The arc of another week comes to an end. To help you get ready for the weekend, let’s talk about Happy ONLY Hour, next we bring you stories of comedy dogs (and cats) and pink grasshoppers that don't drink, come to think of it, should be. Assignment, find or create a pink grasshopper drink at Happy ONLY Hour. Another story on the legend that was the original Woodstock Music Festival and the stories we tell ourselves about some life-changing events. We love stories.

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Fridays always feel like Happy Hour Fridays, especially in the summer. A way to unwind and share a few cocktails with friends and wash the rush of another work week off. Depending on life's season, a happy hour can be happy and relaxed or exhausting and aggressive. If someone you are with is having a particularly bad day, week, or year – happy hour turns into a gripe-fest, filled with negativity and counseling. That's ok every once in a while, but other settings are better for that.

We recommend happy only hour today, but spend some extra time preparing for a Happy ONLY Happy Hour.

Tell your friends it's a Happy ONLY Happy Hour and that you will redirect the conversation to positive, funny, and inspiring stories. By the way - link them up with With A Shout and they will never run out of stories!

All the bad stuff will be there tomorrow morning, and you can share a headache with it; tonight, let all of that go and smile, laugh, and tell stories that make people smile and laugh.

Have a few discussion topics you can switch to at any time if the conversation goes negatively. Questions are a great way to change direction:

Spend some time on the Internet and find some jokes; in the old days, there were joke books we used to read and bring to school. The Internet is one big joke book; find a few good ones. Here is one of our favorite sources for jokes.

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If you are an animal lover or want to smile, check out Comedy Pet Photography Awards. The winners were announced, and they all deserve a look. Lots of cats and dogs, doing cats and dogs things, and the winner was a kitten on kitten assault in the cutest way. 

An amateur photographer, Gary Phillips, spotted a rare pink grasshopper while pruning his dahlias in the UK. He slowly crawled across his garden to take some photos of the anomaly. They are so rare that some experts believe a person only has a 1% chance of seeing a pink grasshopper. He captured a common green meadow grasshopper with a rare genetic mutation that occasionally causes it to turn pink. Unfortunately, the pink color does not camouflage the grasshopper and lessens its chance of survival. Gary Phillips spotted the rare pink grasshopper in his garden while pruning his dahlias.

Books and movies have been written about the legendary rock festival back in '69, and The New Yorker writes another summary piece with the good and the bad. It reminded us of the stories we tell about life events and experiences. Woodstock was a music festival that, similar to the Monterey Festival in California earlier, that brought together many music groups in the early age of the outdoor music festival.

For some, the Woodstock Festival will forever be the show of a lifetime; maybe you saw your favorite band or were introduced to another band. The estimates on the number of people vary, but there was a lot; maybe your experience was free of love, drugs, and music; if it was, you took that experience with you and spread the joy with every story you told. According to The New Yorker story, the reality may not have been that great, but the story that endures beats reality every day. This might be why we tried it again in '94 and '99.

Fanfare III - The Holy.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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