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Some people talk to their plants. These plants talk to each other.

Like it or not, Facebook, Instagram, and other digital messaging services have become an intimate part of many of our lives. In fact, we collectively send 10 billion messages per day over Facebook! 

If we suppose that the average message is five words long (disclaimer: I have no idea if that's true, but it feels about right) and a novel is 50,000 words long, that means we collectively write enough to fill over a million books per day!

Would it surprise you if I said plants were just as chatty?

And if they're talking so much, what are they saying? 

Well, here's a couple samples of what a tree would say, if a tree could post to Facebook.

"Watch out for those giraffes!"

Spoof image. Base images from Facebook, Hege/Flickr, and siddhu2020/Flickr.

Acacia trees are thorny, green, and a favorite snack for elephants, antelopes, and giraffes. With so many big, voracious herbivores, you'd think they'd all be stripped bare in a day!

But it turns out acacias have a kind of mass alarm system. 

When a giraffe comes up and starts munching on acacia leaves, the victimized plant releases a bunch of ethylene gas. Any other acacias that "smell" it know it means danger and start pumping their leaves with nasty, poisonous chemicals to shoo the predators away.

And it's not just acacias. Sagebrush, willows, poplars, and tomatoes also seem to warn each other of attacks. Sometimes the messages even work across different species, although there's also evidence that different plants may use different chemical languages to encrypt their messages.

The messages don't just work over the air, either. Other studies have found that plants can communicate warnings through webs of underground fungal hairs (known as mycelium) that can reach across entire forests. It's like a big, fungal internet!

"Careful, I'm sick! Don't you catch it too!"

Spoof image. Base images from Facebook, Gab997/Wikimedia Commons, and siddhu2020/Flickr.

Speaking of the fungal Internet — evidence suggests that plants might use it to do more than just shout about predators. They might share health tips too.

In 2010, researchers in China discovered that tomato plants might use this fungal internet to warn each other when they're sick. 

The researchers planted a bunch of tomatoes, let the fungal Internet grow between them, then purposefully got one of the plants sick. Lo and behold, the sickie's hooked-up neighbors started taking defensive precautions like activating anti-disease chemicals.

"Help me out here, wasps!"

Spoof image. Base images from Facebook, darwin Bell/Wikimedia Commons, and siddhu2020/Flickr.

Ever heard the adage: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? Well, some plants believe in that whole-heartedly.

We're not the only ones who love to munch on corn. Caterpillars also love to chow down on corn plants and, like the acacias, if a caterpillar starts to chow down on a corn plant, the plant will release chemical scents into the air.

But instead of warning other corn plants about the caterpillars, these scents are targeted at other insects — caterpillar-loving parasitic wasps. The scent is like a giant dinner bell for the wasps, shouting: "Caterpillar here! Come and get it!" The plants can even have specific scents for specific types of caterpillar!

And it's not just corn — a bunch of other plants do this too, including cotton and tobacco. That's not to mention all the other ways plants communicate with animals (like flowers).

We're just starting to understand how plants communicate.

OK, OK, time to stop anthropomorphizing a bit. A tree isn't going to start speaking to you, no matter how sophisticated these signals are (or what movies want us to think). 

"We are used to thinking of humans as the only organisms that are really perceptive. And now we're finding that – wow – plants can even do this.” — Professor Richard Karban

Trees are still trees. They don't have brains and are not intelligent, at least in the way most of us would think of intelligence.

And there are still a lot of questions and things to study. For example, professor Richard Karban, who is studying communication in sagebrush, says plants probably aren’t actually trying to broadcast every message. Instead, if they are signaling, they might just be trying to talk to closely related family members — with other plants eavesdropping in. So instead of a vegetable Facebook, the average forest might be more like the vegetable NSA.

But the fact that we're listening in at all is incredible. And maybe one day, scientists may be able to decipher these vegetable languages.

Imagine if, instead of spraying pesticides, we could "tell" plants to beware of bugs. A lot more work needs to be done before that though.

"It's an extremely difficult code and a really difficult problem," Karban said. 

But he added that it helps us understand the world around us. 

"We are used to thinking of humans as the only organisms that are really perceptive," he said. But as we've learned more, we've realized that many different animals are capable of taking in the world. "And now we're finding that – wow – plants can even do this. I think it is changing our view about what organisms are capable of ... and that by itself is pretty cool."

