High school teacher describes her day in viral video with a plea to give educators grace

“Loving kids is the purest form of beauty that exists—and it’s always going to beat your ugly.”

Jan 7, 2025

Photo credit: @kpintoledo/TikTok – Katie Peters shared a day in the life of pandemic teaching and pleaded for teachers to be given grace.

Teachers are heroes under normal circumstances. During a pandemic that has upended life as we know it, they are honest-to-goodness, bona fide superheroes.

The juggling of school and COVID-19 has been incredibly challenging, creating friction between officials, administrators, teachers, unions, parents, and the public at large. Everyone has different opinions about what should and shouldn’t have been done, and those opinions sometimes conflict with what can and cannot, and is and is not, being done. In the end, the overwhelming result has bee that everyone is just…done.

And as is usually the case with education-related controversies, teachers are taking the brunt of it. Their calls for safe school policies have been met with claims that kids aren’t at risk of severe COVID, as if teachers’ health and well-being are expendable. Parents’ frustrations with remote or hybrid learning are taken out on the teachers who are constantly scrambling to adjust to ever-changing circumstances that make everything about teaching more complicated.

Superheroes, seriously.

But as Toledo, Ohio high school teacher Katie Peters says, teachers aren’t looking for accolades. They’re doing the jobs they love, even though they’re incredibly difficult right now. What they do need is for people to understand what a teacher’s day looks like and to extend them some grace.

Peters’ 2022 TikTok video describing a day in the life of a teacher teaching six classes has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.

@kpintoledo
♬ original sound – KP

After sharing that she taught six periods and subbed during her planning period, she said, “I helped a young man find safe housing. I found a winter coat for a girl who didn’t have one. I located a student’s missing backpack and arranged for a Chromebook replacement for that student. I gave a student a little bit of cash for a haircut and made sure another student had enough food to last them through the weekend.”

She also comforted a student who had cramps, supported a student who was going through his first heartbreak, saved a student’s art project with some super glue, walked a student to class so they wouldn’t feel alone, and wrote a card for a student who was struggling. That was just during the school day.

After school she had a meeting, tutored a student, then wrote a college recommendation letter for a student who brought her the request the day before it was due.

Then she spent four hours at home planning “fun, inviting, exciting lesson plans that could, at the drop of a hat, need to go virtual without any warning.”

But Peters said she didn’t want a single accolade. “No teacher I know wants a pat on the back or gratitude,” she said. “What they do need is grace.” She pointed out that doing all of these things are what teachers love to do and what fulfills them. But it’s also why they’re tired. The pandemic has made everything harder.

Peters said a piece of her was shattered when she read a comment in a community forum about her district going back to in-person learning, “Oh, it’s nice the teachers decided to work again.” As if teachers have not been working the hardest they ever have during all of the pandemic upheaval? Please.

“Nobody, in the history of ever, has been motivated by ugly,” she said. “Loving kids is the purest form of beauty that exists—and it’s always going to beat your ugly.”

Well said.

Peters told TODAY that negative comments make teachers feel defeated, which impacts their job. “I’m not sure how much people realize that their words carry over into our ability to care for their children,” Peters said. “We need you to hold space for us and understand that we are doing our best given the circumstances.”

People loved Peters’ honest and heartfelt account of what teachers are experiencing and what they really need from the rest of us: Grace. Patience. Understanding. Not ugliness or blame.

If anyone who isn’t a teacher has something negative to say and thinks they could handle the job better, they are more than welcome to get their teacher training education and certification and try their hand at it. Otherwise, give teachers the respect they deserve and the grace they so desperately need as they try to keep their hole-filled lifeboats afloat with paperclips and a hot glue gun.

Teachers, we see you. We’ve got your back. Hang in there.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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An Operation Smile volunteer reverses an oxygen mask so a child with a cleft condition can blow a bubble for the first time in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Operation Smile Photos)

Family, Science

How Bubbles Help Kids with Cleft Conditions

For thousands of children born with cleft conditions, Operation Smile provides simple, playful tools—like bubbles—to strengthen the skills they need to speak and thrive.

Sarah Watts

5/11/2026

While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care.

As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age.

Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference.

Lilia at age 1, before surgery, and at age 5, 4 years post-surgery

Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem

Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers.

Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive.

Marie, 11 months, with her mother at Operation Smile Madagascar before her cleft surgery (Operation Smile Photos)

A Playful (and Powerful) Solution

Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish.

Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety.

Milagros Rojas, a volunteer speech therapist in Peru, using bubbles in a screening with a patient. (Operation Smile Photos)

In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients.

Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.

Bubbles at Home and Beyond

Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.

CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today.

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Photo credit: via David Comburg/YouTube – Kurt Vonnegut explains the shapes of stories.

Culture, Pop Culture

Iconic writer Kurt Vonnegut’s simple graphs show how to write the 3 stories everyone loves

“There’s no reason why the simple shapes of a story can’t be fed into computers.”

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

5/16/2026

To be a great fiction writer requires understanding basic story structures and being clever enough to disguise them so your audience doesn’t know they’re watching or reading something they’ve seen before. Academics suggest that there are only a finite number of plots and structures, but that number varies based on who’s doing the talking.

Writer Kurt Vonnegut, best known for his satirical works on American politics and culture, including “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “Sirens of Titan,” was obsessed with the shapes of stories and summed up his views in one powerful sentence: “The fundamental idea is that stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads.”

What are the shapes of stories?

In the video below, Vonnegut explains the shapes of three different types of stories. The first one he starts with is “person gets into trouble.”

The first question is where the main character or protagonist starts their journey. Are they in a state of good or bad fortune, and how does that change from beginning to end? The arc of this story is simple, someone starts off in good fortune, they get into trouble, and then find their way out. “Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it,” Vonnegut says with a smirk.

The second is called “boy gets girl,” which is the basics of the story: someone finds something “wonderful,” their life is on an upward trajectory, then they trail downwards until they can get the girl or boy back. He finishes with the “most popular story” of Western civilization, and that is “Cinderella.”What’s interesting about the story is that it’s about a poor little girl whose mother has died, and her life is pure misery. But her story has a massive upswing when she meets her fairy godmother and can go to the ball. But once the clock strikes midnight, her life crashes down in a matter of seconds.

Vonnegut’s eerie prediction about AI

What’s interesting is that at the beginning of the video, Vonnegut notes that stories are relatively “simple” and that they should be able to be plugged into computers that could then regurgitate the same story over and over again. It almost feels like an eerie predictor of artificial intelligence. “There’s no reason why the simple shapes of a story can’t be fed into computers. They are beautiful shapes,” Vonnegut says. “Now this is an exercise in relativity, really. It’s the shape of the curves are what matters, and not their origins.”

After seeing Vonnegut map out the basic plotlines of stories, it’s hard not to see them every time you watch a movie or TV show. It is amazing that, because there are so few characters and plot arcs in modern storytelling, anyone can create anything that feels new.

This story originally appeared three years ago. It has since been updated.

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Photo credit: Canva – Why do we use $ to represent a dollar?

Culture, Generations

The surprisingly mysterious reason we use the $ symbol for the U.S. dollar

The U.S. dollar and its symbol have an international origin story.

Annie Reneau

5/15/2026

We see many symbols in our everyday lives that we likely don’t pay much attention to: the @ in our email addresses, for instance, or the % in our weather forecasts. But do we ever wonder where these symbols came from? Why they look like they do? Or how they came to mean what they mean?

One of the most commonly used symbols that most of us are clueless about is the dollar sign ($). Why does it have an “S” if there’s no “s” in “dollar”? Is there supposed to be one line or two? And where did the $ symbol even originate?

As educator and etymology enthusiast Rob Watts (better known as RobWords on YouTube) explains, the answers to those questions are surprisingly complicated.

The first written use of the dollar sign as we know it appeared in a handwritten letter sent by a man in New Orleans in 1778. Some may be under the impression that the $ is an amalgamation of “U” and “S,” as in United States, but nope. Its origin isn’t actually from the United States at all.

The international origins of the U.S. dollar start in Spain

In fact, we have to take a whole international tour through hundreds of years of currency history to arrive at what we think is the origin of the $. As Watts shares, we don’t know with 100% certainty.

The story begins with the Spanish real, the silver coin that served as the currency of Spain in the 14th century. A larger coin, worth eight times the value of the real, became known as a “piece of eight” in English. Those pieces of eight made their way to the Americas through colonialism in the 15th and 16th centuries.

“The discovery of huge, gleaming reserves of silver in Central and South America meant that they could also be made there, too,” Watts shares. “At the local mints, they took on a new name as well, based on the fixed weights of silver they were made from. They became known as the ‘peso,’ meaning ‘unit of weight.’”

A Spanish piece of eight dating between 1651 and 1773. Photo credit: Portable Antiquities Scheme/Wikimedia Commons

Because of their reliability and divisibility into smaller units, these pesos started being used not just in the Spanish-speaking colonies, but in British colonies in the Caribbean and North America as well.

Hold the peso thought. We’ll come back to it momentarily.

