Players from the West Region group from Honolulu rejoice profitable the Little League World Series championship sport in August.

Joshua Bessex/Getty Images

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Joshua Bessex/Getty Images

Players from the West Region group from Honolulu rejoice profitable the Little League World Series championship sport in August.

Joshua Bessex/Getty Images

There’s at all times room for a bit extra excellent news.

As we glance again on 2022, we wished to share a couple of of our favourite moments of pleasure from the 12 months to carry a little bit of hope, whimsy and humor to your finish of 12 months festivities.

Here are a couple of bits of bizarre, wild and great information so that you can get pleasure from from throughout NPR’s community of newsrooms!

So the sculpture you bought at Goodwill was really looted from a museum. Now what?

Back in 2018, Laura Young was in an Austin Goodwill when she discovered a marble sculpture stashed underneath a desk for $34.99. She purchased it and introduced it dwelling. But after some Googling, she found her sculpture was really a portrait bust that was beforehand on show in a German museum within the Nineteen Twenties and ’30s.

So how did it get to Texas? Here’s what KUT’s Matt Largey found out.

Louisiana’s latest authorized sport: Noodling

Noodling, which is when one catches catfish with their naked palms, turned authorized in Louisiana in August. Not like that is stopped anybody earlier than.

WWNO’s Kezia Setyawan explains.

This fall, the Swinomish Tribe constructed the U.S.’s first trendy ‘clam backyard,’ reviving an historic follow

It’s believed {that a} clam backyard — a standard Indigenous method of boosting shellfish manufacturing — hadn’t been constructed within the United States for near 200 years. Just a few dozen folks in work gloves and rubber boots gathered on that small island about 50 miles north of Seattle throughout one of many lowest tides of the 12 months, and rock by rock, introduced the follow again.

What they constructed has lengthy since disappeared beneath the waves, however as KUOW’s John Ryan explains, that’s exactly how it was meant to be.

Kansas City’s pinball scene is popping out of the darkish, and into the basement

A wave of post-pandemic nostalgia has introduced again the pinball machine, an arcade sport, sometimes seen in bars, malls, and now basements.

From competitions to a resurgence of pinball restore corporations and a rising variety of collectors, KCUR’s Carlos Moreno discusses how this sport represents “the last pieces of Americana.”

The University of Maine 3D-printed inexpensive housing

Nicole Ogrysko/Maine Public

Nicole Ogrysko/Maine Public

The dwelling has been printed utilizing a cloth often called wooden flour. It’s basically the waste left over from a sawmill — and blended along with a binder constructed from corn.

Maine Public’s Nicole Ogrysko breaks down what this house “made of … bio-stuff” means for the country’s housing crisis.

A Missouri city virtually forgot it invented the best factor since something: sliced bread

In 2001, Catherine Stortz Ripley discovered an previous newspaper headline claiming that Chillicothe was the primary place to make sliced bread. Since then, this rural Missouri city of 10,000 has reclaimed their identify to fame and even declared July 7 Sliced Bread Day, an official vacation.

KCUR’s Suzanne Hogan describes how this innovation not solely modified America, but how it reshaped this town’s identity.

The rock gods care about perspective, not perfection

Nobody expects a bunch of girls of their 40s and 50s to begin a rock band — particularly if most of them have by no means performed music earlier than. But then, no person anticipated a pandemic. Enter: the Lazy Susans.

WBUR’s Joanna Weiss shares the story of how this mom group learned to rock.

How Honolulu bought to the US championship within the Little League World Series

Joshua Bessex/Getty Images

Joshua Bessex/Getty Images

Earlier this 12 months, the Honolulu group took dwelling the Little League World Series title, however pitching and excessive run counts aren’t the one spectacular feats of Hawaiʻi group members. Their character on and off the sector has caught the eye of others.

Hawai’i Public Radio’s Sabrina Boden explains.

A younger dolphin tangled in an unlawful internet was freed with the assistance of native marine patrol

Miami-Dade Marine Patrol Officer Nelson Silva’s physique cam caught one in all his proudest moments: liberating a younger dolphin ensnarled in an unlawful grill internet.

WLRN’s Jenny Staletovich breaks down the stressful save.

Building with bubble wrap, plastic grocery baggage and meals containers

Troy Oppie/Boise State Public Radio

Troy Oppie/Boise State Public Radio

A brand new firm needs to show our plastic scraps into constructing supplies. ByFusion’s machines use a mix of steam and compression to create the blocks, which they are saying have an equal insulating R-value to concrete blocks, however a significantly better Okay-value, which implies the blocks do not soak up and radiate warmth like concrete does.

And as Boise State Public Radio’s Troy Oppie explains, each is a kaleidoscope of single-use plastic.

A membership finds a brand new dwelling

Colleen Grablick/WAMU/DCist

Colleen Grablick/WAMU/DCist

For greater than 40 years, Capital Pool Checkers Association gamers met up at their clubhouse in Shaw, till spring 2021, when their landlord determined to promote the constructing, setting the group on the hunt for a brand new hangout. It wasn’t a simple activity given D.C.’s rising lease costs, and the group’s funds — they fund themselves solely on dues from members, whose numbers have dwindled lately.

Thankfully, as WAMU/DCist’s Colleen Grablick explains, the world well-known crew has finally found a new clubhouse.

This piece was produced by NPR’s Analise Ober with assist from Arielle Retting and Emily Alfin Johnson. KUT’s Andy Jechow, KUOW’s Juan Pablo Chiquiza, WBUR’s Meghan B. Kelly, KCUR’s Gabe Rosenberg, Boise State Public Radio’s Lacey Daley, WLRN’s Katie Lepri Cohen and WAMU/DCist’s Chris Chester all contributed to this piece.