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Before You Say Corporations Don't Do Anything Good, Check Out Who Got These Dogs A Home
Anything that helps animals find a loving home gets an A+ from me. And fashionable animals? Well, that's just icing on the cake. Er, rawhide?
11.18.13
From the silly to the sentimental, there are so many ways people like to go “all in” on something. Here are our five favorite examples this week.
When you hear the words “all in,” what do you think? If you’ve read our last week's article, you might say lip syncing in the car so passionately that the car flips (special effects included). We've found that going "All In" can also be something heartfelt and magical, like not giving up on your lifelong dreams and becoming a figure skater at the age of 49.
Going “All In” is about doing what is special to you, whether it’s a lifelong goal or accidentally being way too passionate. Our friends at All In Food ask you what you “go all in” on? They’re all in on good ingredients, giving back to the community, and with this article, finding the best stories of people who go “All In” every week.
There’s nothing better than a bit of nostalgia to start your day. Let’s paint a picture: the year was 2016, and a young man in a red shirt placed an unsolved Rubik's cube in a bag. The next second he pulled it out: SOLVED. Someone in the crowd called out, “There are two Rubik's cubes in the bag!” What happened next was truly amazing, and the audiences reaction did not disappoint. You’ll have to watch the video yourself to see how the audience went "all in" with their response.
This company is all about going all in, so much so it's called All In Food. These bars are packed with fiber and delicious ingredients, making for the perfect snack bar. For the last few months, All In bars have been available by the pack in three delicious flavors at Sprouts Farmers Market. As of this week, they have an exciting launch at the Sprouts "New For You Destination," so you can buy them as a single bar.
Now, you might be wondering, "Is this bar for me?" And just like dating, you need to try it to know for sure! So get out there and give it a go! You might be All In on the best snack bar too. And to give you that push, All In is giving you a free bar; just snap a pic of your receipt, and you’ll be reimbursed through the Aisle app!
This trailer for the film, “LISTENERS: A Glimpse into Extreme Birdwatching” has got me hooked. This film is about the non-stop, action-packed game of birdwatching, aka "birding." One thing's for certain: bird watchers go all in. Before you judge, take a look at the trailer; you might be surprised by the competitive edge that the sport has garnered. I might not be All In on birdwatching just yet, but you can count me in on watching this completely free documentary on YouTube.
@gbrotherson So this happened today! Best Day Ever! @Atlanta Falcons
Last on our list, we have proof that dance and sports don’t need to be mutually exclusive; a man can do both (yes, I’m talking to you, Chad from High School Musical 2). This video of a man dancing at an Atlanta Falcons football game is truly a great time all around. Gary Brotherson, a self-proclaimed “Jorts and Slides enthusiast,” according to his Tik Tok bio, went all in with his energetic dance moves while he was caught on the stadium fan cam.
Thank you for rounding us out this week Gary. We can't wait to see what the internet is going all in on next week!
Snag your free (!!) snack bar here while this deal lasts. Just pick up a bar at Sprouts and text a pic ofv your receipt to get it for free. Enoy!
He looks so confused.
A waiter talking with his hands.
One of the great things about America is that we have a relatively young culture, so many of the foods that we eat were brought over from other countries. That makes America a great place to try out all the different types of food from around the world.
However, we also like to put our own stamp on staples from around the globe that give the American version its own unique flair. Some foods that we claim originated overseas were actually first made right here in the U.S. of A. For example, chimichangas, which can be found in many Mexican restaurants, actually originated in the state of Arizona. Crab Rangoon, a popular “Chinese” dish, was actually invented in San Francisco, and spaghetti and meatballs were never a thing in Italy.
TikTok creator Gabby Donahue posted a video that’s the perfect example of how some ethnic foods get remixed once they become popular in the States. In a video with over 7 million views, her father shows a waiter in Italy a photo of chicken parmesan from Olive Garden so he can order it at the restaurant. The waiter's reaction is an excellent example of someone trying to be polite while he cannot believe what he is seeing.
“My Boston Irish father trying to order a Google image of the Olive Garden chicken parm in Italy,” Donahue wrote in the text overlay.
@gabbydonahuee @Olive Garden ‘s biggest fan 😭😭😭😭 #italy #cultureshock #chickenparm #olivegarden
When the father showed the picture to the waiter, he seemed a bit confused about the image. “Only in the States,” he said. “It doesn’t exist in Italy.” The father couldn’t believe what he was hearing: “It doesn’t exist in Italy?”
“I don’t know what it is…on the pasta?” the waiter said, trying to make sense of the chicken breast smothered in cheese and sauce. The waiter gave his final verdict while holding his chin: “No. That’s horrible.”
“Horrible? Wow. Look at that. That doesn’t,” the father laughed. “That looks good… but,” the waiter shrugged off the father. “It does look good,” the father continued. “It tastes good. I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna mail you some. I’ll send it to you.”