The word “dollar” can be traced back to the German Joachimsthaler coin

In the meantime, another coin of similar value from the German town of Joachimsthal had gained traction in Europe.

“In precisely the same way that a round slab of beef from Hamburg became known as a hamburger, this round slab of silver from Joachimsthal became known as a Joachimsthaler,” Watts explains. “And in exactly the same way that a hamburger is sometimes just called a ‘burger,’ a Joachimsthaler was sometimes just called a ‘thaler.’”

A Joachimsthaler coin from 1525. Photo credit: TommyG/Wikimedia Commons

“Thaler” became “daalder” in the Netherlands, “daler” in parts of Scandinavia, and “dollar” in the English-speaking world.

But that dollar wasn’t the dollar we ended up with.

“By 1700, the thaler had been adapted to have almost exactly the same silver content as another coin that was competing for usage in Europe: the ‘piece of eight’ or peso,” says Watts. “And so, to help differentiate between the two similarly valued coins, people started referring to the peso as ‘the Spanish dollar.’ This Spanish dollar was the de facto currency of the Americas right up until the American Revolution.”

A Spanish dollar from Mexico circa 1771. Photo credit: Heritage Auctions /Wikimedia Commons

The dollar sign actually comes from the peso symbol

Prior to declaring independence from Britain, the U.S. used the British pound for accounting. But the Spanish dollar, or peso, was the coin most often used as currency, so post-Revolution, the U.S. adopted the dollar as its own. (The first official U.S. dollar coin was minted in 1792.)

So, long story short, the Spanish dollar, or peso, was the basis for the U.S. dollar. Which finally leads us to where the $ came from.

The symbol used for pesos way back when was “ps,” with the “s” written like a superscript. When written with a pen in one stroke, the “s” ended up with a line through it. And when someone wanted to indicate plural pesos, they would write the symbol twice. The second instance, written more quickly, ended up blending the “p” and “s” together to look more like a $.

Essentially, the evolution looked like this:

Theories of where the dollar sign came from. Photo credit: JesperZedlitz/Wikimedia Commons

What about the double-lined dollar sign?

How did the $ with two lines come about? As shown in the image above, the two lines often lead people to the “U” plus “S” theory. However, Watts points out that the first printed version of the dollar sign appeared in 1797. That dollar sign actually had two lines, with no indication that “U” and “S” were the reason. Both versions of the symbol were in use by the close of the 18th century.

Watts goes into some of the other theories about where the double-lined dollar sign comes from. However, there doesn’t seem to be solid evidence to back any of them up.

Isn’t that wild? Who knew that our currency had such a complicated origin story? Or that we don’t even really know for certain why we use $ for the almighty dollar?

Thanks, Rob Watts, for making us all a little bit smarter. You can follow him on YouTube for more word fun.

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A woman looks out over the ocean while standing on a cruise ship.

Culture, Pop Culture

Woman lives on a cruise ship for free, but says there are 4 things she’s not allowed to do

Living the high seas life.

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

5/15/2026

Upworthy has covered a few stories about people who decided to live permanently on cruise ships because it’s cheaper than living on land or in a nursing home. These stories have connected with millions because they say a lot about the modern cost of living but are also aspirational.

Christine Kesteloo has become popular on TikTok with over one million followers because she shares what living on a cruise ship is really like. Kesteloo is the wife of the ship’s Staff Chief Engineer, so she gets to live on the boat for free. She only has to pay for alcohol and soda, which she gets for half off according to Business Insider.

So what is life actually like on board?

“I live on a cruise ship for half the year with my husband, and it’s often as glamorous as it sounds,” she told Business Insider. “After all, I don’t cook, clean, make my bed, do laundry or pay for food.“

Kesteloo’s life seems pretty stress-free. After all, she’s basically on a permanent vacation. However, even though she lives on a cruise ship as a “wife on board,” there are a few things she either can’t or shouldn’t do.

Here are the four things she cannot do

She shared these four things in a TikTok video with nearly 10 million views.

@dutchworld_americangirl
I go through four things I can, and cannot do it while living on the cruise ship with my husband #weliveonacruiseship #4things #alaskacruise #cruiseship #cruiseshiplife #cruise #alaska #caribbeancruise #cruiselife #livingstsea #getreadywithme
♬ Chill in a good mood, calm and fun(1263486) – zukisuzuki

1. Gambling

Kesteloo says she cannot sit at a slot machine and “play my heart out until I win.” She believes it would “look a little weird if I, as the wife of the staff chief engineer, won a big jackpot.”

