EXTRA GOOD

Welcome to Extra Good,
the consolidation station for Here’s One Good Thing

At the end of each week's blog post, I’ll add a few extra, typically unrelated items of note and link them with a quick description to the categories below; the newest entries will also be flagged here each week to spare you some digging. Most items will be random good things I've encountered in any given week, but sometimes I’ll wedge in a classic from The Good Archives. Also, please note the explainer for the Good But ... designation below* — it's a handy caution label for the sometimes-feel-good things that have still earned their place here.

Poke around according to your interests — I hope you find something ... good ✨.

A white plate in sunshine and shadows holding two white enamel mugs of tortilla chips and a bowl each of pico de gallo and guacamole with cubed cojita cheese on top.

Good Food

A white Dixie paper plate with a blue rim placed on a tan-brown wood surface. The plate holds a silver fork and the orange residue of mac n cheese. The few remaining noodles are arranged in a smile face and spell out the word "Hi!"

Good Laughs

The musician Lyle Lovett and twelve band members with various musical instruments are on stage. The outdoor stage is lit with purple and white lights and the solid rock wall backdrop is lit up orange.

Good Music

A stack of twelve books on a brown-tan wood surface. The spines with the titles are facing forward in a variety colors. The stack includes a red paperback dictionary, a yellow paperback thesaurus, and a mix of fiction and nonfiction titles. Some books look very well used.

Good Words

A television screen fills most of the photo and it features three supporting animated characters from the movie Toy Story. Rex the green toy dinosaur, Mr. Potato Head and Hamm the pink piggy bank are looking forward with active and concerned expressions.

Good Entertainment
movies, TV, streaming, podcasts + performances

A creased newspaper clipping is unfolded on a light brown wood surface. The clipping is square and features a colored photo of two smiling women making pottery together, with the following headline: "Isabelle in Full Bloom." The caption underneath indicates the women are mother and daughter (daughter is Isabelle) and it highlights the 20th anniversary of a book the mother wrote about Isabelle, who has Down Syndrome.

The Denver Post, 9/5/25. Photo by Cliff Grassmick

Good News
stories that will leave you feeling better

A scene from the old children's television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Two men -- one who is Black (François Clemmons playing Officer Clemmons) and wearing a police officer's uniform and the other is white (Fred Rogers) wearing a tie and green cardigan sweater. They are talking together while sitting on chairs with their pants rolled up to mid-shin. Their bare feet are cooling together in a child's round plastic wading pool.

*Photo by John Beale. Used by permission with great appreciation.

Good People

A white book on a light brown wood surface. The letters forming the title of the book -- "The Way Things Work" -- are created from illustrations of machinery, tools, and equipment. There is an illustrated hand holding a red fountain pen in the upper right corner as they finish drawing the letter "E" for the word "THE." The name of the book's author -- David Macaulay -- is shown at the top of the cover. A very clever design!

Good Learning + Information

A partial view of bright yellow posterboard featuring a child's science fair project. The project's title is handwritten in a child's script: "The Life Cycle of the Chihuahua." The posterboard contains various photographs and handwritten facts on white paper about Chihuahuas. The words "Birth" and "Adult" handwritten in blue marker are prominent.

COMING SOON

Good Science
+ Technology

Two American Girl dolls -- Samantha and Kit -- are standing close together outside on an old wooden Adirondack chair. They are wearing their original American Girl oufits and their outer hands are raised in greeting. Kit is missing her left leg.

Good Ideas + Innovation

A partial view of a child's chalk crayon drawing on paper. Two-thirds of the face of an orange-and-black tiger fills the right side of the photograph. The left side is colored pink with green designs.

COMING SOON

Good Art,
Photography + Design

A partial view of a wood-sided building, including a sloped roofline. The exterior wall are painted white and very large black capitalized letters spell out "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL" A vertical white gutter runs down the center of the letter "U." The sun is shining and there are shadows on part of the wall.

COMING SOON

On the side of THALKEN, a terrific tiny shop in Lafayette, CO

Good Places + Spaces

NEW!

A close-up view of an inflatable PVC swim toy shaped like a doughnut that's had a bite taken out of it. The doughnut is designed with bright pink icing and colorful sprinkles. It is resting outside flat on the graying wood boards of an old boat dock.

