America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but it lacks a few things compared to other countries. Why can’t America have a high-speed rail, a healthcare system that won’t bankrupt you, or super cool toilets like they do in other parts of the world? Why are we still tipping on every meal, and why can't you find a decent meat pie anywhere?The great American experiment has done pretty well for the past 249 years, but we still have some blind spots. It would be cool if a brave politician could one day make America truly great by poaching all the best ideas from around the world and creating the perfect country. Pedro Pascal City GIF by The Wild Robot Giphy A Redditor recently asked people on the AskReddit subforum, “What's one interesting thing you saw in another country that made you think, 'How does my country not have this?" The responses are a great starting point for this hypothetical leader to begin making the improvements we’ve all been dying for. Bidets? Yes, we can! French fries with gravy? Yes, we can! Beer at Burger King? Yes, we can!We compiled a list of the 15 most interesting things they have in countries that should be implemented in America, like, yesterday.15 cool things they have in other countries that we need in America1. Cashiers can sit down"I was an exchange student in Germany during my Junior year in high school. Right before I left, I had a job as a cashier at a grocery store. When I first went shopping in Germany, I thought, 'THEY GET TO SIT?! WHY COULDN'T I DO THAT?!' The only place that does this in the U.S. now is Aldi, which of course is a German company.""Corporations: 'It's a slippery slope. If we let cashiers sit, what's next? The federal government will make a law that says that pregnant women get time off, and we have to give them money? Fathers get paid time off, too? We let people stay home if they're sick, without a doctor's note? Employees get more than 2 weeks of vacation per year? We have to pay people enough to afford both food AND housing? Where does it end?!'" Why can't they just sit down? via Canva/Photos2. On-time public transport"I travelled everywhere in Japan by public transport. My Japanese was terrible, but I could get everywhere with Google Maps because of the utter reliability of the services. I turned up at the station or bus stop and caught the transport that presented itself. The train, which was 5 minutes early, was not my train. The one that was on time on the right platform was the one I needed to catch." 3. Fit-levers on faucets"I saw something similar in Mexico City, only it was a foot pedal to activate/flush a public toilet. This operation seems so much more sanitary than using a handle to flush a toilet.""You want two peddles: 1) to lower the seat (it should automatically lift back up unless it has a lid which auto-closes); 2) flush."4. Coupon crushers"In 1997, I was in Singapore and saw these things that looked like vending machines. It was a machine that you would take your empty pop can, and put it in this compartment, lift a handle to crush the can. It would then drop down into the machine. Then the machine printed out coupons for businesses in the area. I thought it was genius! I've never seen it anywhere else."5. Bidets"More Bidets, pls. My anus can only take so much tp.""Honestly, every person who has tried it has understood why I love them so much. It’s uncomfortable at first because it’s different, but it really does leave you feeling much cleaner." A bidet.via Canva/Photos6. Private public restroom stalls"Public restroom stalls without the stupid gaps in between the doors, and smaller to zero gaps on the bottoms of the doors."7. Server buttons"In South Korea, there were buttons on the tables to signal you were ready to order, pay, whatever. It meant no pushy or hovering waitstaff and they were able to chill and relax a bit when no one needed their help.""In Korea, they have a 'bing-bong' button on your table on a restaurant. If you need something, you press the button, your table number shows up on a screen by the server station, and they come over to your table. Usually, I just hold up my empty bottle or side dish and make eye contact from across the room, and they smile and bring me another one. Otherwise, the servers don't come by and bother you during the meal. It's so so so much better this way.""We have this at Korean BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles."8. French fries with gravy"In Canada, you can get French fries with cheese and gravy.""We have this in the US. If you're in the Jersey/New York area they're called Disco Fries."9. Free healthcare"Basically, your medical bills are paid for by your taxes, so when you go into the hospital, the only thing that ends up costing money is the parking. The drawback can be that there is a waitlist for some surgery (except when it's urgently needed to keep you alive), at this time, medical insurance can pay for it, but it's still not as expensive as in America. Also, depending on the country, your medication is also a fraction of the actual cost. For example, in America a box of medication I have to take would cost me about US$600 a month, here in Australia that same medication only costs me about US $15""Socialized medicine is only as good as the people implementing it. If it isn't working properly, that isn't really the concepts fault. It's the people running it." Free healthcare, anyone?via Canva/Photos10. Traffic light countdowns"In Germany, the traffic