Pope Leo XIV may be the leader of the Catholic Church and one whom millions of people turn to for guidance, but we can’t forget where he came from. Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up a huge sports fan. Leo loves the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bears and proudly wears sports memorabilia from his hometown. Chicago Bulls play-by-play announcer Chuck Swirsky gifted Pope Leo a personalized basketball jersey, solidifying Pope Leo as property of Chicago. Recently, the Harlem Globetrotters visited Vatican City, and Pope Leo showed off his mad skills. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TMZ (@tmz_tv) The Harlem Globetrotters and Pope Leo Partnered for a Signature Basketball Move For decades, the Harlem Globetrotters have entertained fans with their special brand of playing ball. One of the team’s signature moves is spinning a basketball on their finger, and during a visit to the Vatican, Pope Leo gave the move a try. TMZ shared a video of the special moment, and Leo looked like he was truly having a ball with a taste of the USA with him. “Pope Leo XIV remembers the good old days of his hometown Chicago Bulls and he’s clearly got some skills with the rock,” the caption reads. Seeing Pope Leo with the basketball legends made many people happy. “This proves how special the Harlem Globetrotters really are,” someone commented. Others hoped the pope would bring good to the world. “He is The Pope that this world needs desperately!” Someone added. Others just had Pope Leo basketball jokes, and we can’t lie, they made us laugh. “Pop about to shoot some holy hoops,” one person wrote. “Sign him to my 76ers before these playoffs start,” another person added. Seeing Pope Leo as a real person is so great, and the kind of smile we needed today. This story’s featured image is by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images.

There are few things more frustrating than watching gas prices climb and knowing there’s nothing you can do about it. Oil prices around the world are skyrocketing, and in the United States, some people are paying as much as $7 per gallon. It’s enough to make people rethink public transit and bicycles. Because of the gut-punching fuel prices, people are looking for ways to stretch their gas. People have been turning to social media to ask how to increase their gas mileage and save money. Some of the answers are surprising, but what people find most refreshing is that real people are sharing strategies that work for them. Using STA-BIL STA-BIL is a fairly inexpensive product sold almost everywhere. It’s designed to be poured into your gas tank before filling up. After you fill the tank, the instructions say to let the car run for about five minutes. The solution “cleans the fuel system, prevents the buildup of gum and varnish” and helps prevent corrosion. According to the company and commenters, a cleaner fuel system allows your engine to run at its best, improving fuel efficiency. A person pumping gas. Photo credit: Canva Under the video about using STA-BIL to increase gas mileage, people shared the pain they feel at the pump. One person wrote, “Bruh I pumped $37 in a civic! CIVIC!! before it went up it was $20 for a full fill up.” Another added, “Just paid $52 in SoCal for my civic.” Try not to be Speed Racer In a Reddit thread about getting the best gas mileage out of your car, one commenter warns against fast acceleration: “Accelerate slow and always be planning ahead to see if you need to continue pressing on the gas. Often times people are still blindly accelerating up to a light that’s red, traffic that’s stopped, etc. … Anticipatory braking is big in the efficiency game. If you can slow down early and avoid completely stopping at a red light that’s a win. You want to conserve as much of your motion as possible.” An old-school blue sports car speeding. Photo credit: Canva Someone else added later in the thread, “If you do any highway driving stick to the right-most lane and do the speed limit (55,65, etc) via cruise control. the MPG difference at 65 mph vs 70 mph is insane.” Idling burns gas It’s not uncommon for people to sit in their cars and idle, whether it’s a mom trying to have a quiet moment or someone in a parking lot scrolling on their phone. While idling may be unavoidable in cold climates, when you need to warm up your car, it should be kept to a minimum outside of those situations. A person sitting in a car and looking at social media. Photo credit: Canva In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency launched an “Idle Reduction Campaign.” One example used to illustrate the effects of idling is startling: “One car idling for just 15 minutes has wasted .08 gallons of gasoline. That doesn’t seem like much, but if they idle for 15 minutes every day of the year, that’s 29.2 gallons of gasoline in one year. At a price of $3.50/gallon, that’s $102 spent in gasoline to get you