Doctor Howard Tucker of Cleveland, Ohio, set the Guinness World Record for Oldest Practicing Doctor in October 2025, just two short months prior to his death in December.

Neurologist Dr Howard Tucker practised medicine from 1947 to 2022, then continued working in his field until just three months before he passed away on 22 December 2025.

This was Tucker’s second Guinness World Record for his longevity as a physician.

He had originally entered the record books in 2021, when at the age of 98 years 231 days, he was recognized as the oldest practising doctor.

Austin Tucker compiled information about his grandfather’s long and storied career into a beautiful documentary titled What’s Next?, which includes a year’s worth of interviews with Howard, viral videos, and touching moments.

WHAT’S NEXT? chronicles one year in the life of Dr. Howard Tucker, the world’s oldest practicing doctor, who at 100-years-old must grapple with aging for the first time.

Dr. Tucker’s Videos

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The post 103 Year Old Doctor in Cleveland Sets Guinness World Record for the Oldest Practicing Doctor was originally published on Laughing Squid.

A very chatty black cat named Archie is so excited about exercising that he meows loudly to let his human, Mariah Sola, know when he wants to walk on the treadmill. Sola said she had bought the walking pad for herself, and Archie decided to keep her company.

I bought a walking pad to motivate myself to reach my 10,000 steps. He didn’t really need any training at all. He just wanted to be a part of what I was doing.

Sola is very happy to use treadmill time to bond with Archie and her other cats

Between being his coach and his encouragement, his motivator and his mom, all of these things are just really rewarding because it allows me to have fun with my cats.

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In a rather surreal sketch from the third episode of Saturday Night Live UK, guest host Riz Ahmed plays an initially skeptical man whose obsession with the children’s game Operation leads to real life tragedy.

For some, Operation is more than a game.

Saturday Night Live UK premiered “Live From London” in March 2026 and is slotted for six episodes thus far. This is the first British version of the long-running New York City show.

The six-part SNL UK series will be broadcast live from London at 22:00 every Saturday on Sky. The show marks the first British incarnation of the sketch series, which was created by Lorne Michaels and first launched in the US in 1975.

via The Awesomer

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The post A Man’s Obsession With the Game ‘Operation’ Leads to Tragedy in a Surreal Saturday Night Live UK Sketch was originally published on Laughing Squid.

TasteBuds NYC is a wonderful online series about a man and his friend who have made it their mission to eat every type of food in the world without ever leaving New York City. They first choose a single cuisine by spinning a wheel, then head out to a restaurant that serves it. The only requirement is that the restaurant is located within one of the five boroughs.

Me and my friend had an idea one day to try the food from every country in the world only in New York City. Every week we’re going to spin a wheel, land on a random country, and then go find their food somewhere in New York City.

Along the way, the pair has become friends with all sorts of people at the restaurants they visit, including owners, employees, and fellow diners. And they recognize the importance of how each place lends itself to the beautiful international mosaic of New York City.

It’s getting emotional. This is the point of the country. It’s like you’re a part of this country. You’re a part of your own country. You bring your culture here. People come. They appreciate it. It’s why we play. 

via Waxy.org

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60 Second Docs spoke with Tina Piña Trachtenburg, who is known in her Brooklyn neighborhood and elsewhere as “Mother Pigeon” due to her devotion to these amazing urban birds. This includes keeping them safe, well-fed, and fighting to protect them from poaching in New York City.

I think that humans can learn a lot of things from pigeons. Each pigeon is silly or feisty. You get to know each pigeon as trusting and loyal; they are so loyal. Closeted pigeon lovers come out of the closet when they come to see me. There are a million pigeons in this city. We minimize their value, and they’re life, but pigeons are really special to me.

Trachtenburg is so enamored that she creates soft sculpture “flashflock outstallations” of highly realistic pigeons in natural poses.

Trachtenburg’s Mission To Save NYC Pigeons

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Music essayist Walrus Pepper Skelter, who previously listed famous musicians appearing on other musicians’ songs, shared how 55 highly recognizable rock songs were named and the circumstances that led to their titles.

We dive into the fascinating stories behind 55 famous songs and the surprising origins of their titles. From last-minute changes and hidden meanings to funny accidents and record label decisions, these titles often have stories just as interesting as the music itself.

Some were easy to guess, while others had very interesting origins. For example, the song “Roxanne” by The Police was inspired by the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, the Aerosmith song “Walk This Way” was inspired by the 1974 Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein, and the Tommy James and The Shondells song “Mony Mony” was inspired by the Mutual of New York building at 1740 Broadway in New York City.

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The incredibly candid Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond shared several grammatical quirks that are more common in American English than in British English due to dialectal differences.

I found that certain mistakes show up more regularly in the United States. Before you all lose your blooming minds, this is not poking fun at Americans. It’s just language errors that aren’t probable in British English because we don’t always have the same dialectal properties as America.

While Brown listed a number of these errors, the one he found most interesting was the word “glamour”. In the 19th century Noah Webster, of dictionary fame, spearheaded the movement to return American English to its Latin roots and differentiate it from British English by removing the “u” after “o” in such words as colour (color), neighbour (neighbor), favour (favor). Words such as glamour are exceptions to this rule.

