James Earl Jones had one of the most recognizable voices in the entertainment industry. Most of us probably heard that deep, resonant voice first as Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” or perhaps Mufasa in “The Lion King,” but just one or two words are enough to say, “Oh, that’s definitely James Earl Jones.”
Before his passing in 2024, Jones had been acting on stage and in film since the 1960s. He also has the distinction of being the first celebrity guest to be invited to “Sesame Street” during the show’s debut season in 1969.
According to Muppet Wiki, clips of Jones counting to 10 and reciting the alphabet were included in unbroadcast pilot episodes and also included in one of the first official television episodes. Funnily enough, Jones originally didn’t think the show would last, as he thought kids would be terrified of the muppets. Clearly, that turned out not to be the case.
Jones’ alphabet recitation served as a test for the “Sesame Street” pedagogical model, which was meant to inspire interaction from kids rather than just passive absorption. Though to the untrained eye, Jones’ slow recitation of the ABCs may seem either plodding or bizarrely hypnotic, there’s a purpose to the way it’s presented.
As education researcher and Children’s Television Workshop consultant Gerald S. Lesser describes the video, “Mr. Jones’ recitation of the alphabet takes a full minute and a half. He stares compellingly at the camera. At the time the sequence was made, his head was shaved for his role of Jack Johnson in ‘The Great White Hope,’ and it gleams in the close-up. His immense hollow voice booms the letter names ominously. His lip movements are so exaggerated that they can easily be read without the sounds.”
The letter is shown on the screen a second or so before Jones says the name of the letter, and there is a pause after he says each one. This pattern allows kids to say the name of the letter if they recognize it and then have the name reinforced by Jones. If kids don’t know it, they repeat it after him. For kids who are more visual or who have auditory processing issues, seeing the letter displayed and seeing Jones’ clear mouth movements as he slowly says each letter are helpful learning aids.
Lesser and other researchers coined the term “James Earl Jones effect” for how the learning process played out.
Jones’ alphabet segment may have helped prove the effectiveness of “Sesame Street”‘s educational model, but it’s also just mesmerizing to watch. When he gets to “J” and the facial expressions really kick in? Priceless.
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
When Mats Janzon found Leya, she was just a tiny baby curled up alone in the grass near his home in Sweden. Janzon was out on a quiet walk in the woods when he heard a soft peeping sound and saw it was a baby otter. He kept his distance for several hours, hoping her mother would return. When no one came, he searched the area and found that her mother had been killed on a major road nearby. Leya appeared to be starving and barely breathing, and he knew she wouldn’t make it without help.
Janzon had volunteered with animal rescues while working as a pilot in Cyprus, but after moving back to Sweden several years ago, he felt a pull to leave his job and spend more time in nature. “This shift led me to focus on helping wildlife,” Janzon tells Upworthy. “I’ve cared for various animals, mostly birds, that seemed to find me. Huginn, a crow I rescued, stayed with me for three years before he was ready to join his own flock in the wild.”
However, Janzon had never raised an otter before and didn’t know what to do. He was scared, as Leya needed care around the clock, but she began to thrive and quickly bonded with him. She would cry when he left the room and curl up in his lap to feel safe.
“The first time she let me pet her, I remember thinking this can’t be real,” Janzon told the TikTok account SoulPaws Tails. “It felt like a dream, this wild, free otter choosing to trust me.”
Still, Janzon kept second-guessing himself, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Otters are wild animals, and he knew Leya couldn’t stay indoors forever. So, starting with a plastic kiddie pool in the backyard, Janzon helped Leya learn to swim. She was awkward in the water at first, but little by little, day by day, she grew more confident.
Two years ago, our sweet otter pup Leya took her very first splash in a cozy baby pool, a moment that still melts our hearts! At just a few weeks old, tiny Leya was all curiosity and wobbly paws as she explored the shallow water filled with colorful floating toys. ?✨ Her first cautious pats at the surface turned into excited splashes as she chased the toys. Watching her dive and twirl, already showing off her natural otter grace, was pure magic. Now, at 2 years old, Leya’s likely out in the wild, thriving and possibly finding a safe territory for her own pups. ? We’re so proud of the strong, playful otter she’s become, and we’ll always cherish those early days of her splashing adventures in that little pool. ? Here’s to Leya, ruling the rivers and raising her own little swimmers! ?? #Throwback#FirstSwim#OtterMemories#WildAndFree#fyp#foryourpage
Leya followed Janzon everywhere. Soon she became part of the family, which included another rescued crow and a cat. The animals would play hide and seek, chasing one another around the bushes. Janzon says it was like something out of a children’s storybook.
