Air Force veteran honors fallen troops with 13 empty seats at Texas Roadhouse

By
Monica Pop
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American troops first stepped foot on Afghan soil some 20 years ago. They fought not only for liberty, but for freedom from terror too. The military operation officially ended on August 30, one day earlier than planned. Unfortunately, in an attempt to flee the country, civilians died and many didn’t even manage to take any of the flights that were supposed to take them to better places.

Sadly, 13 American service members were killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, just five days before the troops were about to live the country entirely. Among those killed in the attack was a 20-year-old marine who was born when this war started and died when it ended.

According to the official Overseas Contingency Operations report’s casualty summary, since the start of the military operation, 20,727 members of the U.S. military were wounded and a total of 2,475 lost their lives in combat.

The world watched in shock as the Taliban got complete control of Afghanistan.

As anger and grief filled the hearts of every American, one veteran from Port St. Lucie, Florida paid tribute to the 13 soldiers in his own way. Air Force veteran Jordan Vanderflier reserved a table for 14 at Texas Roadhouse. One place at the table was for him, and the rest were for the fallen soldiers.

“The initial reaction was let’s accommodate. So it was immediately all hands on deck, there were four of us scrambling. Pouring beers, getting the table set up,” said Rick Kirk, managing partner at Port St. Lucie’s Texas Roadhouse.

Jordan lost a very good friend in Afghanistan in the past and he could feel the pain of the families of the soldiers killed last week.

“They deserved the true respect and recognition to be able to have something like this, you know, as a reminder of, ‘Hey, you’re at this restaurant right now because these guys are away from their families, you know, risking their lives for us every day,’” he said.

Credit: Twitter

Jordan’s photos went viral and people were thanking him for his act. As a result, the restaurant decided to have the table reserved in the next 13 days.

Rest in peace, soldiers, you died heroes!

Man transforms an old school bus into the ultimate home on wheels

By
Monica Pop
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When it comes to choosing the perfect place to live in, different people have different desires. While some dream of huge houses and mansions and work hard to afford such places, others prefer smaller homes.

Craig Gordinier, 28, served in US Coast Guard for 8 years. However, after he left the service, he had a hard time settling in and finding a job. The pandemic struck and many business closed, so he was left wondering what to do with his life. At the time, Craig was living with his parents who were more than happy to offer him a place to stay. However, he wasn’t happy sleeping on their couch and decided to take things in his own hands.

“March, April, and May was just so difficult. Because of COVID, I knew I wasn’t going to find a job. The way that life was looking, I had everything taken from me,” he told Insider.

Namely, while serving, Craig met a friend who was living in an RV, so he thought that adjusting a huge vehicle to a home was a good idea and now his loft on wheels is gathering the attention of many.

“There was always that one guy who either lived in a van or in an RV who was saving a bunch of money,” he said. “I never really wanted to do it until last year when I started actually planning out my life and I got to the end and I realized how much I actually would like it.”

Finally, after an exhaustive search, Craig wound exactly what he was looking for. “I started looking at sprinter vans and trailer and tiny homes and buses, and I finally found the perfect bus that was in South Dakota. I flew out there, and I bought the bus,” he explained.

With a lot of hard work and creativity, Craig managed to turn the bus into the perfect living space. The first thing he did was push up the roof about 20 inches in his “living room” and deck out the lower storage area in order to make some space for his motorcycle. He also installed solar panels and a roof deck. Inside, he built a nice kitchen with an espresso-bar and a nice bathroom with a shower.

“Just because houses have rooms does not mean that a bus needs to have rooms,” Craig told Insider. “It feels like a mansion on wheels.”

For a tour inside this perfect tiny home on wheels take a look at the video below. We can definitely see ourselves living in this bus.

Jane Fonda’s outfit from the Golden Globes attracted the attention of many

By
Monica Pop
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The name Jane Fonda speaks of success and fame probably more than any other female name in the film industry. Her career spans six decades, time during which she gave her fans many memorable roles.

Some may say that being the daughter of the legendary actor Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda didn’t have to work hard for what she has, but that is certainly not the case with the now 83-year-old actress.

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She was born in New York city on December 21, 1937, and her mother committed suicide when Fonda was only 12 years old. This was something that affected her deeply. She and her dad were close, but he wasn’t a man of many words. Speaking of him, Fonda told Oprah, “My father didn’t verbalize much, but I knew he had regrets, and I don’t want to.

“I want to have people around me who really love me, whom I really love. And I know that you can’t collect those chips unless you’ve earned them during your life. What that said to me was that I had one act left to make sure I didn’t get to the end with regrets.

