Free Republic

When she started shopping for the holidays late last year, Kelly Andersen was struggling to buy her loved ones gifts. So she turned to a novel solution to get through the season: Buy now, pay later. The 31-year-old freelance copywriter from Los Angeles used Klarna and PayPal to split a variety of purchases into four interest-free payments spread out over a series of weeks. At the time, her upfront cost was about a quarter of the overall purchase price. But now that January has arrived and the other installments are starting, Andersen isn’t sure how she’s going to pay them...

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said Republicans should have "done better" in Tuesday's midterm elections, calling former President Trump a "drag on our ticket" that contributed to the party's disappointing results. While interviewed from his home in Janesville, Wisconsin by local station WISN 12 News on Wednesday, Ryan said he was happy to see Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' landslide re-election victory and that Republicans would have to reflect on why that dominant performance did not materialize elsewhere. "I think we're going to have to do a lot of soul-searching and head scratching, looking through and parsing the numbers as...

It’s called Myrkl (pronounced miracle, not Merkel, like the long-serving German chancellor) and a pack of 30 tablets can be bought online for £30 ($36). It works, the company claims, by speeding up the rate at which the body breaks down alcohol over a period of 12 hours. So, in theory, if you take the tablets before an evening’s entertainment then you should wake up the next morning with a clear head. The drink was a pint of lager. Then, on arrival at the event, at 7:30pm, I was greeted with a glass of lovely fizz. I’m reliably informed it...

A systematic review scrutinized 21 supposed treatments for hangovers.Not that I don't love my go-to hangover meal — a fried chicken sandwich — but I'm also under no illusion that it will do what I really want it to do: literally cure my hangover. On the worst of mornings, the elusive hangover cure might seem like medicine's holy grail. And as you grasp your head, you may wonder if a cure exists and you simply haven't yet stumbled upon it. But take nauseous comfort in this: New research out of the United Kingdom found no convincing evidence that any of...

Shelly Berman improvised this monologue on New Year's Eve in 1956. Mom and Dad had the album. Every decade or so I listen to it. Berman's humor is certainly good for a hearty laugh. Hope you enjoy. A blessed Christmas and New Year to all y'all!

Before you get buzzed, consider eating some beef. A new study found that vegetarians and vegans may experience hangovers more severely than meat-eaters do. Published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands analyzed the after-effects of drinking alcohol in 13 social drinkers. Twenty-three hangover symptoms were monitored in participants on a control night and after a night out drinking, which included headaches, nausea, heart palpitations, vomiting, dizziness, sweating, sensitivity to light and sound and thirst. Throughout the study, participants recorded everything they ate and the analysis discovered that those with less nicotinic acid, otherwise...

Things I never knew about when I was young enough to fully enjoy them: December 30th is International Bacon Day. When I was younger I could eat all the bacon I wanted with neither short or long term consequences. Now I must indulge my bacon urges only periodically.Butt if you can still afford to do so, by all means go ahead and enjoy bacon all day long.  Breakfast:Brunch: Lunch: Dinner: Snacks: And nightcap:IBD (that’s International Bacon Day, not Irritable Bowel Disease) is sort of a combination of the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday tradition of overindulging in food and the New Year’s Eve...

Many of us are suffering today from last night’s overindulgence. In 2011, Gastro Lab offered its best take on a storied hangover food: the egg-and-cheese sandwich. The video is republished below. Slate V contributors Dan Pashman and Mark Garrison cook up some elaborate breakfast creations in this episode of Gastro Lab. (video at link)

Traditional Chinese medicine must promote conservation and find alternatives to unproven cures, says Chinese medicine expert Lixin HuangWhat has rhino horn been used for in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)? At times during the 3000-year history of TCM, rhino horn was used to treat infections and was believed to reduce fever. It was never used alone, but in combination with Chinese herbs. Given that rhinos are endangered, is rhino horn still used today? In China, Taiwan and South Korea it has been completely banned from use in medicine since about 1993. Also in China it is only permitted for use in...

Christmas in Japan Christmas in Japan is a really big deal. Across the nation, Christmas trees are brimming with decorations, girls are dressed in sexy Santa outfits, and thousands of sparkling lights convey the warm message that the holidays are finally upon us and it’s now okay to forget all about that energy-conservation nonsense. If you’re a guy with a steady girlfriend, you meet her for dinner, or if you’re married, you wait in line at Kentucky Fried Chicken to take home a scrumptious cardboard bucket full of chicken parts. And if you’re single, you try to balance the demands...