So the next time you go for a quiet walk in the woods, you might, in fact, be strolling through the greatest social media network in the world.

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How one woman is breaking barriers to amplify women's voices in peace building across Southern Africa

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Vimbai Kapurura is the Executive Director of Women Unlimited, a grassroots women’s rights organization working to promote the rights and leadership of women, girls, and marginalized groups in Eswatini and southern Africa. With support from the Rapid Response Window of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), she’s advocating to have more female voices in national peace building spaces to ensure women’s rights and demands are included.

“Women are peacebuilders. We are peacemakers. We have a critical role to play in crisis situations and we are very much better placed to play a peacebuilding role in any country.”

In the face of the growing political turmoil in Eswatini, where calls for the establishment of a national dialogue remain seemingly unanswered, Vimbai and her organization are stepping up, raising their voice and bringing forward innovative solutions to promote peace and stability across the country. WPHF is supporting them to amplify women’s voices and mainstream gender perspectives into relevant decision-making mechanisms.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

“We are the cradle of life. We are changemakers, movers, shakers of any area of development. We want to be engaged and involved in any area of the value chain, the complete value chain. We want to be there.”

As part of its project with WPHF, Women Unlimited – with technical support from Cordaid, one of the INGO partners of the RRW – has trained several local women-led civil society organizations in conflict resolution, conflict prevention and mediation processes, as well as carried out educational and awareness raising campaigns on the value of women’s participation in peace processes, targeting both women and men across the country.

“WPHF has really helped us a lot. Not only has the funding allowed us to engage more women in peacebuilding processes, but it’s also supported us to underscore the need for female leadership in these spaces, where we’re often left aside.”

In Eswatini, where women and girls face deep-rooted patriarchy from a very young age, undermining their confidence, autonomy and leadership, Vimbai has become an outspoken advocate for women’s equal representation in decision-making roles at all levels, from community-level and regional committees to national and global peace building spaces.

“If you gather many women toward on common goal, you are guaranteed that that goal is going to be achieved. Let us come together and be the change we want to see. No one will do it for us. But together, we can.”

A tireless leader and activist who’s influenced the lives of many women and girls in Eswatini, Vimbai is a firm believer in women’s capacity, tenacity, and adaptability to lead and drive transformative change in their communities. When she thinks about peace, she dreams about women coming together, taking up space, and walking side by side for a more peaceful and gender-equal world in which harmful stereotypes and cultural practices are left behind.

Follow, engage, and amplify the work of Vimbai's organization!

Golden Years

7 'old people' sayings that are actually solid life advice at every age

"Make all your words sweet because tomorrow you may have to eat them."

Photo credit: Canva

Elder wisdom can come in handy.

With age comes wisdom, or at least we hope it does. As we get older, we collect life lessons that we can pass along to younger generations, sometimes with lengthy stories, sometimes with quippy sayings.

Adages like "A penny saved is a penny earned," or "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," have been part of our collective treasure chest of life advice for generations, but the aphorisms that spring from the experience of our loved ones and mentors are often the most meaningful.

Someone shared that they'd read and appreciated this old man's advice: “My grandpa once told me 'if you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station, the longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.' He wasn’t talking about trains.” The person asked for more tidbits of wisdom from old folks and people started sharing sayings they heard from their elders growing up.

Here are some of the best "old man advice" sayings and how they can be applied in a person's life.

"You might miss what’s ahead of you if you keep concentrating on what’s in the rear view mirror."

Another commenter put it another way: "Don't look behind you, you aren't going that way." This adage is about not dwelling on the past. Many of us have a tendency to spend more time mentally in the past, rehashing old memories or being nostalgic for what once was, than we do in the present or looking forward to the future. There's nothing wrong with a little reflection, but if most of our focus is in the past, we miss out on the present. Rear view mirrors are for quick glances, not where our focus should be.

"Do the right thing, even if nobody is watching."

