It's Pretty Shocking How Much Money This Person Would Make If They Didn't Love Their Client So Much
Let's be honest with ourselves, everyone. Every single penny of this would be absolutely and unabashedly deserved.
11.28.13
There's an art to avoiding the "memory ring" that makes a candle tunnel around the wick.
The "tunnel" that often forms around a wick isn't supposed to be there.
The evolution of candles from lighting necessity to scented ambience creator is kind of funny. For thousands of years, people relied on candles and oil lamps for light, but with the invention of the light bulb in 1879, fire was no longer needed for light. At that time, people were probably relieved to not have to set something on fire every time they wanted to see in the dark, and now here we are spending tons of money to do it just for funsies.
We love lighting candles for coziness and romance, relishing their warm, soft light as we shrink from the fluorescent bulb craze of the early 2000s. Many people use candles for adding scent to a room, and there are entire candle companies just for this purpose (Yankee Candles, anyone?). As of 2022, candles were an $11 billion business.
With their widespread use, you'd think we'd know a thing or two about candles, but as a thread on X makes clear, a whole bunch of us have been burning candles wrong our entire lives without knowing it.
A post from @kktweetshaha started the education session: "Just learned that my fiancé, who buys candles all the time and we literally always have candles burning, did not actually know how they work and blew out a medium first burn candle 30 minutes after I lit it when I wasn’t paying attention and ruined it."
Many people had no idea what she was talking about, so she explained.
"If a candle is not burned for long enough on first burn to melt edge to edge it will create a 'memory ring.' Once a candle has a memory ring, it will continue to tunnel and never burn all the way across."
"This is why you should not light a large candle at night, which is unlikely to burn all the way across before you need to blow out to go to bed. Allow at least one hour per inch of candle width," she went on.
So that's why candles always end up with a hole in the middle, making us think the candle companies are just running a scam to make us go through candles faster. Nope. It's user error, and many people were flabbergasted by this realization.
"This is the most useful information I’ve been given my entire adult life," wrote one person.
"This skill should be taught in schools," shared another. "The amount I’ve wasted on half burnt candles is outrageous, the amount of times I’ve used Algebra since leaving school = 0."
"When I worked at Pier 1 in the 90s I got to go to some candle workshop that taught us the correct way to use (and therefore sell) candles and that is probably some of the most useful knowledge I've carried in my head this long life," shared another.
Some people suggested wrapping aluminum foil around the rim of the candle to help recover a candle that's been tunneled or to speed the process of melting the wax across the entire candle. Other suggested melting the candle down in the oven to even it back out again. The original poster pointed out that sometimes candles aren't wicked properly. According to Lone Star Candle Supply, if a candle is more than 4 inches in diameter it may become necessary to have two wicks.
The candle posts also prompted a separate discussion about candles and indoor air quality and the volatile organic compounds that are released when they are burned. Some people equated burning candles with having a small engine running in your living room, though according to the Cleveland Clinic, there's scant evidence that the amount of toxins released by burning candles is actually hazardous to your health, especially if you use high quality candles in a well-ventilated area.
How do you know if a candle is "high quality"? First, check the wick for metal. Lead in wicks is not nearly as common as it used to be, but best not to risk it if you find metal in the wick. Second, choose soy, beeswax, palm or coconut wax candles instead of paraffin, which is petroleum-based product and more likely to put off soot and smoke particles. Everyone reacts differently to different amounts of particulates in the air, so if you find yourself getting headaches or respiratory symptoms when using candles, it's probably best to avoid them. But if you tolerate them, feel free to enjoy as recommended,—just make sure that first burn melts the wax all the way to the edges to avoid the dreaded tunneling.
A mother's urge to care for a baby is one of the strongest instincts in the animal kingdom
Max took over when Beau's mom refused to care for her.
A mother's urge to care for a baby is one of the strongest instincts in the animal kingdom, but sometimes something somewhere along the line goes haywire. Occasionally, a mom will reject its offspring, refusing to nurture or feed or care for it in any way.
