Month: March 2024

Even though the number of uninsured Americans has been on the decline for over a decade, the cost of healthcare is still astronomical, especially if you are uninsured. A perfect example of this story was recently shared by TikToker Cinthanie McAllister, who told a hilarious story about a bill she got for having a nasty case of gas.

Obviously, high healthcare costs aren’t funny, but sometimes, a good laugh can make the pain a bit more bearable.

“I bet you didn’t know that you wanted to know how much it costs to fart without insurance in an ER in the United States,” McAllister starts her video from the kitchen.

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“A little while ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with the most excruciating abdominal pain I have ever experienced in my life,” she said while doing her best to hold back the laughter. “I was doubled over. I couldn’t walk. I had to literally crawl across our bedroom floor to wake my husband up to get him to take me to the ER. They had to come out to the car and wheelchair me into the ER because I couldn’t walk because I was in so much pain.”

i have to laugh to keep from crying because this is insane

@cinthanie

i have to laugh to keep from crying because this is insane #storytime #ervisitstorytime #emergencyroom #fyp

The pain was so severe that healthcare workers tried to give her morphine for relief. But McAllister didn’t want any. “I was like, ‘No! I don’t want any f*cking morphine; I just want to know what’s wrong with me.'”

The staff had McCallister take a CT scan because they were concerned, as were the McAllisters, that she may have a ruptured appendix. If not, then why would she be in such terrible pain?

While she was waiting for the scan results, nature called and McAllister went into the restroom. It was there she realized what was causing all of the abdominal distress.

“I let out the world’s fattest ripper you’ve ever heard in your life,” she said, trying to keep it together. “It was so ungodly smelling. It was so unwomanly. It was so wretched. Like, I’m positive that if there were bugs in the walls in that hospital, they were bug-bombed out. It was so f*cking bad.”

“Anyways, needless to say, after letting out the world’s biggest ripper, I felt pretty good,” she admitted. “They ruled it as gastrointestinitis. The CT scan came back clear and they sent me on my way with some suppositories.”

“How much do you think it cost me to let out that fart in the ER with no insurance? I’m telling you right now, you’re wrong. It’s more. It’s more than what you think,” she says. “This fart cost me $8,621.10.”

“The price of gas in this country is outrageous,” Sarah Staten wrote. “Happened to me once… spent hours in the ER for the Dr to say I had a ‘fart stuck sideways,'” D added.

Many people gave her advice on how to avoid paying the bill.

“Get an itemized bill and tell them you are a cash patient. That should cut it in half or more. Then, just tell them you’ll make payments. Send them $20 a month. They’ll take it and do nothing,” SeaChelleAviatrix suggested.

Upworthy has contacted McAllister for comment and has yet to receive a response.

Many people dream of somehow being able to pay their parents back for the sacrifices made for them during childhood. Whether that’s something physical, like paying off their mortgage, or simply being the best version of ourselves to make them absolutely proud.

For Lindsay Moore, it was finding a “prized possession” her dad once gave up to help the family, and returning it to him once again.

Moore still vividly remembers being only seven years old when she saw her father walk into a comic book store to sell a Dan Marino rookie football card from his first season with the Miami Dolphins.

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In a now-viral TikTok, Moore’s father is seen reliving this memory as he holds onto a Christmas bag and a family member reads a card out loud.

“Money was tight, so you were selling your most prized possession – at least I viewed it as that,” Moore wrote. “I felt your sacrifice and it taught me that I would do whatever necessary to ensure my future family never needed anything. It was a lesson that has stuck with me since that moment.”

It was also the moment she became “determined” to pay her father back. Cut to thirty years later, and her father is her Secret Santa. It was the perfect opportunity to fulfill that promise.

“I will never be able to fully repay that debt,” her note continued. “Seven-year-old me would be so elated to see that I finally fulfilled that promise I made to myself. Thank you for everything.”

As he listened, Moore’s dad began tearing up. Sure enough, he opened his gift to see it was the cherished card he sold all those years ago.

The video concludes as Moore and her father enjoy a warm embrace.

@lindseyswagmom

Im not crying, you’re crying

♬ original sound – Lindsey Moore

The sweet exchange certainly struck a chord online.

“When he started crying I LOST IT,” one person wrote.

Another added, “Something about bringing a grown man to tears always gets me.”

A few parents shared their own stories of sacrificing prized possessions.

“As someone who has sold his prized Gretzky rookie to provide for his kids, I appreciate and respect this a lot,” commented one person.

“Just had to sell my signature MacKinnon jersey to pay bills. Sucked so much but kid comes first,” echoed another.

