Bright Side: To Infinity, Sausage Dog Fashion Week, And Beyond

Welcome to the Bright Side, a weekly roundup of all the good news and ideas you might have missed from the past week.

This week, we’re rocketing to outer space, the weirdest city in your state, and Paris Fashion Week (but for the dogs!). Then we’re wrapping it up with a little brain food, AKA the only way to eat Marshmallow Fluff. 

We’re all out of this world

Zip up your shiniest atmospheric pressure suit — it’s World Space Week. With NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 splashdown, and the Draconid meteor shower raining down upon us (hot tip: the best seats are in the Northern Hemisphere, faced toward the Big Dipper), it’s been a stellar soiree. 

Even Pokémon got into the spirit of this year’s theme — “Rocket Revolution” — by giving Pikachu a proper fit for a trip to the International Space Station with French European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot. 

I’m not one to jump on a bandwagon and rush out to snatch up all the Poké-merch. But my friend just sold an old Pokémon card for $800, and another claims she has a stash that could be worth a million bucks (in the newest condition, of course). Who knows what “plush astronaut Pikachu” will be worth in 40 years. My own experience as a collector remains rather limited. My only claim to “fame” happened during junior high when I once hoarded all the tennis ball can lids from my dad’s time as a high school tennis coach. If I still had them today, I bet I could rake in a whole $1 for recycling them. But a ridiculous family memory I can cherish forever? Priceless.

Is this the weirdest town in your state?

We all know our state capitals (um, mostly), but even a town population of 22 deserves its moment in the sun. This map highlights the weirdest-named municipalities. Raise your hands in the air if you’re from Humptulips, Washington; Ding Dong, Texas; or Ketchuptown, South Carolina!

As a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native, I can confirm there’s definitely a nearby town called Intercourse, which was not named purely for the entertainment of high school kids, but rather to mark a place where people (or possibly streets) merge together. (For wholesome fellowship, not the other thing!) Intercourse beat out Blue Ball, which was another hit Amish Country destination. Did they miss any oddball cities from your state?

The strangest town names in each state https://t.co/ude2Wxv4dr

— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) October 6, 2026

Paris but make it fashion

Paris Fashion Week wrapped up with all the drama and shocking eye candy you’d expect — at least if you like a surprise Céline Dion performance at L’Oreal, giant birds at Chanel accompanied by cello, and the always-provocative, never-ready-to-wear looks from Paris-based fashion house Matières Fécales.

I’m partial to the color black and the “matériel” 100% cotton, so I don’t exactly give off “fashion” on the daily. But I love art, and many of these designs are meant to spin your head around and get the creativity flowing. No, you couldn’t pay me to wear the equivalent of a strip of Duck Tape as a top, but it’s fun to float away on the clouds of high fashion from afar. And that cello and piano duet at Chanel felt personal since I played “Le Carnaval des Animaux, Le Cygne” on cello in high school. Definitely not as well, but nevertheless, that song is mind-expanding and enchanting without challenging anyone’s sense of modesty.

But while celebrities may have been dying to sit front row at Dior and Louis Vuitton, the rest of Paris was marching down the Champs-Élysées for the seventh annual Sausage Walk. Hundreds of dachshunds and their owners (some dressed alike in the cutest little striped shirts or cowboy hat couture) flooded the streets and sidewalks to raise money for Teckels Sans Doux Foyer, a charity foundation that helps doxies in need. What I need is a few of these little friends to snuggle up with me like a bunch of furry baguettes and watch a Brigitte Bardot comedy.

 

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Happy belated National Fluffernutter Day

This is the kind of research I can get behind. According to neuroscience, a steady diet of fluffy, funny content boosts your cognition and makes you smarter. Couldn’t we all use a little more mirth in our lives? Laughter triggers some of the most fun parts of our brains to lower stress, strengthen resilience, improve memory, calm our nerves, and increase endorphins. It’s a win, win, win — I lost track, but that’s why we’re here.

In keeping with the light and fluffy theme, I give you the recipe for the ultimate Fluffernutter in honor of its national day on Oct. 8 (National Podiatry Day also happened, but that doesn’t lend quite the same festiveness). If you’ve never tried one, this is your sign:

Special equipment: knife, plate, possibly a napkin

Ingredients: 2 slices of bread, peanut butter, Marshmallow Fluff or other marshmallow creme

Method: Spread a generous amount of peanut butter on one piece of bread, pile marshmallow creme on the other, and gently press together into the shape of a sandwich. Bite. [Bliss.]

Optional: Add chocolate chips and nuke in the microwave for 20 seconds like chef Matty Matheson does it.

@mattymathesonTHE BEST SANDWICH IN 20 SECONDS FLUFFERNUTTER FOREVER! PREORDER SOUPS SALADS SANDWICHES AND COME SEE ME ON TOUR!!! LINK IN BIO FOR ALL THE DEETS♬ original sound – MATTY MATHESON

You guys, I feel seen by all the dog lovers in the comments section last week (and some brought tears to my eyes)! Loved the tip to check out doesthedogdie.com for crowdsourced warnings of all kinds for movies and TV, and the reader who commented, “I’d go all John Wick if someone hurt my dogs.” Not to make everything about Brad Pitt, but I imagine the scene at the end of “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” with a flame thrower and the hero pit bull named Brandy. Let me know what content you’d like us to cover (you can email me, too). Enjoy yourselves more than a dachshund in a beret this weekend. — Lauren

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