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If You Pass One Of These People At The Airport This Season, Maybe Tell Them You Support Them?
Take a look around when you travel this holiday season. You might see some things that make you go "Hmmmm..."
12.02.13
Top Splash
Flight attendant sits on the floor the entire flight to comfort distressed passenger
“He explained every sound and bump”
01.19.23
Courtesy of Molly Simonson Lee
Flight attendant sits on floor to comfort passenger
Not everyone enjoys flying. The level of non-enjoyment can range from mild discomfort to full blown Aerophobia, which is defined as an extreme fear of flying. While flying is the quickest way to get to far away destinations, for some people being that far off the ground is terrifying and they'd rather take their chances on the ground.
A passenger flying from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina to JFK International Airport in New York confronted that fear while flying with Delta. The woman, who is currently still unidentified expressed that she was nervous to fly according to Molly Simonson Lee, a passenger seated behind the woman who witnessed the encounter. Tight spaces don't make for much privacy, but in this case, the world is better for knowing this took place.
According to Lee, who posted about the exchange on Facebook, the Delta flight attendant, Floyd Dean-Shannon, took his time to give the nervous traveler his undivided attention. Lee told Upworthy the unidentified passenger, "was very nervous and even before the plane took off, she was visibly shaken by each sound."
Approximately 25 million people in the United States have Aerophobia according to the Clevland Clinic and most of them probably wish Dean-Shannon was on their flights. "He took notice and began explaining what each [sound] was, with the warmest, calmest tone," Lee said. That wasn't even the most amazingly sweet part of the story.
While the explanation of noises helped, Lee said about halfway through the flight the passenger was fighting back tears, which prompted Dean-Shannon to sit on the floor and hold the frightened passenger's hand. He comforted her for the rest of the flight while sitting on the floor. "His tone was so kind and soothing," according to Lee.
Dean-Shannon's kindness didn't stop there. Lee explained, "the woman next to me was celebrating a birthday and he sang to her and made her a 'cake' with all of the goodies he could round up."
I'm not sure what Delta pays him but he needs a raise immediately and it seems the people of the interwebs agree.
Commenter, Miranda Anderson, tagged Delta Airlines and wrote, "I hope you see this! These are the types of people that deserve raises and make your company worth flying with. This is what pits [sic] you above the others so show these employees this is what you want and what you need."
"I love this. This is what society is lacking. Empathy and kindness towards people in time[s] of need" wrote Diane Lawrence.
While Mary Beth Acker Ford, said, "I was on a flight with him today. He exudes joy and is intentional about making a connection with each person!"
This level of engagement with passengers is not a common experience but clearly people are happy to see this type of connection between humans. Flying anywhere can be stressful for any amount of reasons. From leaving the house late and having to participate in an involuntary 5k to catch your flight, to making your way through the devil's backyard, also known as Atlanta International Airport...just for them to change your gate 10 minutes before boarding.
So having a flight attendant like Dean-Shannon is just the breath of fresh air people need. "The way he's looking at her...letting her know she's safe!!! This is just one of the many reasons I will always fly Delta Air Lines," Liz Martin wrote in the comments.
"It was obvious he is just a good, kind soul who shares that generously with everyone he encounters. Such kindness is rare and a true gift when encountered," Lee remarked. That level of kindness is rare indeed and we sure are happy someone thought to capture it.
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Joy
He found a newborn squirrel in his driveway and raised it. Their relationship is adorable.
Robert "Bobby" T. Squirrel's personality is "about halfway between a cat and a dog."
01.21.23
Bobby the squirrel lives outside now, but still comes in for a human visit pretty much every day.
When Robert Milburn came across a tiny, hairless creature the size of his thumb in his driveway, he had no idea what it was. So he took it inside, wrapped it up to keep it warm and started Googling.
After figuring out it was a newborn squirrel that had probably fallen out of its nest, he put it back outside in a shallow box and waited to see if the mom would return for it. She did come to check it out, but then left it again. (Later, Milburn would find out that the baby squirrel had a mouth deformity which most likely made it unable to suckle properly.)
Milburn didn't think the wee one would survive, but he decided to do his best. He took it back inside and began feeding it puppy formula with a syringe every three hours, around the clock. He said it was "like having a newborn baby in the house."
