You'll never look at gas station coffee the same way again.
Get ready to feast your eyes on a budget-friendly treat that “blends a high-brow treat with the realities of an American road trip.”
In a now-viral video, Samantha Brown, host of the PBS show Places to Love, recently debuted what she called a “gas station affogato.”
Rather than a scoop of vanilla ice cream drowning in fresh espresso, Brown opens the lid of her gas station coffee, then dips an ice cream sandwich in it.
“Ya make the affogato in your mouth," quips Brown, just before demonstrating. All while using the air pump machine as a table, no less.
Brown also argues that this is an incredibly easy way to feel “fancy” and maybe even combat a little travel envy if “you’re seeing everyone in Italy, Positano, the Amalfi Coast,” or [insert the exotic locale you’re longing for here].
This folksy, frugal summer snack has quickly gained a lot of love online from viewers who hailed her "the people's princess” for sharing the tip.
“Road trip across Ohio and Pennsylvania coming up,” one person wrote. “I need to try that!! And dream of the Amalfi Coast.”
“Not the travel tip I asked for, but it is the travel tip I needed,” said another.
Still a third joked that Brown “coulda frothed your milk with the air station there.”
Another person shared, “as someone who’s crushed I couldn’t go to Italy this summer, this is priceless.”
Proving necessity really is the mother of invention, Brown shared with Today that the idea came about a decade ago when a coffee ice cream craving hit while she herself was on a road trip. Well, it wasn’t so much a craving as it was needing something to soothe not only being “tired, hot” and in the presence of her 12-year-old twins who weren’t having the best time in that moment.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Brown recalled, and she quickly decided to put the two simple things together to create something that truly satisfied…all for a couple of bucks. She’s been indulging in gas station affogatos ever since.
If you’re looking to enjoy your own gas station affogato, Brown has a few tips. For starts, do black coffee. “Dark roast, if they have it,” says Brown, then there’s the “key” ingredient—the ice cream sandwich. If you’re currently being tempted to swap it out for a “Klondike bar or a Chipwich,” Brown advises against it. Then again, you do you.
We all might be a little more budget conscious these days, meaning that those once-grand summer travel plans have been whittled down to quaint staycations. But having to be frugal often encourages us to be creative in how we explore—or in this case, consume—the world most immediately around us. In the process, we might find life is fun virtually no matter where you are be it the Amalfi coast, or at a gas station.
Optical illusions are wild. The way our brains perceive what our eyes see can be way off base, even when we're sure about what we're looking at. Plenty of famous optical illusions have been created purposefully, from the Ames window that appears to be moving back and forth when it's actually rotating 360 degrees, to the spiral image that makes Van Gogh's "Starry Night" look like it's moving.
But sometimes optical illusions happen by accident. Those ones are even more fun because we know they aren't a result of someone trying to trick our brains. Our brains do the tricking all by themselves.
The popular Massimo account on X shared a photo that appears to be a person and two dogs in the snow. The more you look at it, the more you see just that—two dogs and someone who is presumably their owner. Turn the photo every which way and it's still the same conclusion. That's a person and two dogs, right?
— (@)
But there are not two dogs in the photo. There are actually three dogs in this picture. Can you see the third?
Full confession time: I didn't see it at first. Not even when someone explained that the "human" is actually a dog. My brain couldn't see anything but a person with two legs, dressed all in black, with a furry hat and some kind of furry stole or jacket. My brain definitely did not see a black poodle, which is what the "person" actually is.
Are you looking at the photo and trying to see it, totally frustrated? The big hint is that the poodle is looking toward the camera. The "hat" on the "person" is the poodle's poofy tail, and the "scarf/stole" is the poodle's head.
Once you see it, it fairly clear, but for many of us, our brains did not process it until it was explicitly drawn out. This outline helps somewhat:
— (@)
As one person explained, the black fur hides the contours and shadows, so all our brains take in is the outline, which looks very much like a person facing away from us.
People's reactions to the optical illusion were hilarious. One person wrote, "10 years later: I still see two dogs and a man."
— (@)
Another person wrote, "I agree with ChatGPT :)" and shared a screenshot of the infamous AI chatbot describing the photo as having a person in the foreground. Even when asked, "Could the 'person' be another dog?" ChatGPT said it's possible, but not likely. Ha.
