A mask that means business; blowback for a Fox News host; grieving as learning

Plus, a lost eagle from Asia has been traversing North America. [View this email online]( [Best of NPR]( December 26, 2021 This week, we looked at [effective masks]( [grief lessons]( and big [millipede news](. Plus, NPR's Scott Simon has a few recommendations. --------------------------------------------------------------- Scott’s weekly weigh-in [A nurse crouches beside an empty hospitle bed.]( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A happy holiday weekend to you all. Tough week, wasn’t it? Conditions looked like they were improving. Now the Omicron variant gives us new pause and worries. I was especially eager to ask Steven Carter, the Yale law professor and novelist, how he sees these times, [as our losses stretch on](. I also took a chance and called up a streak in the sky I saw on arriving at our studios, pre-dawn on Christmas morning. [The voice sounded familiar](. But isn’t that person busy enough? It was sad, but it also gladdened my heart to say goodbye to Leo del Aguila, a magnificent recording engineer, after 43 years at NPR. We were strangers sent to cover a war, but we came back brothers. We still are. Some recollections of how [Leo lightened the lives of so many good people]( we met in tough places along the way. This weekend, our family is [listening to a lot of Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Time is Here]( originally recorded for the 1965 television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The recording is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and I find it all the more affecting because the children singing weren’t professional, but the regular children’s chorus of the St. Paul Episcopal Church of San Rafael, Calif., near where Charles Schulz, the creator Charlie Brown’s world, lived and worked. I am also moved to include our friend [Tony Bennett’s haunting version]( with the Count Basie Band. It takes a song of children, singing of wonder, and puts it in the voice of a loving parent, singing of the tenderness of the season. Thank you for being along with us in these vexing times. May you and your family be healthy, happy, and hopeful. [Scott Simon]( Scott Simon is one of NPR's most renowned news anchors. He is the host of [Weekend Edition Saturday]( and one of the hosts of the morning news podcast Up First. Be sure to listen to him every Saturday on your local NPR station, and follow him [on Twitter](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Stories you may have missed [A firefighter tests the seal on his N95 mask at the start of his shift in Glen Burnie, Md.]( Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images Omicron is racing across the U.S. You need [a mask that means business](. Here's how to find one. Japan was in grips of a fifth wave of the pandemic last summer as the Olympics ended. By late September, cases had plunged, and [experts still struggle to explain why](. NPR reporter Blake Farmer and his whole family got breakthrough COVID infections this Thanksgiving. What they learned could [help you navigate your own family holiday](. Grieving is a form of learning — one that teaches us how to be in the world without someone we love, especially at the holidays. [Here's how the brain adapts](. An eagle from Asia has been traveling around North America from [for more than a year]( thousands of miles from home. While its not rare for a bird to lose its way, scientists say that after a year, this one is unlikely to find its way home. Fox News host Jesse Watters faced blowback for using violent rhetoric to explain how citizen journalists should [confront Dr. Anthony Fauci in the hopes of going viral](. Fauci called it part of "the craziness that goes on in society." Big news this week in the millipede world: Scientists in northern England stumbled upon a [fossilized millipede the length of a car](. Also, a [millipede with 1,300 legs]( has been found in Australia. It's a new record by far. Bisi Bennett went into labor two months early and gave birth on the way to the hospital, where the baby went straight to the neonatal ICU. After a 56-day stay, the bill came — [$550,124. or $45,843 a month for a year]( even though the Bennetts have insurance. --------------------------------------------------------------- Before you go [An inflatable snowman slowly deflates outside Rep. Perlmutter's door. He has repeatedly accused Colorado Democrat Rep. Jason Crow of tampering with the snowman.]( Becky Harlan/NPR The second floor of the Longworth congressional office building is taking holiday decorations to a whole new level. As each office campaigns for the best display, [holiday trickery runs rampant](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Daily News, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Best of NPR emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]