Michael J. Fox announced his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 1998, seven years after he learned he had the disease. He was only 29 when he was diagnosed and didn’t want to publicly disclose his illness, fearing it might hinder his career. As the disease progressed, Michael and his wife, Tracy Pollan, were raising their four children, and he decided to step away from acting in the early 2000s. In 2020, he officially retired but recently made his way back for the AppleTV show Shrinking. In the show, Harrison Ford plays Dr. Paul Rhoades, a therapist living with Parkinson’s disease. Michael J. Fox joined the cast in 2025. A move that he told The Hollywood Reporter changed his life. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hollywood Reporter (@hollywoodreporter) Michael J. Fox Believes Acting Has Improved His Quality of Life Michael J. Fox, 65, told the news outlet that returning to acting has helped him in many ways. “It’s really prolonged my life and made my life interesting in a way that I didn’t think it would be to this point,” he said. He added that things are on his terms, not his disease’s. “I’m not retired from acting,” Michael J. Fox said. “But if I didn’t act again, it would be for a very good reason. I let Parkinson’s make decisions for me.” Michael J. Fox’s role in Shirking earned him an Emmy nomination. He’s proud of that work and looks forward to seeing where the role takes him. “This was the first time I played someone interacting with someone else who had Parkinson’s,” he explained. “He [Ford] was happy that I was sharing my experience with him as a character and helping him do what he needed to do.” This story’s featured image is by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Things are about to get Spricy at Coca-Cola. In 2024, the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new flavor in North America. Coca‑Cola Spiced and Coca‑Cola Spiced Zero Sugar became part of the brand’s portfolio in the spring. “We know consumers are more and more willing to experiment with new and unique flavors,” Sue Lynne Cha, Marketing VP, Coca‑Cola Trademark North America, shared at the time. “Coca‑Cola Spiced is not spicy, but it’s our boldest innovation yet. It’s Coca‑Cola with an unexpected, extraordinary twist.” Coca-Cola Spiced lasted just a few months before the company pulled it from the market, per CBS News. The company recently filed to trademark the word Spricy, and the world has people excited. If it were up to yours truly, everything would have a little extra spice. Nothing too crazy, just enough to wake up your taste buds like one of those sunlight alarm clocks.Read more: https://t.co/qb91vTIJRo pic.twitter.com/MzyabZK1Wo— FOX40 News (@FOX40) July 24, 2026 Coca-Cola and Spricy Could Mean Lots of Different Things Gerben Law reported that Coca-Cola filed for the Spricy trademark in July 2026. Per the law firm, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will spend the next several months making sure that Spricy is up for grabs. If it is, Coca-Cola could begin marketing a new drink under the moniker. “If no conflicting trademarks are found, the application would receive a conditional approval. However, because the filing is based on Coca-Cola’s stated intent to use the mark rather than current commercial use, the company would ultimately need to begin selling products under the ‘Spricy’ name before the trademark can be fully registered,” Gerben Law explained. “For now, the filing offers one of the clearest indications yet that Coca-Cola may be exploring another spicy-themed beverage concept.” We don’t know about you, but when we think Spricy, it sounds like a Spicy Sprite to us. Could Coca-Cola have something in our hands by the holidays? Only time will tell, but this sounds pretty darn exciting. This story’s featured image is by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

All things old are new again, and the same goes for classic recipes. For those who grew up during the 1970s (that’s Baby Boomers and Generation Jones), staple dishes that were served at the dinner table are being rediscovered on Reddit by newer generations looking for filling, comforting, and affordable meals. According to JSTOR, actress Liza Minnelli first coined “comfort food” back in 1970. Minelli told food columnist Johna Blinn, “Comfort food is anything you just yum, yum, yum.” Meals from the 1970s are nostalgic and also budget friendly. Try making one of these comforting recipes from Redditors that will fill you up and not break the bank. Can anybody please share any recipes for dinner from the 1970s? byu/WeirdoFromHighSchool inOld_Recipes 14 dishes worth