Category: Worldwide

Loneliness is one of the most dangerous health problems in the United States, although it’s seldom discussed. Psychology Today says loneliness has the same mortality risks as obesity, smoking, alcoholism and physical inactivity.

A meta-analysis from Brigham Young University found that social isolation may increase the risk of premature death by up to 50%. The problem with loneliness is that people suffer in silence and it afflicts the ones we don’t see.

A TikTok user who goes by the name Megan Elizabeth recently shared a touching story on social media about how her grandfather was feeling lonely so he reached out to her. The story shows what can happen when one person is brave enough to confront their social isolation and the important role grandkids can play in their grandparents’ lives.

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It started when Megan’s grandpa texted her to ask if she’d like to come over for a sleepover. “I haven’t been feeling well and miss you. We can order food and watch a mystery show. Love, grandpa,” he wrote.

Megan was happy to go see him, so grandpa made a series of requests to make the sleepover a hit.

“Could you pick up applesauce? The cinnamon kind,” he asked. “And if you go somewhere with mash potatoes, I would like that because I have no teeth and can only eat soft things. Ha!”

He also wanted some strawberry ice cream for dessert. “Thank you. You are my favorite granddaughter,” he ended the conversation. Megan later noted that she’s his only granddaughter.

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Megan came by with a big bag of food and some ice cream and the two hung out and watched his favorite black-and-white “mystery movies.” When it was time for bed, grandpa hadn’t forgotten how to put her to sleep. He got her a glass of water to put by the bed in case she got thirsty and left a flashlight on the nightstand just in case his 29-year-old granddaughter got scared.

The next morning, at 5:30 am, he watched her leave for work.

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Grandfather and granddaughter grew up close to one another. Megan lived with her grandparents when she was young while her parents saved up money for a house. When they bought one, it was right across the street.

“I am so lucky to have grown up with my grandpa and my grandma (rest in peace),” she wrote on Instagram. “I feel so happy. I am thankful for my grandpa and he will never understand how much love he truly has shown me. And more importantly, the love he showed my grandma while she was alive. I believe in love and loyalty because of this man. He is my hero,” she added.

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Megan’s time with her grandfather made her realize a valuable lesson about her life.

“I think one of the most important realizations I have had recently is that it’s important to live in the moment but it is important to live in the now with intent,” she wrote on Instagram, “so that when you are 92, you look back and smile at all the people you loved, the memories you made and the life you chose to live.”

This article originally appeared on 04.27.22

The pandemic has caused many people to reevaluate their surroundings. When you’re stuck at home more often than you’d like, you start to pay a lot more attention to what goes on in your own backyard.

This type of introspection inspired wildlife photographer Carla Rhodes to get a closer look at the furry friends that live near her home in the Catskill mountains of New York.

What she found was magical.

“The winter of 2020-2021 was particularly brutal to humankind. After months of enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, we were now collectively slogging through winter. As a result of being stuck at home, I focused on my immediate surroundings like never before,” Rhodes said in a statement.

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Rhodes positioned a DSLR camera trap beneath her bird feeder to get an up-close glimpse of the wildlife that came to sample her delicious seeds. The results are an incredible series of photos of birds and other woodland creatures from a vantage point most people never see. Rhodes calls her project, “Beneath the Bird Feeder.”

The birdfeeder photos also gave a new glimpse into the behavior of several species of birds and rodents that call the Catskills home.

“As I got deeper into the project, intriguing observations emerged,” Rhodes says. “I noticed distinct repeat visitors such as a Dark-Eyed Junco with an overgrown beak, a deer mouse with a notched ear, and an irruption of Red-Breasted Nuthatches. Dark-Eyed Juncos always showed up at the crack of dawn and Northern Cardinals would always be the last visitor of the day as dusk turned into evening.”

Here are 15 of the most captivating photos that Rhodes captured from beneath her bird feeder.

1. Dark-eyed junco

“Often overlooked and considered drab ground-feeding birds, Dark-Eyed Juncos hold a special place in my heart due to their funny and curious behaviors. Every day they were first to arrive beneath the bird feeder,” Rhodes says. “Dark-Eyed Juncos were one of the most frequent and curious subjects beneath the bird feeder.”

2. Dark-eyed junco

3. Dark-eyed junco

4. Tufted titmouse

According to All About Birds, the tufted titmouse is “common in eastern deciduous forests and a frequent visitor to feeders.”

