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Former airline employee shares her top hack to make your flight day so much simpler

This is also a game-changer for the people coming to pick you up.

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Gustavo Fring/Pexels

One text can make your flight day much easier.

There's no question that booking and tracking flights has gotten so much easier with the advent of the internet and smartphones, but there's a little-known travel hack that makes navigating your actual flight day even simpler.

TikTok creator Darby (@durbinmalonster) shared the No. 1 flight hack she learned when she worked for the airline industry in a video that's been viewed nearly 10 million times in one day. In the caption, she wrote that she learned this trick seven years ago, so it's remarkable that more people aren't aware of it, but that often seems to be the case with iPhone features in particular.

If you have an iPhone (don't worry, Android users, we'll get to your workaround in a moment), and you want to be able to access to your specific flight updates and all of your flight information—including gate and baggage claim numbers—in one click, all you have to do is text yourself your flight number.

The flight number in the text becomes a link. When you click on it, all your real-time flight info comes up. You can also send it to someone who is coming to pick you up so they have easy access to your updated flight info without having to look it up or download an app or anything.

The only two caveats are: 1) It has to include the airline code, so if your flight was American Airlines flight 387, you'd type "AA387" or if it was Alaska flight 294, you'd type "AS294." And 2) Only use this hack the day of your flight, since airlines will often reuse the same flight numbers. If you do it the day before, you might get updates for the wrong flight.

Watch Darby demonstrate how it works:

@durbinmalonster

S/O @Brooke Webster for teaching me this in my bag loading days 7 years ago

Some people were blown away simply by the fact that you can text yourself. Apparently, this is also not common knowledge. As one person wrote, "I’ve learned more on TikTok than 8 years in college."

Some people shared that they text their flight number every time they fly and love it.

"I’ve always done this and made family share with me when they’re flying. My partner didn’t have time between flights once to send his connecting flight in a rush and I was able to find his new flight," shared one person.

"I do this all the time and it’s even better than having the airlines App," offered another. (A lot of people said, "You can just use the airline's app!" but people don't always fly the same airline and there's a good chance you're going to be using your texting app already at the airport, so it's more seamless this way. Plus the benefit of being able to easily text it to someone else.)

"Omg this is so much easier than flight tracker," wrote another.

"Ty but I prefer printing my boarding pass at the kiosk and spending the rest of the time frantically trying to relocate my boarding pass and rechecking the info on it and asking ppl where my gate is," another person joked.

If you're an Android phone user, there's a similar hack that's just one extra step. You can type your flight number into Google, grab the link that comes up, and text that to yourself. Any time you want to check your flight status, just click the link in your texts. And if someone is coming to pick you up, you can text them that same link so they can track your flight in real time.

Technology can make our lives so much better when we actually know how to use it. Thank you, Darby, for the valuable lesson.

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Pop Culture

'Wheel of Fortune' fans left shocked after contestant wins $50,000 solving impossible puzzle

“How in the world did you solve that last one?” asked host Ryan Seacrest.

Wheel of Fortune/Youtube

That was quite impressive.

Listen, while we all love a hilarious Wheel of Fortune fail, watching an epic win can be just as entertaining. And that’s exactly what recently happened on The Wheel when a contestant named Traci Demus-Gamble made a winning puzzle solve so out-of-nowhere that it made host Ryan Seacrest jokingly check her for a hidden earpiece.

In a clip posted to the show’s YouTube account Friday, Jan. 17, Demus-Gamble waved to her husband who was standing on the sidelines before going up to the stage for her next challenge: guess a four-word “phrase.”

Demus-Gamble wasn’t off to a great start, as only two of her given letters (“T” and “E”) made it to the board. And the odds didn’t improve much after Demus-Gamble, admittedly “nervous,” gave the letters “M,” “C,” “D,” and “O” and only two of those letters showed up once on the board.

“Again, not too much more, but who knows, you’ve had a lot of good luck tonight,” Seacrest said. “Maybe it’ll strike you.”

Then, all in under ten seconds (more like in 1.5 seconds), Demus-Gamble correctly guessed, “They go way back” like it was nothing.

Watch the incredible moment below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

As the audience cheered, Seacrest playfully circled Demus-Gamble, as though searching for an earpiece that must have fed her the winning guess. Down in the comments, people were equally floored.

“Now THAT was an amazing solve.”

“Wow! That was impressive!”

“I couldn't solve that one to save my life, but Demus-Gamble got it like it was nothing.”

“There's only one way to describe this to me: 😦”

At the end of the clip, Seacrest opened the envelope to reveal that Demus-Gamble’s puzzle solve won her $50,000, earning her a total win of $78,650. Certainly not chump change.

As for her winning strategy—Demus-Gamble assured no cheating was involved. “I just dug deep," she told Seacrest. We’ll say.