remembering Tuna casserole “I LITERALLY made a tuna casserole last night & had the leftovers for lunch today.” – Disastrous-Soup-5413, RogerClyneIsAGod2 Turkey (or chicken) tetrazzini “Tetrazzini is a creamy pasta dish with turkey (or chicken) chicken, mushrooms, and cheese.” – Disastrous-Soup-5413 Liver and onions “Liver and onions, mashed potatoes and a green salad made with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes cut in wedges, cucumber slices .. peeled and miracle whip salad dressing.” – Kaktusblute Quiche Lorraine “A family favorite quiche recipe from the 1970’s. The secret? Half a cup of mayonnaise and an unreasonable quantity of cheese. My mom uses sweet onion instead of green onion, but otherwise made as written: 1/2 c. real mayonnaise1/2 c. milk2 eggs1 Tbsp. corn starch1 1/2 c. cubed cooked ham1 1/2 c. (about 1/2 pound) chopped Swiss cheese1/3 c. sliced green onionDash pepper1 unbaked 9″ pastry shell Mix together real mayonnaise, milk, eggs and corn starch until smooth. Stir in ham, cheese, onion and pepper. Turn into pastry shell. Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top and knife inserted comes out clean.” – banoctopus Cheese fondue “For fondue, you can go in a few different directions. Cubed crusty bread is one of the classic ways to dip into cheese fondue, but you could use fruits, vegetables, chunks of cooked or cured sausages, so long as they will keep their structural integrity.” – Bluecat72 More retro recipes worth trying Meatloaf and baked potatoes “A basic meatloaf is ground beef, minced onions, bread crumbs, an egg and a squirt of ketchup for moisture, salt, pepper, garlic powder.. whatever you like. Get your hands in there and squish it all together until thoroughly mixed. Form into a vague loaf shape on a pan and bake at 350 for an hour. Poke a couple potatoes with a fork and cook them in the microwave for 5-7 minutes. Enjoy a meatloaf sandwich with mustard for lunch the next day.” – yblame Pork chops with rice and cream of mushroom soup “Brown the chops, take them out of the pan, pour in rice, soup and water, stir to combine. Put the pork chops on top. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Tossed green salad: iceberg lettuce, chopped scallions, tomatoes, cucumbers, Wishbone Italian Dressing.” – hicjacket Salmon croquettes “Salmon croquettes were a staple of my childhood. Canned salmon, saltine crackers, and an egg. We called them croquettes but naw, they were shaped into salmon patties.” – DazzlingBullfrog9, throwawaytodaycat Mexican casserole “Brown ground beef, stir in a can of tomato sauce and 1 sliced green onion. Mix together a cup of sour cream, a cup of cottage cheese and a can of chopped green chilies. In a 9×13 pan, layer crushed tortilla chips, meat, cream mixture and grated Colby-jack or Colby cheese. Repeat layers. Bake until hot and bubbly.” – Open-Gazelle1767 Hamburger Stroganoff “One pound ground beef, 1 package Lipton onion soup mix, 1 can cream of mushroom or chicken soup, sour cream. Brown the ground beef, stir in the can of soup and soup mix. Stir in the sour cream until it looks right…I think it’s a half pint, but maybe a whole pint. Serve over rice for the 2 kids who eat rice and egg noodles for the one kid who doesn’t.” – Open-Gazelle1767 A few more classics to round it out Shake ‘N Bake Chicken “Shake’n Bake chicken or pork chops. ‘And I helped!’ Preheat oven to 400F. Moisten chicken with water. Place breasts in Shake-n-Bake shaker bag. Shake the bag vigorously to coat the chicken. Bake for 20 minutes if boneless, 45 minutes if it does have bones.” – Karin58 @allrecipes Where are all the Shake n Bake girlies? Today @nicolesperfectbite is showing you how to make this classic bread coating at home—and dare we say better than the original? #instafood #food #foodie #shakenbake #bake #chicken #breadcrumbs #paprika #garlic #onion #powder #meat #breading #bread #easy #easyrecipe #recipe #quickandeasy #weeknightdinner ♬ Chill Vibes – Tollan Kim Grilled cheese and tomato soup “Still my favorite thing to eat, but now I make my own tomato bisque, my own bread, and use Gouda or cheddar. Back then Mom made this for Friday lunch: Campbell’s tomato soup (made with milk) and the grilled cheese was two slices of five-loaves-for-a-dollar white bread with Velveeta, grilled with Miami Maid margarine in the Revere Ware skillet.” – Mindless_Pop_632, mulberryred Pork sausage and rice “I grew up in the 70s and my mother made this sausage and rice dish at least once a month. The recipe is from Peg Bracken’s I Hate To Cook Book. Crumble 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of pork sausage (hamburger will do, but pork is better) into