Once Leya was totally comfortable in the water, he took her down to the lake. She looked up at Janzon as if to ask, “What now?” He nodded at her, and she jumped into the water. He realized that in some way he’d become a father to her.
“I named Leya while sitting with her on my lap, gazing out over the lake in a near-meditative state,” Janzon tells Upworthy. “I quietly asked her, ‘Who are you? What should I call you?’ The name Leya popped into my mind, and when I said it aloud, she instantly looked up at me. That’s when I knew it was the name meant for her.”
But as Leya grew, so did her wild instincts. She began to wander farther and stay out longer, and Janzon knew it was time to let her go. He describes it as “a strange kind of love—part pride, part heartbreak” but she started living the life she was meant to live.
“Leya is an old soul, brimming with energy and positivity, always finding opportunities in everything,” Janzon says. “Nothing seems impossible for her. She’s been a true inspiration and a dear friend during my transition from a conventional career to a life focused on something greater, not just working to pay bills, but making a difference by helping all living beings in our community.”
At some point, Leya started staying away for days at a time. But even then, when Janzon was out for a morning kayak ride on the lake, he’d see her nose pop out of the water and start moving towards him. Leya knew he was there and would swim up and climb into the kayak for cuddles and a ride.
Mats says Leya is officially living her wild life now.
“I last saw Leya at the end of May,” Janzon tells Upworthy. “Initially, we thought she’d find her own territory before winter, but after several long trips, she chose to stay under the house while the lake was frozen. When spring arrived, she resumed her search, staying away for up to 10 days before returning for brief visits, lasting a few hours to a day. Her last visit was unusually long, over a week. I suspect she may have been pregnant, eating heartily to prepare for a longer stay in a new territory farther away.”
Janzon wants people to know that as much as he loves Leya, she’s not a pet. “When an animal trusts you, it creates a bond deeper than words can explain,” he told SoulPaws Tails. “If you’re thinking of adopting or rescuing an animal, especially a wild one, please do it with your whole heart and full responsibility. Do your homework, talk to professionals, ask questions, learn everything you can about animals like Leya. They aren’t pets. They’re living, feeling souls that deserve to be loved and respected for who they are.”
You can follow Mats Janzon and see more videos of Leya on TikTok.
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
When you see a list of the year’s most popular baby names, what you’re really looking at are the most common baby names in a specific country or culture. If you live in the U.S., you likely know a whole lot of kids named Olivia, Emma, Liam, and Noah, but if you live in Thailand or Kyrgyzstan or Botswana, you probably don’t.
Simply saying common names in different countries can sometimes result in hilarity. A name that sounds beautiful and has a lovely meaning in one language might sound odd and mean something very different in another. For instance, Odd is a common name in Norway, but it sounds…well, odd to and English ear. The former president of Vietnam had the last name Phuc, which surely led to some awkward moments for Americans who had to address “President Phuc.” (The “u” is pronounced more like the “oo” sound, but if you’d never heard it said, you wouldn’t know.)
Chinese language and culture instructor Dr. Candise Lin is sharing American names that sound funny to Mandarin speakers because of what they mean when pronounced with Chinese phonetics, and it’s a hoot.
1. Robin (pronounced Luo ben) = Running Naked
2. Robinson (pronounced Luo ben shen) = God of Running Naked
3. Nelson (pronounced Niao shen) = God of Pee
4. Benson (pronounced Ben shen) = God of Dumb
5. Mason (pronounced Mei shen) = God of Beauty
6. Nicholas (pronounced Ni kou si le) = You Are So Stingy
7. Isabella (pronounced Yi sheng bei la) = The Doctor Got Arrested
8. Dylan (pronounced Di neng) = Low IQ
9. Nancy (pronounced Nan si) = Difficult to Die
10. Robert (pronounced Luo bo) = Carrot
11. Ashley (pronounced Ao si ni) = Wear You Down to Death
12. Logan (pronounced Nao geng) = Brain Stroke
13. Tiffany (pronounced Ti fa ni) = Kick Your Ass
Tiffany Darwish GIF by New Kids On The Block Giphy
14. Martha (pronounced Ma hua) = Fried Dough Twist
15. Jeff (pronounced Jie fu) = Brother-in-law
16. Daniel (pronounced Da niu) = Big Shot
17. Gordon (pronounced Gou dan) = Dog Balls
18. Melanie (pronounce Mei ren li) = Nobody Cares
A few of these names actually seem pretty rockstar in Mandarin. Mason as “God of Beauty’? Nothing wrong with that. Nancy being “Difficult to Die?” Heck yeah. But some are particularly unfortunate. God of Pee? Yeesh. Low IQ? Ouch.
