Author: admin

• After my husband of 17 years died, celebrations were hard for my daughter and me.
• We tried to honor his memory by sticking to traditions, but those felt hollow without him.
• We found a way to celebrate the person he was and the wonderful things he contributed to our lives.

Danny, my husband of 17 years, died three days before Valentine’s Day.

I felt sick at the store displays I saw. It felt cruel to see people celebrating love when I had just lost mine. My then 9-year-old, though, had seen how her dad treated me during his life. She pulled our family friends aside — friends who were there to mourn with us — and she asked them to take her to the store so she could buy flowers for me. Even in his absence, she said, she wanted me to know I was loved.

Our daughter’s birthday was the next event on the calendar, followed immediately by Mother’s Day, and then our wedding anniversary. Our local Waikiki friends put on a birthday beach bash for Serafina, piled high with food, hugs, and smiles. It almost made her forget that “he promised to make it to my 10^th birthday,” she told me after.

Days later, on what would have been our wedding anniversary, I walked to the ocean and scattered flower petals in the waves, the salt in my tears which were indistinguishable from the salt in the air. I came home, baked an angel food cake, and watched one of our favorite movies, “The Princess Bride”.

Later that year, on Danny’s birthday, I baked his favorite black-bottomed cupcakes. Our tradition. I took some to a local bar to share and downed a few shots of Jameson in his honor.

We didn’t celebrate. We commemorated. We wallowed. We wondered if it would always be like this, heaviness accompanying what had previously been joyful.

I wanted my daughter to remember her dad, but I didn’t want every memory to be marked by mourning

Together, my daughter and I walked through several years of sad rituals. Cupcakes for his birthday. Not putting the Christmas tree up until after his birthday. “Deadpool,” and whiskey on the anniversary of his death. Angel food for our wedding anniversary.

Finally, after seven years of missing him, we turned a corner. In December 2025, the two of us decided that Danny would not have wanted us to live like this. He had never been someone who was stuck in the past. He was curious, and goofy, and full of joyful gestures, and I thought we should be, too

A potential new tradition took hold

Serafina was in her senior year of high school. She had friends and big milestones to look forward to. We had moved to Seattle a year earlier, leaving the Waikiki apartment where Danny died and sad memories lived.

This year, we decided, it was time to remember the hopeful energy we both loved. We decided we’d make a birthday dinner from a collection of his family’s recipes. Serafina chose the family taco salad, which bears little resemblance to either tacos or salad. As we crushed the Doritos and poured the condensed cheese soup “dressing,” we laughed. This is exactly how we wanted to remember him — nontraditional, not tethered to any notion of the “right” way to do things, and maybe a little bit addicted to junk food.

While mourning is important, I think it’s also a little self-indulgent. It focuses on our feelings of what’s missing rather than on celebrating what we loved about the ones we’ve lost. When we dug into that taco salad, we found ourselves talking about the perspective Danny had brought to our lives. The surprises. The wonder. It was a tribute to the person and what he had contributed to our lives, and that’s something worth celebrating.

• Guy Fieri shared his top burger tips with Business Insider to help with your weekend barbecue. 
• Fieri recommends using American cheese because it “melts really well.” 
• He also smashes his burger patties to “get all that delicious caramelization going.” 

Summer is almost here, and that can only mean one thing — it’s barbecue season! 

And who better to call on for burger tips than the Mayor of Flavortown himself, Guy Fieri. 

“This may be a more complicated answer than you bargained for because it’s not just about a burger recipe,” Fieri told Business Insider when asked how to make the perfect burger. “It’s about the execution of the whole deal. You can get down with whatever toppings you want, but the basics have to be covered.” 

Season and smash

Fieri’s first tip? Start with seasoned ground beef. He recommends going for “80/20,” which means 80% lean and 20% fat. 

“Start with your seasoned ground beef in a ball and place it on the hottest griddle or cast iron pan you can get,” Fieri explained. 

Then, get ready to smash. 

“You smash it down hard, we’re talking a half-inch thick,” he continued. “And let it crisp up and get all that delicious caramelization going.” 

Once the sides of your patty are crunchy, flip it over and let the other side brown up. Now it’s time for the cheese. 