2. Leaving the ship with the guests

When the ship arrives at a destination, she can’t get off with the guests. She must wait about an hour and exit the vessel with the crew. When returning to the ship, she also has to be on time. “No, they will not wait for us,” she says. And the same goes for her husband, if they “miss the ship, someone else will take over the role.”

3. Sitting in a crowded pool

Although Kesteloo has access to the pool, gym, and all the ship’s amenities, she’s cautious not to interfere with the guests’ good time. She’ll exit the pool if it’s busy because “it’s just the right thing to do.”

4. Traveling without international traveler insurance

She must have insurance in case of a misfortune on the ship. But as a citizen of the Netherlands, they already have coverage and just have to pay a few extra dollars a month.

The comments had one big question

Though folks generally welcomed Kesteloo’s advice, some of the most popular commenters on the video were from women regretting that they married men who aren’t chief engineers on cruise ships or those who want to know where to find a single one.

“OK, can you explain how to marry a cruise ship engineer?” one female commenter wrote.

“How. in. the. H E double hockey sticks do I become the wife of a cruise ship engineer???? I don’t have to work AND cruise for free!” another added.

“Does he have any single friends with same job??? Asking for me,” one more asked.

For even more tips on living this charmed life, follow Kesteloo on TikTok. Who knows, by now she might even have some advice for landing your own cruise ship engineer spouse.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: random804/YouTube – Axis of Awesome on stage.

Culture, Pop Culture

Comedy rock band use 38 songs to prove how ‘every pop song’ uses the same four chords

The Beatles, U2, and Maroon 5 are all guilty of the same crime.

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

5/15/2026

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran was found not liable on April 4, 2023 in a lawsuit where he was accused of stealing elements of the Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 hit, “Thinking Out Loud.”

Since then, a federal appeals court also upheld that ruling in November 2024, affirming that the two songs only share basic musical building blocks that copyright law does not protect. A separate, related lawsuit remains ongoing.

The case called attention to the fact that there are motifs and musical structures common in pop music that no one owns, and all are free to use. When it comes to chord progressions, the 12-bar blues and basic I, IV, V, I progressions you hear in country and folk have been used and reused since people first picked up the guitar.

In the wrong hands, the progressions can result in music that is boring and formulaic, but in the right hands, they can be a springboard for fresh ideas.

Guitarist playing their instrument. Photo credit: Canva

A comedy group proved the point perfectly

In 2009, Australian comedy group Axis Of Awesome did a funny sketch showing how one four-chord progression, famous for being the basis of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” has been used countless times by musicians to great effect.

They played a medley of 38 major hits using the same progression to prove their point. For musicians, it’s known as the I–V–vi–IV progression, and when played in the key of C it would be C, G, Am, F.

Warning: Video contains strong language.

Here are all 38 songs in the medley

“Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey

“You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt

“Forever Young” by Alphaville

“I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz

“Happy Ending” by Mika

“Amazing” by Alex Lloyd

“Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling

“Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John

“She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5

“Pictures Of You” by The Last Goodnight

“With Or Without You” by U2

“Fall At Your Feet” by Crowded House

“Not Pretty Enough” by Kasey Chambers

“Let It Be” by The Beatles

“Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

“The Horses” by Daryl Braithwaite

“No Woman No Cry” by Bob Marley

“Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground

“Land Down Under” by Men at Work

“Waltzing Matilda” by Banjo Paterson

“Take On Me” by A-ha

“When I Come Around” by Green Day

“Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry

“Africa” by Toto

“If I Were A Boy” by Beyoncé

“Self Esteem” by The Offspring

“You’re Gonna Go Far Kid” by The Offspring

“U + Ur Hand” by Pink

“Poker Face” by Lady Gaga

“Barbie Girl” by Aqua

“You Found Me” by The Fray

“Don’t Trust Me” by 30h!3

“Kids” by MGMT

“Canvas Bags” by Tim Minchin

“Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia

“Superman” by Five for Fighting

“Birdplane” by Axis of Awesome

“Scar” by Missy Higgins

And the official video has even more songs

It’s quite an extensive (and, as they prove, accurate) list, but that’s not all. In the summer of 2011, Axis of Awesome released an official music video of “4 Chords” on their YouTube channel, which included even more songs such as Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” The Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love?”, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” and even Men at Work’s “Land Down Under” in addition to many, many, many more.

Check it out:

Axis of Awesome officially broke up in August 2018 after a year-long break in 2017. Though the trio is no longer performing together, the impact of “4 Chords” goes on and on…much like the use of that musical progression. And, while all these songs may use the same four chords, you’ve got to admit they’re all bangers, so we’re not mad at it.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: Annie Reneau – The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, left, and the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, right.