lights go from green to yellow to red like they do everywhere else, but after red, they light up red + yellow together before green. That way people have a head start getting ready to hit the gas and by the time it’s green you’re immediately moving forward. Bothers me more than it should when it just goes from red to green in other countries."11. The government does the taxes"Taxes filed FOR YOU, and the return just appearing in your bank account."12. Beer vending machines"Beer at Burger King" (One-upper!)13. Attached caps"This one's less exciting than a lot of others, but I bought a bottle of Coke in London, and when I opened it, I realized there was a little piece of plastic that held the lid to the neck of the bottle, so you don't have to hold it. I can't believe we don't do that in the US. It's such a tiny little thing, but it feels like a no brainer when you think about it.""That is due to a new law (an EU law, but a lot of brands have done it for their UK products too). Bottle caps have to be attached to the bottle to prevent them from being littered and to help ensure that they are also recycled along with the bottle."14. Meat pies"America, they are just not as big a thing here as they are in other countries. I loved them in New Zealand, in fact, when I was there, they had a fast food joint called Georgie Pie that was absolutely fantastic, also bakeries everywhere, where you could get them too."15. Clean public toilets"Clean, modern public toilets. I've been to Japan a few times, and those public toilets are amazing. I need to go back to try the one-way glass wall ones. (On a side note, having been to some Japanese music festivals, it seems that they have no problem setting up mens bathrooms in a way that the women line up looking directly into the men's bathroom. Very odd.) Clean public bathroom.via Canva/PhotosThis article originally appeared in June.

The presumed father of a newborn baby was skeptical of his paternity after the baby girl was born with blonde hair and blue eyes. He and his wife of two years have brown hair and brown eyes, so he thought there was no chance it was his child.The wife reassured her husband that they could have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby and that, quite often, a baby’s hair and eye color can change over time.But the husband “freaked out at this and refused to listen,” the wife wrote in a viral post on Reddit’s AITA page. Instead, he “demanded a paternity test and threatened to divorce me if I didn’t comply, so I did.” A fighting couple faces away from each otherCanvaThe man was so confident that after the baby was born, he moved into his mother’s house while he awaited the results of the DNA test. The wife stayed home with the baby and was helped through the first few weeks by her sister.To make things worse, the wife’s mother-in-law began to make threats. “My MIL called and informed me that if the paternity test revealed that the child wasn’t his, she would do anything within her power to make sure that I was ‘taken to the cleaners’ during the divorce,” the mom shared on Reddit.Finally, three weeks after the child was born, the DNA test results arrived and the husband came home to read them with his wife. “I was on the couch in the living room, so he sat next to me and we started to read the results,” she wrote. “They showed that he was the father and my husband had this shocked, kinda mortified look on his face with his eyes wide as he stared at it.” Man looks at his phone in disbeliefCanvaThe wife said, “I told you so,” and laughed in his face. In the post, the wife also notes she has “zero history” of cheating.Although it is rare for two people with brown eyes and brown hair to have a blue-eyed, blonde-haired baby, it is entirely possible. According to Verywell Health, there is a 19% chance that a couple with brown eyes can have a blue-eyed baby. And, as the wife noted earlier, a baby’s eye color can change over its first year of life.Further, two people with brown hair can have a blonde-haired child if both parents carry the recessive gene for blonde hair. The blonde hair may darken over time as well. A blond hair, blue-eyed baby looks at the cameraCanvaIf the father had done a quick Google search on the topic, he would have quickly realized that there was a very strong case that he was the father and the drama could have stopped before any damage was done to the marriage.The positive part of this story is that the wife’s post on Reddit earned her a ton of support from people who thought her husband’s antics were utterly inappropriate. The support probably also helped to put her husband's wild antics into perspective while she determined their future. The wife felt bad about laughing at her husband, but most people thought it was appropriate, given her husband's behavior.“Not only doesn’t he have a basic grasp of genetics, he threw a tantrum and left you immediately after having the baby to struggle alone for almost a month,” CrystalQueen3000 commented. “He’s lucky all you did was laugh in his face.” DNA sequencing from a paternity testCanvaA lot of commenters thought that the woman should leave her husband for accusing her of cheating and leaving her alone with the child.“Honestly, if my husband left me for weeks after giving birth due to a faint assumption like this, I would be done. I can't be together with someone who abandoned me when I needed them desperately,” Matakakiba wrote.This article was originally published last year.