“Okay? Olive Garden chicken, I’m gonna search,” the waiter said, walking away from the table.
Chicken parm was meant to be served on a breadstick. It's official. pic.twitter.com/hKz7ifMZ4f
— Olive Garden (@olivegarden) June 15, 2015
The commenters had a field day analyzing the waiter’s body language. “‘No, that looks good’ while looking completely disgusted was the most Italian reaction ever,” one commenter wrote. “Bro remembered halfway through his disgust that he’s at work,” another added.
It’s not crazy that an American would think that chicken parmesan is an Italian dish; after all, it’s served in most Italian-American restaurants. However, according to Paesana, it was created in America by the Italian diaspora.
“In the Old World, that’s Italy prior to the Italian diaspora—the large-scale emigration of Italians from Italy to America—proteins like chicken were not widely available," according to an article on the site. "As such, the prototypical chicken parmigiana was actually made with breaded, fried slices of eggplant in place of chicken for a dish called melanzane alla Parmigiana."
Even though chicken parmesan didn’t originate in the old country, Pasquale Sciarappa, a popular Italian-born food influencer living in America, has no problem cooking the dish.
"'That’s not Italian!’ I hear this every time I share a dish like Chicken Parmigiana. And you know what? They’re right — it’s not something you’d traditionally find in Italy. But you know what else is true? It’s Italian-American. It was born in immigrant kitchens — from people who left Italy, landed in the U.S., and made do with what they had. They took inspiration from dishes like melanzane alla parmigiana and recreated comfort from memory using what was available,” he wrote.
It’s understandable that an American could go to Italy without knowing that something he’d had in Italian restaurants wasn’t actually from Italy. It’s understandable for an Italian server to balk at a photo of a dish served in an American restaurant that you’d find in a shopping mall.
But we should all agree that one of the wonderful things about American culture is that it's an amalgamation of different cultures stirred around in the same pot, and if that means we get a fresh variation on the burrito, a new way to eat Chinese crab, or a tasty piece of chicken where eggplant used to be, the more the better.
"Here's a powerful game I love to play when I want to instantly deepen my relationship with someone."
A man and a woman talking in a store.
Is there someone in your life that you see often, but your interactions are merely surface-level small talk? You either talk about the weather, what you watched on television last night, or the people you know in common? It could be a coworker you run across in the kitchen, your brother’s new girlfriend that you’ve never really connected with, or that neighbor you always see at other people’s parties that you never have much to say to.
To build a deeper bond and cut through the veneer of small talk, communications expert Vinh Giang suggests you invite them for a round of an old theater game: High, Low, Buffalo. Giang, a keynote speaker who teaches communication and presentation skills, also performs magic.
“Here's a powerful game I love to play when I want to instantly deepen my relationship with someone,” he writes on Instagram. “It's called High, Low, Buffalo, a game commonly played in the world of theatre, and it allows you to discover three topics of conversation. High is something going great, low is something challenging you're going through, and buffalo is something interesting about you."
1. What is something that’s going great for you right now?
2. What is a challenge you’re facing these days?
3. What’s something unique about you?
Giang says you should invite the person to the game, which may take a little courage. But anyone you work with, live near, or has just joined your family would probably never say no. He starts the game with a little script: “This might seem a little bit strange, but I really want to get to know you. I love this game called High Low Buffalo. Could I quickly play this game with you? Is that okay?”
At first, it may seem like a big ask in order to build a deeper connection. However, the game is predicated on one of the basic rules that all communications experts know: just about everyone loves to talk about themselves. Studies show that one of the easiest ways to become more likable is to ask people multiple questions and let them talk for most of the time.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The High, Low, Buffalo game is also handy because it creates multiple potential conversation threads and topics for you and your conversation partner to expand on.
“The moment you do this, you build instant rapport, and then when you're in rapport, they will then ask you about your threads," Giang says in a YouTube video explaining the game. "This is the power and and if they don't ask you about your threads, then you bring your threads in."
Two women enjoying a coffee.via Canva/Photos
For those who are a little reluctant to ask their new friend or coworker to play the game, the basic questions are still great for elevating your small talk. The questions are open-ended, which allows your conversation partner to go beyond a simple yes-or-no answer and to open up and talk about themselves.
Ultimately, building your conversational skills is a great way to improve your career, social life, or romantic relationships. For those who feel they’re just not a natural at conversation, Giang's methods show that just about anyone can become a great conversationalist by learning a few simple tools and a bit about human nature.
"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky."
English words that are difficult to enunciate.
The English language is hard to master, even for native speakers. With over an estimated one million words in the language, not only are English words hard to memorize—they can be hard to properly pronounce and enunciate. Getting tripped up with pronunciation can make your communication unclear, or worse—make you sound uneducated.