nowhere.” Consider ditching the roof rack In response to someone on Reddit asking whether a roof rack decreases gas mileage, the answer was a resounding yes. One person added, “Yes it worsens it quite dramatically actually. I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head but I want to say a roof rack alone is an observable drop, and with a luggage case it’s a ~10-15% loss.” A black SUV with a roof rack. Photo credit: Canva Car and Driver tested this theory with a 2022 Kia Carnival equipped with a factory-installed roof rack. The outlet reported being “initially disappointed in our observed fuel economy.” After suspecting the rack, they spent 10 minutes removing it. “Upon removal, we instantly saw increased efficiency numbers, prompting us to make a second attempt at our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test,” the outlet revealed. “In the second run, we bested our prior attempt by 3 mpg (25 mpg to 28 mpg), a 12 percent increase and also better than the EPA’s highway figure of 26 mpg.” Check your tires This is a quick and inexpensive fix for improving gas mileage. Cars don’t alert you to low tire pressure until it drops significantly. The recommended PSI is listed on your tire, and one mechanic says keeping your tires properly inflated can help boost gas mileage. A person checking tire pressure. Photo credit: Canva “Keep your tires inflated to the proper pressure,” Andy’s Auto Advice said in a TikTok video. “If you run your tire pressure too low in your vehicle, it’s going to cause more friction between the tire and the road surface, thus reducing your overall MPG. So by keeping your tires at the proper PSI, it’s going to give you the optimal fuel economy for your vehicle.” Routine maintenance is more of a long-term strategy, but Andy’s Auto Advice and other mechanics say it’s the most important. According to the Associated Press, removing excess weight can help you get the most out of your gas tank. Apps like GasBuddy show you the cheapest gas stations near you, so use them in conjunction with these tips to stretch your dollar at the pump. The post Real people share their practical ways to increase your gas mileage and save money appeared first on Upworthy.

Chef Craig Bowerson had a wonderful idea. He had noticed that the residents in the nursing home where he oversaw the dining menu had quite a few complaints about the food. So, it dawned on him to let their own personal recipes do the talking. He asked them for their favorite homespun dishes, and what happened next was downright lovely. In a TikTok video, food podcaster Owen Roy shared a clip of Bowerson explaining his program for getting recipes from the residents. He asked them questions like, “How did you make spaghetti? How did you make lasagna? How did you make your chicken Cordon Bleu?” There is clear emotion in his voice, as he expresses the importance of embracing and cooking the food that might make the residents feel the most at home. @owenbytheoven Ultimate hospitality. Chef Craig Bowerson talks about how he personalized the menu at the nursing home he used to work at for the residents that lived there. He took their old recipes from their parents and built the food program around them. I think more nursing homes should follow suit! Episode 17 is out now on all major streaming platforms. #chef #nursinghome #food #menu #owenbytheoven ♬ original sound – Owen by the Oven What mom used to cook He shared, “As you’re pulling all these recipes from the 1920s, 1930s, I’ve had residents give me index cards that their mother had written like in the 1920s. They’d say, ‘These are all my mom’s recipes. Find one that you like. This is what my mom used to cook for me. I cooked this for family.’ So we ended up incorporating all of our resident recipes into our menu, where we were actually reproducing all the family recipes. And my complaints went from almost 75 percent to almost no complaints whatsoever.” Under the clip, there were over 2,500 comments on TikTok alone. One person shares, “This is what dignity looks like.” Another points out how incredibly thoughtful the idea is. “Can you imagine tasting your comfort food from childhood as an aging, reliant, invalid person? A time when you miss your mom the most. This is beautiful.” And this TikToker, as many of the commenters do, believes this should be incorporated everywhere. “Every retirement home, nursing home, memory care home should do this. I bet it’s really comforting and brings back great memories for them. Beautiful idea.” Chef Bowerson dreamt of becoming a chef Upworthy had the opportunity to learn more about Bowerson, his love of food, and his admiration and respect for nursing home residents he serves. He also addressed a few of the questions that were repeatedly asked in the comment section. Upworthy: What drew you to the art form of cooking? Bowerson: “I have dreamed of being a chef since I was 6. My grandmother started cooking