That's what happened to baby Beau, a lamb born to a sheep on Olivia Akers' farm.
"Beau’s mom didn’t want to be a mom. I don’t have an exact answer as to why," Akers shared on Instagram. "I tried EVERYTHING under the sun to get her to accept Beau. Rubbing the placenta for scent, also tried with her milk, giving them time in close quarters. She got progressively more violent, telling me she didn’t want to do this. So I listened."
While Beau had to be bottle-fed by humans, she wasn't left completely unnurtured by her four-legged counterparts. The family dog, Max, took an immediate liking to her, and according to Akers, it was like "love at first sight."
"The second Max laid eyes on Beau, it was HER baby," Akers wrote. "She protected her, cleaned her, played with her…and most importantly, Max loved her."
The two became inseparable, romping around in the pasture together, grooming and snuggling with one another. Beau spent so much time with Max that she started developing dog-like traits. (Max is a "super mutt," according to Akers—a mix of Blue Heeler, Pitbull Terrier, German Shepherd, and Husky—so no particular breed's traits.)
Finally, Beau grew up enough to go live with the other sheep, but she and Max have remained close pals.
Watch:
@oliviajaneakers Reply to @2crazymuppets Max and Beau forever 🥰......#maxandbeau #oddcouples #bestfriends#sheep #lamb #ram #ewe #babysheep #babydollsheep #oldeenglishbabydoll #thedodo #dodo #baby #babyanimals #animals #cute #cuteanimals #picoftheday #animalsofig #minisheep #miniaturesheep #farm #farmlife #farmanimals #farmher #homestead #minifarm #farmstead
People love Max and Beau's story.
"Beau is no longer sheep, Beau is now a good dog," wrote one commenter.
"I had a dog when I was really little that was taken from his mom too early and our rabbit adopted him and they always snuggled at night," shared another.
"This is so cool! I have a week old black sheep and my black dog Maxine aka max does this same thing!!! Her mother died in child birth," shared another.
"Yay Max!!!!!! Beau is so lucky to have you!" wrote another.
Sometimes mothers in nature will reject babies when there's something wrong with them, but sometimes there's not a clear reason. No one knows why Beau's mom refused to care for her, but everyone is so happy that Max stepped into her place.
Max and Beau still play together, and it's pure joy to see them frolicking around on the farm. Max & Beau Part 2 has more footage of Beau all grown up and still pouncing around with her high energy friend, Max.
@oliviajaneakers Pt.2 of the most beautiful friendship I’ve ever witnessed. Per request, more adorable videos of these two 🥰......#maxandbeau #maxandbeauforever #fyp #unlikelyfriends #adopt #sheep #lamb #ram #ewe #babysheep #babydollsheep #oldeenglishbabydoll #thedodo #dodo #baby #babyanimals #animals #cute #cuteanimals #picoftheday #animalsofig #miniaturesheep #farm #farmlife #farmanimals #farmher #homestead #minifarm #farmstead
Those little hops at the end, though. Too, too sweet.
You can follow Max and Beau and the other animals on Akers' farm on TikTok and Instagram.
Not all disabilities are visible.
A nasty note gets a strong response.
We've all seen it while cruising for spots in a busy parking lot: A person parks their whip in a disabled spot, then they walk out of their car and look totally fine. It's enough to make you want to vomit out of anger, especially because you've been driving around for what feels like a million years trying to find a parking spot.
You're obviously not going to confront them about it because that's all sorts of uncomfortable, so you think of a better, way less ballsy approach: leaving a passive aggressive note on their car's windshield.
Satisfied, you walk back to your car feeling proud of yourself for telling that liar off and even more satisfied as you walk the additional 100 steps to get to the store from your lame parking spot all the way at the back of the lot. But did you ever stop and wonder if you told off the wrong person?
What if that person on the receiving end of the note had a perfectly good explanation for why they're driving car with a disabled sticker and tag?
That's exactly what happened to Emma Doherty, who was surprised to see someone pen such vitriolic words to her in this letter she found on her car.
