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An Ode to Our Favorite Things That Are “So American”

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Not in a Celebratory Mood? America Has Overcome Hard Times Before, and These 5 Historical Facts Prove It

It’s all over the news: The president stands accused of raiding federal funds for personal projects. Members of Congress are caught paying and accepting bribes. Rival parties divide voters, then submit multiple conflicting sets of election results from the same state. Florida, predictably, is at the center of the mess. There are riots. The whole dispute ultimately gets handed to a special commission to sort out, and the country doesn’t have a new president for months after the election. Sound familiar? This tale of electoral chaos isn’t from 2020. Brace yourself: We’re talking about 1876 . “It is unquestionably the most corrupt presidential election we have ever had,” says historian Greg Jackson, an associate history professor at Utah Valley University and the host of the wildly popular podcast History That Doesn’t Suck . “And by a margin that makes everything else pale.” Jackson would know. He spent three years deep-diving into Am...

Is It Really Rude to Not Bring a Gift If an Invitation Says “No Gifts”?  

As someone who is used to text invitations or “fancy” evites, I was delighted to get a real paper invitation in the mail that was legit fancy. Like, the kind of fancy where I stood in my closet for 20 minutes wondering if my nicest going-out blouse would cut it. It was a milestone birthday party for a wealthy acquaintance—not a close friend, but someone I was hoping might become one—and the invite was very clear: No gifts, please. Fine! Great! Easy! Except the closer the party got, the more I spiraled. It just feels wrong to show up to a gift-giving occasion without a gift. What if everyone else brought something? So I pulled into a grocery-store parking lot on the way there, stared into the middle distance for approximately 45 seconds and then decided to get a bouquet of flowers. It felt like a good middle ground between a hostess gift and a birthday gift. Just in case. It was the right call. At least half the guests had brought something. The birthday girl did...

People Are Putting Shaving Cream on Their Mattresses—And It’s Not as Crazy as It Sounds

A few months ago, I was scrolling through cleaning videos before bed when I came across one that made me stop mid-swipe. A cleaning content creator I’ve followed for years was covering a mattress with shaving cream. My first thought was that it had to be another one of those internet hacks destined to create a bigger mess than the problem it was trying to solve. But judging by the comments, plenty of people had already tried it and were surprisingly impressed by the results. Of course, the internet isn’t exactly known for separating good advice from bad . For every genuinely useful household trick, there are a dozen others that leave you wondering who volunteered to test them in the first place. But as it turns out, that can of shaving cream sitting in your bathroom cabinet may have more uses than just shaving. To find out whether this mattress hack actually works or if it’s just another viral cleaning myth, I spoke with cleaning expert Isabella Flores, the co-owner o...

Found a Name Brand at TJ Maxx? This Secret Code on the Tag Reveals What You’ve Actually Been Buying

If there’s one store I can never walk past without “just taking a quick look,” it’s TJ Maxx. I’ve been shopping there for years, and somehow I always leave with at least one bag of things I didn’t plan on buying. (Don’t even get me started on their discounted makeup aisle!) But here’s the funny thing: Despite all the time I’ve spent wandering those aisles, digging through the racks and proudly showing off my latest bargains, I never once stopped to wonder what those strange little codes on the price tags actually meant. I’d glance at them, assume they were just random numbers and move on to the next great find. As it turns out, those mysterious markings aren’t random at all. TJ Maxx has been quietly hiding a secret language in plain sight, and chances are you’ve been overlooking it every time you shop . Read on to discover the hidden codes that could completely change the way you hunt for deals at TJ Maxx. Get ...