These items would commonly be found on a checklist of things that expecting parents should bring to the hospital with them — in the U.S., anyway.
But what is that list like in other parts of the world?
For Doris, that list included water.
Doris, who lives Morogoro, Tanzania, had to bring her own water to the health center where she was giving birth in 2014. The water she brought was used to clean the nurse’s hands, clean the delivery area, and wash the babies (she had twins!). Unfortunately, the water Doris brought ran out before she was able to wash herself or her clothes, so she had to wait 24 hours before cleaning herself.
I’ll let Doris tell the story herself:
Lack of access to clean water in Tanzania is a very big deal.
Everything turned out alright for Doris and her babies, but thousands of other women aren’t as lucky. But there are ways to help: Organizations and individuals are pitching in to help build water taps, rainwater tanks, and latrines in Tanzanian hospitals, and they’re making a huge difference.
“I want to express my gratitude to the health workers … because they have a great sense of humor with the patients. But the problem is the availability of enough water.” — Doris Alikado
Young kids don’t always pick the best times to have emotional meltdowns.
Just ask any parent.
Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants (or any place with lots of people around) in particular seem to bring out the worst in our little ones, prompting explosive tantrums that can make even the most stoic parent turn red-faced with embarrassment.
But why be embarrassed? It’s just kids being kids, after all.
Actor Justin Baldoni recently shared a poignant photo with his own daughter and the big lesson he learned from his dad about such moments.
Baldoni, best known for his role on the show “Jane the Virgin,” shared a photo his wife, Emily, took while the family was shopping at the local Whole Foods.
In it, Baldoni, along with his father, stares down at his daughter, Maiya. She’s crying and/or wailing on the floor. Who knows about what. Her body is twisted into classic tantrum pose.
The two men look calm. Almost amused, but not in a mocking way.
They certainly are not embarrassed despite a horde of people around them in the store.
When Baldoni posted the photo to his Facebook, he recalled the way his father used to act during the actor’s own tantrums, and how it helped shape him into the man he is today.
I tried to stay off social media yesterday to connect with my family without distraction so I’m posting this today…. Posted by Justin Baldoni on Monday, June 19, 2017
“My dad always let me feel what I needed to feel, even if it was in public and embarrassing,” he wrote.
The post continued:
“I don’t remember him ever saying ‘You’re embarrassing me!’ or ‘Dont cry!’ It wasn’t until recently that I realized how paramount that was for my own emotional development. Our children are learning and processing so much information and they don’t know what to do with all of these new feelings that come up. I try to remember to make sure my daughter knows it’s OK that she feels deeply. It’s not embarrassing to me when she throw tantrums in the grocery store, or screams on a plane. I’m her dad…not yours.
Let’s not be embarrassed for our children. It doesn’t reflect on you. In fact.. we should probably be a little more kind and patient with ourselves too. If we got out everything we were feeling and allowed ourselves to throw tantrums and cry when we felt the need to then maybe we’d could also let ourselves feel more joy and happiness. And that is something this world could definitely use a little more of.”
The photo, which Baldoni calls one of his favorites ever, shows the advice in action.
There’s a lot of pressure out there on both men and women to be the perfect parents at all times.
But being the perfect parent doesn’t mean your kid never gets angry or frustrated or confused. As Baldoni writes, toddlers are really just beginning to learn and explore the world’s boundaries. There’s naturally going to be a lot of swirling emotions as they encounter things and situations they can’t understand.
What’s important is we don’t teach them to hide those feelings or push them down for fear of ridicule — that kind of emotion-management can come back to haunt us as adults. Working through our feelings, or just having a good cry right there in the middle of the grocery store, is an important skill to learn.
The emotional health of our children is certainly worth a few weird stares from people we’ll never seen again.
It’s cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we’re all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.
But no matter how much vitamin C we consume or how diligently we wash our hands, we still have to rely on others to be smart about exposing people to their sick germs.
And that goes doubly for kids, who inexplicably do things like lick their own palms and rub communal crayons under their noses.
That’s why a mom’s recent Facebook post about keeping kids home when they have a fever has been shared more than 170,000 times. Samantha Moriá Reynolds shared a photo of a thermometer with a temperature of 101.4 with the following message:
This morning, Sam woke up and noticed her son wasn’t feeling well. Sam took her son’s temperature, and wow! A fever. Sam gave her son Tylenol and then… Sam did NOT send her son to school. Even after the fever went down a couple hours later, Sam did NOT send her son to school. Sam missed work knowing that the well-being of her son and the kids who attend his school is more important than work missed.
