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.
It's been a long time coming. America has been asking for it, and it's finally happening.
Conan O'Brien is hosting the Oscars for the first time!
The former late-night host will take over for four-time Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel to be the master of ceremonies at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, 2025.
To commemorate the exciting news confirmed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, O'Brien made a hilariously humbling announcement video, which starts with him stunned at being handed an Oscar statuette.
"I'm an Oscar winner," he says in disbelief, while an off-camera voice tells him, "No."
Pretending he didn't hear them, O'Brien continues, "It's amazing."
The unseen person corrects him and says, "No, you're the host."
After the joyous expression is drained from his face, O'Brien asks for confirmation that he's not a winner but is hosting.
When the person confirms, "Exactly, " O'Brien then asks:
"Oh, but do I still get to keep the Oscar?"
He's promptly told, "No, you don't," as a white-gloved hand snatches the prized trophy from O'Brien's arms.
Here's the clip.
The suddenly dejected TV personality asks when the ceremony will be taking place and is told it's on "March 2."
O'Brien chuckles and asks if he still gets to keep the Oscar and is told no.
Well, it didn't hurt to ask.
O'Brien shared the funny ad and wrote in the caption:
"America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme."
"In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars."
Fans approved of this choice.
Fans are sure to be tuning in.
O'Brien hosted his eponymous program, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, from 1993 for 18 seasons and relocated from New York to Los Angeles in 2009 for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, an extension of NBC's Tonight Show franchise.
After a contractual dispute, he graciously bowed out and left NBC to host the variety and late-night talk show Conan on TBS for 11 seasons from 2010 to 2021.
With his final bow as the TBS host on June 24, 2021, his late-night TV hosting duties, combined with his NBC talk shows, spanned a total of 28 years.
His latest endeavor was for an international travel series that debuted on Max in April, called Conan O'Brien Must Go.
The venerated comedian and writer hosted the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2002 and the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006; the 2014 MTV Movie Awards, the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in 1995 and 2013; and the 5th Annual NFL Honors in San Francisco, California in 2016.
The 61-year-old can now add an appearance at the Academy Awards to his extensive resume—but as host, Conan. Remember?
Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear gave a pitch-perfect answer on why he vetoed "one of the nastiest anti-LGBTQ+ bills that my state had ever seen" despite the fact that he was up for reelection in deep-red Kentucky.
Last year, Beshear vetoed Senate Bill 150, a bill that bans all gender-affirming care for transgender youth, saying at the time that the legislation "tears away the freedom of parents to make important and difficult medical decisions for their kids.”
The bill, which is now law in Kentucky after the state's GOP legislative majorities overrode Beshear's veto, prohibits schools from addressing topics related to gender identity or sexual orientation with students of any age and permits teachers to decline using a student's preferred pronouns.
Speaking to Face the Nation's Margaret Brennan more than a year-and-a-half after vetoing the legislation, he was asked to respond to Massachusetts Democratic Representative Seth Moulton's recent comments about transgender girls in sports. Moulton expressed concern about his two children potentially being “run over on a playing field” by what he referred to as a “male or formerly male athlete,” though he did not provide any evidence of such incidents occurring.
Beshear was firm that he would not stop supporting the LGBTQ+ community:
"I think all candidates should stand up for their beliefs and that we don't have to abandon those beliefs. I voted down one of the nastiest anti-LGBTQ+ bills that my state had ever seen, in my election year."
"But I did two things. Number one: I talked about why. That’s my faith, where I’m taught that all children are children of God, and I wanted to stick up for children [who] were being picked on."
“But the second thing [is] voters in my state knew the very next day, I was going to be working on jobs. I was going to be opening a new health clinic, first hospital in our largest African American neighbourhood in 150 years, we just cut the ribbon on. We’ve created two pediatric autism centres in Appalachia, so that people don’t have to drive two hours.”
"It's about sharing your life, your authentic life and your views, but the other piece is that focus because remember: If we're talking about this issue today and then about what Donald Trump said last night and then we're talking about jobs, we're only spending a third of the time talking about what people are worried about and what impacts their lives the most."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Beshear was praised for his remarks.
Beshear's appearance on the program comes just two months after signing an executive order banning conversion therapy in his state.
During the signing ceremony, he said "conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it has been shown to increase rates of suicide and depression," adding that "all children are children of God" and that "where practices are endangering and even harming those children, we must act."
With this legal action, Kentucky has become one of more than two dozen states and regions to ban these practices, a step celebrated by LGBTQ+ Kentuckians and human rights organizations.
