【推荐1】A struggling Waffle House employee who was trying to serve nearly 30 people by himself after midnight got a full serving of kindness when some customers jumped behind the counter to help him.

Ethan Crispo, 24, witnessed the inspiring scene in the early hours of Nov. 3 at a Waffle House in Birmingham, Alabama.

Crispo told TODAY’s Kerry Sanders that he had come to the 24-hour restaurant from a friend’s birthday party and saw the struggling employee, identified only as Ben, trying to cook the food, serve it, bus tables and wash dishes while more than 25 people were waiting to eat.

“The look on his face was just confusion,” Crispo told Sanders.

An unidentified male customer then decided to help him out, grabbing an apron and going behind the counter to wash dishes.

Another customer, Alison Stanley, went behind the counter to make some coffee—still dressed from a night out on the town.

“I don’t think it’s anything special,” Stanley told Sanders. “He needed help, so I got up and helped out.”

Crispo took some photos of the scene as multiple customers worked to bus tables and wash dishes while Ben focused on taking orders and preparing the food.

Waffle House told TODAY that Ben was left to support himself due to a scheduling issue.

“We had two associates scheduled to leave, however, due to a communication mix-up, their relief did not show up on time,” Waffle House director of PR Pat Warner said in a statement. “That left Ben, our cook, alone in the restaurant with hungry customers. He worked the grill (烤架) and got the orders out.”

The company was also thankful for the customers who joined in and helped Ben out.

“We are grateful that many of our customers feel like they are part of our Waffle House family,” Warner said. “There is a sense of community in each and every one of our restaurants, and we appreciate the fact that they consider our associates like family.”

“We are also very thankful for Ben, who kept the restaurant open. He is a representative of our Waffle House culture by always putting the customers first.”

Crispo had his usual order, double plain waffle, as he took in the scene of strangers helping out Ben on his shift.

“Humanity truly isn’t good, it’s great!” he said.

【推荐3】My office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It’s a wet suit.

This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel(内燃机) powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden pipe, which is taped to the air pipe. Now, this all sounds like a good plan, and I’ve used it several times with no complaints. What I do when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the pipe and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It’s fantastic.

Here is my experience. Everything was going well until suddenly, my bottom started to itch (发痒). So, of course, I scratched it. This, of course, only made things worse. Within a few seconds my bottom started to feel a burning feeling. I pulled the pipe out from my back, thinking that maybe the water was too hot, but the damage was done. The hot water machine sucked up a jellyfish(水母) and pumped it directly into my suit. I didn’t have any hair on my back, so the jellyfish couldn’t stick to it. However, my bottom was not as fortunate.

When I had scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually pushing the jellyfish into the crack of my bottom. I immediately informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he and five other divers were all laughing .

Needless to say, when I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my helmet.

【推荐3】Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before a visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel’s hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur from the family cat to make a brush.

The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged (蓬乱). His father said that the cat must be sick. Benjamin was forced to admit what he had been doing.

The cat’s lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings. When he went home, he sent Benjamin a box of paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings (版画) by an artist. These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen. 

In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr. Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at what Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin’s parents if he might take the boy back to Philadelphia for a visit.

In the city, Mr. Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape (风景) painting. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little, having been a poor student. But he later said, “Those two books were my companions by day, and under my pillow at night.” While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that he would be an artist.