On the flip side, some shared their one experience of getting to repay their parents. One wrote:

“I got to do this for my mom last year. She won a [Dolce & Gabbana] purse one year at work and sold it to buy my prom dress and never thought twice. She never [got] name brand anything. So this year I took her to get her very first name brand fancy hand bag or her picking, my treat.”

But perhaps the best comment belonged to this person, who astutely pointed out: “The card wasn’t the real gift to him. It was hearing his impact on you. Priceless.”

We might not all get to reclaim what our parents sacrificed. And that’s okay. There are so many other ways to share just how much of a positive impact they made on our lives. Even saying how much we appreciate them can be an invaluable reward. Yes. Really.

This article originally appeared on 12.23.23

Almost 100 years ago, nine newspapers joined forces to create a national spelling bee to help promote literacy. Now the Scripps National Spelling Bee has become so popular that was televised for 27 years on ESPN before moving to its own network in 2022.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a serious competition with students who have studied arduously to memorize root words, phonetic rules and unusual spellings in the hopes of being crowned the nation’s spelling champion. The honor also comes with a $50,000 cash prize, so the competition is fierce.

But that didn’t stop one competitor from bursting into giggles at being asked to spell the word “sardoodledom.”

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During the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, 11-year-old Kennyi Aouad approached the microphone with serious concentration when it was his turn to spell. But when the judges told him the word he was to spell and he repeated it, he burst out laughing.

“Sardoodledom” isn’t a word most of us have ever even heard, much less recognize. (It means “mechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama”—basically “melodrama”—according to Merriam-Webster.) It does sound a bit funny saying it out loud, and even one of the judges started giggling at the young contestant’s reaction to it.

Watch Kennyi lose it repeatedly as he tries to make it through his turn:

Despite how serious the competition is, these kids are still just kids and people loved seeing his joyful reaction to a silly-sounding word.

“His laugh!! I love that in the seriousness of spelling bees, he was able to be himself. This made me smile!” wrote one person.

“So cute. Smart with a touch of sense of humour,” wrote another.

“Talk about breaking the tension!!” shared another. “I love it and he got it right!”

If you’re curious, Kennyi placed 34th in that year’s spelling bee. He would go on to compete again, however, and tied for 5th place in the 2009 bee.

This article originally appeared on 9.28.23

We all know that proper hygiene is important, but when it comes to which hygiene habits take priority, we can’t always agree. Heck, we can’t even agree on some of the basic things when it comes to cleanliness, like how often to shower.

A lot of this we can chalk up to no one rule being able to apply to all humans. But some helpful habits might go undone simply because we aren’t aware of how much they can benefit our wellbeing. Or we’ve gotten so busy that we’ve forgotten them.

Luckily, the internet is a mecca of crowdsourced hacks.

Reddit user u/Away_Needleworker655 recently asked “What are some underrated hygiene tips?” and answers ranged from items (and body parts) that often go ignored to helpful products and everywhere in between.

Check out what folks are saying below. You never know what ideas you might be able to glean to make life just a little more squeaky clean.

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”Baking soda works better than any other gimmicky product for stinky shoes.”

”I work for a sock design company. Sooooo many people think they have bad foot odor, and some do, but most people are just wearing really low quality all polyester socks. Switch to a cotton blend or wool blend!!!! You will see a huge difference.”

“I honestly thought ‘don’t forget to wash behind your ears’ was just a folksy way of my parents telling me to be thorough with washing. Then at some point I ran my finger behind my ear and smelled it, and got religion about washing behind my ears.”

“Washing your reusable water bottle daily to prevent bacterial growth.Changing your pillowcase frequently to prevent oil and bacteria buildup. Regularly cleaning and disinfecting your kitchen sink, as it can harbor harmful bacteria.”

“Hot water and dish soap will get rid of just as much bacteria as disinfectants so don’t worry too much about a special product. A good scrub down with dish soap and rinse with the hottest water will work just fine!”

“When cleansing your face, spend 60 seconds rubbing the cleanser in.”

“Maybe not so much hygiene per se but in order to keep your house tidy it really helps to never walk empty handed. If you’re sitting at the dinner table for example and getting up for a drink/toilet visit/whatever, put your plate and cutlery on the counter. Goes for everything that needs to be moved anyway, snack wrappers, glasses, cups etc. Takes almost no extra effort and it is a habit that’s very easy to gain. This way you’ll prevent a buildup of a seemingly manageable amount of clutter/trash. House is easier to clean and it is better for your peace of mind. So incredibly simple but turned out to be a life changer for me and some of my ADHD friends. Try it for a couple of days/weeks and it becomes so habitual that it doesn’t take any discipline to keep it up. Because I know that lack of discipline can become a (very) serious problem if you have nothing to fall back on.”

