Popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe finds its name in many heartwarming news stories and viral videos. This year, for example, it collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for the family of an 8-year-old Christian refugee who, two years after fleeing violence from Boko Haram in Nigeria, unexpectedly won the New York state chess tournament for his age group in March.

A New York moment:

A friend of mine works in the construction industry here and has taken me to top penthouse apartments during construction, the ones with price tags north of $50 million. Any price tag over my monthly rent invoice makes my eyes glaze over, and sometimes even the rent bill does that. 

A New York moment: 

Please, steel yourself. An 8-year-old boy, the son of devout Christian parents who recently fled Boko Haram in Nigeria, just won the state chess championship in New York for his age group. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has the full, incredible story. 

Maha Rose, a crystal shop and reiki healing center in Brooklyn, asks clients to remove their shoes when they enter, so on a Tuesday afternoon Brooklynites were quietly padding around tables of crystals in their socks. The crystals, priced from $6 to $40, each have descriptions of what they do: Citrine “raises self esteem,” black moonstone “enhances fertility,” and labradorite “calms overactive minds.” For tangerine quartz, “singing to it while it is in your pocket cultivates a more positive future.”

Jane Austen wrote novels of manners providing a sketch of societal rules in the 19th century. In the new documentary Social Animals, coming soon to Netflix, teenager Humza Deas explains the social customs of the digital world: “The rules are unspoken. But they will be spoken to you if you break them.” 

In 2017, WORLD named as its “Series of the Year” the Reformed Expository Commentary from P&R Publishing. Various Reformed pastor-scholars authored the volumes in the series, drawing from their own sermons, and P&R plans for the series eventually to cover every book of the Bible. We praised it because we found that good editing brought out the best in the sermons without being too academic.

A New York moment: 

Last week I visited a crystal shop in Brooklyn for a forthcoming magazine feature on the increasing interest in New Age practices. The resident “crystal healer” asked me to pick three stones, then described their meanings: One, tangerine quartz, supposedly activates “creativity.” Generally speaking, coffee is the main substance that activates my creativity.