If you're as Extremely Online as I am, you saw a clip taking the web by storm today and had to click. I don't typically watch cable news - I don't really *watch* news as much as I read/tweet about it - but I couldn't resist this bit of content.
Wow. It's rare to see a news program imbued with such vulnerability and humanity. Often, when stories are reported on, they're rendered abstract - even if they affect millions of people. Blackwell honed in on Trump's use of coded language ('infested') and connected it to his repeated dehumanization of black and brown people. The anchor simultaneously personalized an issue that's widespread and systemic: racism in the United States.
Blackwell's statement resonated online in a massive way.
This is....everything. So real & powerful. I forgot how cathartic it is to watch someone tell the truth & show their heart on television.
Elijah Cummings’ district MD-7 is the 2nd-wealthiest majority-black district in the country ($58K median household income; MD-4 is first). MD-7 is the 2nd-most well-educated majority-black district (37% bachelors' degree+; GA-4 is first). https://t.co/gb9dBKISlx
Well said! @VictorBlackwell, so sorry for the evident pain caused by the hateful statements made by @realDonaldTrump. The majority of our country stand with you and @RepCummings and against the racism and hate. Together we will strive to do better.
"The main thing to remember is that making love is at once the silliest and the most sacred act humans can perform."
-Patricia Briggs
I feel guilty about a lot of things; like lying to my dentist that I floss, or lying to my dentist that I will pay my bill, or lying to my dentist that he is my baby's father. The point is, there are plenty of things to feel guilty about, but laughing at inappropriate memes is not one of them. Enjoy these sexy, silly memes, and keep your friggin' mouth shut if you see my dentist.
What do women want? Some men seem to think this is some sort of unsolvable mystery, so much so that there was even a movie once made about a man who could read women's minds and "finally" figure out what they wanted (What Women Want starring Mel Gibson). Honestly, most women will tell you what they want if you ask them, but some people forget to do that.
Luckily, #MenThinkWomenWant started trending on Twitter today, so men can take a look and see how wrong or right some of their assumptions on this topic are. We picked out fifteen of our favorite responses. Men, take note.
1.
Most #MenThinkWomenWant a man built body. Chiseled abs, muscles, good looks, a big dick and a thick wallet with a nice car , to spoil them
No..they want you to follow the damn shopping list ok...and you forgot the Roma tomatoes...ugh there goes tonight's casserole🙄
#MenThinkWomenWant materialistic things & money. Women honestly don’t care about your money, your car or the size of your manhood. That’s girls. Real women just want a man who treats them right. #SundayThoughts
I learned pretty early on in life that trying to second guess a woman is likely going to end poorly for me so I let THEM tell me what they want. #MenThinkWomenWant
#MenThinkWomenWant to be shouted at from down the street, annoyed close up, or told to smile because they're pretty. CATCALLING IS FUCKING ANNOYING. JUST DON'T.
In a world that seems to get less and less inspiring by the day, it's good to have one uplifting quote that can keep you going. I'm talking about those quotes you read in a book, or see in a movie, or hear from your wise mother, that stop you in your tracks and make you go, "Damn, that's deep AF."
Everyone has a favorite quote, and it's always fun to hear what other people's are. So I was delighted to find a reddit thread where user BoroMoo asked people to share a quote that "just stuck with"them. Here are fifteen that have now stuck with me. Enjoy!
1. Anonymous (xsvspd8)
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want.
2. Anonymous (SiimplyEthan)
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, 2nd best time is now" Its really helped me work around being lazy and procrastinating, I cant really explain why though.
3. John F. Kennedy (Polo_04)
“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” - JFK
4. Anonymous (krdavis918)
"Follow your heart, but take your brain with you"
No idea who said it, but I love it.
5. Kellog (up766570)
"The thing about happiness is that you only know you had it when it's gone. I mean, you may think to yourself that you're happy. But you don't really believe it. You focus on the petty bulls**t, or the next job, or whatever. It's only looking back by comparison with what comes after that you really understand, that's what happiness felt like"
A quote from Kellogg in Fallout 4. Took me by surprise and I reflected for a moment on all I took for granted.
6. Anonymous (DogsNotHumans)
"The days are long, but the years are short."
In regards to raising kids. So many days you just can't wait til bedtime so you can have some peace, but then sometimes you look at them and wonder how they got so big so fast.
7. Anonymous (notgabi)
"I can't abandon the person I used to be, so I carry her."
8. Uncle Iro (Mark_Twayne)
"Perfection and power are overrated."
~ Uncle Iroh. Bless his soul
9. Anonymous (saz2124)
“We can’t fix a problem if we don’t first acknowledge it.”
10. Anonymous (cyclingguy536)
If you don't take risks, you risk not living
11. Anonymous (Meganthefallen)
“Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.”
12. Jake the Dog (DownIndianHill)
"Sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something" --jake the dog
13. Anonymous (ark_life)
isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes... but when we look back, everything is different
14. Anonymous (Mordred_XII)
"At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it"
I think about this quote a lot.