Of course, the names in Chinese are based on transliterations that aren’t exact. English and Mandarin have different sounds, so many of them are just the closest approximations that there are in terms of pronunciation. (But then along comes Tiffany, kicking ass as clear as day.)
Chinese characters aren’t phonetic in the way that English letters are. Photo credit: Canva
Naturally, people who have some beef with people who bear some of these names are having a heyday, with comments like “Ashley actually makes a lot of sense,” or “Not Gordon Ramsay actually being called Dog Ballz Ramsay.” But mostly people are just delighted to see how names they see as totally “normal” mean hilarious things in Chinese.
As one person wrote, “This was awesome and about time! Chinese names get a lot of humor attention in English circles. It’s nice to know English names can also be a bit ridiculous in Chinese.” It’s likely that many of us have never thought about how American names might sound in other countries.
But names not translating well is truly a universal phenomenon, and as long as we’re all laughing about it together, finding the funny when things—even our names—get lost in translation can be a fun way to connect across cultures.
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
The ‘90s are often depicted as a golden age. A time of less violence, more money, better music, equal rights, unprecedented technological progress, and Beanie Babies instead of Labubus. A time of peace throughout the land.
However, take a quick romp through actual history and we see that when we take the rose-colored glasses off, the ’90s weren’t without its less-that-stellar moments. Furthermore, there was a lot more nuance to it than teens wearing a bunch of flannel and listening to grunge music.
Across severalRedditthreads, people who actually lived through the ’90s have shared some prime examples of how we get the ’90s wrong and elements we have completely forgotten about, from recalling society’s very unhealthy obsession with thinness, to police brutality, to the questionable hunter green/maroon craze (remember that?).
Take a scroll down memory lane with our 15 favorites:
1.”The early 90s and late 90s were two very different times culturally. I can’t stand it when I see a picture of the spice girls with a ‘So 90s!’ caption.”
“There’s a HUGE difference between the early 90’s and late 90’s. After 1996 it was more millennial, Pokémon, Britney Spears vs the early 90’s which was more grunge and smooth RnB.”
2. “Not all Gen Xers were disinterested slackers in the 90s.”
“I graduated from university in 1991. I spent the 1990s trying to get a decent job, pay rent and generally just getting my shit together. Most other people my age seemed to be doing pretty much the same thing, unless they had rich parents.”
3. “Nobody seems to talk about all the maroon and hunter-green wallpaper strips that were added to the top of the walls in houses. Maroon and hunter-green everywhere. From cars to vacuums and beyond.”
“My comforter set for my freshman dorm (Fall 1994) was maroon on one side, hunter green on the other. I realized it was dark and depressing so I got a girlie daisy print bedspread for the rest of college.”
4. “Money was tight then, too. People were happy with fewer luxuries, because we could get by. And the very idea of giving a child a device worth hundreds of dollars was ludicrous! I still feel this way.”
5. “A lot of people talk about the 90s like it was a utopian decade. Sure, a lot of stuff was awesome. But there was also the AIDS epidemic, the crack epidemic, the heroin epidemic, lots of police brutality, the sharp uptick in domestic terrorism, etc. plus the casual sexism, racism, & homophobia. The hope for the future that started in late 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the heating up of our economy in the mid-90s only lasted until 2000. It was a very brief window, in retrospect.”
6. “Female celebrities were shrinking to child sizes and getting praised for it. ‘Thinspo’ was a thing. ALL my friends group from high school and college, including myself, had eating disorders — Marlboro Light and Diet Coke for every meal. Our idea of sports was extreme cardio only. We were SO unhealthy. Thank God we were young enough to bounce back to normal without major issues.”
7. “That Nirvana ruled the 90s, and killed off all other forms of hard rock. They hit hard for about two and a half years, and then we were stuck with Tonic and the goddamn Spin Doctors.”
“A lot of people mention grunge and gangsta rap, but country was very hot too. Country line dancing became a big thing, Branson, Missouri became a big tourist destination with its theaters, and artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain made tons of money.”
“I don’t think the Riot Grrrl movement gets enough recognition and acknowledgment as an extremely significant 90s cultural event.”
8. “I think one idea that’s misrepresented is that we were already online, all the time.”
