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In a lot of respects, 12-year-old Caleb Anderson is a normal kid. But, when he’s not watching Netflix or playing with his action figures, he’s busy living life as a college sophomore. Caleb is currently enrolled at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta, Georgia, where he’s set to graduate with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering in two years. From there, his goal is to continue his education at the Georgia Institute of Technology, then the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, and eventually he hopes to get an internship working for Elon Musk....

It doesn’t get more Florida than the scene Luke Vidal managed to capture last Friday morning. Vidal was walking through the parking lot of a Publix in North Fort Myers around 6:45 a.m. when he spotted a large alligator moseying about the empty lot, Fox 13 reports. “Just a gator crossing the grocery store parking lot…” Vidal wrote alongside the now viral video on Facebook. This Pub Sub loving gator is just one of many crocodilian encounters to occur in recent weeks....

June 1, 1954, America had its first taste of the now “iconic flame-grilled Whopper® sandwich.” Today, to celebrate the 68th birthday of this behemoth burger brand now known around the world, Burger King is debuting a brand-new limited-edition birthday crown at participating restaurants nationwide. If you are a Royal Perks member, you can also celebrate with a free Whopper Jr. sandwich with any $1+ purchase for today only via the BK app or website and at participating restaurants....

Don’t you wish you could magically lift away grime and blackheads to reveal beautiful, glowing skin? Now you can. I’ve discovered a DIY peel-off face mask that leaves my skin soft, moisturized, and most importantly, blemish-free. This face mask comes together in less than 10 minutes, and you’ll only need two simple ingredients. After using this DIY mask just one time, my skin impurities melted away, along with my skepticism. It really works!...

Take advantage of the mild temperatures this fall with a jaunt to South Carolina’s capital city. Columbia is a hub for family fun and weekend getaways in the center of the state. Start your vacation explorations in the outdoors meandering the city’s parks and paddling its waterways, and you’ll find that the adventures are endless. Balmy South Carolina in the Fall Columbia’s November temps typically hover the 70s before they dip into the winter chill, which means you can still enjoy the outdoors before coat-and-scarf weather sets in....

Mother Nature always finds a way to keep us on our toes, and this coming spring promises to be no exception. According to the Farmers’ Almanac’s newest weather forecast, we’re in store for “backward temperatures,” or what some people call a “backward” or “reverse” spring this year. “According to our long-range outlook, temperatures will be slow to warm,” the Almanac explains. “In fact, around the time of the vernal equinox [Sunday, March 20] unseasonably cold temperatures may be gripping many parts of the country....

We’re all for locally grown foods—and you can’t get any more local than right outside your door. Even a tiny, sunny patch of earth can become a planting bed. In the summer, there’s nothing simpler or more delicious than a tomato sandwich served on white bread with a little mayo. Step it up and make a BLT, or combine sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and mozzarella for a summer salad. No matter which recipe you choose, growing the key ingredient yourself will definitely make it special....

With gorgeous blooms in festive hues, Christmas cactus makes a popular holiday gift. The exotic-looking flowers open just in time for the holidays and provide weeks of color. Christmas cacti are long-lived plants, blooming year after year in shades of red, purple, peach, and white. Learn how to care for a Christmas cactus so you can enjoy these holiday beauties for years to come. What’s In a Name Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) belongs to a group of closely related plants that includes the Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) and Easter cactus (Schlumbergera gaertneri), each named for the holiday during which they typically bloom....

If there’s a horrible stench in your kitchen, chances are it’s coming from the sink—or, the garbage disposal to put it more accurately. It’s no secret that the garbage disposal is an indispensable kitchen appliance. Not only does it shred food scraps into tiny pieces to keep your drains and pipes clear, but it’s also useful for washing away crumbs, juices, and sauces in the sink. Despite its benefit in getting rid of food waste, collecting all those food particles, bacteria, and debris comes at a dangerously smelly cost....

I’m the kind of person who can’t go to bed with a sink full of dishes. No matter how much effort it takes, I typically manage to pull myself away from the table and tackle it all–dishes, stovetop, countertop, and pans. It’s soothing to know everything is in its place before a good night’s sleep. It’s because of that inherited sense of kitchen cleanliness that I’m writing this anonymously. I’m entirely in disbelief at the dirt my neglected kitchen cabinets have been harboring....