“If you are disabled, chronically ill, dealing with mental illness, etc, and struggle to shower, use baby wipes or a wet rag to wash yourself. It will help you feel refreshed, and something is better than nothing!”

“Use body cream straight after you shower and then apply your cologne or perfume whatever. It absorbs everything and you smell good for hours.”

“Floss guys. It’s not that hard and makes a huge difference.”

“Cleaning/ disinfecting your phone.”

“Your computer keyboard, too! Especially if you eat or smoke while using the computer.On a high-quality keyboard you can remove the keycaps and wash them, then take a swab and some rubbing alcohol to the spaces between the keyswitches. Laptops and cheap desktop keyboards are difficult, though. You can at least wipe off the key surfaces.”

“Take your shoes off at the door.”

“Your steering wheel is probably filthy. I use baby wipes to clean it when I’m sitting in traffic.”

“Getting a pedicure. It’s amazing! You don’t even need the color. It feels tremendous and your feet feel great!”

“Replace your toothbrush regularly! the bristles become worn and ineffective after a 3/4 months.”

…and last, but possibly most important…

“Work to figure out what makes keeping up with your hygiene difficult and keep an open mind while looking for solutions, no matter how atypical.”

Back in February, J. Cole used a burner account, @mightdelete_26 to tease a new song, presumably from his long-awaited seventh studio album The Fall Off. Buried amid a mid-90s-esque, ‘zine-style vlog, Cole secreted away a snippet of the track, which featured a new direction for him sonically. It looks like he’s going to continue to use the account to preview new music despite its handle, as he returned with another new post today.

Once again, the post included grainy, low-fi footage interspersing behind-the-scenes vignettes with ’90s CD-ROM UI graphics, Cole’s workout, skate-video fisheye lenses, and infomercial-style advertising. This time, he snuck a couple of snippets into the video, one a mellow banger with fellow Dreamville rapper Bas and the other, with an aggressive beat. At the end, an infomercial graphic gives out “Lil Cole’s burner” phone number next to a spinning Nokia brick phone (indestructible!) as a clip of The Diplomats’ 2002 Diplomatic Immunity track “I’m Ready” plays in the background. Check the video out below.

Fans have been impatiently waiting for The Fall Off since Cole first teased its existence at the end of his fifth album, KOD. Since then, he’s released another album, The Off-Season, and shared his “to-do list” revealing a loose timeline of when fans can expect The Fall Off. However, he still has yet to provide a proper release date, preferring to bait fans with teasers and release rumors. But there are signs its coming; while on tour with Drake, J. Cole said the album is nearly nearly done, telling concertgoers, “Right now, I’m at the tail end of working on this album.”

Sydney Sweeney is everywhere these days. On one hand that’s good: The actress spent ages struggling to make it big, and now that she has, she can do things like buy back the family house they had to sell in desperate times. The drawback is that she’s often treated like an object. Sweeney is a multiple Emmy nominee, but a lot of the cultural discussion about her concerns her body. Understandably she has some complicated feelings about that.

In a new chat with Variety for her new nusnploitation picture Immaculate, the actress was asked about the reaction to her recent SNL episode. A lot of the reactions to that were about her figure; a sketch in which she played a Hooters waitress even prompted the eatery to make her an offer to come work for them (for charity). When asked if she’d noticed those discussions, Sweeney replied thusly:

I see it, and I just can’t allow myself to have a reaction. I don’t know how to explain it — I’m still trying to figure it out myself. People feel connected and free to be able to speak about me in whatever way they want, because they believe that I’ve signed my life away. That I’m not on a human level anymore, because I’m an actor. That these characters are for everybody else, but then me as Sydney is not for me anymore. It’s this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over.

Sweeney’s response — resigned to something she clearly doesn’t feel wholly comfortable with — is more than a little sad. It’s also a reminder that all performers are ultimately treated like meat, forms of commerce. Luckily she has enough awards, nominations, and raves to show that she’s also taken seriously as a thespian. And yet.

(Via Variety)

After years of false starts and almost every actor in Hollywood attached to the project at some point, The Crow reboot is finally ending the theaters with Bill Skarsgård in the title role. With a trailer now out in the wild, so far the reactions have been… not great.