5. Mourning dove

​”Observing Mourning Doves was a daily pleasure, especially when they gathered to form a clean-up crew beneath the bird feeder. Mourning doves are monogamous and possibly mate for life,” Rhodes writes.

6. Mourning dove 

7.  Mourning doves

8. Blue jay

“Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds,” All About Birds says. “Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period.”

9. Northern cardinal

“Northern Cardinals were always the last to show up beneath the bird feeder, shortly after dusk every evening,” Rhodes writes.

10. Black-capped chickadee

“Little flocks of Black-capped Chickadees enliven the winter woods with their active behavior and their cheery-sounding chick-a-dee callnotes as they fly from tree to tree, often accompanied by an assortment of nuthatches, creepers, kinglets, and other birds,” the Audubon field guide to North American birds says.

11. Black-capped chickadee

12. Eastern gray squirrel

Eastern gray squirrels are important members of forest ecosystems as they play a vital role in dispersing seeds.

 13. American red squirrel

The American red squirrel is known for its distinct bushy and dark red tail with hints of a white outline.

14. American red squirrel

15. Northern short-tailed shrew

If you see a northern short-tailed shrew, be careful. It’s venomous and paralyzes its victims with poisonous saliva. In humans, a bite can cause swelling and intense pain.

This article originally appeared on 01.03.22

Teenagers are an interesting bunch. They are still very much children and at times behave that way but they also want to be treated like adults. It’s a paradox of behaviors that can sometimes result in parents getting lectured by their teen, which is exactly what happened to one couple when they couldn’t pick up their son.

Iyonna Bland uploaded a video to TikTok showing her son Caleb starting to lecture his parents about not being there to pick him up from football practice. The parents are generally early to pick him up but on this day, Bland was stuck in meetings all day and her husband was also working unable to collect the teen from practice. Obviously, the teen was not left to fend for himself. Bland ordered an Uber for her son when they realized neither would be off in time to pick him up.

But Caleb was not impressed with their choices and decided to let them know exactly how he was feeling.

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“I wasn’t even supposed to talk to you today. I was supposed to have an attitude but I had to fake it, “Caleb says. “First of all, y’all already know I don’t like no rain, so I’m sitting outside after football practice, after hours. Y’all were supposed to been there 15 minutes early.”

The teen’s mom can be heard laughing but he is still not amused, and looks like a parent scolding a child. Gosh darn it, mom take him seriously, he means business. Caleb goes on to explain that he’s had football practice all week and one of his parents has been there early each day so he was expecting the same service. He’s unmoved by the fact that his parents have to work to pay for the equipment and practice he’s attending.

“Tell me why I call this man and he [his dad] treating me like he’s Hollywood or something? Like he’s rich. Mama he ain’t even answer the phone, I called him twice. He ain’t even answer the phone,” Caleb complains.

The way this teen tells a story is hilarious and its hard to keep a straight face even when he’s being serious because of how naturally comedic he is. It gets even harder not to laugh when he describes his first experience using Uber.

“Then I get some random text from a random number,” he says. “Talking about some ‘Brenda’s on the way,’ I was like, ‘my grandma Brenda?”

@iyonnabland

I was in meetings all day for work so I couldn’t leave before yall go saying we neglecting our child he did get home safe #fypシ #foryou #foryourpage #fyp #blacktiktok #kidsoftiktok #boymomlife #parenting #funny #teens #uber

When he received the text saying Brenda was 10 minutes away, that’s when he realized it was in fact not his grandmother that lives states away in Chicago. It was the Uber driver that his mom sent to pick him up but when Bland called to tell him Brenda was on her way to pick him up, he was immediately uninterested.

“So then you called me talking about ‘Brenda about to come get you,’ I’m like ‘who is Brenda?’ cause I’m not getting in the car,” Caleb tells his mom.

Listening to him tell the story will leave you in stitches. Poor kid thought his parents forgot about him and Brenda was a kidnapper. That’s one interesting first time Uber experience. But don’t think dad got out of this lecture, Caleb expressed his thoughts in a follow up below.

@iyonnabland

Replying to @😜Sillylicious😝 #fypシ #foryou #foryourpage #fyp #blacktiktok #kidsoftiktok #boymomlife #parenting #funny #teens #momandson #momsoftiktok

Oprah Winfrey was a pioneer when it came to breaking taboos surrounding trauma, therapy and self-help. She also put her career on the line by coming out about being abused as a child, years before it was commonplace for celebrities to speak about their trauma.

