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19 musicals that are not only catchy—they could help with dementia, according to science

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

musicals, theater, art, dementia, treatments

Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash

A picture taken of the Broadway street sign in New York City.

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from "Oklahoma!" "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Sound of Music" — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:

"Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study ... that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened."

A similar study in Finland, cited in The Guardian, demonstrated that singing not only helped dementia patients feel better and focus, but actually improved certain types of memory as well.

Even better? There are tons of classic show tunes specifically about remembering.

Here are 23 tunes every Broadway fan needs to memorize for the day when it's not so easy to remember. It'll help to start brushing up now.

1. The one about remembering the good old days.

"Those Were the Good Old Days," "Damn Yankees"

If you're the devil in "Damn Yankees," that means the Great Depression, the Black Plague years, and when Jack the Ripper was running around. Good times!

2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.

Any playlist of show tunes about memory has to include this standard from "The Music Man," in which Professor Harold Hill remembers the best day of his life, when "Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town."

Whether or not any of it actually happened is ... up for debate, to put it mildly.

3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.

"Kansas City," "Oklahoma"

"Oklahoma's" Will Parker is so psyched about his Kansas City vacation he can't help bragging about it to all the other cowboys. And why not? It's a neat city! Have you been to Joe's Kansas City Barbecue? Neither has Will Parker, since he was there in 1906, but you should totally go.

4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...

"Cell Block Tango," "Chicago"

...while glancing nervously over your shoulder to make sure Queen Latifah isn't around.

5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.

"Where Did We Go Right?" from "The Producers"

Looking back doesn't always go well for characters in musicals. It definitely doesn't for "The Producers'" Bialystock and Bloom, as they tear around their office wondering how their incompetently directed, poorly acted, aggressively pro-Hitler musical wound up becoming a massive hit despite their every attempt to make it fail.

6. The one about remembering the little things.

"I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It," "Phantom of the Opera"

Perhaps the greatest testament to how emotionally transporting "Phantom of the Opera" is: Christine, removing the phantom's mask for the first time, can just straight-up claim to remember mist — like, one mist in particular — and no one calls her on it ever.

7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.

"The Barber and his Wife," "Sweeney Todd"

No character in musical theater is more nostalgic than Sweeney Todd, who, just moments after we meet him, croons this delightful ditty reminiscing about the time he was framed for a crime he didn't commit and banished from England so that an evil judge could rape his wife who subsequently poisoned herself.

A tune you can hum!

8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.

"Satisfied," "Hamilton"

Not sure if you've heard, but "Hamilton" is good, you guys.

After Alex and Eliza Schuyler meet and fall in love in "Helpless," Angelica Schuyler basically goes "Wicked" on her sister's song, recalling how agonizing it was watching her sister and the man who she herself is super into get together. But she sucks it up and buries it! Older siblings are the best.

9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.

"Maria," "West Side Story"

A classic from "West Side Story." Sure, it's about remembering a meet-cute that literally just happened — Tony and Maria's orchestral-swell-assisted gaze across a crowded gym — but Tony is super jazzed about it, so it makes the list.

Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!

10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.

"At the Ballet," "A Chorus Line"

The ballet isn't that great, but it's better than devastating childhood trauma. Score one for the ballet! Thanks, "A Chorus Line!"

11. The one about remembering old hobbies.

"Dentist!" from "Little Shop of Horrors"

"Little Shop of Horrors'" Orin Scrivello, DDS, is just misunderstood. I mean, who among us didn't "shoot puppies," "poison guppies," or "take a pussycat and bash in its head" now and again as a kid? The '50s were a simpler time!

12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.

"Momma Look Sharp," "1776"

47 years before "Hamilton" brought us the swaggery, ass-kicking side of the Revolutionary War, "1776" tore our guts out with this song, in which a courier to the Continental Congress recalls watching a mother comfort a young soldier as he dies at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Hercules Mulligan does the guest rap. (Just kidding. There is no guest rap. It's just gorgeously somber for a while and then over.)

