TIME proclaimed Donald Trump to be the Person of the Year, a prestigious honor he now shares with Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Josef Stalin, and you (yes, you!).
Trump and his Twitter account have a spotty history with the magazine, which he does with just about every publication and issue (pun intended). His gripes range from the whiny to the really whiny, until they gave him a cover last year. Of course.
He just might want to delete these.
Video game artist Alexandria Neonakis has delighted internet users the world over by sharing texts from her adorable father after he had his first alpaca encounter in Peru. Neonakis's father, a former Greek goat farmer, was charmed like so many people by the alpacas' soft fleece, weird smiley underbites, and long huggable necks. When you read his texts, you'll feel like you're discovering alpacas for the first time all over again.
Unsurprisingly, Neonakis's tweet went viral. In less than a day, it racked up more than 18,000 retweets, and more than 32,000 favorites. Other Twitter users started reaching out to her to find out if her dad's honeymoon period with the great beasts had ended.
As if anything could spoil his love for alpacas. Once you go 'pac, you don't go back.
A lady giving birth to her own granddaughter isn't even as rare as you might think, because when a woman can't give birth for medical reasons, it's sometimes natural to turn to the one person she knows can handle it—her own mom.
In this case, it's a sad story with a happy ending. Jessica Jenkins, 21, underwent treatment for cervical cancer when she was 18. Doctors knew that the cancer and treatment would leave Jenkins unable to conceive, so they offered her the option of freezing her eggs.
Freeze she did, and three years later her mother, a 45-year-old named Julie Bradford, offered to act as surrogate for her daughter and her son-in-law's child.
Said Bradford: "The last three years have been the absolute worst. But I was lucky enough to have been given the chance to put things right."
If that wasn't a good enough indicator of how selfless and loving this woman is, she also said, "We've spent a lot of time in hospitals and it has become normal to us. I'm just so happy that this last visit was for such a wonderful reason."
Jessica's in remission, a cancer survivor with a healthy baby, Jack, and an incredible mother she can no longer ever refuse a favor.
You're coming home for Christmas, Jessica, every single year.
To accompany this week's cover story on President Barack Obama, People magazine filmed a joint interview with his wife, Michelle. Michelle, who campaigned for Hillary Clinton, reveals in a clip that on the night of the election, she didn't stay up to watch the results—she just went to bed.
"I don't like to watch debates, I don't like to watch political discourse, I never have. I barely did, with him," Obama said, pointing to her husband. She continued:
Once you do what you can do, you rest easy. It's in the hands of the American people. I think anything I felt about the election, I said, and I stand by. This is our democracy, and this is how it works.
What a fun surprise it must have been for her in the morning!
Singer Lady Gaga wrote about her struggle with PTSD with an extremely honest open letter uploaded onto her website. The "Joanne" singer felt compelled to share her story as a way to remove the harmful stigma surrounding mental illness, as well as help others who may be suffering.
She starts the autobiographical note off by saying:
I have wrestled for some time about when, how and if I should reveal my diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). After five years of searching for the answers to my chronic pain and the change I have felt in my brain, I am finally well enough to tell you. There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness, but it’s important that you know that there is hope and a chance for recovery.
The singer/activist wrote about how PTSD makes everything in her life harder—from performing for fans to simple tasks like showering. She also opened up about her agonizing experience while on the Born This Way Tour. She wrote about how others dismissed or ignored her symptoms despite her cries for help, which only heightening the degree of emotional and physical injury she sustained from months of neglect. She says she now suffers from trauma due to that specific period time.
Luckily, the singer/songwriter eventually sought the guidance of doctors who helped her to understand her PTSD its subsequent side effects. She writes that she is now doing "various modalities of psychotherapy" and is on doctor-prescribed medication.
I also experience something called dissociation which means that my mind doesn’t want to relive the pain so “I look off and I stare” in a glazed over state. As my doctors have taught me, I cannot express my feelings because my pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain that controls logical, orderly thought) is overridden by the amygdala (which stores emotional memory) and sends me into a fight or flight response. My body is in one place and my mind in another. It’s like the panic accelerator in my mind gets stuck and I am paralyzed with fear.
Lady Gaga also acknowledges that soldiers are most commonly associated with experiencing PTSD, but no one should suffer in silence.
Traditionally, many associate PTSD as a condition faced by brave men and women that serve countries all over the world. While this is true, I seek to raise awareness that this mental illness affects all kinds of people, including our youth. I pledge not only to help our youth not feel ashamed of their own conditions, but also to lend support to those servicemen and women who suffer from PTSD. No one’s invisible pain should go unnoticed.
To read the entire emotional letter in full, click here.
At this point, we're not sure if Bill Murray is an actor or just a mythical creature who randomly pops up to spread joy and cheer to those in need. We've seen him show up in engagement photos, at major sporting events, everywhere, really. Recently, Murray popped up at a Baylor University basketball game and serenaded a delighted grandmother who was there celebrating her 94th birthday.