Donald Trump Jr. was widely mocked after he attempted to declare victory over "woke" ideology in a tweet over the weekend—only for his demand for what to "take out" next to fall flat on its face.
The irony was off the charts when the eldest Trump scion took to X, formerly Twitter, with the following message:
"Now that woke is dead can we take out perpetual victim mentality next???"
You can see his post below.
If Trump Jr. wants to see a pretty crystal clear example of "perpetual victim mentality," he doesn't need to look further than his own father, President-elect Donald Trump, whom he didn't seem to see he was inadvertently criticizing.
Trump is the same man who has spent years lying about the integrity of the 2020 election and was this year convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election.
He is the same man who has falsely claimed that President Joe Biden is behind his prosecution in the election interference case and that he is the victim of a "witch hunt." The same man who says he is entitled to personal attacks against his political opponents and suggested they be tried before military tribunals, by the way.
In fact, Trump's persecution complex is so wide-reaching that he openly panders to evangelicals and white nationalists by casting himself as a Messiah figure—and he certainly views his re-election as an affirmation of his perceived greatness even while complaining openly and often about everyone he believes has wronged him.
People were quick to point this out.
Keeping with the perpetual victimhood, Trump Jr. claimed this week that his father’s Cabinet picks—which include alleged sex trafficker Matt Gaetz for Attorney General—are being targeted, asserting that any resistance from the Washington establishment only underscores that these nominees are exactly the kind of disruptors voters want.
Trump Jr. conceded that some of the nominees might face challenges securing Senate confirmation, even with Republicans set to hold a majority in January.
However, he emphasized, “They are going to be actual disrupters.” He added that while there are “backup plans” for nominees who may struggle in the confirmation process, “we’re obviously going with the strongest candidates first.”
Let's be honest: It's harder than ever before to find a rental arrangement that matches our needs, our budgets, and our tastes.
A place that checks all of our boxes might be too far out of our price range, and unfortunately, despite how much we might be spending on rent, we might not even really like the place personally.
But a major dealbreaker for many is the ability to have a pet in the home. Because no-pet arrangement rentals are often more affordable because of all of the added fees of housing a pet, many people have tried to sneak a furry companion in with them.
While this might mean eviction in some cases, sometimes the stories of getting caught are nothing short of hilarious.
Curious, Redditor Badger_x asked:
"Those who hid pets from a landlord and the landlord found out, what happened?"
"We had actually signed a 'pet addendum' that the agent gave us and paid an additional 'pet deposit'. Turns out the landlord had no knowledge of this, didn't give the go ahead for an addendum to be created, and didn't allow pets at all."
"Fortunately we had copies (and copies of the emails the agent sent us with the document attached). They asked us for proof of all vaccinations & parasitics from the vet (per the fake 'addendum') or threatened to take the whole pet deposit."
"We provided the documents and they didn't take any of the 'pet deposit'. Guess the agent screwed up royally but it was a good lesson to learn - keep absolutely everything, even if you don't think it's necessary."
- Jager_Candy
"I had an apartment in a pet free building. Then one of the units caught fire."
"When the landlord arrived, everyone was outside with their dogs, cats, birds, and the fire department was inside still looking for a pet skunk that had escaped."
"That was a fun morning. The landlord just left. No one got in trouble for their pets."
"And yes, the skunk was saved!"
- silver_feather2
"My roommate had a fluffy orange cat already, and about two months into living together I adopted a old man tuxedo kitty from the shelter."
"I don’t know why I never mentioned it to the landlady, she was a wacky hippie type who lived an hour away and almost never came to the apartment."
"But eventually, my roommate broke the lease and moved out of state, and I stayed til the end of the lease."
"When the landlady came by for the final check when I was moving out, she looked at my black and white cat and said, 'Huh, I could’ve sworn your cat was orange! Guess I gotta slow down on the pot.'"
"I did not correct her, lol (laughing out loud)."
- Shikabane_Hime
"My landlord found my hamster when getting the apartment master keys that I found on the floor from one of them employees."
"I found it at night and took the keys. Then first thing in the morning, I called them."
"They wanted the keys asap to where they wanted to enter my apartment when I was at work."
"They saw the hamster and said nothing as I saved them $1000s from having to change locks."
- Moeman101
"I was touring an apartment and on the screening call they asked if I had any pets. I was honest and said that I was a teacher and I have a guinea pig class pet. The school turns off the heat at night, so he comes home with me each day. No problem with that."
"I get there for the tour, and everyone in the leasing office is looking at me weirdly, including the person I was meeting with, who was a parent in the classroom next door."