13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.

"I Wish I Could Go Back to College," "Avenue Q"

Of course the sad-sack puppet man- and woman-children of "Avenue Q" want to go back to college! Who among us doesn't long for the days of term papers, humiliating romantic encounters, and crushing, debilitating debt? And meal-plan ice cream, too!

14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.

"Cabaret," "Cabaret"

Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Bowles from "Cabaret" is no fool! No matter how many lovers leave, or how much her career nosedives, or how nutty local politics get, she always remembers this important life lesson she learned from her good friend Elsie.

If only you had such a great, wise friend, maybe your outlook would be as good as Sally's. You could be so lucky!

15. The one about remembering last Christmas.

"Halloween," "Rent"

When it comes to the science of memory and cognition, "Rent" asks the big questions:

"Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories? When single frames from one magic night forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind?"

Poetic? Pathetic? We report, you decide.

16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.

"Rose's Turn," "Gypsy"

Ah, yes. "Rose's Turn." The 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers in "Gypsy," the most musical of all musicals. Truly, there aren't many things more enjoyable than listening to Mama Rose replay the events of the last decade and change inside her own brain in a slow-motion nervous breakdown as the notion that her entire life has been completely worthless gradually dawns on her with ever-increasing dread.

Did I mention how fun musicals are?

Trivia time! You know that thing in music where trumpets go, "Ya da da da daaaa DA. Da DA da DA!" You know that thing? This is the song that thing comes from.

17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.

"Ring of Keys," "Fun Home"

There's nothing better than a song that makes you want to shout: "I am so glad I'm watching a musical instead of a basketball game right now." This moment in "Fun Home," where Alison recalls seeing a delivery woman — the first person who looked like the woman she felt like — is really, really one of them.

"This is a song of identification that is a turning moment, when you think you’re an alien and you hear someone else say, 'Oh, me too,'" composer Jeanine Tesori told Variety. "It’s a gamechanger for Alison. And that’s just Musical Theater 101."

...And the entire audience bursts into happy tears forever.

18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.

"I Dreamed a Dream," "Les Misérables"

When your life isn't going so great, it's good to remember the positive! Things didn't exactly go super well for Fantine in "Les Mis." But, hey, she had a pretty good dream once!

19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.

"Turn It Off," "The Book of Mormon"

What's the ticket to living as fun-loving and guilelessly as the Mormon elders in "The Book of Mormon?" Don't just bury those traumatic, scary, impure memories — CRUSH THEM, OK?!

20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.

"Sarah Brown Eyes," "Ragtime"

Ah, young love. Even in "Ragtime," a musical that features racism, state violence, attempted child murder, and terrorism, at least we have this song, in which Coalhouse Walker Jr. recalls how he got his beloved Sarah to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with him with his peerless piano skills? So romantic.

Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!

21. The one about remembering a scary dream.

"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "Guys and Dolls"

With, perhaps, only a smidge more credibility than grifter-from-another-mother Professor Harold Hill, "Guys and Dolls'" third-most-degenerate gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson recalls a terrifying dream where he had to convince a group of skeptical evangelical crusaders that he's decided to give up the dice once and for all.

Side note: People in musicals are unbelievably good at remembering dreams. This is, like, full detail. I'd be like, "Um, I was at the Statue of Liberty, and you were there? I think? It wasn't really you, it was like a combination of you and my dad. And we were in prison. But at the Statue of Liberty."

22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.

"Our Time," "Merrily We Roll Along"

The closing number of "Merrily We Roll Along" is actually the first chronologically, since the musical goes backward. It's the play's happiest moment — Frank, Charley, and Mary on a roof watching Sputnik go by, giddily talking about how thrilling, perfect, and successful their futures are going to be. It's so hopeful! But so sad, 'cause you already know all the achingly bittersweet stuff that's going to happen.