15. Ernest Hemingway (eternalrefuge86)
The world breaks everyone, and after, many are strong at the broken places.
But some fans are bristling at the visual of Snooki imbibing in alcohol while her baby drinks what's presumably breast milk from a bottle. They seem to be concerned over the possibility of alcohol entering Snooki's milk supply.
Some followers were immediately aghast over the photo.
She faced major criticism and even threats from one follower who wanted to call CPS.
Even fans complained.
And one of her followers just wants to know how.
But Snooki didn't take the criticism lying down. She even responded to the following grammatically challenged comment:
"you’re not a mom," she shot back. "I allow myself to have a few glasses once a week to stay sane with 3 kids. I do what’s necessary to clean my milk for my baby. Let a mawma live and keep being 17."
Not everyone criticized Snooks. Some of her fans applauded her for keeping it real and fighting the trolls.
Many jumped to her defense.
And encouraged Snooki to keep doing her thing.
It begs the question: haven't these mom-shamers ever watched "Jersey Shore"? Snooki does what she wants!
In many big cities, it's impossible to live without encountering a mice or a rat at some point. They're tiny, fast, nocturnal and have mastered years of co-habitation with humans. They can enter your apartment through a hole the size of a quarter, sometimes even a dime. And once they're there, they get cozy...
One mouse can quickly turn into a family if you're not careful which means if you go to get a glass of water in the middle of the night you might be met with a party of baby mice hanging out on your stove. Snap-traps are the most efficient and humane method for controlling a rodent problem, and if you're scared to kill them you should know they're defecating all over everything you own and can, in anything from a normal to severe infestation, hang out on your bed. Just let that sink in and buy some snap-traps ASAP.
If you ask your super or landlord to fix a mouse problem, most of the time their response will be "ok" and then they'll never show up.
Sometimes they'll plug a few holes, but at the end of the day this is going to be your war to fight. When a man on Twitter posted his super's response to a mouse complaint, though, the internet couldn't stop laughing. This one is the true winner...
The best part about it is that's it's genuinely hard to tell if the super is in on the joke or if hanging mouse heads outside the door as a warning is a solid vermin prevention tactic...
He included his beautiful dog with good character in the responses for our viewing pleasure:
by request, here’s that Beautiful dog with great character (her ig is bellaofbrooklyn) pic.twitter.com/MvpQ6AysJr
This reminds me of the time our landlord once offered us “many very fine ribeye steaks” from his deli after we asked to have a leak in our ceiling fixed for the sixth time.
Whoever this super is, he deserves an Emmy. As for Jesse, I hope your mouse problem is fixed immediately and that your beautiful dog with the great character lives forever.
Kids are weird as hell, and it's up to parents to lovingly guide them away from creeping everyone else out with their unbridled curiosity. It's completely normal for children to ask invasive questions about body parts, it's also par for the course for them to occasionally grab you in ways that would warrant an HR complaint if they were grown.
However, in these situations, it's generally the parents' role to gently let them know that groping isn't okay, and they should probably get your foot out of their mouth unless they want to get sick. When parents don't set these boundaries early on, it can set a child up for very awkward run-ins at school and potential trouble.
To this very point, actor Armie Hammer received a wave of backlash this weekend after he posted a video of his two-year-old son Ford Douglas Armand sucking his toes.
Armie Hammer is trending because of this video of his young son sucking his toes. And the actor shared it on Instagram with a very colorful caption. Inappropriate or funny?? Thoughts??? https://t.co/7GAVWfRu38pic.twitter.com/4o6YyHLt4z
The video, which is no longer featured on Hammer's Instagram stories, briefly shows the child inquisitively approaching his dad's feet before putting a toe in his mouth. The caption, which only served as the fuel for the flames of backlash, read: "This happened for a solid seven minutes. #footfetishonfleek."
Some people on Twitter were quick to point out the fact that it's completely normal for kids to do things like this, and it doesn't need to be pathologized.
Little kid sucking on a a parents toes is not sexual and way down the list of weird shit little kids do. Grow the fuck up everybody. #ArmieHammer
In my honest opinion, as a special needs mother, this looks normal to me. Let the kid explore and see what your reaction is. The kid thinks it's funny, let it be funny.
toddlers do some gross stuff, but he looks a little older than a toddler. :/ and 7 full minutes?! not even going near the creep factor. not for me to judge. but eww! that is so unsanitary!
First armie hammer was liking tweets about rope bondage now he’s recording his son sucking his toe and tagging it as foot fetish pic.twitter.com/WCvTyRfkPo
For the most part, people just find the video disgusting from a sanitary point of view. The addition of the hashtag, however jokingly it was intended, just fanned the flames of people's discomfort.
i already know armie hammer is gonna come out with a note app tweet where he blames internet for ruining everything/turning everything into something sexual.. no sir that's just NOT normal
In a now deleted comment, Hammer's wife Elizabeth Chambers defended him on Perez Hilton's Instagram.
