Dear #Positivity Friends,

There’s a strange and wonderful natural phenomenon known as “Manhattanhenge” that happens every summer in New York City around Memorial Day weekend and again in mid-July. As the sun sets, it aligns precisely along the grid of Manhattan’s east- and west-oriented numbered streets and the north- and south-oriented avenues and suddenly the whole island is aglow. Impromptu crowds gather to gape and cheer and in minutes, the spectacular show is over.  

Summer is like that, isn’t it? Somehow it’s just filled with gone-in-a-flash moments that are little gifts. The taste of a warm, just-picked strawberry. The hint of a rainbow after a late-afternoon thunderstorm. The shrieks and squeals of a kid running under a sprinkler.  

Maybe the price we pay to enjoy the splendor of summer is how quickly it seems to go by. I hope you’ll slow down, open your eyes and ears, and find that something special that every day of this summer has to offer. I know I will—I’m eating an ice cream cone as I write this!

As always, I hope that you are enjoying my newsletter. If you missed an issue, you can find them all on my website. Pass this newsletter along and encourage your family and friends to sign up!

With hope and positivity,

High atop the tallest building in Rhode Island—the Industrial Trust Building, known locally as the Superman building—sits a special nesting box inhabited by four large, fuzzy Peregrine falcon chicks. The nervous parents fly overhead, screaming and divebombing at speeds nearing 200 miles per hour to protect their young from a group of people gathered around the nest. Master bander Joseph Zbyrowski has to work quickly and carefully to fit the chicks with metal identification bands to help scientists track their movements. For over 20 years, Peregrines have nested and raised their young in this spot. Every May, staff and volunteers from the Audubon Society of Rhode Island gather for the banding. Most are there to help protect Zbyrowski, waving feather dusters and brooms to distract the attacking falcons. The yearly ritual will never get old for Zybrowski. The Peregrine is “the Rolls Royce of the birding world,” he said. “It’s just a thrill to see that bird.”

All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia

by Simon Garfield

For anyone who grew up spending hours at a time thumbing through the pages of Encyclopedia Britannica, this book will make you nostalgic. For the folks raised in the Google and Wikipedia era, this book will show you how knowledge used to be gathered and documented one fascinating entry at a time.

Simon Garfield chronicles the history of the encyclopedia, highlighting how contributors such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Indira Gandhi, along with thousands of other scholars and experts, filled the pages of these books that helped educate millions of children. The quest for knowledge is always ongoing, but the road to the publishing marvel that was the encyclopedia is an amazing journey.