As American English teacher Vanessa explains, many mispronounced words are common and used in daily conversation due to tricky consonants and vowels in English words. But by knowing the proper pronunciation, it can help you become a more confident speaker, which is why she shared 33 words that are hard for English language learners to pronounce, such as "probably," "drawer," and "sixth."
On the subreddit r/words, a person posed the question: "What's a word you've noticed many native English speakers have difficulty enunciating even though the word is used fairly often?"
Turns out, there are a menagerie of words people notoriously stumble over. These are 27 English words that people say are the hardest to enunciate.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky." - common_grounder
"Rural." - Silent-Database5613
“'Nucular' for nuclear." - throwawayinthe818
"Remuneration v renumeration (first one is correct)." - RonanH69
"February. It sounds like you're pronouncing it like it's spelled Febuary. But it's spelled February." - SDF5-0, ShadedSpaces
"Mirror. Some people pronounce it 'meer'." - weinthenolababy, diversalarums
"Anthropomorphize is a word I have to use semi-frequently with limited success each attempt." - ohn_the_quain
"I can’t say the phrase 'rear wheel' without considerable effort." - ohn_the_quain
"Eraser (erasure, but they're talking about the pink rubber thing)." - evlmgs
- YouTube www.youtube.com
"Exacerbated vs exasperated." - SNAFU-lophagus
"'Asterisk'. A lot of people wind up inadvertently name-checking Asterix. I think it's best for those who struggle to use the alternative name for that punctuation mark, the 'Nathan Hale', after the American patriot who famously declared, 'I can only regret that I have but one asterisk for my country!'" - John_EightThirtyTwo
"I realized recently I have always mispronounced mischievous. It's mis-chiv-us, not mis-chee-vee-us. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone pronounce that correctly." - callmebigley"
'Supposebly' [supposedly]. Drives me up the wall." - BlushBrat
"Library. My coworker knows I hate it, so he’ll say Liberry every time." - Jillypenny"ET cetera, not 'ect' cetera. I think people are used to seeing the abbreviation etc and since there is no diphthong tc in English their mind bends it into ect." - AdFrequent4623
"The amount of people who say Pacific when they're trying to stay specific is pretty alarming. I'm not even sure if they know it's a different word sometimes." - Global-Discussion-41
"Then there was my old boss who would confidently and consistently use the word tenant when he meant tenet." - jaelith"
"Probably." - Rachel_Silver
"Contemplate. It's one of those word I hear people stumble over more than anything, often it comes out as Comtemplate, Contempate or a combination of both." - megthebat49
- YouTube www.youtube.com
"Turmeric. People drop the first R. It drives me nuts!" - Jillypenny
"Oh, and it’s espresso, no X [ex-presso]." - Jillypenny
"Also cardamom with an N." - nemmalur
"Pumpkin (punkin)." - evlmgs
sipping modern family GIF Giphy
"Crayon 👑. My ex pronounced it 'cran'. Drove me up a wall." - rickulele, premeditatedlasagna
'Mute' for moot. A good friend of mine, who's extremely intelligent and articulate otherwise, says that. Unfortunately, it's a word she likes to use. I haven't had the heart to tell her she's pronouncing it incorrectly, and it's been three decades." NewsSad5006, common_grounder
"Jewelry." - weinthenolababy
"I hear grown adults calling wolves woofs and they're not doing it to be funny." - asexualrhino
"You'll really name your son anything, huh?"
Honestly, most of us would have reacted this way.
It started like any ordinary pharmacy errand. A Michigan woman named Sarah was waiting at CVS to pick up a prescription for her “son.” When another woman waiting in line overheard the name of her “son,” she apparently couldn’t help but let out an unsolicited opinion.
“You’ll really name your son anything, huh?” the woman said with a sigh.
The name in question? Whiskey.
At least it wasn't Bubbles. Photo credit: Canva
Now, if you’re picturing a tiny human in a onesie named after your dad’s favorite Friday-night drink, and feeling a little baffled in the process, don’t worry. So was everyone else.
Except Whiskey isn’t a little boy. He’s a red golden retriever.
Yep. Sarah’s “son” is of the four-legged variety, currently undergoing cancer treatments and racking up a pharmacy bill that could rival a small country’s GDP. She and her husband get his prescriptions filled at their local CVS because (fun fact) many human and animal meds are the same, just at different doses.
You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. media4.giphy.com
As Sarah explained to Newsweek, this strategy saves them a few bucks, but can certainly lead to some incredible misunderstandings.
In her TikTok video, which has now been watched over 3 million times, Sarah retold this CVS name-shaming incident, and viewers collectively lost it.
