Lifehacker

Green beans are the most popular holiday bean, but I suspect that’s because we smother them in creamy soups and fried onions. I have eaten and enjoyed many a green bean casserole, but my favorite bean to have on the holiday table is the lima bean (also known as “the butter bean”).

Last week, I told you I am a proponent the Gift of Food for basically any occasion. I simply have never met the arrival of an assortment of brownies, biscotti, or fruit with anything other than delight. Gifts of food or beverage, if thoughtfully chosen for the specific recipient, will always be welcomed, because not…Read more...

Podcasters didn’t invent the true crime genre (nor did Dateline, even though it’s been around much longer), but podcasts have made crime a wildly popular obsession, freeing us from the tether of the TV and allowing us to take murderers on the road with us. Some are focused on victims, others on the questionably…Read more...

Tell me if this story sounds familiar: You’re minding your own business in the gym, doing your usual workout, when a stranger walks up and tells you you’re doing it wrong. In some cases, the stranger is a random nobody; in other cases, they have the look of an accomplished athlete or they introduce themselves as a…Read more...

When your iPhone’s screen shatters, it sucks. You know you’re going to need to shell out money one way or another. How you shell out that money, however, not only influences how much you’ll pay, but whether you’ll have a working iPhone at the end of it all. AppleCare+, as well as Apple as a whole, are at the root of…Read more...

You can smell it in the earth. You can feel it in the air. It’s every home cook’s favorite holiday and worst nightmare: Thanksgiving dinner. Weeks spent planning ahead, poring over food mags, and planning a menu that isn’t just the same old turkey. When the day arrives, you spend hours working over steaming pots and…Read more...

A lot of technology isn’t cheap. A new MacBook Air costs $1,000, as does an iPhone 13 Pro or Galaxy Z Flip3. Even devices that don’t cost a thousand dollars—like AirPods—are plenty expensive, and add up quickly. It’s no wonder that a ton of cheaper alternatives exist. And while I’m not telling you you need to buy top…Read more...

A popular TikTok video offers a way to book a row of airlines just for you and a companion. This trick isn’t guaranteed to work—as you might need to rely on the kindness of strangers to keep your seats together—but it’s still your best chance to travel together with an empty row. Plus, it’s free.

Even though I’ve been doing my own laundry for 20-odd years, and laundry is at minimum a thrice weekly household duty of mine, there are some—okay, a lot of—care instructions that I never bothered to learn. As long as my whites weren’t coming out gray or being shrunk to the size of a mouse blanket, I let it ride. As…Read more...

Hot water heaters can be a contributor to high energy bills, especially during the winter months. Conventional water tanks can be replaced with a “tankless” on demand water heater, which requires some investment up front but can help you save on energy costs long term. If you’re considering making the switch, here are…Read more...

I don’t care what the ad says, the kitchen at your rental place will not be “fully stocked.” I’m a travel minimalist whose happiest vacations required only a pair of shorts and some flip-flops, but even I bring a few things to rental places if I’m going to do any cooking at all. What follows are my recommendations…Read more...

It’s the holidays, and that means hanging out with friends and family, catching up on our lives...and then asking “what should we do now?” in about ten minutes. The answer: Play some board games. And we’ve got you covered on 14 games that are unique, non-traditional, and will provide a way different experience than…Read more...

Last week during a Travis Scott performance at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, eight people died and hundreds were hurt when the densely packed crowd surged toward the stage. Many attendees have uploaded troubling, horror-inducing footage of concert-goers struggling to get help as Scott continued to perform. With…Read more...

Yesterday, the IRS released inflation-adjusted income tax brackets for 2022, which will be increasing by the largest year-to-year margin since Congress revamped the tax code in 2017. Here’s a look at how it breaks down.

To avoid shipping delays related to COVID, you’ll want to get your holiday shopping done and mail your gifts earlier this year. To help you do that, the USPS, FedEx, and UPS have released their recommended ship-by dates for gifts to be delivered in time for Christmas. Here are the dates, based on carrier.

The turkey’s been stuffed, the political arguments have blessedly run their course, the pants have been unbuttoned, and the chair naps have been taken (well, by everyone except you, if you’re hosting). Another successful Thanksgiving holiday is in the books! Now, you’re ready for everyone to leave; it’s really time…Read more...