Grandmother Wible's (yes, that is actually her name) grandson, Noah Wible, posted a video of Murray singing "Happy Birthday" to his grandma. It quickly went viral, because, well, it's a video of Bill Murray singing "Happy Birthday" to an adorable 94-year-old woman.
In the caption of his Facebook post, Noah wrote of the experience:
She doesn't get out much anymore, but wanted to attend her first Baylor basketball game . . . On the way to the game she shared with me how excited she was to get out of the house. See about this time last year my Grandfather Wible (her husband) of 73 years passed away and she has been feeling lonely lately. Well little did she know that for her birthday she was going to sit front row, Baylor would win, and she would not only meet Bill Murray, but have him sing Happy Birthday to her.
Happy birthday, Grandmother Wible. And may we all one day be so lucky as to catch a glimpse of the ever-mysterious, ever-magical Bill Murray.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump wonTIME's "Person of the Year" cover, Twitter exploded, and now that it's been a few hours we can all take a deep breath and dive headfirst into some crazy conspiracy theories about it. First of all, take another look at his cover photo.
Notice anything? No? Because you're not deep into the illuminati? How about now:
Now you see it! Trump's got some devil horns.
While it might seem like a pure coincidence to you, plenty of people on the web were utterly convinced. Of course, people on the web were once utterly convinced that you could charge an iPhone with an onion, but GQ makes a pretty interesting argument that this was intentional.
We know just how much thought goes into each and every detail of a cover photo, layout, etc. A simple shift left, right, up, or down would have eliminated this convenient graphic design line-up, so it's really hard to think this was an innocent accident.
As a long-standing print magazine themselves, they have some credibility here. But forget them, here's some people with blue check marks on the internet who are utterly convinced.
As a bonus, look at this rating Trump got on IlluminatiSymbols.info.
And if that doesn't seem productive, well, fine. Here's an article from TIME defending itself with pesky "evidence" of the fact that this happens all the time, with an article called "35 TIME Magazine Covers That Appeared to give People Horns."
"Any resemblance to cats, bats or devil horns is entirely coincidental."
Redditor RoboSquirt has shared a Snap sent to him by his 12-year-old cousin that is delightfully immature. If you're the sort of person who's curious about what sort of content 12-year-old boys are sharing on Snapchat these days, prepare to not be surprised.
And because most of the Reddit community is 12 years old at heart, they were more than happy to join in on the fun.
No disrespect to Ann Bancroft, but can you imagine how much better The Graduate would have been with Mrs. Butterworth?
Now THAT would be erotic. And sticky.
Remember on Thursday when the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology tweeted, without comment or correction, a link to a (non-scientific publication) Breitbart article about how global warming isn't real? The article, titled, "Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence From Climate Alarmists," included a clip of Weather.com meteorologist Kait Parker, edited to look as though she agreed with their bogus claim that temperatures were cooling.
Well, Weather.com is not having any of this nonsense. On Tuesday, they published an article of their own, called "Note to Breitbart: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Please Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans," contradicting Breitbart's claims.
Along with the article, they also released this video, in which Parker herself explains how the author of the Breitbart article cherry-picked certain data and skewed study findings. She refutes their claim point by point, proving that yes, global warming is real, and that unfortunately, temperatures really are at a record high, as the alarmists scientists having been saying all along.
Look at her try to use her fancy "scientific knowledge"and "facts." So quaint. Sorry, brb, the world is on fire.
This is Missouri State University student Deondre Wallace.
In an attempt to get a near-impossible "A," Wallace emailed his professor citing the terrible state of the world and some on-point lyrics by the Black Eyed Peas to get the professor to re-think his extra credit policy.
It worked.
OMG. Teachers love the Black Eyed Peas. Who knew?
The success of this campaign gave new hope to students everywhere, causing Deondre's mind-changing email to go viral.
While most were seriously impressed with Deondre's power, this other professor piped in with his own syllabus to let everyone know, "theres' 2 types of professors."
This man might be the devil. ^^^
The only other problems people had with the email were minor. Some people had trouble with his math.
While still others had trouble with his writing skills.
End quotes or no, Wallace's email has been shared 12K times with students tagging their friends encouraging them to try the same tactic. Congrats to Deondre Wallace for his success, and also to the the Black Eyed Peas, who have just one more example of their cultural relevance.
President-elect Trump still has yet to take official State Department briefings or denounce the hundreds of hate crimes being perpetrated in his name, but he does carve himself out the time to watch—and whine about—Saturday Night Live.
Trump called into The Today Show to boast about discuss his bigly, tremendous, really just the best honor of joining Hitler and Obama in the ranks of being TIME'sPerson of the Year.
Matt Lauer took the time to politely grill the President-elect on his tweeting habits, something he said he'd curtail once elected. Lauer went for the jugular, bringing up the dark cloud that rains over political office that is SNL.
