It wasn’t all bad
■ Gelje, a 30-year-old Nepali sherpa, saved a Malaysian climber from dying on Mount Everest last month. Gelje was nearing the summit with a Chinese client when he saw a man clinging to a rope and trembling in minus-22 Fahrenheit temperature. The two stopped their own ascent, wrapped the man in a sleep mat, and carried him 1,900 feet down, where Nima Tahi, another sherpa, joined the effort. When the team reached a camp at 23,500 feet, a helicopter completed the rescue. “Saving one life is more important than praying at the monastery,” said Gelje.
■ For Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Largo, Fla., four years of study culminated in one word last week: psammophile. If you’re wondering, it means an organism that thrives in sandy areas. And for Dev it meant victory in the 2023 Scripps Spelling Bee, $50,000, and a lifetime of bragging rights. The eighthgrader had tied for 51st place in 2019 and for 76th in 2021.
After failing to make it out of a regional tournament in 2022, Dev redoubled his efforts, studying 10 hours a day for a year. “I made a lot of sacrifices these last three months, and I’m glad I made them,” he said. “I’m glad to now get back what I sacrificed.”
■ Ricky Littlejohn is a professional horse trainer and cattle catcher, but until May he’d never rescued an animal running on the highway. Lester, a lost 1,200-pound steer, was sighted close to Holly, Mich. The owner called Littlejohn, who drove down with his horse to get Lester back. Littlejohn gave chase, and saw Lester jump a guardrail onto I-75. Fortunately, police had slowed traffic, so Littlejohn followed, lassoing the steer. “It’s not every day that you see a steer or a cowboy along the freeway here in metro Detroit,” said the police officer who posted a dashcam video of the impromptu rodeo.