teddy out of storage and give it a squeeze.

“If it helps you with stress, it’s a much better alternative than taking a tranquilizer or drinking a glass of wine,” sleep psychologist Dr. Jade Wu told CNN. “It hurts nobody.”

Maggie Coblentz

Space paste tastes great!

Miso is a versatile pantry staple made from soybeans that can improve virtually every meal in which it is used. Miso made in space might be even better. 

Scientists sent a container of soybean paste up to the International Space Station in March 2020, when most of us were decidedly not thinking about shipping ingredients to space. They let it ferment up there for 30 days before it returned home as miso. The results were surprisingly flavorful: Compared to two other misos that were fermented on Earth (in Massachusetts and Denmark), the space-fermented miso was nuttier, with a more pronounced flavor, the researchers found.

Why make miso in space? Well, why not? Scientists had never deliberately fermented food 250 miles above sea level. They hypothesized that different environmental factors in space, like microgravity and increased radiation, could affect the miso’s fermentation. It seems that the conditions of space only made the miso more delicious.

 CNN

A bunch of April fools

I do not like to be pranked, and for this reason I reject April Fools’ Day. But even I must admit that this high school principal in New South Wales, Australia, pulled off a pretty good trick on her 11th-grade class.

Said principal gathered all the juniors in an auditorium to break some difficult news: “A mandatory Year 13 has been added to your educational pathway,” she told them solemnly. The thought of an extra year of high school shocked students, who gasped, covered their gaping mouths and threw their hands over their heads in distress. She played it straight just long enough that they believed her until the end of the assembly, when she provided “one other vital piece of information” — they’d been had! 

“You are most certainly graduating in 2026,” the principal told the relieved, slightly peeved crowd. You can watch the dread evaporate from their young faces in footage of the prank.