Are you the type of person who always writes grocery lists by hand? Perhaps on the back of a receipt, in a special notebook, or on an index card? Do you insist on this method, even though you’re the only one in the store unfurling paper like an ancient scroll while everyone has their heads down, tapping away at their phones?Lists are undoubtedly important. In a poll, research revealed that the average British adult writes an average of three to-do lists a week—which, in some cases, can add up to 9,766 lists in a lifetime. “Evidently, we all rely on lists for one aspect of life or another,” commented Shahbaz Khan from STABILO, a high-quality pen and pencil company.But when it comes to the actual list-making, does the method in which you create it really matter? Apparently, yes. And your choice, handwritten or digital, can say a lot about your personality.If you prefer handwriting, you’re likely… To have a mind that operates like a filing cabinetIn 2024, two professors at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dr. Audrey L.H. Van der Meer and F.R. (Ruud) Van der Weel, found that handwriting activates more elaborate and widespread brain connectivity patterns compared to typing. They suggest that the physical act of moving your hand while writing creates spatial and temporal patterns in the brain that promote learning. media4.giphy.com In a similar study, Japanese researchers found that participants who wrote calendar events by hand on paper showed increased brain activity—particularly in memory regions—compared to those who recorded the same information on smartphones. The hand writers also recalled the information 25% faster than those who typed. Writing by hand triggers extra neural activity in regions tied to learning and memory. So, no matter how messy your handwriting might be, that grocery list might also be giving your memory a little work-out.To be naturally conscientious and understand the secret to successConscientiousness isn't the same as self-control or self-restraint—rather, it refers to a person's tendency to be organized, reliable, goal-directed, and self-disciplined. It's no surprise, then, that those who score highly in conscientiousness tend to be successful: they aim for high-profile outcomes and have the ability to develop well-thought-out plans to accomplish their goals.Comfortable getting tactileNothing quite compares to writing with your perfect pen. (By the way, what's yours? A Pilot G2-2? Uni-ball Vision Elite? Or perhaps something fancy, like the Squire Classic Pen from Baronfig?) It's a complete sensory experience as your pen glides across paper. This physical connection helps create a deeper engagement with the task at hand.To not buy on impulseYanliu Huang and Zhen Yang from the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University examined how handwritten shopping lists differ from digital ones. Their research showed that people who write lists on paper tend to make more planned purchases and fewer impulse buys. A woman looks at her grocery list in a supermarket. Photo Credit: Kampus Production/PexelsHowever, there are a few downsides to a handwritten grocery list…Let's face it: sometimes you can't read your own handwriting. When rushing, you might scribble illegibly, forget items, or leave the paper at home entirely. (Pro tip for forgetful hand-writers: snap a photo of your list before heading out, just in case.)Paper lists are also cumbersome to update on the go. Picture this—you've just remembered you need onions while backing out of the driveway, but now you're scrambling for a pen. Don't do this. Plus, paper lists make it difficult to coordinate shopping with other people.If you’re #DigitalForever, you’re likely… In a poll of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom, researchers found that when it comes to list-making, only 40% use their phones, while 63% write on notepads and 24% use sticky notes. So congrats—you're right in the middle!Extremely efficient and organizedYour phone is a miracle list-maker: people who use digital lists value practicality over sentimentality—they appreciate the power of automatic sorting, expense tracking, and integrated coupon features. These lists can be updated instantly and accessed from almost any device, making them the most efficient, streamlined option. People who use digital lists value practicality over sentimentality.Photo Credit: Jack Sparrow/PexelsSomeone who uses data to make decisionsBeyond expense tracking, many apps provide nutritional data, meal planning suggestions, and inventory management—helping you make smarter, healthier food choices. You're not just shopping anymore; you're strategically planning your nutrition.Collaborating with someone in the kitchenThe beauty of a digital list is that it can be shared with others in real time, allowing multiple people to add items seamlessly. This eliminates miscommunications and duplicate purchases while reducing paper waste and promoting environmentally friendly habits.The digital life has its downsides, too…Taking a break from your phone can be refreshing, but keeping your grocery list there means more screen time—potentially leading to digital fatigue or distractions from notifications and other apps. There's also the practical concern: what if your phone dies, you lose internet connection, or your service drops out while shopping?Grocery shopping can be such a treat. Whether you use digital lists, handwritten scribbles, or memory tricks to track what you need, there's no wrong approach. The “best” way to write a grocery list depends on you: your personal preferences, your lifestyle, and what works for your routine. Ask yourself, “What will make me feel the most organized and calm?” Then let your grocery list lead the way.This article originally appeared in June.