Ach! So poignant! I'm dead from poignant.

23. The one about remembering.

"Memory," "Cats"

"Cats." The OG.

All right team, what did I miss?

This article originally appeared on 02.26.16

From Your Site Articles

National Geographic Documentary Films

National Geographic Documentary Films

Nat Geo's 'Blink' tracks a family finding beauty while facing blindness as they travel the globe

“Let's go all in and fill their visual memory with as much beauty as we can."

via Edith Lemay/NatGeo

Mia, Leo, Colin, and Laurent Pelletier pose on top of their camper van in front of adouble rainbow while in Mongolia.

True

“Blink,” a new film by National Geographic Documentary Films shows how a family with four children, three of whom are going blind, embraces life in the face of an uncertain future. It’s a testament to the resilience of the Lemay-Pelletier family but also a reminder for all of us to seize the day because all our futures are uncertain.

Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier are the parents of Mia, a 13-year-old girl, and three boys: Léo, 11, Colin, 9, and Laurent, 7. Over the last six years, they’ve learned that Mia and the two youngest boys have retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease in which the cells of the retina slowly die. As the disease progresses, the person develops “tunnel vision” that shrinks until very little vision remains.

The diagnosis devastated the parents. "The hardest part with the diagnosis was inaction. There's nothing they can do about it. There's no treatment,” Edith says in the film.

However, even though the parents couldn’t affect the progress of the disease, they could give their children’s senses an epic experience that would benefit them for a lifetime.

“We don’t know how fast it’s going to go, but we expect them to be completely blind by mid-life,” said the parents. Mia’s impairment advisor suggested they fill her visual memory with pictures from books. “I thought, I’m not going to show her an elephant in a book; I’m going to take her to see a real elephant,” Edith explains in the film. “And I’m going to fill her visual memory with the best, most beautiful images I can.”

The Pelletier family (from left): Mia, Sebastien, Colin, Edith Lemay, Laurent and Leo inKuujjuaq, Canada.via National Geographic/Katie Orlinsky

This realization led to an inspiring year-long journey across 24 countries, during which every family member experienced something on their bucket list. Mia swam with dolphins, Edith rode a hot-air balloon in Cappadocia, and Léo saw elephants on safari.

Colin realized his dream of sleeping on a moving train while Sébastien saw the historic site of Angkor Wat.

“We were focusing on sights,” explains Pelletier. “We were also focusing a lot on fauna and flora. We’ve seen incredible animals in Africa but also elsewhere. So we were really trying to make them see things that they wouldn’t have seen at home and have the most incredible experiences.”

Cameras followed the family for 76 days as they traveled to far-flung locales, including Namibia, Mongolia, Egypt, Laos, Nepal and Turkey. Along the way, the family made friends with local people and wildlife. In a heartbreaking scene, the boys wept as the family had to leave behind a dog named Bella he befriended in the mountains of Nepal.

But the film isn't just about the wonders of nature and family camaraderie. The family's trip becomes a “nightmare” when they are trapped in a cable car suspended hundreds of feet above the Ecuadorian forest for over 10 hours.

annapurna range, blink, nat geo Leo, Laurent, Edith, Colin, Mia, and Sebastien look out at the mountains in the Annapurna range.via MRC/Jean-Sébastien Francoeur

As expected, NatGeo’s cinematographers beautifully capture the family's journey, and in the case of “Blink,” this majestic vision is of even greater importance. In some of the film's quietest moments, we see the children taking in the world's wonders, from the vast White Desert in Egypt to a fearless butterfly in Nepal, with the full knowledge that their sight will fail one day.

Along the way, the family took as many pictures as possible to reinforce the memories they made on their adventure. “Maybe they’ll be able to look at the photographs and the pictures and they will bring back those stories, those memories, of the family together,” Edith says.

But the film is about more than travel adventures and the pain of grief; ultimately, it’s about family.