The cheese is key

“If you’re going to do cheese, try some American slices because they melt really well,” Fieri said. 

And the Mayor of Flavortown has quite the trick to make sure you get the perfect cheeseburger. 

“Put some sort of dome or metal bowl over the top and squirt a little water underneath,” Fieri said. “That steam will melt your cheese before you overcook your burger.” 

Don’t forget the bun and ‘LTOP’

Fieri recommends using a toasted and buttered brioche bun to build your burger, which also needs what he calls “LTOP”: lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. 

“But you gotta shred that lettuce, slice your tomato, and cut those white onions and pickles so thin that they only have one side,” Fieri added. 

• I taught my daughter practical independence before my second child arrived.
• Her confidence and emotional resilience grew as she learned new skills.
• The shift made our family life smoother and less stressful.

About 15 months ago, I had my second child. In the lead-up to the birth, chaotic, sleep-deprived memories of life with a newborn came flooding back. My partner and I knew exactly what was coming our way this time, and we wanted to be prepared.

To try to make the transition to a two-child life easier, we decided to teach our daughter to be more independent before the new baby arrived. We hoped that this would help when my partner went back to work, and I would often be splitting my attention between a newborn baby and a preschooler.

We taught her how to get dressed

My daughter was almost 4 when her brother was born, and she’s always been a confident and capable child. We decided to use this to our advantage, knowing that she was both physically able and emotionally more equipped to understand why the baby might take up more of our time.

So we got to work, tackling one thing at a time.

First, we taught her how to dress herself in the mornings. We patiently watched (and winced) as she learned to pull on leggings, navigate her way through the sleeves and neckholes of sweaters, until she was even an expert at slipping on her own tights. Soon she was putting together her outfits each morning, which helped no end when I was tackling a screaming newborn into the stroller for the day care run.

Brushing her own teeth came next; she learned to steady her hand, squeezing the toothpaste onto the brush and rinsing it after each go. Not long afterward, I wasn’t allowed to brush her hair anymore. Instead, she would stand in front of the mirror in my bedroom, painstakingly dragging the brush through her tangled nest of hair after an action-filled day at preschool.

She became more independent

As the months went by, she became increasingly independent. If she was thirsty, she’d grab a glass from the kitchen drawer and fill it up with water, often dragging a dining chair across the floor behind her to make sure she could reach the sink. If she was hungry, she’d get a bowl and make herself a snack.

We soon realized that being more independent was helping our daughter just as much as it was helping us. Learning new skills and tackling new tasks boosted her confidence. She became even more sociable than before, effortlessly making friends in the playground and not batting an eyelid at being dropped off at a new activity club.

Another unexpected benefit is that because she’s able to do so many things herself, she has very rarely gotten frustrated with her brother. And whilst I see the occasional flicker of annoyance in her eyes when he messes up her toys or rips one of her drawings, she never takes it out on him.

We’re very invested in our daughter. We play games, read books, and are always thinking of fun and educational activities to do with her. But she’s also happy drawing, making up games, and watching television by herself. She doesn’t need us by her side every minute of the day.

She’s confident at 5

My daughter is now 5 and in her first year of elementary school. She carries her own backpack to school, which a lot of older kids don’t even do.

At the classroom door each morning, so many parents hover around the teacher, their kids clinging to their legs, being gently coerced to go inside. We give our daughter a big hug, then step back at the gate to watch her walk into her classroom independently and confidently.

I shed a tear thinking that one day she will leave home for university or for her first job. But if she carries on at this rate, she’ll be more than ready to face the big bad world when the time comes. Her skills, confidence, and emotional resilience mean that she’s not scared to face challenges.

• Millennial fashion darling Everlane was acquired by fast-fashion giant Shein.
• The news surprised loyal customers focused on Everlane’s ethical consumption and quality.
• It’s just one more nail in the coffin for millennial brands.

When Alex Collins, 35, heard that fast-fashion giant Shein reportedly bought sustainability darling Everlane, she thought it was a late April Fool’s joke.

Collins, a Midwest-based lawyer, has been buying Everlane — a quintessential millennial brand — for over a decade. She recently ordered a haul for a trip to Europe, and is a fan of their jackets, pants, and minimalist aesthetic. To her, Shein — which has been dinged for its working conditions and environmental impact — is a very different beast.

