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Joy

Jimmy Fallon asked people to share their worst first dates, and some were just laughably bad

Romance doesn't always come easily, does it?

Jimmy Fallon next to a comment
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As the saying goes, "You have to kiss a few frogs..."

Dating has certainly evolved over the years—we’ve gone from courtship being purely a financial arrangement (not that this trend has ever truly died) to knights jousting for a lady’s favor, to casual hookups, to now, when romance is primarily found through an app more than anything else.

Technology used for meeting that special someone has become so advanced that you can base your search entirely upon specific interests. Like, oddly specific interests. Think a fellow cat person would be the purrfect match? There’s an app for that. Wish to “love long and prosper” with a fellow Trekkie? There’s an app for that too.

No matter the changes, one thing remains the same—dating is awkward. It’s got all the unspoken formalities of a job interview, disguised as innocent fun. The balance between playing it too cool and too eager is hard to find even for the smoothest among us, and usually results in total embarrassment. Even if we aren’t the ones committing those embarrassing acts ourselves, we are often the reluctant witness to them.

Terrible dates might not always be fun in the moment, but they can be just as important as the good ones. They can teach us a lot about ourselves and what qualities we want in a partner. And at the very least, they can teach us to embrace social clumsiness with a sense of humor.

Jimmy Fallon recently asked his Tonight Show audience on X (formerly Twitter) to share a “funny or embarrassing first date story” for his ever popular #Hashtags segment. The best part—some of these awful first dates ended in marriage. There’s hope for us all.

Below, find 15 stories that are truly the best of the worst. How do some of your first dates compare?

1. "After a nice dinner, she invited me to her house. On the way up, inside the elevator, I decided to push the button to stop between floors and give her a kiss... She had a phobia of closed spaces and she smacked my face as a reflex, two punches after we were kissing and laughing.” – @PanqueAlgarvio

2. “His jeans were so tight he couldn’t sit down. Stood at a bar stool the whole time.” – @onlyintheozarks

3. “Waiting 4 my date when an older couple asked me for a ride. my date came up and said sure! We drove them home & they asked us to come in. Date said “sure”. I pulled him back & asked why he wanted to hang w/strangers. He said ‘sh@t! YOU DON'T KNOW THEM!?’ We bolted!” – @natashaham75

Gif of Seinfeld

Talk about a fashion faux pas.

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4. “Before the date, we had been chatting about books we liked and I talked about a great book I just read. We went on the date. I loaned her the book. She ghosted me.” – @thenextbarstool

5. “The worst first date I ever had was when my date locked his keys in the car and I had a curfew so he had to break his car window out to get me home on time. Didn’t think I’d ever see him again but we wound up married.” – @csleblan

6. “First date movie ‘Basic Instinct’ not realizing how suggestive it was. We just thought it was a mystery thriller! We left the movie discussing how each character could have actually murdered someone. We're married now.” – @Southrnbell_Amy

Gif of woman in white dress smoking a cigarette

There are worse first date movies tbh.

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7. “First date with my ex husband was a double date with his parents. The preview for ‘Speed Racer’ came on, and she leaned over me to say to her son, ‘You know what your dad's nickname in the bedroom is?’" – @theostoria

8. “A friend asked me on a double date as a blind date with his date's friend. I went to the bathroom and came back just in time to hear my date say to her friend, ‘why do I get the ugly one?’ I said good night to all three and headed home, leaving her w/the bill.” – @StevenTrustum

9. “He loved cheese. I was subjected to a 2 hour conversation/lecture about cheese, and why cottage cheese is not cheese!” – @Optimist_Eeyore

Gif of man with words, "I eat all of the cheese"

I'd like to see this two-hour cheese lecture.

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10. “He took me to an Asian fish market. We walked around looking at live & dead fish for a while. I don’t like seeing dead animals & I don’t eat seafood. Then we sat on a curb & he pulled out a ziplock bag of pineapple for us to share. I don’t like pineapple.” – @markayhali

11. “My cousin set up a first date for me with a family friend. During a break from dinner, Mr. Man follows me into the ladies’ room, comes up close and says in a low voice, ‘I shave my butt.’ Can’t remember what I said in response but the evening ended abruptly.” – @carli_zarzana

12. “I once took out my high school crush to a sports bar and ordered the spiciest wings there in an attempt to impress her. Not only was she not impressed. The next morning I woke up with heartburn.” –@Dmonster38

Gif of Millie Bobby brown on Hot Ones

Talk about a hot date.