It worked. The squirrel grew and grew and they began to bond.
Once Milburn knew the babe was going to make it and could identify it as a male, he named him Bobby. (Robert T. Squirrel, to be precise—the T is for "The").
Milburn shared the story of Bobby's rescue and their relationship with Newsner's We Love Animals channel, and I feel a duty to warn you that the video will almost-pretty-much-for-sure make you want a pet squirrel. Milburn shared the video on his TikTok channel dedicated to Bobby, where it has collected more than four million views.
Watch:
@robertsquirrel From an interview on Newsner who has 30 million followers in 11 languages
But that's not where the story ends.
Bobby has a family now out in his little squirrel house. He and his squirrel wife, Barbara Ann, are the proud parents of four youngsters—Peepers, Jeepers, Creepers and Sneekers.
"Peepers seldom ventures from the treehouse, and Jeepers is a bit more adventurous. Creepers creeps out further, and Sneekers sneaks into other trees," Milburn shared on his website, bobbysquirrel.com.
Milburn's @robertsquirrel Tiktok channel has a trove of sweet videos like this one, in which Bobby came inside because he was scared of a thunderstorm.
@robertsquirrel Scares #bobbysquirrel #storm #thunder #throwbackthursday #fyp #nature
He knew just where to go for safety and comfort. Too sweet.
Bobby is totally comfortable going back and forth from his outdoor home to his human's home—and his human's pockets.
@robertsquirrel Pocket Squirrel #bobbysquirrel #squirrel #fyp #nature #funny #love
In fact, Milburn shares, Bobby comes to visit him inside almost every day.
Unfortunately, Milburn has run into some trouble with his HOA, which informed him that he needed to stop feeding the squirrels in his yard as they were considered a "nuisance."
But who could watch Bobby listening to his story being told in the video below and tell us he's a nuisance? Come on now.
@robertsquirrel Happy time #bobbysquirrel #throwbackthursday #squirrel
Milburn has been asked if squirrels make good pets, and he has clarified that raising one as a newborn is very different than trying to domesticate a wild squirrel. Squirrels do have sharp teeth and long claws, he pointed out in a video with this face covered in Band-Aids. (He shared that he's been working on building a friendship with Barbara Ann, who grew up in the wild, and while it's slow-going, he feels he's making progress.)
Milburn has also created a children's book called "Bobby and Friends," which includes 10 short stories for children ages 2 to 11 and an accompanying coloring book.
People can't get enough of Bobby the squirrel, and who can blame them? He's the pet squirrel most of us wish we could have—one who has a full outdoor life as he should, but who also likes to come in for some cuddles with his people.
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Science
Canadian man captures the 'one in a million' moment when a moose sheds both its antlers
The man calls himself a shed hunter.
01.20.23
Photo by Ivars Krutainis on Unsplash
It's rare enough to capture one antler being shed
For those not well versed in moose facts, the shedding of antlers is normally a fairly lengthy process. It happens only once a year after mating season and usually consists of a moose losing one antler at a time.
It’s incredibly rare for a bull moose to lose both at the same time—and even more rare that someone would actually catch it on film.
That’s why shed hunter (yes, that’s a real term) and woodsman Derek Burgoyne calls his footage of the phenomenon a “one-in-a-million” shot.
According to The Guardian, Burgoyne was flying his drone through a remote patch of forest in Canada when he spotted three moose in a clearing. His drone followed one of the bulls, who began doing the wobbly little shake thing that signals these antlers are going bye-bye.
Burgoyne knew he had to keep his camera on the moment—but he had no idea that he’d hit the jackpot.
Watch below:
It’s hard to tell which is more fun to watch— the super rare moment in nature or Burgoyne’s pure passion for his hobby.
“I shook a little bit. It was an adrenaline rush for sure,“ he told CBC News, sharing that he has previously found hundreds of shed antlers in his life.
Antler hunting has become a hot and profitable pastime over the past few years, although Burgoyne affirms that his shed hunting ambitions are born from a desire for well-being, not monetary gain.
“I enjoy being in the woods. It’s great exercise and it’s fun tracking the moose through the winter and looking for their sheds in the spring. Each one you find feels like the first one. It never gets old,” he told The Guardian.
