Ha, was the dad’s response, “Yikes”? That’s hilarious. But that’s definitely how you can tell this is a legit moment. In movies or whatever, parents are always absurdly supportive or completely disgusted. But this is a normal dad’s reaction. Surprise but love and support. And really, that’s what these battles for gay rights are all about. Just the right to treat people exactly the same as before. Probably in the back of your head imagining somewhat frightening sexy times, but still treating them exactly the same.

Congrats to this dude for this big moment in his life and to all the other people out there bravely defending our country who are about to do the same.

Gay Soldier Comes Out To His Dad [Viral Viral Videos]

Williams racked up over four million views on YouTube over the course of two days, landing interviews with everyone from CBS’s Early Show to the Today Show. But his biggest interview came on his local pop radio station WNCI when a representative from the Cleveland Cavaliers offered him a job (listen to the clip below, starting at 5 minutes, 45 seconds in) doing announcing for the team and its home stadium, the Quicken Loans Arena.

As part of his hiring, the Quicken Loans Arena and the Cavaliers are also paying for a mortgage on a brand-new home for Williams.

Ignoring the obvious publicity stunt factor and our usual jokes, this is seriously just an awesome story and something genuinely touching to see happen. Congratulations to Ted Williams and we wish him the best of luck with his new start on life.

Between this and the now successful homeless musician Daniel Mustard who got his break on the Opie and Anthony show, I’m thinking I need to just go around with a camera and film homeless people until I find their hidden talent. Or they stab me. But ne’er shall the two twains meet.

UPDATE: Here’s a picture of Ted all cleaned up from a video of his interview on WNCI’s Web site. Dude’s looking sharp.

VIDEO: Ted Williams, Homeless Man With Golden Voice, Offered Job, Housing By Cavaliers [SB Nation]

More than a year-and-a-half ago, Don Fisher rescued Auggie, a golden retriever mix from a local shelter. Auggie and his litter had been abandoned.

Fisher is confined to a wheelchair after his legs were amputated for diabetes. The 75-year-old went outside in his wheelchair early Friday morning to get the paper. Auggie, as he usually does, followed.

But when Fisher tried to turn around, he realized his wheelchair was stuck in the snow. Fisher was stuck outside in freezing cold temperatures with no protection but a sweatshirt and sweat pants.

“He looked at the chair and he looked at me and I said, ‘Go get Mark’,” Fisher recalled. “I saw that was my only chance and I said, ‘Go’ and he went. He’s never done anything like that in his life.”

Fisher’s son Mark was asleep inside, but Auggie woke him up.

Auggie kept barking until Mark followed him outside to help free his dad from the icy trap he got stuck in, fortunately in time before anything bad could happen to Fisher.

I’m a sucker for animals…I adopted my cat, Nilla, after she was also abandoned in a dumpster with the rest of her litter. I just don’t get why people throw animals into the trash like that. Even if you hate animals, just putting them in the garbage seems so cruel, especially when it’s so simple to pop an ad on Craigslist and some nut will take the adorable little guys off your hands within a day.

Oh right, we’re in the Humor category….I bet that dog is getting an extra tablespoon of peanut butter on Mr. Fisher’s crotch tonight! Ha ha! Get it?!?! Sorry, I just want to scratch Auggie behind the ears and go, “Who’s a good boy. Who’s a good boy!!!” The same for Mr. Fisher too. Old people love it when you rub their tummies. I recommend trying this to the next elderly person you see. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

[WTHR]

Last week, Michael Ennes got a call to his soup kitchen on Broadway that delivered the most unusual bit of news.

“Chef, we have some caviar for you,” the caller said.

Ennes replied, “Yeah, right.”

But it was true. City Harvest, the group that distributes food unused by New York restaurants, had received a 550-gram tin of Petrossian Paris malossol caviar, worth about $1,100, from an anonymous donor.

The first course of Wednesday’s lunch menu at Broadway Community will be an amuse bouche of cornmeal blinis, topped with a small spoonful of those precious dark eggs.

[DNAinfo]

Every day on NPR, listeners hear funding credits or, in other words, very short, simple commercials.

A few weeks ago, a new one made it to air: “Support for NPR comes from the estate of Richard Leroy Walters, whose life was enriched by NPR, and whose bequest seeks to encourage others to discover public radio.”

An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission.

But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless.

Walters was a retired engineer from AlliedSignal Corp.; an honors graduate of Purdue with a master’s degree; and a Marine. Walters never married, didn’t have children and was estranged from his brother. But he wasn’t friendless.

Rita Belle, a registered nurse, met Walters at a senior center 13 years ago.

“He always came in with a little backpack on and a cap on,” Belle tells Siegel. “And always kind of looked at me, but [was] very reserved. And I’m very outgoing and outspoken. So I said to him, ‘Hey, you got a minute can we sit down to visit?’ And we’d have coffee there at the senior center.”

Belle and Walters became friends. Belle stayed with Walters when he was ill. She became his nurse and ultimately the executor of his estate.

Definitely an interesting little tale, and one that really teaches us all an important lesson about being nice to others in spite of their perceived lack of ways to make your life better. But at the same time, I can’t help but wonder…after hanging out with this old, lonely homeless dude for 13 years, was Rita Belle jerking off his wrinkly, smelly cock? She had to be, right? I mean I’m sure she was a great friend and whatever, but I fundamentally believe no man really cares about the companionship of a woman, particularly if he’s wholly unsatisfied, so she must have given him a little rub and tug at least once right? It’s called being a good Samaritan.