— (@)
One reason we love optical illusions is that they remind us just how very human we are. Unlike a machine that takes in and spits out data, our brains perceive and interpret what our senses bring in—a quality that has helped us through our evolution. But the way our brains piece things together isn't perfect. Even ChatGPT's response is merely a reflection of our human imperfections at perception being mirrored back at us. They say seeing is believing, but when what we interpret what we're seeing incorrectly, we end up believing things that might not be real.
Sure is fun to play with how our brains work, though. Also a good reminder that what we think we see, even with our own eyes, may not be an accurate picture of reality.
Diversity is the spice of life, they say. Our differences are what make us special, unique. But sometimes, you yearn for others to understand you in a way that simply can’t happen unless you ask them outright.
“What would you choose as the ONE concept you would make all men on the planet instantly understand, given the power to do so? Tell me about stuff that has nothing to do with men. That we can’t understand because we’re not even there!”
An unusual request with wonderful, thoughtful answers. Reddit
Women responded enthusiastically, sharing their day-to-day experiences, ranging from differences in health care to the intricacies of “that time of the month.” We’ve gathered 12 of the most highly voted answers, below.
1. Women are not a monolith
First things first, despite the prompt (and the intriguing answers it produced) women are not all the same. They do not think the same, feel the same, or have anything in common, solely based on their gender. The top-voted comment to this Reddit thread said as much, with a user writing:
“The biggest deficiency is not quite getting that we aren’t some hive mind or have some essential trait in common the differentiates us from men. We are no more of a puzzle to be figured out than any of your friends or acquaintances who are men. And just because you dated/met/saw on TikTok a woman who said or did X, that is no reflection on the next woman.”
“I am as unique from other people as you are. People often consider women to be a monolith or a hive mind. Absolutely not so. My experiences, opinions, moral codes, and answers are mine.”
“I have noticed that this whole ‘women are not funny’ myth leads to women (at least those around me) not loosing up and cracking jokes in environments different from the ones they feel safe in,” commented one user.
“Like, you know the class clown stereotype? It is rarely a woman. I also don’t see women making lots of jokes during work presentations or conferences, whereas some men freely use humor as a main tool to keep an audience engaged.”
Another person put even more plainly, writing:
“Women can be just as hilarious as men. In fact, I personally find women way more naturally and authentically funnier than men.”
3. Women are expected to be caregivers
Societal norms have long equated femininity with very specific traits, including to be nurturing, sensitive, and caregiving. From childhood, girls are frequently encouraged to play with dolls, help with chores, and model caregiving behaviors, while boys are rarely socialized in the same way. These expectations continue throughout a woman’s life—often, without their conscious knowledge of it—and they learn the lesson that caregiving is both their duty and moral obligation.
“I think that men often fail to understand the way that women are socialized to be 24/7 caregivers in a way that’s truly mind-blowing if you think about it,” starts another commenter.
She continues with an example:
“I’m sure you’ve seen a million conflicts where a wife is pissed off about something minor that her husband keeps doing, like, maybe he eats all her snacks without replacing them. She lets this go for a while, until she finally brings it up, and it’s a big emotional conversation. And he goes 'Well why didn’t you tell me? You need to communicate if I’m doing something that bothers you!' And everybody agrees that this whole problem was the wife’s responsibility to say something sooner.”
Even from a young age, girls are socialized to like and do certain things. Photo credit: Canva
4. Inequalities in healthcare
The Retrievals is a fascinating, heart-wrenching audio series by The New York Times, in which they tell the story of I.V.F patients at the Yale Fertility Clinic who experienced excruciating pain during a surgical procedure called egg removal. Despite their protests, no one believed them.
“Women’s pain is often downplayed by medical professionals or, more dangerously, told that their pain is ‘natural’ and ‘expected,’” writes one commenter.
“This mindset leads doctors to do procedures like IUD insertion without any sort of warning or pain management offered, which is barbaric. Or it leads to women downplaying their own pain, like from fibroids or PCOS or MS, because they’ve been told ‘oh, you’re supposed to be in debilitating pain.’”