Our bones often become less dense as we age, which can lead to osteoporosis and potentially to fractures, should bone loss continue. Women who are past menopause are at greatest risk for osteoporosis, statistically, but thinning bones can affect anybody. A loss in bone density can also start earlier in life, so it’s…Read more...

With crypto rewards cards, a small percentage of your purchases can be redeemed for cryptocurrency instead of cash back or points redeemed in a rewards portal. But just because you can combine your credit card rewards with cryptocurrency speculation, doesn’t mean you should, as less risky cash back redemptions might…Read more...

Tragedy struck Marvel this week, as the CinemaScore for the studio’s latest release was revealed: It got a B, the lowest in Marvel Cinematic Universe history.

From the earliest internet forums, to millions of teens’ current TikTok feeds, there has always been an active, influential online culture of “pro” eating disorder “advice” (aka pro-ana or pro-ED content). These online communities are as nuanced as the people who frequent them, full of posts that run the gamut from…Read more...

The initial idea was breathtaking: We had grandiose visions of under-appreciated birds being cajoled up other under-appreciated birds’ back ends. We called it the Gooduckail: A quail, stuffed into a duck, stuffed into a goose. It took 53 text messages to get there, and it was only once we realized that we would be two…Read more...

In fandom circles, people fear a visit from the Suck Fairy. This mythical being alights upon the books, movies, and TV shows you loved as a kid—we’re talking works foundationally important to your development—and taints them with toxic magic. “Oh man, I loved this when I was 12!” you think, scrolling past an old show…Read more...

We’ve written about how to keep adults out of your kitchen while you put the finishing touches on the Thanksgiving day feast—but what about all those short people you live with who have small feet, sticky hands, and loud voices who rarely stop running, grabbing, and shouting? If you’re hosting, it’s challenging enough…Read more...

Recent research from Verizon shows that 96% of social engineering attacks are done through email, and for that reason alone, you might want to consider adding extra security. Let’s discuss the definition of a “secure email server,” its pros and cons, and how to set one up.Read more...

Just as they do on your iPhone, Mac and PC apps request permission to use sensitive information, such as your microphone, location, and camera. There’s no foolproof way to protect your privacy completely on any device connected to the internet, but there are ways to reduce tracking from shady apps and advertising…Read more...

It’s an easy habit to fall into: slipping your cat a bite of food while you’re cooking or letting them have the leftovers from your plate instead of their dinner. But while your cat (or dog) may love and beg for human food, many foods range from less than nutritious to downright toxic for pets. You shouldn’t even give…Read more...

If your iPhone runs out of charge too fast, as is the case with any iPhone that’s over a year old, you can use a few tricks to reduce battery drain. One of those tricks is enabling Low Power Mode on your iPhone. Sure, you can enable it manually each time your battery gets low—or you can automate it to make it run at a…Read more...

Are you keeping up with the Roy family drama? If so, are you also struggling with the need for pre-binging patience while we wait for weekly Succession episodes to drop? Rather than spend my time rewatching the same episodes over and over, I like to seek out complementary voices and perspectives about the show.

For an app that’s so popular globally, WhatsApp has managed to stay surprisingly simple: Most features in WhatsApp are obvious. Adding a contact, messaging in groups, and even group video calls are standard affairs.

Every smartphone has a built-in flashlight, but back in the day, many Android phones featured another hardware light: an LED that shined whenever you received a new notification or alert—a gentle nudge that you needed to check your phone, but a few steps removed from the entire screen lighting up. In 2021, few phones…Read more...

Like driving for Uber or delivering groceries for Doordash, signing up for a microwork site sounds pretty tempting: If you have internet, you can make money doing simple tasks on the computer. But as is so often the case, microwork isn’t the easy side hustle it’s made out to be. Here’s everything you should know.

If you’ve heard the phrase “charge card” and thought it was referring to a credit card, that would be understandable since the terms are often used interchangeably. However, a charge card is an entirely different product with no credit limit or interest charged, unlike a credit card. Here’s a closer look at the…Read more...

My now ex-husband met his first ambrosia salad at a buffet in Aberdeen, Mississippi, after Sunday school at my grandparent’s church. He’d grown up in Virginia and Florida, two states that can be—but aren’t always—captial-S Southern. His father lived near DC and his mother, who had converted to Judaism when he was an…Read more...