Well Derek Burgoyne, thank you for doing what you love. Thanks to your passion, we too can share this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Here’s to good moose news!
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Pop Culture
Jennifer Coolidge makes her TikTok debut with a hilarious version of 'Jenny From The Block'
Guest starring the one, the only, JLo.
01.21.23
@jennifercoolidge/TikTok
The power of Jennifer, doubled.
Just when you thought Jennifer Coolidge’s renaissance in pop culture couldn’t get any better, guess again. We’ve seen her completely steal the show on television, film and even music videos, but now the Emmy award-winning actress is expanding her talents to new platforms with her very first TikTok.
All glammed up and in front of a green screen, Coolidge, in an attempt to do “something cool” for her TikTok debut, begins reciting the millennial hit “Jenny From The Block” like she’s onstage at a slam poetry night.
Coolidge then cuts to none other than the OG Jenny from the block herself—Jennifer Lopez.
Needless to say, this video went viral instantly.
Coolidge’s video got instant approval from fans. I think the person who wrote this comment sums up the general consensus: “Only Jennifer Coolidge would be able to master TikTok on her first TikTok."
Another added, "Not since Leslie Jordan have I been so excited to see someone join TikTok.”
@jennifercoolidge Trying out TikTok! 💋👀 @jlo ♬ Jenny from the Block (Bronx Remix - Edit) - Jennifer Lopez
There’s just no denying that Coolidge has a delightful brand of weird that is so well suited for a place like TikTok. While this might have been the “White Lotus” star’s first personal contribution to the platform, she has definitely had viral moments on it before, as with a delightful dance remix based on her character from the show’s second season. So to expect anything less from a video created by the comedy queen herself—with the help of a fellow queen named Jennifer—would be foolish.
Folks who are loving this JCool/JLo combo (which, c’mon, is everyone) can look forward to the upcoming action-comedy movie “Shotgun Wedding,” premiering on Jan 27 on Amazon Prime. The trailer promises Coolidge as a curlers-wearing, shotgun-wielding mother-in-law to be. What’s not to like about that?
In the meantime, we’ll be watching this TikTok on repeat.
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Joy
A guy may have met his 'dream girl' at a bar but she only gave him part of her phone number
Talk about playing hard to get.
01.21.23
via Tod Perry
An artist's recreation of Jackie's napkin note.
A woman named Jackie pulled a move straight out of a romantic comedy recently, and it has the internet rallying around her potential love interest. Jackie met a guy at a bar and liked him so much that she gave him her phone number. Well, 80% of her number, that is.
The world heard about it on January 17 when Twitter user Henpecked Hal and shared a picture of the napkin with her partial phone number written on it. "My 22-year-old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it's going pretty well,” Hal wrote in the tweet.
“Call me! 512-3*1-2*04,” the message read, along with "I'm worth it." The 512 is an area code in Austin, Texas.
After congratulating his cousin on meeting his “dream girl,” he asked: "Did you get her number." The cousin replied, “most of it.” The Tweet also attached a photo of a list of phone numbers the cousin called to try and get in touch with the elusive Jackie.
“My 22 year old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it's going pretty well”
\u201cMy 22 year old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it's going pretty well\u201d— Henpecked Hal (@Henpecked Hal) 1673980495
The tweet has gone insanely viral, racking up nearly 60,000 retweets, 85.6 million views and 776,000 likes.
The next day, Hal revealed that the woman reached out to him. In the screenshot of her message, she wrote: “Heeeyyy, so you likely won’t see this but I’m Jackie from the tweet!”
"Tell your cousin that next time I see him I'm going to...” she continued, but Hal blurred out the rest of the message to conceal her identity.
“I just talked to him! WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER????” Hal replied. “He said he’s halfway through the list, which means he’s actually like 10 per cent of the way through it.”
Update 1/3: WE FUCKING DID IT! pic.twitter.com/ccQ1puS8OJ
— Henpecked Hal (@HenpeckedHal) January 18, 2023
“He may not be as clever as he thinks,” Jackie responded, “give me HIS number, I’m taking over this operation.”
A lot of people in the comments said they thought Jackie was cold or arrogant for playing hard to get and making poor Hal’s cousin try 100 different numbers to find out which one was her. But Hal says that it’s all an extension of the conversation the two had at the bar.