“By balancing [the parents’ grief] with a more innocent and joyous tale of childlike wonder and discovery, we felt we could go beyond a mere catalog of locations and capture something universal,” the directors Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, said in a statement. “Keeping our camera at kid-height and intimately close to the family, we aimed to immerse the audience in the observational realities of their daily life, as well as the subtle relationships between each of them. This is a film built on looks, gestures and tiny details—the very fabric of our relationships with one another.”

Ultimately, “Blink” is a great film to see with your loved ones because it’s a beautiful reminder to appreciate the wonders of our world, the gift of our senses and the beauty of family.

The film will open in over 150 theaters in the U.S. and Canada beginning Oct. 4 and will debut on National Geographic Channel and stream on Disney+ and Hulu later this year. Visit the “Blink” website for more information.

From Your Site Articles

national geographic

The one sign that someone is highly intelligent, according to literary genius Leo Tolstoy

He was a master of understanding the human condition.

en.m.wikipedia.org

File:L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg - Wikipedia

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist known for epic works such as"War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina.” His life experiences—from witnessing war to spiritual quests—profoundly influenced his writings and gave him profound insights into the human soul.

His understanding of emotions, motivations and moral dilemmas has made his work stand the test of time, and it still resonates with people today.

Juan de Medeiros, a TikTokker who shares his thoughts on philosophy, recently shared how Tolstoy knew if someone was highly intelligent, and his observation says something extraordinary about humanity.

“The more intelligent a person is, the more he discovers kindness in others,” Tolstoy once wrote. “For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful.”

@julianphilosophy
Intelligent people are kind #intelligent #intelligence #kindness #smart #tolstoy #men #women

De Medeiros boiled down Tolstoy’s thoughts into a simple statement: “Intelligent people are unafraid to be kind.” He then took things a step further by noting that Tolstoy believed in the power of emotional intelligence. "To have emotional intelligence is to see the good in other people, that is what Tolstoy meant, that to be intelligent is to be kind," he added.

It seems that, according to de Medeiros, Tolstoy understood that intelligent people are kind and perceptive of the kindness in others. The intelligent person is conscious of the kindness within themselves and in the world around them.

Through the words of Tolstoy, de Medeiros makes a point that is often overlooked when people talk about intelligence. Truly smart people are as in touch with their hearts as they are with their minds.

This article originally appeared on 10.13.23

From Your Site Articles

Elderly millennials, this hilarious mammogram PSA was made just for you

“If you collected Beanie Babies, it’s time for your first mammogram.”

@followmercy/TikTok

Millennial nostalgia is finally being weaponized for good.

Boy, do we millennials love our nostalgia. And who can blame us? Our childhood was a colorful kaleidoscope of analog delights—the thrill of hearing Mr. Moviefone giving showtimes options, or better yet, hitting up the local Blockbuster for a movie night in, the joy of literally any Happy Meal toy…ugh, it really was a simpler time.

Also, our generation’s cartoons were hands down the best cartoons ever. There, I said it.

But sadly, millennials, our generation-wide nostalgia is now being used against us. At least it’s ultimately for our own good.

The staff over at the Mercy Healthcare Company released a tongue-in-cheek PSA featuring relics of our bygone era, saying that if you remember them, “it’s time to schedule your first mammogram.”

“If you collected Beanie Babies, it’s time for your first mammogram,” says one of the nurses in the video. Welp, I’m done for.

Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” portable DVD players, the “Rachel haircut,” Myspace, and of course, the sound of dial-up internet etched in all of our brains also made the list, among a few others.

Watch:

@followmercy What do Beanie Babies, Myspace and dial-up internet have in common? If you remember when they were popular, it’s time to schedule your mammogram! #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth ♬ original sound - Mercy

Brilliant. Brutal, but brilliant.

Granted, this PSA technically doesn’t apply to all millennials. Typically, health care professionals suggest that mammograms begin at age 40 for those without a family history of breast cancer, and occur every year.