As I sit down to expound on this topic, I’m taking deep breaths. Are my lips pursed? Yes. Are my nostrils flared? You betcha. Is my butt clenched? Probably. Even the mere thought of people crowding the kitchen, asking me questions, standing right in front of that drawer at the precise moment I need to open it, and…Read more...

A recent study revealed 50% of people with Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are fuzzy on the details of the “use it or lose it” part of these tax-saving vehicles—particularly the deadlines for the funds in them must be spent. This year more than ever, that’s not exactly surprising: COVID relief legislation added in …Read more...

Google can’t seem to stop making messaging apps. After Google Talk, Hangouts, and Allo (and millions of attempts at adding chatting to other Google services), we now have Google Chat—a new service with Slack-style rooms as its core feature. Google Chat is replacing the text-messaging park of Hangouts, while Google…Read more...

If you have a gravy boat, you probably use it once a year. Maybe twice. If you don’t have a gravy boat, it has probably never occurred to you that you need one. And if you aren’t hosting Thanksgiving, you don’t: You don’t need a gravy boat. You don’t need a big serving platter from which to dish out turkey. You don’t…Read more...

The holidays are fast approaching, and many of us are about to fly for the first time in nearly two years. We could all use a refresher on air travel tips and tricks, like the right time to use the bathroom on an airplane, or how to eat on a plane without getting sick.

Two recent changes in travel regulations mean that people can now visit the United States for non-essential reasons, even if they aren’t citizens. Both policies took effect Nov. 8 (and if you want a good cry, check out any of the videos of families reuniting after almost two years apart).Read more...

Last week, while thinking about a particularly unimpressive turducken my family made one year, I asked what foods should be forever banned from the Thanksgiving dinner table. Quite the provocative question, considering holiday gatherings—and the food therein—is laden with childhood memories, nostalgia, and sentimental…Read more...

Daylight Saving Time is over; darkness now descends upon the Earth every day at 5 p.m. You stumble to your car, turn on the ignition, and fire up Google Maps to figure out the fastest route home, only to be blinded by the brightest map you’ve ever seen in your goddamn life (it’s even reflecting off the freaking…Read more...

Whether you changed internet service providers (ISPs) or need to upgrade your password, switching your wifi comes with some challenges. Manually connecting all your smart home devices when there’s a change in your network connectivity is a time-consuming process—wouldn’t it be so much easier to switch wifi connections…Read more...

As much as we want to complete everything on our never-ending to-do lists, we also are aware that there are only so many hours in the day—or so much energy to go around. When you’re not sure how to prioritize all the tasks in front of you in order of importance (or what to delegate to someone else), it’s time to…Read more...

It did not occur to me until quite recently that some people purchase pre-cooked turkeys to serve on Thanksgiving. Not only am I far too much of a control freak to trust the wellbeing of The Bird to someone else, the concept seems flawed right out the gate. Turkey is already incredibly prone to drying out, and the act…Read more...

Weather forecasts can be helpful for planning in advance, but knowing it’s about to rain right before it actually starts can save you the headache of getting literally caught in a storm. If you’ve updated to the latest version of iOS 15, you can now set up real-time precipitation notifications right in Apple’s…Read more...

I like to think of myself as calm, normal, almost relaxed observer of Thanksgiving, but in truth, I’m kind of a tyrant. I hide my more tyrannical tendencies by volunteering to host and cook most of the meal, so I can make sure the turkey is moist, the cranberry sauce is sweet enough, and the Jiffy corn casserole is on…Read more...

If you’re a veteran or active-duty member of the military, there are a bunch of retail chains—more than 30, by our count—that are offering free food this Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 11. All you need is proof of military service, and you can partake in as many as you’d like.

At this point, the statement “Google is creepy with your data” isn’t a shocking one. We know that Google and companies like it compromise our privacy and security every day in the name of business and profit; we just sort of, you know, deal with it? However, there’s some extra creepiness going on with Chrome…Read more...

The “Signal for Help” is a simple gesture—display your hand, palm out, then close your fingers over your thumb—but it could save your life.

If you don’t normally file a tax return and haven’t received your child tax benefit yet, it’s not too late to receive a lump sum advance payment of $1,800 per child in December. However, you’ll have to act fast to get that money before the holidays, as the deadline for the advanced payment expires in one week. After…Read more...