“I’ve never had a good impression of them,” Collins told Business Insider on Monday after Puck News first reported the sale. On Friday, the news became official. In a statement to Business Insider, Alfred Chang, Everlane’s CEO, said that the company had reached an acquisition agreement with Shein.

“Everlane will remain an independent brand, staying true to our longstanding brand values, sustainability commitments, and exceptional quality,” said Chang. “We are entering this next phase with expanded global reach, new capabilities, and greater opportunities to bring our mission and products to more customers around the world.”

Current employees told Business Insider that they learned of the initial news via social media and received no information about the sale until Friday’s confirmation. An internal memo seen by Business Insider said that Chang and the leadership team will remain intact and that “this past week has been a hard one.”

Millennial brands like Everlane, characterized by worker- and environmental-friendly practices and a direct-to-consumer model, have faced a reckoning. Lower prices and trendy values have been subsumed by brands’ long-term business needs, forcing them to raise prices when venture capital runs out or to pivot to AI when times get tough.

Silvia Bellezza, an associate professor of marketing at the Columbia Business School, teaches a course on sustainability and business that uses Everlane as the opening case.

“This was like the darling of the direct-to-consumer business model,” she said. “It’s sad because it means that it’s very difficult for brands to really try to put together fashion at reasonable price levels and sustainably.”

As of 2022, Everlane had taken on $90 million in debt — reportedly one of the reasons the brand was looking for a sale. The sale will also offer an interesting new branding opportunity for Shein.

For “Everlane, the target market perhaps is a little older than Shein, which is typically more like teenagers or consumers in their early 20s,” Bellezza said. “I don’t know. I find it puzzling a little bit. It’d be interesting to see if it is to kind of greenwash their name.”

The end of a millennial-coded sustainable fashion era

On Monday, the tranquil glass box of the Everlane store in downtown Manhattan felt far from the news of a sale. Ambiance-setting candles flickered by registers, and minimalist shelves still boasted cotton and linen apparel. A store associate said they learned about the news of the sale with the rest of the world.

Olivia Lobo, a stay-at-home mother and Gen Z/millennial cusper in Florida, is grappling with what she sees as the loss of her staple brand.

“I care a lot about ethical consumption and the environmental and social impacts of my purchases, but I’m also on a limited budget,” she said.

Lobo, who considers herself a thoughtful consumer, usually ponders most purchases for months and researches clothing companies before pulling the trigger. She loved Everlane because of its ethics and price point. Now, though, she said she won’t be purchasing from them. Instead, she’ll spend more time scouring online resale groups, rather than fast-fashion-filled thrift stores, for higher-quality pieces.

“I don’t love how much time it takes to find items that work for me this way, or the environmental impacts of the shipping involved, but it’s starting to feel like the only way I can realistically get good quality, non-toxic clothes within my budget,” Lobo said.

Darcy, a retiree who’s been shopping at Everlane for the past three or four years, had just bought a couple of tops. She learned about the store through her adult children and enjoys the quality and price of the clothing. She hadn’t heard about the sale; she said she would keep an eye on the brand and that the sale might affect her willingness to shop there. She joked that she was glad she bought her shirts that day.

“I should have bought them yesterday!” Darcy said.

Julia Kupiec, a Xillennial lawyer and artist, said she’d been shopping at the store since around the pandemic. She’s a big fan of their t-shirts and chinos, and thinks that their basics are well-priced. As an embroiderer, she’s always on the hunt for pieces she can embellish, and Everlane can be a good fit for that. Kupiec had not heard news of the sale and said it made her not want to shop the brand anymore.

“I would also be very on the alert for their quality going down,” Kupiec said. “I feel like usually when companies like this merge, their quality goes into the toilet.”

Farah Naguib, a Gen Z shopper, was admiring some of the brand’s flats and loafers in the store with her sister. She thought the quality of the shoes seemed nice and liked the shirts she saw. She also hadn’t heard news of the sale; when I informed the sister duo of the sale, they asked if the brand had been offloaded to private equity. At the news that it was reportedly Shein, they gasped.

“I work in climate sustainability,” Naguib said. “I don’t like fast fashion, which is also why I don’t buy a lot of things. Oh my gosh, that’s so sad.”

