The analysis looked at emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment among cities.

Fairfax is one of just three counties in the ranking where life expectancy is over 83 years.

Yes, that goofy, oversized hat is now art and is on display at a gallery in Alexandria.

In which Congressman John Lewis and Russ Ptacek/the WUSA9 team square off in “Happy” viral dance videos. Whoever wins, we all lose.

“We used it as a way to test the waters,” Ward 8 Studios co-founder Alex Cox says. “Would people be receptive to something more in the joyful category?”

This is just an adorable video of a bunch of people in D.C. dancing to Pharrell’s “Happy.”

I’ve been spending some time this morning playing with this infographic, released by the New York Times over the weekend, which shows the results of a Gallup poll in which 1,000 randomly selected American adults were called every day over the last three years, and asked questions like “Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?” and “Is the city or area where you live getting better as a place to live?” Gallup then plugged those responses into an index called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index — it’s a pretty fun way to kill a few minutes. So how does D.C. stack up?

Yeah, yesterday was a downer for news from the National Zoo. I’ve been told by several people that I may or may not have ruined their Thursday afternoons by passing along the news that a red panda cub died. (I’m just the conduit, people.) Add in the fact that our beloved Tai Shan is celebrating his fifth birthday so far away, and one can be excused for feeling a little blue about our current quota…

Are you drowning in a sea of negativity, the kind that seems to, at times, swallow this city up like a whale does krill? Yeah, I hear you. But, there are good stories out there, I swear. For instance: David C. Lipscomb’s story in the Washington Times about how Trinidad has made the transition from a place more known for random gunfights and vehicle checkpoints to a neighborhood united, working with police, churches, advisory neighborhood…