⚾🙋‍♀️ Who run the world? THESE girls.

🍹 Talk about a HOT deal: Flash this video at Taco Azul on any day over 90 degrees (today), and they’ll give you a $9 frozen marg off the *secret* menu. You’re welcome.

👀💜 Best Day Ever loading … Have you gotten your tix to our Aug. 2 summer festival yet? This just in: 14-and-counting of your fave local bites (think: Levain, Mr. H, Blackbird Doughnuts, and Dumpling Daughter) will be in the house. And they’re ALL included with your ticket. Buy yours here.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

We know the world is feeling pretty heavy these days. But if we’ve learned one thing from reading local news for a living, it’s that there is always something good out there — if you know where to look.

Here are this month’s feel-good stories you might’ve missed:

🏀 This small Maine town produced a world-class star. Cooper Flagg, an 18-year-old Newport, Maine, native, isn’t just any soon-to-be NBA player. He’s expected to be the No. 1 pick in tomorrow’s NBA draft, making him Maine’s first draftee since 1984, and a bona fide celeb in his hometown of 3,200 (just watch him!). Kids wear Flagg’s Duke jersey to school, gas stations have life-size Flagg cardboard cutouts, and there will be at least four draft parties.

⚾ Girls run the world in Waltham’s local Little League. It all started when a few girls asked their parents to play baseball like their brothers. Before they knew it, 22 of them joined the league, where this month, for the first time ever, a game featured two all-girls teams. And the vibes are GOOD: The girls are bedazzling pink helmets, wearing tiaras after wins, cartwheeling after every out, and yes, they’ve beaten the boys. 

🧠 A non-verbal Brookline teen with autism beat the odds to get into MIT. For years, Viraj Dhanda was thought to have “low intellectual ability.” But by 13, a breakthrough revealed that not only could he communicate through typing, but that “he was brilliant.” From there, Dhanda flew through college-level math, aced his ACT, and this spring, was accepted to MIT. “There is hope,” he said, “despite what the experts may have told you.”

🏳️‍🌈 Queer proms are giving LGBTQ+ high schoolers a much-needed safe space. It’s not an easy time to be an LGBTQ+ teen, especially at prom, which comes with a laundry list of gendered expectations and traditions. Enter: “Queer prom,” a safe space for queer students to celebrate their identities. This year, about a dozen local high schools held one. “It’s a way to think about current queer culture in a positive light,” said one attendee.

🦉 Blind and low-vision folks are finding joy in birding … by ear. Birding is just as much about song as it is about sight, and tons of low-vision and blind folks learned that firsthand at the first-ever blind birder bird-a-thon. Birders were able to identify over 200 birds by sound, including at Mount Auburn Cemetery. “I have not experienced the visual joy that other people have readily available to them,” said one participant. “Birding has been one way … I’ve been able to bridge that gap.”

🥵 Friendly reminder: Today is gonna be HOT AF. We’re talking 101 degree temps and up to a 110 degree heat index. If true, that’d absolutely wallop Boston’s previous daily record of 95 degrees. Here are three things to keep in mind today: 1. The MBTA is warning riders they may experience slower commutes or see sagging overhead wires due to the heat. 2. Boston’s cooling centers, splash pads (including the Common’s Frog Pond!), and pools will be open for biz. 3. For those of us without AC, here are some tips on surviving a heatwave.

📲 Out: Cellphones. In: Teenagers’ attention spans. At least, it’s definitely a possibility, as some state lawmakers are working on a proposal to ban cellphone use in Mass. public schools before the next school year. This isn’t our first rodeo on this front: AG Andrea Campbell introduced similar legislation back in January, and at least 25 states have already done it in some form. Usually, the bans involve students handing over their phones during class time and getting them back after — and according to local educators who have tried it, it works wonders. 

🤑 Where can you find Boston’s best freebies? A Harvard warehouse. Duh! Enter: Harvard’s Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston, where everything is completely free of charge. Every week, a team rounds up unwanted goods across the campus — from cat trees to pianos to books, clothes, art, and furniture — and brings it back to the warehouse, where it’s all up for grabs … you just gotta dig for it. The warehouse is only open to the public every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Happy thrifting!

🎶 Boston’s latest summer concert series is on the T. We’re serious! The MBTA just launched a new pop-up summer music series where current and former Berklee students will perform outside T stations during rush hour on weekdays through June. The idea is the latest in a series of initiatives meant to “say thank you” to T riders (ostensibly for … putting up with the T). You can catch the performers at Government Center, Forest Hills, JFK/UMass, and more. MBTA, if you’re reading this: Bring back the free slushies!

Bostonians clocked Phil Rosenthal hitting Boston’s top foodie spots last year. And now, the Boston episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” has officially dropped on Netflix! 

The “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator took a tour through the best of Boston’s food scene during the eighth season of his food travel show. His review: “I absolutely loved it.” 

Throughout the episode, viewers will see Rosenthal stop at the likes of Comfort Kitchen, Flour, Boston Public Market, Neptune Oyster, Modern Pastry (not Mike’s!), Sarma, Verveine Cafe & Bakery, and more. 

But his favorite bites of the trip? “There’s a jerk duck dish at Comfort Kitchen that I still dream about, and a lamb shank at La Royal,” he told Boston mag. Yum.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

😋 Thanks for reading! We love to see it, but we can’t help but think this means Sarma reservations are going to get even HARDER to get.

🎬 The results are in: 40% of B-Siders agree with Boston.com readers that “Good Will Hunting” is the best movie ever filmed in Mass. One reader said: “CHALLENGERS ERASURE! I still remember the day when Zendaya went to the Boylston Tatte and Emerson College kids exploded.” 

🥳🪩 Don't forget to grab your tickets to Best Day Ever, our Aug. 2 food, music, and shopping par-tay at Artists for Humanity!

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].