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.
A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu
I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?
Two young women squat by a low wooden display bristling with Labubus. They ask each other the same question that’s on my mind: Which of these plushie collectibles will the Pop Mart toy company allow me the privilege of taking home today? Will I get the 16-inch-tall Labubu with denim overalls and a fisherman’s hat or the keychain Labubu with bright fur and possessed eyes? Can I get both?
The clerk at this Beijing store—Pop Mart’s first location—gives us a reality check. “None of these is in stock,” she says curtly. “You can join our fan group chat and wait for the restocking alert.”
Of course. Labubu isn’t just a creepy-cute stuffed rabbit-demon-elf-bear. Labubu sat front row at Milan Fashion Week. Tourists lined up at the Louvre to buy a Labubu from the pop-up store. Lady Gaga dressed as Labubu in concert. Madonna served Labubu cake at her birthday. When Labubu sold out in London once, customers started a brawl. In Thailand, where Labubu is the government’s official tourism ambassador, trendy partygoers buy Labubu-shaped ecstasy pills. Even knockoff Labubus, called Lafufus, have their own devoted fans. You can’t expect to just leave the store with social currency. You’ve got to earn it.
Meet the 18-Year-Old Trump Scion Selling Sweatshirts From the White House Lawn
Kai Trump launched a line of monogrammed $130 pullovers last week, making her the latest family member to trade on their association with the president.
Plenty of teenagers have their own fashion brands. But only one is using the White House to market her clothes.
Late last week, Kai Trump, the president’s granddaughter and an elite-level high-school golfer, launched a website selling $130 cotton sweatshirts monogrammed with her initials. The 18-year-old posted a video to Instagram on Friday modeling the sweatshirts in black, white and navy at the White House. That same day, she and President Trump flew on Air Force One to the Ryder Cup in Farmingdale, N.Y., where Kai wore a white sweatshirt bearing her initials in blue and red. On Monday, she posted a video of her playing golf in one of her sweatshirts on the South Lawn.
“Not many people get to do this, so I’m pretty lucky,” she said.
The daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump, Kai does not hold public office and is not subject to federal ethics rules. But her clothing line is the latest example of a Trump family member using the White House to bolster commercial pursuits.
Kai has 3.3 million TikTok followers and 2.2 million followers on Instagram. She has brand partnerships including TaylorMade Golf and Accelerator Active Energy, and promotes fitness trackers and other products on social media.
Taking a page from her grandfather’s book, she used superlatives to describe the sweatshirts: “This is literally the best sweater material I’ve ever felt. Ever.”
Student-Loan Debt Is Strangling Gen X
This article spoke to me, especially since I finally paid off my student loans in August. For context, I graduated in 1997. I’m not complaining; I signed the papers. But let my generation’s experience be a warning!
One of the most enduring relationships of Rick Betancur’s adult life is with his student debt. The federal loans have followed him for more than 26 years, longer than he’s been married. His $74,000 in graduate school debt has ballooned to $300,000.
The 55-year-old New Jersey chiropractor is stupefied by his balance. He’s made enough payments to cover what he initially borrowed, but it’s been buried in decades of mounting interest.
His balance continues to accrue interest—and repercussions, including a recently denied home-equity loan application. Decades of payments meant Betancur couldn’t save for retirement until later in life. Today he has just over $200,000 saved, a fraction of the seven times one’s salary Fidelity Investments recommends workers have by 55.
Gen X is barreling toward retirement with an excruciating student-loan burden. The six million-plus borrowers aged 50 to 61 have the highest average balance of any age group, at $47,857, according to Federal Student Aid data. Now, as parents and grandparents, they are passing along skepticism toward higher education and its hefty price tag, part of the broader unraveling of America’s “college for all” ideology.
“Ten to 15 years ago it was widely accepted that student loans were good debt,” said James Kvaal, under secretary of education during the Biden administration. “A lot has changed.”
Meet the First American to Win ‘Best Cheesemonger in the World’
Emilia D’Albero won the Mondial du Fromage, one of the world’s top cheese competitions, held every two years in Tours, France.
Emilia D’Albero trained like an athlete: long hours, exacting drills, heavy lifting. She sculpted and sliced until her hands ached, then bought a second fridge to keep up with the demands of her routine.
Her sport? Cheese.
For months, the Philadelphia-based cheesemonger tasted, smelled and plated hundreds of pounds of cheese and practiced carving wheels into edible works of art. She made flash cards to memorize types of cheese and breeds of goats, sheep and cows. By the end, her life revolved around milk and microbes.
On Sept. 15, that dedication made her a world champion. In a competition that tested every skill a cheesemonger can wield, D’Albero, 31, sliced her way past the globe’s best to be crowned “Meilleure Fromagère du Monde.” That’s French for “Best Cheesemonger in the World.”
