Love is in the air.
Jessica Beck is a writer, web designer and semi-professional kid wrangler from Portland, OR. She dislikes cilantro. It vexes her when people say “less" when they mean “fewer."
First Valentine's Day with your sweetheart? Picking the right gift can be a challenge. Do you want to go old school? Romantic? Silly? Cute?
Whether you've been together for a while or have just started your romance, there's a Valentine for you. We've found everything from candy to fondue to "romance in a box" (which is not at all like that Saturday Night Live skit, just FYI). Check out our ideas and make Valentine's Day extra special this year.
Commissions are earned for these sales.
Everyone at some point in their lives is tasked with having difficult conversations that are too uncomfortable to have.
Some are necessary and can't be unavoidable, but that doesn't stop people from trying.
Whether it's revealing tragic news, breaking up with someone, or divulging embarrassing information, we can't move forward without confronting these issues head-on and having conversations.
Curious to hear examples of these, Redditor pate644644 asked:
"What’s the most uncomfortable thing you’ve had to explain to someone?"
"That my 9 year old 4th grade student wasn't bleeding to death or hurt. She's just started her period. I stayed with her in the nurse's office because she wanted me there for comfort until her grandma could pick her up, and the library assistant covered my class."
"Then I had an even worse conversation when Grandma got there because I had robbed her of having the "womanhood" talk with her granddaughter. "
– Belle0516
"I have the same story, but my mom didn’t know what a queef was. After trying to politely explain it, once it clicked for her, she said 'why didn’t you just say ‘pussy fart’?”
– MightySmizmar
"Having to tell the dad of one of the kids on my caseload that student & his girlfriend were having unprotected sex, but student had assured me I didn’t have to worry because 'my pull out game is strong, Miss.' They now have a child."
– SpedDiva
"I had to tell my parents that my girlfriend was having a baby when I was 15."
"They were upset and shocked, but then they said what's done is done, and we talked about how we were going to handle the situation."
– Knight-Rhys
Some people needed a reality check.
"Explaining personal hygiene to a friend like they might need to shower more often or use deodorant can be super awkward, but sometimes it’s necessary."
– fairygalxo
"I asked a work colleague with terrible breath; how much do your gums bleed when you floss?"
"A ton, so I hardly ever do it, why do you ask?"
– Dawg_Prime
"Explaining internet culture to older relatives like I’m trying to explain memes, social media trends or why something is funny online can feel a little embarrassing when the person just doesn’t get it."
– barbiedollsxo
"When I was in high school my mother made the comment that she felt bad for gay men because they could only experience sex by kissing. I had to give that explanation a go. She truly thought I was kidding her at first🥺 Traumatizing."
– vermiciouswangdoodle
"Having to tell a good friend of mine that his wife was cheating on him, and showing him the proof. I loathed having to be the one to tell him, but I knew he would want to know."
"Called him up about 3 days (I think?) after seeing his wife, with a guy that was not him, being really handsy and making out in a bar. Had taken a couple quick pics and a short video for proof, and called him to come hangout because I had something important I needed to discuss with him."
"I wanted to tell him in person so I could be there if needed, rather than just over the phone. Went about as well as you’d expect, and he was divorced a couple months later. Thankfully, they didn’t have kids yet, and due to the pics and video, she didn’t make off with a lot of his stuff."
– kazu-sama
"In the early aughts friend A calls me telling me he had just tested positive for HIV and the only person he’d been with since his last test was friend B who I’d introduced him to. A asked me to call B to relay the news, and it was quickly apparent that friend B had no idea he was poz. (They are both healthy and doing well.)"
– Speckster1970
Life can be so cruel.
"I work with special needs kids and the parents asked me when their child would 'grow out of Downs Syndrome' had to explain that they would not."
– Charming_Cry3472
"In my job as a speech-language pathologist, it’s my job to field questions like, 'When will my mom talk again?' I strive to be as positive about stroke recovery as I can (because there is a lot of prognostic optimism to be found in the first year and perhaps beyond)."
"But I also have to balance conversations with tempered expectations, considering what a patient’s language loss looked like immediately post stroke and after the acute rehab phase."
"It’s always hard having the cautious but tempered conversation with family who assumed their family member would be having full conversations by now (~2 weeks post-stroke, for example) when, in my experience, significant recovery is unlikely."
– plushieshoyru
"I didn't have to really 'explain' it too much but last year I took the overnight shift with my dying sister. I woke abruptly to her having passed in the hour or so I'd nodded off."
"After I checked for signs of life and was sure she'd passed...I had to go to the next bedroom to wake her partner who was catching up on proper sleep in an actual bed as she was caring for her round the clock. Then I had to ring my parents to tell them. The noise that came out of my dad when they arrived and went in to her body was a sound I've never heard before."