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13. “My date showed up with his bestie and girlfriend, and they talked through dinner about people I don’t know. Walking to the car, he gave me a wedgie because he thought he hadn’t been paying enough attention to me.” – @surrealDazey


14. “I was taking my date home and was pulled over by the police for speeding. When the cop came to my car, she jumped out and told him she had to get home. She walked home and I never heard from her again. I'm not sure who's #WorstFirstDate it was mine or hers!” – @eastriverbear

15. “After an evening of dancing with a first date, leaving the dance hall, I had to take a quick pee break. Rushing out to the parking lot, I see a lady, I grab her and swoop her around, and plant a big wet kiss on the lips. She was another guy's wife. Oops!” – @seadogskamore

Gif of the Addams Family

Only Gomez could have gotten away with it.

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This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Education

Teacher reveals the 'really obvious' reason teens no longer read. It's not just the phones.

"Kids who read are just built different."

via Canva/Photos

A teenage boy stars at his smartphone.

Studies show that kids are spending a lot less time reading these days. In 2020, 42% of 9-year-old students said they read for fun almost daily, down from 52% in 2012. Seventeen percent of 13-year-olds read for fun daily, down from 27% in 2012. Among 17-year-olds, 19% say they read for fun, down from 31% in 1984.

It’s safe to say that modern technology is a big reason why kids aren’t reading as much. A recent report found that teenagers spend an average of 8 hours 39 minutes per day on screens, compared to 5-and-a-half hours for pre-teen children. So, it’s no wonder they don’t have any time left to crack open a book. A high school teacher on TikTok who goes by the name StillATeacher recently brought the topic up with her class, and they stopped reading for fun at the end of middle school.

“So even those who are like avid readers of the Percy Jackson series in fourth and fifth grade fall off,” the teacher says. “Honestly, there are many reasons to stop reading recreationally, like increased pressure inside and outside of school, a desire to spend more time socializing, and, of course, the phones.”

But the teacher says there’s an obvious reason “right in front of our faces”: the adults. “Adults have lowered the bar for how much you should read as a teenager so far that the bar cannot be found,” she continued. “There are many educators who have the mindset that you shouldn't teach whole books because kids just won't read them.”

@stillateacher

the literacy crisis is upon us #teachertok #teacher #highschoolteacher #englishteacher #education #literacy #booktok #creatorsearchinsights

“I've taught at schools where teaching novels is actually discouraged,” she continued. “And I have conversations with teachers in other content areas who say that they themselves never read books, that they don't think it's important for students' long-term success. All this said, it is not entirely surprising that high schoolers don't wanna read.”

How does reading benefit kids?

The significant decrease in the number of children who read for fun means that many will miss out on the incredible benefits of regularly curling up for a good book. Studies show that children who read for pleasure enjoy improved cognitive performance, language development, and academic achievement. Reading is also linked to fewer mental health problems, less screen time, and more sleep. Findings suggest that kids get the optimal benefits of reading when they do it for around 12 hours a week.



“You forgot empathy,” one commenter added. “People who read are better at empathizing because they have been able to put themselves in the shoes of others and learn about different perspectives, people, cultures, experiences.”

StillATeacher has seen these incredible benefits first-hand.

“But I'm telling you, the handful of kids I teach who do read are built different. Kids who read have stronger critical thinking skills, more success across all academic areas, and, honestly, just a stronger sense of self. Because reading helps you figure out who you are as a person,” the teacher said.

The decline in young people's reading is a serious problem that must be addressed. So, it’s terrific that the teacher used her platform on TikTok to bring it to the public’s attention. Interestingly enough, she says that TikTok is one of the few platforms encouraging kids to read.

“And honestly, thank goodness for BookTok because I think it is one of the only drivers of adolescent reading that still exists,” she concluded her post. “Isn't that sad? Like, the schools aren't doing it, TikTok's doing it. We gotta start a movement here.”