• Taco Bell released the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza on Thursday.
• It’s the first time a new flavor has been available nationwide in the Mexican Pizza’s 41-year history.
• I thought the new pizza was crispy, delicious, and even better than the original.

Is there a fan base more loyal and dedicated than those who pledge their allegiance to Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza?

Sure, the Swifties track Taylor’s every Easter egg, and BTS Army has helped the boy band break Guinness World Records, but the Mexican Pizza devotees could still give them a run for their money — especially since they don’t have to spend it on concert tickets.

When Taco Bell removed the Mexican Pizza from its menu in 2020, fans swiftly organized memorials, support groups, and a petition that garnered over 170,000 signatures. Dolly Parton said the chain should bring it back, and Doja Cat wrote a whole rap. Two years later, thanks to their valiant efforts, the Mexican Pizza permanently returned in 2022.

Now, for the first time in its 41-year history, a brand-new flavor is available nationwide.

It can be a dangerous thing to go against such dedicated fans, but I’m prepared to take a stand.

Taco Bell’s new Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza is not only delicious — it’s even better than the original.

Taco Bell is releasing a new Mexican Pizza flavor nationwide for the very first time.

The OG Mexican Pizza includes ground beef and refried beans sandwiched between two tortilla shells, topped with tomatoes, cheese, and pizza sauce.

Its recipe has been tweaked since its 1985 debut — when the pizza still had green peppers and black olives — and variations have been tested in select markets, but this is the first time fans across the US will be able to get their hands on a brand-new flavor of Mexican Pizza.

And this time, it’s all about the chicken.

The Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza fuses two of Taco Bell’s most popular menu items.

The Mexican Pizza may have had its own musical, but Taco Bell’s Cantina Chicken has also made a name for itself since debuting on the chain’s menu in 2024.

Available in a taco, burrito, or quesadilla, the chicken — slow-roasted with garlic, onions, and various chiles — was a hit, especially with Gen Z. Melding it with Taco Bell’s most famous dish felt like the natural next step.

“The Mexican Pizza is iconic for a reason,” said Liz Matthews, Taco Bell’s global chief food innovation officer. “We didn’t want to reinvent it; we wanted to build on it.”

Taco Bell is also capitalizing on Gen Z’s love of sauce. Every Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza will come with the chain’s new Jalapeño Citrus Salsa, designed to complement the Cantina Chicken menu.

The Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza comes loaded with colorful ingredients.

The new pizza — which hit menus on Thursday and will be available for a limited time — features the same crispy tortilla shells as its predecessor, but everything else is different. It’s made with the Cantina Chicken, plus black beans, green chile sauce, and a three-cheese blend.

Shredded purple cabbage and pico de gallo, two ingredients that were introduced with the Cantina Chicken menu, are sprinkled on top.

Adding some safety-cone-orange flair is the Jalapeño Citrus Salsa, made with red jalapeños and guajillo chiles. Each Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza also comes with a packet of Taco Bell’s lime-green Avocado Verde Salsa, introduced with the Cantina Chicken menu and made with green chili peppers, tomatillos, and real avocado pulp.

I topped my pizza with both salsas and took a bite of my first slice.

I was already a big fan of the Cantina Chicken menu, and I think the Mexican Pizza is a perfect vehicle for it. The combination of chicken with purple cabbage and pico de gallo adds a burst of freshness you don’t typically find in Taco Bell’s beef dishes, and the green chile sauce adds tangy depth to each bite.

I was surprised by how much I liked the tortilla shell, which was so satisfyingly crisp — even with so many ingredients on top, it still retained its crunch.

The pizza tasted great with both salsas on top, although I wish the Jalapeño Citrus had just a bit more punch. The flavor was pretty subtle despite the name, but I liked how it lingered on the tongue.

Still, I finished the entire pizza despite testing three other Taco Bell menu items that day — clearly, I was loving it.

I think the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza is a great upgrade of the original.

Obviously, the Mexican Pizza is iconic for a reason, and I liked it when I tried it for the first time in May 2022, but the refried beans can be overpowering, and there’s never enough pizza sauce. Whenever the Taco Bell cravings hit, I still reached for my usual burrito or Crunchwrap Supreme.

