From Sean to Anne, these names confound speakers around the world.

To be a great fiction writer requires understanding basic story structures and being clever enough to disguise them so your audience doesn’t know they’re watching or reading something they’ve seen before.Academics suggest that there are only a finite number of plots and structures, but that number varies based on who’s doing the talking.Writer Kurt Vonnegut, best known for his satirical works on American politics and culture, including “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “Sirens of Titan,” was obsessed with the shapes of stories and summed up his views in one powerful sentence: “The fundamental idea is that stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads.”In the video below, Vonnegut explains why the shapes of three different types of stories, from “person gets into trouble” to “boy meets girl” to “Cinderella,” can all be summed up on two axes: the Y represents good and bad fortune, the X represents the beginning and end of a story.The first question is where the main character or protagonist starts their journey. Are they in a state of good or bad fortune, and how does that change from beginning to end? “Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it,” Vonnegut says with a smirk.The video is an intriguing look into the mind of a highly original writer and gives excellent insights into the basics of storytelling.This article originally appeared on 8.24.23

Few people manage to achieve the status of both Hollywood legend and human legend, but Dick Van Dyke is definitely one of them. The 97-year-old actor, dancer, singer and all-around showman blew away the audience and judges of "The Masked Singer" when he was revealed as the voice behind the enigmatic "Gnome" in the show's ninth season opener. Judge Nicole Scherzinger found herself crying at witnessing the reveal. "I love you so much. We love you so much. The whole world loves you so much," she said through tears. "I'm trying to, like, play it cool, but you look so gorgeous! You look so handsome!"Indeed, Van Dyke looks remarkably good for being three years shy of 100, and the fact that he's still got the energy to do a wild reality show is a testament to his vitality. He truly is #aginggoals personified. Van Dyke sang "When You're Smiling" by Frank Sinatra while disguised as a giant woodland gnome on the show. The judges were stumped. Who would guess a 97-year-old would come on "The Masked Singer"?As he shared with Entertainment Weekly, Van Dyke had a blast filming the show, despite having never seen it before being asked to participate."I looked at it on the air and it looked like fun," he told EW. "And I was so positive that nobody would ever guess it was me"He was tickled that people thought he might be Robert DeNiro and flattered that some thought he could be Tony Bennett. "But I knew that they couldn't guess who I was," he said. "I don't think they expected anybody from my generation to be on that show. So I knew I was gonna fool them. They were so surprised. I stepped out and everybody's mouths dropped open. I think some people thought I was dead."He even did a brief "old man" bit, showing he's still got those physical comedy chops.Watch the reveal:What a night for everyone involved, especially since very few people knew who was behind the Gnome costume. "The experience was weird, because they have to keep it a secret from the crew," Van Dyke told EW. "So I walked around with my head covered with people leading me. They've got a nice crew, but I never got to meet any of them!""I would say it's the weirdest thing I've ever done," he added. He also said he'd love to go back and "hang out" with the crew he worked with on the show that he didn't get to see. No doubt those crew members would be thrilled with the opportunity to spend time with such an iconic entertainer.What a gift that we're still getting to see Dick Van Dyke's bright-eyed smile and signature humor. May we all maintain such vibrancy, positivity and zest for life through our senior years.