She wrote:
"It wasn’t seven minutes...more like five seconds. Our son likes to play with people’s feet and I put the video on our family stream because this phase is an ongoing joke. Sharing the video on Instagram was def not the best move on A’s part, but I can assure you that our children’s safety and well-being is always our first priority."
Kids will be kids, and the internet will be the internet, and I have no doubt Hammer will not be jokingly posting that hashtag again anytime soon.
Everyone knows it's hard to be a parent, but everyone is (hopefully) doing their best. For all the joy and laughter that raising children brings, there's also a whole lot of chaos, loss of dignity, spilled cheerios, and tears.
Sometimes, the only way to handle your hair being covered in spaghetti while three children are screaming about how they can't reach the candy you hid on top of the fridge is to take it to the internet. What did parents do before they could vent to Twitter? It must've been a dark time...
Here are some dads who are 100% killing the parenting game despite the fact that they've lost all sense of self.
Accidentally asked a conference room full of coworkers if they had to go potty before the meeting and my membership to the Parent Club auto-renewed itself.
I don’t know what kind of life I envisioned myself having at this age, but watching a half-naked toddler lick the frosting off a Pop-Tart while sitting on my chest at 5:45 in the morning was almost definitely not a part of it.
They say comedy = tragedy + time. But in 2019, the internet seems to think that it's always "too soon" to make comedy out of a tragedy. As a lover of dark comedy, these are dark times indeed.
Singer Ariana Grande recently took to Twitter to apologize after fans called her out for making a joking comment about JonBenét Ramsey, who was murdered in 1996.
The joke was actually a comment on her friend Doug Middlebrook's since-deleted Instagram post, which featured a photo of a tabloid cover with a photo of JonBenet that reads "Arrest Made!"
Middlebrook captioned the photo "no one has done more covers." And Grande responded by joking that Middlebrook should dress as JonBenet for Halloween.
"I cant WAIT for this to be your halloween look," she wrote. And he responded "working on it already."
Fans apparently thought that Grande's joke had crossed a line and they took to Twitter, of course, to call her out for the "tasteless" comment.
I love Ariana but that comment about Jon Benet was very tasteless. Ugh.....
But that’s the thing, Ariana Grande always says something wrong and then she apologizes and everyone forget about it. That‘s fucking unfair, why is she so privileged? Everyone knows that the Jon Benet’s case is NOT funny, she’s 26. She’s pushing 30. Like hello? {C}
Ariana is a 26 year old woman who we would think would be mature but instead had the audacity to go under Doug’s post about JonBenet Ramsey and proceeds to type “i cant WAIT for this to be your halloween costume. 🖤” and she put a motherfucking heart to it too... pic.twitter.com/BZuuhrKmT0
Wtf! JonBenet was 6 when was murdered but anyways....I love Ariana but I can’t believe she said that. The poor child was brutally murdered in her own home and the fact that she can’t wait for her friend to make a Halloween costume like that is disgusting. https://t.co/FwlyMK9qPT
— 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕒 |𝙹𝙾𝙱𝚁𝙾𝚂𝟸𝟷/𝟷𝟸𝟺𝙳𝙰𝚈𝚂 (@heskiwi94x) July 29, 2019
People are calling her comment "disgusting" and saying they are "disappointed" in her.
guys is that comment that ariana made real? bc if it is that’s low key disgusting
The singer also followed up with a tweet explaining that dark jokes are a "coping mechanism" for her and thanking her fanbase for calling her out.
She has since deleted this tweet, because Lord knows she probably got pushback for it as well. Because the internet is a hellscape full of angry people trying to exert control in a world that offers us very little.
Although to be fair, if Grande "hates when other people make" dark jokes, it may be hypocritical for her to make them as well. But once we start limiting what people are "allowed" to make jokes about, we are stumbling into dangerous territory for free speech. And, like Grande said, dark comedy can absolutely be a coping mechanism.
The saying is comedy = tragedy + time. Not comedy = Spongebob memes ONLY and anything else should get you cancelled.
Lady Gaga has been crushing the game for over a decade, but a lot of the public is still catching up. The roaring success of A Star Is Born only multiplied Gaga's star power and now a whole new bevy of fans are discovering how outspoken she's been all this time.
As a female musician who writes her own music and is brazen about her own sexuality and politics, Gaga is no stranger to industry sexism and also no stranger to shutting it down on sight.
In the viral clip, she emphasized just how brave it was for Blasey-Ford to come forward, and noted how trauma can deeply affect your process of recollection.
Anyone familiar with her Gaga's evolution over the years already knows she has been speaking about sexism in its many forms ever since she was offered a microphone. But as her fame continues to grow, the message spreads further.
In a recently resurfaced clip from 2009, Gaga promptly shut down an interviewer when he asked if she was scared her "her provocative lyrics would overshadow her talent."