“What would I regret the most? My big regret would be if I’d never had an intimate relationship. But if you never grew up with intimacy, if you were never with parents who really loved each other, and you never saw that and absorbed it as a kid, it’s hard to know how to do it.”

Known not only for her films and the great number of awards she has received, among which many nominations and two Oscars, for her 1972 movie Klute and the 1979 movie Coming Home, but also for her charity work and her courage to speak her mind, Fonda is loved by many. However, during one occasion, she made people angry after she posed for photos next to an anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam during the height of the anti-Vietnam War protests.

This year, during the Golden Globes Award Ceremony, Fonda received the Cecil B. DeMille Award given annually to an “individual who has made an incredible impact on the world of entertainment.” Among those who were honored with this reward are stars like Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Lucille Ball.

According to Page Six, Fonda said she knew her father would be proud of her. In her speech, she addressed the issue about the lack of diversity inside of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards.

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Another thing that attracted the attention of the wide public was Fonda’s choice of outfit. Some years ago, she told Ellen DeGeneres that she would never again buy a new piece of clothing, and she stood by her words. During the recent Golden Globe Ceremony, she was dressed in a white suit that she wore before.

During the 2020 Oscar’s, Fonda was dressed in the same outfit as at the International Cannes Film Festival in 2014.

What we can all agree on is that Fonda looked absolutely stunning and classy.

Chip Gaines donates his hair and raises over $425,000 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital

By
Monica Pop
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Fixer Upper, the reality show ran by Chip and Joanna Gaines, attracted plenty of fans throughout the five seasons it aired.

However, this couple that we all love so much isn’t only famous for their renovating skills, but for their hearts of gold too. Over the years, they have donated money to charities on many occasions and never miss a chance to ask from the public to do the same.

Back in 2019, following a visit of St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, Chip and Joanna donated $1.5 million.

During the quarantine, Chip changed his style drastically. Namely, he let his hair grow long, but not many liked him that way. And as many criticized him for his looks, he actually had something else in mind when he opted not to have his hair cut for that long.

“The pandemic hit and we just cut that out of our typical routine, probably like most people, and so after it got a little longer and a little longer, I just was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to go for it. I’m going to grow this out,’” he said.

He decided to turn people’s “dislike” of his long hair in his favor and challenged them to donate to St.Jude Children’s Hospital depending on how much they hated his style. “All I’m asking you to do is cut a check. If you hate my hair, $25. If you are repulsed by me and my hair, I’d say that’s 50 bucks,” he wrote on Instagram.

Believe it or not, in no time, $425,000 were raised. Chip and Joanna rounded it up to $500,000 and also contributed an additional $50,000 to Children with Hair Loss, the organization Chip donated his hair to.

When the day for the so much anticipated cut arrived, Chip was accompanied by a teenage boy named Bailey whom he met back in 2017. At the time, Bailey was battling cancer and was receiving treatments at St. Jude.

“Jo and I met Bailey back in 2017, and seeing him now as a healthy young man reminds me why we were drawn to St. Jude,” he wrote on Instagram.

Before it was completely shaved, Chip’s hair was pulled back into ponytails and cut off.

With or without hair, Chip looks as handsome as ever. Way to go Gaines, and thank you for everything you do.

The career and the tragedies in the life of actress and talk show host Ricki Lake

By
Monica Pop
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This is the life story of one of the most inspiring women out there, Ricki Lake. She’s an actress, television presenter and a producer who made a name for herself after she was cast for the lead role in the musical Hairspray.

Her life wasn’t an easy one, as she faced a number of obstacles throughout the years, but she would always end up a winner. When she was pretty young, Lake was sexually violated by one of her father’s employees, and that’s something that stayed with her forever and changed the way she saw her body and perceived her femininity.

“This was the late 1970s and it wasn’t talked about,” she explained. “You pushed everything under the rug.” At one point in her life, she weighted 270 pounds and said it was a result of her insecurities. That all changed, however, when she gave birth to her sons Milo and Owen. “I was able to look at my body and see what it was able to do and embrace it,” Lake told People Magazine in 2009. “Sort of let go of all the body image issues.”

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Lake was married twice. In 1994, she married Rob Sussman, the father of her kids. They divorced in 2005. Lake’s second husband was jewelry designer Christian Evans who suffered from bipolar disorder and took his life in 2017. Lake was left heartbroken and posted a tribute to the man she called her soulmate, writing: “It is with a heavy heart that I share that my beloved soulmate, Christian Evans has passed. The world didn’t understand this man, but I did. He succumbed to his life long struggle with bipolar disorder.”