“I mean, I was STOKED when I got into the dorm with LAN connections in 1993, but I was an outlier. Lots of kids at my college barely understood using computers, much less anything internet-related beyond maybe an AOL/AIM. Obviously this was an evolution of ten very fast moving years.”
9. “That mom Jeans were cool. No one under 35 wore them.”
10. “Not everyone wore Doc Martens back in the 1990s. Many people wore military boots as a fashion statement that were often mistaken for Doc Martens, while others wore sneakers every day, even in venues where they should have been wearing more formal shoes.”
11. “Cellphones were considered tacky and unnecessary unless you were a doctor.”
12 .”Not everyone got around on rollerblades.”
13. “Property was cheaper, not cheap as in affordable to all.”
14. “If your family lived in a rural area and wasn’t rich enough to immediately buy a computer, you could be lonely in a way that people can’t even comprehend now. I spent the last two years of high school doing nothing, watching TV and playing 16-bit RPGs repeatedly because I couldn’t get anywhere or do anything.”
15. “Drunk driving didn’t have the stigma it does today. It took a long campaign waged by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to shift public perception on how dangerous drunk driving is.”
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
For whatever reason, we love a good survival story. Whether it’s a Hollywood film about Tom Hanks stranded on a desert island or a reality TV show about a former special forces soldier foraging for food and shelter in the jungle, we can’t get enough.
Unfortunately, for many of us, our knowledge of survival and emergency situations doesn’t go much further than what we’ve seen on television. Worse, much of what we’ve learned and come to accept as good advice is actually wrong. Many of the techniques in question are either ineffective, dangerous, or exaggerated for entertainment value.
If you ever find yourself stranded, lost, or in a life-threatening situation, here are a few popular survival myths to be aware of:
1. Sucking venom out of a snakebite
If you get bitten by a venomous snake, the smart move is to get the venom out of the wound as soon as possible. The only problem? This doesn’t actually work. And neither do devices that claim to extract the venom.
“Snake venom rapidly diffuses into deep tissue—it’s not just pooled up under the skin ready to be suctioned out,” prepper Sean Gold tells Upworthy. “Being able to suck the venom back through the snake’s bite is also impossible, since the bite tracks immediately collapse when the fangs are removed.”
What to do instead: You need medical attention and antivenom. If you can’t get help, immobilize the wound and keep it below heart level.
2. Drinking cactus water
We all know that cacti thrive in the desert due to their incredible ability to store water. That makes the idea of cutting one open to quench your thirst pretty appealing. Unfortunately, the water stored in a cactus isn’t suitable for drinking.
“Most cactus species further protect their spongy flesh with acids and potent alkaloids. These chemicals are usually too acrid for most humans to tolerate and are taxing on the kidneys if ingested. The flesh of some cactus species can also cause vomiting, diarrhea, or temporary paralysis—none of which is conducive to your survival in an emergency situation.”
What to do instead: Your best bet is digging in a dry riverbed to find water, or following birds, bees, and trees to a better source. More importantly, don’t overexert yourself in the heat of the day in order to conserve hydration.
3. Counting on moss to navigate
Ever heard the old rule that moss only grows on the north side of a tree? The idea comes from the fact that moss prefers shady areas, which are more likely to face north. Some people believe you can use this concept to navigate your way out of being lost.
Sadly, moss will grow just about anywhere. It’s often found on north-facing surfaces, but not reliably enough to use as a compass.
What to do instead: Serious survivalists learn how to navigate using the stars and the sun. The easiest thing to remember is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, though not precisely.
“By drinking urine with higher concentrations of waste products (and/or if your kidneys are impaired), urea and other metabolic waste products can accumulate in your body. This can become toxic to cells, particularly those in the nervous system. This can lead to symptoms such as vomiting, muscle cramps, itching and changes in consciousness. Without treatment, this toxic state (known as uraemia) can be life-threatening.”
What to do instead: Finding fresh drinking water is one of the most difficult aspects of survival. Studying the topography of the area and heading downhill are usually your best bets for finding a stream.
5. Hiding in a tunnel from a tornado
A lot of people believe that if they encounter a tornado while driving, a highway overpass or tunnel is a good place to take shelter from flying debris.
On the contrary, a bridge or overpass can act as a wind tunnel, accelerating the force of the wind and flying debris. That’s even more dangerous. Depending on your head start and which direction the tornado is moving, you may be able to drive away from it, but it’s not usually recommended, as tornadoes can reach forward speeds of 75 miles per hour.
What to do instead: Missouri’s Storm Awarewebsite notes, “If you are in your vehicle and a tornado is approaching, you should pull your vehicle to the side of the road immediately, get out, and lay flat in a nearby ditch covering your neck and head.”
