Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
Goldendoodles, Labradoodles and Bernedoodles Are Everywhere. They’re Now Also a High-Stakes, Billion-Dollar Industry
(We have a mini-Bernedoodle, so this story was absolutely going to be in the mix today. This includes a rather adorable slideshow.)
On the first night of the 2024 goldendoodle conference, the breeders were out for pure blood. They’d come to a Radisson in Fort Worth, Texas, from suburbs across the US to eat Milk-Bone-dry sliders, throw back watery mixed drinks and take notes through two days of panels on everything from puppy socialization to post-whelping complications. The women—almost all the breeders were women—chatted about the best ways to acclimate doodle pups to the sounds of fireworks and ambulance sirens; debated the merits of Puppy Culture—a sort-of Baby Einstein program for dogs; and discussed whether something called Early Neurological Stimulation could stave off separation anxiety.
There was certainly a lot to celebrate—sales were booming, and they’d helped propagate what sometimes seemed like the most popular pet on the planet. But they were also concerned that their inability to attain approval by the American Kennel Club, and therefore the breeding establishment writ large, meant that their infamously cute crossbred creations weren’t so-called true breeds, a designation that could put a premium on them.
11 Women, 9 Dogs, Not Much Drama (and No Guys)
These retired women in Texas have been through infertility, illness, layoffs, addiction and disappointing marriages. Now they are trying to create a utopia just for themselves.
Eleven women live at The Bird’s Nest, a tiny-house village in East Texas, a remote spot where the hay bales look as big as school buses and roads have numbers instead of names. The women, nine of whom are retired and range in age from about 60 to 80 years old, share the explicit goal of keeping one another company into old age, possibly until death. The Bird’s Nest declares itself a women-only community, and the inhabitants broadly agree that, at this age, women are easier long-term companions than men.
I traveled to The Bird’s Nest in mid-July because I had been searching for real-life examples of a fantasy I have had since my 20s. After child-rearing and a career, my friends and I would buy a big house somewhere affordable and cohabitate the way we had done in college: cooking and laughing and hanging out, chipping in for accessibility ramps and health-help as needed. (Less considered were the lifestyle preferences of our then-hypothetical partners.) This fantasy, or versions of it — aging among female friends — is rampant among the women I know. It circulates on Facebook groups; we share news articles about this community in London, that one in France. Phil Levin, the founder of Live Near Friends, a Bay Area start-up that facilitates group living, said half the inquiries he receives are from women over 50.
The women [at The Bird's Nest] disagree about a lot of things, especially politics. It’s Texas. Inside their tiny homes, one woman may be writing postcards to swing states and another may be studying her Bible, but they have agreed not to argue about any of it in their common spaces.
“We say we respect each other,” Huff continues, but “it’s hard.”
Think You Can Dance? Research Finds These Parrots Have 30 Moves in Their Repertoire
A new study of the birds in online videos and at an Australian zoo revealed 17 dance moves never before documented by scientists.
Scrolling through TikTok, you might have come across videos of dancing cockatoos and thought, “it looks like that bird is having fun,” or maybe, “I can dance better than that.” But in a new study, scientists broke down the dancing parrots’ steps and found that not only do the cockatoos seem to be having a good time, they probably have more moves in their repertoire than most of us do.
“Dance behavior is more varied and complex than previously thought,” Natasha Lubke, an animal scientist at Charles Sturt University in Australia and lead author of the paper published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, says in a statement. The finding “supports the anecdotal belief that these parrots can experience pleasure and enjoy dancing.”
The Cities Offering Thousands of Dollars to Convince Workers to Move
A pandemic-era experiment has gone mainstream: Towns are sweetening cash offers with concert tickets, gift cards and golf memberships.
About six years after leaving central Indiana for Texas, Brandon Speece felt an itch to move back.
At first, the costs of moving felt like a possible deal breaker. Then the 30-year-old, whose data-engineering job went remote during the pandemic, stumbled upon an offer: The Indianapolis suburb of Noblesville would pay him $5,000 to move there, and throw in perks like concert tickets, a membership to a shared workspace and access to a golf course.