Look, I get it. You’re there minding your own business, relaxing in the cool ocean waters, when out of nowhere—like, without even the common courtesy of the “Jaws” theme song to offer a fair warning—you find yourself right next to a shark. Your immediate response? SWIM AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Though this survival instinct is completely understandable, sit back and allow two experts to explain why that’s a bad idea. Kayleigh Grant and Andriana Fragola are both trained scuba divers who have had their fair amount of dealings with all sorts of aquatic creatures, including sharks. A recent video clip of theirs has been swimming around the internet because it perfectly demonstrates how to safely avoid a shark attack—using a real-life shark. On camera we see Fragola being approached by a tiger shark while in Oahu, Hawaii.Meanwhile Grant’s voice can be heard saying, “Andy is demonstrating why we do not want to splash and swim away from sharks.” She continued, “Splashing and swimming away imitates what prey does. When we’re dealing with top predators like sharks we want to also act like a predator.”So, instead of trying to swim away, we see Fragola calmly turn around and face the creature while maintaining eye contact. She even manages the bravest snoot boop of all time—reaching out and pushing the tiger shark’s nose to redirect it. Apparently this is strictly a “tiger shark” thing, so please don’t go trying this technique with a great white. And in case it’s not obvious: While it’s great that these two pros can offer tips for interacting safely with apex predators, it’s still maybe not the best idea to go seeking out these types of encounters. In fact, both divers repeatedly use the “do not attempt” disclaimer on many of their videos. This hack does come at an opportune time, considering the supposed recent uptick in recorded shark interactions along the United States East Coast, for reasons that are still under debate. However, Grant did advise in her caption that "just like bears and other predators,” sharks "typically want nothing to do with humans" and are "not the man-eating monsters the media portrays.”Both Grant and Fragola are passionate about shark conservation. Fragola makes handcrafted jewelry using removed fishing lines, and Grant offers underwater safari tours exploring reefs and sea caves.Plus, both their TikTok channels are full of breathtaking footage that’ll make you love and respect these toothy beasts. Check these out: @mermaid.kayleigh *I am a trained professional DO NOT ATTEMPT* One of my favorite ways for a #tigershark to approach is vertically. Every situation & approach from a #shark is different so you need to keep looking all around & anticipating a shark from any direction. ⚡️ ? @andriana_marine #savesharks #sharkdiver #sharkdiving #sharkdive #nikkithetigershark #hawaii #ocean ♬ solitude - favsoundds @andriana_marine #shark #ocean #scoochinrighthere ♬ original sound - jaycehardy @andriana_marine Replying to @maddie karis #ocean #shark #sharkdiver #thalassophobia ♬ Lofi - Domknowz Plus there's some bite-sized education: @mermaid.kayleigh Such a cruel & evil practice to torture & kill an animal without the intent to eat it! This must stop #hawaii ? #oceanicwhitetip #sharks #savesharks #sharkdiving #sharkdive #sharkdiver #diving #freediving #freedive #ocean ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show @andriana_marine Replying to @Ekp #shark #tigershark #sharkdiver #cuteshark ♬ Moon - Fernan Birdy And of course—it’s not all shark-oriented. Grant and Fragola’s channels are veritable treasure troves of aquatic gems. @andriana_marine #ocean #mermaid #siren #deepwater #thalassophobia #dive #mermaidmagic ♬ Siren - Filip Lackovic @mermaid.kayleigh Always so crazy to think about how much below me is #darkness ? the light rays are so beautiful at the surface though ? #ocean #deepwater #hawaii #bluewater ♬ Stranger Things - Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein Bless these gals for not only passing on valuable safety tips, but for sharing the ocean’s wonders with the rest of the world. This article originally appeared on 8.29.22

As if the past handful of years weren't challenging enough, the U.S. is currently dealing with a baby formula crisis. Due to a perfect storm of supply chain issues, product recalls, labor shortages and inflation, manufacturers are struggling to keep up with formula demand and retailers are rationing supplies. As a result, families that rely on formula are scrambling to ensure that their babies get the food they need. Naturally, people are weighing in on the crisis, with some throwing out simplistic advice like, "Why don't you just do what people did before baby formula was invented and just breastfeed?" That might seem logical, unless you understand how breastfeeding works and know a bit about infant mortality throughout human history.Rutgers University historian Carla Cevasco, Ph.D. shared some of the history of infant feeding in a viral Twitter thread to set the record straight. (Note: Cevasco provided sources for her facts, which can be viewed at the end of her thread on Twitter.)"You may be hearing the argument that before the rise of modern commercial infant formula, babies all ate breastmilk and everything was great," she wrote. "As a historian of infant feeding, let me tell you why that’s not true." First of all, throughout history, people have at times needed to feed infants using foods other than breastmilk. For many reasons: — Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312444 Cevasco explained that, throughout history, people have had to feed infants food other than breastmilk for a variety of reasons. "Sometimes the birthing parent was unable to breastfeed," she wrote, "Because: death in childbirth, or physical/mental health concerns, or need to return to work outside the home right after childbirth, OR their partner or enslaver forced them not to breastfeed so that they could return to fertility ASAP after giving birth. "Sometimes baby was unable to breastfeed. Because: poor latch, prematurity, cleft palate, other health or disability reasons, etc."Sometimes baby was being cared for by carers other than birthing parent, including adoptive parents." So, feeding baby other people\u2019s breastmilk wasn\u2019t necessarily an ideal situation either, given the power dynamics of race, class, and gender in the past. — Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312706 Cevasco went on to explain what babies ate instead of a parent's breast milk in those situations. "Sometimes someone else would breastfeed the child," she wrote. "This might have been a relative or neighbor doing it for free. Or it might have been a paid or unpaid servant or enslaved person doing it at the expense of their own nursing infant, who might starve to death as a result."She also explained that some babies thrived on alternative diets, which are not recommended today due to concerns about safety and nutrition. "Wabanaki women in the 18th century sometimes fed infants a mixture of boiled walnuts, cornmeal, and water; an English colonist, Elizabeth Hanson, reported that her baby thrived on this diet," she wrote. "In early modern Europe, babies often ate pap or panada, mixtures of animal milk or water, bread crumbs or flour. Sometimes these were boiled, sometimes they weren’t."However, she explained, those milk substitutes weren't always safe or nutritionally complete. "So before the advent of modern commercial formula (in the 1950s), a lot of babies died of illness or starvation because they couldn’t breastfeed and the alternative foods were not safe or adequate," she wrote. "Let me repeat that: in the absence of modern formula, A LOT OF BABIES DIED OF ILLNESS OR STARVATION DUE TO LACK OF SAFE OR ADEQUATE FOOD."As Cevasco illustrates, the idea that the pre-formula days were a bastion of infant health due to widespread breastfeeding is simply incorrect. Cevasco explained that better supports such as paid parental leave, free lactation consultation and education, better access to places to pump and so on, would go a long way toward increasing breastfeeding rates. She also pointed out that the greed of the corporate formula industry created the formula shortage crisis. "But! Let’s not demonize formula because of an imagined past in which everyone breastfed," she wrote. "In the ACTUAL past, babies fucking starved and died of disease. Babies who would have survived today, because they would have had access to safe, nutritionally complete formula. Access that is now, horrifyingly and unjustly, under threat for many babies and their caregivers." There will ALWAYS be people who need formula for a whole hosts of reasons. — Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652313204 Cevasco pointed out that there are multiple safe and nutritionally complete ways to feed a baby, and making sure babies don't go hungry should be our main goal. So many misinformed comments could be avoided with a basic understanding of what infant feeding looked like in the past, as well as a basic understanding of how breastfeeding works both physically and logistically. Let's spend more time informing ourselves and sharing facts from experts rather than continuing to perpetuate unhelpful and harmful myths about both breastfeeding and formula feeding. This article originally appeared on 5.17.22

