Thread by @AlecMacGillis

I don't normally tweet on Christmas, but there were several lovely stories in today's papers deserving of note.
One, @crampell's column about her 6th grade English teacher, who's still imparting lessons at 88 and champing to get back into the classroom: washingtonpost.com/opinions/price…

"Once we mastered Mr. Greco’s rules—learned who from whom, and whatnot—they were liberating. He taught us the masonry of language. Now we could build whatever we liked. I remember realizing, at age 12, how awesome it was that words and sentences could do my bidding." Such a gift.

"Writing well requires more than understanding proper sentence structure. It also takes moral courage. 'If you are a critical thinker,' he reminded me, 'you are going to find you are sometimes at odds and disagreement with your peers...You must be brave enough to stand apart.'"

Two, @chicoharlan's dispatch from his street in Rome, where regular life is utterly transformed, and a two-star chef desperately waits for a single take-out order. Heckuva kicker, too: washingtonpost.com/world/2020/12/…

Three, @corinaknoll's uplifting tale of New Yorkers rallying to save a tiny military-surplus store on the Lower East Side, one of 200,000 small businesses in the city that are now on the precipice: nytimes.com/2020/12/25/nyr…