This saying is about good character and true integrity. If you notice someone drop a $20 bill and no one is around to see but you, do you give it back to them or do you pick it up and keep it? If you realize that a store didn't charge you for an item, do you point it out and make it right or do you allow the mistake to remain? There are opportunities each day for us to choose between right and wrong, and those choices really speak to who we are if they are made without anyone else knowing.

bart simpson episode 21 GIFGiphy


"Be nice to everybody you meet on the way up the ladder. You'll see the same faces on the way down "

Don't get cocky and don't burn bridges you think you won't need to return to. There's value in being kind for its own sake, but there's also the reality that being kind also makes people like you. When people like you, they're more likely to lend you a helping hand, and you never know when you're going to be in a position to need one. It's also a good reminder that you're not inherently better than anyone else just because of where you are in life. We're all constantly in flux, so it's important to stay humble and kind.

In other words, "Make all your words sweet because tomorrow you may have to eat them."

"One of the most powerful negotiating tools is silence."

The power of silence in general is often underrated, but it can be an especially useful tool in a negotiation. Some people are so uncomfortable with silence that they will make concessions simply to avoid it. And sometimes the best response to an unreasonable demand is to just say nothing and stare, letting the other party come to the realization themselves. It takes calm confidence to simply be quiet and let the silence fill the room, which can feel surprisingly intimidating.

Eddie Murphy Shut Up GIF by BounceGiphy

"Always listen to your gut, even if you can’t explain it."

Ah, the strange and mysterious sense of intuition that we can't really describe but know when we feel it. Whether it's getting a creepy vibe about a person or a little voice telling you to do or not do something, those "gut instincts" can serve us well. Of course, if we are prone to anxiety, our instincts can sometimes be confused with anxious thoughts, but "go with your gut" is solid advice anyway.

“It doesn’t matter what path you’re on if it’s the wrong mountain.”

Sometimes people trying to find their way end up hitting roadblock after roadblock, which may mean they just haven't found the right path yet or might mean they need an entire overhaul of their life. That might look like switching career paths entirely, rather than trying to find a job in your field that fits. It might mean changing majors in the middle of your studies when you find yourself not enjoying any of your classes. It might mean finding a new community or reevaluating your relationships.

"The harder I work, the luckier I get."

Several sayings line up with this one, like "Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity," and "Luck favors the prepared mind." There's a lot to be said for fortune and hard work going hand in hand. If we expect good things to just land in our lap, we will likely be disappointed, but if we move in the direction of things we want to happen and do the work of preparing for good things to come our way, "luck" frequently seems to follow.

Finding a saying that resonates can be really helpful when we're facing a specific challenge in life, especially when we commit it to memory and repeat it often.

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Dad's heartfelt lunch message shows how simple, everyday acts can change lives

You can make a huge difference by using O Organics.

via Meg Sullivan (used with permission) and Canva/Photos

A volunteer hands out food in a food bank and Meg Sullivan shares her dad's kind gesture.

When we consider people who have had a positive impact on the world, we often think of those who have made grand gestures to improve the lives of others, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Greta Thunberg, or Mahatma Gandhi. Unfortunately, that type of effort is out of reach for the average person.

However, O Organics would like to remind everyone that they can positively impact the world through small, consistent acts of kindness that add up over time. Much like how a small creek can create a valley over the years, we can change lives through small, consistent acts of kindness.

O Organics is dedicated to the well-being of all by nourishing people everywhere with delicious organic foods grown by producers who meet USDA-certified organic farming standards.

Upworthy's Instagram page recently posted a touching example of everyday kindness. Meg Sullivan shared how her father, Tom, peeled oranges for her lunch just about every day from kindergarten through high school. But on the final day of her senior year of high school, he sent his 17-year-old daughter unpeeled oranges with a touching note about how she’d have to start peeling them for herself.



“It’s Time Baby Girl,” he wrote on a wikiHow printout on how to peel an orange with a drawing of himself crying. For the father, this daily ritual was about more than just making lunch; it was about showing that he cared by going the extra mile. “I could have put money on her lunch account,” Tom told Today.com. “But it’s one of those little things I thought was important, that she knows somebody’s taking the time to take care of her.”

The small, daily gesture taught Megan an essential lesson in kindness.

The post reminded people how their fathers’ small acts of kindness meant so much to them. “My dad peeled my oranges until I graduated high school, too. Now, I peel my daughter’s oranges and will for the next 7 plus years,” Katie wrote in the comments. “Love this. My dad peeled mine, too. When I moved out, he gave me an orange peeler gadget,” Mary added.

o organics, albertson's giving backO Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list.via Albertson's

Did you know that every time you go to the supermarket, you can also change the world through small gestures? O Organics not only allows you to feed your family delicious and nutritious organic food, but each purchase also gives back to help people and communities facing food insecurity.