Multiple news stories of people being stranded in the wilderness have circulated recently, from the tragic story of a family that died of heat exhaustion and dehydration in the California mountains to the odd story of a lost hiker who refused to answer phone calls from rescuers for 24 hours because they didn't recognize the phone number. And along with those stories has come a wave of viral posts sharing some wise-sounding advice for if you're ever stuck somewhere without cell service and a low battery. The problem is, the advice isn't wise after all. The viral post suggests changing your outgoing voicemail message to include your location. One version reads:"If ever lost while hiking, stranded with a broken-down vehicle or other emergency situation, if your cell phone battery is low here is a tip that can very well save your life. Change your outgoing voicemail on your phone to a message that gives your approximate location, the time, the date, your situation; lost, out of gas, car broken down, injured, etc... plus any special instructions such as; 'You are staying with the car', 'You are walking towards a town' If your cell phone dies, stops working or loses signal your voicemail will still be working. Anyone calling your phone will hear your emergency instructions. They will know you need help and know where to find you or where to send help."Sounds smart, but a Colorado rescue team has explained why it's not:The Alpine Rescue Team posted its response to the viral post on Facebook, writing:"1. Without a signal (connection to the cell system) YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR VOICEMAIL. The voicemail system resides with your cell provider. To change your outgoing message, you have to CALL into your voicemail and then navigate the menus, record a new greeting, confirm the new greeting, etc. YOU CANNOT DO THIS WITH NO SIGNAL.2. If your battery is low do not waste its power by calling your voice mail—or a friend or relative. Call 9-1-1 for help.3. If you have no signal, text for help to 9-1-1. Many, if not most, 9-1-1 centers can receive a text.4. Text takes much less power, is far more likely to get through, will automatically retry many times if you have spotty service, leaves record others can see and can give you an indication that it got thru. BTW, because of the automatic retries, you can compose and hit send on a text and then get your phone as high as possible to improve the chances of getting the message out.5. Stay put. Okay, if you're lost or broken down and you've called for help (assuming you have signal and battery) please stay in one location—UNLESS YOU MUST MOVE FOR SAFETY REASONS. Changing your location makes our job more difficult. Trying to reach someone whose GPS location we have (within a circle, of course) is faster for us than trying to nail down a moving target. STAY PUT.6. Maximize battery life. In order to make the battery last longer, turn off everything you do not need. Close all apps. Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth. Don't use your cell phone as a GPS/map device and especially do not use the compass if your phone has one -- the compass feature in some phones is a serious battery drain. Pull out your map and compass and/or use a dedicated GPS unit. You may be instructed, by text, to turn your phone off and text back at a specific time. Also, keep your phone just a little warm with some body heat or a handwarmer."Many people probably think of their voicemail greeting as a recording saved on their phone, but it's not. A fact-check by USA Today, which consulted the top three carriers (Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile), confirmed that cell service or a data connection is needed to change an outgoing voicemail message. You can do it over wi-fi, but that's not helpful if you're stranded on a mountain somewhere. You could change your voicemail greeting before you leave, letting people know where you're going to be adventuring if you feel comfortable with that, but once you're stuck without cell service, there's no changing it.As always, look for what the actual experts say before passing along a viral social media post, even if the advice it contains sounds smart. This article originally appeared on 10.30.21