6. Drinking alcohol to warm up
It’s not out of the realm of possibility to imagine yourself in a broken-down car on the side of the road during a blizzard with nothing but an old bottle of whiskey that’s been rolling around in the back for months.
As tempting as it might be to drink it, experts say don’t do it. Drinking hard liquor can temporarily make your body feel warm, but it actually makes the situation worse.
Outdoor Life explains: “Although you may feel warmer, alcohol actually dilates skin-surface blood vessels and capillaries, which will chill your core even faster.”
What to do instead: Save the celebratory drink for after you’re rescued.
There are many survival techniques and myths that would require years of learning and practice to master. But a good general rule is that real survival is boring, not flashy. In most situations, the best thing to do is stay calm, seek shelter, and try to signal for help.
Kids of all ages can be cruel, but middle schoolers have a particularly savage sense of humor. Unfortunately, teachers often end up on the receiving end of it.
Thankfully, teachers are quite resilient and have their own sense of humor.
Insults turned inspo
Take middle-school teacher Amy McKinzie, who decided to take some of the ahem, questionable things her students have said to her and make faux inspirational posters out of them.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you humble,” quipped McKinzie in her Instagram caption. In the video, dreamy landscape photos serve as the backdrop for these gems:
“You look like you cry watching Hallmark movies.”
Screenshot
“It gives me the ick when you tell us to read our books.”
“You’re older than my grandma.”
“Will there be any math problems on our English test?”
“Did you mean to wear your hair like that?”
Screenshot
Ouch!
The format alone is comedy gold. Pairing brutally honest middle-school commentary with soft-focus sunsets and mountain vistas feels almost poetic. If you’ve ever spent time around 12- and 13-year-olds, you know that their observations come out fast, unfiltered, and usually with impeccable timing (not to mention zero mercy). Sometimes they mean it as a joke, but often they truly do not realize how devastating the comment might sound. Either way, the result is often unintentionally hilarious.
And sure enough, tons of viewers could instantly clock the insults as distinctly middle-school shade-throwing:
“Lol… my daughter is that age & i can totally hear her saying some of these to me! 😮😂”
“You teach middle school don’t you? Those kids are vicious hahaha.”
It prompted many other teachers to share their favorite jokes hurled at them by their students:
Screenshot
“My favorite- were you alive during the attack at Pearl Harbor? I’m in my 30s.”
“My favorite is, ‘frankly, don’t you think you’re a little old to be dating?’😮”
“Brings back great memories teaching high school English. ‘It’s time to touch up your roots.’”
“I wore a really cute blue and white horizontal shirt or so I thought .. the girls said ‘why do you have your pajamas on.’”
“I had a student tell me ‘You look nice today. You just need to get that hair under control.’ Yeah, still trying to figure it (my hair) out. 🤷♀️”
“After showing a photo of a telegraph: ‘Is this what you used?’”
“‘Why do you look so tired today?’ on a day I didn’t wear makeup or mascara.”
“What was it like watching black and white tv?”
This proves once again that teachers are made of stronger stuff.
Teachers, of course, develop a thick skin pretty quickly. When you spend your days with students who are still figuring out how the world works and where the line between observation and roast actually lies, you learn to laugh. And sometimes, the best way to survive the burn is to frame it—literally—and turn it into content. Because let’s face it, the burns are just gonna keep comin’.
As one of the first iconic villains to hit the big screen, the Wicked Witch of the West lives in our collective memory. Those who’ve seen the original 1939 film The Wizard of Oz can hear the witch’s high-pitched cackle. We can recite her menacing line: “I’ll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!”
Margaret Hamilton played the role in the film when she was 35 years old. Even though she was only on screen for 12 minutes, her performance was unforgettable. While speaking to a live audience in her later years (exact time and place unknown), Hamilton shared the story of how she was cast, showcasing her delightful personality in the process.
Hamilton said she had done about six pictures for MGM before the opportunity to appear in The Wizard of Oz came along. Then she shared the details of that conversation with the audience:
“One day, my agent called and said, ‘Maggie, they’re really kind of interested in you for a part in The Wizard of Oz.’ And I said, ‘Oh gosh. Think of that,’ I said, ‘I loved that story from the time I was four years old. What is it?’ And he said, ‘Well, the Witch.’ And I said, ‘The Witch?!’ Then he said the final thing, he said, ‘Yes, what else?’”
