The Peaky Blinders certainly weren't the first gang of their kind.

Actress and author Mariel Hemingway has quite the legacy. Her grandfather was the famed Pulitzer Prize– and Nobel Prize–winning author Ernest Hemingway. In fact, her family is full of writers, actors, painters, and opera singers. Like her grandfather, she came by her own talents at a cost. Many of those gifts in acting and writing came with deep mental anguish. While Hemingway continues a successful career onscreen—she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a teen for her role in Manhattan—she is also a writer. In exploring her complicated family struggles, she never seems to shy away from stripping away any semblance of ego. This is reflected in her work, where she bares vulnerable parts of life: mental health, depression, and most recently, aging. View this post on Instagram Her prose poem resonated with women everywhere In a recent Instagram post, she shared a close-up photo of her face—no smile and perhaps just a dash of makeup. With Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” underscoring the photo, she wrote: “I have been talking about aging lately. But today it is not aging. It is wrinkles. The lines around my mouth I swore I would never have.The soft crepe skin at my neck that seems to appear overnight.The mirror catching me in light I did not ask for. Some days I do not care. Other days it feels like a punishment. I eat well.I move my body.I take care of myself.I do the things we are told will protect us. And still… time touches my face. There is a voice that whispers,Why this? Why me? Why now? View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mariel Hemingway (@marielhemingway) I know it is fashionable to say we earned our wrinkles.That this is graceful.That this is beautiful. And yes… part of me knows that is true. But another part feels something deeper. What I realized is this. The ache is not about the wrinkles. It is about identity. Somewhere along the way we start to believe the mirror is telling us who we are. That youth equals value.That smooth skin equals worth.That beauty equals belonging. And that is the lie. Because there is a woman inside of me who has not aged one day. She is calm.She is radiant.She is grounded.She is sovereign. She does not disappear because my skin changes. She was never my skin. She is my rhythm.My breath.My voice when I stop performing. Time changes the body. But it does not touch the throne. When I remember that, something softens. I stop fighting the season.I stop punishing myself for nature.I stop confusing appearance with identity. This is not about pretending you love every wrinkle. It is about remembering you are not the wrinkle. It is not what you add. It is what you remove. Remove the belief that beauty is youth.Remove the fear that aging equals invisibility.Remove the story that your value lives in your face. When there is nothing left to remove, the Queen remains.” Fans respond Her prose has clearly resonated with fans. More than 92,000 people liked the post, and over 5,000 have commented so far. Famous and non-famous Instagrammers alike chimed in to share how touched they were. Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin exclaimed, “Yes! Exactly what you said. We are not allowed to age, at the same time men are elevated as they age, for their sage wisdom.” Comedian Chelsea Handler simply wrote, “Beautifully said.” Another woman shared a personal anecdote: “Last Sunday was my 70th birthday. I looked into the mirror and cried tears of joy. Lines and dark spots? No! They were tears of joy, gratitude, and for my life. If you make it this far, it’s for a reason. Life is so worth living. Who cares what I look like? I’m covered in paint every day anyway!” View this post on Instagram It’s beautiful to age Hemingway is far from the first woman to openly discuss the beauty standards seemingly placed on women in society. In a recent appearance on the podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, actress Kate Winslet didn’t hold back. “We’re so conditioned, women in our 40s, to think, ‘Okay, well, I’m creeping closer to the end,’” she said. “You know, you think you go into menopause and you’re going to stop having sex, and your boobs are going to sag, and your skin’s going to go crepey, and all these things.” She continued, “First of all, so what? And secondly, it’s just conditioning. You know, I think women, as they get older, become juicier and sexier and more embedded in their truth and who they are. More powerful and more able to walk through the world and care less.” It can seem easier said than felt. Luckily, many women are feeling more empowered to get raw thanks to celebrities using their voices. The post Mariel Hemingway’s emotionally raw poem about aging is hauntingly beautiful appeared first on Upworthy.