Sam’s son was invited to THREE birthday parties over the weekend. Sam’s son has been so excited to go, but he will unfortunately also have to miss them because Sam’s son is SICK. Sam knows passing along a sickness would not be a great birthday gift regardless of how bummed her son may be.
Sam knows her son is still contagious until he is fever-free, WITHOUT medication, for 24 hours. If Sam’s son is running a fever at 7am on Sunday, Sam’s son will also not be attending school on Monday.
Be. Like. Sam.
Some parents will give their kids fever-reducing medication, the fever will go down, the kid will feel a bit better, and off they go to school. But fever meds like Tylenol don’t do anything to kill the virus that’s infecting the kid’s body. They just mask the symptoms of the illness and provide some relief to a miserable kiddo. If a fever goes down with medication, the child is still sick and still contagious.
The same goes for adults who try to tough it out by popping a Dayquil before heading off to work. If you want to infect your coworkers and make them hate you, keep doing that.
Granted, some parents may have a hard time finding childcare or taking time off work, and there’s a lot to be said for employers being understanding and granting leave to care for sick children. Our whole society needs to work together on this front to make sure people don’t feel like they have no choice but to send a sick kid to school. But that starts with parents insisting that their feverish kids stay home from school until they are no longer a threat to other people’s health and well-being.
The coronavirus outbreak keeps making headlines and the mounting death numbers from it are making people nervous, but the truth is that the plain old flu already kills thousands of Americans every single year. This season, more than 8,000 people have already died from flu and flu complications, and we’re still in the thick of the season.
The best way to keep illness from spreading is to stay away from other people when you are sick and to keep sick kids home until they are fever-free for 24 hours.
Be like Sam. Keep sick kids home. It takes a village to keep us all healthy.
Freddie Mercury had a voice and a stage presence unlike any other in rock music history. His unique talents helped propel the band Queen to the top of music charts and created a loyal fan base around the world.
Sadly, the world lost that voice when Mercury died of AIDS at age 45. For decades, most of us have assumed we’d heard all the music we were going to hear from him.
However, according to Yahoo! Entertainment, remaining Queen members Roger Taylor and Brian May announced this summer that they had found a never-released song they’d recorded with Mercury in 1988 as they were working on the album “The Miracle.”
“We did find a little gem from Freddie, that we’d kind of forgotten about,” Taylor said in June, according to the BBC. “It’s wonderful, a real discovery. It’s a very passionate piece.”
That “little gem” is a four-minute ballad called “Face It Alone.” Queen released a lyric video of the song on its YouTube channel, and it’s bringing fans to tears.
The lyrics are particularly heart-wrenching, considering the timing of the song’s recording. Mercury was reportedly diagnosed with HIV in 1987, though kept it a secret from the public and even from many who worked closely with him until shortly before his death.
Comments have poured in from around the world in multiple languages, and the sentiment is universal—people are deeply moved.
“Over 3 million views in one day. To hear Freddie’s voice again is so special. You live forever, darling. The song is heart breaking but then again, Queen’s songs are from the heart and that can never go wrong. Thank you to all who made it happen.” – sweet pea
“One day Freddie said: ‘I won’t be a star,I will be a Legend’And yes we all agree, he STILL REMAINS A LEGEND even after 31 years after his death. AMAZING.” – Gloria Sousa
“Freddie’s vocal is killing me same today as 20 years ago. Thank You Queen for this amazing gift after so many years. We love You.” – Adrian Kufel
“What to say?? A great magnificent surprise. All I know is that I cried the moment I heard this voice, these words…. Only Freddie. Love this man for eternity.. It seems as if he returned briefly to us!! To send us a message… What a beautiful present for all his fans, for this generation that has had the impact of the pandemic, this strange war, these strange times. So happy and touched to hear this now. Thank you Queen… Thank you Freddie forever !!!” – Fern 19671
“So great to see all the Freddie and Queen fans here today celebrating this song and Freddie’s amazing voice. I love how much Freddie is still treasured. I remember the day he passed away, how I cried. It’s like a gift to get this new song and have his song playing loud throughout the house today. We all love you dear Freddie.” – Sarah-Louise ASMR
Mercury was truly a legend in his own time, and hearing his voice anew almost makes it feel like he’s time-traveled to the here and now. What a lovely gift for Queen fans everywhere.