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Health

Brené Brown shares her heartfelt thoughts on how long grief should last

Some comfort for those dealing with loss.

via Wikimedia Commons

Author, researcher, and storyteller Brené Brown.

One of the most challenging things about dealing with grief is the feeling that it will never end. After losing a loved one or at the end of a relationship, we feel that something is missing in our lives and fear that hole could remain forever.

This feeling of sorrow can linger for months while we cycle through the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

In extreme cases, people may be diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder in which they have intense feelings of grief that last all day and go on for many months. People with prolonged grief disorder may also have trouble in their personal, educational or work lives.

Psychological researcher Brené Brown shared her thoughts on the grieving process on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna in 2022 and they may be of comfort to anyone dealing with loss. Brown is known in particular for her research on shame, vulnerability, and leadership, and gained worldwide attention for her 2010 TEDx talk, "The Power of Vulnerability."

“How long does true grief last in the heart?” a fan asked Brown.

“As long as it takes,” Brown replied. “We live in a culture where people need us to move through our grief for the sake of their own comfort and grief does not have a timeline. It takes as long as it takes.

"And the best thing that we can do when we’re trying to support someone in grief is—my favorite question when I’ve got someone close to me who’s really grieving a lot is to say, ‘What does love look like right now? What does support look like right now?’” she said. “And sometimes they’ll hear, ‘You know what, can you run my carpool for me on Wednesday? Can I cuss and scream at you on the phone twice a week?’”

Brown said that she loved the question because “I don’t have the answer because not having the answer is the answer. It takes as long as it takes.”

How can people best comfort those who are grieving? Brown believes it’s all about being compassionate by understanding that all people have the ability to feel prolonged pain.

“There’s a definition of compassion in Atlas of the Heart, from Pema Chödrön, the American Buddhist nun, that says, ‘Compassion is not a relationship between the wounded and the healed. It’s a relationship between equals.’ It’s knowing your darkness well enough that you can sit in the dark with others,” Brown said.

The grieving process is complicated and not everyone goes through the steps in the same order. After a long period of feeling better, some may also experience reawakened grief in which the pain crops up again.

The powerful point Brown makes is that people shouldn’t feel pressured to get over a significant loss in their life and that if the process may be taking longer than expected, they're still OK. In fact, avoiding grief may only make things worse.

If you are experiencing grief and feel it’s getting worse over time or interferes with your ability to function, consult a mental health provider.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

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Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. As time marches on, we're moving further and further away from the Victorian era and what life was like for the people living through it. Thankfully, though, relics have survived that are not just historical treasures, but connections our human family now since passed. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

While cars were just around the corner from being the common mode of transportation toward the end of the 19th century, it's pretty wild to imagine what these women experienced. Frances "Effy" Jones explained how, at age 17, she was encouraged by her brother to check out this new machine in a storefront window. Turns out that machine was a typewriter and, after being trained on how to use it, Jones would sit in the store window typing while people outside gathered to watch. Before long, classes began popping up for women to learn how to use a typewriter, starting a new movement for women of that era.

The second woman, Berta Ruck, told the BBC that she would get into a bit of trouble at boarding school for drawing instead of completing school work. This talent took Ruck to art school in London where she rode buses around town, attempting to avoid mud getting on her long skirt. But Ruck explained that it never worked and she would spend hours brushing the mud from her skirt before wearing it out again. I'm sure you're thinking, buses? They weren't the buses we would see nowadays. These were double-decker horse-pulled carriages. It may be hard to imagine, but life was just as vibrant and bustling then as it is now. Check out the video below to learn more:


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Health

Woman kept getting alerts from her Apple watch about her heart. They wound up saving her life.

She felt fine. But the watch knew better.

via Pexels

Apple watch notifications saved this Maine woman's life.

In 2022 Kim Durkee, then 67, of Solon, Maine, told Today that she purchased an Apple watch two years ago to count her steps and to get help if she fell. But she ended up getting a lot more than that out of her watch. In fact, it wound up saving her life.

In May 2022, Durkee got an alert from her watch in the middle of the night that said she appeared to have an abnormal heart rhythm and suggested atrial fibrillation. "The message basically said something to the effect of, 'You are in a resting state but we noticed AFib,'" Durkee told News Center Maine.

The Mayo Clinic describes atrial fibrillation as an “irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm (arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots in the heart.” It increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications.

Durkee ignored the warning because she felt fine. “I didn’t have one single hint that there was something wrong in my body, not one,” Durkee told Today. But her Apple watch went on to wake her up three nights in a row from midnight to 4 a.m. So, she decided to go into the emergency room in early June.

