ByKara Kovalchik|Mar 11, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT
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Laugh-In was a rapid-fire sketch comedy show that was “must see TV” long before the phrase had been coined. The idle chit-chat around the water cooler in the late 1960s was always peppered with catchphrases made popular by the show, such as “look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls” and “you bet your sweet bippy.” To appear on Laugh-In increased a person’s coolness quotient exponentially, which provided the show with an impressive albeit eclectic pool of special guest stars. Johnny Carson, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Cher, Harry Belafonte, Wilt Chamberlain and Richard Nixon are just a few of the famous folks who uttered “sock it to me” or got smacked with a rubber chicken. Even if you were born long after Laugh-In was defunct, you probably recognize some of its regulars, perhaps from frequent appearances on The Love Boat or possibly from Academy Award-winning films.
1. Lily Tomlin
Tomlin’s Ernestine the Telephone Operator was so popular that the Bell System offered her a $500,000 contract to film a series of commercials for them. She gave them a gracious “thanks, but no thanks.” Tomlin’s Edith Ann (who was five years old and spouted her monologues from a giant rocking chair) soon had the nation finishing their declarative sentences with “And that’s the truth!” followed by a Bronx cheer.
2. Henry Gibson
Henry Gibson passed away in 2009 at age 73. Current television viewers probably remember him from his role as Judge Clarence Brown on Boston Legal, but Baby Boomers will always picture him holding a large flower and reciting poetry on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
3. Sammy Davis, Jr.
Davis was a frequent guest on the show, and one of his trademark schticks, lifted from comedian Pigmeat Markham’s stage routine, launched yet another catchphrase, “here come da judge.”
4. Judy Carne
British actress Judy Carne (Burt Reynolds’ ex-wife) brought that oh-so-necessary-for-60s-credibility mod Carnaby Street touch to Laugh-In. She endured being assaulted week after week with water, flour, sandbags, you name it, just for announcing “It’s Sock It To Me Time!”
5. Arte Johnson
Johnson’s most memorable character was Wolfgang, a German soldier who wasn’t aware that WW2 had ended. Clutching a cigarette, he’d peer from between some bushes and comment “Veeery interesting,” two words which eventually became as repeated as Fonzie’s “Aaaay.” Arte also portrayed lecherous old Tyrone F. Horneigh, who was forever trying to pick up Ruth Buzzi’s Gladys Ormphby on a park bench and getting whacked over the head for his trouble.
6. Ruth Buzzi
Ruth Buzzi was the only cast member to appear on every single episode of the show, and despite her versatility (she played everything from flight attendants to Southern belles to socialites), she was mainly known as spinster Gladys Ormphby. Gladys wore a visible hairnet, spent most of her time on a park bench, and wielded her purse like a weapon when approached by cads who were only interested in her body.
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David Lynch’s Extremely Reliable Daily Routine
The filmmaker’s work was anything but predictable—but his daily habits were the foundation of his frequent creative ventures beyond the edges of ordinary reality.
ByEden Gordon|Nov 3, 2026, 10:00 AM EST
In his work, David Lynch plundered the depths of the bizarre, trawling the underbelly of the American psyche and translating it into dreamlike and disorienting cinema and television. But in his daily life, he made sure his days were as predictable as possible.
The filmmaker behind masterpieces like Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive relied on daily routines, which allowed his limitless creativity to wander far beyond the edges of what most people could dream up. “If you have a habit pattern,” Lynch told The New Yorker in 2021, “the more conscious part of your mind can concentrate on your work, and you can get ideas and do those things, and the rest sort of takes care of itself in the background.”
David Lynch’s morning ritual: coffee and meditation
Lynch’s days always began with one thing: coffee. Like Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, Lynch shared an unshakable love for the stuff, and typically started his days with a cappuccino. “I like to get going with the coffee right away. That’s just the way it is with me,” he shared with Vice in 2020. “You know how in a hospital they put an IV in your arm? I pretty much have a drip going all day long.”
After his first cup of joe, he would sit for meditation—a non-negotiable cornerstone of the filmmaker’s life for decades. Lynch began practicing Transcendental Meditation in 1973 and continued to do so daily until his death in 2025, claiming to have never missed a session. The practice involves sitting for 20 minutes twice a day and mentally reciting a mantra, which is provided by a certified teacher at an official Transcendental Meditation course and kept secret for life.
Lynch was a major advocate for the technique, which he often said was key to his happiness and creativity. The practice inspired his book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, and in 2005, he established the David Lynch Foundation, which aimed to spread Transcendental Meditation around the world.
After Lynch finished his morning meditation, he’d head to work. That could look quite different each day, depending on whether he was searching for new ideas, filming on set, promoting a film, or something else. Still, no matter what, and even on set, he always made time for his afternoon meditation session.
David Lynch’s eating habits
Lynch preferred to eat the same meals many times in a row, and sometimes stuck with one dish for months at a time. After meditating, he would typically have a small breakfast—“either some amrit nectar or a small smoothie with protein powder and blueberries and peaches,” he once shared. In a 1997 interview with Marie Claire, he said that at the time, his favored lunch meal consisted of tomatoes, tuna, feta cheese, and olive oil. For dinner, he cited a preference for chicken and broccoli with soy sauce.
Some food habits endured longer than others. His longest-lasting daily meal, he said, was a Bob’s Big Boy chocolate milkshake, which he had at 2:30 p.m. every day for seven years. He also aimed to eat at the same times every single day, no matter what.