Culture, Politics

How does an election with no electioneering work? A peek inside the Bahá’í electoral process.

Around the world, the nine-member governing bodies of the Bahá’í Faith are democratically elected with no nominations, campaigns, or even mention of individual names.

Annie Reneau

5/15/2026

While doing research for her 2021 book, High Conflict, investigative journalist Amanda Ripley posed a question: “Are there examples of institutions that do conflict better, institutionally, sort of enshrined in what they do?”

That question led Ripley to the Bahá’í Faith and the process it uses to elect its governing bodies. Ripley specializes in exploring “depolarization” and found the faith’s electoral process to be a solid example of how to avoid polarization while electing the most qualified people.

Elections with zero electioneering? How?

Imagine a democratic election process with no nominations, no campaigning, no parties or factions, and no electioneering of any kind. Not a whisper of “You should vote or shouldn’t vote for so-and-so.” Not even an “I’d like to humbly put myself forward for consideration.” That’s what Bahá’í elections are like.

“It’s literally the opposite of elections today in the United States, in every way,” Ripley told the Society Builders podcast. “And yet, it’s happening all around the world, so it’s very encouraging.”

As a Bahá’í myself, seeing Ripley explain the Bahá’í electoral process from an outside perspective is fascinating. I’m so used to it, having participated in dozens of elections, that I sometimes forget how unique it is. But when contrasted with nearly every other democratic voting system, I can see why it drew Ripley’s attention.

Bahá’í elections at the local level

At the local level of administration (town, city, or county), Bahá’ís elect nine-member bodies called Local Spiritual Assemblies. The elected members of a Spiritual Assembly have no individual authority, but function as a collective, consultative institution that tends to the affairs of the community.

Here’s how these institutions are elected: Throughout the year, we spend time getting to know the members of our community, keeping in mind that we will elect some of these people to serve on the Local Spiritual Assembly each spring. No names are ever mentioned when discussing the Assembly election, though. We only discuss the combination of qualities necessary to serve, which include selfless devotion, a well-trained mind, unquestioned loyalty, recognized ability, and mature experience.

At election time, after prayer and reflection, every adult member of the community votes by secret ballot for the nine people they believe are best qualified to serve on the Assembly.

The way ballots are handled ensures that even the tellers who tally the votes don’t see who voted for whom. The nine people who receive the most votes overall are called to serve on the Local Spiritual Assembly.

Serving on a Spiritual Assembly is viewed as a sacred, selfless duty, not as a personal victory or promotion. As Ripley shared, “If you get asked to serve, you gotta serve. And the ego is really subverted in that process.”

How Bahá’ís conduct national elections

The electoral process looks slightly different at the national level, where we use a delegate system. I participated as a delegate in helping elect the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States this year, so I can share an insider’s view of what that process looked like.

Last October, a total of 171 delegates were elected (again by secret ballot, with no electioneering) from electoral units around the U.S. Every adult Bahá’í has the opportunity and responsibility to participate in their local delegate election. And again, whoever receives the most votes serves.

The Bahá’í National Convention was held at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. Photo credit: Annie Reneau

In April, those 171 delegates gathered for the Bahá’í National Convention at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. The purpose of the convention was twofold: to elect the National Spiritual Assembly and to consult and share what we’ve been learning through our community activities over the past year.

It may be hard to imagine, but the admonition against electioneering is taken to heart in elections at every level. The convention began on Thursday morning, and the election took place on Saturday. The delegates were together all day Thursday and Friday, and there was not a single conversation about who should or should not be elected to the National Spiritual Assembly.

Instead, we consulted about what’s been happening in our communities, sharing triumphs and challenges, heartening stories and heartfelt concerns. We discussed the qualities necessary to serve on the Assembly, but never names. Not even the slightest indirect hint about any particular individual.

Bahá’í delegates from around the U.S. gathered in Wilmette, Illinois, to elect the National Spiritual Assembly. Photo credit: Nancy Wong

What the actual voting looks like

The morning of the election, the delegates gathered in the sanctuary of the House of Worship for prayer and meditation. Then we returned to the meeting hall downstairs to vote. Each of us silently filled out a paper ballot with the names of nine people we felt were most qualified to serve. Then we placed our ballots into plain white envelopes. Once all delegates had finished voting, we deposited the envelopes, one by one, into a box at the front of the room. The atmosphere was peaceful, calm, and reverent.