10 years ago today, Lady Gaga shut down a sexist interviewer after he tried to diminish her music and videos for being too provocative. Now that was a clapback! pic.twitter.com/jvQldVQtc1
Rather than pivoting from the question or giving a stock answer, Gaga used the opportunity to point out the gendered nature of the question.
"I'm not scared. Are you scared? You see, if I was a guy and I was sitting here with a cigarette in my hands grabbing my crotch talking about how I make music because I like fast cars and fucking girls, you'd call me a rock star. But when I do it in my music and video because I'm a female and I make pop music, you're judgemental and say it's distracting. I'm just a rock star."
Sadly, the sexism in the interview is still wildly relevant, so when a fan account reposted the clip over the weekend it immediately made waves.
when she says “i’m just a rockstar” at the end.. i felt that
nothing in this interview comes off as defensive to me. she seems genuinely interested in answering his question. there is no better way to describe sexism toward women in the pop music community. i’ve personally never seen this interview until now so idk about overhyped.
A lot of people don't realize this, but the original lyrics to Rihanna's song Work were, "All I do is work, work, work, work, work, laugh at memes at work, work, work work, work. Memes are life and work, work, work, work, work."
While you're busy struggling to get this song out of your mind, kill some time by laughing at these hilarious memes. They are the best thing to ever happen on a Monday.
5. Taryn Manning from Orange is the New Black, because she slammed her show and castmates and called it a hack.
Time to search for the REAL poster.
Pennsatucky is pissed.
While you were bingeing the final season of the game-changing Netflix series, Taryn Manning took to Instagram to say that the show ruined her life. The manic rant was quite scary—and days later she deleted it and claimed that she was hacked.
"This show hurt me more than anything has in my life and if this is what I have to do to push what I stand for I will," Manning/the hacker wrote. "I have to speak out before anything happens to me. F— fame! This show hurt humans. You will never truly know but many were hurt!"
Manning accused her management team of abandoning her when she was being harassed online. She ended her caption with, "Not one cast member cares about me. Just watch."
When Lori Petty, who plays Lolly, replied, "Hey. I love you," Manning's alleged hacker posted a lengthy response to tell Petty that she's not like the other girls.
"Thx bubs I know you do. And I love you. I am giving up everything to speak on how awful this career is and how awful we are treated. How I never knew if I was coming back yet I had seven optional seasons. How I didn’t even know how to plan my life, organise anything cause everything was a secret. Self serving bulls***, for whatever sick agenda," she commented. "How some of the most dear characters were just not there anymore. My pals. F*** this show."
Yesterday, Manning returned to the 'gram and announced that "her account was epically hacked," and she is sorry.
The hacker should be sent to prison...and there should be a show about it.
4. Rev. Al Sharpton, because he's Trump's black target of the day.
"Well that explains my Twitter mentions."
Trump's Twitter going into 2020 is an advent calendar of racism with a new black target every day. Yesterday, it was Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Oversight Committee Chairman who recently authorized subpoenas for senior White House aides' communications, including Ivanka "BUT HER EMAILS!" Trump's use of a private email account for official White House business.
Today, Trump has directed his Twitter missile at the reverend Al Sharpton, who was headed to Baltimore to refute Trump's claims that Rep. Cummings' district in Baltimore is Hades.
Not even pretending anymore that he isn't trying to incite a race war, Trump declared that Sharpton "hates Whites & Cops!)"
It must suck to wake up on a Monday morning and find that the president is harsher towards you than he is to literal dictators.
Sharpton, for his part, had a good burn, because that's what politics is all about: trading barbs.
"I made trouble for him with Central Park. I made trouble with him for birtherism. I'm going to keep making trouble for bigots." Sharpton said of Trump's attacks on him.
"If he really thought I was a 'con man' he'd be nominating me for his cabinet," he said. Nice!
3. The cop who forgot that he took a bite out of a sandwich.
Reality bites.
Speaking of cops, a police officer in Indiana accused a McDonald's worker of taking a bite out of his McChicken as an act of civil disobedience. After an investigation, the Marion County Sheriff's Office cracked the case, and the bite was an inside job: the officer ate the sandwich himself.
An actual investigation took place, followed by an actual statement to an actual reporter. The sheriff's officer told WTHR:
The employee took a bite out of the sandwich upon starting his shift at the Marion County Jail, then placed it in the refrigerator in a break room. He returned nearly seven hours later having forgotten that he had previously bitten the sandwich. He wrongly concluded that a McDonald’s restaurant employee had tampered with his food because he is a law enforcement officer.
Sorry, dude. While it would be fun to be a victim for once, the only thing you're a victim of is McChicken.
2. The "Pink Lady Bandit," because she's been arrested by the FBI.
Circe Baez and her suspected accomplice, not affiliated with the girl gang from "Grease."
Police in Charlotte, North Carolina arrested 35-year-old Circe Baez and her 38-year-old suspected accomplice, 38-year-old Alexis Morales, after they allegedly committed a string of bank robberies on the East Coast.