Everyone is making it really hard for Kevin Costner to live his cowboy dreams lately. Despite promoting his passion project Horizon: An American Saga, people just want to hear his side of what went down on the Yellowstone set.
To recap: Costner starred on Yellowstone for the first four and a half seasons, and he loved it. That is until the break after finishing season five, part one. “There was a moment where that show for me stopped for 14 months… That’s the fact. I could have done a lot of things in that time, but I wasn’t aware that that [hold-up] was going to happen,” he told People. This is what ultimately led to his exit, though he said he was still open to returning.
Meanwhile, Taylor Sheridan was not happy with Costner, and the two started taking slight jabs at each other. Finally, Costner made it clear once and for all that he would not be returning for the final round of episodes. But Gayle King did not get the memo.
While appearing on Thursday’s CBS Mornings, King pressed Costner about the drama surrounding his exit. “The characterization of you isn’t necessarily flattering. You made demands, you want to have a certain schedule, you want to shoot at a certain time, you want certain money. If it’s not that hard [to return], why can’t the two of you be able to work it out? People would love to see that,” she said. Costner did not love that.
“It’s not therapy, Gayle,” he replied, adding, “We’re not going to discuss this on the show really, honestly.” They continued to discuss it.
King lightheartedly responded, “I’m a good therapist,” (note: she is not a licensed therapist in the state of New York) but Costner wasn’t having it. “I’ve conducted my life in a pretty straightforward way,” he said. “I’ve never missed any obligations in my entire career, so the idea is wide open for me. It just happens to be like can I fall in love with the writing, can I fall in love with the part that wants to go forward?”
When we last checked in with Shrek and Fiona, the two were living happily ever after as Shrek shifted into Dad mode after the birth of their little ogre babies. Since then, fans have gone on to have various adventures with Puss in Boots and we all just assumed that Shrek was off living his best dad life. That is until last year when Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri confirmed that we haven’t seen the last of the green ogre. Now, some more details are coming out about the next phase in the Shrek universe.
In a new interview with Collider, Murphy revealed that he already recorded dialogue for the next Shrek installment, which might be coming sooner than we think. Murphy said, “We started doing [Shrek] 5 months ago,” he said. He then revealed that he has already knocked out the first act of the movie, and he is gearing up for his own film. “I did this, I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year, we’ll finish it up. Shrek is coming out, and Donkey’s gonna have his own movie. We’re gonna do Donkey as well. So we’re gonna do a Shrek, and we’re doing a Donkey [movie].” Finally, Murphy will get to live his dream of being funnier than Antonio Banderas.
Murphy then clarified that Shrek 5 and the Donkey movie are separate, and he did not record lines simultaneously, so there really are two movies on the way. “I started recording Shrek, I think it’s coming out in 2025, and we’re doing a Donkey one next.”
This is a lot of news coming from the land of Far Far Away, so here is everything we know do far about the upcoming Shrek installments.
Plot
While 2010’s Shrek Forever After was the last time the green ogre graced the big screen (unless you count…this) a mid-credits scene in 2022’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wishrevealed that Puss was heading to Far Far Away to “find new adventures and see some old friends,” which hinted that the gang would reunite again soon. Not much else about the plot has been revealed but we can expect enough fairy tale puns to fill a 90-minute movie.
Cast
Meledandri confirmed that they would ensure the entire cast would return. “We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return,” he said last spring. This hopefully includes Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas.
Diaz famously took a step back from acting in 2014, though she has been slowly retuning to the screen, so hopefully that means Fiona is also ready to return. In the past, the Shrek films have also featured fun cameos, so fans can expect a few of those thrown in there for good measure. Maybe Justin Timberlake will take a break from his infamous World Tour to return as poor Arthur.
Release Date
Murphy confirmed that the movie would likely get a 2025 release date. Every other Shrek installment has been released in late April or early May, which means that a spring 2025 release date is very likely, should they follow the past formula. As for the Donkey adventure, that might get a 2026 release, but there has been no news on that date quite yet.
Trailer
There is no trailer at the moment, but you can check out the Puss in Boots: The Last Wishpost-credits scene to hear the return of that familiar theme music!!! Did you get chills?!?!
For years, Miami fans have gotten heat (pun intended) for not exactly being the most punctual fan base in the NBA. A combination of some heavy traffic and living in a city with beaches and restaurants and plenty to do means a lot of Heat games start with a sparsely filled arena, eventually reaching capacity well after the opening tip.
