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People think something really important is missing from William and Kate's Christmas card

Can you see it?

via The Prince and Princess of Wales

The Prince and Princess of Wales' 2023 Christmas card.

The British royal family is used to being under intense scrutiny, whether it’s the relationship between King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The rocky relationship that Prince Harry and Megan Markle have with the rest of their family or the numerous scandals involving Prince Andrew.

For a family forced to take public perception very seriously, it’s interesting to note that there is something rather strange about this year's Christmas card from the Prince and Princess of Wales and that it wasn't flagged before the photo was relased.

At first glance, the family appears in good spirits, with big smiles in matching white button-downs, denim pants and black slacks. However, there seems to be something seriously wrong with Prince Louis' left hand.

Royal watchers on social media say that the photo makes it look like the 5-year-old is missing his middle finger.

Our family Christmas card for 2023 \ud83c\udf84\u2764\ufe0f\n\n\ud83d\udcf8 Josh Shinner
— (@)

A lot of folks sounded off on the mysteriously missing appendage on X.

Ok and also is Prince Louis missing a finger? What in the AI is going on?
— 💃🏽 Jill Scott’s Left Thigh (@Goper91) December 10, 2023

Wtf!!? Where is Prince Louis middle finger? Was it temporarily removed to avoid embarrassment? It looks like a picture from #TheAdamsfamily 🤷‍♀️
— Monica (@C_Moni) December 11, 2023

Is Prince Louis really missing a finger or is that bad photoshop???
— Dominique (@djoyousone) December 10, 2023

X user Yellow Rose of Texas highlighted the hand to give people a more precise look at what was going on with Prince Louis.

Is Prince Louis missing a finger? Or is this a Photoshop fail? pic.twitter.com/YpQHi4Hvjt
— ¥€££0₩ R0$€ 0F T€XA$ 🏵 Proud member of LGBFJB (@MBSTLady) December 11, 2023

There are various reasons why Louis' finger appears to be missing in the photograph. His middle and ring fingers are spread far apart, exposing the skin between them. If this is the case, Louis must have some rather flexible appendages.

Others believe his thumb is tucked on the underside of the chair. This makes sense, but Louis has to have some pretty flexible fingers for this scenario to be correct.

As we saw above, others believe that the missing finger is a Photoshop failure or a mistake created by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is known for having a hard time creating images of fingers. If it was a Photoshop fail, it’s not the first time the royal family has been accused of using digital photo editing software on its family photos.

Last April, numerous people accused the Prince and Princess of Wales of sharing a Photoshopped image of Queen Elizabeth and her grandchildren on what would have been her 97th birthday. Many suggested that Prince Louis was digitally altered in the shot.

ROYAL LIES. Who will set the history books straight?

Photographers are saying Prince Louis was not actually in this photograph with the Queen and her grandchildren. It's said Louis has been added by photoshop. Kate Middleton seems caught in a very big lie about Queen Elizabeth. pic.twitter.com/yrUq6YTVRp
— Carmen's Granddaughter (@CarmenGranddau1) April 22, 2023

It’s fitting that Prince Louis would be the subject of such goofy or, as the English would call it, barmy, speculation. Louis is known for having a mischievous side. The young prince showed off his personality during King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation celebrations earlier this year, where he was caught making funny faces and yawning at inappropriate times during the ceremonies.

"He's a cheeky monkey — a typical third child," a source close to People told the magazine recently. "It's nice that the world got to see him enjoying himself."

Regardless of whether the photo results from a Photoshop failure or a member of the royal family having very nimble fingers, what’s interesting is that nobody on the Prince of Wales’ team noticed Louis’ hand and retook the photo or fixed it with digital editing. Or, it could be a great example of the royal family beginning to lighten up after all these years of public scrutiny.

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Pop Culture

Merriam-Webster announced the 2023 'Word of the Year,’ and it says a lot about today’s world

Plus, some other terms that made 2023 a historic year.

via TIFF 2022/Wikimedia Commons

Taylor Swift at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival Red Carpet Day 2.

The wordsmiths over at Merriam-Webster have announced their official “Word of the Year for 2023,” they say it’s something we are “thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more” than ever.

The word is authentic.

According to the dictionary, the most common definitions of authentic are “not false or imitation,” “being true to one's own personality, spirit, or character,” and “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.”

Merriam-Webster says the word saw a “substantial increase” in lookups this year. That’s probably because we now live in a world where artificial intelligence, deepfake technology and questionable memes challenge our basic notions of reality.

Authenticity is also seen as a commodity at a time when influencers build their brands on social media while attempting to seamlessly pitch their "favorite" products. These days, the average person scrolls through over 43 feet of content every day on social media. After being exposed to countless images of people, it becomes easier to spot the phonies from those who are being their authentic selves.