Baez was nicknamed the"Pink Lady Bandit" by the FBI because she would strut up to bank tellers demanding money with a "distinctive pink handbag." Over a span of a week, Baez, Morales, and her handbag allegedly robbed at least four banks from Pennsylvania to Delaware to North Carolina.
1. Armie Hammer, because a toe-sucking video has people questioning his parenting.
When you're so handsome, people forget you're named after baking soda.
A video of Armie Hammer's two-year-old son sucking the actor's toes left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
Hammer posted the video to his Instagram story with the hashtag "#footfetishonfleek," which is also my review of the new Quentin Tarantino movie.
For some reason, Hammer shared it with the world. In the video, you can hear somebody, presumably his wife Elizabeth Chambers say "this is not normal."
The video went viral, because we are a bored species. Perez Hilton shared it on his Instagram, and Chambers defended her husband in a now-deleted comment.
Kids are weird and do weird things, but because they have Instagram, adults are even weirder.
As a comedian, trust that I believe in freedom of speech and I love dark comedy. But even I know that making a 9/11 joke in front of an audience comprised of 9/11 first responders and their families is crossing every imaginable line, and especially when you are the President of the United States. But if there's one thing our president is good at, and there is literally only one thing: it is crossing lines.
Earlier today, while signing a bill to authorize the extension of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Trump was joined by more than 200 people whose lives were impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including more than 60 first responders and their families.
He took this opportunity to make a joke that the stage might collapse under everyone, adding that if it does, at least they "are not falling very far."
Just before signing the 9/11 victims compensation bill, Trump jokes with the first responders and their families that the stage may not hold all of them but that if it collapses they "are not falling very far" pic.twitter.com/h9qY3C7iHK
People are calling the comments insanely tasteless, even for him.
At a 9/11 ceremony honoring folks who tried to rescue those who were crushed by cement of Twin Towers, Donald Trump jokes about the stage perhaps collapsing.
As if things could get worse, Trump claimed, in front of an audience of first responders, to have spent "a lot of time" at Ground Zero himself.
Trump claims without evidence to an audience that includes 9/11 first responders: "I was down there [at Ground Zero] also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder, but I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you." Via CBS pic.twitter.com/SbPuKbDwxt
Trump just lied acting like he was a 9/11 first responder again. That’s the day he said “now it’s the tallest,” about his own building, as the Twin Towers fell. Absolutely disgusting. Here’s video of him saying it. Let’s make it viral. #WeBelieveMuellerpic.twitter.com/f1SMZGYkfA
This isn't the first time Trump has lied or exaggerated about his behavior during and after 9/11, and he once fist-pumped on his way to a 9/11 memorial.
To tease a child, or not to tease a child, that is the question. Whether you're the one who birthed them, or you're simply sitting near them, children can be a handful in public. For the most part, parents and caregivers have enough on their plates without other adults chiming in about how soul-crushing the screams of an angry child are. But there are times when a child is truly ruining the vibe of a room, and it's clear they fully know what they're doing.
In a recent post on the Am I The Asshole subreddit a man asked if he was in the wrong for playfully teasing a child mid-tantrum.
"AITA for passively tormenting an entitled child?"
It all started when OP and his wife went out for seafood during a beach side vacation.
"My wife and I are vacationing at the beach. We walked into a crab shack style restaurant today right on the beach to get some of that sweet sweet seafood. While we were waiting to be served after being seated a family was seated next to us. It was a grandma, grandpa, and grandson. Grandson was around 7-8 years old and was immediately crying and yelling at ear piercing volume at the grandparents about how he “told them that he didn’t want to eat here!” and “didn’t even want to come to the beach!”
"The doting grandmother was trying to console him and was basically serving as a whipping post. The grandfather was silently eating and not engaging."
Unfortunately for them, OP and his wife were seated near a set of grandparents and their screaming 8-year-old grandson.
The child was berating his grandparents about how much he didn't want to eat there, while the grandmother attempted to comfort him and the grandpa sat silently.
"At first we ignored him as best we could, but he got progressively louder and louder and was frankly ruining our lunch. I was wearing prescription sunglasses indoors because I left my glasses at our chair by accident and I needed them to see. I was looking at the drink menu that was in this small plastic stand on our table, and as I was the little kid loudly started accusing me of staring at him. Grandma politely asked me not to stare at him, and when I explained that I was reading the menu, she tried to explain to the kid in a “see, it was just a misunderstanding” type of way. The kid was having none of it and proceeded to accuse me of looking at him again about 5 minutes later."
For a bit, OP and his wife attempted to ignore the scene, but their attempts were quickly thwarted when the child loudly accused the man of staring at him.
OP was wearing prescription sunglasses in order to see the menu, and was genuinely not staring at the child until continuously accused.