Miami fans will defend themselves with a variety of excuses, including some very legitimate ones, but it is noticeable and it’s not just fans of other teams or the media that see it. In a new video with Complex, Jimmy Butler sat down with pop star Camila Cabello to talk about their shared home city, and while Butler made clear he loves the people of Miami, he also couldn’t help but complain about the tardiness of the fans, calling it the worst thing about the city.
Butler wants to have the building “rocking” from the jump, but it tends to be a slow build to the energy at home games for the Heat. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes over with Heat fans. Butler, for his part, has one more year left on his deal with the Heat and extension talks with the organization have seemingly not gotten far. That said, while there was reporting earlier this summer that could lead to Butler pushing his way out via trade, more recently the indication has been he’ll play out the year with the Heat whether he’s got a long-term deal or not. Either way, he’d like to see the Kaseya Center fill up a bit earlier than usual next season.
In April, Donald Glover confirmed he planned to release “the final Childish Gambino album” after Atavista, which arrived on May 13. The final album is believed to be called Bando Stone And The New World, and it’s supposed to release sometime this summer.
“‘Lithonia’ coming out July 2,” he said of an upcoming single during an Instagram Live session on Wednesday, June 26, as per Billboard. “That got leaked — kinda pissed me off to be honest. That’s another reason why y’all don’t get good sh*t. For what? It’s not valuable enough. It’s just a single. And I know who did it. Audiomack, f*cking no soup for you. You’re not getting the album now. That’s what time I’m on.”
An unnamed Audiomack representative provided a statement to Billboard, which reads, “This morning, we learned that an Audiomack user correctly guessed the URL for Childish Gambino’s already-announced new single, revealing a July 2 release date. The music itself was never playable. We already have a fix in place, which we are rolling out now.”
A YouTube user named Childish Brandino captured the entire five-minute Live. Despite his negative emotions toward Audiomack, Glover was mostly in a good mood, saying, “The problem is we’re not having enough fun. OK, so, this rollout that’s coming, it’s like, mostly about fun. I’m trying to have fun because I feel like there’s just people not having enough fun.”
It’s a sight we don’t normally see these days: A man lying prone in a big, metal tube with his head sticking out of one end. But it wasn’t so long ago that this sight was unfortunately much more common.
In the first half of the 20th century, tens of thousands of people each year were infected by polio—a highly contagious virus that attacks nerves in the spinal cord and brainstem. Many people survived polio, but a small percentage of people who did were left permanently paralyzed from the virus, requiring support to help them breathe. This support, known as an “iron lung,” manually pulled oxygen in and out of a person’s lungs by changing the pressure inside the machine.
Paul Alexander was one of several thousand who were infected and paralyzed by polio in 1952. That year, a polio epidemic swept the United States, forcing businesses to close and polio wards in hospitals all over the country to fill up with sick children. When Paul caught polio in the summer of 1952, doctors urged his parents to let him rest and recover at home, since the hospital in his home suburb of Dallas, Texas was already overrun with polio patients.
Paul rested in bed for a few days with aching limbs and a fever. But his condition quickly got worse. Within a week, Paul could no longer speak or swallow, and his parents rushed him to the local hospital where the doctors performed an emergency procedure to help him breathe. Paul woke from the surgery three days later, and found himself unable to move and lying inside an iron lung in the polio ward, surrounded by rows of other paralyzed children.
Paul struggled inside the polio ward for the next 18 months, bored and restless and needing to hold his breath when the nurses opened the iron lung to help him bathe. The doctors on the ward frequently told his parents that Paul was going to die.
But against all odds, Paul lived. And with help from a physical therapist, Paul was able to thrive—sometimes for small periods outside the iron lung.
The way Paul did this was to practice glossopharyngeal breathing (or as Paul called it, “frog breathing”), where he would trap air in his mouth and force it down his throat and into his lungs by flattening his tongue. This breathing technique, taught to him by his physical therapist, would allow Paul to leave the iron lung for increasing periods of time.
With help from his iron lung (and for small periods of time without it), Paul managed to live a full, happy, and sometimes record-breaking life. At 21, Paul became the first person in Dallas, Texas to graduate high school without attending class in person, owing his success to memorization rather than taking notes. After high school, Paul received a scholarship to Southern Methodist University and pursued his dream of becoming a trial lawyer and successfully represented clients in court.
Paul Alexander lived an amazing life overcoming incredible adversityWikipedia/GoFundMe
Paul practiced law in North Texas for more than 30 years, using a modified wheelchair that held his body upright. During his career, Paul even represented members of the biker gang Hells Angels—and became so close with them he was named an honorary member.