Through contributions from customers like you, O Organics donates up to 28 million meals annually. The company’s contribution is essential when, according to the USDA, 47.4 million Americans live in food-insecure households.

O Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list. “Over the years, we have made organic foods more accessible by expanding O Organics to every aisle across our stores, making it possible for health and budget-conscious families to incorporate organic food into every meal,” Jennifer Saenz, EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer at Albertsons, one of many stores where you can find O Organics products, said in a statement.

O Organics now offers over 1500 items, from dairy products such as eggs and milk to packaged meats and breakfast staples such as cereal bars, granola and oatmeal. You can also enjoy affordable organic produce with O Organics’ fresh salads and fruit.

Everybody wants to make the world a better place. With O Organics, you can feed your family healthy, organic food every time you go to the market while paying it forward by contributing to the company’s efforts to end food insecurity nationwide. That’s a small, daily gesture that can amount to incredible change.

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Matt LeBlanc describes his dream retirement of 'doing absolutely nothing' and it's so relatable

People are calling it a surprisingly "refreshing" take on wealth and success.

British Academy Television Awards/Wikipedia

If we had his money, we'd be doing the same thing.

With an estimated net worth of $85 million, Friends star Matt LeBlanc has the kind of monetary success many dream of, but very few actually have. And yet, people are calling how he’s chosen to live with his windfall “refreshingly” down to earth and relatable.

At the height of Friends fame, LeBlanc (along with his coasters) famously made an unprecedented $1 million per episode. And let’s not forget the estimated $20 million a year the cast earned through reruns of the hit sitcom.

While LeBlanc did go off to lead in the Joey spin-off for two years—as well as appearing in Episodes, and starring in the now cancelled Man With A Plan—he didn’t seem to be quite as busy as the other Friends stars. But perhaps this was by design.

Recently the TikTok account Outstanding Screenplays shared a now viral compilation video of a few of LeBlanc’s interviews throughout the years, in which he shares his love of “doing nothing.” For instance, in the clip from his 2017 appearance on Conan, he explained that he actually wanted to retire “earlier rather than later” fo the simple reason that “I think I would like to do not a fucking thing, that’s what I would like to do. Just nothing, absolutely nothing, zero.”

@outstandingscreenplays #MattLeBlanc loves to do Nothing 😅 #Joey #friends #screenwriting #screenwriter #screenplay #fyp #shorts #filmtok #author #writer #movies #films ♬ original sound - Outstanding Screenplays


And just what does “nothing “ look like, according to LeBlanc? It looks like “sleeping as long as you want,” or “getting up as early as you want” any given day, not having “to be somewhere” or have “someone else telling you what to do,” having the choice to “go to the gym or not go to the gym,” and of “having nine cups of coffee or none.” In a nutshell: no rules.

As one viewer astutely noted, “he is describing freedom.”

Similarly, in a later interview on a Scandinavian TV show called Skavlan, expounded upon how he got this impulse.

“My plan was, I did 10 years of Friends, then two years of Joey, and then I said: ‘Right, I’m gonna take a year off, I wanna take a year off and just relax. I had such a good time I said ‘I’m gonna take another one,’ right? And then that one was even better. So I said ‘maybe one more,’ and then it turned into five or six years.”

After realizing that his "favorite thing to do in the world is nothing,” LeBlanc has pretty much been doing just that. God bless him.

One might think that this video, which has been viewed about 1.2million times, had the potential of stirring up some unsavory feelings, as even those among who can afford to retire likely will not do it in the style that LeBlanc does. But by and large people came into the comments to commend him for lifestyle choice.

“If I had his money I would do exactly the same," one of the top comments read.

“Nothingers unite!” exclaimed another.

What people really seemed to resonate with was the fact that his take is very counterintuitive to how celebrities often react to success. As one viewer put it, “So refreshing seeing someone really not caring about chasing more and more fame.”

Another person echoed, “I love that Matt LeBlanc knows he has had the fame, earned the money and now can enjoy it and does not still seek the limelight.”

There’s a lot to be said about how hard it is for this clearly common dream to come to fruition, but for now, let’s just take stock that collectively, in our heart of hearts, we all long for peace and freedom. Much of the other stuff is kind of arbitrary.