Sometimes the shortest path between making cake and eating cake is opening a can of ready-made frosting. Canned frosting is quick and easy, but most can benefit from additions that bring them closer to homemade. Whether you’ve spent an afternoon making your favorite layer cake from scratch or you took a boxed cake mix up a level, have fun thinking of unique flavors and additions. From adding simple flavor boosters or dreamy mix-ins to getting the consistency just right, here are a few tricks to make canned frosting taste better than ever....

While Southerners love lavender, lavender doesn’t always love Southern gardens. The hot and humid climate with heavy soil has had trouble supporting lavender plants. That’s until the introduction of ‘Phenomenal’ lavender, a disease-resistant, heat and humidity tolerant, and deer-proof hybrid. ‘Phenomenal’ lavender produces purple blooms that are fragrant, making them suitable for a variety of uses and a hot commodity in the South. Lavender plants tend to last about seven years on average, but knowing how to care for them can keep them healthy for almost double that length....

Like many Southerners, Jenna Bush Hager took a little break from her job to take her family on a sun-filled vacation. Back at her desk on the Today show, she shared some adorable vacation pictures showing her family kicking back and relaxing in the sun. On the show, Hager, who also serves as Southern Living editor-at-large, gave the audience a small peek into her trip with her husband, Henry Hager, and their children Mila, Poppy, and two-year-old Hal....

My parents, Harvey Newton English and Violet Margaret Sayre English, purchased our family farm near Locust Grove, Oklahoma, in 1936. The time was the middle of the Great Depression. Dad was a laborer, and almost no one was hiring. He was a World War I veteran, and as such, he was given a veteran’s bonus. There is some disagreement about the amount, but $700 is what I remember. My parents, who had never been able to save any money, knew that if they were ever going to own their own place, they had to use this bonus to buy it....

When you think of musical great Kenny Rogers, you likely picture him on-stage with a microphone and a smile. Perhaps you picture him trading verses with friend and collaborator Dolly Parton. Or maybe you can almost hear his smooth vocals filling up the space in your college dorm room as you unpacked your belongings and cranked up The Gambler on your record player. (Okay, you definitely stopped unpacking said belongings for a bit and took a dance break....

School is back in session, football season is right around the corner, and we think we felt a slight crispness to the air this morning. It’s nearly fall, y’all and that means it’s almost hot drink season. Whether your choice beverage is a pumpkin spice latte or a classic cup of cocoa, we can all agree that warm bevvies are best topped with marshmallows. Well the experts from JET-PUFFED have some delectable seasonal offerings to give our drink of choice an extra something!...

An epic war of words is playing out across marquee signs and poster boards in Marshfield, Missouri. The town began making national headlines after a local McDonald’s challenged a nearby Dairy Queen to a sign war. Dairy Queen took the bait, and before long, dozens of restaurants and businesses had joined in the fun. “HEY DQ! WANNA HAVE A SIGN WAR,” McDonald’s asked. “WE WLD BUT WERE 2 BUSY MAKIN ICECREAM,” Dairy Queen quipped back with a dig at McDonald’s famously out-of-service ice cream machines....

Butter might reign supreme in the Southern kitchen, but that doesn’t mean we’re too stubborn to know that sometimes cooking oil is exactly what a recipe really needs—and we’re not just talking about bacon grease, which is what many Southern grandmothers deem the only cooking oil worth having. (They’re not not right.) Cooking oils like olive oil and peanut oil are incredibly versatile in the kitchen and healthier for your body than butter, and there’s a super Southern cooking oil that every cook out there should be using: pecan oil....

A generous South Carolina man is using his surplus of Chick-fil-A rewards points to donate 500 chicken sandwiches to feed patients and staff at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital-Midlands, WIS-TV reports. “I‘m humbled that I’m able to put the points I’ve accumulated to good use by supporting our local children’s hospital,” Columbia’s Gable Burnett told the local news station. “I look forward to serving patients at Prisma, helping to put a smile on their faces by providing them with food from one of my favorite restaurants....

At only 18 years old, pals Charlie Oliver and Evan Adams already have years of fishing experience under their belt, but they’d never brought in haul quite like the one they got as a late Christmas present on December 26. The Houston high school seniors were fishing in Buffalo Bayou on Sunday afternoon when Oliver felt something especially heavy on his line. Thinking he’d hooked an alligator snapping turtle, a common occurrence in the area, he set the hook and handed the rod to Adams....