"Once he started accusing me of staring at him the second time. I started actually staring at him, and when he would have an outburst I would just move my gaze slightly somewhere else and play dumb. I’m sure it was obvious what I was doing, but it was amusing, and it was tormenting this entitled turd. At one point, when grandma went to the bathroom and grandpa was still I engaged, the kid just turned in his seat and puffed up aggressively and said “I’m not going to tell you to stop staring at me again!” When he did that, I slid my sunglasses down my nose, winked at him over my glasses, and slid them back up, at which point he had a massive meltdown and asked his grandpa to make me stop."
Since the tantrum showed no signs of slowing down, OP decided to have a bit of fun and would occasionally lower his sunglasses to wink or glance at the boy already accusing him of staring.
Eventually, the grandpa completely snapped on the boy and they left the restaurant in a huff.
"In a solid and loud outburst Grandpa slammed his fist down on the table and unloaded on the kid about how he had done nothing but bitch for the last 3 hours, stood up, grabbed the kid by the collar and walked him up to the hostess and paid for their meal. Grandma came out of the bathroom shortly after and saw that they were leaving so she left with them."
Since OP's wife thought he went too far with the exchange, he decided to bring the situation to the internet for an outside perspective on whether he was in the wrong.
"My wife was angry that I had fucked with a little kid, despite his behavior. I defended myself, but she says that I wasn’t THE asshole, but I was AN asshole. I maintain that I wasn’t the asshole, though I did inadvertently ruin the lunch of the old folks he was with by spooling him up more than he already was. We’re at an impasse, what’s your verdict Reddit?"
"ESH, you ruined the grandparents lunch by making their kid scream the whole time. There's a chance he would've acted like a brat the whole time, but he also might've calmed down if you hadn't pushed him."
"On the other hand, the kids parents shouldn't let him get so spoiled, and the grandparents shouldn't enable it by coddling him for three hours"
moppyflinge thinks it was petty but ultimately supports OP.
"For the purposes of the vote I’ll go ESH BUT I want to take the sting out of that a little and say it’s exactly what I would’ve done, wink and all! Fuck that kid, enjoy your spiteful well earned chuckle"
"Ya, YTA. A child that young isn’t the asshole. He’s a brat, but kids can grow out of it and you just made things more difficult on his grandparents. And made your wife embarrassed. I get the impulse but you need to be better than that. EVEN if you were justified you just come off as unhinged. You had a feud with an eight year old, and you won. The second part doesn’t really make the first part sound less insane, does it?"
"I was a bratty child. I grew out of it somewhat around thirteen when I saw how my behaviour affected others. But I didn’t grow out of it entirely so I’m probably a lot like you. Just think, maybe that kid will grow up to torment a child too."
ahhawhawhaw thinks it was completely reasonable of OP given the fact the child was ruining his restaurant experience.
"NTA - I’ve seen this in public too where guardians don’t have control over their children and don’t do a single thing about it. It’s incredibly inconsiderate for everyone else who is trying to enjoy their downtime. I tried pulling this off as a kid and you could be sure I would get smacked at home or in the bathroom and wouldn’t do it again. One time I did see an older woman berate the shit out of a mother for not disciplining her daughter and letting her wail and thrash uncontrollably on the floor. Couldn’t help but smile."
Stardust68 agrees with OP's wife that he went too far, but wasn't The Asshole in the situation.
"ESH. Agree with your wife. You weren't THE ah, but you were AN ah. I would have been snickering and silently applauding for you had I been there. I can't stand children who are disruptive in public places. At his age, he should have shown some "house training."
After receiving a mixed consensus, OP followed up to clarify a few details about the situation and admit where he may have gone wrong.
"Also, some mid-vote reflection. Don’t have long, we’re still on vacation so I’m updating this during my morning routine. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this AITA is to not gloss over details, because the premise of one of the points I’ve heard a lot here is based on some things I was definitely not clear on. That’s my bad, and I should have been more clear. Hindsight is 20/20, but you live and learn. Just to clarify a few points:"
"While the kid was crying at the beginning when he came in, that was short lived, and was over well before I came into the picture. When I said things like “meltdown”, they didn’t involve tears, but anger and yelling. He was pounding his fists on the table, doing that exaggerated hand fold exhale, and yelling/screaming at his grandma. I wasn’t sitting there reducing a child to a blubbering heap of tears and anguish, that would be horrifying and heartbreaking. Poking a very frustrated bear of a kid? Sure. Childishly making someone as uncomfortable as they were making everyone else? Absolutely. Torturing a helpless child into a lifetime of scars and fear? Hardly. That’s partially my fault for using words like “torment”. It was hyperbole and set the wrong tone."
"Also, when I said, “...accusing me of staring at him the second time. I started actually staring at him...” I should have been more clear. I didn’t just sit there and stare at a scared child who was just hoping the scary man would go away. I was eating lunch with my wife, she was my main focus. What was happening was the kid started to alternate between fixating on me and trying to get his grandma to do something or give him something."