Choosing a baby name is both fulfilling and precarious. Many parents rack their brains trying to come up with the perfect moniker—one that honors their lineage, where they were born, the personality they’ll hopefully have, or all of the above. Obviously, no easy feat. To make things more complicated, more and more parents are experimenting with trendy or unique-sounding names, which at best can make their kid stand out, and at worse, leave them a bit isolated. When names sound like shapes: The Bouba/Kiki effectBut maybe relying on science could be a more reliable strategy. As author Bill Sullivan, Ph.D., explained in an article for Psychology Today, parents can incorporate a phenomenon known as the Bouba/Kiki effect to help ensure that a name remains appealing throughout a child’s entire life, simply because it will always be pleasant-sounding. Choose your baby's name wisely, they'll be stuck with it for a long time.Photo credit: CanvaThe term “Bouba/Kiki effect” emerged from a set of experiments in which people were presented with both a round and spikey shape, and asked to link the shapes to either the word “bouba,” or “kiki.” The discovery that people consistently agree that rounded shape = “bouba” and the spiky shape = kiki showed that people inherently make image associations for certain words. Collective synesthesia, if you will. Kiki denotes sharpness, where bouba denotes softness. www.labvanced.com What your baby’s name could say about their personalityThis concept applies to names as well. Sullivan cited a 2015 study which noted that "bouba," or round, smooth sounding names, like “Bob or Molly,” tend to get associated with "easy-going" personalities. Whereas kiki names, like “Kirk and Kate,” tend to sound more abrupt and could be more likely to be seen as “rude.” In 2022, Bodo Winter, an associate professor in cognitive linguistics at the University of Birmingham, and his team somewhat cemented this theory, after asking hundreds of participants to listen to a list of the 100 most popular names in the UK and the US, and then analyzing those emotional reactions. "Really? That's the name you chose for me?"Photo credit: CanvaThere was a clear winner: "Sophia," originating in Greece and meaning "wisdom." While one could argue that the list, which mainly used only names popular in the UK and the US, was somewhat limiting, the name spans many times and cultures, becoming "Sophie" in France and Germany and even "Safiya" in the Muslim communities. History and symbolism aside, what really makes Sophia pop comes down to the “soft start of ‘s,’ a roundness offered by the ‘o,’ and a smooth ending with the ‘ia,’” Winter stated. This combination results in universal pleasantness.If you’re curious as to whether or not your name is audibly pleasing, below are the 50 top ranking names for both boys and girls in the US, courtesy of My1stYears:The 50 best-sounding baby names in the U.S.1. Matthew, Sophia2. Julian, Zoe3. William, Everly4. Isiah, Sophia5. Leo, Riley6. Levi, Ivy7. Joseph, Paisley8. Theo, Willow9. Isaac, Ellie10. Samuel, Emily11. Miles, Evelyn12. James, Eva13. Elijah, Elena14. Luke, Chloe, 15. Noah, Nova16. Santiago, Penelope17. Owen, Lucy18. Logan, Lily19. Liam, Olivia20. Roman, Naomi21. Ryan, Emma22. Cooper, Natalie23. Jack, Sofia24. Maverick, Eleanor25. Anthony, Violet26. Ezekiel, Bella27. Carter, Luna28. Benjamin, Ella29. Lucas, Victoria30. Henry, Isabella31. Jacob, Maya32. Lincoln, Natalia33. Mason, Amelia34. Nathan, Savannah35. Asher, Charlotte36. Jackson, Stela37. Andrew, Hazel38. Cameron, Athena39. Alexander, Maria40. Theodore, Autumn41. Adam, Kennedy42. Gabriel, Aurora43. Kingston, Alice44. Daniel, Aria45. David, Harper46. Hunter, Serenity47. Dylan, Nora48. Muhammed, Grace49. Sebastian, Elizabeth50. Adrian, HannahIt probably goes without saying that our own personal preferences, among many other factors, might still influence what sounds appeal to us more (I for one prefer spiky names with a little gusto) but using the simple rules of linguistics could be an interesting, and perhaps less daunting, way for parents to choose a name that’s truly timeless.This article originally appeared earlier this year.