The audience burst out laughing.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of an exciting part.’ But jeez, I had my, you know, my eyes on something else. I don’t know what it was exactly, but I didn’t think about the Witch. However, I ought to because I’d had that nose quite a long while.”
The audience busted up again.
Margaret Hamilton wore a prosthetic nose tip and a prosthetic chin in the film. Photo credit: Public domain
The fact that she totally owned her prominent nose, a signature feature few in Hollywood would embrace today, is so refreshing. It’s especially notable considering the Wicked Witch was originally conceived as a bit more glamorous and beautiful in the film. Producer Mervyn LeRoy said he didn’t want the character to be hideous, as he didn’t want to “scare children away from the theatre.”
Hamilton is by no means hideous. But when LeRoy changed his mind about the character’s look, she fit it perfectly. When she tested for the role, she wore “the oldest, crummiest-looking clothes I could find, some dirty things that sort of hung on me like a Mother Hubbard, and then a little shawl.”
“There was no witch’s hat,” she said, “and I really looked more like an old hag. And I cackled and screamed and said a few lines from the script.”
The Wicked Witch of the West was born.
Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939) didn’t just play a villain, she created the template. Every witch after her is either copying or reacting to what she did first. An entire archetype born from one performance. pic.twitter.com/nYXj6sbFeqhttps://t.co/NLAjPZ6vUw
And scare children she did. People in the comments shared how terrified they were of her when they were kids:
“This woman scared the absolute s__t out of me when I was a child.”
“Gave me nightmares. Her and those flying monkeys. Yow!”
“Her witch scared the hell out of me as a child, and even as a man I still found her frightening.”
“That scene in the tornado where she turns from Almira Gulch on the bicycle, into the witch on the broomstick was absolutely terrifying when I was 6 years old.”
“She made the witch utterly terrifying! Job well done no doubt.”
“She scared me so much as a little kid. I was amazed to discover later that she had been, of all things, a *kindergarten teacher*!”
That’s right, this terrifying witch was a kindergarten teacher when she wasn’t acting.
She frightened audiences for generations. In fact, Hamilton’s appearance as the Wicked Witch on Sesame Street in 1976 was prohibited from airing after parents complained that their children were frightened. (Though Hamilton’s appearance wasn’t nearly as scary as her character in the film, the Sesame Street audience was very young.)
However, she also appeared on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as herself. Talking to Fred Rogers, she explained how she viewed the character of the Wicked Witch of the West:
“Sometimes the children feel she’s a very mean witch, and she does seem that way. But I always think two things about her: She does enjoy everything she does, whether it’s good or bad, she does enjoy it. She also is what we sometimes refer to as ‘frustrated.’ She’s very unhappy because she never gets what she wants, Mr. Rogers. Most of us get something we want along the line, but as far as we know that witch has never got what she wanted…”
She also dressed up as the Witch, but without the green makeup, showing kids that it was really just a nice lady in a costume all along.
Despite the fear she evoked with her most famous role, people loved Hamilton’s real-life character. Patty Duke, who worked with her on The Patty Duke Show in the 1960s, called Hamilton “the gentlest soul you could ever meet” in her memoir.
Folks in the comments on her casting story shared the same sentiment:
“A friend of mine had the opportunity to meet and have lunch with Mrs. Hamilton in Manhattan in the mid – 70’s after she had retired. He told me she was one most humble, kind, and sweetest lady you could ever meet….and insisted on picking up the check for their meal.”
“My mother met her in the late 60’s. She said she was nicest, sweetest person she had ever met.”
“She was my mother’s kindergarten teacher.”
Margaret Hamilton in 1929 (left) and in 1973 (right). Photo credit: Public domain
“I met Margaret Hamilton while I was working at a drug store in Beverly Hills as a teenager in the early 1970s. The other young staff and I crouched down and marched around her chanting the Wicked Witch theme from the movie. Ms. Hamilton laughed and was so kind to us.”
“She’s so naturally charismatic. Not even acting, just being herself and telling a story and I was captivated. No wonder her performance was so mesmerizing. She’s just an awesome lady.”
“I remember her when I was a child and not just from the film. She was on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood as herself to show everyone she was a nice person and that the witch was just a character she played. She seemed like such a kind person.”
Hamilton died in 1985 at age 82. She is remembered today both for the characters she portrayed on screen and for the character she exemplified in real life.