This story originally appeared last year.

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Friendship

Watch this groomsman go from cringey to fierce as he learns to nail the 'chicken head' dance

He spent the whole bachelor's trip learning the dance in time for the wedding.

Photo credit: Canva

Watch groomsman learning to dance go from cringey to fierce.

Rhythm is something that people are naturally born with. It makes things like learning how to dance or keeping time with music a lot easier. Of course people who don't have a natural ability to catch the rhythm of a beat can still learn to dance through learning to count the steps. Practicing while watching others who do know the specific dance helps move things along a bit faster.

This sort of group effort is likely why some people have very little trouble line dancing but have a hard time with any sort of freestyle type of dance. Phil Sloves, a Broadway actor, was recently in a wedding, but before he watched a friend commit to eternal love, he was determined to learn how to dance. But not just any dance. The actor wanted to learn a dance called "chicken head." Unsurprisingly, the dance involves a lot of rhythmic coordinated movements designed to make the person's head appear to move like a chicken's would move.

Sloves decided that the best time to learn the dance would be while the guys were away on the bachelor trip. The group of men recorded Sloves' progress over several days leading up to the wedding. At first the man's efforts were seemingly off beat and uncoordinated, but they appeared smooth. The next attempt looked like Sloves might have taken a few steps back in progress because he seems even less coordinated than the previous attempt.

gif of mustached man dancing Fathers Day Dancing GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy

As the trip progresses, so does the man's dancing skills as the other men demonstrate and give him pointers. By the time the wedding rolls around, the Broadway actor has officially gone from cringe to cool when he kills the dance move at the reception. The amount of effort he put into perfecting this dance likely means he will be breaking out the "chicken head" well into his nursing home days.

Others can't get enough of his failed attempts turned perfection with one person writing, "I'm not going to lie i did not have a lot of faith lmao but he ate thatttt."

Another person appreciates the support the others show, "It’s yall being so supportive and schooling him. He was a good student with good teachers."

man dancing at weddingGetting Married Party GIF by PartifulGiphy

"The way he unlocked his confidence once he knew he had it," someone else says.

"The facial expression in the hotel room when he got it is diabolical. GO PHIL," one person says while adding the fire emoji.

Clearly Sloves was dedicated to learning the dance and had a group of good friends willing to take the time to teach him. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but seeing the confidence grow as the video progressed lets you know that the actor was ready. Thanks to his friends being supportive, he was able to go into the wedding reception with full confidence in his ability to do at least one dance well.

@aneesanael My boi @Phil Sloves was on a mission fr. #trending #chingy @huggybruh ♬ Right Thurr - Remix/Explicit - Chingy

"He said I’m not going to embarrass you my boi," another writes.

"The joy on his homie face when he was finally hitting that shhh," someone else chimes in.

According to one person, this dance will be seen anywhere Sloves is present: "He’s about to be doing this, EVERY. WHERE! Grocery stores & all."

As one commenter says, "GO AWF PHIL." You've earned the right to do that dance for the rest of eternity. Way to go on trying something new and sticking to it until you got it right. We could all use these kind of supportive friends.

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Joy

A pianist on stage realized she'd prepared the wrong piece. Then she pulled off a miracle.

The encouraging conductor helped turn her "worst nightmare" scenario into a viral, magnificent feat.

Photo credit: Canva

Imagine showing up on stage to play a piano concerto and finding out you have to play a different one in two minutes.

You know that nightmare where you show up to the final day of class and there's a huge test and you panic as you realize you've missed the whole semester and haven't studied at all? Or how about the one where you have to give a big presentation at work and you show up totally unprepared—no notes, no visuals, no speech—and you have to wing it?

For musicians, the equivalent is showing up on stage to perform without preparation or rehearsal, which is exactly what happened to Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires when she was on stage in front of an audience of 2,000 people in Amsterdam in 1999. As the orchestra started to play, she quickly realized she was in trouble—she had prepared the wrong concerto. As the musicians played the two-and-a-half-minute intro to Mozart's Piano Concerto No.20, Pires sat at the piano in terror. She had not practiced that piece and she didn't even have the sheet music for it.