Welcoming a new baby into the world is always commemorated with a thoughtful baby shower to help new parents prepare. Family and friends not only invest time to attend the shower, but also money to grab the perfect (and often specifically asked for) gifts. On average, people spend between $30-$100 on baby shower gifts, according to U.S. News & World Report. To encourage her baby shower guests to spend less and have sustainability in mind, one new mom had a second-hand baby shower where everyone gifted her lightly used items. She shared her experience online with other moms who enthusiastically supported the idea. "Just wanted to share a second hand baby shower success! I can’t stand all the consumerism around having a new baby and the fact that it seems like every person gets every single item brand new at their baby shower that they’re going to only use for a few months," she wrote. "I have been to so many baby showers the last few years and seeing friend after friend all open the exact same things, brand new, that they will each only use for a few months gives me so much anxiety." See on Instagram She also offered details on how she made it happen, including how she created a registry. "What we ended up doing is creating a Google doc with everything that I needed/wanted for the baby. We shared it to all the guests as the 'registry' and gave them editing access so they could mark things off as they found them," she explained. "People brought me things from my list from their own babies, Facebook marketplace, garage sales, Secondhand stores, etc. Everything is in beautiful condition and honestly way nicer brands than we would’ve gotten if we were buying new!"The second-hand baby shower was a success, and she received everything they needed--leaving her and her partner ready to welcome their new baby without the need to buy anything new. "It was especially fun to hear about how many people had used certain items. We got a stroller that has now been used by at least eight children! And it’s still in great shape. Just wanted to share in case anyone is interested in something similar!" she added. - YouTube www.youtube.com Plus, she was able to pay it forward. "I also ended up getting WAY too much stuff. I sorted out the extra things and donated to a new mom that was in need on our Buy Nothing fb page," she also shared. Another woman shared her interest in hosting a second-hand baby shower and how she was rejected. "I asked my family about this and got immediately shut down ?. I'm happy it worked out for you. Maybe I can just refuse to make a registry, lol," she wrote, and was met with understanding from mom who threw a successful second-hand shower. "Okay mine weren’t on board at first but they got there!! Except my grandma but that’s okay haha." @newlifestyleabb Everything I thrifted for my best friend’s baby shower. ?☔️ When it comes to thrifting gifts, the things I lean toward getting are: - Clothes - Unique Toys - Nursery Decor - Books - Baskets and Organizers Sometimes new moms will use platforms like @Babylist which allow them to mark if they would except an item secondhand or not. Features like that are incredibly helpful! I hope this video inspires you to try thrifting a gift in the future. ♻️ #sustainability #thrifting #babyshowergifts #babyshower #ecofriendly #secondhand #thriftstorefinds In another exchange, a mom expressed safety concerns about having a second-hand baby shower, specifically about using second-hand car seats. "That sounds amazing! However I do want to say for safety reasons, you do need to buy a new car seat. Regular wear and tear render them unsafe after so long," she wrote. "Even a minor fender bender requires you to purchase a new one, and someone gifting you a used one means you don't know if it was in an accident, and you want your baby to be safe in case you were ever in one yourself." [The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sets regulations for car seats in the United States, and how to properly install them.] Other moms also expressed that they loved having a second-hand baby shower and gifting second-hand items."This is such a fun idea! I’m glad it worked out. I definitely got A LOT more second-hand items when I had my second baby, and I was delighted to pass them all on to other families when we were done with them," one mom shared. Another commented, "This is wonderful! We made a registry and encouraged friends and family to find items secondhand or regift us things they no longer needed. Everyone was so generous, and we received multiple comments about how relieved they were to be getting old items out of their house ?."