The title came with a trio of historic firsts. D’Albero is the first American to win the Mondial du Fromage, one of the world’s top cheese competitions, held every two years in Tours, France. She and her teammate, Courtney Johnson, formed the first all-female Team USA. And when Johnson claimed bronze, the two became the first Americans ever to stand on the podium together.
“This was obviously a win for the entire American cheese industry,” D’Albero said. “But even more so, it’s a win for all women and cheese all over the world.”
Surfing, Not Shots: Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties Go Outdoors
More brides and grooms are trading the traditional carousing and overindulgence for adventure and wellness getaways with loved ones.
You don’t have to be able to quote every line of “The Hangover” to know that bachelor parties can get out of hand.
For many future brides and grooms, wild nights of overindulgence and questionable matching outfits have become as much a part of the wedding rites as bow ties and bouquets.
But that’s starting to change. A growing number of bachelors and bachelorettes, typically those who are a little older and have enough money to travel, are choosing to bid farewell to single life by bringing their loved ones together for destination gatherings centered on more wholesome experiences — glamping instead of gambling, surfing instead of doing shots.
Jolie Golub, a co-founder of BachBoss, a company that has helped plan more than 350 bachelor and bachelorette parties, says about 40 percent of its events, up from about a third of them in 2023, now focus on activities other than partying, with an increasing number of inquiries into places “with a focus on nature and wellness.”
Couples in their 30s and older, she said, particularly gravitate toward hiking, yoga, glamping, fishing and golf outings. It helps that their friends may also want to celebrate “in a way that doesn’t leave them hung over and exhausted at the end of the weekend,” she said.
Here’s how some couples traded bacchanalia for bonding at their bachelor and bachelorette getaways.
What to Tell Your Kids If They Want a Career in Hollywood
For the past five years, I’ve been interviewing Hollywood professionals about what they wish they’d known when starting out. The entertainment business can feel opaque and overwhelming, and many who navigated it the hard way want to help level the playing field for those arriving with passion but without connections.
The best advice — collected in a book I co-wrote with former Times colleague Jon Healey, “Breaking Into New Hollywood: A Career Guide to a Changing Industry” — was often about handling chaos. The key to longevity, many said, is managing the rejection, instability and heartbreak that are unavoidable in the industry.
As Hollywood has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, strikes, recessions and contraction — some reports estimate Hollywood jobs were down 25% in 2024 from their 2022 peak — many have had to take their own advice. Decades-long veterans have pivoted to adjacent professions, including teaching and advertising. Some have left Hollywood altogether.
But others have landed their dream jobs. They’ve learned to build something from nothing. They’ve gotten to show what they’re capable of, once someone finally gave them a chance.
The most sensible advice to give young people who dream of working in entertainment, they said, is to run in the other direction — or at least have a backup plan. There are many practical, safer choices that can result in a happy, fulfilling career.
But dreams have a way of resurfacing, no matter how deep you try to bury them. So here’s what I would tell my own kids if they felt Hollywood was their calling.
The Dinosaur Sale Is Not a Joke
A popular theme park is closing. That’s good news for dinosaur fans who want their own life-size animatronic attraction.
The stegosaurus, over 29 feet long and described as “housebroken,” is selling for $1,260. The adult triceratops? $2,230. A life-size T. rex, 39 feet long, 18 feet tall, “slightly used” and “well loved,” will cost you $2,700.
A dinosaur theme park in Leonia, N.J., is closing next month, and with it has come an unusual opportunity for dinosaur enthusiasts and anyone else interested in adding a bit of prehistoric panache to a boring backyard.
Thirty-one animatronic dinosaurs on display at “Field Station: Dinosaurs” — including some that growl and roar — are for sale. If social media is any guide, the prospect of owning an enormous man-made dinosaur, even a used one, has captured the imaginations of people far beyond New Jersey. Screenshots of Facebook Marketplace posts advertising the creatures have been widely shared.
“That’s a good price for a used triceratops,” one person noted on X.
“I have the money, but I don’t have the means of getting them to Australia,” wrote another.
More than a few people seemed interested in purchasing a dinosaur to taunt their homeowners’ associations.
I’m more of a British film fan, or perhaps I should just say Scottish film fan. But British primarily because if the actor is any good, they are quite kind to them. Many if not most are classically trained so have a wide range of acting abilities. I appreciate that.
all the $$$$ spent on wedding stuff - & people say the economy is in the dumpster? Who is paying? The couple-to-be or are they expecting their loyal friends to fork over the $$$? Even if it's a marvelous trip, it's big $. And of course, the wedding itself, will it also be a lavish affair? Expected gifts? Honeymoon to $$$... then the divorce after so many yrs (well, hopefully not).
I didn't click on any other links, but they all involved $$ &/or time devoted to making big $$$ or fame. Fame as a cheesehead, er monger? Really? That's what's important in this world?
How about some links about volunteering? Yep, gotta get a plug in whenever I can about the benefits of volunteering. It does your community good, it does the agency good, it does the recipients of the agency good, it does your heart good - it's a good for all good.