"There were a lot of times over that two hours that he would stare at me and I either wouldn’t notice because I was talking to my wife or I ignored it. Only periodically would I meet his gaze for 10 seconds or so, and then he would have another outburst about how I was looking at him. I’m not trying to change votes or defend myself, I just wanted to clarify on a misconception I’m seeing a lot in comments, and even more in personal messages."
"The other point I should have been more clear on is the timescale in question. From being seated at our table to the other group getting up and leaving was less than 3 hours but more than 2."
"Final edit:
Well it appears I have been labeled the asshole. I stand by what I did, but accept the verdict. Many people voted YTA in a supporting manner, so I take it as a win all the same and feel some vindication."
"Some lessons were learned. From what I experienced, I do not believe in the slightest that the kid had anything mentally wrong with him, he was just being a brat. That being said, the thought never crossed my mind during the encounter. I’d obviously never dream of taunting or negatively interacting with someone who was autistic. But, again, I have no reason to believe that he was."
"Also, should I ever find myself in another AITA situation, I’ll be sure to be as thorough in the description of the situation as possible. I think the outcome of the vote would have been different had I been more precise with my wording and less hyperbolic in my tone."
What do you think of the situation - was he wrong, or was it within his rights as a restaurant patron?
If your summer plans include a wedding, my condolences. At least there's usually a ridiculous amount of free alcohol to ease the pain of sweating through your formal attire. These memes totally nail what it's like being a wedding guest. They will make you laugh so hard, you may just want to marry them!
Jeff Stein, a reporter at the Washington Post, made a recent revelation that stunned the internet. And no, it wasn't a deep dive journalistic piece about our failing democracy or dying planet or a near-miss with an asteroid.
In a tweet, he revealed that a couple he's friends with don't sleep on the same side of the bed every night.
Several months ago, a couple we are friends with said they don’t sleep on the same side of the bed every night. As in, every night when they get into bed, they don’t know who will sleep on which side. Still blows my mind
Stein reveals that the situation seems like "pure anarchy" to him, but he's also in awe of the couple for having the courage to "overthrow the chains of convention."
I gotta say while it seems like pure anarchy to me I’m also at least a little intrigued by the idea. To overthrow the chains of convention, end every night by starting anew, and let all that is solid to melt into air....
— Lisa Marie Segarra (@lisamarie_lynn) July 27, 2019
In response to many questions about nightstands, Stein confirms the couple does in fact share a single nightstand, although the other side of the bed has a ledge for a water bottle.
A lot of people on here are asking about nightstands. IIRC the couple in question only has one nightstand
UPDATE: The man in the couple in question confirms via DM that they only have 1 nightstand. (However, he appropriately chides me for not fact-checking first.) He also says there is a window ledge on the other side w/ space for a water bottle, while the nightstand holds the phones
Even those who sleep alone commit to one side or another.
I once ran through my mind every room/bed I have ever had in my life and realized I always slept on one side. Always. From childhood till now. This includes many years traveling for work,
My two cats have little cat beds - one on top of washer, one on top of dryer, side by side. Every single night they sleep in their own beds, never changes.
My cats sleep on my bed with me and they are each in the same spots every night. Their brains are the size of a walnut and yet they still appreciate the value of a steady bedtime routine.
Translation: one of them likes to go to bed a lot earlier and hogs the bed. The straggler determines which side is easiest to claim and crawls in. I speak from experience.
Apparently nothing brings the internet together like appreciation for a rigid bedtime routine. United we (would NEVER in a MILLION years share a night)stand!
"There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor."
-Charles Dickens
Warning: Laughter is highly contagious. Please be aware that when looking at these memes that you may expose others unknowingly to your chuckles. Symptoms may include knee-slapping, snorting, or even crying. If you experience any of these symptoms, please contact all of your friends and loved ones to share the meme love.
Jason Momoa is living his best life, unbothered by the voyeuristic body shaming tendencies of the greater public. If the mention of body shaming and Momoa in the same sentence baffles you, well, welcome to hell! You are far from alone if the concept of Aquaman getting teased for his bod makes you want to dive into a fortress of pillows for the unforseeable future, where you can safely conceal your civilian bod from the masses of unforgiving trolls.
In case you missed this whole mess, a few weeks ago Momoa vacationed in Venice with his equally intimidatingly gorgeous wife Lisa Bonet.
During the couple's getaway a picture of Momoa surfaced that garnered him the label of "dad bod" and got him body-shamed by people that undoubtedly have never convincingly played an oceanic superhero.
Luckily, the whole world isn't insane. A lot of people pointed out how body shaming is NEVER okay, and body shaming Momoa is on par with coming for Beyonce, it holds zero water and condemns the rest of us to deep shame.
If you think Jason Momoa has dad bod, please give me your dad’s phone number.
— The Volatile Mermaid (is on vacation) (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 19, 2019
Jason Momoa's "dad bod" is still hotter than 90% of human populations
Well, now, a few weeks following the temporary flurry of remarks about his abs, supposed lack of abs, and all the foods he should and shouldn't eat (seriously what is wrong with people?!) a TMZ reporter caught him on the way to his car and dutifully asked him how he felt about the "dad bod" comments.
