The Week in Good News: The New York City Marathon, a Clock Master, Flu Protection

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/briefing/week-in-good-news-new-york-city-marathon.html

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Sometimes it seems as if we’re living under a constant barrage of heavy news. But it isn’t all bad out there. This feature is meant to send you into the weekend with a smile, or at least a lighter heart. Want to get The Week in Good News by email? Sign up here.

Here are seven great things we wrote about this week:

The New York City Marathon is always full of stories of endurance. This year, Odyssey House, a drug and rehabilitation center, had a team of 45 runners who were planning to tackle the 26.2 miles — 19 of them current clients, the rest supporters and alumni.

The running group began in 2001 as a supplement to treatment.

“I like the way I feel after a run,” said Ryan Stevens, who turned to running as part of her recovery. “I may not want to start running. At the beginning I’m like, ‘I really don’t want to go for this run,’ to be honest. But then I know how I’m going to feel afterward. It replaces that adrenaline that I was looking for when I was using drugs.” Read more »

Dancers of color have long had to take extra steps to slather their pink shoes with darker foundation or paint to blend in with the line of their legs. The process is known as pancaking, and can be time consuming.

Now, they have more choice: Freed of London has started selling point shoes in brown and bronze.

“I can just put them on and dance,” said Cira Robinson, a senior artist at the British dance company Ballet Black. “I know that many people will be like, ‘O.K., it’s just a shoe.’ But a ballet dancer loves their shoes like a basketball player loves their basketball. They’re mine. They’re a piece of me.” Read more »

Marvin Schneider, 79, has a lofty title: He is the city’s official clock master, and he’s been taking care of New York’s public clocks since the late 1970s.

In addition to resetting timepieces to “spring forward” or “fall back” on those days, Mr. Schneider performs year-round maintenance that includes adjusting timing, oiling mechanisms, and repairing the gears, levers and chains behind the giant clock faces that stand as symbols of great American clock making.

“It’s a dying art — there are fewer people around today who know what to do with these things,” Mr. Schneider said. We’re thankful that he does. Read more »

Last Thursday, scientists created an artificial mega-antibody, using a sophisticated combination of immunotherapy and gene therapy, that protected mice against dozens of flu strains.

“That’s something that made this quite a unique antibody,” said Joost A. Kolkman, a co-author of the new study. “We saw a coverage that has never been seen before.”

The mega-antibody, surprisingly, came from smaller antibodies created by llamas.

The test is an important step toward creating a type of flu vaccine that scientists have long sought — one that can shield against whatever type of flu strain people happen to pick up. Read more »

The country’s fashion magazine industry has found a receptive young readership as Nigerian designers, along with Nigerian style, have gained international recognition.

“In Lagos, the average girl on the street is wearing leopard print leggings, a red top and a big turban and she just doesn’t care,” said Bolaji Animashaun, the founder of The Style HQ, a Lagos-based fashion and lifestyle website. “Our fashion is not soft. There’s something in us that is always fighting, and it comes through in our style.”

We spoke to four entrepreneurial women, ranging in age from 28 to 61, who lead publications old and new to capture this cultural milieu. Read more »

Dogs have such exquisitely sensitive noses that they can detect bombs, drugs, citrus and other contraband in luggage or pockets. But are they sensitive enough to detect malaria parasites?

Yes, they are. A small pilot study showed that dogs can accurately identify socks worn overnight by children infected with malaria — even when the children had cases so mild that they were not feverish.

Malaria-sniffing dogs could be very useful for sorting through crowds, as some countries and regions that have eliminated the disease share heavily trafficked borders with others that have not. Read more »

Before I was your bearer of good news, I worked in the Food section of The New York Times. (What a job!) Our most anticipated time of the year was Thanksgiving.

Melissa Clark is here for you with recipes for everything from turkey to pumpkin pie. Maybe this year, you can experiment with some new ideas. Or keep to the tried-and-true favorites — there is no wrong answer. Either way, I want to make sure you’re fully prepared for this special feast, a time when we can all sit around our table, join hands and give thanks. Read more »

What would you like to see here? Email us at goodnews@nytimes.com. You can enjoy more of this feature at nytimes.com/goodnews.