"She asks me about pets and seems apprehensive, and I tell her it’s just Jigsaw the guinea pig that her son is obsessed with."
"She gets this moment of realization, cracks up, and excuses herself."
"I then hear her in the back room of the office saying, 'Guys! It’s not a pot bellied pig, it’s a GUINEA PIG!'"
"Yeah, whoever did the phone screening only wrote 'pig' on the form and they thought I was bringing an animal right off the farm. The leases didn’t specify no farm animals, so they would have accepted me with a farm pig, but alas, I just had my dumb-as-rocks piglet."
"When she returned, she tore up the pet paperwork, waived all fees, thanked me for giving the leasing office some excitement, and made me promise to let her know if I ever decided to upgrade to a larger pig variety."
- IntrovertedGiraffe
"Oooh, I had a good one happen. It was my first apartment, and my girlfriend’s friend dumped a kitten on me as a birthday present because she’d heard me talking about getting a cat and found a box of them on the side of the road. (I loved that cat, but don’t do this kids.)"
"It took six months before the property manager managed to catch sight of the cat in the window while walking the property. I got an email asking about it, I lied and said I just got the cat and hadn’t had a chance to notify them yet, they said cool the pet deposit is $200. So I cut them a check and dropped it off at the office, expecting that to be that."
"Two weeks later, I get a knock at the door. It’s the property manager with a pet gift basket, telling me that my cat was the reason they caught an employee embezzling tens of thousands of dollars. The off-cycle check knocked over the precarious tower of cards one of the receptionists had been maintaining, and it all came tumbling down. Kitty got lots of treats that night, lol (laughing out loud)."
- wayfaringpanda
"I lived in a small basement apartment and rescued a sick, elderly cat. He wasn't capable of jumping up into the windowsills so I didn't have to worry about that. I came home one night around 3:00 AM and caught the building supervisor (lived across the hall from me) taking out trash and there was a cat standing in the doorway."
"We both froze for a moment and then I told him I'd keep quiet about his secret cat if he would let me hide mine during inspections and he agreed."
"Now we have a couple of nearly identical cats so they get merged into a single pet on applications. My spouse and I have started collecting letters about our cleanliness as pet owners whenever we move to give to the next landlord and so far it's worked out well."
- kestrel63
"I had a friendly stray cat, probably a pet someone dumped, who decided to move into my place when I was renting while in grad school. The landlord was very hands off and very rarely came around, but after I'd had this cat for months, he did stop in because my AC was broken."
"I'd planned on making sure the cat was outside when the landlord was going to come by, but then he just popped up unannounced. Because it was hot as hell inside my house, I'd opened my doors for air circulation."
"Landlord walks in and sees the cat lounging on my living room floor, and he was like, 'Oh, I didn't know you had a cat.' I looked that man dead in the eye and said, 'I don't know that cat.' I don't know if he believed me or not, but he shrugged and nothing more was said about it. The cat and I continued living there for like three more years."
- SisterShiningRailGun
"At one apartment we lived at you could have cats but not dogs. I had a very large black cat. One day, I was bringing him home from the vet and carried him in my arms."
"The property manager saw me and when I went back out to my car to get his carrier and my purse the property manager told me I wasn't allowed to have dogs."
"When I told him I didn't have any dogs, he asked about the black dog he just saw me carrying. I laughed and told him that was my cat and he could come see if he wanted."
"He told me it was alright and that he believed me. Weeks later, the property manager saw me and told him he saw my cat on the balcony one day, and it was one of the biggest cats he had ever seen."
- BiscottiLeading
"I had a landlord try that stunt on me! I told him about my cat and even had the cat’s name included on the lease. The landlord met the cat many times and the property manager had a picture of my cat on her office wall."
"I moved out after four years and my landlord said to me during our final walkthrough, 'Well, we still have to settle the issue with the cat. You never told me you had one so you owe me four years of pet rent.'"
"I was stunned!! He pulled out a fake lease that said I had no pets and if I wanted one, it was $50 a month. Luckily, I still had all my paper files with me and pulled out my copy, signed by both of us, with the cat’s name on it."
- batai2368
"My parents hid a cat from their landlord in their first apartment, which had a no-pets policy."
"The cat insisted on sleeping in a window where everyone could see her."
"Obviously, the landlord found out but he never said anything about it other than, 'That’s a pretty cat you’ve got there!'"