"Can we agree, President-elect Trump, that at this stage, it'll be better for you to simply stop watching SNL, as opposed to watching it, and then complaining about it?" Lauer asked, managing to keep a straight face.
Ever the narcissist, Trump began answering by reminding you of his own sketch comedy chops, saying, “I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not a show anymore."
“First of all, nothing to do with me —there’s nothing funny about it, the skits are terrible," he said, having clearly not understood the brilliance of David S. Pumpkins or Wells for Boys.
"So why do you keep watching it?" Lauer straight-up asks, to which Trump responded, “I do like [Alec] and I like him as an actor, but I don’t think his imitation of me gets me at all. It’s meant to be very mean-spirited.”
“But you can’t bring yourself to stop watching it?” Lauer asks, again.
“Frankly, the way the show is going now, when you look at the kind of work they’re doing, who knows how long that show’s going to go on? It’s a terrible show.”
Yes Donald, after 42 seasons with ups and downs, who knows how long it'll last?
Everyone has given up on that show at some point or another. Giving up on SNL is as much a cultural tradition as SNL. But Trump just won't let it go, he wants to actively cry "bias!" every week.
With such strong opinions, Mr. Trump, if you step down we will gladly offer you a position to recap the show for Someecards. You watch SNL like it's your job, so it might as well be.
According to Fox 6 News, 14 high school students from the Chicago suburbs were rushed to the hospital after eating gummy bears that may have been laced with marijuana.
Wait, they got to do drugs and got out of class?
Administration knew something was up when students started flooding the nurse's office Tuesday morning complaining about feeling "both uncomfortable and sick." Students reported symptoms including dry mouth, fast heart rate and dizziness. Yep, either a whole bunch of teens all had an anxiety attack at the same time or they are were just having a bad high.
Out of the 14 students who were transported to Edward Hospital, at least 12 had eaten the gummy bears.
Students told police that they suspect the gummies were "laced with something with marijuana, like a liquid-based marijuana substance," but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Testing is underway to determine what exactly was in the gummy bears.
A 17-year-old student was taken into custody, but released without being charged.
While recent Disney heroines are more explicitly feminist (Moana don't need no man!), the original parade of princess leave something to be desired. Sociological Images featured sociologist Danielle Lindemann picking up a pen and making a few edits in her daughter's picture book.
Hopefully soon we'll get official "A Princess is a Badass" books, but in the meantime, this easy DIY will do.
I know I wasn't the only one disappointed months ago when our favorite vice president and ice cream lover, Joe Biden, announced that he would not be running for president in the 2016 election. But America's goofy uncle isn't letting go of the idea of holding our country's highest office quite yet. Earlier this week, Biden joked with a group of reporters about a possible run in 2020, and on Tuesday, he stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he talked about it AGAIN.
While Biden insisted to Colbert that he doesn't "plan on running again," he noted that he is a great believer in fate, and "to say you know what’s going to happen in four years I just think is not rational."
“I can’t see the circumstance in which I’d run,” he continued, but said that he has learned to "never say never."
Of course, Biden couldn't resist a subtle jab at our current President-elect. In 2020, he said, “Hell, Donald Trump’s going to be 74. I’ll be 77, in better shape."
“I mean, what the hell?” he continued.
What does it mean?! Is he running or not?! Please Mr. Vice President, quit playing games with our hearts.
This is Anthony Mayse. He just got fat-shamed by Santa.
On Saturday, 9-year-old Anthony was treated to a trip to Main Street in Forrest City, N.C. They took a carriage ride, went ice skating, and then the day culminated in a visit with Santa.
Anthony sat on the jolly old man's lap and asked for an iPod touch and a drone. What he got was some weight loss advice.
"When he got done, he said, 'Lay off the hamburgers and French fries,'" Anthony told WLOS. "And that really just disrespected me, and I felt awful."
Naturally, this would be traumatic for anyone.
"It affected me so bad that I was crying until I went to bed that night," Anthony said. "And I want to say to him, 'You don't want to disrespect a 9-year-old. Even though what shape and size you are, it doesn't matter.'"
He also tore up the picture he took with Santa.
Anthony's mom, Ashley Mayse, says she ran back in and asked Santa, "Why did you say that?"
His response was "I don't know."
Don't you, St. Nick? You're the poster boy for being fat. Sounds like you're just projecting some of your own body insecurities. No one should be taking dietary advice from a man who only eats milk and cookies.
"I'm hoping he's fired, because I don't want any kid feeling like he did Saturday," she said. "I mean, it destroyed him."
No word on weather Kris Kringle lost his job, but the town manager says that Santa did apologize.
"When he went to apologize to me, he didn't even mean it," Anthony said.
"He acted like he didn't want to be there to do the job," Ashley added.
Looks like this mall Santa is just like every other terrible mall employee in the world.