But still—message received. And well done, Mercy.

On a related note of growing older and wiser…millennials often get depicted as particularly nostalgic. But where that could get explained away by the onslaught of digitization, a measurable decline in quality of art, entertainment, clothes, etc. and living in a post 9/11 world, we can’t forget to note that perhaps we are also simply in a more nostalgic phase of life. The world around us has changed. Our place in society has changed. Our bodies have changed. It’s natural to look back with longing at what once was, since we are now more aware than ever that everything—including us—is temporary.

But that’s part of growing older—being able to hold both yearning and appreciation in our heart. Or, perhaps more appropriate in this case: scheduling that mammogram, then scouring Beanie Babies on Etsy…or whatever else delights your inner child. That’s one thing we millennials will always be good at, no matter how old we get.

From Your Site Articles

Dad uses simple math trick to stop his 6-year-old's tantrums in their tracks

It works — and it's psychologist approved.

OPPO Find X5 Pro & Chris Liverani/Unsplash

Sometimes parenting tricks are deceptively simple.

Tantrums, meltdowns, and emotional outbursts are the bane of parents' existence.

Once they start, they're like a freight train. There seems to be almost no way to stop them other than staying calm and letting them run their course.

That is, until one dad on Reddit revealed his secret method.

A thread titled "Hack your youngster's big emotions with math" has every parent on Reddit saying, why didn't I think of that?

User u/WutTheHuck posted a simple comment on the subreddit r/daddit earlier this month.

"Heard about this recently - when your kid is having a meltdown, doing math engages a different part of their brain and helps them move past the big feelings and calm down," he writes.

"We've been doing this with our very emotional 6-yr-old, when she decides that she wants to cooperate - asking her a handful of simple addition and subtraction questions will very quickly allow her to get control of herself again and talk about her feelings."

So, basically, when the sobs and screams come on strong, having your kid tell you the answer to 3+3, or 10-7 is a good way to get them calm again, and fast.

OP goes on to call the technique "magical," and mentions that his 6-year-old is legendary in his household for her epic tantrums.

The unique trick became a popular post on the subreddit, with a few hundreds comments from dads who were intrigued and willing to give it a try.

A month later, the results are in. The math trick works wonders.

math problems OK, we said SIMPLE mathAntoine Dautry/unsplash

What struck me as I read through r/daddit was how many follow-up threads there were that said something to the effect of:

The math trick worked!

One user wrote that when his kids woke up screaming from a nightmare, he responded with a simple addition question.

"Soon as my wife closed the door ... [my kid] wanted mommy and started yelling her head off. I remembered the math trick and went 'what's 2+2?' It worked like a charm; the screaming ceased by the second question," he said.

In a separate thread, u/LighTMan913 had a message for "whoever posted here a few days ago about having your kid do mental math when they're upset..."

"You're a mother fudging genius," he said.

"My 7-year-old got in trouble for being mean to his brother shortly before bed time. He was rolled over facing the wall in bed. Wouldn't say goodnight. Just giving mumbles into the bed that are impossible to hear for answers.

"Started with 2+2 and by the time we got to 4096 he was smiling and laughing. 5 minutes after I left the room he called me back in to tell me he thinks he figured out 4096 + 4096 and I worked him through his wrong, albeit very close, answer.

"Worked like a charm. Thank you."

It's not just random dads on the Internet. Experts agree that this method is a bona fide winner for dealing with tantrums and outbursts.

upset kid Helping kids calm down can be a challenge.Annie Spratt/Unsplash

Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and author, had this to say about the viral technique:

"When our emotions rise, our logic decreases. The more emotional we feel, the more difficult it is to think clearly.

"A simple math problem requires you to raise your logic, which automatically decreases the intensity of an emotion."

Morin says that the math trick basically boils down to a distraction. A distraction with the added bonus of re-engaging the logical side of a child's brain.

