If theme parties get you jazzed, then this exercise group might be for you. In Portland, Oregon, an indoormall walking club called "Food Court 5000" meets once a week for a 1980s-themed workout — complete with neon windbreakers, leg warmers, and high ponytails. In addition to providing the physical benefits of a brisk walk, the group is accessible year-round (no rain delays when you're in the mall) and incorporates elements of nostalgia and community that help keep people engaged. Learn more about mall walking and how to start your own regimen.
Must Reads
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Culture
How The Beatles and Virginia Woolf Made It Into UK's 2025 Tree of the Year Contest
Ready to climb into the trees nominated for the U.K.'s Tree of the Year contest? The 2025 shortlist includes a 300-year-old cedar (pictured) renowned for being scaled by The Beatles, as well as a tree thought to have inspired Virginia Woolf and the ancient oak that served as a muse for a Radiohead album. While only one tree can win, the Woodland Trust's annual competition is designed to highlight the environmental and cultural importance of all rare, ancient, or at-risk trees. This year's theme is "rooted in culture," to celebrate how trees have inspired the creative minds of authors, poets, musicians, filmmakers, and even politicians. "Our oldest trees hold more stories than Shakespeare," actor Judi Dench, who is a patron of the Woodland Trust, said in a statement. "Some were putting down roots long before he began writing, more than 400 years ago. They are as much part of our heritage as any literature." You can vote for your favorite now through Sept. 19 — check out all the trees and cast your ballot here. The winner will represent the country in the European Tree of the Year finals.
Together With Visit Anchorage
Embrace Alaska Adventure and Culture in Anchorage
Have you considered Anchorage for your next vacation? The city's combination of natural beauty, metropolitan life, and cultural richness makes it a truly extraordinary place to visit. You can explore the great outdoors by hiking the endless options of trails, and honor Alaska Native cultures, whose timeless traditions and customs echo throughout the state. Then there's the food: The vibrant culinary scene spans locally fresh seafood dishes to internationally influenced cuisine. And what could be better for capping off a day of adventure than sampling the numerous breweries scattered throughout the city? Anchorage offers infinite opportunities to make lasting memories, so plan your visit today.
It sounds like the plot of a children's book: A small opossum befriends a much larger ocelot. But this unlikely bond is real as can be. Members of the two distinct species have been seen trotting through the Amazon rainforest together "like two old friends walking home from a bar," Isabel Damas-Moreira, senior author of a study on the surprising friendship, told The New York Times. Researchers at the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Peru had set out to study bird behavior, but instead captured unlikely footage of an ocelot and a common opossum walking alongside each other, challenging the typical predator-prey dynamic. It turned out the pairing wasn't a fluke, as the team reached out to researchers across other regions of the Peruvian Amazon and gathered a total of four examples of ocelots and opossums partnering up in different locations between 2019 and 2023. "This suggests that such interspecific associations are likely non-random events," scientists wrote in the paper, published last month. As for the "why," the researchers suspect the opossums use ocelots as a form of chemical camouflage to hide their scent from other predators. Opossums, on the other hand, may help ocelots with foraging prey they couldn't get on their own. Whatever the reason, the ocelot-opossum bond is just one of the many unexpected pairings in the animal world. "We tend to underestimate how much cooperation there is in nature," Erol Akçay, a theoretical biologist who was not involved in the research, told the Times. Watch footage of the dynamic duo.
Sports
"You Have to Do This Once in Your Life": All About Alaska's Midnight Sun Baseball Game
Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty Images
When the clock strikes midnight, most baseball diamonds are empty, the final inning likely long over. But during one special summer night in Fairbanks, Alaska, the game is still in full swing at this time, as the players go to bat under a never-setting sun. This is the Midnight Sun Game: a 120-year-old tradition celebrating the sun being visible all day and night from mid May to late July (thanks to Fairbanks' proximity to the Arctic Circle). Every June, on the summer solstice, locals and visitors from all over the world gather in the middle of the night to watch a baseball game unfold under a golden glow, no stadium lights needed. It's technically a two-day experience, as the first pitch is thrown around 10 p.m. and play wraps up around 1 a.m. Regardless of how the game goes, it's a time-warping wonder that can't be found anywhere else in the world. "There's not anything like it," Bob Eley, former longtime sports editor for the Fairbanks Daily Miner, previously told the MLB. "If you're a baseball fan, you have to do this once in your life." See photos from this year's Midnight Sun Game — complete with live music and cultural traditions to celebrate the resurgence of light in summer.
In Other News
Military members and their families are eligible for new air travel benefits (read more)
Thelive-action Lilo & Stitch is the first Hollywood film of 2025 to hit $1 billion at the global box office (read more)
Microsoft is helping make a "digital twin" of Notre Dame Cathedral in France (read more)
A puffin named Oona was returned to the Welsh coast after being found in a garden 110 miles inland (read more)
Soccer star Olivia Smith made history as the first female player to sign a 1 million pound ($1.34 million) deal (read more)
Something We Love
Liberty 4 Noise Canceling Earbuds These have been my go-to headphones for years now. You can change the settings from true noise canceling to transparent depending on where you are. Great for everything from meetings to workouts to travel! – Kenny Freeman, Director of Partnerships
Let's put our hands together for Jazzy Dunaway: the first student from her Colorado high school to earn a college scholarship for women's flag football. "I feel very empowered and very much as a leader," Dunaway said. "As young girls watch me go into college playing my sport, it will be an inspiration for them to know that they could have a future within the sport."
Photo of the Day
Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
If you were in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday, it would have been difficult to not see the dance of the Giglio. A 138-year-old tradition, the "Giglio Feast" brands itself as the oldest Italian American feast in New York City. The unique festivities include the spectacle of revelers carrying a 4-ton, 72-foot-tall statue called the "Giglio" to celebrate San Paolino, the patron saint of Nola, Italy. "A lot of people think the men are dancing. No — we are making the Giglio dance. When you see it happen, it's just spectacular," said one attendee.
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