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People are donating thousands to a waiter who received a racist message instead of a tip

Things did not turn out well for the woman who wrote the racist message.

via GoFundMe

A woman wrote a disgusting note on her receipt at a Mexican restaurant.

Over 800 people donated money to show their support for Ricardo, a waiter who received a racist message instead of a tip on Sunday, March 2, at Cazuelas Mexican Cantina in Columbus, Ohio. After a photo of the receipt went viral, a GoFundMe campaign was started to recoup the tip. The story is an excellent example that for every person who does something wrong in this world, hundreds will try to make it right.

Ricardo was serving a woman who works as a real estate agent and after she received a bill for $87, she didn’t leave a tip, instead she left a racist message: “ZERO, YOU SUCK” on the line where tips are added. Below, the signature line read, “I HOPE TRUMP DEPORTS YOU!!!” Richardo is of Latino heritage, born in the United States.

"We were deeply disappointed by the offensive message left on a recent receipt, which goes against our values and the welcoming environment we strive to create,” Cazuelas Mexican Cantina said in a statement to ABC 6. “There is no place for hate in our restaurant.”

Cazuelas Mexican Cantina; a statement from the restaurantA statement from Cazuelas Mexican Cantina.via Google and Cazuelas Mexican Cantina

"It was a normal Sunday. Things got a little busy so that the wait could have been a little longer than usual, but we aren't really sure what made her write that,” Fabio Oribo, the head of marketing at Cazuelas, told The Colombus Dispatch. "From what I hear... she wasn’t happy about a coupon or something like that," Oribo told News 19. “It’s just not right, just not right.”

“He’s a really good person," Oribo said of Ricardo, who has two jobs and only comes into the restaurant on Sundays. "We all... come here every day to do our job, which is to serve people and have a good time... Thankfully, all the community has been really supportive."

The story went viral on Monday, March 3, after one of Ricardo’s coworkers posted about it on Facebook. “Y’all love our food but hate us. Shame on you, Stephanie, for not having the courage to say it with your chest,” she wrote in a post that has since been deleted.

The post, which had information identifying the 49-year-old woman, went viral, and her employer, Century 21 Real Estate, promptly fired her, and her profile page on its website was deleted. “We are aware of the situation with the agent in question. Hate has no place within the CENTURY 21 brand, and we are taking this very seriously," a spokesperson from CENTURY 21 Excellence Realty told PEOPLE in a statement. “After investigating the situation and connecting with the respective broker, as all companies affiliated with the CENTURY 21 brand are independently owned and operated, we can confirm that this agent is no longer affiliated with the brand.”

Anna Overman created a GoFundMe campaign so that Ricardo could be compensated for the missing tip, and the response has been overwhelming, earning $23,000 in just three days. The outpouring of love wonderfully shows that the number of good people in this world far outweighs the bad ones. Overman noted the irony of people leaving a racist message at the restaurant. “In case it's unclear: THESE PEOPLE WERE EATING AT A MEXICAN RESTAURANT,” she wrote on the campaign’s website.

A week after the incident, on Sunday, March 9, Cazuelas is hosting an event to celebrate Ricardo’s hard work and present him with a check for the funds raised for him.

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Science

Stunning video shows a mouse giving ‘CPR’ to his unconscious buddy

Mouse to mouse resuscitation?

via Science

A mouse attempts to revive an unconscious friend.

We do the animal kingdom an enormous disservice when we believe that specific characteristics are limited to our species. Throughout history, it’s been assumed that humans were the only creatures on Earth to exhibit empathy, rational thinking, consciousness, and the ability to use tools. But the more we learn about other species, the more those assumptions have fallen by the wayside.

A new study from the University of Southern California shows that when a mouse encounters another unconscious mouse, it will aid the mouse in a way that resembles human CPR. The researchers accidentally observed this behavior while studying why a mouse’s tongue protrudes under anesthesia.

“They start with sniffing, and then grooming, and then with a very intensive or physical interaction,” Li Zhang, a physiologist at USC and one of the study’s authors, told New Scientist. “They really open the mouth of this animal and pull out its tongue.” The mice were also found to lick the anesthetized mouse’s eyeballs and bite its mouth as part of the care behavior. In more than half of the interactions, the mouse pulled the tongue out of the unresponsive partner to clear the airway. “If we extended the observation window, maybe the success rate could be even higher,” team member Huizhong Tao told New Scientist.

