It wasn’t all bad

Rob the lonely royal albatross has finally found love. Each year for the past decade, the 35-year-old bird has returned to his New Zealand colony during breeding season with hopes of finding a mate. And each year, the albatross was left alone. Amused scientists considered taking bets on his chances, and even mulled creating a Tinder profile for the poor bird. But this year Rob met his match. The lucky lady, who has not been identified by name, has a checkered history herself. Still, said ecologist Hoani Langsbury, “She’s a successful breeder. She’ll know what to do.”

Joyciline Jepkosgei had a simple goal in mind when she ran the New York City Marathon this week. “My focus was to finish the race,” said the Kenyan athlete. The 25-year-old holds the world record in the women’s half-marathon but had never competed in a 26.2-mile race before. At the 20-mile mark, she was just behind four-time champion Mary Keitany. Then, with about 3 miles left, Jepkosgei pulled ahead and won, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 38 seconds—the second-fastest performance on the course for women. “I didn’t have any pressure at all,” she said of the run. “I didn’t actually know I could win.”

When a Wisconsin first-grader lost a tooth while playing a dodgeball-like game at recess, and then lost that lost tooth, he was certain the Tooth Fairy would pass him over. Principal Curt Angeli made sure that didn’t happen. He wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy on school stationery, verifying “that there is definitely a gap in [the student’s] teeth that was not there this morning” and so the fairy should pay up. “I just figured I would make it look as official as possible,” said Angeli, “in case the Tooth Fairy was suspicious.” The letter worked: The next morning, the boy found a dollar under his pillow. ■