But I will definitely order the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza again. It’s light and crispy, with a nacho-esque texture that I really enjoyed. You could order it for lunch, on a road trip, or at 2 a.m. The veggies keep it fresh, while the sauce and crunch still make it feel fun and indulgent.

The Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza is my favorite new Taco Bell item this year.

When I interviewed Taylor Montgomery, Taco Bell’s global chief brand officer, at the chain’s first superfan convention back in 2024, he told me that the Mexican Pizza’s return helped “reawaken people’s love for the brand.”

“I think there’s just so much nostalgia with that product,” he said. “It’s kind of like the gateway to Taco Bell was the Mexican Pizza.”

As always, Taco Bell is really paying attention to its fans. In addition to the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza, this year they’ll be getting Mexican Pizza Empanadas and Strawberry and Cream Mexican Pizza Bites. These ideas are all fun, unexpected, and a little kooky, which is exactly how I’d describe Taco Bell at its best.

Now we just need to send a Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza to Dolly.

• UC Berkeley Law School is implementing a stricter AI policy.
• The general policy is that students can no longer use AI for activities such as brainstorming.
• UC Berkeley Law School professor Chris Hoofnagle said it’s about making sure students learn fundamental skills.

UC Berkeley Law School’s stricter AI policy forbids students from using it for things like brainstorming, but a professor who helped write the new rules says the school doesn’t want to outright ban the tech.

“Our policy is about developing students with the fundamental skills required for AI lawyering,” UC Berkeley Law School professor Chris Hoofnagle told Business Insider.

Hoofnagle said the school recognized that its 2023 AI use policy was “too liberal” in allowing students to use AI, especially given advancements in generative AI models since then.

“It can, in effect, write a research paper soup to nuts,” Hoofnagle said. “So, the increasing capability of LLMs required us to rethink students’ reliance on them.”

UC Berkeley Law School’s new policy, which will go into effect this summer, does not allow students to use AI for conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, translating, or for any purpose in an exam situation. The 2023 policy allowed for AI use for brainstorming, such as asking a chatbot to help come up with a paper topic, and conceptualization.

Hoofnagle said the new policy was approved by a faculty vote, though instructors can deviate from it. He also said particular AI-focused courses will follow different standards.

The goal, Hoofnagle said, is to ensure that first-year law students are learning the fundamentals of being a lawyer, including “how to read a case, analyze a case, and write about it cogently.”

“Of course, the question becomes, what is the value add of the lawyer?” he said. “And if that lawyer cannot use their own analytical judgment to assess an AI output, that lawyer has very little value. And so, this is what our policy is about.”

Overall, Hoofnagle said the expectation and demand from law firms is that students graduate with a proficiency in using AI.

“Students are asking for these courses, and they’re learning during their summers that law firms already extensively use AI,” he said.

Startups like Harvey and Legora are fiercely competing for the estimated $1 trillion global legal market. Harvey has sought to expand its presence by offering free access to law schools. Stanford Law School, which Hoofnagle said had a stricter AI policy when Berkeley rolled out its initial one in 2023, is part of Harvey’s law school alliance program.

Hoofnagle concedes the policy has loopholes. After all, policing AI is becoming a Sisyphean task in a world where search engines are adding AI overlays to ensure their continued relevance. He said that even standard searches on Lexis and Westlaw now have an LLM-generated summary.

“There is no kind of clean answer for it,” he said, adding, the school “obviously can’t ban search.”

Schools are trying to keep up

Law schools and undergraduate universities are alike in trying to stay ahead of the wave of AI advancements and the challenges that accompany them.

Princeton recently announced the most significant change to its honor code in 133 years, The Daily Princetonian reported. As of July 1, all in-person examinations will be proctored. The advent of AI was cited as one of the reasons for the change.

Hoofnagle said that Berkeley law has seen an “uptick” in misconduct cases and has converted more take-home exams to in-person as a result. The in-person exams are conducted on a computer with specialized software that prevents access to the internet and the use of copy-and-paste functions. Despite the precautions, he said it is still possible to cheat.

“You can’t protect against everything in the world, but there’s a really strong signal that if you cut corners, ultimately the student will pay for it when they have to take an in-person exam,” he said.