"For the people saying she's arrogant, high maintenance or whatever: these kids talked for an hour about a shared interest in true crime, mysteries, etc,” Hal tweeted. “My cousin bragged that he always solves the case before the show ends (editor's note: not this time). I think she's awesome."
So, all Jackie did was give him another mystery to solve. If he’s such a great amateur detective then he should be able to reach her, right?
Some people in the comments have suggested that the story is fake. One person noted that the notebook page with the phone numbers on it had an indentation at the top which could be the “5” in Jackie’s phone number from the napkin. The implication is that Hal wrote on the napkin while it was on top of the notebook, leaving an indentation. But other people pointed out that the writing didn’t match.
Yikes! Forgot to take your napkin off your notepad first… pic.twitter.com/0gCKeSxz12
— Tommy Balloons (@franchise193747) January 18, 2023
Through everything, Hal has received a ton of support from people on Twitter trying to help his cousin’s love life.
The cousin could use ChatGPT to create a Python script that could automate much of this 😂
— Amir Salihefendić (@amix3k) January 18, 2023
There are only 100 permutations here (10^2), so it's not that bad. pic.twitter.com/Wl2drylf1F
“The programmers who sent scripts and code, the excel junkies who sent me docs to share with my cousin, y’all are wild,” Hal tweeted. “I couldn’t come close to getting back to everyone, but I appreciate it.”
Nearly 90 million people have followed the story of Hal’s cousin and Jackie. Let’s hope there’s a happy ending or at least they get to meet up and see each other again to talk about the mystery that brought them both together.
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Pop Culture
Hilarious TikTok explains what NOT to do for the Lunar New Year
A good excuse to not clean. It's for luck!
01.21.23
@thekwendyhome/TikTok
Don't sweep your good fortunes away!
Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations among East and Southeast Asian cultures. Unlike the Gregorian New Year, which takes place for one night, Lunar New Year celebrations last for several days and involve centuries old traditions steeped in superstition. Even the most mundane of everyday activities, when done on Lunar New Year, could decide a person’s fate—for better or worse.
Luckily, home decor blogger Wendy has given us a perfect rundown of taboo activities to avoid this Lunar New Year and thwart ill tidings—in the form of one hilarious TikTok.As Wendy explains in her caption, many customs are based not only in superstition, by a play on words. Washing your hair “washes” away your fortune, for example. Sweeping “sweeps” it all away. You get it.
There’s even caution against items that sound like Chinese words with a negative connotation—buying a book, which sounds like the word “lose” in Chinese, would bring bad luck. Similarly, buying shoes, which sounds like “rough” in Cantonese and “evil” in Mandarin, would be equally bad. There will be no trips to Barnes and Noble or Foot Locker during Lunar New Year. No sir.
While the education is already great, what makes this video next-level is the amazingly cartoonish slow motion chase scene happening the whole time on loop.
Watch:
@thekwendyhome What not to do on Lunar New Year. Inspired by: @thehustlingmama Most of these customs are based in superstition and a play on words! But I’ll take the excuse not to wash my hair or clean any day! Watching our expressions in slow motion really made us laugh out loud. Especially the scene where K runs with the knife and scissors. Which you should neverrrr do. This video took me much longer to edit with the “special effects” but I think it makes it funnier that we are chasing each other in a perpetual loop. #lunarnewyear#chinesenewyear#cny#cny2023#chineseculture#chinesecustom#chinesenewyear2023#yearoftherabbit♬ Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
Wendy alluded to the video being a time consuming project—what with all the special edits—but man was it worth it. This is TikTok comedy at its finest.
The clip has already garnered over 195K views. Those familiar with the customs found it laughably relatable. One person wrote, “thank you! I was running them through my mind and this was a great mini refresher.”
Others marveled at just how many things could make a year go terribly, terribly wrong. “Well, I’ll just stay in bed and not do anything,” one person joked.
The Lunar New Year for 2023 will fall on Jan 22, transitioning away from the Year of the Tiger and into the Year of The Rabbit, which represents wealth and prosperity in Chinese culture. Hey, if it means becoming rich this year, I suppose we can let the hair washing and sweeping slide for a day.
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