The language in the note is pretty harsh:
"You lazy conning b-tch. You did not have a disabled person with you! These spaces are reserved for people who need them!!!"
I get that avoiding conflict is something that's been trained into us, but maybe if whoever wrote this note decided to say something to Emma, this entire thing could've been cleared up entirely.
Instead, she had to take to Facebook to pick apart the anonymous grouch and explain her situation to the rest of us. And hopefully whoever wrote the note (if they see her post) understands why they were terribly wrong.
Emma is the mother of a terminally ill child, Bobby. Her ruthless and powerful message sheds light on the misconceptions associated with disabilities and helps to break the stigma that all impairments are visible, because they're not.
"To the person who put this on my car, which I had put my disabled badge fully on, I'm not angry at your pure ignorance, I'm actually upset with it. How dare you ever accuse anyone of not needing a disabled badge without knowing. I wish you had the balls to say this to my face and I would have told you (even tho I don't need to explain myself to the likes of you) but I'd have happily said why I have a badge."
"I promise to get the stigma away from people with disabled badges who don't "look disabled." I hope this gets shared and back to you and you will see my son is terminally ill, he's had over 15 operations, 3 open hearts, 2 stomach, lung and diaphragm and countless artery stenting operations and spent half his life on intensive care."

Emma Doherty and her son Bobby.
SOURCE: FACEBOOK
In her post, she delineates the severity of Bobby's illness, which has put the young man through multiple surgeries and procedures that are no walks in the park.
"He's had 2 strokes and was paralyzed, brain damaged and has a spine and hip condition as well as a massive heart condition. The reason I didn't get his wheelchair out was because I was running late because my son, who had a MRI scan, CTSCAN and a dye for heart function yesterday, only got discharged late and was back in this morning so carried him in."
"But for your information not everyone who holds a blue badge needs to have a wheelchair! I've told ... security and broke down, I've sat through things nobody should see but why did your note break me? Because it's your pure ignorance towards others. I'm a single mom trying my best to hold it together for my son who's in and out if hospital. NOT ALL DISABILITIES ARE VISIBLE and I hope you regret doing this and learn your lesson!”
Throughout her post, Emma simultaneously castigates the person and drives one important point home: Just because someone isn't in a wheelchair or crutches, doesn't mean they aren't disabled or in need of physical care or assistance.
I knew something would be said one day as every day I get looks and stares and see people whispering to each other about me and Bobby walking from the car. Everyone needs to stop and think before acting. I hardly ever let anything upset me but this did. How aggressive as well, and as for conning my son's disabled pass... [It] is not a con, he's actually seriously ill. I've added a picture of him to prove not everyone looks ill or disabled but can be seriously ill.
The mother clarifies at the end of the message that she's sure it wouldn't be a hospital staff member who wrote the message, because those who work in healthcare are well aware of the various reasons someone would have a disabled tag on their vehicle.
"I'd like to point out this has nothing to do with the hospital itself. They were lovely with me when I was upset and they treat us with every respect, always have [in our] 3 long years with them. They've saved my son's life many times. It [was] just somebody who was parked [there].”
Her post quickly went viral, with many people echoing her sentiments and thanking her for helping to clear up that tons of people suffer from different disabilities and that not all of them are so readily apparent.

SOURCE: FACEBOOK
And as it turns out, Emma isn't the only parent who's dealt with judgmental individuals who gave them flack for having a disabled sticker on their car. As if having to deal with a sick child isn't enough, they also have to suffer through getting guff from randos on the street over a measly parking spot.

SOURCE: FACEBOOK
Bobby's condition has left him without pulmonary artery function, which means that blood will not pump throughout his body. As you can imagine, walking long distances — or performing many physical tasks otherwise healthy individuals take for granted — are out of the question for the 3-year-old.
As a result of her son's condition, Emma has to take him to the hospital for treatments throughout the week, and seeing the note on her car while having to deal with that ultimately set her off. Thankfully, she used her anger to send a positive message.