Another woman echoed her experience, sharing:
“It’s so infuriating. I’ve had some serious and not so serious medical issues in my life, and I have yet to be taken seriously by even one doctor.”
5. Pregnancy
Over on r/AskWomenNoCensor, a similar discussion went on, this time, around the question, “What’s something men won’t be able to understand about women’s experiences without experiencing it themselves?”
The first answer?
Pregnancy.
“Pregnancy. Everything about it,” writes one woman.
“Not wanting it; wanting it; the body changes during; the decisions if you don’t want to carry it; birth; after-birth. So, so much!”
“A large body of research has documented that women are targeted for sexually objectifying treatment in their day-to-day lives more often than are men. Sexual objectification refers to the fragmentation of a woman into a collection of sexual parts and/or sexual functions, essentially stripping her of a unique personality and subjectivity so that she exists as merely a body. It is important to note that these experiences of sexual objectification occur outside of women’s personal control.”
Many commenters seemed to have experienced that phenomenon first-hand.
One person wished that men understood this better, writing: “We learn to self-monitor at such a young age. We view ourselves through a third-person perspective because we were conditioned to always see ourselves through the eyes of men and what they want.”
“This one just hit me hard,” another woman replied. “I never realized this, even tho I’ve known it all along. My god.”
7. It’s the little things
“The insidious social pressure to keep track of little things,” explains one user.
“Birthdays, appointments, animal care, where wallets and keys get tossed, arranging things with family, maintaining a comfortable home, meal planning, making sure I’m prepared for emergencies, how I look, how my friends are doing, what’s our budget look like this month, etc. It used to really bother me that my mom was always finishing things up before sitting down to eat with us, but I find myself doing the same thing. I’m so practiced in scanning the environment because if I don’t tend to the minute no one else will catch it, and I can’t physically relax knowing it’s waiting there for me.”
Being responsible for all the little things of life can be exhausting. Photo credit: Canva
8. Periods
Unsurprisingly, ‘periods’ was a frequent response, with one person writing, “I wish I could carry around the [period simulator] machine and attach it to guys to make them feel how it feels.”
Another person listed the different things women have to deal with on or around their period, including:
“I want to add the 'she’s on her period,’” they continue.
“Even if someone was menstrual 100% of the time, they still have a voice. What they say still matters. So many people will undercut another’s value with 'Oh, are you on your period?’”
9. “High maintenance”
Then there's of course, the infamous Pink Tax. This refers to the tendency for products marketed specifically toward women to be more expensive than those marketed toward men. On average, these products—including razors, deodorants, shampoos, and lotions—are, on average, 7–13% more expensive than similar items for men. In some studies, like the 2015 New York City Department of Consumer Affairs report, show that women’s products can cost thousands more over a lifetime for essentially identical products, differing only by color or packaging.
But even on top of that, the cost of maintaining a female body—haircuts, dry cleaning, makeup, skin care, nails, feminine hygiene products—all add up to an exorbitant amount.
“I wish men knew how expensive all that female cr*p is,” explained one commenter.
“I’m not talking about the pink tax — as for instance when I saw the identical set of tweezers in two kinds of packaging, one for women and one for men, and the women’s version cost $2 more — but just the sheer volume of crap you buy. Most of us don’t do it just for ourselves. Rarely do our jobs require it, but we get treated a lot better, and I don’t mean ‘straight men are hanging off me!’ better (and that’s not a good thing anyway), but as in ‘we don’t get ignored as much when we talk’ better. Of course, you have to walk the line of ‘attractive enough to tolerate’ and ‘attractive enough to make straight men blame you for their bad behavior.’
10. Don’t stand so close to me
“I think the largest gap in understanding between men and women is how truly scary it is for women (especially young women) to exist,” begins one woman.
“This is not to say that it’s not scary to be a man at times, but the fear experienced is different. Men tend to think of fear as being stabbed in a dark alley or being attacked by a bear in the forest, while for women it could be walking through a well-lit parking lot by themselves.”
She continues,
“I don’t think a lot of men realize that when they approach women, the woman is thinking about how much of a threat that man could be. Or walking down the street, how dangerous they appear.”
