A silent standing ovation

An autistic student graduated from high school in New York last month. Now a video of him getting his diploma has gone viral because the crowd gave him a silent ovation. Jack Higgins lives about 50 miles north of New York City. He has severe autism which makes him very sensitive to noise. He wanted to walk across the stage like other grads, but was worried about crowd noise. So he did some practice runs with his teacher, where he'd plug his ears with his fingers. Then the principal ran an idea past his parents.

Before Jack walked into the gym, the principal asked other students to be totally silent for him. And the entire gym of teenagers actually stayed quiet for four minutes. In the video, Jack goes on stage, gets his diploma, and fist-bumps the principal. Then, on their own, his classmates rose to give him a silent standing ovation. Jack's principal says it's the most remarkable thing he's seen in his 31-year career.

The difference between a father and a daddy

"Did order a sofa in my sleep?"

That's what San Diego, California, mom Isabella McNeil wondered when she received an alert on her phone that "your couch is shipped." But no, she wasn't sleep-ordering. A few days before, she'd been thinking of a new sofa and browsing through options on Amazon, on her cellphone.

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While she was browsing, her 2-year-old daughter Rayna walked up and said, "Mama, phone. Mama, phone," so she handed the phone to her daughter. But she left the Amazon app open, and while Rayna was playing with the phone, she pressed the "Buy Now With One Click" button. Just like that, she bought a $430 tufted gray couch! Lessons learned? Isabella urges parents not to let children play with their phone unless all the apps are closed, and all the passwords are finger-print locked, "because kids are a lot smarter than we think," she said.

Is it okay for a man to cry?

In case nobody liked his poems, Robert Frost also had a day job. He was a farmer, but not a very good one. On December 22, 1923, he realized he had no money to buy his children gifts, so he gathered some farm produce, hitched up his horse, and took a wagon load to town to sell. No one bought anything, and as he returned home penniless, a sense of failure overwhelmed him. He could not tell his family the bad news, so he stopped the horse and "bawled like a baby." Eventually his horse, Eunice, jingled her bells and he pulled himself together.

He said later, "A man has as much right as a woman to a good cry now and again. The snow gave me shelter; the horse understood and gave me the time." Frost's daughter Lesley agrees his ride home from town inspired the poem which made her father famous. It first appeared 96 years ago in The New Republic. Perhaps you remember. "Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; he will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow." Lesley said it was her father's favorite poem.

When a bus stop is also a bee stop

All 316 bus stops in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, are buzzing with activity. They've been given green rooftops covered with sedum plants. Not only are the succulents good for improving air quality, they also help support the dwindling bee population. And they store rainwater, and provide a cooling environment in summer.

But wait. There's more. Sedum roofs are just one way Utrecht is improving its public transit. During the next few years, solar panels will be installed on every bus stop. And last February. town fathers announced they are replacing their current transit vehicles with a new fleet of electric busses.

Another police "incident"

Sharon Markle, of York County, Pennsylvania, suffers from arthritis in one knee and it's been bothering her lately. Even so, she was recent spotted on a very hot day trying to mow her lawn. She didn't think she was breaking any laws, so she was concerned when West York Borough Police Officer Bridgette Wilson pulled over to the curb by her house. The officer got out of her car and approached Sharon.

Officer Wilson told Sharon, "I'm taking over." Sharon asked, "Are you sure?" Wilson said, "Yeah, go sit down. Your face is flushed."  Then the officer mowed the lawn. Sharon said, "I've never had anybody really do anything like that for me -- just come in and take over. She's awesome." After the lawn was mowed, Sharon asked Wilson if she owed her anything. Wilson said, "just a smile," as she drove away.

Love is truly timeless

John and Phyllis Cook were the talk of the Kingston Residence in Sylvania, Ohio, recently. They'd been dating about a year when they got their marriage license. The two lovebirds each have lost two spouses. John recently turned 100 years old. His bride will turn 103 on August 8. (Her mom lived to be 106.) Their friendship blossomed over the past few months, and since she's a devout Christian woman, she felt it was right to tie the knot.

The Cooks spend their days with each other in the assisted living facility, but they understand the importance of having their own space. "We keep both our apartments," says Phyllis. "He's upstairs and I'm down." But there is still a big spark when they spend time together. When John was asked what is their favorite thing to do together, his response was, "Well, maybe I shouldn't talk about that."