Lake was always under the spotlight, first, because of her acting career and later for her talk show Ricki Lake which reached to millions of fans and was rated second by the number of views, just after The Oprah Winfrey Show. Lake’s show aired in 1993 and became an instant hit, especially with the young audience. Lake was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1994 and won one in 2013 for Outstanding Talk Show Host after her show which she left in 2004 was reborn.

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Speaking of her role in Hairspray, Lake told Interview Magazine, “I totally did break the mold, and it’s with life experience that I have more reverence for what I was able to achieve. I have to give credit to John Waters for seeing in me the qualities he wanted for that character. And thank god he did, because I don’t know what I would be doing without having had that job as my entry into this business.” This role, of course, wasn’t the only that marked her career in film. In 1990, Lake starred alongside Johnny Depp and music icon Iggy Pop in Cry Baby and was part of a number of other films and projects.

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Recently, our favorite host shared a secret with her fans. She spoke openly of her problem with hair loss and admitted how she was wearing wigs and extensions for the last 30 years, but she felt it was now the time for her to show her true self to the world and serve as an inspiration and support for other women who go through the same.

It has been debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely, all the things,” she wrote. “Almost no one in my life knew the level of deep pain and trauma I was experiencing. Not even my therapist/s over the years knew my truth.

Lake shared photos of her with her natural hair and we say she is not only beautiful, but very bold too. She truly is a wonderful person, both inside and out.

World War II veteran celebrates 100th birthday: “Every day should be for him”

By
Monica Pop
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It’s not everyday that we hear of people who reach 100 years old. Those who do, however, are the luckiest of all, and one World War II veteran named Benny Ficeto is definitely one of the most fortunate people there are. Not only because he got to live that many years, but also because he’s surrounded with people who love him unconditionally and make sure they remind him how grateful they are for his service every single day.

What is unusual about this special man is that he only retired from his job when the pandemic started. Up until then, he was going to work every single day. Before turning 90, Benny worked at a Stop & Shop in Bloomingdale, New Jersey. He then moved to Edison, New Jersey, for his last ten years of work.

“Working at my age gives you purpose,” Benny said, according to his nephew Daniel Reynolds who spoke to Fox News about his uncle.

Stop & Shop organized a birthday party and a parade for Benny to mark his milestone. There was food, music, and a number of people there. Benny’s co-workers, family members, and even customers gathered together to celebrate the special occasion.

“Always enjoyed seeing Benny when he worked in the Bloomfield store…always upbeat and helpful….I could always leave the store smiling if he was bagging for me,” one customer wrote on the shop’s post dedicated to Bartholomeo Benny Ficeto, whom everyone knows as Benny the Bagger.

“People would wait in line even if there was an open register, they would wait because they wanted Benny to bag their groceries,” the store’s spokesperson Stefanie Shuman confirmed.

Besides the party, the place had a special surprise for one of their most hard-working employees. Namely, in Benny’s honor, they designated a parking spot as veterans-only and dubbed it “Benny’s Spot.” What a thoughtful thing to do for someone who has dedicated a great part of his life serving the country and its people.

“It says in honor of Benny for his service to the store and his country,” Shuman said. “He knew the day was for him. Every day should be for him in my opinion.”

In fact, this isn’t the first time for Stop & Shop to organize a party for Benny. They have done beautiful things for him in the past. For his 98th birthday, they congratulated Benny through a number of media outlets. When he turned 99, the place organized a drive-by birthday parade.

The store is looking forward to Benny’s 101st birthday. “He’s still part of this family and we will continue to celebrate him,” Shuman added.

Happy birthday, Benny, and many more to come!

Woman’s belly weights 44 pounds and still growing, doctors fail to learn the reason why

By
Monica Pop
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Doctors from the rural Guizhou Province in China, as well as from nearby towns, struggle to detect the reason why a 36-year-old woman’s belly can’t stop growing. According to Huang Guoxian, who is a mother of two, her belly weights 44 pounds and is getting bigger and bigger with each passing day.

She finds it extremely hard to do her everyday activities and is unable to stand on her feet for more than 10 minutes. That means that her 10-year-old son has to take care of pretty much everything around the house while her husband works away from home. The grandparents also help.