Our votes are secret and private—no one will ever know who we voted for unless we choose to tell someone. (In 30 years of participating in elections, I’ve never had another Bahá’í tell me who they voted for.) As delegates, we represent our local areas at the convention, but we are elected to vote according to our own consciences. No one from our electoral unit talks to us about who they want us to vote for.

The process is about as pure as an election process can be. And the result is a high-functioning administrative body that beautifully reflects our national community.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States elected in April 2026. Photo credit: Annie Reneau

(Every five years, the world’s National Spiritual Assemblies from every country gather to elect the Universal House of Justice, the nine-member body that guides the international Bahá’í community. Again, no electioneering—just prayerful, conscientious voting by secret ballot.)

Bahá’í consultation: A low-conflict approach to making decisions

The other low-conflict element of Bahá’í administration that Ripley found in her research is the process of decision-making, simply referred to as “consultation.” As Ripley shared with the Aspen Institute, the ideal way to deal with conflict is to avoid it in the first place. Bahá’í consultation, she said, is designed “to keep the ego in check and keep high conflict less likely.”

When the Assembly needs to discuss an issue or make a decision, all members are encouraged to voice their thoughts and opinions frankly and openly. But as soon as an idea is presented, it becomes the idea of the group to discuss. It is no longer associated with the individual who shared it. Discussion centers on the idea itself and the spiritual principles that need to be applied to the situation. Ripley says this method aligns with how humans naturally function, helping “reduce the odds of the kind of binary, us-versus-them dynamic that we know tends to lead to high conflict.”

Of course, we are ever-evolving humans doing our best, not perfect beings. I have occasionally seen personal conflict arise over the years, and I’ve seen it handled well and not so well. But considering the inherent complexities of human dynamics, the Bahá’í system works remarkably well as designed and intended. Compared with how elections and institutions so often function, it’s truly a beautiful thing to witness and participate in.

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Photo credit: The Guardian/Wikimedia Commons & Cary Bass-Deschênes/Wikimedia Commons – A raccoon, left, and Mark Twain, right.

Culture, Pop Culture

After touring the globe, Mark Twain listed 60 American dishes he sorely missed

Baked apples ’n’ cream? Yum. “‘Possum”? Not so much.

Tod Perry

5/15/2026

Mark Twain is often seen as the quintessential American novelist, having penned classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But he was also a popular travel writer who wrote six books about his adventures abroad. In 1867, he was sent by a newspaper to travel throughout Europe and the Holy Land via the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in the popular book The Innocents Abroad.

In 1880, Twain wrote an unofficial sequel to The Innocents Abroad called A Tramp Abroad, a fictionalized account of himself, his traveling companion “Harris,” and their attempt to walk through Europe. The book is both a travelogue from a time when it was rare for most Americans to travel to Europe and a satire of how clueless they can be when encountering new cultures.

Twain didn’t care much for European cuisine

One unforgettable passage in A Tramp Abroad has Twain critiquing European food and longing for his favorite comfort foods. He refers to European fare as unsatisfying, to say the least. “The number of dishes is sufficient, but then it is such a monotonous variety of UNSTRIKING dishes. It is an inane, dead-level of ‘fair-to-middling.’ There is nothing to ACCENT it,” Twain wrote.

Mark Twain relaxing. Photo credit: The Guardian/Wikimedia Commons

In the book, he jokes that when he returns to the States, he will have a “modest” meal of his favorite foods prepared for him and will send his requests ahead of time so they are ready when he arrives. The menu contains 60 of his favorite American comfort foods.

Twain lists his favorite comfort foods

“It has now been many months, at the present writing, since I have had a nourishing meal, but I shall soon have one, a modest, private affair, all to myself,” Twain wrote. “I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot when I arrive, as follows:

Radishes. Baked apples, with cream

Fried oysters; stewed oysters. Frogs.

American coffee, with real cream.

American butter.

Fried chicken, Southern style.

Porter-house steak.

Saratoga potatoes.

Broiled chicken, American style.

Hot biscuits, Southern style.

Hot wheat-bread, Southern style.

Hot buckwheat cakes.

American toast. Clear maple syrup.

Virginia bacon, broiled.

Blue points, on the half shell.

Cherry-stone clams.

San Francisco mussels, steamed.

Oyster soup. Clam Soup.

Philadelphia Terapin soup.

Oysters roasted in shell-Northern style.

Soft-shell crabs. Connecticut shad.

Baltimore perch.

Brook trout, from Sierra Nevadas.

Lake trout, from Tahoe.

Sheep-head and croakers, from New Orleans.

Black bass from the Mississippi.

American roast beef.

Roast turkey, Thanksgiving style.