"Then when morning came, i told my partner and he came to get me, drive me to my grandparents house to tell them. They're in their 80s, that was tough. Then I left them to drive to my younger sister to break the news to her. She has learning difficulties but has a good understanding and she reacted so admirably, hugged me and thanked me for being with our sister when she passed."
"Then, we drove to pick up my 15 year old daughter from a friend's sleepover. With the unexpected early pickup and I sitting in the back of the car to comfort her, I didn't even have to say it. She told me she was sorry, and we just held hands and sobbed the drive home."
"By midday I felt pretty exhausted by delivering the news over and over to everyone that loved my big sister. She was 39 with stage 4 cancer and we only had 8 weeks from diagnosis to her death. And she was a bloody amazing human."
– Baconwheatcrunchies6
"I had to wake up my father (who had Alzheimer's at the time) in the middle of the night and explain to him that my mother had died in her sleep a few feet away."
– WhenTardigradesFly
"My Mom would ask where my father was and why he didn't visit. He had died about 15 years before she was diagnosed. We would tell her that he was working and would visit soon. When we told her that he was dead, she was devastated all over again. The Dr said in that instance lying was less stressful for her."
– Stinkeye63
"Telling my mother that there was nothing they could do to help her. Her organs were shutting down and hospice would do what they could to make her comfortable. Her replying, 'You mean I'm dying?, 'was the hardest thing to hear as well."
– raidersensei
"Had to call my mom and let her know that the reason her estranged brother stopped responding to her emails was that he'd died the year before, and the only reason we found out was that I got an email bounce back and started digging, eventually tracking down the realtor who handled the estate sale and the old colleague who took care of the estate."
– pepperbar
The hardest conversation I've had was what all closeted LGBTQ+ community members have to deal with eventually.
Coming out to my parents was extremely difficult. I came from a strict Japanese upbringing with traditional values and a passive-aggressive culture that conveniently avoids having important conversations.
Fortunately, the reactions from my family didn't lead to estrangement, but their initial reluctance to accept me wrecked me.
I couldn't see then how they would eventually come around.
It's amazing how, years later, they're always inquiring about how my husband is and asking me to tell him they say, "Hi."
I'm so glad I came out when I did, on my terms, even though I was determined to keep living in the closet back then.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones faced widespread ridicule after satirical news outlet The Onion was announced as the winning bidder for his website Infowars in a bankruptcy auction on Thursday.
The bid was supported by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, to whom Jones owes over $1 billion in defamation judgments for falsely claiming the tragedy was a hoax.
Ben Collins, CEO of Global Tetrahedron, The Onion’s parent company, announced on social media that the acquisition of Infowars was made with the support of the Sandy Hook families impacted by Jones’ misinformation.
Collins shared that the new Infowars will be reimagined by The Onion’s team, evolving into a parody of its former self, complete with ads from Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun violence nonprofit founded after the Sandy Hook tragedy.
He said:
“We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off. I can’t wait to show you what we have cooked up.”
Founded in the 1980s, the satirical outlet known as "America’s Finest News Source" has spent decades lampooning politics and pop culture, with Alex Jones often in its crosshairs. In the aftermath of mass shootings like Sandy Hook, The Onion frequently republishes one of its most iconic recurring articles: “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
And the news it had acquired Jones' site seemed a perfect case of poetic justice.
During a court hearing Thursday afternoon in Houston, auction trustee Christopher Murray confirmed that while The Onion didn’t submit the highest bid for Infowars, it presented a more favorable outcome overall. This was partly because some Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo part of the sale proceeds to help pay Jones' other creditors.
The only other bid came from First United American Companies, affiliated with a site selling Jones' products, though Murray noted he couldn’t specify the dollar value of The Onion's offer.
After the hearing, Jones aired grievances on his show, alleging the auction was “rigged” and voicing hope that the judge would overturn the sale. He assured listeners that he had prepared backup studios, websites, and social media channels should the sale proceed unfavorably.
Jones reiterated his long-standing claim that the lawsuits and proceedings constitute “a total attack on free speech." Figures.
Anne Hathaway had a courtside moment she probably didn’t see coming at a recent New York Knicks game.
While watching with her son Jack, things got a little too close for comfort when Toronto Raptors player OG Anunoby came flying toward them chasing a loose ball. He jumped onto the barrier near their seats and accidentally knocked over Jack’s popcorn in the process.
The incident left Jack momentarily stunned, but Hathaway quickly reassured him with a comforting touch. Despite the scare, Hathaway stayed to watch the rest of the game, which ended with the Knicks losing in a very close game 124-123.
Many people said Anunoby did it on purpose to get close to the famous actor.
Others were taken aback that anything might happen to "The Princess of Genovia," referring to one of Hathaway's memorable roles in The Princess Diaries.