a skillet and brown it. Pour off the fat. Add: 1 green pepper, chopped2 green onions, chopped2 or 3 celery stalks, chopped2 c. chicken consommé or bouillon1 c. raw rice1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce1/2 tsp. salt Put on the lid and let it simmer at lowest possible heat for 1 hour.” – officerbirb Sloppy Joes “Classic Sloppy Joes. My family had these regularly in the ‘70s.” – ThatPtarmiganAgain The dishes worth bringing back At the end of the day, there’s a reason these recipes keep resurfacing on Reddit decades after they first showed up on dinner tables. They’re cheap, they’re filling, and they taste like someone’s kitchen, not a restaurant trying to impress you. You don’t need fancy ingredients or a complicated technique to make a meal that people remember. Sometimes all it takes is canned salmon, a box of Shake ‘N Bake, or a can of cream of mushroom soup, and forty-five minutes before dinner’s on the table. This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post 14 comfort meals from the 1970s that are still delicious and affordable appeared first on Upworthy.

Visiting different states within America can sometimes feel like traveling to a completely different country, given the significant cultural differences and accents. Visiting parts of Louisiana may make you feel like you require a translator to navigate your vacation, as people often speak Creole or Cajun, both of which have very thick, unique accents. Southern Mississippi also has a mishmash of accents that range from Cajun to a non-distinct regional accent. But one thing North Carolina has in common with states like Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana is that they all have a range of southern colloquialisms that translate fine between southern states. It’s when those creative southern phrases make their way above the Mason-Dixon Line that causes some confusion. Many southerners who travel north for work, pleasure, or relocation adapt quickly to not using uniquely southern phrases after experiencing looks of bewildered confusion. Oftentimes, southerners don’t even know where their beloved and well-used phrases originated or why. As far as a Google search pulls up, there’s never been a child born in the world who has ever been small enough to be “knee high to a grasshopper,” but that’s not going to stop PawPaw from saying it. People who are used to hearing the sometimes outrageous phrases simply interpret them themselves and add them to their own lexicon for future use. General Southern expressions to keep in your pocket 1. “You don’t believe fat meat is greasy.” This is an expression often used when someone is intent on not listening to advice. It essentially means they won’t believe it until they see or experience it themselves. We all know someone who has to learn lessons the hard way, and this is the saying that conveys that message without sounding harsh. 2. “The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” A phrase like this is used a lot by elders. It just adds a little dramatic flair when they’re making plans. In a conversation, it would go like this: “So, I’ll see you next Sunday at the potluck, right?” There may be a pause for emphasis along with a fist perched on their hip before responding, “The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” Just know they’ll be there as long as they wake up in the morning and there’s no natural disaster preventing them from getting there. 3. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” This particular one is a phrase my husband uses often. It is often said by men doing manual labor, whether it’s at work or around the house. If someone is trying something that isn’t working, they have to come up with a better idea of how to make it work. If the original person pushes back on trying it a different way, that’s when you’ll hear, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” To date, no one has skinned a cat to prove a point, that I’m aware of, but there’s debate on its origin. It’s believed to come from a phrase used in the mid-1600s in England, “There’s more than one way to kill a dog than hanging.” Eventually, it got changed to the cat idiom southerners say today, though some suggest the phrase came from when women’s coats were made from cat fur…(that’s information you can’t unlearn). Either way, as someone who has lived in the south for more than 20 years, you can rest assured that the only people skinning cats down here are taxidermists with the pet owner’s permission. Just know they’re saying there’s more than one way to get the job done. 4. “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.” This is just