In the Pacific Northwest, orca sightings are a fairly common occurrence. Still, tourists and locals alike marvel when a pod of "sea pandas" swim by, whipping out their phones to capture some of nature's most beautiful and intelligent creatures in their natural habitat.While orcas aren't a threat to humans, there's a reason they're called "killer whales." To their prey, which includes just about everything that swims except humans, they are terrifying apex predators who hunt in packs and will even coordinate to attack whales several times their own size. So if you're a human alone on a little platform boat, and a sea lion that a group of orcas was eyeing for lunch jumps onto your boat, you might feel a little wary. Especially when those orcas don't just swim on by, but surround you head-on. Watch exactly that scenario play out (language warning, if you've got wee ones you don't want f-bombed): This part of the video: The Sea Lion jumps back into the water, tries to jump back up when chased by the Orcas, and then finally goes back down. She was like, \u201cWelp... I got to go.\u201dpic.twitter.com/zmupEBwDaz — Jermaine (@Jermaine) 1632651277 Ummm, yeah. An orca sighting is one thing, but this is a whole other story. Orcas have been known to knock large prey off of icebergs, so the whole "orcas don't hurt humans" thing doesn't feel super reassuring in this scenario.The footage came from TikTok user @nutabull, whose now-deleted account stated she was from Vancouver Island.The second video is even more intimidating.The viral video sparked a debate about whether the sea lion should be kicked off the boat or not. The woman kept telling the sea lion it "had to go" with a frank "Sorry, buddy, that's life," message, though she never actively tried to push it off. Many commenters joked about yeeting the sea lion off the boat to avoid a potentially disastrous encounter with the orcas. Others were on #teamsealion, saying they wouldn't have the heart to boot the poor thing.The reality is orcas eat sea lions—the circle of life and whatnot. Most of us just don't find ourselves in the middle of that circle, having to figure out whether the apex predators surrounding our boat are going to patiently wait for their lunch to come back or take it upon themselves to bump it back into the water. Thankfully for the woman, the sea lion seemed to decide on its own that its options were limited and dove back in to take its chances with the orcas. But phew, that encounter would be harrowing for just about anyone. Best of luck, sea lion. Hope you're an exceptional swimmer. This article originally appeared on 9.20.21

Whether it's the middle of a chilly December or a mid-July heavwave, pretty much any family-oriented Christmas commercial is bound to evoke some emotion. But in 2020, a German ad company succeeded in taking it to another level. People are calling it the "world's best Christmas ad" and it went incredibly viral with more than 13 million views on YouTube alone—a bit of a surprise for a company few people outside of Northern Europe have ever heard of. But when you start with a mystery and lead viewers to a sweet conclusion that would make even the Grinchiest of hearts grow a few sizes, it's hard not to gain a wide audience.According to TODAY, the German ad agency Jung von Matt created the 2-minute spot for Dutch pharma company DocMorris. The storyline itself doesn't really have anything to do with pharmaceuticals, but that's the beauty of it. The ad opens with a scene of an elderly gentlemen looking at photos on his wall, then noticing someone hauling a Christmas tree. He appears to have an epiphany, then goes to pull a kettle bell out of his dusty garage. He can barely lift the kettle bell at first, but as the season changes from fall to winter, we see him get up each morning and engage in a newfound fitness routine. He seems fiercely determined as he lifts the heavy weight a bit higher each time before dropping it. He keeps putting a framed picture in front of him when he does his routine, giving viewers a clue that he's doing all of this for someone, though we don't know who. Neighbors notice him grunting through his lifts and seem a bit concerned. Someone calls his daughter, who shows up, says the only word spoken throughout the commercial—"Papa?"— then turns around and leaves after seeing what he was doing. Finally, we see the old man all dressed up and arriving at the same daughter's house for Christmas...and get an answer to the question of what he's been working up to. DocMorris Weihnachtsfilm #Herzensangelegenheit www.youtube.com Aw dang, right? All of that to build a Christmas memory with his granddaughter—one she'll probably remember long after he's gone.If you're wondering what the words say at the end, they translate to "So that you can take care of what really matters in life" and "Discover your health." Those phrases may have seemed cliche a year ago, but with the whole world reeling from a global pandemic—one that is particularly lethal to our elders—they are a good reminder that health enables us to fully engage in life. And now that our health is collectively intertwined, it's also a good reminder of who and what we are protecting by practicing public health measures and working toward ending the pandemic. Ads like this that resonate around the globe are the best, as they clearly touch on universal emotions and experiences. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, the significance of creating a meaningful moment between multiple generations in a family is something we all can appreciate. And since millions of families will be missing out on such moments this year—with the hope that missing out on them now will ensure more of them in the future—seeing this story play out is just incredibly moving.Danke schön, Jung von Matt. This article originally appeared on 12.23.20