Voltaire was an 18th-century French philosopher, writer, and one of the most important voices of the Enlightenment. His works challenged authoritarianism and championed freedom of religion and speech. His beliefs in civil liberties and individualism inspired American revolutionaries such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, helping shape the ideals behind the Declaration of Independence. Julian de Medeiros, a popular TikToker who also writes about philosophy on Substack, recently shared how Voltaire could tell whether someone was highly intelligent. His observation suggests that sometimes those who don’t speak know far more than those who can’t keep their mouths shut. Signs that someone is highly intelligent, according to Voltaire “Here’s how you know that someone is smart, like highly intelligent, and this goes back to a simple maxim from the French thinker Voltaire, who wrote, ‘Judge a man not by his answers but by his questions,'” de Medeiros said in a TikTok video.  @julianphilosophy Simple sign of intelligence #intelligence #smart #wisdom #growth ♬ original sound – Julian de Medeiros “What he meant, and I think this is so important, is that the more intelligent someone is, the more they listen. The more they want to learn and grow each and every day. They have an innate curiosity,” he continued. “As Plato put it, ‘An intelligent person speaks when they have something to say, but an unintelligent person speaks because they have nothing to say.’” An intelligent person also knows how to ask the right questions to learn as much as possible from the person they are talking to. A teacher writing on the blackboard. Photo credit: Canva Studies show a deep connection between intelligence and curiosity Voltaire’s thoughts on intelligence make a lot of sense. Curious people seek out new information. They ask questions, read books, take things apart, and make connections between ideas that may not be apparent at first. Studies show it starts early: infants seen as curious were more likely to grow up to be intelligent adults. Albert Einstein was a true believer in curiosity. He once said, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious,” and was also famous for urging people to “never stop questioning.” Albert Einstein. Photo credit: Archivo General de la Nación/Wikimedia Commons Adam Bryant, a columnist for The New York Times, interviewed 525 CEOs and found that curiosity was the most important quality: “[Curiosity] means trying to understand how things work, and then trying to understand how they can be made to work better. It means being curious about people and their backstories. It means using insights to build deceptively simple frameworks and models in their minds to make sense of their industry—and all the other disruptive forces shaping our world—so they can explain it to others. Then they continue asking questions about those models, and it’s those questions that often lead to breakthrough ideas.” Ultimately, curiosity can be seen as a source of fuel and energy for the mind. You can have an incredible brain that’s great at storing and making sense of complex ideas, but without a constant stream of information and input, it’s like a sports car with no driver. The post The one sign that someone is highly intelligent, according to legendary philosopher Voltaire appeared first on Upworthy.

The English language is full of idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies that can drive English learners batty. But even for native English speakers, some words and phrases can cause confusion in ways they may not expect. For instance, not only are there English words that mean opposite things depending on how they are used (called contronyms), but there are also words and phrases that have opposite meanings depending on where they are used. A person holding an American flag and a person holding a British flag. Photo credit: Canva. Evan Edinger moved to the United Kingdom 13 years ago. He shares videos on YouTube about his experience as an American living in the U.K., including linguistic differences. For instance, saying the food in London is “quite good” may sound like a compliment, but it would likely be received as a bit of an insult by Londoners. “English is full of words that quietly flip meaning when you cross the Atlantic,” he says. “Words that you think sound polite or a compliment, like this one, can really land you in hot water if you use them across the pond.” “Quite” That’s because Americans generally use “quite” as an intensifier. If something is “quite good,” we see it as better than just “good.” For Brits, “quite” is often used as a dampener, so “quite good” can mean less good than simply “good.” “With all due respect…” Other opposite meanings are less subtle, like the phrase “with all due respect.” “I’ve lived in this country for over 13 years, and I’ve only found out this year, Brits do not mean this when they say it,” shares Edinger. “When an American says, ‘With all due respect,’ it’s usually just a polite way to pad out some criticism. ‘With all due respect, I think we should do it this way instead.’ Basically, ‘I respect you. I do. But I do disagree with you in this instance.’ In Britain, they say the same words, ‘with all due respect,’ but the implication is that they actually don’t respect you or your opinion at all. The amount of respect that you’re due? That’s in question. ‘With the respect you’re due,’ which, of course, is nothing.” Can we just all admit that when someone says "With all due respect" they don't respect them at all?— Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) October 17, 2024 “I’ll bear that in mind…” It’s a bit similar with “I’ll bear that in mind.” In the U.S., that usually means you’ll consider it and might actually do it. In the U.K., it more often means you have no intention of doing it and have probably already forgotten it. “Though diving deeper into the data, it would appear that Americans in the Northeast are significantly more likely to share the British stance,” Edinger adds. “I think that makes sense, actually. But overall, American culture prioritizes direct communication. If they like your idea, an American will probably tell you. Same as if they dislike it, you’ll know. As a lot of British culture emphasizes indirectness and not causing offense, expressions like, ‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ act as a polite way of refusing an idea without outright saying it to soften the blow.” To “table” something If you’re an American and you hear “let’s table that discussion,” it means, “Let’s not talk about this now. We’ll come back to it later, if we have time.” For Brits, it means, “Let’s talk about this right now.” “This is one expression that causes a lot of confusion in international meetings,” says Edinger. “In British English, to table a motion or an issue means to bring it forward for discussion. For instance, if an item is tabled in parliament, well, it has been figuratively put on the table to be addressed immediately.” In the U.S., it’s the opposite. “In both houses of the United States Congress, the motion to table is used to kill a motion without debate or further discussion,” he says. “Quite interesting that both countries’ political bodies have the same word that means quite literally the very opposite. It’s quite literally the difference between, ‘Well let’s talk about this immediately. It’s really important,’ and ‘Let’s never speak of this again.'” A “moot point” For Brits, a “moot point” is a point that’s debatable—something that can be argued either way, which aligns with its original meaning. A moot was an Anglo-Saxon assembly or court, so a moot point is one that would be argued there. For Americans, a moot point isn’t debatable—it’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. There’s no point in debating it at all anymore. (Or, as Joey on Friends would say, “Like a cow’s opinion.”) View this post on Instagram How did we end up with such an opposite meaning? Edinger explains: “Often, an important part of law school is arguing hypothetical cases in a moot court for practice. It’s similar to a mock trial. So, a moot point would be a point brought up in a moot court. During the 19th century in America specifically, this evolved more to focus on the hypothetical nature of the moot point.” Edinger points out that even the Supreme Court of the United States uses the term “moot question” to refer to a question that has no bearing on an issue. Solicitor In the U.S., when we hear the word “solicitor,” we usually think of a door-to-door salesperson or someone who knocks on the door trying to persuade us to buy something or believe something. People often hang “No Solicitors” signs on their front porches to deter them. A “No Solicitors” sign hangs on a door. Photo credit: Canva A “No Solicitors” sign in the U.K. might be confusing, as a solicitor is not a salesperson but “a qualified legal professional who provides specialist legal advice on different areas of law and is responsible for representing a client’s legal interests.” Americans would call them lawyers, but in the U.K., a lawyer could be anyone working in a law-related role. Public school A solicitor in the U.S. probably went to public school, and a highly regarded solicitor in the U.K. also probably went to public school, but the term means something completely different in each country. In the U.S., a public school is a free school funded by the government that anyone has the right to attend. In the U.K., a public school is one of the prestigious, selective, and expensive private boarding schools attended by the children of wealthy families. The famous Eton College is a public school in the British sense, but not at all in the American sense. In Britain, the secondary school you attended is often considered a lot more important than the university you attended.For instance, attending prestigious "public schools" like Harrow, Winchester and Eton signals you are of a "higher class".— Onye Nkuzi (@cchukudebelu) August 8, 2025 To make matters even more confusing, what Americans call public schools, Brits call state schools. In the U.S., we usually use “state school” to refer to public universities. Momentarily If a pilot announces, “We’ll be landing momentarily,” Americans understand that to mean “very soon.” But for Brits, that sentence might be confusing, since “momentarily” means “just for a moment.” As in, maybe the plane will touch down and then immediately take off again. It’s the difference between “in a moment” and “for a moment,” which may not seem huge but could lead to big misunderstandings. It just goes to show that even when we speak the same language, there’s plenty of room for miscommunication. You can follow Evan Edinger on YouTube for more. The post Expatriate reveals 8 words and phrases that mean the opposite to Brits and Americans appeared first on Upworthy.

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