When asked if he was offended by the label of "dad bod" Momoa laughed and said "No, not at all," he then patted his stomach and said his Guinness birthday cake was amazing.
"Tell TMZ I'll show you my dad-bod soon," he quipped as he climbed in the car.
If you're also drooling at the concept of a Guinness birthday cake, you're in good company. In early celebration of his 40th birthday party, Momoa was thrown a surprise party in London where his Game of Thrones co-star Emilia Clarke and other friends showered him in love and Guinness cake.
Trump is at it again, saying things that are so dumb they become a hilarious meme...
Perhaps it would be in our president's best interest to avoid talking about 9/11. Considering the "joke" he made about family members and first responders having a "short fall" if the stage collapsed beneath them, Trump has made it clear he's not the most sensitive person when it comes to one of America's greatest tragedies.
Unfortunately, though, he keeps talking.
At a recent event for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Trump very boldly claimed that he was "down there also" with the first responders.
President Trump to 9/11 first responders: "I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you." pic.twitter.com/EEvXzVajZg
Granted, he said very clearly that he didn't consider himself a first responder which is a relief, but was he actually down there? Because Twitter remembers that day very differently...
3000 people died on 9/11.
Trump was down there. He wasn’t a first responder.
Donald Trump called a tv station 2 hours later to lie that he now had the tallest building in NYC.
Then he lied about seeing Muslims dancing on rooftops.
Trump is talking about what he was doing on 9/11. What he was actually doing on 9/11 was boasting that his building was now the tallest in lower Manhattan (and that wasn’t even true). pic.twitter.com/XOQxAVAoL5
in a way, trump was a 9/11 First Responder, in that he was the first one to respond by bragging to news station that he now owned the tallest building in manhattan
— Heather Anne Campbell (@heathercampbell) July 29, 2019
A NYT fact check you may have been waiting for: "According to Richard Alles, a retired deputy chief with the New York Fire Department, Mr. Trump was not a presence at ground zero." https://t.co/y2B7QfPl54
Trump was the first man in history to be in three places at once. On 9/11, Donald was downtown being a first responder WHILE he was in NJ watching Muslims celebrate WHILE he was in Trump Tower calling TV stations to brag about his building now being the tallest! #LostTrumpHistorypic.twitter.com/G1LiN9vi4k
Do you remember the time Donald Trump refused to give up his place on a bus to a white man when protesting against racial discrimination? #LostTrumpHistorypic.twitter.com/w3y6IyW3eK
Not all gifts are created equal. Whether well-intentioned or passive-aggressive, receiving a gift isn't always as fun as it sounds. A recent Reddit thread asked the internet to dish on the times they opened boxes and were straight-up insulted, and folks...there are some important lessons.
Next time you're surprising a friend, make sure to factor in whether or not they're colorblind, and if your gift could be interpreted as calling somebody fat.
I started working evenings so my husband started having to make dinners. My [Mother-in-law] got me a magnet for the fridge that said "I'm too pretty to cook."
When I was 12 my parents gave me a snow shovel as a Christmas gift.
One of my chores was shoveling the driveway and I used to complain that our old shovel was bent and rusted. Big mistake.
4. The public humiliation really makes the gift, milkdudfanatic.
My divorced parents, independently, with no contact with each other, gave me a No-No (a hair removal device) and an offer for laser hair removal... without ever talking to me about my body hair before... and in front of everybody.
My divorced parents, independently, with no contact with each other, gave me a No-No (a hair removal device) and an offer for laser hair removal... without ever talking to me about my body hair before... and in front of everybody.
My now ex-husband gave me a book called "100 Nights of Great Sex." It was a book of fun things to spice up your sex life. But he wouldn't do even one of them, and wasn't interested in having sex with me more than a once or twice a month. I'm not sure if he intended it as an insult, but it felt like he was saying, "You want to get laid so bad? Here's another 100 ways to get rejected."
My very religious ex mother in law gave me a book on better parenting through Christ.
A) i'm not at all religious and she knew it
B) it's rude and presumptuous to give someone a book on how to be a "better" parent.
8. With a stepmom that evil, TXEsrever is pretty much Cinderella.
Towels. While the gift itself doesn't sound bad the reasoning behind it was incredibly insulting. I was 17 years old at the time and a senior in high school. It was a Christmas gift from my step-mother. She gave me a set of towels and told me I would need them when I moved out at 18. The kicker was she gave her son (my step brother) a brand new computer for Christmas. This was in 1992 when personal computers started around $4000.
Back when I was about 7, my parents kept hinting that they got me a decently sized LEGO set. Shook the box and heard something that sounded like LEGO bricks shaking around. Opened it, and to my dismay it was a box of dollar store Rice Krispies cereal. ):
But Snooki didn't take the criticism lying down. She even responded to the following grammatically challenged comment:
Many jumped to her defense.
