I know you’ve all been thrilled about reading the saga of Bella, the beagle who was so laid back she got laid off from her job as a rabbit hunter–this Resesh is so cruel! Even lovely beagles are affected. But I’ve come across little bits and pieces of hope, actual good news, in the thick of this economic yecchhhh that I wanted to share with you.

First, for our many, many friends in journalism who’ve seen their newspaper jobs go poof, there was some hope from the Huffington Post the other day. Check out this blog full of helpful info about how to “reinvent yourself” (as the career counselors counsel).

Pet owners, rejoice (potentially)! There’s a bill in Congress right now that would give a hefty tax deduction to pet owners to the tune of $3,500 a year. That’s a decent amount of Kibble and vet bills. The people who are backing the bill are hopeful that this could reduce the massive numbers of pets being abandoned due to owners not having the money to care for their them. You can support this bill by going to opencongress.com (don’t you just love transparency?). Register, then click on “I support this bill” on the right side. I just did it, and it took me a whole 30 seconds.

And last, I’m really looking forward to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. His cookbook of the same name came out a while ago, but now a reality show based on his Food Revolution campaign starts on March 27 on ABC. I canNOT wait. Jamie, one of my favorite TV chefs and cookbook authors, is going to teach people in a rather unhealthy section of our nation how to cook–something that sounds simple, probably is, and will very likely save their lives. While you’re on that page, click on the video of Jamie’s impassioned speech from the TED conference, and you’ll be as excited as I am about the show, the cookbook, Jamie, his ’80s new wave hair, and the whole campaign.

See? There is hope out there, even in this Resesh, and even in snowy, over-this-winter-already February!