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A furniture convention might be what stops North Carolina's ridiculous anti-LGBT law.

High Point, North Carolina, isn't just home to the world's largest chest of drawers.

That's it? Photo by Cmalaspina/Wikimedia Commons.


It's also the site of the High Point Market: a multibillion-dollar biannual furniture expo.

Contrary to popular belief, the expo sells lots of furniture, not just one really cool couch for $5 billion. Photo by PoshSurfside.com/Flickr.

And while a furniture convention might seem like an odd leader in the fight against anti-LGBT discrimination, well .... we live in odd times.

The executive committee of the High Point Market released a sternly-worded statement Monday, warning the North Carolina state government of the intense economic backlash brewing in response to the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act.

The law, signed last week by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory...

Pat is having a hard day. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

...forces transgender people to use the restroom that corresponds to their sex as assigned at birth.

"Based on the reaction in just the last few days, hundreds and perhaps thousands of our customers will not attend Market this April," the High Point Market statement read.

The law, the convention's organizers argue, would put the expo's $5 billion annual contribution to the state economy at risk.

The backlash against the law, which was passed so quickly it took many by surprise, continues to grow.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images.

According to a CNN Money report, the state of New York has already banned, "non-essential travel to North Carolina by state agencies." The mayor of Seattle has banned travel from his city to the state as well.

The NBA released a statement indicating it may pull the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte. The NCAA suggested it might do the same with its annual March Madness tournament.

American Airlines, Lowe's, Biogen, and PayPal — all of which have large presences in North Carolina, or are planning to expand to the state — denounced the law.

And the good news? If recent history is any guide, the pressure just might work.

A combination of business and activist pressure helped to convince Indiana to moderate its anti-LGBT "religious freedom" law last year.

Opposition from Disney, the NFL, Coca-Cola, and others helped to convince Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to veto a similar bill a few weeks ago.

Will the same strategy work in North Carolina? If nothing else, the state's legislators are finding out what the people of High Point know all too well:

Seriously. Photo by Cmalaspina/Wikimedia Commons.

You don't mess with the chest.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

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A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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