11. Postpartum
We’ve touched on periods and pregnancy, but what happens once the baby is born? Sunshine and rainbows, I assume?
Wrong.
“In my experience, postpartum depression takes the crown,” wrote one woman.
“I went through it and it was pure misery. Trying to take care of an infant while being in a mental health crisis is horrible. What’s more, my ex-husband didn’t believe me, said I probably saw something on TV and that I was just faking it. Part of the reason he’s my ex.”
“I think most men here on Reddit have no idea what actual women conversations and friendships are. So many men seem to think that women treat their friends like some extra brittle china dolls, never being sarcastic with them, or jokingly insulting, having to walk on eggshells around them, never having any banter, never saying what they actually think, etc. Do they really think that women can’t have a good banter with other women, be really blunt with each other and not get offended, jokingly hit each other or basically just have very diverse and different human relationships?”
There you have it: the 12 things women wish men would understand about them. Women are not a monolith; they are different and unique and can’t be grouped together just by gender. Life can be scary, in ways that men typically don’t have to think about. Women's lives are expensive. And we’re just people: flawed, funny, lazy, uncaring, loving—all of it. And at the end of the day, it’s a beautiful experience. It’s just like Shania Twain said: “Man, I feel like a woman (hey!)”
A woman sings "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac at karaoke.
On a hot Sunday in July, Carole Wade took the mic at a Dallas senior living facility where my mom lives. I happened to be visiting for the karaoke event, and the list of residents who couldn't wait to put their stamps on their favorite tunes was so long, the event had to be extended. ABBA's "Mamma Mia," David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo"—you name it, they sang it.
When it was Wade's turn, the microphone was brought to her table. She took it in her hands as though it was an extension of her fingers as the music cued up. Then, as she began to effortlessly sing "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac, the room got still. Frozen. All eyes were on her, and most of those eyes were wet. The lyrics, so beautifully fitting:
"Well, I've been afraid of changin' 'Cause I've built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, Even children get older, I'm getting old too."
A man sitting at our table took notice of how emotional I had become. He leaned over to say, "Never stop feeling the music."
I had the honor of chatting with Wade, who at 85, has been singing nearly her whole life. She got started in the business as a backup singer in Elvis impersonator groups in Dallas and surrounding areas. In and out of bands, playing Deep Ellum clubs and local hotels, she shares, "I've been singing since I was a small child. I've loved music all my life."
As luck would have it, she was at a jam session when she started harmonizing with other musicians. They would soon form her most recent band, Psychedelic Oatmeal. They officially stopped playing gigs when she was in her 70s, but they remain close. (She notes her bandmates were all much younger.)
Carole and her band mates.Carole Wade
They covered classic rock tunes from Stevie Nicks, The Eagles, Janis Joplin, and Led Zeppelin. Songs like "Me and Bobby McGee," "Seven Bridges Road," and "Whole Lotta Love." She laughs that most of the men in the band couldn't hit those Zeppelin high notes made famous by Robert Plant, so she took on the challenge—with great success.
They even branded themselves at gigs, making little Ziploc bags of oatmeal and glitter, which they would throw to the audience at shows. That is, until a club owner asked them to stop, as the oatmeal was mixing with spilled drinks, "creating goo."
Rare footage of Psychedelics Oatmeal.
The band Psychedelic Oatmeal plays in Dallas. www.youtube.com
Wade makes clear that music is her therapy. "If you're down on a certain day, it will bring you up." She has lived a full life, with two grown sons who are both excelling in life. But music, and the friends with whom she makes it, brings her that extra piece of joy and purpose.
Michael Hatcher, the Resident Services Director at The Reserve at North Dallas (the senior facility in which this event was held), has seen firsthand how music soothes seniors. It reconnects them to their purest selves, no matter how hazy their memories might become. Hatcher shares, "They remember the music, and the time. It's a vessel for anyone of age. It can be used to bring someone out of the deepest sun-downing and back to life."
A man sings "Just a Gigolo" at The Reserve karaoke day.
