Blue Sky Times: New Top Jingle, Adopted Closet and Long-Lost Sand-Swimmers

The end of the semester has, like usual, crept up on us rather quickly. With finals hanging over our head like a dark cloud, the news column is here to remind you that not only do blue skies lie ahead, but so do joyous holiday celebrations. Here are this week’s good news stories.

‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ Tops Charts

The holiday staple song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958 when she was just 13 years old, has reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after 65 years, The New York Times reported. 

The song has beaten out the Mariah Carey classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which has been number one during the holiday season for the last four years. Lee’s song reached nearly 35 million streams last week. 

Lee has drawn more attention to the song this year by making a new music video for it and creating a personal TikTok account. 

“I would’ve never thought in my wildest dreams that ‘Rockin’’ would be my signature song,” Lee told The New York Times.

The Adopted Closet

Brittany Berrie has opened a new business called The Adopted Closet from which all of the proceeds go towards covering adoption fees for families hoping to welcome a new member to their family, according to Good Morning America.

Berrie said she felt inspired to open the store in September when a donation from a generous family member helped cover the fees for her to adopt her 11-year-old daughter Gracie.

What first began as a garage sale to pay the good deed forward and cover the adoption fees for another family turned into a business has now covered the costs for a local family to adopt their two sons, ages 5 and 7, according to the article.

Berrie said she hopes to expand her business to provide help to as many families as possible in the future.

De Winton’s Golden Mole

A species of golden mole, called the De Winton’s Mole, unseen for over 80 years was found and photographed swimming through South African sand dunes in a study released Nov. 28, Smithsonian Magazine reported. A research team located the mole with the help of a border collie named Jessie and analysis of environmental DNA collected at sites indicated by Jessie.

De Winton’s is one of 21 species of golden mole, 10 of which are listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. De Winton’s is critically endangered and is listed as being possibly extinct, according to the most recent assessment in February 2014.

Golden moles release a slick, iridescent oil through their fur which makes traveling through sand easier, and gives them their titular golden shine, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Part of why finding these blind moles was so difficult is because they don’t create any traceable tunnels while roaming the dunes, and they take advantage of their incredible hearing to find prey.

Have a happy holidays and remember, as Stevie Wonder once said, “Someday at Christmas man will not fail / Hate will be gone and love will prevail / Someday a new world that we can start / With hope in every heart.” 

This article was written by Isabella Grosso, Lilli Malone and Hunter Minne

Featured image by Ryan Pittman / The Phoenix