Folks said it was natural that he might be a bit distracted with Hathaway sitting there.
People approved of how she remained calm.
Many people found it odd that the announcers had no idea who she was.
One commenter recognized the true loss in this incident.
After that game, the New York Knicks were sitting at 4th in the Eastern Conference of the NBA.
It's a collab that no one saw coming and was not for everyone.
Rapper and record producer T-Pain, known for creatively enhancing music using Auto-Tune pitch correction, teamed up with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to release a cover of Lil Jon’s 2002 hip hop track "Get Low."
The Zuck credited his performance on the new track as Z-Pain.
So, what inspired him to embark on this randomly creative endeavor?
Well, it turns out there's nothing random about his obsession over the song "Get Low," as it had more of a romantic origin.
The 40-year-old Facebook co-founder explained in an Instagram post that it was the song he heard when he first met his wife, fellow Harvard student Priscilla Chan, at a frat party.
The couple revisits the song every year on their dating anniversary.
Zuckerberg decided to switch things up by putting his stamp on the song that has romantically bound them together since they started dating in 2003 when she was a freshman at Harvard.
He shared a carousel of photos featuring him with Chan, and several of him playing the acoustic guitar in the recording studio with T-Pain.
The caption read:
"Get Low was playing when I first met Priscilla at a college party, so every year we listen to it on our dating anniversary."
"This year I worked with @tpain on our own version of this lyrical masterpiece."
"Sound on for the track and also available on Spotify. Love you P"
Zuckerberg's "Get Low" has been slowed to an acoustic guitar rendition that features the original lyric, “ 'Til the sweat drop down my balls.”
You can hear the fruits of their labor here.
Warning: NSFW lyrics.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Aww.
Some people were more discerning.
Well, you can't please everyone.
However, it was a success for his intended audience: his lovely wife.
Zuckerberg and Chan tied the knot on May 19, 2012.
They have three daughters together, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, born on December 1, 2015; August, born in August 2017; and Aurelia, born March 24, 2023.
The billionaire is no stranger to grand gestures when it comes to professing his love to Chan.
Earlier this year, he commissioned a 7-foot-tall green statue of Chan draped in a silver cloak in an effort to bring back the "Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife."
People magazine was so impressed that they declared Zuckerberg as “the ultimate wife guy!”
Chan shared a photo of her with her statue on her Instagram story with the caption, "You can’t miss me!"
@priscillachan/Instagram
Zuckerberg shared a clip of Chan listening to "Get Low" (Z-Pain's version) and her commenting, "It's so romantic."
Chan, a pediatrician and philanthropist, remarked, “21 years later, I can’t get quite as low, but it brings back a lot of fun memories.”
"I love you," replied Z-Pain.
Hollywood has made some progress with LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream films like Call Me by Your Name (2017), Moonlight (2016), and Carol (2015) that cater to those audiences.
But when it comes to featuring a gay kiss in commercial blockbusters meant for the general mass audience, studios remain skittish and tend to leave such scenes on the cutting room floor.
An alleged kissing scene between two male characters in Ridley Scott's Gladiator II is the latest celluloid casualty, according to one of its stars, Denzel Washington.
He told Gayety’s Caitlynn McDaniel that he filmed a scene where his character gave into his male desire by lip-locking with another man, but it ultimately didn't make the final cut.
In the sequel to 2000s Gladiator, the revered thespian and winner of numerous accolades, including two Oscars, three Golden Globes, and a Tony Award, plays power-hungry Macrinus, a “Roman businessman who has amassed enormous wealth thanks to his acumen and brutal ambition."
He was also described as a character with a "twinkle" of bisexuality.
Wanting to explore more about his character expressing an interest in having relationships with other men, McDaniel asked Washington “how gay” the Roman Empire is.
The 69-year-old Malcolm Xactor said:
“I actually kissed a man in the film, but they took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken."
Washington added:
"I kissed a guy full on the lips, and I guess they’re not ready for that.”
"I killed him about five minutes later…It’s ‘Gladiator.’ It’s the kiss of death.”
Fans lamented the lost opportunity.
People thought gladiators making out wouldn't have been a stretch back in ancient times.
You can watch a clip of the discussion here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Another gay kiss was stolen from the same film.
During an intense physical improv scene for Gladiator II, star Paul Mescal, who plays Lucius Verus, kissed the forehead of his co-star Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius.
When Mescal asked director Ridley Scott if he liked his character's gay impulse, Scott tentatively replied, "I'm afraid I did."
While it's unclear who made the final call, the scene was ultimately axed.
The epic historical sequel to Gladiator will hit theaters in the US on November 22.
Perhaps audiences will be able to delight in the deleted homoerotic scenes in future releases of the film, hopefully uncut.