with me around then. Currently, I’ve worked in food service for 31 years, and would say maybe the last 14, I’d consider myself a chef. Food has always made sense to me. I love food, I love to talk about food, think about food, and I love the emotions that food can create. When you’re sick, you want grandma’s soup, or during a holiday it doesn’t feel right without that one dish that gets passed on and passed down. Food, I think, has been the ultimate expression of appreciation for nature as the ingredient maker. And the eater, who is the person receiving from the chef, (gets) the full expression of themselves, presented in a dish.” View this post on Instagram Getting to know the residents Upworthy: How and when did you begin working with nursing homes? (Bowerson first explains it was trial and error when he first began working with nursing homes.) Bowerson: “Covid hit and my focus shifted from having to deal with administrative duties to developing relationships with residents to help make the ‘lockdown’ period better. It was during this time that I started talking more one-on-one with residents and learning about their backgrounds. I found many of the women were homemakers and ran the house prior to coming to the nursing home. Many reminded me of my own grandmother, who initially was the first person to teach me how to cook. View this post on Instagram Working for contract services, we had to follow menu plans and recipes that designated ingredient inventories and so on. Residents at my home felt like they were receiving someone’s idea of ‘showing off.’ They said the food they received was nothing like what they had made at home, and it was a hard adjustment for them to make. Long story short, I learned how to submit substitute recipes into our menu system to receive CDM and dietitian approval for facility use. Then, as we could, we would substitute previous menu items. Let’s say (we would sub) the company’s potato salad recipe, for Peggy Sue’s potato salad recipe and notate it on the menu.” Sopapillas Upworthy: Do you have a favorite recipe so far? Bowerson: “One of my favorite recipes is only my favorite because of the story behind it. Sopapillas. I had a pair of residents who were from New Mexico and had been moved to Kansas. I used to have conversations about food with the wife. Her husband was not doing well at this point and was almost nonverbal. She used to tell me how much she missed sopapillas and green chili enchiladas. She gave me her favorite sopapilla recipe and said if I could make it for her sometime, she would enjoy that. At times her husband would wake up and could eat on occasion, so one day when I knew he was awake, I converted a food cart into a buffet line and made her enchiladas and her sopapillas. For the next few weeks, until his passing, he would wake up and request green chili and sopapillas. A resident’s handwritten note, c/o Bowerson I received a personal handwritten letter from her describing how much they enjoyed having their personally prepared upscale meal.” Recipes and stories Upworthy: Any plans to create a senior cookbook? Bowerson: “I’ve had some people request one on social media. I have thought about collecting all the recipes, adding in copies of letters and notes I’ve received from residents, and stories on what made the recipe stand out to me. I hope I can follow through and put one together.” Upworthy: My mom resides in a senior living home in Dallas, and I know she would just love giving recipes to the chef/cook. Have you encouraged others to do this? Bowerson: “I have tried to champion this type of approach for some time. I actually designed a food service program that helps convert kitchens into a more ‘home design’ type menu. I submitted it to one company but don’t know of another way to submit it without it being lost in the shuffle of large corporations.” View this post on Instagram I trained my cooks to look at food from a resident perspective and remember that a lot of those we serve feel like their choices are being lessened and restricted. And if giving them control of their menu, their food, and how it’s cooked helps with the transition, then that’s what needs to happen. I have seen a lot of people say I must have struggled maintaining my budget, but I found as a chef it’s my job to learn ways to make better food and at lower costs without compromising the quality of what is being served. Homemade is always better than premade.” The post Chef creates nursing home menu sourced from the family recipes of senior residents appeared first on Upworthy.

When an avalanche buried her husband, one woman used a phone app to help locate him beneath the snow. Her quick thinking and determination played a crucial role in his rescue and survival.

When an avalanche buried her husband, one woman used a phone app to help locate him beneath the snow. Her quick thinking and determination played a crucial role in his rescue and survival.