Lynch preferred not to cook at home, however. “I don’t allow cooking in my house. The smell. The smell of cooking—when you have drawings, or even writings— that smell would go all over my work,” he said in a 1990 interview with Time. “So I eat things that you don’t have to light a fire for. Or else I order a pizza. The speed at which I eat it, it doesn’t smell up the place too bad. The smell doesn’t last too long.”
For the filmmaker, routine was the foundation that allowed his creativity to fly as freely as it did. “When there’s some sort of order there, then you’re free to mentally go off any place,” he said in a 2000 interview with the journalist Charlie Rose. “You’ve got a safe sort of foundation and a place to spring off from. It is very important for me [in the creative process]…The purer the environment, the more fantastic the interior world can be, it seems to me.”
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75 Terribly Tricky Tongue Twisters to Test Your Talking
Can you say these totally tricky tongue twisters without stumbling, stuttering, or twisting your words?
ByLogan DeLoye|Nov 1, 2026, 7:00 PM EST
You likely grew up hearing (and attempting to recite) classic tongue twisters like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pecks of pickles did Peter Piper pick?” and “Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.”
If you’re not familiar with these, you definitely know “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
But there are many more!
THE HISTORY
According to Mental Floss and J.W. Shoemaker’s 1878 book Practical Elocution, these twisty terms have a “higher motive.” By practicing difficult articulations, we can master elocution, the art of effective public speaking. Some people use tongue twisters to prepare for public speaking, others in speech therapy, and some just to test their talking skills.
The ancient Greeks were supposedly familiar with tongue twisters, called them χαλινοί (which translates to “bridles”), and used them to make their speeches more expressive.
THE MEANING
By definition, a tongue twister is a “word, phrase, or sentence difficult to articulate because of a succession of similar consonantal sounds,” according to Merriam-Webster. The words don’t have to rhyme; they just have to repeat the same sounds.
For example, “How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?” is an effective tongue twister because almost all the words start with the same letter, and many are similar, with only one or two letters setting them apart, like clam and cram, or clean and cream. Some words recur, which makes them hard to say, like “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” and “Red leather, yellow leather,” which is trickier to repeat than you think!
These tongue twisters are designed to make you stumble over your words, but if you’ve ever been told you have the gift of gab, well, you might just be on to something! You don’t have to be a fast-talker to recite these 75 tongue twisters successfully, but it helps.
Time to test your talking with these terribly tricky tongue twisters!
Classic Tongue Twisters
1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
2. She sells seashells by the seashore.
3. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
4. Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter.
5. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
6. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
7. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.
8. Red leather, yellow leather.
9. Unique New York, unique New York.
10. Which witch wished which wicked wish?
S, Sh, and Ch Challenges
11. She sells shiny shells by the shimmering seashore.
12. Six Swiss ships swiftly sailed south.
13. Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines, she sits, and where she sits, she shines.
14. Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.
15. Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward.
16. The fish-shaped shop sells freshly fried fish.
17. Shy Shelly shook seven shiny shells.
18. Charles and Richard chose cheap chocolate chips.
19. Six sharp sharks swiftly swam through shallow seas.
20. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
P, B, and T Challenges
21. A proper copper coffee pot.
22. Peter’s pet pig pranced past the playground.
23. Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.
24. Big black bugs bleed blue-black blood.
25. Black background, brown background.
26. A big black bear sat on a big black rug.
27. Betty baked brown bread before breakfast.
28. Tiny Timmy took ten tall tulips to town.
29. Peter Piper picked three pecks of pickled peppers.
30. Bobby brought blue balloons to the birthday party.
R and L Challenges
31. Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared wrongly in a rural brewery.
32. Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.
33. Larry’s lizard likes lounging in the living room.
34. Red rabbits raced round the rugged road.
35. A really leery Larry rolls readily to the road.
36. Lucky rabbits like looking at lovely lilies.
37. Rory rarely reads really long reports.
38. Eleven little lizards leaped along the ledge.
39. Rolling red wagons rattle along rocky roads.
40. Lily likes lemons, but Larry likes limes.
F, Th, and V Challenges
41. Four fine fresh fish for you.
42. Three free throws.
43. The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.
44. Five frantic frogs fled from fifty fierce fish.
45. Freshly fried flying fish.
46. Very vivid violets bloom in Victor’s village.
47. Three thin thinkers thought thick thoughts.
48. The fourth fine fresh fish finished the feast.
49. Three free fleas flew through three free fields.
50. Five fat friars frying flat fish.
Longer and Trickier Tongue Twisters
51. If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
52. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
53. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
54. I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
55. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
56. If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?
57. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.
58. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
59. The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
60. Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.
Animal and Nature Tongue Twisters
61. Six sleepy snakes slithered silently through soft sand.
62. Busy beavers build big bridges beside bubbling brooks.
63. Greedy green geese gobbled golden garden grapes.
64. Three tiny toads tried to trot through thick thorns.
65. Friendly frogs freely flipped from floating flowers.
66. Which wicked witch watched which wandering walrus?
67. Four furry ferrets found fresh fruit in the forest.
68. Wiggly worms wriggled wildly while woodpeckers watched.
69. Clever crabs crawled crookedly across the coral.
70. Seven swift swans swam southward in the sunshine.
Final Challenge
71. A tutor who tooted the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
72. Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.
73. The blue bluebird blinks, the black blackbird blinks, and the blue-blackbird blinks.
74. Eleven benevolent elephants elegantly elevated eleven elegant elephants.
75. Rory’s lawn rake rarely rakes really level lawns.
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