Lifehacker

I’m not here to stop you from proposing to your beloved on the jumbotron this summer. If your dream is to ask your partner to spend the rest of your lives together in front of 40,000 people who share your fandom (or 3,000 people if you’re an Oakland A’s fan), I would never try to stop you.

You may have, a time or 67 in your life, hard boiled an egg. And you may have, during those moments, spewed a continuous stream of curse words under your breath while doing so. Because peeling eggs, unless you enjoy this activity, is usually a messy time-suck filled with many small failures.

As a (relatively) inexpensive and versatile protein, ground beef is a staple in many meat-eating American households. In fact, you might have some in your refrigerator or freezer right now. If that’s the case, you’re going to want to check the label: More than 120,000 pounds of ground beef is currently being recalled…Read more...

If you’re of a certain vintage (i.e., old), you know that buying lightbulbs used to be a relatively simple process: You noted the wattage that you needed and you bought more of the same. A 40-watt bulb produced dimmer light than a 100-watt bulb. Easy! Sure, there were always more exotic bulbs out there—halogen bulbs…Read more...

Blizzard is launching a closed beta for Overwatch 2's PvP multiplayer today. The beta marks the first time most of the Overwatch community will have a shot at sampling the new PvP gameplay, following the game’s closed alpha test. However, in order to join the beta, you’ll either need to sign up or earn your spot.…Read more...

If you’re getting ready to grow vegetables this year—or if you just want the most robust flowers you can get—you may want to give companion planting a try. Companion planting takes advantage of the natural properties of various plants to complement and support each other. Companion planting can help you grow better,…Read more...

Last week, Mastodon finally launched its free, official Android app, making it easier than ever to use the open-source Twitter alternative on Android devices. Mastodon’s timing couldn’t be better, as Twitter’s board just approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to buy Twitter.

If killing houseplants was a crime, I’d be on death row—my past is littered with the corpses of philodendron, ferns, and spider plants. I’ve made every mistake possible, from watering them too much, to burning them with too much light, to salting their soil through over fertilizing.

Toothpaste isn’t just for your chompers anymore. As it turns out, this medicine cabinet staple is good for much more than preventing cavities, freshening breath, and shining up those pearly whites.

If you get periods, you know about pre-menstrual syndrome. PMS, as it’s usually known, is the collection of physical and emotional annoyances that can occur shortly before your period is due. But for some people, that time of the month can include symptoms that feel like an actual illness.Read more...

When you go on a first date, you tend to present the best version of yourself. You’re clean, you’re groomed, you’re wearing a nice outfit, and you’re well within your rights to be doing all of that and more. But what happens if that date goes well, and so do the next few? Before you know it, you’re in a relationship,…Read more...

Book-banning is one of those nosy-neighbor hobbies that becomes popular in waves. We’re currently in one of those waves, with parents and concerned citizens “challenging”—and in some cases successfully removing—books from schools and local libraries. Books with Black and/or LGBTQ+ characters and authors are often the…Read more...

You can feel it brewing in the seconds leading up to a big argument. You temper flares, you feel flushed, and you’re suddenly ready to say aloud things you know you will never be able to take back. Blow-out fights—and even regular-sized bickering sessions—can irrevocably damage relationships of all kinds. If you…Read more...

One of my favorite genres of hacks is “elevating” the store-bought. Making a box of cake or brownie mix taste homemade, zhooshing up mayo, using fast food chicken to make chicken salad—this kind of stuff is extremely my bag, baby.

For many, summer is synonymous with the adventure of outdoor activities. Long hikes through the forest, morning runs along the beach, and picnics in the park are just some of the activities I will not be participating in during the next several months, though. That’s because for me, the season is synonymous with one…Read more...

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Learning or teaching a new board game can be equal parts challenging and maddening. Either you’re the one trying to explain the rules to an apathetic crowd, or you’re being “taught” and are expected to pick up every minute detail from a monotone lecturer. If you’re sick of every game night starting the same way,…Read more...

Ah, the kitchen—a room so vital to modern life it’s become a fraught battleground. Easily the most expensive renovation you’ll ever oversee, an average “midrange” kitchen remodel costs about $76,000, according to Remodeling Magazine. That cost and stress imbues every design decision with heavy emotion and dread, which…Read more...

Decks can be a popular addition that allows you to better enjoy your outdoor space—and to increase the value of your home. But when it comes time to choose between composite, hard wood, and even hybrid, there are several factors to consider, including cost, durability, and aesthetic.Read more...

The modern world is largely safe from the primitives dangers that plagued our ancestors—wild animal attacks are rare; few of us will ever step off a cliff and die because glasses haven’t been invented. This doesn’t mean death and danger have been vanquished. We’ve just forced them into forms that are so new to us as…Read more...

Nigella Lawson’s Molten Chocolate Babycakes set me down the path. In fact, it’s only slightly hyperbolic to say her book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, made me the food writer I am today. Nigella’s writing is and has always been warm and just sensual enough—in a world of didactic, “optimized” food writing and recipes,…Read more...

Mulch can serve a variety of purposes in a landscaped yard, from helping plants stay hydrated, to keeping weeds away. But if you live somewhere windy, it can also blow away. Even if you don’t live somewhere where it’s blustery on a regular basis, a storm with strong winds can undo hours of hard work.Read more...

When someone has road rage, everyone loses—including their fellow drivers. It can be distressing seeing (and possibly hearing) someone get so angry, not knowing how far they’ll take it.Read more...

Let’s say you walk outside one morning only to find that it appears as though someone—or something—has been digging holes, searching for buried treasure (albeit a relatively small one) in your yard. You’d probably want to get to the bottom of it.Read more...