Floored by the positive response to her message, Emma went back online to thank people for being so receptive and helping to spread awareness that disabilities come in many forms.
"My inbox is full of people who have told me they have been stared at or even spat at. This is a serious problem and I just want it to change. I am hoping by sharing what I went through people will start to think before acting."
This article first appeared on 11.26.19.
"That also means there's quite a few people that haven't saved anything."
Experts answer how much money you need to retire, we're behind
If you're like many middle class Millennials then you've likely resigned yourself to never being able to retire. It's a running joke amongst people entering middle-age that their retirement age is death. Meaning they've accepted that they'll likely work until they die of old age because there's no way they'll be able to put away enough money in the next 20 plus years to be able to retire.
This isn't even just a Millennial issue, it's simply more wide spread for this particular generation as wages stagnate while the cost of existing continues to skyrocket. But we've seen adolescents open up GoFundMe pages for elderly workers at their local Walmart or McDonald's who were well past the age of retirement trying to make ends meet.
Millennials have been told since they were in middle school that social security would likely not be around when they were old enough to retire. But how did it come to this and exactly how much do you need in order to retire?
Vox conducted an interview with a couple of financial experts and people who would be considered middle class. The video opens up with Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist, that gives some staggering figures if you're one of those Americans already feeling behind on retirement.
"If you want to maintain your living standards that you have now or you'll have throughout your life, in the American system by the time you're 30 you should have about one times your current salary. By the time you're 40 you should have about two and a half or three times your salary. In your 60s you should have eight to ten times your annual salary," Ghilarducci reveals to Vox.
Those numbers seem unrealistic, even to the expert interviewed when looking at today's economy. She later explains why retirement is becoming an unachievable dream for many working Americans.
"The reason why a coal miner and a lawyer could expect to retire is because of the design of our pension system, which we don't have anymore. Your employer would put money aside for your retirement and that money couldn't be accessed by you. So the dollar that the employer put in on your behalf was put into a big pool of money and it was professionally invested and at the end of your working life, that money would be translated into a lifetime benefit."
According to both of the financial experts interviewed, the laws changed about 40 years ago switching things over to more of the system we recognize today. The entire video is extremely eye opening. Check it out below.
No one predicted how this race was going to end.
Imagine trying to calculate the odds on this one.
If you want to see the most hilarious race in the world, line up a group of crawling babies across from a parent and say "Ready, set, go!"
That's exactly the scenario that played out at a Savannah Bananas baseball game, and the result was one for the record books.
If you're unfamiliar with the Savannah Bananas, you're in for a treat. Think Harlem Globetrotters, but with baseball instead of basketball and with even more silliness and shenanigans. The athletic skill is there, make no mistake, but the primary goal is to entertain. And goodness, do they win on that front every time.
The players dress up. They dance. They sing. They play baseball. And in between all of that, they have whacky contests like this baby race.
Who knew a minute of babies crawling could be so riveting…and with such an unexpected outcome?
@thesavbananas Is this the greatest comeback of all time?! 📸: @Austin Usher #savannahbananas #bananaball #funny #foryou #cute
"The race was the most unexpected highlight amongst all of the other wacky Banana highlights," the man behind the camera, Austin Usher, told Upworthy, "We laughed from the moments the babies sat without moving until the very end. No one expected the come from behind win like that, it was the loudest crowd pop of the night for sure."
People loved the surprise win that no one saw coming, especially from the babe who seemed to spend most of the race trying to help out a buddy.
"Me explaining to my wife that we lost the house because I bet on a baby race," wrote one commenter.
"This baby race is a life lesson. Success will come to those who remain focused even if you are a late starter," wrote another.
"The baby that won spent half the race encouraging his lil friend to run:)) gave up on him and still won," offered another.
"That baby was so sure he wanted to help his friend out. He tried twice. TWICE!!! Very intentional child," shared another.