As Halloween creeps ever closer, there's an interesting, yet scary brain phenomenon gaining attention that has neuroscientists a tad puzzled. Imagine this: You're talking to a neighbor and there's nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly, their face gruesomely twists itself into something unrecognizable, morphing into—well, for lack of a better word—a demon or dragon face.Also referred to as "Demon face syndrome," its medical name is prosopometamorphopsia (say THAT three times fast), and it was first coined by British neurologist MacDonald Critchley in 1953.It sounds like something out of a horror film, but it's very real. In an 2014 study, four neuroscientists and psychologists—Dr. Jan Dirk Blom, PhDa, Iris E. C. Sommer, PhDc,d, Sanne Koops, MScc,d and the world-renowned Oliver W. Sacks, MDe—shared their case report in The Lancet Journal, entitled, "Prosopometamorphopsia and facial hallucinations." They discuss a 52-year-old woman who, in the midst of staring at a face, would experience something terrifying. "In just minutes, they (the faces) turned black, grew long, pointy ears and a protruding snout and displayed reptoid skin and huge eyes—bright, yellow, green, blue or red." This happened multiple times a day. - YouTube www.youtube.com Upon studying her case, they found she also experienced "occasional zoopsia," which is described as the sensation of "seeing large ants crawling over her hands." They say she was fully aware she was seeing hallucinations. In other words, she knew the phenomenon wasn't reality.After looking at her blood test results and extensive neurological exams, they found very little out of the ordinary, other than some "white matter abnormalities." The condition is rare, but usually attributed to occipital lobe functioning (the part of the brain that controls visual perception) or, in some cases, tied in with "epilepsy, migraine or eye disease."Years later, this complex disorder is still being discussed and diagnosed in a handful of studies—and it's still just as perplexing. In a recent article for Discover Magazine, writer Rosie McCall notes that the study was less about faces and more about being in the dark: “She saw similar dragon-like faces drifting towards her many times a day from the walls, electrical sockets, or the computer screen, in both the presence and absence of face-like patterns, and at night she saw many dragon-like faces in the dark.”McCall shares, "Further examples of prosopometamorphopsia (specifically) include individuals who see faces transform into fish heads, faces melting, and faces featuring a third or fourth eye. It has even been put forward that the art of Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon suggests they could have experienced the condition at some point in their lives." A Picasso painting www.publicdomainpictures.net Each step of learning about this is a jump down a new rabbit hole because prosopometamorphopsia happens to be part of a larger set of conditions called Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Those suffering from this condition might (for example) see only half a face, or perhaps faces and objects may appear larger or smaller than they are in actuality.Also known as Todd syndrome, Mission Health reports: "For English psychiatrist John Todd, who named the condition in 1955—AIWS is a neurological disorder associated with a set of symptoms that affect how you perceive your body and the world around you."In a video on SciShow Psych's YouTube channel, they make the distinction between people with this rare disorder and a drug-induced psychosis or a brain disorder like schizophrenia. "There's a key difference between these hallucinations and ones you'd experience for other reasons like drug use or schizophrenia. People with Alice in Wonderland syndrome always seem to KNOW they're illusions. They don't get confused about what's real and what's not." - YouTube www.youtube.com There are quite a few threads on Reddit dedicated to both PMO and its umbrella condition, Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Of the former, one Redditor shares a post writing, "A very rare condition known as prosopometamorphopsia (PMO) causes facial features to appear distorted. A new paper describes a 58-year-old male with PMO, who sees faces without any distortions when viewed on a screen and on paper but sees distorted faces that appear 'demonic' when viewed in-person."Hundreds of comments follow, noting the connection to prosopagnosia (face blindness) and other conditions. One commenter shares, "There’s a guy on TikTok who has a schizophrenia diagnosis. He has a therapy dog who is trained to 'speak' (bark) if someone else is actually in the room with the guy. If no one else is in the room, the dog won’t bark. So when this guy has a hallucination that someone else is there, one of the first things he does is he commands his dog to 'speak.' If the dog doesn’t speak, then he knows he’s got a hallucination going." See on Instagram Another adds, "I read about this through another source. 50% of the patients had lesions in their brain, meaning they had some sort of brain injury—seizures, fall, etc. Tinted colored glasses actually helped them stop seeing the distortions. One patient used a specific shade of green. Varies between patients."As for Alice in Wonderland syndrome, another Redditor asked if anyone had it. Many confirm they did, and lots of commenters linked it to having migraines.One person spun it in a positive light: "I didn't know it had this name until I was an adult. For me, I feel tiny and everything around me is giant and far away. It started as a kid, but I'm one of the people that never outgrew it. I still get it pretty frequently. Now I can control it to a point. I feel it and I can go in and out of the distortion as I want. It used to scare me but now I lean into the feeling because I like it."