Senior living karaoke! Fabulous! #seniorlivingcommunity #justagigalo #dallas
There is much research to support this. Bannerhealth.comquotes music therapy coordinator Tammy Reiver for Banner Hospice in Phoenix: "Music holds the power to increase dopamine levels (happy hormones), decrease symptoms of depression and pain, and improve a person’s quality of life. Pleasing music plays an important role at every age, but for aging adults, the benefits are even greater.”
As for Wade? She jokes that she and a few other musicians at the senior home have plans to start their own band. She certainly has the chops for it—and the fans.
Parents Katie and Dustin (@raisingmaletich) are going viral for sharing a vulnerable parenting situation.
Being a parent is not an easy job, especially when it comes to discipline. But an Oregon couple with four kids, Katie and Dustin (@raisingmaletich) is going viral for sharing a video of a vulnerable parenting moment they had with their son.
In the video, their young son can be heard telling his mom Katie to "chill" after being told he can't use her phone. The comment is heard by his stepdad, Dustin. Immediately, Dustin makes it known that it is okay. Dustin asks his young stepson if he did in fact tell his mom to "chill". And when he replies 'yes', Dustin asks him to start doing pushups (and to "count 'em"). After doing 10, he says Dustin, "How many? I can't do anymore." Dustin replies, "Keep going." He hits 14 reps, and Dustin encourages him to do 2 more, telling him that he can do it.
Once he hit 16 reps, Dustin tells him to stand up to do a series of squats. After he finishes up his squats, Dustin asks him, "Do we tell our mom to chill out?" Their son replies, "No," and Dustin adds, "Absolutely not. I will not let you talk to her like that. I wouldn't let anyone else talk to her like that, so you don't get to talk to her like that, okay?"
After this, Dustin opens his arms to hug him, and their son walks towards Katie as he says, "Sorry, mom." Katie says, "Thank you, buddy." And Dusting tells him, "Hey. I love you," before he goes to him for another hug and a kiss on the head.
"I will never stop being grateful to be raising kids with a real man who knows how to be a father, especially to his boys. This is masculinity," they wrote in the video's caption, with more detail about what led to the scenario. "I was trying to send a work email while making breakfast for my family and my son kept asking me to use my phone after I had repeatedly told him 'no, you need to wait.' His dad overheard him tell me to 'chill' and here is how he handled it."
The video went viral, with many viewers showing support for how both Dustin and Katie handled the situation. "That’s a great dad right there. Calm, collected and knows how to do a punishment and still show compassion to his child," one commented. Another supportive viewer pointed out, "my favorite part is watching his sister rest her head on Daddy even while he’s mid-discipline! yes it is funny sibling behavior, but more than anything it speaks to Dad’s character. this is a home where everyone feels safe, and because of that, because there’s no yelling, hitting, cursing, etc, all the children can now benefit and learn by witnessing this. TERRIFIC parenting!!!"
Others praised Katie for not interjecting. "My favorite part is the the mom letting the dad BE A DAD," one wrote.
One viewer was curious if the couple would use the same style of discipline with their daughters, asking, "What’s the equivalent discipline for girls? Same thing?" And they responded, "Pretty much the same :) sometimes our girls require a bit of extra verbal communication and some extra extra tenderness 💛."
However, many viewers criticized the couple's handling of discipline with exercise. One viewer commented, "Yes, but don’t use exercise and forms of self improvement as punishments." Another added, "I love the words, but he’s at risk of teaching his kid that exercise is punishment and something you HAVE to do when you’ve done something wrong. That said, it’s a perfect example of why boys need a good male role model in their lives too." And another commented, "He doesn’t need to be humiliated… a conversation would solve the problem. He’s not in the army… I’d hate if my husband did that to my boy."
To address concerns and elaborate further about why they are okay with using physical exercise to discipline, the couple created a follow-up video.
In the video, Dustin says that he addressed his stepson's behavior in a "stern and immediate way", before addressing how they believed the pushups and squats would not later make their son associate physical exercise with punishment. "We both don’t really like the term 'punishment' and much prefer to describe any parental corrections as a disciplinary consequence. We aren’t perfect at it but our main goal in parenting is to always be intentional and not reactionary," they wrote in the video's caption.