The Savannah Bananas have as unlikely an origin story as that baby's odds of winning the baby race. The team was founded in the fall of 2015 as an attempt at bringing baseball fans back to Historic Grayson Stadium after minor league baseball had left Savannah. At that time, they struggled to sell any tickets and the owners even had to sell their house to keep from going under.
After they named the team the Savannah Bananas in February of 2016, they made national news. But local folks weren't sold on the silly name and told them they'd never sell a ticket.
Not only did they end up selling out their first game, but they've sold out every game since—over 200 of them. They have also grown in popularity immensely, boasting over 8 million followers on TIkTok alone. And with "kenergetic" at-bats like this one, it's not hard to see why:
@thesavbananas Baton Rouge, your Kenergy is 10/10 💛🙌 #savannahbananas #kenergy #imjustken #oscars #kenough #ryangosling #geauxtigers
Is it really baseball, though? Yes and no. It's definitely baseball, but with a few twists. Here are the 11 rules of "Banana Ball" that set it apart from a traditional baseball game (besides the costumes and dancing and acrobatics).
You can follow the Savannah Bananas on TikTok and Instagram.
Well, this is fun.
Little secrets to be found.
Today, half of the Internet learned that Jeep vehicles have hidden 'Easter eggs' on them. Apparently, the other half already knew but didn't bother to tell us.
As Joel Feder of Motor Authority explains, Jeep vehicles have had these little surprises since the 90s. Michael Santoro, hired as a designer in 1989, decided to slip an Easter egg into the Wrangler TJ. Since then, pretty much every vehicle has included at least one Easter Egg. According to Mopar Insiders, the Easter eggs can be found on each of the brand's cars.
Not everyone was aware of this fact, though, as a TikTok by jackiefoster40 recently revealed. The user discovered a spider hidden in his fuel tank and decided to share the Easter egg in a video.
"So I bought my first car, and a fun fact about Jeeps is that they have a hidden animal which is called an Easter egg," the user said. "I couldn't find my Easter egg for the longest time, and one day I was pumping my gas, and I saw this spider coming at me, and I thought 'oh my god', and then I realized it was my Easter egg."
@nkyrealestate 🕷JEEP WAS REALING TRYING TO GET ME.🕷🤦🏼😂 #fyp #jeepsoftiktok #spider ♬ original sound - Jackie
Now, TikTok users have been looking a little closer at their jeeps to discover the Easter eggs hidden in their cars. Most of them posted jackiefoster40's original narration over their videos to explain what was going on.
This user found a cute little lizard.
@katepetersonn Bruh wut #fyp ♬ original sound - Jackie
This user found multiple Easter eggs, including Bigfoot and a miniature grill in the headlights.
@jazzy._.boo i never realized these were easter eggs😳 #fyp #jeeprenegade ♬ original sound - Jackie
Others found jeeps on their jeeps among other Easter eggs.
@katie.deren Shook #jeep #renagade #finalsathome #fyp ♬ original sound - Jackie
This user found a dinosaur skull on their floor.
@ellkayhey Wait for it... sorry it’s dirty😬 #YoplaitCupRelay #celebratenurses #cartooncharacter #finalsathome ♬ original sound - Jackie
Some people have even found a tiny pair of flip flops on their cars.
@micaelaaaraeee welcome home to the love of my life 💕🥺👉👈 #2020 #jeepwrangler #jeepwranglerjl #wrangler #jeep #jl #jeepeasteregg #orange #car #fyp ♬ original sound - Jackie
Everyone is having a lot of fun trying to find their Easter egg.
@kennedankk We searched the trackhawk for 30 minutes before I found it in the headlight
♬ original sound - Jackie
So. Many. Animals.
@sydneytirrel brooo what!!! I thought this was fake lol...I have a fricken lizard on my car!!! I need names for it😤😉 #fyp #foryoupage #makemefamous ♬ original sound - Jackie
If you can't find the Easter eggs in your vehicles, then NowCar.com put together a handy guide that seems to cover most of them.
Hopefully everyone can have some fun searching their cars for hidden animals and objects.
This article first appeared on 5.14.20