When you think of the holiday that brings out generosity and good cheer, you don't think Halloween. But Christophe Waggoner of Austin, Texas, is trying to change that. On September 27, Waggoner held his annual nonprofit October's Child event, where he gave away over 2,000 free Halloween costumes for kids (and pets), as well as decorations. "This year we had four 10'x30' tents and four 10'x10' tents that we formed in a square," Waggoner tells Upworthy. "It was so crowded, it was so wonderful. As you can tell, I love this program and I am so happy more people get to share in those feelings."Waggoner had the help of a team of local volunteers, who welcomed families to try on costumes and bring them home to dress up on Halloween. It's a small luxury that he notes many families struggle to provide their kids, especially during tough financial times. Christophe Waggoner poses with Halloween costumes in front of his storage units.Image courtesy of Christophe Waggoner (used with permission) "While it's great to see the smiles on the children's faces, I'm most moved when I see parents get teary eyed or see them happy that they can give their child something they maybe didn't think they'd have the ability to do," he says. Waggoner began collecting costumes in 2016, and he gave them away from his garage. "When I did it the first year, I didn't have a lot--half a garage, one shower rod of costumes," says Waggoner. "But I was watching the kids, and they were laughing and giggling. It just made me feel good." Kids pick out free Halloween costumes at October's Child giveaway.Image courtesy of Nathan Richardson (used with permission)One of six kids, he says that he had a "wonderful childhood" in Arkansas, where his parents, "taught us right. They taught us to do stuff for other people."And after a fire destroyed the family home in 1976, Waggoner saw first-hand how his community rallied around them to provide housing, food, and more during their time of need. Fast forward, he adds that he always loved holidays—especially Halloween. During grad school, he would throw an epic Halloween party every year where he sent out "over 300 invites."Eventually, Waggoner noticed that people were always more generous around Christmas time—but not Halloween. "Nobody does anything [charitable] for Halloween," he says. "So I thought, why not give costumes to kids for Halloween? I feel like I found a niche." Kids pick out free Halloween costumes at October's Child event.Image courtesy of Nathan Richardson (used with permission)With a self-proclaimed "shopping addiction," he began thrifting costumes and decorations anytime he saw them. "I go to the Goodwills [around me] multiple times a week collecting," he shares.Eventually, he bought tents and two storage units--one for costumes and one for accessories (like wigs) and decorations. With the help of his friend Sam, who created a website, Waggoner officially made October's Child a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. He advertised the event within local Austin Facebook groups, the Nextdoor app, and flyers—and word has continued to spread.This year was October Child's biggest, and the first to offer pet costumes as well. "Size-wise go from newborn up to 3X, tiny dogs and cats to big dogs and cats," he says. "I'm very empathetic and very emotional. At this year's event, I broke down multiple times. It's just overwhelming the way things have gone." A woman poses with her small dog and free pet Halloween costume.Image courtesy of Nathan Richardson (used with permission) Now, word of Waggoner's work with October's Child has spread across the United States, with people reaching out to offer him more free costumes and donations. "I had a man reach out who is 69 years old," he says. "He shared that he remembered not being able to afford a Halloween costume growing up, and he wanted to make sure others kids never have to feel like that."To learn more about October's Child, click here.