The Crow reboot already had an uphill battle trying to capture the iconic, lightning in a bottle magic of the original Brandon Lee film that resulted in the actors’ tragic death. The film merged pure ’90s grunge and gothic visuals thanks to director Alex Proyas, who has now added his name to the list of people who are not thrilled with the reboot’s existence.

While citing the overwhelmingly negative backlash to The Crow reboot trailer, Proyas reluctantly opined that remaking the film does a disservice to Lee’s final performance. As Proyas argues, the original Crow was more than just a movie that can be remade on a whim. It’s Brandon Lee’s last testament and should be left alone for that fact alone.

“I really don’t get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work,” Proyas wrote on Facebook. “And I’m certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions, as we all do on any film. So it pains me to say any more on this topic, but I think the fan’s response speaks volumes. THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”

(Via Alex Proyas on Facebook)

Anya Taylor-Joy quickly went from one sandy Dune to another sandy dune as she is set to star in the highly-anticipated Mad Max prequel, Furiosa. The film will tell the origin story of the titular warrior before she meets Max, all while showcasing Anya Taylor-Joy’s impressive car stunts. Thankfully she got her permit.

While Taylor-Joy is excited to joy-ride through the dystopian wasteland, many fans were disappointed that Charlize Theron, who played Furiosa in the 2015 film, would not reprise her role in the prequel. Creator George Miller explains that, in a perfect world, he would have preferred to make Furiosa before Mad Max: Fury Road so that Theron could portray the heroine in both films.

Obviously, that didn’t happen, and when Miller returned to work on Furiosa, he admits he toyed with the idea of using de-aging technology, but ultimately decided against it. He told Empire Magazine, “It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road]. I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked,” Miller said, adding that it would have been a distraction. “All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive. ” Instead, they decided to use CGI to give Furiosa her iconic shaved head.

Miller said that similarities between the two actresses helped Taylor-Joy get the part. “There’s an innately resolute quality in [Taylor-Joy]. She’s a very determined and rigorous person. She has a mystique about her. And she’d been trained young as a ballet dancer. Charlize trained young as a ballet dancer. There’s a precision to them that was needed,” he recalled. Luckily, ballerinas are having a bit of a moment right now.

Even though Theron did not return to reprise her role, Taylor-Joy has nothing but praise for the actress. “She’s been so classy and kind in letting me go and do it,” Taylor-Joy said of Theron. Meanwhile, Charlize is celebrating her “marriage” to Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez. She’s too busy for car stunts, but maybe we can hold out hope for a little cameo.

Furiosa will hit theaters on May 24th.

(Via Collider)

Contrary to a wildly viral (and shoddily sourced) report, Bruno Mars is NOT $50 million in debt to MGM Resorts, as confirmed by representatives of the hospitality firm. In a statement issued to media earlier today, MGM denied the speculation that the singer has run up a massive gambling debt, instead praising their partnership and the newly-opened Pinky Ring Lounge at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

We’re proud of our relationship with Bruno Mars, one of the world’s most thrilling and dynamic performers. We’re proud of our relationship with Bruno Mars, one of the world’s most thrilling and dynamic performers. Any speculation otherwise is completely false; he has no debt with MGM. Together, we are excited to continue creating unforgettable experiences for our guests.

This post is being updated.

Broccoli City Festival is back in a big way in 2024, announcing a revamped, two-day lineup and promising to “reimagine” the festival experience at Washington, D.C.’s Audi Field this July 27-28.

In addition to headliners Megan Thee Stallion and Gunna, this year’s fest will feature Lil Yachty, PartyNextDoor, Kaytranada, Victoria Monet, Key Glock, Sexyy Red, Teezo Touchdown, Fridayy, Veeze, Amaarae, Jordan Ward, Skilla Baby, Baby Tate, Ryan Trey, and ChloTheGod, as well as “Live Experiences” like TrapSoul Karaoke with Bryson Tiller, Soulection, Coco Butter, and Everyday People parties, Test Your Game with Duke Dennis, and HoeDown with Tanner Adell (of “Buckle Bunny” fame).

Presale tickets for festival are already available using code EATGOOD24, and tickets can be purchased via Klarna layaway plans. General admission and VIP Tickets go on sale Friday, March 22, at 10 am ET. You can visit the festival’s official website for details and information.

2024 will be the festival’s first year at Audi Field. Co-founder Marcus Allen said of the move in a press release, “We’re reimagining the festival experience by moving to the state-of-the-art Audi Field in the Navy Yard community, featuring award-show-like live programming and interactive fan experiences. We’re setting a new standard, providing attendees an immersive blend of entertainment, technology, and fan engagement.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.