Goats and Soda

editor's note

Dear readers,

Thanks to all of you who sent in stories of kindness after our callout about World Kindness Day. We'll be publishing a follow-up story this coming week -- and as Thanksgiving nears we are thankful for all the contributions and the good wishes from our readers.

(And speaking of Thanksgiving: Our newsletter will take the week off for the holiday but be back the following week.)

There's another special day we just took note of: World Toilet Day. It's really a thing -- November 19 is officially sanctioned by the United Nations to call attention to the fact that an astounding 3.4 billion people do not have access to "safely managed sanitation." In other words, a toilet, preferably in their home, that is connected to a sewage system or has other ways of handling human waste so it doesn't pose a risk to water and food supplies.

We wrote a story that asks the question: Is "World Toilet Day" really the best name? (We did brainstorm an alternative that got an enthusiastic nod from my 5-year-old grandson!) And we published an Instagram reel that featured a toilet we bought years ago to photograph Jack Sim, the Singapore social entrepreneur known as Mr. Toilet. He's the one who came up with the idea for World Toilet Day in the first place.

Read the story here.

And see the Instagram reel here.

Marc Silver,
Editor, Goats and Soda

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