"If you do what's known as 'changing the channel' in your brain, you get your mind thinking about something else--like a math problem. When you shift your attention, your thoughts change," Morin says, adding that adults can use this concept when they're feeling overwhelmed, too.

"When a child is upset, don't talk about why they're upset or why a tantrum is inappropriate. Instead, help them change the channel in their brains and raise their logic. When everyone is calm, you can have a discussion about how the strategy works--and how they can apply it themselves when you're not available to remind them."

Now I just need to get my 4-year-old up to speed on basic addition and subtraction and I'll be made in the shade!

From Your Site Articles

8 wildly popular dishes from the past that have all but disappeared from restaurant menus

Let's bring some of these babies back!

Photo credit: Canva

These dishes used to be standard menu items.

Trends in food come and go, just as they do in fashion and music and home decor, and when dishes slip out of popularity they fade from view. People might make their oldie-but-goodie recipes at home, but we don't see menus-of-old in restaurants and cookbooks are always being updated with new trends. It's usually not until someone mentions a once-popular dish from decades ago that we say, "Oh yeah, what ever happened to that?"

For instance, if you're Gen X or older, you may remember French and Thousand Island dressings being offered as standard choices when you ordered a salad. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that serves those dressings at all. Changes in nutrition research and health awareness affect these trends, as do pop culture and marketing pushes from various food industries. But sometimes foods just fade in popularity for no obvious reason.

Someone on Reddit asked people to share "a dish that was extremely popular or trendy on restaurant menus but then virtually disappeared," and it's a mouth-watering trip down nostalgia lane. Some of the dishes people named haven't entirely "disappeared" but they definitely aren't as ubiquitous as they once were on restaurant menus.

Which of these babies should we bring back?

Beef stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is a classic.Photo credit: Canva

It's a classic. Beef? Good. Mushrooms? Good. Pasta? Good. What's not to love about a dish of beef stroganoff on a cold winter's night? That's right. Nothing.

"Nobody serves beef stroganoff anymore."

"I was just in South America, it’s everywhere there, especially in Brazil. There are even stroganoff restaurants in the food courts at the mall."

"There’s a Russian restaurant near me that does it, but they only do it if you schedule it and have a party of 8 or more."

Blackened (and Cajun) everything

blackened chicken and salmon Mmmmm, charcoal.Photo credit: Canva

Yes, we really did burn meat to a crisp all over the country for a while there. Blackened chicken, blackened salmon, blackened shrimp—and throw a little kick in there to make it "Cajun." Nothing like some added carcinogens to really whet the appetite, am I right? (Though the Cajun part was pretty darn good.)

"I credit the original cajun gourmet, Justin Wilson for this. Late 80s/early 90s when more & more people were getting cable TV, he had a few different shows that reached coast to coast. Maybe not iconic, but he was pretty popular and inspired people to have a taste of the culture & cuisine he fondly promoted."

"Add a little... on-YAWN!"

"I gar-on-TEE!"

Pineapple upside-down cake

Pineapple upside down cake is soooo good when done well.Photo credit: Canva

Hello, sunshine! Sweet, sticky, yummy and pretty to boot. This is one that you really can't judge til you try. So much better than it sounds.

"In 6th grade home EC we made pineapple upside down cake. With jiffy cake mix and canned pineapple and even the v maraschino cherries. I made that on the regular though the 80s and 90s."

"Oh man, thanks for reminding me of this. I think I’m going to make one today. I made them all the time as a kid in the 70s and a young adult in the 80s. I haven’t had one in years!!"

"It's in my regular dessert rotation. I get requests from family, friends and colleagues for pineapple upside-down cake."

Potato skins

potato skins Tater skins. Yum.Photo credit: Canva

These were all the rage for a bit there. They can still be found sometimes, but potato skins—and baked potato bars—are not nearly as popular as they used to be. Potatoes have gone through the ringer many times when it comes to healthy vs. unhealthy, but few people would argue that they're not delicious when topped with some cheese and bacon.