Best part of NPR’s story though is this:

Evidently, among his few possessions was a radio. Hence those announcements listeners hear now and again on NPR stations.

Yes, that was the last line of the story. So this story of charity and a man living without possessions was basically turned into a plug to donate to NPR. Specifically, for the homeless to donate to NPR. Which makes sense because you’re barely getting by on Earth, how could you possibly live without someone drolly reading a New York Times piece on President Obama’s healthcare policy? It’s an inspiration.

[via]

Around here, Khadijah is known as “Harvard girl,” the “smart girl” and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago.

What students don’t know is that she is also a homeless girl.

As long as she can remember, Khadijah has floated from shelters to motels to armories along the West Coast with her mother. She has attended 12 schools in 12 years; lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn’t smell or look disheveled.

On the streets, she learned how to hunt for their next meal, plot the next bus route and help choose a secure place to sleep — survival skills she applied with passion to her education.

Only a few mentors and Harvard officials know her background. She never wanted other students to know her secret — not until her plane left for the East Coast hours after her Friday evening graduation.

“I was so proud of being smart I never wanted people to say, ‘You got the easy way out because you’re homeless,’ ” she said. “I never saw it as an excuse.”

You know, maybe I shouldn’t feel bad. I’ve done pretty well for myself in spite of my obvious competitive handicap in not being homeless. But you know who SHOULD feel bad? Those homeless people out there right now who are just sitting around collecting change and drinking their delicious hobo wines. See? You could have been somebody. But instead you just smell like a wet dog with crap crusted up in its ass. That skill alone won’t get you to the top of the business world, believe me.

I think a good idea would be to get copies of the LA Times and take it to everywhere homeless people congregate. Do it at night so they’ll be nice and sleepy. Then just give them a copy and start yelling at them, “WHAT THE F HAVE YOU DONE?” I think that’ll be a really good wake-up call for them and they’d probably be so flattered that you’d care that they’d totally forget to stab and rob you.

[via]

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved.

There are very few things these days that can restore your faith in humanity, and large companies, quite like this. And the fact that Pixar didn’t talk to the press about it and toot their own horn only helps to cement how good their intentions were. Sorry to the family who lost their daughter and kudos to Pixar for doing the right thing.

I think we all learned a lot about Pixar today. They are an extremely generous and unique company. We also learned that their films also can’t cure cancer. Two important lessons learned.

[via]

I’m a pretty awful person so to make me go “awwww” like this made me audibly do means that either A) You’re an adorable kitty cat or B) You’re one hell of an awesome person. And this guy, apparently named Nick Vujicic, is pretty entertaining and a hell of a speaker.

However, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point out that, no matter how inspirational he is, he’d be slightly less inspirational if you just picked him up and rolled him down a sprawling hill. Because then you’d be like, “Oh yeah…I guess he can’t do anything” including but not limited to stopping the rolling, surviving the rolling, or flipping dough like an old timey pizza maker. So as a reminder, though I’m not nearly as inspirational, I do have arms and I will throw you down a hill. Never forget that.

Actor Ben Affleck has arrived in Las Vegas to fulfill a wish for a terminally ill young man.

Ben checked into a celebrity suite at the Fantasy Tower of George Maloof’s Palms. He arrived in time last night to host a dinner party for 15 people in the N9NE Steakhouse there. Other guests dining in the hot celebrity restaurant learned that Ben was in Sin City to fulfill a heart-wrenching celebrity request.

Medical experts had told a young man that he would not likely live long past age 18. His wish was that if he made it to his 21st birthday that he wanted to fly to Vegas and gamble with Ben Affleck. The actor agreed three years ago to grant the wish — and the dream coming true helped keep the unidentified teenager alive!

Jenna Morton, wife of N9NE owner Peter Morton, who was dining in the restaurant last night, heard the incredible story and sent over complimentary desserts for the 15 people. Ben then took the young man to play blackjack and roll the dice at craps.

No word as to any winnings! Ben, with Amstel Light in hand, then led the group up to The Playboy Club atop the Fantasy Tower, where they won a dance floor VIP table and continued partying there early this morning.

I think Ben Affleck needs to be commended for not only agreeing to this three years ago, but actually following through with it. That’s quite cool of him and deserving of praise, probably more than anything else he’s ever done. However, you know who doesn’t deserve praise? This kid. Of all the fantastical things you could do thanks to the fine people at the Make-a-Wish organization or whatever other people who’ll do stuff for a dying kid, you pick hanging out with Ben Affleck? I’d have to seriously weigh my other plans if Ben Affleck offered to hang out with me, and I’ve got approximately a million times more life left in me than this kid. My laundry has to get done some time this week, after all.

Also how awkward is it to be the whore that you know Affleck hooked this kid up with? “Hey, yeah this is my buddy Steve…he’s got cancer…so, if you could give him a little rub and tug, maybe take care of his chemo-weakened knob…yeah that’d be swell.” Because how can you say no? Ben Affleck is asking and the kid’s got cancer. But you have to believe there have been better moments in that girl’s life.

[source]