The couple was asked if they had permission from their son to share the video with their followers. "we absolutely talked with him about it before we shared it and made sure he was completely okay with it," they wrote in the comments. "He was, in fact he was really excited to share it. Asks me every day how many views it has now haha. We have ring security cameras inside our house and that’s how the footage was captured :)."
Viewers expressed their thoughts once again. "You also hugged him and told him you loved him! GREAT JOB DAD👏👏👏👏👏," while another wrote, "Physical exercise gives him a chance to collect himself and burn off energy. Always a good move 💪."
Other had contradicting views. "I would keep the punishment shorter like 5 push ups and go… you want him to get the message… that’s it…" Another shared, "It's not even that you did had him do push ups, it's that he said he couldn't do anymore, and you told him to continue. My son truly enjoys working out because I've never used it as a form of punishment for him. How about you f*cking talk to your kid."
Katie also shared another follow-up video about criticism she received for not stepping in during her husband's discipling.
Katie says in the video, "Why wouldn't I let him step in and be the authority figure that I need him to be in order to raise strong, confident, good kids? I could not imagine not respecting him enough to not let him step in and be 'dad' in the way that he feels he needs to be."
And viewers shared their thoughts in the video's comment section. "It’s apparent that you guys act as a team and not as competitors 👏," one wrote, while another added, "It’s not necessarily the Mom 'letting' him step in. I admire you for not taking over but I have much respect for him stepping up and taking that role. Most men look the other way and force Mom to be the disciplinarian. I love that you two parent together and not against each other. ❤️"
Other viewers disagreed. "Shame on you. You both have taught him to be fearful of the dad and that's all that's been taught," one wrote. And another also added, "That’s a very immature comment. U could have achieved the same result of 'respect' with out fear and intimidation. Do better!"
One of the big ways in which people differ—but we don’t talk about very much—is their social stamina. Some people love being around others morning, noon, and night. While others show up to a party at seven p.m. and quietly slip out the front door at nine. Although it’s not an official medical term, therapists like to call this the “social battery,” and we can all benefit from learning how often ours need to recharge to avoid running on empty.
What is a social battery?
Introverts and extroverts have very different social batteries. Extroverts have full batteries that take a long time to wind down. Introverts have smaller batteries that lose their charge quickly, so they have to be careful about how they plan their social interactions and who they spend their time with.
One isn’t better than the other, but it’s essential to learn where we stand on the social stamina spectrum so that we can get the most out of our social engagements. It’s important to connect with people, but if you have limited resources to devote to social situations, you must be intentional with how you spend your time.
This is what happens when a husband and wife are at a wedding and they both have very different battery lives.
She usually the one ready to go. #weddingtiktok #weddingday #bridetok #fatherofthebride #dadsoftiktok #dadjokes #weddingvibes #socialbutterfly #introvert #extrovert
What are some signs your social battery is running low?
You feel weary
You’re less interested in talking to people than you were before
You’d like to be in a quiet, familiar place
You’re ready to retreat into your inner world of books or creativity
You’re overwhelmed by crowds or excess noise
Here’s what it looks like when someone with a low social battery throws a party.
Mental health advocate Kyrus Keenan Westcott says that with a little planning in advance, people with low social batteries can get the most out of social functions.
1. Prioritize Meaningful Interactions: Spend time with those who uplift you, minimize time with those who are draining.
2. Create a Comfortable Space: If you’re hosting an event, create a place for you to relax and recharge during the event so that you can return to it with more battery life.
3. Set Clear Boundaries: If you need to leave at a set time or are feeling drained, don’t let anyone force you to stay.
4. Balance Social and Alone Time: Make sure to schedule enough time for yourself to recharge in between social events.
Ultimately, taking a good look at how your social battery functions can be a big help when planning your weekend or how you interact with coworkers. You’ll want to make sure that you spend the right amount of time on meaningful interactions, so you don’t waste your time on people and activities that aren’t fulfilling. It’s also great to understand your battery so that when it does feel low, you don’t feel bad that you’re being antisocial. You’ve just given all you can to the people who truly matter in your life.
An unusual request with wonderful, thoughtful answers. 
Even from a young age, girls are socialized to like and do certain things. 
Being responsible for all the little things of life can be exhausting. 
Carole and her band mates.Carole Wade