Can I Make You Smile?

There is very little news today, so I thought I'd close out this edition of Saturday blogging by doing my best to see if I can make you smile.

The big question of the day is: Where is Vladimir Putin? If he's not really in Martin's basement (call me skeptical), then Max Fisher's idea is that we round up the kids from "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" to go look for him.

Have you ever run across the work of Russian photographer Elena Karneeva? Her images of children and animals are so astounding that I've often wondered if they are real. Apparently they are. Here's one of my favorites.

Speaking of photographs, Pete Souza just released a lot of new ones. I call this one, "It's Mutual."

Finally, as humans, we still seem to be struggling with the issues of race and gender. Some of you might wonder where it all started. Here ya go. Enjoy!