A Thanksgiving turkey. Photo credit: Canva

Cranberry sauce. Celery.

Roast wild turkey. Woodcock.

Canvas-back-duck, from Baltimore.

Prairie hens, from Illinois.

Missouri partridges, broiled.

‘Possum. Coon.

Boston bacon and beans.

Bacon and greens, Southern style.

Hominy. Boiled onions. Turnips.

Pumpkin. Squash. Asparagus.

Butter beans. Sweet potatoes.

Lettuce. Succotash. String beans.

Mashed potatoes. Catsup.

Boiled potatoes, in their skins.

New potatoes, minus the skins.

Early rose potatoes, roasted in the ashes, Southern style, served hot.

Sliced tomatoes, with sugar or vinegar. Stewed tomatoes.

Green corn, cut from the ear and served with butter and pepper.

Green corn, on the ear.

Hot corn-pone, with chitlings, Southern style.

Hot hoe-cake, Southern style.

Hot egg-bread, Southern style.

Hot light-bread, Southern style.

Buttermilk. Iced sweet milk.

Apple dumplings, with real cream.

Apple pie. Apple fritters.

Apple puffs, Southern style.

Peach cobbler, Southern style

Peach pie. American mince pie.

Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.

All sorts of American pastry.

Fresh American fruits of all sorts, including strawberries, which are not to be doled out as if they were jewelry, but in a more liberal way. Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere and capable refrigerator.”

Mark Twain playing pool. Photo credit: The World’s Work/Wikimedia Commons

Twain’s list of favorite foods is notable because he spent much of his life in different regions of the United States, including Hannibal, Missouri (his boyhood home), Hartford, Connecticut (his adult home), and Elmira, New York (his summer retreat).

His career as a writer also took him to places in the West, including San Francisco and Sacramento, California, as well as Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada. This led him to develop a taste for many regional cuisines, which he referenced specifically on his list. The oysters should be from San Francisco, and the black bass from Mississippi.

Some may recoil when they see a few items on his list, namely “’coon” (short for raccoon) and “’possum,” short for opossum. These days, most Americans would shudder at the idea of eating them for dinner, but in the 1800s, they were seen as delicacies. Both were commonly roasted or stewed and served with sweet potatoes.

Twain’s over-the-top menu is a fun look at the types of food that were popular in the late 1800s, and it’s also a charming example of how every region of the U.S. has its own specialty. Whether it’s fish in the Sierras or duck in Baltimore, Maryland, every place has its own flavor, and to a man who lived just about everywhere, they were all something to savor.

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Brendan Fraser dressed as Rick O'Connell.

Culture, Pop Culture

Brendan Fraser surprised everyone at a screening of ‘The Mummy’ by showing up in costume

Now we want a “Mummy 4.”

Heather Wake

Upworthy Staff

5/15/2026

Brendan Fraser might be making the greatest career comeback ever, having won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his dramatic, transformative role in “The Whale.” But the OG Fraser fans (the ones who watch “Doom Patrol” solely to hear his voice and proudly pronounce his last name as Fray-zure, for this is the proper pronunciation) have known of his remarkable talent since the ’90s, when he embodied the ultimate charming, dashing and slightly goofball Hollywood action lead.

Let us not forget his arguably most well-known and beloved ’90s character, Rick O’Connell from the “Mummy” franchise. Between his quippy one-liners, Indiana Jones-like adventuring skills, and fabulous hair, what’s not to like? During a double feature of “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” in London, moviegoers got the ultimate surprise when who should walk in but Brendan Fraser himself, completely decked out in Rick O’Connell attire. The brown leather jacket. The scarf. Everything.

Stephen Colbert and Brendan Fraser at the Montclair Film Festival 2022. Photo credit: Montclair Film/Wikimedia Commons

What Fraser said to the crowd that night

“I am proud to stand before you tonight,” he told the audience. “This is a film that was made in Britain. You should know that! Even the second one, too. Be proud. Thank you for being here.”

He continued, “We didn’t know if it was a drama or a comedy or a straight-ahead action or romance, a horror picture, more action, all of the above. No idea until it tested in front of British audiences. Thank you for that.”

Fraser then asked the crowd if anyone hadn’t actually seen the movie yet, before shouting, “Outstanding!” when somebody raised their hand. He then quickly made a polite plug, encouraging people to go see “The Whale” before whisking himself away, saying, “I won’t take up any more of your time.”

Uh, yeah…I don’t think any time spent with Brendan Fraser is a waste. Do you?