"Potato skins were pretty big in the 80s."

"That's because they had baked potato appeal; 'cause they're made with potatoes and skins that are real!"

Try to eat a baked potato and you'll be stuffed by the end. i bet that's why they're rarely found on menus anymore."

Salad bars

Anybody miss salad bars?Photo credit: Canva

Ah, the salad bar. The pandemic really messed with this one. They used to be found in most grocery stores, and then pre-COVID there was a big boom of restaurants that were just enormous salad bars. Yet another thing the 'rona stole from us.

"Salad bars. In the 80s every restaurant had one, even some fast food burger places like Wendy’s."

"I love salad bars. I remember the Soup n' Salad chain. That was good."

"Salad bars were all the craze. Nice restaurants to Wendy’s. Salad bars everywhere!"

Quiche

quiche Sheesh, quiche was popular.Photo credit: Canva

Ah, the French egg pie we all knew and loved. Maybe we still do, and maybe we make them at home, but quiches aren't the staple menu item at restaurants that they used to be.

"Quiche. Back in the 80’s."

"Quiche, In the late 70s and the 80s. Every fern bar restaurant like TGI Fridays featured quiche, and people were cooking quiche. The popularity of quiche even inspired the title of the book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. That book inspired the humorous meme of "Real Men Don’t (fill in the blank).'"

"I still make quiche once in awhile. It's ridiculously easy."

Sun-dried tomatoes and pesto

pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes Is there anything more 90s than a sun-dried tomato and pesto pasta?Photo credit: Canva

Right around the time when we were all sudden super into Gregorian chants for like a year, sun-dried tomatoes were being put into everything. Pesto, too. Roasted peppers, too. It's like our collective inner Italian came out with flags a-flying.

"I can’t think of a specific dish but there was a period in the 90s when pesto was EVERYWHERE and so were roasted red peppers."

"Sun dried tomatoes were freaking EVERYWHERE for a while there."

"They even had sun dried tomatoes flavored potato chips."

Fondue

fondue pot Fondue was all the rage in the 60s and 70s.Photo credit: Canva

There are fewer foods more fun than fondue, but you just don't see it much anymore—with one notable exception. The Melting Pot is an all-fondue restaurant chain, so fondue-lovers do have a place to go if they want to dip all the things in melted cheese (and then in chocolate for dessert).

"My mom told me about how after the 70’s she’s fine not touching fondue ever again. Everyone got a fondue pot for their wedding which they used precisely twice before it found its way into storage."

"People are talking about fondue in the '80s and '90s, but it got really popular in the 1960s. My family got a fondue pot then even tho we weren't very trendy food-wise. But being able to cook beef and melt cheese in it ticked all of my dad's boxes!"

"Hot pot is the new fondue."

What else should be added to this list?

Teacher reveals 4 surprising skills children need to have before they enter fifth grade

Students need these skills not just for academic reasons but for safety and survival.

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Teacher reveals the surprising skills kids need before fifth grade.

Being a teacher is not an easy job, and no one enters the teaching profession because they think they're going to make a lot of money. Most teachers go into the field knowing that they would likely struggle making ends meet but carry a deep desire for shaping young minds.

But because of things like excessive standardized test preparation due to school districts' funds being tied to test scores, teachers don't always have time to teach basic things some students might have missed along the way. This can cause some frustration from everyone involved because in the end a child is not able to receive the proper tools for success. To fill in that gap, teachers rely on parents to help prepare their children to be as successful as possible in school.

Mr. Wilson, who goes by the name Mr. Wilson's Twin Brother on TikTok, shares several things he's noticed about the students entering his fifth grade classroom over the past several years and reveals four skills children need to have before entering the fifth grade. The list may be surprising for some, though judging by the response from teachers, being underprepared is an all too common issue.

