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The Giving Keys is a jewelry company that’s a bit unconventional, only because they believe that all of their gifts are meant to be regifted. It’s a pay it forward, give on to others type of mentality and it in turn gives their pieces that little bit of extra meaning. Each of their keys comes with a story attached, once you decide exactly what that is…

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The Giving Keys believe that every word matters. Their pieces are adorned with powerful inscriptions like: strength, love, faith, believe, dream, hope, or power. And they also offer customizable inscriptions so that you can make each piece your own. The idea is that your key should have a word that you feel you need more of in your life: perhaps you need that extra reminder to create or to believe.

The key then serves as this word incarnate. It’s a tactile reminder to incorporate more this message into your everyday. It becomes your mantra and away for you to grow, heal, and thrive. But the word isn’t yours to keep forever. Once you’ve harnessed the essence of your key it’s time to give it to someone new – hence “the giving keys”.

The concept behind The Giving Keys is that once you’ve incorporated your word into your life, you’ll eventually cross paths with someone who needs that same word in their life. When you feel the time is right, you pass your key on giving this perfect stranger, or long time friend, a little extra strength, love, hope or faith.

Each key helps spread positivity, inspiration and hope as it travels.

The founder of the company, Caitlin Crosby, came up with the concept for The Giving Keys after wearing a hotel key around her neck so she wouldn’t lose it. When she checked out of the hotel she began to miss the statement piece and had a key engraved, and another and another. Caitlin began selling the keys and they were a hit. People who had lost their job or a loved one gravitated towards them. They were the perfect remind for others battling with their health or those that seemed lost in their way. She couldn’t keep up with the demand and she felt so inspired by all the people who’s lives she was touching.

Then one day she saw a houseless couple on the street and invited them both to dinner with her. Eager to hear their story, it just so serendipitously happened that the woman she was at dinner with was a former jewelry designer. They teamed up and The Giving Keys was born.

Since that point the company’s created over 130 jobs for people transitioning out of houselessness. It’s just another way that these necklaces offer new beginnings.

Check out their site and read some real-life stories of giving keys posted by actual customers, just like you. And remember: pay it forward.

Upworthy has earned revenue through a partnership and/or may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.

Competitive triathletes, Pam and Connie would chat cookies as a way to make it through their workouts. After all, nothing inspires you to push through the “just two more minutes on the treadmill” threshold, than the promise of a warm cookie coming out of the oven. One day in the midst of their rigorous training regiment Pam and Connie went on a mission to create the ultimate chocolate chip walnut cookie to give them extra motivation…. or something like that. The cookie was irresistible and the two best friends decided that they could probably sell these.

And they were right. In 1993 Pam and Connie started Levain Bakery. Their cookies were baked fresh daily and the left-overs were donated to charity each night – and almost 30 years later these same practices are still proudly in place at the core of Levain bakery. Drooling yet? You will be! Here’s our guide to the best cookies ever. *Warning: do not read on an empty stomach!*

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1. The Icon: there’s a reason these chocolate chip walnut cookies initially flew off the shelves! They’re crispy with a thick gooey center. Not too sweet, these delightful bites are a perfectly balanced treat.

2. The Chocolate Lover: dangerously rich, this dark chocolate chip cookie is made with French cocoa and semisweet chocolate chips for extra chocolatey delightfulness. It’s sinfully good.

3. The One to Envy: … well, your peanut butter cups will certainly be jealous! These dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are the perfect indulgence. They also just so happen to be the Levain Bakery staff favorites… and they eat a lot of cookies!

4. The Twist: oatmeal raisin cookies that are extra thick, rich and buttery. With a super gooey inside packed full of naturally sweet and plump raisins, their oatmeal raisin cookies are a new take on an old favorite.

5. The Classic: don’t get us wrong, we’re sure your grandma makes a mean chocolate chip cookie, but these double chocolate chip cookies aren’t your family’s recipe. They are just as perfectly crispy and gooey as the first cookie on this list, but without the nuts. This buttery delight will have you breaking down the Levain door for the recipe. Fortunately, they just do the baking for you – guess it is back to grandma’s if you want to lick the spoon.

6. The Undecided: it’s hard to make it through a list like that and be able to narrow it down to just one cookie! Luckily, Levain bakery has something for everyone – including those who want one of everything. This assorted cookie gift box gives you one of each: a chocolate chip walnut, dark chocolate chip, dark chocolate peanut butter chip and an oatmeal raisin. It’s the perfect thing to try whether it’s your first time trying cookies from Levain or whether it’s just your first time not being able to chose just one!

Check out their site, pour some milk and get ready to indulge in the greatest chocolate chip cookies ever – oops, did we just give away our favorite?

Upworthy has earned revenue through a partnership and/or may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.