@sarahwithscrubs I should’ve thrown in I was picking up his cancer meds too lol 🤭😂 #fyp #foryoupage #storytime #dogs #smallcreator ♬ original sound - sarah renee
One commenter shared, “I was shaming you too until you said dog!” Another wrote, “I mean, Whiskey is a horrible name for a child 😂 But for a dog? Okay lol.”
However, a few folks came to Sarah’s defense. One person noted, “There are women named Brandi—what’s wrong with Whiskey?” Another admitted, “in my 49 years I didn't know CVS filled pet meds!"
It’s the kind of mix-up that reminds us how funny life can be when the human and animal worlds collide. Because let’s face it: Whiskey the dog? Adorable. Whiskey the toddler? Maybe… less so. It might be a mostly unspoken rule, but a rule nonetheless.
As for what became of that misunderstanding, Sarah shared that when the other woman called Whiskey a "horrible" name for a child to grow up with that could lead to getting bullied in school, Sarah quipped back with "Well, he's a dog. So I don't think so." Upon that realization, Sarah told Newsweek that she “apologized very nicely” once she learned that Whiskey was, in fact, a dog.
As Sarah put it, the stranger “just left in a hurry, probably to think about her actions later.”
Meanwhile, TikTok is still chuckling, and celebrating one very good boy with a name that fits him perfectly.
Moral of the story: some names are meant for baby humans, like Zach or Emma. Others are for the fur babies who greet you at the door with a wagging tail and oodles of love…like Whiskey. 🐾🥃
What do you mean the same exact word can have two completely opposite meanings?
Contronyms prove that the English language is all about wordplay.
The English language has so many words and grammar rules that make it unique. Growing up taking English classes, kids are taught the basics like synonyms (words with the same or similar meaning), antonyms (words with opposite meanings), and idioms (a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of its words).
But there is another grammar term to describe words and their meaning that you might have missed during your school years: contronyms. As defined by Merriam Webster, a contronym is "is a word that is its own opposite—like 'fast', which can describe both quick movement, and lack of movement."
Contronyms are referred to as 'Janus words' after the Roman God Janus who is depicted with a double faced head, notes Britannica—a fitting symbol for contronyms that have double and opposite meanings within one singular word.
@iamthatenglishteacher Have you ever heard of contronym? They’re words that contradict themselves depending on context or form! I introduced my students to this fascinating concept by listing words like ‘fine’ (meaning both ‘good’ and ‘a penalty’) and ‘backup’ (as one word vs. two words). My students guessed terms like #synonym, #antonym, and #homonym but were shocked to discover a new category: contradicts! Watch to learn more about this mind-blowing language quirk and see how I made this lesson fun and engaging for my class! #contranym #FunWithWords #GrammarLesson #grammar #LanguageLearning #Antonym #MiddleSchoolTeacher #ESLLesson #WordPlay #EnglishTeacher #CreativeTeaching #ViralLesson #WordOfTheDay #English #HomonymVsAntonym #GrammarFun #TeachersOfTikTok #EducationalContent
Contronyms are words that have "developed contradictory meanings," and continue to make English a complex and mind-blowing language to speak and learn. As one person noted in an Reddit subforum r/words,, "And this is what makes English as a second language so challenging. That, and idioms."
These are 26 contronyms you should know for your next grammar challenge or discussion.
Dust: To sprinkle fine particles
Dust: To remove fine particles
Model: An excellent example
Model: A copy
Buckle: To fasten something with a buckle
Buckle: To collapse from pressure
Puzzle: A problem
Puzzle: Trying to solve a problem
Trip: To go to a place
Trip: To stumble or fall
Lease: To rent a property
Lease: To make property available for rent
Handicap: An advantage provided to ensure equality
Handicap: A disadvantage that prevents equal treatment
Overlook: To supervise
Overlook: To neglect
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Clip: To attach something with a clip
Clip: To remove something
Strike: To hit
Strike: To miss hitting something
Garnish: to enhance (as in food)
Garnish: to reduce (as in wages)
Wind up: To come to a conclusion
Wind up: To start something
Cleave: To split
Cleave: To adhere
Bolt: To secure something using a bolt
Bolt: To run away
Trim: To decorate
Trim: To take off excess
Rent: To pay for the use of something
Rent: To accept payment for the use of something
Fine: Of excellent quality
Fine: Acceptable or good enough
Bill: Money
Bill: An invoice for payment
Sanction: To approve
Sanction: To boycott
Custom: A common practice
Custom: A special treatment
Fast: Secured in one place
Fast: Moving quickly
Weather: To withstand
Weather: To slowly deteriorate
Rock: A shaking or unsettling movement
Rock: Something that projects strength and serenity
Out: Visible, as with stars showing in the sky
Out: Invisible, in reference to lights
Left: The state of having departed
Left: What remains after something or someone is removed
First degree: Most severe in the case of a murder charge
First degree: Least severe in reference to a burn