Do mice give CPR?

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The behavior looks a lot like CPR, but researchers are careful not to anthropomorphize or assume that the animal is behaving as a human would. Zhang says the behavior is more of an attempt to wake the unresponsive mouse up as if he were using smelling salts or a slap to bring them to consciousness. However, they believe that tongue repositioning is done to ensure the mouse’s airway is clear.

The study also found that mice familiar with the unresponsive mouse are more responsive to the animal. This could show that mice care more for those they are familiar with than those they have never met. “These findings add to the evidence that an impulse to help others in states of extreme distress is shared by many species,” neuroscientists William Sheeran and Zoe Donaldson wrote in a commentary accompanying the study.

The behaviors were driven by the release of oxytocin in the amygdala and hypothalamus regions of the brain. The hormone is associated with caring behaviors in various vertebrate species. James Burkett, a neuroscientist outside of the study research group, says that the release of oxytocin in the mouse’s brain is evidence of an “altruistic impulse” that appears to be born into mice.

The caring behavior exhibited by the mice has also been found in other species. Dolphins have been known to bring an ailing member of its pod to the surface for air when sick or injured. Elephants are known to support wounded or ailing relatives.

This study is another reminder that the line between human and animal intelligence and emotions is far blurrier than we think. The evidence continues to show that even species as small as mice—a species we call pests—have a natural impulse to help one another. The more we learn about the animal kingdom, the more we need to reconsider the uniqueness of many characteristics we call “human.”

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Modern Families

Millenials share their boomer parents’ 15 quirky (and frustrating) habits they just don't get

"They act jealous of us traveling but refuse to go anywhere."

via Canva/Photos

Boomer parents who don't like to travel, but say they do.

When it comes to intergenerational conflict, you never hear too much about Gen Z having a hard time with Generation X or the silent generation having beef with the baby boomers. However, there seems to be some problem where baby boomers and millennials just can’t get on the same page.

Maybe it’s because millennials were raised during the technological revolution and have to help their boomer parents log into Netflix. There’s also a political divide: Millennials are a reliable liberal voting bloc, whereas boomers are the target demographic for Fox News. Both generations also have differing views on parenting, with boomers favoring an authoritative style over the millennials' gentler approach.

A Redditor asked Xennials, older millennials, and younger Gen Xers born between 1977 and 1983 to share some quirks of their boomer parents, and they created a fun list of habits that can be both endearing and frustrating. The users shared that millennials are frustrated with their parents' abilities to use technology but are touched when they send them a greeting card.



Of course, it is reductive to reduce generations into a series of stereotypes, whether it’s millennials or baby boomers. But, for many, hearing that they aren’t the only person who gets frustrated with their boomer parents can be pretty cathartic and make them feel less alone.

Here are 15 boomer parent quirks that Millenials just don’t understand.

1. They save everything

"They save EVERYTHING (containers, jars, boxes, etc.) just in case they might be able to use it for something later. I feel like this habit was handed down from our grandparents' Great Depression upbringing."

"Absolutely! Shopping bags, empty yogurt containers, boxes that some product came in…..although I love me a 'good box!' I have all my iPhone boxes for no reason."


person using laptop attach to vehicle near green leaf plant during daytime Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash

2. Scary texts

"Will text something foreboding like 'we need to talk;' then turns out she forgot a recipe."

"My dad will text me 'You need to call me right now' when it’s nothing. And not tell me major life events until well after the fact. Like my aunt had a heart attack and I found out a week later from her son. (And my dad did know.)"



3. Stranger death toll

"My mom is ALWAYS telling me about dead people I’ve never met. I really do not care. I know that sounds awful, but I don’t have it in me to be sad for everyone on the planet when they pass."

“You remember my friend Carol? Her aunt had that above-ground swimming pool in her backyard. We swam in it a couple times one summer when you were about 9. Anyway, Carol’s mom just lost her brother-in-law. They were very close. Thought you’d want to know.”

4. They don't travel

"They act jealous of us traveling but refuse to go anywhere."