The opening scene to Dumb & Dumber is timeless low-brow humor. Lloyd Christmas, played by Jim Carrey, lowers the window of the backseat of a limo to grab a lady’s attention. She speaks with an accent and tells him that she’s from Austria. To which Carrey replies, “Well g’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie!” (in an Australian accent). The gal, clearly not amused, says, “Let’s not” and turns away. Carrey rolls the window back up, only to slither his way back to the front seat, where he is in fact, just the limo driver.

What happened at KISS’s show in Vienna, Austria last night isn’t too far off from the buffoonery that Carrey displayed in the 1994 film. As the concert at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle came to a close, the band flashed a KISS logo on the stage with the note saying, “KISS Loves You Vienna.” Only the flag emblazoned on the KISS logo wasn’t the Austrian flag, it was the flag of Australia instead.

D’oh! This is an unfortunate blunder for the band who is on their End Of The Road Tour, the final KISS tour of all time. Recently, 72-year old lead singer Gene Simmons, said that the full body armor and make-up that he puts on every night on stage, is something that other artists today could not accomplish, not even Beyoncé. Regardless, fans on social meeting are letting the band have it for confusing Austria with Australia.

Republicans aren’t just coming for abortions. They’re also still waging attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community. Some have zeroed in on drag queens, claiming, quite madly, that they should be kept far from children. (Just wait till they learn there’s a fair amount of Looney Tunes shorts where Bugs poses as a lady rabbit.) One of them is Kari Lake, a Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate in Arizona…who is alleged to have been longtime friends with a drag queen. But when a Fox News anchor asked her about it, she threw a total hissy fit.

Lake was being interviewed by Bret Baier, one of the more rational-ish Fox News personalities. After she tried to push some 2020 voter fraud lies, Baier tried to change the subject, asking her to simply comment on what Rick Stevens, a Phoenix-based drag queen, claimed, namely that they were friends for 20 years and he even did a show at her home. Stevens even produced pictures of them together, beaming. But instead of providing her side of the story, she blew up on Baier.

“I actually do care to address that,” Lake told him, then proceeded to not do so. “But I’m really shocked. I’m actually appalled that Fox News would take a defamatory story like that — and we are pursuing legal action against this drag queen — I’m appalled that you would bring that up when you have not talked about our stolen election.”

When Baier pointed out that they did just discuss that subject, Lake snapped back, “I’m a little disappointed in Fox. I thought you were a little better than CNN.”

All Lake would say on the matter was that she’d “covered” Stevens (whatever that means) for 20 years, but denied he’d ever been in her home. When Baier asked her to explain the photos of the two of them, she changed the subject to 2,000 Mules, the latest Dinesh D’Souza propaganda doc that’s been so discredited not even Fox News will cover it. She never explained the photos, instead repeating over and over again how “appalled” she was that Fox News would ask her about an issue that might make her look hypocritical.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Fiona Apple rarely comes out of hiding. Usually, it’s only for occasional new music, like Fetch The Bolt Cutters, her first album in eight years, which arrived during the pandemic, or to discuss social issues, which she has always been passionate about, whether that be through words or through action.

She recently returned to talk about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, joining tons of other musicians in using their platform to effect change. She did so via a video on the Fiona Apple Rocks Youtube channel, saying: “I’m just one of a lot of women who need to keep on expressing that we do not f*cking accept this.”

She added: “We have to talk about how we feel about this, how unacceptable this is. We have to keep on expressing ourselves, because this is all about control. You know that. It’s all about control. It’s not about life. It’s about control. It’s about control of women, about control of our bodies, about taking our control of our own bodies away, about taking our autonomy and our privacy and our agency away, taking our choices about what we can do with our lives away.” At the end of the video, she advocated for giving money to abortion funds and bail funds.

Watch the video above.

Last month, legendary group Depeche Mode announced that their keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher had passed away at the age of 60. “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint,” they wrote in a statement at the time.

Today, the “Enjoy The Silence” band has revealed more about his death, including the cause, which was an aortic dissection that occurred while he was at home on May 26. Read the full statement below.

We wanted to take a moment and acknowledge the outpouring of love for Andy that we’ve seen from all of you over the last few weeks. It’s incredible to see all of your photos, to read your words, and to see how much Andy meant to all of you. As you can imagine, it’s been a strange, sad, disorienting few weeks for us here, to say the least. But we’ve seen and felt all of your love and support, and we know that Andy’s family has too.

A couple weeks ago we received the result from the medical examiners, which Andy’s family asked us to share with you now. Andy suffered an aortic dissection while at home on May 26. So, even though it was far, far too soon, he passed naturally and without prolonged suffering.

We had a celebration of Andy’s life in London last week, which was a beautiful ceremony and gathering with a few tears, but filled with the great memories of who Andy was, stories of all of our times together, and some good laughs. Andy was celebrated in a room full of many of his friends and family, our immediate DM family, and so many people who have touched Andy’s and our lives throughout the years. All being together was a very special way to remember Andy and see him off.

So thank you for all of the love you’ve shown Andy and his family and friends over the last few weeks. It honestly means the world to all of us. Andy, you’ll be missed, but certainly not forgotten.

