Wine culture has exploded in recent years, yielding a variety of cringe-y handicrafts (think t-shirts that say “it’s wine o’clock” and tumblers that emblazoned with “mommy’s special grape juice”). If you have a friend who’s really into wine, you might be tempted to give them some of this junk for the holidays, but we…
If you have a houseful of guests, or are engaged in a holiday baking marathon, a clogged dishwasher can really slow down your operation. Hand washing all your dishes uses more time and water than using your appliance—but getting a professional out to look at your dishwasher during the holidays can be hard to schedule,…
By now, you probably know how buggy Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are. At this point, the glitches and issues are more features than bugs. Most of the games’ quirks seem to range from harmless to game-breaking, but there are some newly-discovered ones you can use for your benefit...specifically to duplicate items and…
The medieval phenomena of witch trials and witch hunts loom large in our collective imaginations. A “witch hunt” is a political term for what one perceives as baseless persecution; anti-communist hearings inspired an allegorical play about the Salem witch trials.
But how much do you know about actual witch hunts?…
As we finish up the last of our Thanksgiving leftovers, our attention must turn to the gift-giving portion of the holiday season—and that means starting to hunt for the perfect stocking stuffers. If you’re in something of a rut, though, giving the same chocolates and hot-sauce variety packs year after year, here are a…
TikTok’s latest trend is the “invisible body” challenge, in which users post seemingly nude videos of themselves obscured with filters. Unsurprisingly, some users are curious whether there are ways to remove the filters from said videos to reveal the uploader’s naked bodies, and they are downloading third-party…
A to-do list is probably one of the most common strategies for keeping track of tasks and goals. But the problem with long and overly ambitious to-do lists is that they can overwhelm us with how much there is to accomplish, leaving us struggling to prioritize or even knowing where to start. A long list can also…
Pizza is a delicious convenience that most of us appreciate in that moment when we want a hot meal (that we didn’t have to prepare) delivered straight to us. But what comes next—storing the leftovers—can be tricky. Pizza boxes are not exactly easy to fit into the refrigerator, but you know you’re going to want to…
I love Apple Music, but I’ll admit, at this time each year, I’m jealous seeing everyone’s Spotify Wrapped. Apple Music lets me imagine I have a sophisticated taste with an expertly curated library, while Spotify lets its customers bask in the embarrassment of their actual listening history. I, too, want to be humbled.…
As long as inflation keeps making our lives more and more expensive, it’s crucial to be as conscientious a spender as possible. The last thing you want is to keep losing money on the typically avoidable costs that come with being disorganized. As someone who has dabbled in being a disorganized procrastinator, I know…
Among the more coherent—which is not to say worthwhile—ideas in Ye’s recent, much-publicized antisemitic social media tirades is the idea that Jewish people control the media and hold disproportionate power within the financial industry. While the Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Kanye-West is obviously (and unapologetically)…
If you’re feeling déjà vu from seeing a Ford sport-utility vehicle recall, you’re not wrong. Earlier this month, Broncos were recalled for having issues with their backup cameras, and earlier this spring, there was an engine oil leak issue that could cause a fire. This time, about 520,000 Bronco Sport and Ford Escape…
Outdoor holiday lighting displays are an essential part of the season for many people, bringing a little extra brightness to the long winter nights. Stringing together multiple strands of lights is often the best way to achieve the look you’re going for, but connections made outdoors are open to the elements, allowing…
It would almost be too easy to forget about Thanksgiving and move on to December’s festivities—if it weren’t for that bowl of cranberry sauce that keeps getting moved around in the fridge. It’s great with turkey, but after the last bits have been devoured, the crimson sauce seems to be an outcast. There is absolutely…
Ever opened up a package only to find that the sturdy, beautiful item you ordered is tissue-paper-thin, or far larger (or smaller) than it looked online? We have a few tips to help you make sure that what you receive isn’t going to be a disappointment—whether you’re buying it as a gift or for yourself.
Cold winter nights, drafty homes, and differing temperature preferences are a recipe for discomfort when you’re trying to get a good night’s sleep. A heated mattress pad is one option to dial in temperature for maximum coziness, and as a bonus, it generally requires less energy than your central heating.
Complicated cleaning hacks can be fun projects, but we love a damn simple one. And this one is really simple: You can use the lid of a pot or pan to clean your carpets and fabrics. It works like a charm, which is why it’s been all over TikTok lately.
If you celebrate Christmas, you probably have a decorated tree set up somewhere in your house. As a kid, the tree in my house was a dusty old artificial model that had to be assembled branch by branch. We always kept it in the basement, stuffed into a cardboard box, and every holiday season, unboxing it was a game of…
After a year of rising prices resulting from inflation, many families are cutting back on their holiday spending—including when it comes to gift-giving. Making a rule about not giving presents to other adults is one thing, but you probably want to give your kids a holiday experience to remember (for something other…
Want to do something with the kids for the holidays, but can’t afford breakfast with Santa or the Polar Express train ride? Or perhaps you’re looking for something festive to do with your friends or on a date, but tickets to the Nutcracker aren’t in the budget. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
At the end of a year that saw inflation reach a 41-year high, there may not be much (or anything) left in your annual budget to spend on holiday gifts for friends and family. If that’s the case, and you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to talk to loved ones you usually exchange gifts with, and come to…
‘Tis the season to dig out the decorations and trim your tree, and any other parts of your home that you think could use some holiday cheer. But if rising energy costs have you hesitant to plug in multiple strings of lights, an inflatable snowman, or your blow mold nativity scene, you may be rethinking your design…
If you’ve ever wanted to travel to a galaxy far, far away, now’s your chance to get at least a peak at some on a map—around 200,000 galaxies, to be more specific. But this isn’t just any interactive map of the universe: It’s the first to display “the span of the entire known cosmos with pinpoint accuracy,” according…
So, you’ve decided to bring a live tree into your home for a few weeks. How festive! Now, it’s time to determine what type of Christmas tree you’d like—or, more accurately, what qualities you’re looking for in an indoor evergreen. A particular look? A certain price point? A robust fragrance?