@iammrwilson313
For the safety of your child, you HAVE to make sure they have these 4 skills before meeting their fifth grade teacher!!! Not for us, for THEM. #teachersoftiktok #blackeducator #lifeofateacher #5thgrade #maleteachers

Mr. Wilson prefaces the video by saying, "I take it as a point of pride that I make my classroom accessible to all different types of children, but the main goal of a fifth grade classroom is to prepare a child for the increased demands of middle school. And as you know, middle school is a type of place where there are seven different teachers and they don't have the same ethic of care as an elementary school teacher does. Some of them will and some of them try to but due to the structure of middle school it's just not feasible."

The teacher goes on to explain that the children entering middle school need to have a certain level of basic skill, not just for academic purposes, but for safety and survival. These are the things he says are imperative students know before reaching fifth grade classrooms:

boy writing on printer paper near girl Fifth graders need to write their name on every paper. Photo by Santi Vedrí on Unsplash

1. Consistently and automatically writing their name

Mr. Wilson says, "Those of you who are not teachers may be really, really appalled that this is where the list is starting but when I tell you in each of my five years of teaching I have to give a test the very first week of school to make sure my children can spell their names. And when I tell you that in those five years of teaching that I have never had a class where 100% of those students pass."

Wilson clarifies that he's not speaking about children that have significant intellectual and developmental delays, but those who have somehow been passed along.

2. Reading beyond CVC words

CVC words stand for consonant, vowel, consonant, and Wilson gave the examples of short first words like "cat," "bat," and "run." These are some of the very first words children learn to read in kindergarten. They start with a consonant, have a vowel in the middle and end with another consonant. Wilson explains that some of the fifth graders entering his classroom can't read beyond these simple words, which hinders their progress because the curriculum requires children to read paragraphs.

girl sitting while reading book They need to read beyond "Hop on Pop." Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

3. Knowing how to add and subtract simple problems

Wilson shares that math is an area where he tends to give a little more grace to the children because so many students struggle with being confident in math. But he notes that by the fifth grade, math skills crank up several notches so counting on their fingers to solve simple single digit subtraction and addition problems can be an issue. This is because fifth grade is the year that they focus heavily on math skills that build on the knowledge of simple addition and subtraction. Before fifth grade ends, students are expected to master multiplication, multiplication and division of decimals, and more.

4. Easily recalling their address and parents' phone numbers

"If for whatever reason I call your kid over to my classroom phone and say, 'Hey, give me a phone number for mom or dad' and they don't know that number, how are they going to get home if God forbid they're out in the world alone, isolated and somebody comes over to them and says, 'Hey, I want to call your parents to help you get in contact with them,' and they don't know what phone number to call," Wilson asks.

boy sitting on concrete stairs Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

In the end, Wilson shares that he's speaking from an area of concern and not judgment because things have been hard for everyone since Covid. He explains that a lot of the skills are not just things that qualify kids for the fifth grade, but things everyone should be able to do to be safe in the world. Several teachers lent their support for his message by relaying their own stories.

"My 8th grade students legitimately struggle to write their names consistently and their handwriting is atrocious," a fellow teacher admits.

"I've had 5th graders that didn't know their birthday," another says.

"In my experience 5th grade is the hardest elementary grade to teach because the academic leap is so wide," someone else shares.

Wilson and others offered some tips to help get the kids who need these skills back on track. Working with the kids at home is a recurring theme in the comments. One parent suggested changing the WiFi password to the parent's phone number to help with memorizing. Wilson shares that if a parent is concerned that their child is missing these skills then one of the most helpful things to do is to ask the school to hold the child back. He explains that this will give the child more time to catch up on the skills they're missing and build maturity needed to succeed in the next grade.

While the message may be harsh for parents and caregivers to hear, it sounds like Wilson isn't simply complaining but making parents aware of an issue they may not know they need to check for. Hopefully sharing this honest message with others will help children excel in fifth grade and beyond.

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