Perhaps the most notable is the word glamour, which is typically spelled with the UR suffix in both Britain and the United States. And here’s where things get completely and utterly a little bit impressive. Because this wasn’t some accident or weird quirk of history. It was done by design. You see, American lexographers changed most UR words to OR words because this is how they were originally spelled in Latin. But glamour was different. Glamour had no presence in Latin.

Why the Same Words Are Spelled Differently

Why There Are Different Words for the Same Thing

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Bodega Cats of New York is an aptly named book by Dan Rimada, the founder of Bodega Cats of New York, and photographer Gulce Kilkis, who joined forces to document the bodega cats of New York City and the ongoing legal fight to allow these felines to remain at the stores they call home. The book is available for pre-order and is set to be released in October 2026.

The first bodega cats book, a comprehensive record of the cats that keep New York’s corner stores running and the fight to make their work legal.

Legalizing Bodega Cats

The Bodega Cats of New York City

via Nag on the Lake

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The post ‘Bodega Cats of New York’ – A Book About NYC’s Beloved Felines and the Fight to Make Them Legal was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Brandon Hardesty of “The Back Focus” looked at Taylor Dearden‘s highly nuanced performance as Dr. Mel King on the wildly popular series The Pitt, specifically noting the incredible thoughtfulness and empathy she brought to the role of a neurodivergent emergency room doctor.

Rather than treating autism like a gimmick, a superpower, or a collection of stereotypes, The Pitt gives us a character who feels like a real person: smart, awkward, capable, emotionally perceptive, overwhelmed at times, and deeply human.

Hardesty also spoke about how autism has been portrayed in the past and how Dr. Mel King broke the mold of these stereotypes. He also talks about Tal Anderson, the autistic actress who plays Dr. King’s sister Becca with such finesse and complexity.

I break down Taylor Dearden’s acting choices, the writing behind Dr. Melissa King, the realism of The Pitt, and the specific moments that make this performance stand out. I also talk about autism representation in movies and television, neurodivergent characters on screen, and why authentic performances matter when it comes to portraying autistic people with empathy and complexity.

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Paleontologist Danielle Dufault of Animalogic investigated the unique physiology of the red-lipped batfish, noting its bright scarlet lips, beard, bioluminescent horn, and a strange ability to walk rather than swim. 

This is one of the weirdest fish in the world there’s no doubt about it. They have weirdly human red lips, fins for legs, a beard and bioluminescent parts.

Dufault further explains how this unusual combination of features allows the red-lipped batfish to hide, hunt, and reproduce in the Mesopelagic zone near the Galapagos Islands, though much still remains unknown about them.

We have to admit that there are a few reasons why it’s so hard to study them. They are sometimes seen in waters as shallow as 3 meters, but most of their range is below where most divers can go. Even if you were to swim near them, unless you shine a bright light on them, it’s most likely that you’d completely miss them due to their colorization and texture; they just look like a rock or a coral 

The Life of a Red-Lipped Batfish

via swissmiss

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A little rescued dog named Doris is so unbelievably cute that, when she’s out on a daily walk with her human Julie, she insists on going to her favorite stores to pick out a new toy. According to Julie, Doris will always pick the same thing – a colorful rubber bone.

So, when we take her for her walks, it’s never a question if we’ll go to her store. The question is which of her favorite stores will we go to? …She slows down and she looks at the shelves. Ultimately, she wants the same bone every single time.

While this may seem excessive, Julie is more than happy to do it for her beloved dog, whom she loves to spoil.

Doris is genuinely the greatest thing that has happened in our lives. She brings us so much joy. I get emotional thinking about the fact that she is a rescue. She used to be a stray dog, and we want to give her the best life we possibly can. Seeing how happy she is when she gets her bone makes it all worth it.

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The Process explored the history of pencils, specifically what led to a particular shade of yellow becoming the industry standard in the United States. The color was chosen because it symbolized power and luxury in Chinese culture, where a certain brand of pencils was made. These perceptions were further cemented by a marketing campaign that used color recognition to sell pencils, a program that still exists today.

Pencils were not always yellow. Before the 1890s, most were dark wood or unpainted. Then one company painted theirs yellow to signal that the graphite inside came from China — because in Chinese culture, yellow meant royalty and prestige. The pencil was not better. The paint told you it was supposed to be.

The narrator also explained that while yellow is standard in the US, the colors vary in other countries.

British pencils often come in traditional red and black. Yellow pencils? Rare. The yellow obsession is almost entirely American. The rest of the world never bought into the myth.  

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Educator Maynard Okereke of the Hip Hop Science show partnered with Nat Geo Kids to present a wonderfully informative lesson on identifying the four main cloud classifications.

Today, we’re getting off the ground and up into the sky to find out everything we can about clouds. Clouds come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some look happy, some look sad, and some look angry, but they’re all important to the world that we live in.

The four types of clouds consist of cumulus (fluffy clouds), cumulonimbus (storm clouds), stratus (low altitude uniform clouds), and cirrus (high altitude wispy clouds). Okereke jovially explains how understanding clouds is important to understanding the planet.

