One Good Thing

[Junkyard]

It kept the Sheens/Estevesez fed for a few weeks.

Anemia?

[Tripe]

It makes you pale and interesting.

Porphyria

[Junkyard]

The Madness of King George was a good movie based on someone who has retrocatively been diagnosed with it.

The Wayans Brothers.

[Tripe]

One of them is responsible for bringing us Homey the Clown.

The Olsen Twins

[Junkyard]

They're not as screwed up as I was expecting they'd be after spending their ENTIRE LIVES on the small screen.

Mussolini

[Tripe]

Oh now that's a classic; He made the trains run on time!

Earthquakes

[Junkyard]

If they didn't happen occasionally, they'd happen all at once.

Jim Crow Laws

[Tripe]

By codifying and enshrining prejudice they brought to a head the simmering racial issues that the country had been dealing with since at least reconstruction and inspired an active civil rights movement by providing something concrete to push against (a concrete legal statute is much easier to fight than something unspecified like the attitude enshrined in said statute).

Parkinson's disease

[Junkyard]

It has more visible effects, and thus can inspire more solid awarness, than many other diseases.

(Bravo on the Jim Crow thing, by the way.)

Religious Extremists?

[Tripe]

They allow the rational to say "There but for the grace of god/xenu//empty void..."

Peanut Allergies


(thanks for the bravo on Jim Crow, I try )

[Junkyard]

Peanut Allergies encouraged people to come up with other protien alternatives for vegetarians.

Losing an Adult tooth.

[Tripe]

You have the option (like my grandfather did) of replacing it with a cool looking gold tooth. Then you can pretend to be a pirate Ya!

Asthma

[Junkyard]

You may be able to talk your way out of gym class.

Tornados?

[daltysmilth]

How else would Dorothy have gotten to Oz?

Ear infections

[eclipt1c]

Afterwards, you might get nifty tubes in your ears for when you swim.

The plague of Athens in the 430s-420s bce? (A bit specific but there are tons of answers)