a fancy way of telling someone not to lie to you. 5. “Well, you look rode hard and put up wet.” Honestly, if someone says this to you, you’re looking mighty bad. This means not only do you look exhausted, but you also look disheveled, and maybe even ill. When people say this, it’s not meant to be rude. They’re typically genuinely concerned about your well-being, whether it be that you appear to need a break or you need to rest and get some soup in your belly. And the hits keep on coming 6. “P*ss or get off the pot” and “Fish or cut bait.” These two phrases mean the exact same thing. They’re calling out someone’s lack of progress and can be applied to all sorts of situations. It means to do what you’re supposed to be doing or get out of the way so someone else can do the job you won’t. By the time someone says this, they’re a little annoyed, so it’s best to go ahead and “pee or get off the pot” before they move you over and do it themselves. 7. “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit.” You can stick this in the same category as, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.” It’s meant to convey genuine surprise and delight in information they’ve just received or upon seeing someone they haven’t seen in a while and weren’t expecting. It’s a fun one to say, even outside of the South, due to the humorous element. 8. “I’ve got a hitch in my giddy-up” You’ve got a limp due to hurting yourself somehow, or you’re feeling under the weather in some way that’s slowing you down. 9. “Why, bless your little pea-pickin’ heart.” Ouch! You’ve just been insulted, and they wanted to make sure you knew. “Bless your heart” on its own can be said in a condescending way or a genuine, “I’m so sorry you’re going through this” way. Using tone and context clues can help you decipher the difference. But when they add “little pea-pickin” right in the middle of the phrase, go grab some ointment because that was meant to sting. 10. “I’m going to snatch her baldheaded.” Whoever is the target of that comment should probably avoid being around the person making it. See also, “I’m going to jerk a knot in her tail.” When it’s an adult directing the comment at another adult, it could simply mean they’re going to have a verbal confrontation. But, depending on the person, it could also mean physical confrontation because that is not off the table in Southern culture. If it’s a parent directing the expression towards their child, then it usually means that the child is going to get into trouble. Two women in a park having a tense conversation. Photo credit: Canva Southern expressions about looks and intelligence 11. “Pull your dress down, everyone can see Christmas.” This feels self-explanatory, but it’s something you might hear a friend say to another friend to address a wardrobe malfunction. You may also hear a parent telling their young daughter a version of this as they’re learning how to properly sit in a dress. Also see, “Pull down that skirt! We can see clear to the promised land.” 12. “They fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.” Also in the vein of calling someone unattractive, one might say, “He’s so ugly he could make paint peel.” 13. “Pants are so tight you can see his thoughts.” Those are some really tight pants. 14. “She’s just as loony as a Betsy Bug.” Until today, I had no idea what a Betsy Bug was, but apparently it’s a type of beetle that eats decomposing wood. There doesn’t seem to be an explanation for what makes the beetle loony, though. 15. “Well, aren’t you as bright as a box of black crayons.” Have you ever seen a bright black crayon? If southerners are good at one thing, it’s insults. 16. “That boy’s so dumb he’d throw himself on the ground and miss.” See also: “He ain’t got the good sense God gave a mule,” and, “If he had an idea, it would die of loneliness.” Bonus sayings you don’t want to miss Clearly, southerners have a way with words, but there are a few more that can be fun to pull out for a party trick. A favorite is, “That really burns my biscuits,” but a close second is, “I’m fuller than a tick on a dog’s behind.” If you want to get around the ears of nosey children while having a chat about an adult encounter, some people in the south will say, “He took me to church,” “I was singing opera,” or “We stayed in and played the piano.” Whenever you decide to pull out any of these phrases, just make sure it’s not one that’ll make someone “madder than a wet hen,” and you’ll be golden. This article originally appeared in February. It has been updated. The post 16 common Southern phrases that leave people scratching their heads, laughing, or both appeared first on Upworthy.