Welsh restaurant Frankie and Benny's served booze to toddler A RESTAURANT chain has apologised for accidentally serving alcohol to a toddler in Wales, calling it a case of human error. The BBC reported that two-year-old Sonny Rees was taken to a hospital emergency room after drinking whisky at his second birthday party at a Frankie and Benny's restaurant in Swansea. His mother, Nina Rees, said he was clearly intoxicated. She said she tasted his drink, which was supposed to be lime juice and water, after noticing that he was making a funny face. "It was whisky, I would say a...

Ancient Greeks engraved their drinking cups with groveling entreaties to the spirit Pausikrepalos, whose main job was delegating and regulating hangovers. Their Roman counterparts preferred to wolf down fried canaries and owl eggs. The Mongolians relied on sheep eyes, the Assyrians swore by ground-up sparrow beaks. Colonial Puritans flogged themselves and bled the hangover out, while Old West cowboys brewed up a pot of Jackrabbit dung tea. Voodoo-inclined Haitians would (and probably still do) jab 13 pins into the cork of the bottle that brought the pain. And then there’s the hair of the dog. The theory that a hangover...

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WASHINGTON -- I in my innocence was, in the aftermath of SEAL Team Six's disruption of Osama bin Laden's bucolic life in posh Abbottabad, reading editorial comment by the great newspapers of this republic. As always, the Wall Street Journal was superb, pausing to congratulate President Barack Obama for "ordering a special forces mission rather than settling for another attack with drones or stand-off weapons from afar." The Washington Post was, likewise, informative and appreciative of the president's prudent decision to let SEAL Team Six do its thing, skirting the laws of a sovereign nation and acting unilaterally to put...

Coffee and an aspirin 'best hangover cure' after all Forget hair of the dog, honey on toast or raw eggs - if you really want help overcoming a hangover - drink a cup of coffee with an aspirin. Caffeine and painkillers are said to be the best cure Photo: ALAMY By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent 6:00PM GMT 17 Jan 2011 Scientists have confirmed what millions have suspected for years if you want to soothe a tired head - simply take some caffeine and a painkiller. They found the caffeine in coffee and the anti-inflammatory ingredients of aspirin and other painkillers...

Scientists claim that the natural sweetener is a great way to help the body deal with the toxic effects of a hangover. The Royal Society of Chemistry claim that the fructose in the honey – which is also found in golden syrup – is essential to help the body break down alcohol into harmless by-products. The reason why hangovers are so painful is that alcohol is first broken down into acetaldehyde, a substance which is toxic to the body, claimed Dr John Emsley of the Royal Society. This is then converted – using fructose – into acetic acid which is...

Former presidential wonders never cease. George W. Bush was at the Miami International Book Fair touting his memoir over the weekend. Now we hear Bill Clinton is going to be a movie star. Yep, the nation's 42nd president is going to be in The Hangover 2, reports People. It's just a cameo a la Mel Gibson, who was recently fired due to, well, you know. Word is cast members wanted no part of Mad Mel on the set. But Clinton should behave just fine -- just keep him away from the pretty interns. According to the mag, the former chief...

For the losing side: How to handle the post-election hangoverBy Stephanie Chen, CNN November 3, 2010 4:57 p.m. EDT (CNN) -- For weeks -- even months -- you may have been caught up in the election frenzy. You've been jazzed about a candidate or a cause. Perhaps you've volunteered for a campaign or proudly planted a sign in your yard. The results are announced and the winners start celebrating their campaign victory, but for the losers, an election loss can easily turn personal. CNN spoke to Dr. Ivan Walks, a public health physician and psychiatrist who has studied stress for...

I am tired of seeing this HUGE picture of this shave head woman on each thread I click on.

Brown Discovers Hangovers Malcolm A. Kline, December 30, 2009 Here’s a research project the Ivy League has just tackled that people outside the Ivies have been onto for generations. “Researchers with the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies gave subjects alcohol on an empty stomach, let them sleep and then checked their ability to think in the morning,” The Washington Post Express reported on Tuesday December 29, 2009. “Although the subjects though they’d be fine behind the wheel of a car, the researchers found they should probably wait a few more hours.” I wonder if they had a...