Although we know that human bodies—including our own—can be gross at times, we’d prefer not to be reminded of it. So when you’re changing your sheets and see that your once-perfectly-white pillows are now covered in a web of yellow and brown-ish stains, it can be unsettling.Read more...

Though it’s not difficult to find distilled water in stores, if you find yourself in a situation where you need (or want) to make it at home, you can do so pretty easily. The good news is that you don’t need any fancy equipment to get the job done. The bad news is that it takes some time. Here’s what to know.

Whether you’ve gotten into houseplants during the pandemic, or have long been a fan of their ability to liven up your living space, you’ve probably amassed quite a collection of pots and other containers for your favorite foliage. Unfortunately, at some point, most people will run out of space on their windowsills,…Read more...

You’re going to die one day. The end of your life is coming and you may not know how, when, or why it will happen, but you can be certain it will. While that’ll be the end for you, your death can be the beginning of life for any number of other organisms. The world will always continue on, but your death can help it…Read more...

I wish I knew how to truly savor things and prolong pleasure, specifically when it comes to things that fall under the Food & Beverage category. Maybe it’s an instinct buried deep in my DNA—a by-product of coming from a long line of war-suffering village stock—but I tend to eat with the voracity of a starved wolf…Read more...

One of my biggest takeaways from taking first aid and CPR classes is that if you’re going to have a medical emergency, do it with a friend. You can’t perform CPR on yourself, after all. But there are plenty of ways you can attempt to handle an emergency if you’re still conscious, so we’ll go through a few of them here.

After dealing with months of limited supplies and aggressive scalpers, buying a graphics card or gaming console is becoming easier. They’re not back to manufacturer suggested retail prices (MSRP) yet, but prices have dropped and availability has increased for all in-demand Nvidia and AMD graphics cards, as well as…Read more...

The idyllic start to any spring morning is waking up to the sun shining and the birds chirping. Unfortunately, this year you may have to compromise a bit on the latter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 30 million cases of the bird flu have been detected in aquatic birds, commercial…Read more...

As a marathon runner, I know what it’s like to push your body to its limits. I know the desire to tack on one extra mile when you’re feeling strong, or to squeeze in one last long run before a big race. I also know what it’s like to narrowly avoid serious burnout and injury due to insufficient fueling and recovery.

Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel The Time-Traveler’s Wife was a book that seemed aimed particularly at me. It’s set in Chicago, where I was living when it came out, and I enjoyed following along as the characters rode my busses and ate at my favorite brunch spot. It’s a closed-loop time travel story, which is the best…Read more...

If you use Google Messages on Android, it might be silently stealing away battery life from your phone. And while Google has fixed the issue, the patch might not hit your device for some time. Until then, there are steps you can take to stop the app from putting an unnecessary drain on your battery.

Gardening is often pitched as a relaxing, therapeutic activity—and it is relaxing and therapeutic! But it’s also a sign of how advanced society has become that we can regard growing food as a charming hobby instead of an absolute necessity. On the one hand, that’s a clear sign of mankind’s mastery over the world. On…Read more...

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This week, the young people are trying to capture the coastal grandmother lifestyle, they are explaining slang to their elders, and they are going to Coachella.

As the weather gets warmer and you start dragging your lawn and garden equipment out of the garage or basement and into your yard, you may notice that not everything made it through the winter unscathed. For example, you might connect your trusty garden hose to the outdoor waterline only to find that it has sprung a…Read more...

It is spring, which means it is the time of year that my husband and I thought maybe we would move into a larger home. It’s actually the third spring we have thought that—the first being right when the pandemic hit, the second being once we were finally vaccinated and ready to start looking but the housing market did…Read more...

Being “short” is sort of subjective. Medically, a person is considered short if they’re more than two standard deviations below their population’s mean for age and gender, whatever the hell that means. If you’re short, you know it. You don’t need to do a bunch of math. People will tell you, first of all, and you’ll…Read more...

Intermittent fasting was once hailed as a powerful strategy for weight loss, but the latest science shows it’s not exactly a miracle solution after all.

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Chrome extensions are great. They can help you write better, keep pesky ads at bay, and save you money while you shop, among hundreds of other tasks. However, like Android apps on the Play Store, extensions on the Chrome Web Store aren’t always what they seem. Malware is very much a concern, and you certainly don’t…Read more...

You guys know I’m a fan of the devilishly hard Wordle variations, like Antiwordle and Squardle. But sometimes I just want to play a Wordle variation because I like Wordle and would like to have another serving of it, please. Hurdle obliges, with only a slight twist.Read more...

I hate talking about cast iron. It’s just a pan (or a material with which they make pans, Dutch ovens, etc.), but it’s a pan that brings all the nerds to the yard, and they’re like “my seasoning method is better than yours.” They love to talk about thermal conductivity and polymerization, two subjects I’ve tried my…Read more...

You renovate your bathroom, only to realize too late that you haven’t accounted for sufficient storage in the shower. Or you’ve inherited an existing shower that has exactly one modestly sized niche that will never be big enough to store all your necessary bottles. You might think you’re doomed to a life with one of…Read more...

Sometimes—and for reasons that don’t involve future blackmail plans—you need to record your phone calls. Maybe you’re interviewing someone over the phone and want to refer to the call later, or you’re talking with a shady company that will deny the details of your call without proof. Whatever the case, Android users…Read more...

If you’ve ever tasted New Orleans-style coffee, you may know that some of its unique flavor is due to the addition of chicory. Chicory is the root of an endive plant, which gets roasted, ground, and added into coffee. The use of chicory was introduced by the French as a way of dealing with coffee shortages, and the…Read more...

It’s official: No sector is safe from rising labor and supply costs. Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti recently announced a 3.5% price increase on all items, on top of another 3.5% increase from just in October. Fast food once existed as a cheap and convenient option for those living a life on the go—but with the…Read more...