4/18/25 - Refunds, Polite Ways to Say FU, and 5 Second Rule
- bribriny
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Friday 4/18/25
Celebrate:
Adult Autism Awareness Day
International Amateur Radio Day
National Animal Crackers Day
National Lineman Appreciation Day
National Transfer Money to Your Daughter's Account Day
National Velociraptor Awareness Day
Newspaper Columnists' Day
Pet Owners Independence Day
Pinata Day
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A senior writer for CNN Business posted a list of SMART things to do with your tax refund.
1. Pay off a credit card. The average APR is 20%. So, flip that on its head and think of it like this: If you pay it off now instead of a year from now, it's like MAKING 20%. A "20% risk-free return" on investment.
2. Start an emergency fund. The economy is iffy, so it's a good time to have something in savings. Ideally, you're supposed to have at least three to six months' worth of living expenses set aside. Maybe even a year's worth if you're self-employed. But anything is better than nothing.
3. Invest it. Stock prices are down, so it might be a good time to let your money MAKE money. The first two things on the list are more important though, so do those first. Or, split it up and do some of each.
4. Buy something that might cost more later. If money's not too tight, think about spending your refund on something that might go up in price soon. A lot of the tariff stuff hasn't filtered down yet. Things like a new washing machine or a new car could cost more in a few months.
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The 2025 Time 100 is here. The annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Some of the people this year.
Artists: Ed Sheeran . . . Scarlett Johansson . . . Kristen Bell . . . Adam Scott . . . Rashida Jones . . . Kristen Wigg . . . Nicole Scherzinger . . . Hozier . . . Diego Luna from the "Star Wars" series "Andor" . . . and Daniel Dae Kim from "Lost".
Icons: Demi Moore . . . Eagles star Jalen Hurts . . . Adrien Brody . . . Hiroyuki Sanada from the FX series "Shogun" . . . ABC news anchor David Muir . . . and beauty mogul Bobbi Brown.
Titans: Serena Williams . . . Blake Lively . . . Lorne Michaels . . . Simone Biles . . . Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos . . . Joe Rogan . . . and Mark Zuckerberg.
Pioneers: Rosé from Blackpink and British singer Myles Smith.
Innovators: Snoop Dogg . . . Nikki Glaser . . . "Wicked" director Jon M. Chu . . . BlackRock CEO Larry Fink . . . and chef Kwame Onwuachi.
A "Time100" TV special will air May 4th on ABC. Snoop Dogg will host and Ed Sheeran and Myles Smith will perform. (no surprise, both have new albums coming out.)
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Reddit wants to know what's the most polite way to tell someone F*** You without actually saying it.
Instead of flipping off another driver, blow them a kiss. It's even more infuriating than the finger. Or, someone said a sarcastic "thumbs up" works too.
"Have the day you deserve." It's hard to call you out for it, because it COULD be meant in a nice way.
"As per my previous email" sends the corporate types into conniptions. For an extra passive aggressive response, just screenshot your previous text or E-mail and put that and nothing else in your reply.
"Noted." If someone's a jerk and sends a long, ranting email, replying with a one-word answer is the worst. It's just very dismissive.
"Bless your heart." A classic one from the Deep South.
"You've genuinely been wonderful." They know it's an insult because it's over-the-top, and they obviously HAVEN'T been wonderful.
Just smile. A McDonald's worker shared that one. Don't respond, just smile and watch their blood boil.
"I'll pray for you." That one works if you're religious, or not.
"Be that as it may . . ." Let them rant, then hit them with "be that as it may" and shut it down. It sounds old-school and polite, like you're validating them. But you're really saying, "Yeah . . . no."
"How amusing for you." It's supposedly what Queen Elizabeth would say if she thought you were an idiot.
"I said good day!"
"[Eff] you," but with an extra word. "[Eff] you, please."
See the thread for even more here.
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44% of people said they follow the Five-Second Rule. And the average person eats food off the floor FOUR times per month.
Because of the five second rule...right?
A scientist on TikTok put the "Five-Second Rule" to the test . . . and found that dropped food always develops bacteria, whether it's been on the floor for one second, or one minute.
One person joked, "Okay, but what if you blow the germs off after you've dropped it?"
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A bunch of board game fans in Australia broke a world record for most people playing Monopoly at the same time. 918 players split up into groups of six and played on 150 Monopoly sets. The event raised money for a charity called the Little Legs Foundation that supports childhood brain cancer research.
(there were only 14 people got hurt but there were 2 fatalities. haha)
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Hundreds of bookworms near Ann Arbor, Michigan turned out to help an independent bookstore move into a new location on Sunday.
Serendipity Books is in Chelsea, Michigan, and the owner needed to move into a bigger location around the corner from the old one. So more than 300 people lined up and moved one book at a time like a human conveyor belt.
They moved over 9,000 books in two hours, and kept them all in alphabetical order. The owner says she would have had to close down for several days if she'd done it the normal way.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - It's the second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The town name "Coachella" began as a typo. The town in California was founded over a century ago, and it was originally going to be called Conchilla, after the Spanish word for the small white snail shells found in the valley's sandy soil.
But in the original materials, the printer misspelled "Conchilla" as "Coachella" . . . and rather than re-do everything, they just went with the misspelled name.
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