Winner: As a woman in New York discovered this week, prayers are answered. Trapped in a burning building, Tracinda Foxe saw no alternative to saying a hasty prayer and dropping her 1-month-old baby from a third-floor window. It was caught by a man who happens to play baseball for his company team. Later, the woman herself was rescued.
Chances are this is a Christmas story that will last in that family for a long time.
Loser: If you can read this, you aren't among the 23 million people who were born in America but still aren't able to read well enough to perform basic tasks. The U.S. Education Department released new literacy figures this week showing all is not well, even among native speakers. For some reason, even people with bachelor's and graduate degrees aren't as literate as they were 12 years ago when the last report was made.
That's scary news to anyone who writes for a living.
Winner: No one seems to know why, but gas prices in Utah were identified as the lowest in the nation this week, hovering at levels well below $2 a gallon in much of the state. Market forces seemed to be driving the drop, but experts warn it may not last long.
If only we could just get those market forces to kick in during the summer vacation season.