In September 1990, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” aired an iconic episode titled “Childhood Wounds Seminar,” featuring educator and motivational speaker John Bradshaw. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Bradshaw was a popular guest on television talk shows as a “psycho-vangelist” who combined elements of developmental psychology, touches of philosophy and theology, and a flair for the dramatic to help his patients and the studio audience.

Bradshaw wrote multiple bestsellers including, “Healing the Shame That Binds You” (1988) and “Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child” (1990). He passed away in 2016 at 82.

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In this episode, Bradshaw led Oprah’s audience in a 7-minute guided meditation where he asked them to revisit themselves in their homes as children and rescue them from a traumatic situation. At the two-minute mark, audience members begin to visibly weep as they look their childhood selves in the eyes.

“I’m the one that wrote the letter and I’m coming to get you. I want you to come home with me. I know better than anybody what you’ve been through,” Bradshaw asks the audience members to tell their younger selves.

“And if it scares you to leave with me, then you can stay here, I’ll come visit you,” he continued. “But if you’re willing to leave, go get your little bag packed.” He then asked the audience to visualize themselves taking the child from the traumatic house and bringing them into a life of safety.

“You have to leave that home.”

“You have a power greater than your parents.”

“Welcome to the world; I’m so glad you’re here.”

“We’re gonna have fun together, and I love you just the way you are.”

@chatswithchass

Just because someone is “family” doesnt mean they can treat someone anyways they want. #chatswithchass

Even though the episode first aired nearly 33 years ago, it still affects people in a deep way. Recently, the clip was shared on TikTok by Anonymousally98 as a post titled, “How I healed my wounded inner child in 7 minutes w an episode of Oprah.”

The video received over 4 million views and got passionate responses from viewers.

“Bawled my eyes out. I needed this. Thank you so much for sharing,” Kayresha Naidoo-Martin commented on the post. “I balled like a f***ing baby!! I had my husband and 2 boys waiting for me. I now see that I raise them the way I always wanted to be but never was,” Ashlee Marine added.

“I brought my inner child around the corner to meet my son and see his face and how much he would have loved little me,” Erika Michele wrote.

In hindsight, it’s beautiful that Winfrey had the tenacity in the dog-eat-dog world of daytime television to create programming that was not only entertaining but healing at the same time. It’s a testament to her incredible talents as a broadcaster and producer that, so many years later, her work still resonates with millions.

A viral TikTok video highlights an extreme version of inequality that many wives and mothers in heterosexual relationships face. However, the mom in this story hit her limit and won’t deal with it anymore.

Lynalice Bandy, who goes by @5kids5catssomedogstoo on TikTok, posted a video that showed her home looking like a disaster after she worked six 10-hour days straight while her husband did nothing to help.

Her time-lapse video shows every room in the house completely trashed, with toys, food and laundry scattered everywhere. “Shampoo on the carpets in the girls’ room, nail polish all over Nugget covers, hair, and carpet. Scissors were used to cut hair, the down comforter, the mattress cover, and two Nugget covers,” wrote the mom.

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“I’ve worked six, ten-hour days in a row with only one day off being a sick day,” she captioned the video. “I’d like to pretend I’m not the only person who cleans here, but as you can see…These rooms don’t get much attention when I’m not here.”

@5kids5catssomedogstoo

#divorce #parentingfail #messyhouse #whenwomen #depressionanxiety #clean #satifying

She says her husband’s excuse was that he was focused on doing his schoolwork and couldn’t pay attention to the kids. “Now, that school is out for a break, he doesn’t have that excuse anymore,” Bandy says, noting that all of his attention has been focused on “the four vehicles in our driveway that he wants to work on continuously.”

In a follow-up video, Bandy announced that she left her husband after the debacle. The original video received over 17,000 comments, many of which were from supportive women.

“You deserve much better, and he deserves to be alone. Much love to you from someone that left that life behind almost 20 yrs ago. You’ll get here, too,” Angela LaRoche wrote.

“Ma’am, you are nothing short of amazing! Hang in there!” Japanese with Jenny wrote.

“That home is beautiful because of YOU,” Hillary added. “You put in so much work, and it is not unseen by me and so many others. But, you DO deserve better. Proud of you.”

@5kids5catssomedogstoo

Sounds about right…

Even though Bandy’s experience with her husband is an extreme case of a couple whose domestic duties are way out of balance, it points to a problem that plagues many households. Even though it’s 2023 and families are becoming more equal, women still do significantly more housework than men.