- areyoukiddingmern
"I never hid pets myself, but I worked in a nebulous leasing / maintenance role during college and had a couple run ins with unfriendly dogs that were not supposed to be in an apartment. Nothing like having a large dog appear out of nowhere to bark at you when you're just there to update the fire extinguisher."
"We also had people abandon pets we didn't know were there a number of times and that was always horrible to varying degrees. There were a couple times we found really starved animals and didn't know if they were neglected before or if the people bailed and didn't tell us."
- wolfhollow_
"I had a hamster in military barracks. I stole his wheel because it squeaked when we had room inspections and hid the cage under my sink (only during inspections, outside of that he has a wheel and sun!)."
"I was overseas so he was already old when I adopted him (families can basically drop off unwanted pets at the vet there for other families coming in to adopt as they come in), but he died before I was caught."
"We had a funeral for him and I painted a tea box black and we snuck out behind the laundry room and buried him under the cover of night and a friend sang a little song. RIP Sybil!!"
"I got a ferret next, but I left and gave him away before I was caught. Word got around I was getting away with it and this dumba** got a cat and did get caught. Standard military paperwork for being in trouble and had to get rid of the cat."
- MyCoolUsername12345
"My cats all look alike, so my landlord only knows about two; there are four. They sit in the windows, never all at once, so I can't deny I have them. I also have some life-size cat statues on my windowsills, so it looks like I have more."
"Management has checked but never saw my real cats, only the fakes, and they commented on how real they look."
- Blissful_Doll
"We were looking at an apartment and realized they didn’t take pets. At all. The owner really liked us; newly married, very polite. She asked if we had a picture of her. It was 1991, but I had a few wedding pictures and a couple of photos of Sammy in my purse."
"She said, 'She looks very small. Must be a miniature Siamese.'"
"I was like, 'No, just cat sized.'"
"She said, 'I’m CERTAIN she’s a miniature. I COULD ALLOW a miniature.'"
"So our lease says, Miniature Siamese, and she didn’t ask us to pay any extra."
"And that was what it was like in the olden days, kids!"
- BlackLakeBlueFish
From paying retroactive fees to be evicted, there are terrible possibilities for those who rent with a pet in a no-pet apartment.
Fortunately for many of these Redditors, many of their landlords were understanding. Sometimes all you need is to see a cute cat or dog to look the other way.
New Zealand, like many places that were colonized, is going through a moment of political conflict with regards to indigenous rights. And some of the country's Māori lawmakers knew just how to handle it in a recent parliamentary session.
During discussions of proposed legislation—The Treaty Principles Bill—that critics say would significantly infringe on indigenous land and cultural rights, legislator Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led her fellow lawmakers in a haka, a traditional Māori ceremonial dance.
The moment happened after Maipi-Clarke of the country's Māori Party of Aotearoa (New Zealand) was asked how she and her party intended to vote on the bill. In response, she tore up a copy of the bill and launched into the dance in a powerful moment that has left progressives worldwide cheering.
The moment quickly reached a fever pitch as members of Parliament of multiple parties as well as spectators in the chamber's gallery joined in with the chants and movements in a stunning act of solidarity, to the ire of figures like Speaker of the House of Representatives Gerry Brownlee, who rolled his eyes.
Brownlee also retaliated by suspending Maipi-Clarke, who at 22 is the country's youngest-ever Member of Parliament, for the rest of the day.
Maipi-Clarke's haka comes amid waves of protest throughout New Zealand over the bill, which seeks to eliminate land use laws, government seats, health care provisions and cultural preservation rules under the Treaty of Waitangi.
That treaty was signed in 1840 by more than 500 Māori leaders, and its provisions were an exchange for allowing British colonists to govern.
The new legislation, The Treaty Principles Bill, seeks to reinterpret the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is not expected to pass, but has sparked outrage across New Zealand, including a nine-day march expected to culminate Tuesday in the capital of Wellington.
On social media, many were deeply inspired by Maipi-Clarke and the haka protest she led, especially in these times of creeping fascism worldwide.
The Māori people in New Zealand have lit the spark of revolution felt around the world
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— The Serfs (@theserfstv.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 5:58 PM
personally I support Māori women's right to be as mean as they want
— 🔻Bill Kezos🇵🇸🇱🇧🇾🇪🔻 (@billkezos.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 10:01 AM
New Zealand’s parliament was disrupted by Māori members staging a Haka during a contentious vote over the reinterpretation of a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Māori. Simply superb scenes.
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— HLTCO (@hltco.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 10:43 AM
In these times of ascendant fascism, Maipi-Clarke's deeply affecting spectacle is the blueprint for resistance.
May we all learn to follow her lead.