"Ooh good one. Mine act jealous of anything we do/buy that they can't solely because they can't get out of their own way and actually make things happen."


man and woman sitting on blue sofa Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

5. They print everything

"My Boomer FIL prints out EVERYTHING from his computer. I understand printing out instructions or recipes to help remember but do you really need a file cabinet full of forwarded emails from friends and sale adverts from 5 years ago? Oh well, at least he keeps it organized. Also, both TVs in the house run 24/7 playing reruns of 'CSI: Who Gives a Sh*t Anymore?'"

"I'm not on Facebook, but my dad is. Last year, he made a celebratory post on my birthday and all his church friends liked and commented on it. He printed up the post and all of the comments, stapled it into a little book, and MAILED me the printed Facebook comments..."



6. 'From, dad' texts

"My dad sends text messages with, 'From, Dad' at the end of them. It cracks me up every time. He also states who he is every time he calls me."

7. Irrational fears

"One quirk my dad had was that he was deathly afraid of the house burning down. Not from the standpoint of the danger of fire but when he was growing up, if your house burnt down, you were basically homeless and destitute. My mom is much more level headed about it. She always told my dad, that is why we have homeowners insurance."


A man in a hard hat inspects an electrical boxman in brown and white plaid dress shirt and yellow hard hat holding black and orange Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash

8. Expired food

"My mother-in-law doesn't throw out expired food. She has food in her pantry that is several years past their expiration dates. Same with condiments in her fridge. You just can't trust any of the food she has on hand because more than likely than not it's way expired. When we have brought this up, that she needs to throw some stuff out, she insists it's absolutely fine. It's not. "

"My grandmother is the same way. Once, she opened her refrigerator, and there was a jar of pickles with mold floating on the surface of the liquid. I pointed it out, and she said it was still good. She would just scoop the mold out at a later time. She has an incredibly strong stomach and immune system."



9. Smartphone addiction

"You always hear a kids 'these kids always on their damn phones.' But when it comes to phone addiction, boomers are far worse."

"My mom drives five hours to see us, then spends the whole time texting people from her church or looking at Facebook."

"I once sat in their living room for over an hour before they decided to put their phones down and speak to me, only to phub me and pick them right back up."

10. Rigid gender roles

"My dad still clings to the traditional division of 'men's/women's work.' He'll fix a car, do any outside work, clean out a clogged drain. Cooking? If it's any more complicated than making coffee or calling in a pizza, he can't/won't. I don't think he even grills anymore. Laundry? Hell no. Taking care of small children? He'll play with them but that's it."


A man stands over an open hood of a green carman in blue top fixing green car during daytime Photo by Elvis Bekmanis on Unsplash

11. The TV is constantly on

"In-laws leave the TV on for all waking hours. And FIL gets irritated if someone talks over the episode of MASH or Walker, Texas Ranger, that he's already seen 50 times. Like clenching his teeth and stomping the floor."

"TV on 24/7. Constantly flipping between some version of Law and Order, HGTV, and Guy Fieri. Asking me 'did you see that commercial where…' No mom. I don’t have cable. I don’t see commercials. All of the time."



12. They are always right

"My dad...he's has to be right about everything and doesn't know what to do if you beat him to the point on something. He once was giving me a recipe that required cinnamon, cardamon, and clove and told me just to use Pumpkin Pie Spice! It's the greatest thing! 'Dad, I don't need to. I have all those spices on hand (I bake)' But...no! You have to use this. 'No, I don't. I don't need to buy something that I already have" It happens all the time."

"My parents are always right and they are not impressed about anything."

13. Obsessed with the weather

"Yes, my dad should have been a meteorologist. He used to have a weather alert radio that would sound off in the middle of the night and he would watch the weather channel constantly. We all had to quiet down when your local weather forecast on the 8's came on. He gets really excited about severe weather like when we might get thunderstorms or a tornado."


Three people with umbrellas walk in the rainselective color photography of three person holding umbrellas under the rain Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

14. One more thing

"Without fail, every time I'm leaving my mother's house and backing down the driveway, she comes back out of her house and stops me to say something else, even though we'd just spoken."

15. Mail stress

"My mom has an anxiety attack during the entire journey of a package or piece of mail she dispatched to me. No, she doesn’t know how to track. She will not rest until she knows that a package has arrived or a nominal check has been cashed. She calls when she is thinking about sending something, when she sent it, when it’s en route, and when it’s expected to arrive. God forbid it’s late. And if I don’t issue a prompt thank you, she will guilt me."

This story originally appeared in January.
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