A study utilizing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey found that women 15 years and older spend 5.7 hours daily doing housework and looking after kids and elders. Men in the same age group do an average of 3.6 hours of daily domestic work.

That’s a 37% difference in time spent on household responsibilities.

Further, women who work an average of 35 hours a week spend 4.9 hours a day on household chores and child care, while men who work the same amount spend an average of 3.8 hours.

The comments show that there are a lot of women out there who are frustrated with their husbands for not doing their fair share. Hopefully, this video will encourage more people to speak out about domestic inequality and for more men to step up and do their part.

This article originally appeared on 4.25.23

For nearly 50 years, the World’s Ugliest Dog contest has celebrated unique pups of all kinds in order to show that man’s best friend has far more value than pedigree. In this contest, endearing imperfections and charming personalities reign supreme over an ideal appearance and obedient temperament. And this year’s champion has all those attributes in spades.

Behold: Scooter, a 7-year-old Chinese Crested dog, mostly bald save for the scraggly tuft of white hair on his ears, with a bright pink tongue constantly dangling out of his mouth and backwards facing hind legs.

Dubbed “a hairy hippopotamus in the cutest way possible” by the New York Times, this peculiar canine might not be modeling in a calendar anytime soon, but he is adorable in his own way, and has a pretty epic underdog story.

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According to his bio, Scooter was taken to animal control in Tucson for euthanasia by a Chinese Crested breeder when he was just a puppy because of his deformity. Luckily Linda Celeste Elmquist, a volunteer for the Saving Animals From Euthanasia (SAFE) rescue group stepped in to adopt Scooter and save the poor fellow’s life.

After being taken into a safe and loving home with Elmquist, Scooter is thriving. He might have to take frequent rest stops, but he is able to walk by balancing on his two front legs. “Swaying side to side he takes on obstacles – stones, curbs, steps – and then throwing his back end to the sky, in one final swoop – he conquers!”

Thanks to the support of friends and rescue groups, this doggo can also “scoot” to and fro using a mobility cart, which he loves to have when visiting the park to “welcome any outstretched hand.” All in all, he “has no idea that he is any different from any other dog.”

And now, Scooter has “contest winner” to add to his long list of accomplishments. Elmquist shared in a press release that the victory is made sweeter by challenges overcome. “Scooter has defied all odds and shown us the true meaning of resilience and determination. He has become an inspiration to countless people around the world.”

Scooter’s story perfectly embodies the purpose behind the World’s Ugliest Dog contest, which, despite its name, isn’t to make fun of ugly dogs. Rather, it’s to highlight the beauty of their “extraordinary resilience.” As Tawny Tesconi, CEO of the Sonoma-Marin Fair (where the contest is held) stated: “Each contestant has a remarkable story to tell, and they serve as a testament to the power of love, compassion, and the indomitable spirit of these incredible animals.”

The gifts that pets bring into our lives have so little to do with aesthetics. Sure, seeing a Border Collie with an impossibly shiny coat or an incredibly muscular Rottweiler is great, but it’s the unconditional love, loyalty, grade-A cuddles, and pure joy that will stick in our hearts far longer. Scooter, like every “ugly” dog, deserves all the accolades for showing what makes a dog truly beautiful.

The DCEU is in a bit of a pickle: Their movies keep tanking, or at least underperforming. The back-to-back-to-back failures of Black Adam, Shazam 2, and, now, The Flash probably aren’t making the already chaotic Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav any happier. The brand needs a steroid injection and this might do it: As per Deadline, the DCEU finally has a new Superman and Lois Lane.

It’s long been tradition to cast a relative nobody as Krypton’s most famous son, and this time’s no different: Supes will be played by David Corenswet, a young actor whose diverse credits include Pearl, David Simon’s HBO limited series We Own This City, and the Ryan Murphy Netflix shows The Politician and Hollywood. Like Christopher Reeve, he’s even a Juilliard alum, which makes his casting all the more apropos.

For Lois Lane, they’re going with a rumored favorite in the casting process, Rachel Brosnahan. Brosnahan wrapped her final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, freeing her up to play The Daily Planet’s most intrepid reporter. Brosnahan and Corenswet have one credit in common: They’ve both been on House of Cards, though unlike Brosnahan, who was a regular on the show in the early days, Corenswet only guested on a lone episode.