Apple watches can be useful for monitoring one’s health but they shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for a regular checkup with a doctor. However, they are able to monitor the heart for irregularities and if they find an irregular rhythm five out of six times within 48 hours, users are sent an irregular rhythm notification.

As of 2025, however, a recent class action lawsuit filed against Apple has raised concerns about some Apple Watch wristbands, claiming they contain and expose wearers to harmful "forever chemicals" or PFAs. According to CNET, the lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court of Northern California about the Sport Band, Ocean Band, and Nike Sport Band containing harmful levels of PFAs and claims Apple was aware. Apple has denied these claims, however, and insists Apple Watches are safe to wear. In Durkee's case, it saved her life.

A 2020 study found that 34% of individuals who received a notification of arrhythmia were later found to have atrial fibrillation.

She told the doctor on duty that her Apple watch said she has AFib and he was a little skeptical. How could a watch replace the expertise of a heart specialist? “He looked at me, like, ‘Really, your watch told you you have AFib?’ Everybody in the hospital was amazed. I was like the talk of the hospital,” she said.

“He did some tests and he said, ‘Your watch is right, you’re in AFib,’” she added.

After an echocardiogram, the doctors also discovered that she had a myxoma tumor in her heart. These noncancerous tumors are rare, but they grow very rapidly. If the watch hadn’t notified her of her heart irregularity she could have been in real trouble.

On June 27, 2022, she underwent a five-hour open heart surgery and has since made a full recovery.

"I asked Dr. Osho in Boston who did the surgery and I also asked my doctor up here when I went for a check-up ... They both said the same thing, [that] I probably would've had a massive stroke, and they would've just said she died and they never would've known I had the myxoma," Durkee told News Center Maine.

"So, I'm very grateful to be alive. So, without that watch, I might not be having this conversation with you right now,” she told WCVB.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Woman on dinner date slipped mysterious note with a warning from two women sitting behind her

"We don’t pass notes unless we are warning you."

via Canva/Photos

A man and woman enjoying a nice night out.

Lindsay, a TikTok user named @CuteasCluck, recently found herself in a real conundrum while on a date at a restaurant. She was on her third date with a man she had previously met on Facetime and then went to dinner with. Now, while enjoying drinks after watching a sporting event, things were getting a little serious.

When Lindsay got up to go to the bathroom, she was approached by 2 women in their early 20s sitting directly behind her at the restaurant, who had got a good look at her date. “My hair was behind my back most of the time," Lindsay said. "So she like grabs my hair and is like, ‘oh my God. Your hair is so pretty, you’re so beautiful, I just had to stop you.'" While the woman was complimenting her, she handed her a crudely folded-up note. “‘I just wanted to give you this,’” the woman said.

WARNING: Video containsstrong language.

@cuteascluck

Overthinkers Anonymous member

Lindsay partially opened the note, and it read, “Just no!” A few words were scribbled beside it that she didn't have time to read before her date noticed. When she got to the bathroom, she read the remaining part of the note, which said, “You can do better.” When she returned to the table, her date asked her about the letter, and she brushed it off. But she couldn’t focus for the rest of the date because the note raised many questions.

Did he do something when I went off to the bathroom? Do they know him from around town? Could it be his age? She wondered to himself.

She asked her followers on TikTok for advice, and many made the same point: When a woman hands another woman a note at a bar, take it seriously. “We don’t pass notes unless we are warning you,” one of the top commenters wrote. “Any girl giving me a note secretly on a date, I’m gonna believe the girl. She felt compelled enough to get involved which means it’s something,” another added. “Gir,l it means no. It also means the details were probably going to heavily offend you,” another wrote.

In a follow-up video, Lindsay said that after dinner, she received a series of drunken texts from her date that sounded like a sales pitch, saying things like: "I think we're going to be together, facts are facts," and "Any girl that is going to miss out on me, she's going to miss out. She needs to jump on this right now," and called her "jaded." The next day, he apologized and noted that he didn't know the girl who passed the note but said, "She must somehow know my ex or something."

@cuteascluck

Replying to @~♡MimiJulee♡~ #greenscreen I asked him about the note😱😱

The commenters on the video thought the red flags were now piling up. “Sales pitchy drunk texts after date two are reason enough for you to run and not look back,” a commenter wrote. “Too many red flags this soon,” another added.

In the final video of the series — unless the women who handed the note come forward — Lindsay says that she ended things with the man she was dating after receiving the drunk texts. Coupled with the warning on the note, it was enough for her to believe the guy was bad news. Ultimately, although Linday may never know why the woman gave her the note, it served a very important purpose: her date’s reaction to it exposed him as being unhinged and agressive. It's terrific that Lindsay could realize this before things got too serious.

@cuteascluck

Friendly reminder to those who know I’m a rambler, 2x speed 💁🏻‍♀️🥰




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