Zombie Flick, With a Twist: 5 Brilliant Stories This Week

Not all the news was bleak this week. Some of our favorites of the uplifting variety:

• $100 Bills Have Been Hidden All Over Oregon's Capital: A strange thing in Salem: $100 bills began appearing around town in May 2013, and more than $50,000 has been discovered since. The individual responsible has yet to be revealed, though he has left the trademark folded bills, signed "Benny" on the right edge, in 26 different stores and several neighborhoods and at eight events. One person has found 10, but hasn't kept a cent.
• Best Friends With Down Syndrome Make Epic Zombie Movie: Two best friends with Down syndrome from Rhode Island are living their dream of making an epic zombie movie. Spring Break Zombie Massacre premiered in Providence last week, and creators Sam Suchmann and Mattie Zufelt have been invited to several film festivals in North America. They're taking advantage to push a message that goes beyond zombies.

• Couple Married 58 Years Die Hand in Hand: A few months after a stroke, George Rodriquez died July 5 with his high school sweetheart and wife of 58 years by his side. Three hours later, Ora Lee Rodriquez died, too, but the remarkable part comes from their daughter: They were "in their hospital beds, right beside each other. They were holding hands."
• See the Calmest Way Possible to Foil a Robbery: The owner of a New Zealand kebab eatery kept calm and carried on as a robber-wannabe waved his gun and demanded money—as in, the owner carried on serving his customers while ignoring the gunman. The weird part: It worked. The video is worth watching.
• Kidnapper Thwarted by Girl's Kung Fu Punch: A would-be kidnapper got more than he bargained for after snatching a girl from her bed. Authorities say a man broke into a home in El Cajon, Calif., through an unlocked window, then grabbed an 8-year-old girl from her upstairs bedroom. Unbeknownst to her attacker, the girl knew kung fu, and she soon introduced him to the "leopard paw."

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