James Gunn, who’s directing the film, currently called Superman: Legacy, as well as leading the revised DCEU with Peter Safran, confirmed Deadline‘s reporting.

Brosnahan will replace Amy Adams, who played a very thirsty Lois opposite Henry Cavill, the actor who may have given up The Witcher to return as Superman… only for Gunn and Safran to announce they were rebooting the Man of Steel as a younger character. Cavill, though, will likely find a new character in the revamped cinematic universe.

Deadline reports that the casting was hurried along because of the SAG-AFTRA strike that may kick off on June 30, which may find actors like Corenswet and Brosnahan joining WGA writers on the picket line.

(Via Deadline)

On Sunday, rap fans tuning into the BET Awards were treated to a heartwarming surprise as feuding Migos members Quavo and Offset put aside their differences — at least for one night — to honor their fallen comrade Takeoff. Performing the group’s No. 1 single “Bad N Boujee,” the two Atlanta rappers looked as though not a day had passed since they last shared a stage, even though in reality, it has been over a year.

However, don’t expect the good vibes to continue. According to TMZ, although the duo had privately reconciled months ago, they currently have no plans to continue recording music together. As TMZ notes, neither side has expressed any intentions of continuing to perform or record under the group name Migos in the future — a fact was suggested nearly a year ago during the rollout for Quavo and Takeoff’s separate duo album Only Built For Infinity Links. After all, “Migos” explicitly refers to a trio, as they have insisted in the past, and TMZ’s sources said they would never try to replace Takeoff.

The trio had been more or less defunct for some time, though, as Offset prepped a solo album (still in the works) and Quavo and Takeoff did their own thing. From some of the comments the group made throughout the year, it seemed a rift had formed that the group was quite ready to reconcile. As recently as February, it was reported that Quavo and Offset had gotten into a scuffle at the Grammy Awards when Offset was blocked from joining Quavo’s tribute to Takeoff. While they denied the rumors, a video of Cardi B yelling at someone backstage seemed to insinuate that there was at least some truth to them.

Hopefully, the bad blood is in the rearview, and although we might not get any new Migos tunes in the immediate future, it’s probably more important that the two rappers mend their broken bonds of brotherhood. After all, like Jay-Z said: Nobody wins when the family feuds.

Donald Trump doesn’t really understand all of the various things his MAGA followers are mad about at any given time (the former president is reportedly tired of hearing the term “woke“), but he does understand that people will cheer if he mentions those things in some sort of context.

Such was the case at the New Hampshire Republican Federation of Women luncheon on Tuesday where Trump figured everyone in the audience cooks because, c’mon, they’re ladies, right?

“Does anybody like gas stoves? Because you cook a lot more than I do,” Trump said. “‘Cause I have a lot of friends who are really into the cooking thing, and they say gas is better. But they want to take it away.”

While gas stoves are a hot-button issue amongst Republicans, who are convinced there’s some sort of ban coming (there is not), Trump took things to a whole new level by claiming that Democrats are now coming for washers and dryers. Clearly, that must shock the crowd of women, who probably do a lot of laundry. The former president is very smart about these things.

“They want to take away your washing machines and your dryers,” Trump declared before wowing the crowd with his complex and nuanced understanding of water.

“They don’t want to give you any water for the washing machine,” Trump ranted. “Even though you have so much water, you don’t know what the hell to do with it up here. It flows out into the ocean.”

Hmm.

(Via Acyn on Twitter)

NORE’s Drink Champs podcast has heard its fair share of wild stories, but Ice-T is sure that he’s got the best one yet. In a preview clip from the upcoming episode, Ice-T recounts what he calls “the greatest Drink Champs story ever,” detailing the first time doing drugs with his wife, Coco. As the delighted hosts crack up, the LA gangsta rap pioneer remembers looking for an ecstasy dealer in a nightclub. When he finally finds one, though, not only does the salesman blow up his spot, but he also recruits Ice, giving him the entire stash and declaring, “Now, you’re the man!”

Ice-T’s storytelling gifts are certainly being put to use on Drink Champs, but usually, all he needs is his Twitter account and some free time to provide hilarious commentary on pop culture and sage advice on staying out of trouble in LA. His response to a promo for Law & Order: SVU gave a succinct explanation for why he can’t talk his way out of tickets as easily as his costars, while his educational day learning about television fans’ habit of “shipping” characters tickled plenty of funny bones online.

The new episode of Drink Champs will be available on Thursday, June 29, on Revolt TV.