Learning to recognize clouds can help you predict the weather and understand how Earth’s atmosphere, or the blanket of air that wraps around our planet, works.

How Clouds Stay in the Air

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Essayist Will Francis examined the music of the Québécois experimental rock duo Angine de Poitrine, noting how their elaborately dissonant math rock defies the formulas generative AI uses to create text-prompted music.

Modern music is unbelievably formulaic, and AI is trained on those formulas. So we’ve got an AI that’s trained on that, it is pumping out more of that, and that just forces us to walk away from it and break those rules and find different territory. And that’s what Angine de Poitrine have done really well. 

A number of YouTube musicians have been hearing about the Angine de Poitrine performance from their fans. This includes Charles Cornell, who explains why the human brain likes it, and the very forthright Rick Beato, who says to stop sending him the video.

The KEXP Angine de Poitrine Performance

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The incredibly creative team at Improv Everywhere staged an elaborate faux art gallery show that featured flawless replicas of the 13 priceless artworks stolen during the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist in Boston.

The paintings were exact replicas of the 13 priceless artworks stolen in the infamous Gardner Museum Heist.

To further the illusion, the staff explained that a secret billionaire had loaned these paintings to the gallery and was expecting them back. Unfortunately, the show was cut short when “FBI agents” raided the show and took the paintings with them.

We told guests the art was “on loan” from a secretive billionaire. Of course the collector, curator, gallery staff, and even security were all our undercover actors.

This incredibly credible promotional stunt, which was nominated for a Webby Award, was pulled off in collaboration with the producers of Any Day Now, an independent feature film that tells the full story of the heist.

Thanks to our collaborators, the filmmakers behind the new independent feature film Any Day Now, coming out May 5, across all digital on-demand platforms! Check out the film to dive deeper into the mystery of the art heist that inspired this stunt. 

‘Any Day Now’ Trailer

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The post Improve Everywhere Stages Art Show With Replicas of 13 Masterpieces Stolen From Boston Museum in 1990 was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Talented Bardcore musician Algal the Bard performed “The Imperial March”, Darth Vader‘s ominous theme from Star Wars, as a beautifully romantic serenade on traditional Medieval instruments. As in previous covers, Algal played each instrument, including the mandolin, alto recorder, soprano recorder, and lute-guitar.

The Imperial March – Romantic Serenade Version

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The Cornell Lab of Ornithology put together a lovely compilation featuring the distinctive songs and calls of returning North American birds in spring.

Every week during spring, new birds are migrating back to your yard, neighborhood, and local parks. And once they return, they’ll let you know they’re here. All you have to do is listen for their songs and calls.

This list includes the Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Killdeer, American Robin, Chipping Sparrow, Belted Kingfisher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern House Wren, Northern Yellow Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat.

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Red Bull pilot Dario Costa made aviation history when he briefly landed his racing plane on top of a cargo train moving at 120 km/h (75 m/h) and then took off again. This feat was incredibly difficult, as Costa not only had a tiny runway but he also had to fight high winds and turbulence to keep his plane aloft and without crashing into the trees in his path.

I’m going to attempt something that’s never been done before. Landing a plane and taking off from a moving train. Not only will my landing zone be moving at 120 km/h, but I only have the back container of the train to land on. I have very little room for error.

Costa previously set an aviation record for flying through two separate tunnels.

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Comedian Myles Toe, who enjoys poking fun at New York City neighborhoods, gave a hilarious review of the architecturally confusing behemoth that is the Fulton Street Subway Station in lower Manhattan.

So, let’s just say hypothetically you’re trying to get back to Brooklyn. …But nay, somehow you’ve wandered into the disorienting, spatially cursed, architecturally psychotic underground punishment chamber known only as Fulton Street Station. A government-funded escape room designed by a committee of drunk raccoons.

Speaking in a highly believable British accent, Toe explained how this station has been stitched together over the past few centuries, adding in way too many trains and other random features that make the station even more confusing and anxiety-inducing.

This wacky place isn’t a subway station. It’s a full-blown setup to a godamn panic attack. It’s the connecting hub for the 2 3 4 5 6 A C J. …And just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, it’s somehow connected to the three worst things in all of human history. A shopping mall, the state of New Jersey, and, against all logic, 9/11. The problem is Fulton Street isn’t just one station, it’s a stitched-together network of competing subway systems built across different eras, all forced to coexist underground like rival gangs

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Music essayist Walrus Pepper Skelter put together two incredible compilations of famous musicians who unexpectedly appeared on popular songs that were recorded by other famous musicians. While some are fairly well known, others are completely unexpected.

From uncredited instrumentals to unexpected performances by famous artists, these songs hold fascinating musical secrets that many fans still don’t know about.

Some of these appearances are a bit surprising. For example, legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio played trumpet on the 1963 song “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels, the great Billy Joel played piano on the 1965 Shangri-Las song “Remember (Walking in the Sand), vocalist Chrissie Hynde sang on the 1985 U2 song “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, and 1970s pop star Toni Tennille sang background vocals on the 1979 Pink Floyd song “The Show Must Go On”.

Part Two

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