She had, however, played that concerto before, and in an inspiring feat of musicality, muscle memory, and sheer human will—along with some encouraging words from conductor Riccardo Chailly—Pires got herself centered and locked in, playing the correct concerto in its entirety, miraculously without missing a note.

The full story actually feels even more daunting for those of us who can't sit down and pound out a piano concerto at will. It turned out that Pires wasn't even the original pianist who was slated to play at this concert. She was asked the day before to be a replacement for the pianist who couldn't perform, so she didn't have a lot of time to prepare anyway. However, she'd misheard the number of the Mozart piece over the phone and thought it was a piece she had played only a couple of weeks before. If that had been the case, she would have been fine, even with the short notice. But having the wrong concerto in mind and then not even having the sheet music for the correct one was an extra pile-on from an already high-pressure situation.

The fact that it was a general rehearsal and not the official performance wasn't much consolation, since it was an open rehearsal with a full audience. A rehearsal audience is likely more forgiving than an audience that paid top dollar for a concert, but it's still mortifying to have thousands of people expecting you to perform something you have not prepared for.

Thankfully, Pires had performed the concerto multiple times, most recently about 10 or 11 months prior, so she wasn't clueless. But perfectly recalling something you did nearly a year ago at that level and under that amount of pressure is absolutely incredible.

The conductor who encouraged her later talked about how impressive it was. "The miracle is that she has such a memory that she could, within a minute, switch to a new concerto without making one mistake," said Chailly. However, Pires insists that her memory is not exceptional at all and that she is "very, very average" among musicians.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

But it wasn't the only time this happened to Pires. "I must say, this happened to me another two times in my life. In total, three times," she told ClassicFM's Joanna Gosling. "I hope it never happens again."

Pires already gets nervous about performing, despite being a world famous concert pianist.

"I normally feel very stressed on stage," Pires said. "It's not the stage, it's not the public, it's the responsibility. I feel insecure. And that's why I'm not a stage person somehow. There is one side of me that feels okay—I feel okay with the people. But being on stage and being responsible for something can give me some panic."

As Gosling points out, if you were just listening to the performance, you'd never know there'd been an issue. But the camera on her face tells an entire story during the orchestral opening as we see her grappling with the crisis she'd found herself in. Watching the moment she decided she had no choice but to just go for it, whatever happened, is remarkable. A true testament to the power of repetition and the resilience of the human spirit, and a reminder that musicians truly are magicians in so many ways.

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Pets

Cow saved from slaughter thanks to a leg growing from its head

Having a 5th leg turned out to be life saving.

Photo credit: Canva

How a cow's extra leg that grew from his head saved his life

Cows are pretty interesting creatures. Most people are familiar with their best impression of a field of statues who occasionally eat the grass they're standing in. Their majestic eye lashes would make L'Oréal jealous and it's beyond cute when they decide to frolic through the meadow every once in a while. But not all cows get to live out their cow dreams in a field with their besties mooing at the passing cars.

Some of these gentle giants are sent off to slaughter so humans can enjoy steaks, hamburgers, or brisket. Connecting the adorable cows we see lazily grazing in grassy fields to what shows up on someone's dinner plate can be uncomfortable to say the least. But while we know this is simply the way things go, we still root for them to escape the inevitable—and Manny the cow was able to do just that thanks to a unique flaw.

Manny, the beautiful black and brown cow, was born with a leg on his head. The cow has exactly four legs holding him up to stand but a fifth leg sprouts from his forehead like an odd unicorn horn. As strange as it may sound, the extra leg also has a hoof that dangles just out in front of the peculiar cow's nose. It was that fifth leg that saved his life, making him one lucky bovine that just happens to look a little funny.

gif of a cow in a wigHair Wind GIFGiphy

The condition Manny has is called Polymelia which is a rare condition that leads to an extra limb being formed somewhere on the body before birth. Manny's extra limb just so happened to sprout from his head, which is called Cephalomelia. But Manny doesn't know he's any different. He is a cow after all and the dangling appendage doesn't slow him down.

