Very disappointed in recent 14” JT from @squishmallows. I emailed Jazwares (official @squishmallows site, where I had directly ordered him). - Mane color doesn’t match body. - Frankenstein forehead - Uneven seams. They said this was all due to “normal product variation.”

A psychologist at the University of North Carolina spent 20 years proving that a single 20-second hug rewires the human cardiovascular system, and the experiment she ran is so simple you can replicate it tonight at home. Her name is Karen Grewen. She works inside the UNC School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry. The paper that made her famous was published in 2003, and almost nobody outside her field has read it. Here is what she actually did. She recruited 183 healthy adults living with a long-term partner. She split them into two groups. The warm contact group sat together for 10 minutes holding hands while watching a romantic video. Then they stood up and hugged each other for exactly 20 seconds. The control group sat alone in a separate room for the same amount of time doing nothing. Then she made every single one of them give a public speech in front of a panel. Public speaking is one of the cleanest stressors in psychology. Heart rate spikes. Blood pressure climbs. Cortisol floods the system within minutes. It is the laboratory version of every stressful moment you have ever had at work. The people who had been hugged for 20 seconds before walking into that room had measurably lower blood pressure responses to the stress. Lower systolic. Lower diastolic. Lower heart rate increases. Everything was the same.. the speech, the panel, and fear. But this time completely different physiological response. The hug had not made the stress disappear. It had changed how the body was allowed to respond to it. Two years later Grewen ran the follow-up study that explained why. She drew blood from 38 couples before and after the same warm contact protocol and measured what was actually changing inside them. The answer was a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is the chemical your body releases during childbirth, breastfeeding, and orgasm. It is the same molecule that makes a mother feel calm holding her newborn. Grewen's data showed that 20 seconds of physical contact with a trusted partner triggered a measurable spike in plasma oxytocin in both men and women, and the size of that spike directly predicted how much their blood pressure dropped. The mechanism turned out to be older than recorded history. Oxytocin binds to receptors in your heart, your blood vessels, and the part of your brainstem that controls how aggressively your nervous system reacts to threat. When the hormone shows up, the entire fight-or-flight machine downshifts. Your blood vessels widen. Your heart slows. Your cortisol production gets suppressed. This is not a feeling. This is a chemical instruction your body sends to itself that you can measure with a blood pressure cuff. The detail Grewen kept emphasizing in her interviews was the duration. Three seconds is the average length of a hug between two humans. It is too short. The hormonal cascade does not have time to start. 20 seconds is the threshold where the oxytocin actually crosses into the bloodstream in a quantity large enough to do something measurable. A follow-up study tracked 59 premenopausal women over time and found that the ones who hugged their partners most frequently had lower resting blood pressure and higher baseline oxytocin levels than the ones who did not. The effect compounded. Daily hugs produced a permanent shift in the cardiovascular baseline. A separate review of long-term partner contact research found that married adults with frequent affectionate touch had significantly lower rates of heart disease and all-cause mortality than equally healthy adults without it. The American Heart Association now cites this body of research when explaining why social isolation is treated as a cardiovascular risk factor on the same level as smoking. The most haunting line in Grewen's research is one she said in an interview after publishing the second paper. She pointed out that the average American touches another human being less than they did 50 years ago. Phones replaced eye contact. Texts replaced visits. Hugs at the door got shorter. The thing that used to regulate our cardiovascular system multiple times a day quietly disappeared from most adult lives. Your body still expects it. The hormone receptors are still there waiting. The system was designed to be reset by physical contact with people who feel safe, and the reset takes 20 seconds. You can run the experiment yourself tonight. Hug someone you love for 20 full seconds. Count it out. The first 10 will feel awkward. Around 15 something shifts. By 20 the shoulders drop, the breathing slows, the chest opens. That is not in your head. That is your bloodstream changing.

Get your surgery scheduled for a Monday. Surgeries done on a Friday had a 44% higher death rate, and on a weekend, 82% higher, compared to Monday. bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f242…

We're singing Verdi's Requiem this Sunday @ 3pm (EST) - @ChorusProMusica Chorus pro Musica w/ @bosphil the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, in Symphony Hall. Talk by the Conductor, @BenjaminZander at 1:45pm. It will all stream live at: youtube.com/watch?v=zfSfvCFJ…

4 years of therapy in 1 minute... 🔥

What a great lesson!! Many of us should take notes!! 📝 #kindness #wholesome #teacher #BackToSchool

youtube.com/watch?v=BG4ZDK_H… Tonight’s livestream of our Duruflé Requiem Concert, in Boston at Church of the Covenant on Newbury St, at 8pm! Details: eventbrite.com/e/camberville…

Does kindness matter? It ABSOLUTELY DOES. It matters more than ever. Give us two minutes and we will explain the science behind the power of being kind. 🧵 #TSPST

tiktok.com/@the_amy_winfrey/… ha! Everything's on fire!

Aak, DO NOT TOUCH THE WATER in the CHARLES RIVER, due to CYANOBACTERIA - here's the official announcement by the #CityofCambridge #Boston #CharlesRiver #DoNotTouchTheWater

When the cat lies down on the bed, the rabbit immediately comes to him for affection and starts grooming him.

Suboxon works to help withdrawal… psychologytoday.com/us/blog/… Don’t drink “Feel Free” without understanding its opioid effects, literal addiction possibilities from a “wellness” drink. It’s sold next to gum in gas station marts.

Busy day ahead. Pace yourself. #merrygoround #hotfudgesundae #wineandcheeseday

Aww! 🥰

When a woman shows you that her dress has pockets, she will immediately put her hands in those pockets and follow that with what I like to call 'the my dress has pockets' dance. It's cute.

😂

Reminder to anyone near a @7eleven store: it’s free small @slurpee day today!

Funny cat sounds😭