Youtube: NYOOOZ

It all started when Guoxian first experienced pain some two years ago. Doctors gave her medicine which made her feel a bit better, but her stomach kept growing and hasn’t stopped ever since. Doctors ran a number of tests and tried different treatments but the reason behind her condition remains a mystery. CT scans, however, showed how she suffers from various illnesses, including liver cirrhosis, ovarian cancer, and an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen and chest, according to the Daily Mail. It is still unknown whether any of this conditions affected the belly growth.

Guoxian is now hoping the specialist from a local hospital could operate on her, but the surgery would cost 30,000 yuan, or $4290. The helpless woman who has trouble breathing, eating and sleeping is begging the public to help her raise the money.

Youtube: NYOOOZ

The Daily Mail cited what Guoxian told the Guizhou Urban Daily, writing, “I used to do homework very quickly, but now my big belly has seriously impacted my normal life. My two children are still young. Their grandmother and grandfather are helping to look after them now. I hope to recover and become healthy as soon as possible.”

We honestly hope doctors will help Guoxian get her old life back as soon as possible. Check out the video below for more.

This is what Rachel Ward, who played Meggie Cleary in “The Thorn Birds,” looks like today

By
Monica Pop
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Every actor has a unique story to tell of their rise to stardom. This is the one of Rachel Ward, an incredible actress whose career has spanned for decades.

At the beginning of her journey to fame, Ward was a well-known fashion model who appeared on the covers of many influential magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s & Queen. This, along with the number of commercials she was featured in, opened her path to Hollywood. It was in 1979 that beautiful Ward appeared in her first movie, Christmas Lilies of the Field. What followed after this movie were a number of smaller roles. But eventually, Ward got her well-deserved breakthrough playing Meggie Cleary in the cult miniseries The Thorn Birds alongside great Richard Chamberlain.

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Choosing the right actress for this role wasn’t at all easy. One of the producers of the 10-hour-long series, Stan Marguiles, recalled the struggles. “She has to go from 18 to her early 50s. From a rather naïve, overly romantic young girl to a bitter woman in her 30s, to a woman who finally understands where she took the wrong turn when she reaches her 50s. There’s an enormous range of emotions and colors,” he told NFSA Australia.

Ward herself spoke of the time she got the role that changed her life forever. “They first started to age me, it was kind of scary,” Ward recalled. “I had these endless double chins. I sort of had a body suit underneath the clothes, I remember liking it when I grew older, I liked the outfits, there was slightly more masculine than they were in the beginning.”

“My audition was quite light and I had a sense of humor” the actress added. “I remember I was taking it seriously but I wasn’t acting with a capital A. It is so subjective, performances pieces, and I was probably spot on the first time. I got like 10/10 for looks and 4/10 for acting.” 

The series was a huge success and is considered one of the best ever by many. It received four Golden Globes, including Best Miniseries, as well as six Emmy awards. Ward was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Speaking to Closer, Ward opened up about her insecurities after many criticized her acting.

She recalled the New York Times writing at the time that she was a “miscast.” However, over the years, she realized she shouldn’t be harsh on herself as there were so many people who praised the way she presented the role. Among them was her daughter who has seen The Thorn Birds years after it first aired and told Ward, “Mom, you were fabulous.” “That was, for me, the most important response that I could’ve ever had,” the actress said.

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This miniseries didn’t only bring Ward fame, but also gave her the love of her life. It was when the cameras were off that the true love story took place. Ward and her on-screen husband, actor Bryan Brown, fell for one another on set. “What happened on screen was happening off it – that’s why our love scenes were so believable,” Ward told the UK’s Daily Express.

“Everyone on set realized they were falling for each other. “I’ve never seen two people more in love,” Chamberlain said. “She seemed to get happier and happier and her work got better and better.”

Ward and Brown got married in 1983 and have three children together. Until this day, they love one another as day one.

Ward is now 63 and she has never stopped acting. Some of the movies she took part in are The Big House, Martha’s New Coat and television series Rake, Devil’s Playground and The Straits. In 2001 she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the film On the Beach.

In 2019, Ward and Brown became grandparents for the first time when their daughter Matilda had her son Zan. What is very special is that both of them where present when their grandson was welcomed into the world.

Speaking of that moment, Matilda told Over Sixty: “When I was pushing Zan out at the end, dad was stroking my head and mum was cheering me on, crying, saying, ‘Come on, Till! He’s so close. It was pretty special that both my parents got to be with me through such a monumental time in my life.”

Besides acting, Ward, who looks as incredible as ever, is busy doing charity work. 2005, she was awarded the A.M (Member of the Order of Australia for “raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people.”

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