Speece and his fiancée took the deal and moved in 2023. Last year, the couple bought a house, which would have been hard for them to pull off in Austin’s pricey housing market.
“The biggest benefit was the cash, which we just turned around and used to hire movers,” said Speece. But “the co-working space was great, and the golfing didn’t hurt.”
What began as an experiment during the pandemic to lure people back to small towns and cities in the American heartland is, about five years later, becoming a widespread strategy.
MakeMyMove, a platform for worker-relocation programs that launched in 2020 with around 20 programs, now features over 178 programs covering hundreds of cities and towns, according to co-founder Evan Hock.
Pinterest’s Male Audience is Booming. Here’s What They’re Searching For
Pinterest now counts more than 171 million male users, driven by Gen Z interest in wellness, grooming, AI tools, and fatherhood content.
A growing number of men are flocking to Pinterest.
The company’s first-ever trend report reveals that male users now make up more than one-third of its 570 million global active users. That equates to over 171 million men, most of whom are part of Generation Z, according to Pinterest. Interestingly, these men challenge the typical stereotypes of social media behavior.
“Our data paints a picture of a nuanced group of male users on Pinterest that largely rejects the toxicity you might find elsewhere online—and engages with content in positive, authentic ways,” the company wrote in a blog post.
This influx of male users is engaging with a wide range of content, from Pilates to smart parenting. Many are also turning to Pinterest to research products before buying or to find unique travel destinations, the company said.
'Why Is Your Pilates Place the Hardest Club to Get Into Right Now?'
Zoomers and millennials are looking for exclusive fitness communities—and they're willing to pay a premium.
Tera Studio & Pilates Club is barely a year old, but it's already harder to get into than New York mainstay hotspots like Torrisi and Carbonne.
Its address in New York's SoHo neighborhood is a closely guarded secret. (Its distinctive red front door, which pops up on Instagram for those in the know, offers a clue.) The only way in is through a direct referral from one of its 300 members.
But Tera, where a 55-minute class costs $65, is selling more than exclusivity. "With the referral, we're almost filtering our clientele to be somewhat of the same person," says Georgia Wood Murphy, Tera's founder. By that, she means someone "that wants to invest in wellness, that wants to be on trend, and a part of what's hot in New York right now."
For an elite few, working out at an exclusive, invite-only studio is the latest chapter in Gen Z and millennials' obsession with the gym.
English-Language Stand-Up Is Taking Off in Europe. No Joke.
These comics have to navigate culture clashes and social stereotypes. The key, they say, is to make fun of your own nationality first.
To succeed as an English-language comedian in Berlin, Amsterdam or Barcelona — or in the smaller scenes in Bratislava, Slovakia; Krakow, Poland; or Prague — performers must navigate language barriers, culture clashes and social stereotypes. Jokes that resonate often strike a delicate balance, poking fun at the comedian’s country of origin while gently sending up the customs of their adopted home.
“If you make fun of yourself first, you gain this permission to hold up a mirror to Dutch society,” said Greg Shapiro, a Chicago-born comedian who has been living in the Netherlands since 1994, and who performs English-language improv and stand-up for a living. “Just first show that you’re self-aware.”
“Where are all the dirty foreigners at?” Ronan Brosnan said on a recent Friday night while hosting the Comedy Embassy, a stand-up night at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. In response, about a third of the audience cheered. “Hear that, Dutch people?” Brosnan said. “That’s the sound of house prices rising.”
Great and fun articles today, Bill!
I've always laughed at the Doodle love - to me they are muttleys but I do love me a muttley. All but one of my dogs was an "indescrimately bred" dog and all were super smart and had very few health issues. I bet the original Doodle dogs were the same and now that they are breeding for certain looks, sizes etc., that probably is no longer the case, which saddens me. Still, they are mighty cute.
My friends and my family too have discussed all living together as we age so reading about it was clarifying in a lot of ways. I still think it's a great idea!
So poodles will have sex with anything? Adopt, don’t shop. We have enough dogs as it is.