Carpenter was a contestant on the very first season of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Hosted by the late Regis Philbin, the quiz show featured three “lifeline” options to help contestants with difficult questions, the most popular being to “Phone-a-Friend.”
Carpenter had impressively not used a single lifeline for any of his questions. That is, until question 15. The million-dollar question, to be exact.
Philbin asked which U.S. President had appeared on the TV series “Laugh-In.” The four options were Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
That’s when Carpenter chose to call his father.
As soon as his dad answered the phone, Carpenter, all smiles, said:
“I don’t really need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna win the million dollars.”
Cue uproarious audience applause and laughter.
Watch:
RIP to Regis Philbin. One of the best TV hosts ever. This is my favorite moment in game show history pic.twitter.com/9WA1OyejVh
Looking back, you can see the exact moment Carpenter realizes he’s won the whole damn thing—and it’s before the answers were even shown. He would go on to (correctly) choose Nixon, becoming the first ever top-prize winner in the entire Who Wants to Be a Millionaire franchise worldwide.
And even now, a little over two decades later, it’s still such a boss move. Game shows might not have the same widespread appeal that they once did, but it’s iconic moments like Carpenter’s phone call that still make them so fun to watch today.
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)
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.
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of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age.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.
Photo credit: @drjasonisfresh/TikTok, Representative Image from Canva – Dr. Jason Singh explains the pro and cons of showering at night and in the morning.
You would think the “right answer” would be largely up to personal preference, much like which way to face while showering and whether or not to snack in the shower…two previous hot button issues online. But according to Singh, there are definitive pros and cons to each option, which could settle the debate once and for all.
Here is what the doctor actually found
Singh says in the clip that overnight, “your body can accumulate germs such as bacteria and fungus” through “processes like sweating and shedding skin cells,” all of which help create odor. When you shower off this residue in the AM, it brings your “skin microbiome back to a more hygienic baseline.”
Makes a pretty compelling case for morning showers, doesn’t it? Just wait.
One, it helps release melatonin to help induce sleep. Plus, when your body adjusts from a warmer temperature to a cooler temperature, that also helps your body prepare for a good night’s rest.
The second benefit is that it washes away “the entire day’s grime.” Which, let’s be honest, can be very therapeutic sometimes. And lastly, showering at night is the ‘better way to help hydrate your skin,” making it a better option for those with sensitive or dry skin.
Singh’s bottom line: “Overall night-time showers have more benefits to it but morning showers have really one benefit and that’s better hygiene.”
Singh encouraged viewers to weigh in with their own opinions, and they didn’t hold back.
“You will never convince me to go to bed dirty,’ one person wrote. Another argued “The worst part about night time showers is long, wet hair. I hate going to bed with wet hair!”
There ended up being some pretty funny responses as well. One person joked that they opted for morning showers since it helps them “Get my head together. Generate a to-do list. Fight with pretend people.”
Another person noted that timing preferences can be dictated by their schedule, commenting, “night showers during the work week and morning showers on the weekends.”
Woman takes an outdoor shower during the day. Photo credit: Canva
Some people said two showers was the answer
Many argued that two showers a day was the actual best option. That way you don’t go to bed dirty, and you’re fresh for the morning.
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.
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 BusinessInsider. “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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.”
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.
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.
“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?
At first glance, one might think that Jillian Lynch wore a traditional (read: expensive) dress to her wedding. After all, it did look glamorous on her. But this bride has a secret superpower: thrifting.
Lynch posted her bargain hunt on TikTok, sharing that she had been perusing thrift shops in Ohio for four days in a row, with the actual ceremony being only a month away. Lynch then displays an elegant ivory-colored Camila Coelho dress that fits her perfectly and still brand new with the tags on it, no less.
She found it at a thrift shop
You can find that exact same dress on Revolve for $220. Lynch bought it for only $3.75. The bride-to-be’s video quickly went viral, racking up 2.6 million views. People were floored that Lynch was able to find such a huge deal on a dress that seemed to be made just for her.
“Honestly, brides pay 1000s of dollars to look that good in a white slip dress like that, I think you’re rocking it & it’s perfect,” complimented one person.
