A Mississippi restaurant proves strangers still know how to share

Welcome back. Today’s lineup runs from charmingly human to deeply unsettling — with a reminder that people remain endlessly surprising. Pull up a chair, pass the platter, and keep one eyebrow raised. — Doug Marlowe

Today's Stories

A Mississippi restaurant proves strangers still know how to share

In McComb, Mississippi, a small restaurant is doing something quietly radical: putting strangers at the same table and asking them to pass the food. The Dinner Bell uses giant lazy Susans so 15 people can share one meal, spin the dishes, and, inevitably, talk. It matters because in a time of solo screens and takeout bags, this place reminds us that community sometimes just needs a table big enough. Nothing flashy, nothing viral, just people eating together and realizing it’s not so bad. Funny how old ideas still work.

A former Harvard morgue manager was sentenced to eight years in prison after selling donated body parts like collectibles. Prosecutors say brains, skin, and even faces were shipped off to buyers, turning medical donations into a black-market catalog. This matters because trust is the whole deal when people donate their bodies to science, and this broke it in the worst way. There’s no clever takeaway here, just a long pause and a slow head shake. Some lines really should not need explaining.

That’s today’s tour of the human condition, part heartwarming, part hard stop. If one of these made you laugh, sigh, or stare at the wall for a second, I’m right there with you. Until next time. — Doug