Love, Martin & Dave

John Wall picked up his $47 million player option this week, but the expectation has been that Houston, now armed with a roster full of young talent, would be looking to move on from the veteran.

Trading Wall’s salary is nearly impossible, unless they want to bring back Russell Westbrook, and as such the most likely scenario seemed to be a buyout that would allow all parties to move on. The question was how much would the Rockets be willing to eat and how much would Wall be willing to give up, but it appears the two sides have reached an agreement amenable to everyone, as reported by Yahoo’s Chris Haynes.

Per Haynes and ESPN’s Tim McMahon, Wall will give back $6.5 million of his contract to leave Houston, but he’s now free to find a new home and return to the NBA basketball court for the first time in over a calendar year. The frontrunners for his services, per Marc Stein, are the Los Angeles Clippers, who will make a push for the former All-Star to join them — and the taxpayer mid-level exception just so happens to be the exact amount Wall gave back.

I wrote Sunday about the strongest indications in months that John Wall could soon successfully negotiate a buyout with Houston, with the Rockets’ monthslong efforts to find a workable trade exit for the former All-Star guard repeatedly stalling. League sources reiterated Monday that the Clippers would be making a strong pitch to Wall once he makes it to the open market, with their chances of signing him said to be enhanced by the presence of coach Tyronn Lue.

Given the Clippers cap situation, unless they decide to pursue a Kyrie Irving trade — which they can now that he’s picked up his option — Wall makes sense for a backup to Reggie Jackson as they look to load up on more veteran help for what they hope will be a deep playoff run next year. It would allow Wall a chance to prove himself again coming off a year off for tanking reasons and could revitalize his career. Other contenders could emerge as suitors, but for now it appears Wall is going to be headed off to L.A. once free agency opens — something Woj confirmed shortly after the buyout became public.

The moviegoing experience was one of the leisure activities put on hold at the height of the pandemic, and even when new movies came back to theaters, it wasn’t the same as before. In a different time, for instance, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet would have set the box office on fire. It did not. Even now, only a handful of movies have been bona fide blockbusters. One of them is Top Gun: Maverick, which last weekend not only got into a photo finish with Elvis but also became Tom Cruise’s first movie to cross the billion dollar line. And to celebrate, Cruise — who filmed himself watching Tenet when theaters starting opening back up — penned a nice thank you note to the industry and to audiences who’ve mostly returned to theaters.

“To all the films in release, to all the studios, and to all the exhibitors: congratulations. To the audience: thank you for venturing out and allowing us to entertain you,” Cruise wrote. “See you at the movies.”

Of the 1,006,936,963 the belated sequel has made worldwide, over half of that is in the United States. And to think Cruise had to fight to keep the movie off streaming, as so many other would-be blockbusters did when audiences were stuck at home. Cruise was extremely proud of the film even before anyone saw it. It actually played the Cannes Film Festival and Cruise showed up at the premiere in a helicopter he piloted himself. And to think he’s turning 60 in just a few days from this writing.

Drake recently dropped his new album Honestly, Nevermind as a total surprise, giving fans little time to prepare for the 14 new songs. He didn’t expect everyone to understand and enjoy it immediately; after it was released, he said in an Instagram video, “It’s all good if you don’t get it yet. It’s all good.”

But it seems like most people did get it because 13 of the songs climbed their way onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which extended his record for most career entries to an unprecedented amount of 263. Honestly, Nevermind is the rapper’s 11th record to reach No. 1 on the charts, making him tied for third with Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand after The Beatles who have 19 and Jay-Z who has 14. Not too bad, especially for an album with no press cycle.

He’s not done reveling in the success of the album, though. On the premiere episode of Table For One, his new radio show on SiriusXM, he discussed his forthcoming plans and projects surrounding the LP: “Me and Kenzo have a book coming out this year. Yeah, we have a book coming out this year, a poetry book. So I hope you guys tune into that, too, because that’s going to be some sh*t.”

Last week, Donald Trump’s inner circle had a big freak-out over some news: Apparently the former president had invited a documentary crew to film during the 2020 election. Upon learning about the series, called Unprecedented, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot immediately requested to see it. Discovery+ picked it up, and will air it later this summer. There has already been some damning revelations about Ivanka Trump, who confessed to House investigators that she agreed her dad didn’t win reelection.

There’s also some not great stuff about another Trump kid. In an interview with The Independent, Unprecedented director Alex Holder said Eric Trump wasn’t as horrified by the possibility of violence erupting after the election was called for Joe Biden — and as he and many in the Trump clan were spreading lies about voter fraud.

“When I asked Eric about the potential danger of sort of rhetoric and the sort of the belligerence, he felt that it was … fair game in that it … was sort of the equivalent on the other side of the political discourse, or he felt that it was the right thing to do … because the election was stolen,” Holder said.

No doubt there’s more in Unprecedented, which is broken into three parts and features surely shocking interviews with most if not all of the major players in Trump’s disastrous final two months in office.

(Via The Independent)