Watch:

Mummy 4 is officially happening

The answer to whether we’ll see Fraser back as Rick O’Connell is now a resounding yes. The Mummy 4 was officially confirmed in early 2026, with Fraser and Rachel Weisz both set to reprise their roles, and a release date of October 15, 2027. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are attached to direct.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: Morn, NBC Universal, Wikimedia Commons – David Hasselhoff, left, and his car KITT from "Knight Rider."

Culture, Nostalgia

The ‘Knight Rider’ car somehow got a speeding ticket even though museum owners swear it hasn’t moved in years

There are only a handful of KITT replicas still in existence.

Cecily Knobler

5/14/2026

“Give me every ounce of turbo boost you’ve got,” Michael Knight often demanded of his black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, KITT.

If you didn’t grow up glued to television (like much of Gen X), this is a reference to the NBC hit show Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff as Knight. Its first incarnation ran from 1982 to 1986 and featured the crime-fighting Knight alongside his well-ahead-of-its-time talking car, KITT, short for Knight Industries Two Thousand. (In a later reboot of the series, KITT stood for Knight Industries Three Thousand.)

So imagine everyone’s surprise when KITT was allegedly spotted by traffic cameras driving 36 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone in Brooklyn on April 22. Or was it KITT? A car was seen zipping through a New York City intersection with a California plate that read KNIGHT.

Where is the real KITT?

The only issue? The speeding ticket was sent to the Volo Museum in Illinois, which has a replica of the KITT car on display. A spokesperson for the museum took to Facebook to share the mix-up:

“Well, this is a new one… we got this in the mail today. This is 100% legit. A traffic camera captured Knight Rider’s KITT speeding down the streets of New York City. The camera captured the novelty license plate (not a real plate…and also a California plate). Their official system ties the novelty plate to Volo Museum and we got a bill for $50! You can’t make this up! Our KITT hasn’t moved from our museum in years! Does anyone have Hasselhoff’s number? He owes us $50!!!!”

WABC-TV reports that the “summons, complete with a picture from a traffic camera, was sent to the Volo Museum in Volo, Illinois, where a black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am replica of the TV show car is on display. It linked the KNIGHT license plate to the museum’s display vehicle. The museum has requested a hearing to dispute the ticket.”

Turbo boost

Of the more than 20 KITT cars built for the series, only five remain. According to Road & Track:

“KITTs were made out of 1982, 1983, and 1984 Trans Ams, as well as base Firebird hardtops. Transmissions got swapped for Turbo 350 3-speeds, brake line locks were added, as well as some additional bracing, while the team used as much body filler as the panels would take.

The second-to-last KITT ever built started out as an ’84 base hardtop before taking up the role of a disposable stunt car. Yet after the show, NBC chose this example to be retrofitted with their sound stage dashboard, T-tops, and all the things children would expect to see once they put it on display at their theme park.”

“KITT’s been out traveling and breaking the law”

So why was Volo Museum in Illinois on the hook for a California-plated car? Theories and jokes abound. One Facebook user commented under the museum’s post, “You THINK that KITT hasn’t moved in years, but you forget KITT can drive anywhere he wants without Michael Knight. KITT’s been out traveling and breaking the law.”

And this case of mistaken identity isn’t unique. Another commenter added, “There’s a guy in southern Indiana who drives his KITT on a novelty plate while going through a toll bridge into Kentucky. Since I have a legitimate Indiana KNIGHT plate, they charge his tolls to my EZ-Pass.”

KITT conspiracy theories

On a Reddit thread titled, “Museum’s ‘Knight Rider’ replica car got a speeding ticket. It hasn’t gone anywhere in years,” commenters were quick with the nostalgic jokes. “I think there is an obvious answer. This car is a Brum, and every night it drives out into the big city on adventures,” one user wrote.

This Redditor shared the story of someone reportedly trying to evade speeding tickets: “There’s a story about an engineer who tried to be clever and got the plate ‘NULL’ in the hopes of avoiding tickets (if you’re not aware, NULL is used in some databases as a way of saying ‘no data’). He ended up with every ticket that didn’t have a plate number attached to it.”

Another user jokingly quoted KITT, writing, “I do not understand how you’ve managed to get us a speeding ticket without even being in motion, Michael.”

Will the real KITT please stand up?

As for the real KITTs? The remaining five cars used in the series have been spread among various museums and private owners. One famous car enthusiast, Jay Leno, got to take a ride in Joe Huth’s fabulous ride and even featured it on his show Jay Leno’s Garage.

It’s possible that if KITT were asked for comment about this whole affair, he might repeat one of his more memorable lines: “Really, some people are simply too much.”

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