Whether you’re drinking or cooking with wine, you may not go through the entire bottle at one time. Sure, you could use a wine stopper to keep your wine fresh(ish) until you’re ready to finish it, but what if you don’t have one? As it turns out, there is a proper way to recork a bottle of wine. Here’s what to know.
Even the most like-minded families don’t agree on everything, and holiday dinners are often the setting of heated discussions on controversial topics. Of course, we don’t plan for that to happen, but when you think about it, the timing makes sense, given that people who may not otherwise see each other are gathered…
For all the talk about how the world today is “entirely digital,” it sure doesn’t feel that way sometimes. I still receive a ton of paper documents, from bills to insurance info to dog license applications. We don’t deal with as much paper as we used to, but it’s still a mess if not meticulously organized. And if…
Cheesecake is great. Cheesecake that sets without you needing to use the oven is, frankly, fantastic. This no-bake cheesecake is built in a slab style, which takes away some of the drama of the tall, circular variety, and replaces it with a welcoming, casual vibe. A wide, square baking dish makes spreading the thick,…
I confess I’ve only come into the holiday TV movie fold within the last few years, as the advent of the gay Christmas movie spurred me to explore other classics of the genre. What one immediately discovers, when delving into these worlds of small town values overcoming big city cynicism, is that a suspension of…
Psychology-related words and phrases tend to creep into our everyday vocabularies. Unfortunately, many of them have been twisted in our minds, and we now use them to refer to the wrong thing—or, in some cases, science has moved on and we’re talking about something woefully outdated. Here are some of the worst…
We’re in for expensive gas bills this winter. Whenever I so much as think about turning up the thermostat, I can hear my dad’s voice telling me to put on another sweater instead. But when sweaters don’t suffice, I turn to my trusty, cheap, easy-to-use space heater to cut costs on my central heating. But how much money…
Back in the old days, when theaters still made actual money showing movies that weren’t part of a “cinematic universe,” December was the best time of year to be a cinema junkie. That was when, in the final weeks of the year, studios would release all of their most lavishly produced, high-minded star vehicles, in the…
Wrestling a whole turkey body into a roasting pan (or rather, onto a wire rack), isn’t for everyone. Even I, a seasoned professional, have to steel myself for the gory moments of cutting through bone when I spatchcock a bird, and I would be totally OK with never having to smash in a breast bone again. If you have…
Whether it’s investing in the newest cryptocurrency, or eyeing some type of “make money while doing nothing!” scheme, it can be hard to resist all the shiny “new” finance trends that constantly pop up. Often, though, these trends aren’t actually all that new—and even if they are, it’s important to look for signs that…
So you want to lay a curse on your enemies? I’m not going to judge—I’m sure they deserve it. But if you want to hex, jinx, bedevil, imprecate, and otherwise lay down powerful gris-gris on your foes, you better do it right. So follow our no-nonsense guide to practical cursing using two of history’s most famous methods…
It’s November, which means it is once again Black Friday season (the Friday after Thanksgiving now somehow lasting an entire month), and retailers across the internet—and the brick-and-mortar chains that remain—are dropping deals. Traditionally, this is the best/worst time to be a video game fan. The best, because…
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the talk of the town, but not for the reasons Nintendo likely wanted. While many are enjoying their new Pokémon adventures, the tweets are all about how buggy the games are. These glitches range from funny to bizarre to hilarious. But there’s one quirk that isn’t like the others—the…
Like almost every consumer good, the used car market has been bonkers over the last few years. While used vehicle prices are still up significantly, both prices and demand appear to be dropping slightly, and if you’re considering purchasing a used car, you may want to know how to weigh current mileage against the…
So, I’m really bad at video games. Elden Ring proved too much for me: I couldn’t stop dying. Everything I tried, every path I took, seemingly placed me in front of enemies that would best me at every turn. I imagine, then, that I won’t be invited to join one of gaming’s most exclusive clubs. It’s not enough to beat a…
Zip files are a useful but cumbersome solution to compressing multiple files together. They come in different ways—an archive of photographs for a project, or the need to compress a file that just won’t fit in Gmail’s archaic 25MB file limit. It’s one thing to deal with zip files on a computer, but when you see them…
While there’s no way to guarantee that your Thanksgiving gathering will be 100% conflict-free, setting a few boundaries with your guests ahead of the big dinner can help to at least minimize confrontations and awkward moments. Here are a few examples of topics to discuss and agree on before coming together for the…