When it comes to villain songs, few are as instantly recognizable as “The Imperial March,” better known as Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars. The G minor key, one of the darkest in classical music, plus the relentlessly steady rhythm, reminiscent of a military march…it’s all so bombastically, unapologetically evil-sounding. It also helps that composer…
When it comes to villain songs, few are as instantly recognizable as “The Imperial March,” better known as Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars. The G minor key, one of the darkest in classical music, plus the relentlessly steady rhythm, reminiscent of a military march…it’s all so bombastically, unapologetically evil-sounding.
It also helps that composer John Williams used the Star Wars franchise to introduce the cinematic world to the Wagnerian leitmotif—a concept well known in opera, where recurring bits of music act as a character’s calling card. In Vader’s case, viewers would hear the tune whenever he slaughtered innocents and enforced the Empire’s tyranny, making it pretty much synonymous with bad guy behavior.
But composer and pianist Avishai Darash wondered what that dastardly march might sound like if things had played out a little differently—namely, if Vader had, as Darash put it, “gone to therapy,” done away with his imperial ways, and been the dad Luke and Leia deserved.
The result: a revamped theme song (using major keys, of course) that feels like it belongs more in the world of Jane Austen than sword fighting in space.
Instead of dread and looming danger, the melody suddenly feels light, warm, and oddly wholesome, like something you might hear while strolling through a sunlit garden rather than watching a galactic conquest unfold.
“Maybe Luke just wanted to hear ‘I’m proud of you, son,’” Darash quipped in the comments.
Viewers react
The clip, which racked up 92,000 views, inspired a ton of funny (and punny) comments from Star Wars fans:
“Episode V: The empire loves you back.”
“I bet this Vader knows how to French braid Leia’s hair.”
“The love is strong with this one.”
“It evokes images of Darth Vader skipping whimsically through a meadow.”
“Luke, I am your caregiver 😶🌫️”
“Well that’s a major plot twist 🍿”
“You are not a Jedi yet… but your journey is valid and I admire the hard work- keep going, I’ll always have your back, Mom’s getting Starbucks, what’s your order?”
“Luke, I am your emotionally and physically present father.”
A specialty for Darash
This isn’t the first time Darash has taken a well-known character song from a movie score and completely reimagined it. In fact, turning famous themes on their heads has become something of a specialty for him.
For instance, in this video he imagines Clark Kent as just your average Joe, with no Superman alter ego. Suddenly his life feels far more grounded and ordinary.
Or this one, where Vito Corleone “just ran a family restaurant” and “paid his taxes,” rather than being a mob boss, making him a “good father” instead of a “Godfather.”
Or this one, which imagines what would have happened if the Titanic had never sunk and Jack and Rose had lived happily ever after. Less tragedy and a lot more hope, but it still tugs at the heartstrings.
After seeing these, isn’t it nice to know that in this complicated life there are a few simple things we can rely on? Two plus two equals four. Blue and red make purple. Major chords sound happy; minor chords do not. You don’t have to be a music genius to understand that on a visceral level.
Now, what if the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park were actually cute and cuddly rather than wild and carnivorous? That’s the cover I’m waiting to hear.
Communication has always been a hit-or-miss reality, even before the Internet. Misunderstandings, misreadings, and misinterpretations happen. But the age of emojis and online-only acronyms has opened up even more opportunities for miscommunication, sometimes resulting in mortifying hilarity. A thread on X highlights misuses of modern acronyms and emojis, largely revolving around the letter “F.” (Fair…
Communication has always been a hit-or-miss reality, even before the Internet. Misunderstandings, misreadings, and misinterpretations happen. But the age of emojis and online-only acronyms has opened up even more opportunities for miscommunication, sometimes resulting in mortifying hilarity.
A thread on X highlights misuses of modern acronyms and emojis, largely revolving around the letter “F.” (Fair warning here that many of these contain f-bombs.) It starts with someone who thought “JFC” stood for “just for clarification.”
JFC ≠ Just For Clarification
Imagine putting JFC in a professional email without knowing that the common meaning is “Jesus F____ing Christ.” As in, “JFC, we’ll go over that at our meeting next week.” Has a whole different feel, doesn’t it?
Someone just told me about this woman on Instagram who genuinely thought "JFC" stood for "just for clarification." She'd been dropping it casually in professional emails for years.
It instantly reminded me of my own mom, who for the longest time was convinced "LOL" meant "lots…
A super common acronym confusion is LOL. In modern online usage, it means “laugh out loud.” However, the acronym predates texting and social media. Traditionally, LOL was used to say “lots of love” at the end of a letter.