Throughout his long life, Paul was also able to fly on a plane, visit the beach, adopt a dog, fall in love, and write a memoir using a plastic stick to tap out a draft on a keyboard. In recent years, Paul joined TikTok and became a viral sensation with more than 330,000 followers. In one of his first videos, Paul advocated for vaccination and warned against another polio epidemic.
Paul was reportedly hospitalized with COVID-19 at the end of February and died on March 11th, 2024. He currently holds the Guiness World Record for longest survival inside an iron lung—71 years.
Polio thankfully no longer circulates in the United States, or in most of the world, thanks to vaccines. But Paul continues to serve as a reminder of the importance of vaccination—and the power of the human spirit.
““I’ve got some big dreams. I’m not going to accept from anybody their limitations,” he said in a 2022 interview with CNN. “My life is incredible.”
How many apocalypses does The Umbrella Academy have in it, you might wonder? Well, there’s (at least) one more before the show calls it quits with the fourth season. Notably also as well, this series will officially move past the ending of the Dark Horse comic-book source material from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, who previously introduced the world to the initial, Victor-aided catastrophe followed by a time-warping apocalypse (with Klaus as a cult leader during the most fun part of the second season). Then supposedly, the mother of apocalypses happened with the Kugelblitz.
The series could have ended there, since the third-season finale actually provided some (vague) closure for the Hargreaves’ fates, but the show’s popularity led Netflix to renew for a last hurrah, which I suppose means that there’s a dad of apocalypses, which makes sense, given what a bad dad that Reginald happens to be. There had better be another dance-off before this show ends, but here’s what has been revealed thus far.
Expect things to be different. After the “reset” happened in the third-season finale, the siblings walked off without their powers. This continues into the fourth season, where they’re now learning what it’s like to be “normal.” As you can imagine, this won’t be the dream scenario that these siblings might have dreamed about while growing up under Reginald Hargreeves’ thumb. And we also hope that this show goes off book in a more graceful way than the final (controversial) season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Tom Hopper, who probably didn’t mind not wearing that part-gorilla padding anymore, suggested to Comic Book that even without these powers, the magic of this show will still be found in the siblings’ bonds:
“I think there’s going to definitely be some things that you already love. These siblings, I feel like one big thing that the reason that the show’s become a hit is because people have fell in love with the siblings, and their relationship to each other and how fun that is. And there’s bucket loads of that, so that you won’t be disappointed at.”
Of course, it remains to be seen how involved Allison will be with the fam after hitting the button in the third season finale, but Hopper stressed, “There is an ending, which I believe is a complete ending. I don’t think fans will be disappointed with how it ends. Whether they’ll be a little bit sad and broken, I don’t know, because it was certainly emotional for us as actors doing it.”
Meanwhile, series creator and showrunner Steve Blackman addressed how out of sorts the family will be without powers (Klaus does not look like he’s having a good time, even after being freed from communing with the dead), but Victor is having a wonderful time:
“Victor is probably the one sibling who is most comfortable in his skin in season 4,” Blackman says. “He’s doing better than any of the other siblings in terms of adjusting to his new life. He’s the most accepting of their new reality.”
That, of course, is what Victor deserves after taking charge of their identity in the third season. The rest of the siblings, however, might see their attitudes reflected in the first episode title: “The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want.” Also, halting an apocalypse will surely be more complicated, now that they are ordinary-ish humans. From the Netflix season description:
Last season ended with a major twist: There’s a new timeline dictated by the family patriarch, Reginald (Colm Feore), and the siblings no longer have their powers. That’s not the only oddity in this timeline, where the stakes are higher than ever before — there are new enemies who want to see them wiped from existence, but how do they face them without their powers? And will the siblings ever get them back?
Cast
This season will bid farewell to this show’s titular Hargreaves family, including Victor (Elliot Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Diego (David Castañeda), and Ben (Justin H. Min). Lila Pitts (Rita Arya) is still shaking things up, and the series wouldn’t be complete without more madness from Bad Dad Reginald (Colm Feore).
Additionally, David Cross is onboard (as a friendly face or an antagonist? nobody has said yet) as “as a man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter,” and real-life married couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally will pop in as a pair of college professors.
Release Date
The final season of The Umbrella Academy will stream in full on August 8.
Trailer
My goodness, this trailer is so awkward. The Hargreaves siblings without their powers will take some getting used to this season.
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