【推荐1】To a regular person, Spitfire may look like just an ordinary dog, but to fans of the dock diving circuit, he is an incredible athlete in the same league as sport stars like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant

Before COVH-19, eight-year-old Spitfire and his 16-year-old owner, Sydney, dominated the dock diving circuit like never before in the history of the sport. If you’re unfamiliar with the sport of dock diving, it’s essentially dogs running on a wooden dock and jumping as far or as high as possible before diving into a pool of water. And no dog did this better than Spitfire. Between 2016 and 2019, he broke 21 world records.

Spitfire came into the Mackey family in 2013. Back then, he was just an adorable dog with big eyes that Sydney instantly fell in love with. Sydney and her mother learned about dock diving in 2016, from a family friend who encouraged them to try it with Spitfire. In May of that year, they decided to give the sport a try and their pet proved to be a natural.

It wasn’t long after that very first jump that Sydney and Spitfire started making waves in the world of dock diving. They took the sport by storm and they dominated events across the United States like no team had ever done before. In three years^, time, they broke many world records, and became known as an unbeatable pair of players.

Before he jumps into the air, the world’s best dock diver reaches a speed of about 30 miles per hour, and when he takes to the air he can reach a distance of 31 feet before hitting the water, or 8 feet 6 inches when he’s going for height. It’s no wonder they call him the flying dog.

But while Spitfire is undoubtedly the star of the show, most dock diving experts are convinced that despite his athletic abilities, he would have never reached his true potential without his young owner’s guidance. Sydney’s “Ready? Ready? Go, Go, Go!” pep talk to get Spitfire fired up has become famous on the dock jumping circuit.

【推荐2】I remember the day when Dad first brought home the heavy accordion. He gathered my mother and me in the living room and opened the case as if it were a treasure. My thin smile didn’t match his broad grin, because I had wished for a guitar or a piano.

Shortly after my lessons began, I was ordered to practice half an hour every day. Gradually, I was able to string notes together and play simple songs.

Someday, I found a case at home. Opening it, I saw a beautiful violin. “It’s your father’s,” Mom said. “His parents bought it for him. I guess he got too busy on the farm to ever learn to play it.” I tried to imagine Dad’s rough hands on this delicate instrument — and couldn’t.

With the fall school concert nearing, I would have to play a solo on a local movie theater’s stage. I wanted to skip the whole thing.

Emotions boiled over in the car one Sunday afternoon. “I don’t want to play a solo,” I said. “You have to,” replied my father.

“Why?” I shouted. “Because you didn’t get to play your violin when you were a kid? Why should I have to play this stupid instrument when you never had to play yours?” Dad pulled the car over.

“Because you can bring people joy.” He added softly, “Someday you'll have chance I never had: you’ll play beautiful music for your family.”

I was speechless. I had rarely heard Dad speak with such feeling about anything, much less the accordion.

The evening of the concert, I walked onto the stage and performed without a mistake. Dad slipped an arm around me and held me close. “You were just great,” he said. Then he shook my hand and was slow to let it go.

Dad never learned to produce sweet sounds from his violin. Yet he was wrong to think he would never for his family. Every time my husband and children laughed and danced, hearing my accordion, I know it was my father’s music.

【推荐2】Women Who Made History

Raymonde de Laroche was born in Paris in 1882. As a former actress, Raymonde de Laroche decided to take up flying after seeing the Wright Brothers’ flight performances in 1907 in France. Though she wasn’t the first woman pilot, Raymonde de Laroche was the first woman to earn a pilot’s license(执照) in 1910.

Arlene Francis, born Arlene Francis Kazanjian in 1907, always wanted to be a serious actress. Instead, she became a serious radio and television person. She was the first woman to host a television game show, Your Big Moment. That was in 1949, and Arlene Francis continued that job until 1952. She also served as a member on CBS’s What’s My Line for the show’s entire 25-year television run.

Francesca Caccini was born in 1587 in Italy. She was 38 years old when La Liberazione di Ruggiero, the opera she composed(作曲), was performed for the first time in Florence. The year was 1625, and Francesca Caccini was not only an excellent composer, but also a lute player, poet, and music teacher. She wrote or co-wrote 15 more opera works before her death in the 1640s.

Edith Wharton was born in 1862. She became a “first woman” in 1921 when she won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence. Edith Wharton was the first woman ever to win this prize, and the book was a critique(评论) of society.

【推荐3】In 2001, artist Michael Landy destroyed all his possessions in a work he called Break Down. The exhibition, which was held in an empty department store in central London, cost £100,000 to put on and lasted for two weeks. Landy had spent three years cataloguing the 7,226 separate items.

More than 45,000 people came to watch him and his ten helpers destroy everything he’d ever owned, right down to his last sock, his passport and even his beloved Saab (萨博车).

Many of those who came to the exhibition applauded and encouraged Landy in his two weeks of destruction, but his mother wasn’t one of them. “I had to throw my mum out,” said Landy. “She started crying and I couldn’t handle those emotions. She had to go.”

Many other people were equally upset, especially those in the art world thought it was unacceptable to destroy famous artists’ work. Landy destroyed pieces of art given to him by people such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. But on that point Landy said he felt no guilt. After all, he had destroyed all his own work — a collection that covered 15 years.

Landy said that Break Down was an examination of consumerism — others said it was a case of madness. In fact, a minister and a doctor believed he was mentally ill and offered him counselling. However, Landy’s description of his state of mind at that time was very different. “When I finished, I did feel an incredible sense of freedom,” he said, “the possibility that I could do anything. But the freedom is gradually destroyed by the everyday concerns of life. Life was much simpler when I was on my platform.”

The art world eagerly awaited the destroyed remains of his possessions. Indeed, Landy was supposed to give the sacks of smashed metal, plastic and paper to the people who had given him financial backing for the project, and each sack would have been worth £4,000. But he had a change of heart at the last minute and ended up burying it all.

After the exhibition, offers from galleries all round the world poured in. He was even asked to repeat Break Down in a Brazilian gallery. However, as Landy points out, Break Down was a one-off.