Those two different usages create some very awkward interchanges, such as when a person responds with condolences: “So sorry for your loss. LOL”
My mom did this exact same thing with LOL. Her dad passed, my grandpa, while I was out boating and she texted me, “Grandpa passed away this morning. I will let you know about services. Call me when you get home. LOL, Mom”. As soon as I got to land, I called. She had sent a…
This one isn’t an acronym or emoji, but it has become a common slang term. In modern usage, “hard pass” means “Nope, nope, nopity nope. I immediately and absolutely do NOT want to do that thing.” So imagine how embarrassing it would be if you used “hard pass” to respond to a party invitation, thinking it meant, “It’s hard for me to pass on this, but I’m afraid I have to, so sorry.”
Hopefully, the person receiving the “hard pass” RSVP knew the person well enough to know they may be confused about the phrase, because ouch.
Read someone who’d thought “hard pass” meant “hard to turn it down but I have to, sorry” and had been saying it to party invitations. Obvious horrified when she found out.
Sometimes an acronym takes hold in a specific time period or subgroup of people, then later takes hold with a whole different meaning.
Enter “FTW.” Apparently, the punk rockers of the 80s and 90s would use FTW to mean “F___ The World.” But the acronym gained traction among online gamers to mean “For The Win.” The latter has since spilled over into popular culture, but for some folks, the older meaning still comes to mind first.
However, there’s another FTW (usually written as F.T.W.) for bikers. Even that has more than one meaning, as some use it to mean “Forever Two Wheels” and others use it for “Forever Together Wherever.”
WTF can be a minefield of misunderstanding
Rearrange the letters of FTW and we have WTF, which has been a great source of confusion. The commonly understood (and most vulgar) usage is “What The F___.” But people have misread it or misunderstood it to mean various things, including:
Why The Face?
Welcome To Facebook!
Where’s The Food?
Well That’s Fantastic!
WOW That’s Fantastic!
One person shared a hilarious tale about that last one:
LOL… seriously, that's funny
— NicoleTheCat random retweeter of interesting stuff (@NicoleTheCat4) March 10, 2026
“My kid told his 8th grade science teacher that WTF! written on his notebook was for ‘WOW! That’s Fantastic!’ The teacher was so excited to finally learn what it meant he was using it all the time! I swear this is the truth: he shouted ‘WTF!’ at a class tour at the Smithsonian. He graded tests & if kids got an A, he wrote WTF! At the top of their paper. He finally found out the other meaning and had to apologize to the whole school. My kid got a week detention.”
F/U ≠ follow up (though it could)
In a professional email, you can be pretty sure f/u stands for “follow-up.” But you can never be 100% sure…
Sometimes, one letter makes a world of difference. FFS is generally understood to mean “For F___’s Sake.” Add a C to make FCFS, and you have “First Come First Served.”
So yeah, using FFS instead of FCFS gives a Facebook Marketplace listing a whole different vibe.
Lol! A Facebook marketplace lady I knew from church was putting FFS instead of FCFS on all her garage sale leftovers. It was amazing. 🤣😇
It’s the “F” that really gets people in trouble with the acronyms, isn’t it? At this point, it’s probably best to assume that any acronym that uses an F is potentially vulgar to avoid something embarrassing.
For instance, it’s understandable that one might interpret GFY as “Good For YOU.” Wholesome and sweet and totally the opposite of the more commonly understood “Go F___ Yourself.” (Is there someone we can petition to change this one? Good For You is so much better.)
Reminds me of the lady who shared that she thought GFY meant Good For You and used it often in work emails. “My wife just gave birth to our first child.” “GFY!”
— No soup for you. Next! (@JeffHerndon33) March 11, 2026
Oh, the emojis
People also shared ways emojis have been misunderstood and misused. For instance, the poop emoji looks an awful lot like chocolate softserve ice cream. Apparently, more than a few people have thought that’s what it was and used it in texts accordingly. Imagine the possibilities there.
The tearful emojis have also been a source of confusion, with some people thinking the cry-laughing emoji is just crying. Imagine sending the cry-laugh emoji in a text expressing sorrow for someone’s loss.
The size of emojis can make deciphering them a little tricky, which is why a couple of people thought the middle finger emoji was simply a pointer finger. Woops.
Oh I used it in an advertisement once. It was a tragic day at work😂
And some emojis are simply confusing, period. No one seems to agree whether the two hands together emoji means praying hands or high five. And unfortunately, the search function doesn’t help because it comes up when you search “pray” and also when you search “high five.”
Considering that entire wars have begun over miscommunications, it’s kind of important that we are generally on the same page about what things mean. But at least in the fast-changing era of online communications, we understand such confusion is bound to occur on occasion and are able to laugh about it.