COMING SOON

Good Fun

Close view of the face of a gray-muzzled red-haired golden retriever who is looking directly at the camera.

Good-Natured
animals + outdoors

A close view of a light-up ceramic replica of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team

Good Sports

Three plush book character toys on a velvet-y blue surface. One is a green grape, one is a brown egg wearing eyeglasses, and one is a wheel of yellow cheese wearing a red, white and blue sweatband on its head. The store tags are still attached and visible on the grape and the cheese.

COMING SOON

Good Companies + Products

A older woman in a ruffled coral sleeveless top and dark shorts stands in a doorway holding two pre-packaged meals and smiling widely. She is looking intently at another woman whose back to is to the camera. Provided context for this photo indicates the woman holding the meals is a client of Coal Creek Meals on Wheels and the other woman is a volunteer.

*Photo courtesy of Coal Creek Meals on Wheels

Good Help
giving, volunteering + community-building

NEW!

GOOD BUT ...

The links within the above "Extra Good" categories land in a wide working definition of good, which (with our noted exceptions) is generally a light, bright, sunny little universe; the above recommendations easily satisfy our breezy mental vacation criteria.

On the other hand, there are many pop/social culture elements — guns, gore, horror, drugs, and seriously bad humans — that are not vacation-y (to me), which means I'll be bypassing some interesting, critically good (even great) movies, shows, books, podcasts, etc. that have too high a potential of crushing your/my soul.

Breaking Bad is an easy example: it earned years of critical and fan acclaim, including from my C, who frequently said, "Mom, I just gotta show you this one part ..." as she rapidly fired up her laptop screen. But even 30 seconds of Walter White and the Salamancas was enough to weave into my nightmares. So cheers to all the Emmys, but nope, that's not the vibe here.

However, in between the warm-fuzzy-feels and yikes-no-way is a maybe-maybe-not middle. There are lots of partially-feel-good creations that have a compelling balance in their light and dark, which is why I'll add a cautious Good But ... label on the maybe-maybe-nots.

I'm thinking about books that are devastating but also luminous (like All the Light We Cannot See) or documentaries with difficult subjects that redeem in their humanity (like The Quilters). A small-screen cousin to our Breaking Bad example would be a show like The Bear, which can be nearly un-bear-able to watch — unnerving tension, personal and family traumas, heated claustrophobic kitchen space, cascading f-bombs, and so, so much yelling. This sort of non-essential stress may be more than you or I want to manage on a Tuesday night.

But if you can tolerate varying degrees of discomfort, the recommendations with this label can swing back and restore your nervous system with beauty, comedy, solace, human awareness, redemption, and grace. I'm wound too tightly and sentiently to actually *enjoy* or *relax* while watching/reading/absorbing intense, sad, or darker-side material, but I'm usually glad I push through. Thanks to The Bear, the dignity of Richie's "Forks" episode and Marcus's deeply focused calm now comfortingly reside in my head.

ALL this to say, I can confidently recommend any Good But ... links, but proceed with caution according to your mood and tolerance for ambiguity, crisis, language, vicarious pain, and the occasional loudly-shattered plate.

A small plastic toy version of Toy Story's Woody character slumped down with his head in his lap. He is positioned on a long concrete parking block. The surrounding dark gray asphalt parking lot has patches of green moss.

GOOD BUT ... 🙂🙃

THE GOOD ARCHIVES

Anchor 4 Good But

EXTRA GOOD

Welcome to Extra Good,
the consolidation station for Here’s One Good Thing

Good Music

Good Words

Good Entertainment
movies, TV, streaming, podcasts + performances

Good News
stories that will leave you feeling better

Good People

Good Learning + Information

Good Science
+ Technology

Good Ideas + Innovation

Good Art,
Photography + Design

Good Places + Spaces

Good Fun

Good-Natured
animals + outdoors

Good Companies + Products

Good Help
giving, volunteering + community-building

THANK YOU FOR VISITING

SEE YOU BACK NEXT WEEK!

EXTRA GOOD

​Welcome to Extra Good, the consolidation station for Here’s One Good Thing

THANK YOU FOR VISITING

SEE YOU BACK NEXT WEEK!

Welcome to Extra Good,
the consolidation station for Here’s One Good Thing