So often, we equate intelligence with standardized testing, or say, degrees or rank in a graduating class. The person who has a 4.0 GPA and high SAT score probably is pretty book-smart. And sure, various amounts of degrees do imply that most likely they’ve had a lot of education. But there is another measure of intelligence that is often overlooked: the ability to be wrong. A doctor named Emma Jones, MD (self-described hospice doctor and “burnout coach”) has recently gone viral on social media for a video wherein she talks about intelligence. The clip is entitled “Here’s how you know someone is highly intelligent.” In just a couple of minutes, she lays out ways you can easily spot someone who is ultra-bright. View this post on Instagram Quoting Oscar Wilde, she says, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” She then explains that he meant, “highly intelligent people know how to change their minds.” The phrases smart people actually use Here’s where the phrases of (most likely) highly intelligent people come in. She says to listen for sentences like: “I used to think…” “That’s a good point.” “Let me reconsider.” “I’ve changed my mind.” She adds, “Most people double down to protect their ego. But intelligent people update their beliefs. They get more curious instead of more defensive. And they ask things like ‘what am I missing?’ instead of trying to win an argument. They don’t tie their identity to being ‘right.’ And they treat being wrong like data, not humiliation.” She also cites a popular quote often attributed to Albert Einstein: “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” (though its exact origin is disputed and there’s no verified record of Einstein actually saying it). She notes that the “real flex” is being able to have your mind changed “without shame.” View this post on Instagram People had a lot to say about this The comments, and there are thousands in just a short amount of time, support the notion. One (somewhat sarcastically) writes, “So in other words, you’re saying that intelligence correlates with a combination of critical thinking skills and the humility to know that oneself doesn’t know everything?” Another jokes, “I used to say that my ‘need to be right’ is so strong that if someone shows me a better path, or shows me that my thinking is off, I will quickly recalibrate and change my mind so I can be ‘right’ again.” Jones responds to this: “That is quite a strong and intelligent reframe.” Another Instagrammer backs it up with a book they love, writing, “One of the best books I have ever read is called But What If We’re Wrong by Chuck Klosterman. I base most of my life on the assumption that some part of the system is built on inherently incorrect information. It makes it easier to be flexible and make connections to other information that may have otherwise been missed.” More signs worth knowing about But, of course, admitting there’s usually room for debate and the ability to change one’s mind is just one of many signs someone is intelligent. Writer and reviewer Jordan Cooper shared his subtle signs someone might be intelligent in an article for VegOut. Among eight examples, his first is “talking to yourself out loud,” which I mentioned in a recent Upworthy article. He adds, “A 2012 study in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that talking out loud can actually improve focus and object recognition. Why? Because verbalizing engages additional sensory channels. When you speak your thoughts aloud, you’re not just thinking, you’re hearing yourself think, which reinforces memory and decision-making. Einstein did it. So do a ton of high-performers who swear by this trick for brainstorming, debugging their code, or preparing for presentations.” Other examples, some of which have also been pointed out on Upworthy over the years, are: “zoning out,” “being sensitive to noise, light or texture,” “having messy handwriting,” “swearing a lot,” and to the earlier point, “doubting your intelligence constantly.” In other words, staying open to being wrong. So, while having good grades and a plethora of degrees is excellent, always being open to learning and changing course adds a layer to any good mind. This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post 4 everyday phrases that may indicate someone is highly intelligent appeared first on Upworthy.