OK, maybe it did cost her a little more than $3.75. In an interview with BusinessInsider, Lynch disclosed that she did make some customizations based on suggestions from the comments including ”elevating” the gown with non-adjustable shoulder straps, taking in the waist and adding a “demure” bit of lace to the front slit.
Altogether, those alterations totaled out to $110. Add to that some $8 shoes (also thrifted, of course) and Lynch still created an entire wedding look for only $113.75. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a steal.
Turns out, spending less might be the smarter move
According to a recent article in Brides, popular wedding planning site Zola predicts the average wedding cost is $36,000 for 2025. The numbers have been rising steadily over the last five years. Brides cites Brooke Ashivay, owner of Orange Blossom Special Events, who said that “comparing a 2019 wedding budget with one from 2024 at a similar venue and guest count, [we] observed an approximately 30 percent increase in costs,” likely due to increased demand after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only that, but the average wedding dress now costs $2,000 according to The Knot. Weddings are supposed to be fun, celebratory and joyous, but it can be hard to feel any of those things when financial stress is involved. Who would want to start off a (hopefully) lifelong partnership that way? Save that money for the honeymoon, I say! Or the gas station!
She did keep one tradition, though
Still, Lynch didn’t say no to every wedding tradition. As she walked down the aisle in her gorgeous discounted gown, looking like a Grecian goddess, her father walked right alongside her. “I could see how much it meant to him, and it actually ended up meaning a lot to me,” she told Business Insider.
And perhaps most important of all, Lynch felt good in her own skin on her big day. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that great in something. That’s what brides should feel on their wedding day, like they’re at their peak beautiful self. That’s exactly how I felt when I put it on.”
It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to make lasting memories. And when you are able to show up for life’s big moments authentically, that feeling is priceless.
This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.
The video—in which Goma showed up for a job interview at the BBC and was mistaken for, quite literally, another Guy (technology journalist Guy Kewney)—has gone viral time and time again, thanks in no small part to how well Goma handled the situation after being thrust into a live on-air interview.
Now, two decades after the wholesome snafu, Goma has decided to impart some wisdom about turning a potentially catastrophic moment into one of pure grace.
To be fair, Goma admits he wasn’t stoic the entire time
Speaking to This Morning, Goma said his initial thoughts were, “God help me. I’m lost completely.”
However, he remembered the words of his mother, who taught him to quietly fix a problem without embarrassing anyone.
“My mom always says to us, ‘If you notice something, your brother made a mistake anywhere, correct the mistake first before talking to the person,’” he said.
Not wanting to make anyone else feel uncomfortable, Goma held onto his composure. That was all the fuel he needed to carry on, answering the questions placed before him with such admirable self-possession that viewers still revisit the clip time and time again. Sure, it’s partly for a good laugh, but also because Goma’s chutzpah is undeniably inspiring.
The hidden Zen wisdom behind all this
Nearly all of us have experienced a situation where we felt unprepared, overwhelmed, or suddenly put on the spot (if you haven’t, your time is coming). Goma’s response offers a blueprint for surviving those moments with dignity intact. In similarly anxiety-inducing situations, we can direct our attention outside ourselves and aim to simply be of service in whatever way we can muster in the moment, rather than laser-focusing on what we’re experiencing internally. When that happens—when we forego our concept of “I,” as Buddhists say—what once felt insurmountable often suddenly shrinks to its proper size.
There’s also something to be said for the fact that Goma never appeared bitter about the misunderstanding that made him Internet-famous. Even not getting the job he originally came to interview for, which he shared was heartbreaking at the time, didn’t ultimately defeat his spirit. Over the years, he has retained his humor and warmth, which has only deepened people’s affection for him.
Life after becoming Internet-famous
According to Newstalk, Goma now works with people who have learning disabilities. It might not be the job he planned for all those years ago, but it sounds like he’s found work with purpose nonetheless. He also teamed up with Elliott Gotkine, the BBC producer who put him on the air, to release their story in book form as The Wrong Guy: The Inside Story of TV’s Greatest Cock-Up.
Though we may never find ourselves accidentally talking shop on live television, may we all handle our own unexpected blunders with that same humility and humor. Who’s to say what surprising blessings might come as a result?