Manny is an Aberdeen Angus cow who was born on a beef farm but due to his glamorous extra gam, the farmer didn't believe the slaughter house would accep thim. Good thing, too, because Manny is much cuter as a plucky cow with the zoomies than he ever could be as an Angus beef burger at Burgatory. Lucky for us and luckier for the furry pasture dweller, he was spared the slaughterhouse and picked up by Uncle Neil’s Home, a sanctuary in Bridgeton, New Jersey.

gif of a cow looking at the cameraCow Beef GIF by Nutrena FeedGiphy

"This condition, people say horrible things about or make judgements about him, and it granted Manny the chance to live. When we took in Manny, we wanted to see if he was healthy, if he was in any pain. Our vet came and did X-rays, and everybody agreed and concluded that Manny was happy, healthy. He didn't know any different. He didn't know he looked any different," the sanctuary told The Dodo.

After arriving at the sanctuary, Manny had to be under quarantine so they tried to make sure he had lots of attention and treats. But the cow wasn't interested in nibbling on hay bales; he wanted to practice his WWE moves. The five-legged cow would body slam himself up against the hay bales, happily bucking and pushing it around the pen. He even played games of catch with one of the workers where the worker and Manny would take turns pushing the hay bale back and forth to each other.

Before long, quarantine was over and it was time to introduce Manny to the cows without extra legs growing from their heads. If you thought the cows rejected him, you'd be wrong. The cows were so excited to see a new friend that the entire herd got the zoomies and began excitedly running around their enclosure. Cow zoomies has to be up there in the top ten of random adorable things animals do, though you probably don't want to be inside the enclosure when these 1,000 plus pound animals get to running around wildly.

Manny is settling into his home nicely and has a best friend that he spends a lot of his time with. They two cows are often near each other eating, playing, or just standing around. Manny is proof that different doesn't mean less, and happy endings can happen no matter who you are or how many limbs you have.

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Race & Ethnicity

Woman's rare antique turned away from 'Antique Roadshow' for heart-wrenching reason

"I just love you for bringing it in and thank you so much for making me so sad."

Photos by Murat Rahim Caglak and Antoni Shkraba via Canva

Woman's antique turned away from 'Antique Roadshow'

People come by things in all sorts of ways. Sometimes you find something while at a garage sale and sometimes it's because a family member passed away and it was left to them. After coming into possession of the item, the owner may be tempted to see how much it's worth so it can be documented for insurance purposes or sold.

On a recent episode of BBC One's Antique Roadshow, a woman brought an ivory bracelet to be appraised. Interestingly enough, the expert didn't meet this rare find with excitement, but appeared somber. The antique expert, Ronnie Archer-Morgan carefully explains the purpose of the bracelet in what appears to be a tense emotional exchange.

There would be no appraisal of this antique ivory bracelet adorned with beautiful script around the circumference. Archer-Morgan gives a brief disclaimer that he and the Antique Roadshow disapprove of the trade of ivory, though that was not his reason for refusing the ivory bangle.

"This ivory bangle here is not about trading in ivory, it’s about trading in human life, and it’s probably one of the most difficult things that I’ve ever had to talk about. But talk about it we must," Archer-Morgan says.

Ronnie Archer-Morgan, Antiques Roadshow, BBC, antiques, ivoryRonnie Archer-Morgan on an episode of the BBC's Antiques RoadshowImage via Antqiues Roadshow


Turns out the woman had no idea what she had in her possession as she purchased it from an estate sale over 30 years before. One of the elderly residents she cared for passed away and the woman found the ivory bracelet among the things being sold. Finding the bangle particularly intriguing with the fancy inscription around it, she decided to purchase the unique piece of jewelry.

After explaining that his great-grandmother was once enslaved in Nova Scotia, Canada before being returned to Sierra Leone, Archer-Morgan concluded he could not price the item.

Antiques Roadshow, BBC, Ronnie Archer MorganRonnie Archer-Morgan holds the ivory bracelet he refused to valueImage via Antiques Roadshow/BBC

"I just don’t want to value it. I do not want to put a price on something that signifies such an awful business. But the value is in the lessons that this can tell people," he tells the woman.

In the end the woman leaves without knowing the monetary value of the item but with a wealth of knowledge she didn't have before visiting. Now she can continue to share the significance of the antique with others. Watch the full explanation below:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This article originally appeared last year.

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