“When we look at common threads across the thousands of influencer marketing campaigns we’ve run at The Outloud Group over the last 15 years, the similarity between all of our best-performing brand creator partnerships is pretty simple: true authenticity,” Bradley Hoos, CEO of The Outland Group, a full-service influencer marketing agency, writes in Forbes.

Merriam-Webster adds that authenticity is a trait people strove to find for themselves in 2023.

“Celebrities like singers Lainey Wilson, Sam Smith, and especially Taylor Swift all made headlines in 2023 with statements about seeking their ‘authentic voice’ and ‘authentic self,” Merriam-Webster writes. “Headlines like Three Ways To Tap Into Taylor Swift’s Authenticity And Build An Eras-Like Workplace associate this quality with pop-culture superpower.”

The dictionary also highlighted more words that trended in 2023, including:

“Rizz” — Internet slang for "romantic appeal or charm" (noun) or "to charm, seduce" (verb), popularized by YouTuber Kai Cenat, was added to the dictionary.

“Deepfake” — Altered images or recordings that convincingly misrepresent someone's actions or words, making it hard to distinguish between real and fake.

“Coronation” — The crowning of a new British monarch, King Charles III, sent people to the dictionary’s website to learn the term's meaning.

“Dystopian” — In 2023, “dystopian” was a verb applied to many frightening real-world issues and was used to describe the trend in video games, books and movies depicting a dark future.

“EGOT” — Lookups for “EGOT” spiked in February when Viola Davis won a Grammy for the audiobook version of her memoir. That made her one of the 18 people to become an EGOT, or winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

“X” — When Twitter was rebranded as X on July 23, searches for the term spiked at Merriam-Webster.com, where curious people went to discover more about the mysterious letter.

“Implode” — When a submersible that went to visit the remains of the Titanic in June imploded, the term had a considerable spike as people attempted to learn more about the passengers’ fate.

“Doppelgänger” — This term got hot multiple times in 2023. It trended twice due to stories out of Germany and New York involving the attempted murder or suicide of someone’s lookalike. Further, September saw the release of Naomi Klein’s book, “Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.”

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Family

Lawyer's argument on why babies should only take their mother's last name goes viral

For Dr. Proudman, it's about responsibility.

via Jonathan Borboa and Charlotte Proudman

A baby and feminist lawyer Dr. Charlotte Proudman

At this point in human history, it seems somewhat arbitrary that children almost always receive their fathers’ last names. A lawyer in London, England, made the case that babies should be named after their mother, and it caused a bit of a stir on X (formerly known as Twitter.)

On August 9, Dr. Charlotte Proudman tweeted: “A message to pregnant women — please give the baby your surname. You carried a baby for 9 months, gave birth, and will be responsible for that child for the rest of your life. When you’re registering the baby, ask yourself: why is the father’s surname more important than yours?”

The tweet received 5.3 million views and over 34,000 likes.

— (@)

Many responded by explaining why babies tend to take the names of their fathers. However, should those reasons apply today? Many also said that giving a child the father’s name makes them more likely to want to care for the child, but that’s setting the bar pretty low for men.

The point is to make the father feel responsible for the child.
— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) August 10, 2023

From patronymics to trade professions learnt from your father to dynasties named after a common ancestors title, yes its long been the default in the West to refer to ones parents via their male line
— Placeholder (@_Plac3_hold3r) August 10, 2023

I'd assume it started because going wayy back last names would originally be based around your family profession, and the father would be the one working and therefore pass on his name and profession, it would be nonsensical for the mother to pass on the name of her father.
— Dom 🌻 (@Vladispook) August 10, 2023

Even though there were good reasons for passing down the father’s name in the past, why should they matter in 2023 when the world is drastically different?

Traditional solutions are to problems long forgotten.
— Elliot Hammer (@ElliotHammerSR) August 15, 2023

While some fought for tradition and others cheered for an outright reversal of naming customs to catch up with the times, others thought people should do what they feel is best for their families instead of conforming to someone else’s ideas.

Or everyone can just do whatever they want and we don't have to make it a thing
— Triggery Fingers (@triggeryfingers) August 10, 2023

I think it’s my choice what surname I give, rather than feeling some obligation for my maiden surname.
— Emma Nash 🕷🇪🇺 (@DrEmmaNash) August 9, 2023

Everyone is free to have whatever opinion they choose on baby surnames. But Dr. Proudman’s tweet does bring up one significant issue. Just because we’ve always done something one way doesn’t always make it right. No tradition is sacred enough to be beyond reevaluation.

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x

People think something really important is missing from William and Kate's Christmas card

Can you see it?

Merriam-Webster announced the 2023 'Word of the Year,’ and it says a lot about today’s world

Plus, some other terms that made 2023 a historic year.

Lawyer's argument on why babies should only take their mother's last name goes viral

For Dr. Proudman, it's about responsibility.

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