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A Brief And Spooky History Of The Word 'Boo'

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On Halloween, one word reigns supreme: Boo.


Usually lodged at an unsuspecting target, the short ― and, coincidentally, pretty sweet-sounding ― utterance is meant to scare. “Boo!” your friend Karen might shriek after sneaking up on you at a bar.


But more than that, “boo” is supposed to be the sound a ghost makes. Anyone who’s worn a sloppily draped bedsheet and attempted to imitate the dearly departed come back to haunt us has done one of two things: flailed their arms wildly and/or sputtered an elongated, “Boooooo.”


So where does the word “boo” come from?


According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “boo” comes from the Middle English “bo,” which was used in writing as early as the 1500s. It “was used as an interjection that was meant to either surprise or frighten,” Merriam-Webster’s Kory Stamper explained to The Huffington Post. An early example of “bo” in print can be seen in a tale about a smith who made a woman for himself:



What, evyll hayle! sayd he / Wylt not thou yonge be? / Speke now, let me se, / And say ones bo!” (Lo, evil health, said he / Will you not young be? / Speak now, let me see / and say “bo”!)

― “The tale of the smyth and his dame,” 1565



“Sort of fitting for Halloween,” Stamper noted.


Several writers and experts, including Slate editor Forrest Wickman, claim an early use of “boo” in print dates back to the 18th century, in Gilbert Crokatt’s 1738 tome Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Display’d. Stamper sent us the following quote from the book: 



Boo is a word used in the North of Scotland to frighten crying children.



Harsh.


At some point along the way, “boo” ― or, more accurately, “bo” and boh” ― became attached to ghosts. Stamper references historical records from the early 1800s showing that ghosts (or, let’s be real, people pretending to be ghosts) used variations of the word. Even further back than that, a 1672 poem by Robert Wild reads, “The Pope’s Raw-head-and-bloody-bones cry Boh Behind the door!” evidence of the fact that “boo”’s etymological cousins were attributed to boogeymen and other monsters throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.


“So while the world wasn’t spectral right away, it certainly was still spooky,” Stamper added.


Is there something innately scary sounding about the word “boo,” though? “We derived the word by phonetically spelling the common sound that people made when they wanted to surprise or frighten someone,” Stamper said. That common monosyllabic sound, the Oxford English Dictionary says, results from a “combination of a consonant and a vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound.” 


“The combination of the voiced, plosive b- and the roaring -oo sounds makes boo a particularly startling word,” Wickman writes over at Slate. “Some linguists argue that the ‘ooh’ or ‘oh’ sounds can be pronounced at a higher volume than other vowel sounds, such as the ‘ee’ in ‘wheel.’” This makes particular sense when considering the prevalence of “boo”-related scare sounds in other languages.


“Boo” has other uses; most commonly, as a verb or noun that expresses disapproval. Think: “He booed the home team,” or “he showered the team with ‘boos.’” But Stamper guesses that the “frighten” sense of the interjection predates the heckling one, which probably originated in the 1800s. (One of our favorite “boo” theories is that ghosts only haunt people they don’t like, thus they boo people from the afterlife.)


Then there’s the romantic “boo” ― think: “Greg and I have been on three dates, I guess he’s my new boo.” ― dating back to the 1980s as, OED surmises, an alteration of the French “beau.”


But nothing beats the O.G. “boo,” forevermore the sound a costumed wraith makes on Halloween. In honor of the holiday, we’ll leave you with a little Latin joke that sums up the beauty of “boo”:



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These 'EmOldjis' Are Exactly What Every Middle-Ager Needs

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They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but what’s a middle-ager to do when they can’t find a relatable emoji? Well, Diane Hill decided it was time to create her own.



The 56-year-old grandmother from the UK was sick of seeing simply sad, happy, or dancing emojis that she feels don’t necessarily represent the complexities of growing older. With some reports estimating that up to 92 percent of people online use emojis, it’s important that older folks like Diane find something they can connect with.


“I need something that shows pain because my back hurts, my knees hurt and I need emojis with glasses,” Hill told the BBC.


After coming up with some of her own sketches, Hill worked with UK-based artist, Chris Oxenbury, to create the “emoldjis.” A total of nine were commissioned. 


The illustrations have been sent off to the Unicode Consortium, the organization which regulates annual emoji updates. It might be a while before you see any of these icons on your smartphone, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.



 


 


 

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'The Rock' Is Making This Family's Halloween Costumes Hilariously Epic

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A family of five is dominating the Halloween costume game ― thanks to the help of a special celebrity guest.


Every day this month, Kristina Langone’s kids have dressed up in creative group costumes. Langone and her husband join in the fun occasionally as well, but the real star of the show is their life-sized wall decal of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who also participates in the group costumes. 




Langone told The Huffington Post she put the decal on their kitchen wall as a joke earlier this year after her family moved into their new house. Her husband enjoyed it so much that The Rock has remained a permanent fixture in their home. 


“I started thinking to dress it up one night when my husband was working late, and I was cleaning up and left a vacuum sitting in front of the sticker,” Langone said. “It literally lined up so perfectly that it looked like the Rock was vacuuming my kitchen. From there it just spiraled.”




Langone’s family costumes, which she posts daily on Instagram, often incorporate concepts that start with “R” or play on the word “rock.” Some highlights have included “The Rockford Peaches,” “The Ronald Weasley” and “The Rocksteady.”


The costumes have been such a hit that even The Rock himself reposted their “Moana” photo and gave Langone a shout-out for her creativity and sense of humor.




Langone’s four kids have enjoyed dressing up, though their attitudes change from day to day. Ten-year-old Dylan doesn’t like scary things around Halloween, so he wasn’t a fan of their “Walking Dead” costume. Seven-year-old Leila dislikes having her hair spray painted different colors. Four-year-old Siena and 1-year-old Mia are just along for the ride. 


“They all seemed to really like ‘A-Rock-Nophobia’ quite a bit,” Langone said.


On Oct. 31, they plan to go trick-or-treating as characters from the movie, “Hocus Pocus.”




“I actually had to really stretch my imagination to think up Thacke-Rock-Binx because I wanted to incorporate it into the month really badly since I absolutely adore the movie,” Langone told HuffPost.


The mom said she’s glad her costumes can inspire others and is “so appreciative” of Dwayne Johnson’s praise. “It really does mean a lot that he would take the time to acknowledge it,” she said. “My children were over the moon about, and my husband went to work feeling like a million bucks while he showed it off to everyone he works with.”


Continue scrolling to see more of Langone’s amazing family Halloween costumes.





















The ROBOT Day 4 of #Halloweenwiththerock #31days #therock #dwaynejohnson

A photo posted by Kristina Langone (@kristinalangone) on























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Toddler Honors Pop Culture Icons With Awesome Halloween Costumes

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Halloween-loving mom, Audrey Kelly, has been having a lot of fun with her 18-month-old daughter this October. 


Sullivan Mae aka “Sully” loves dressing up, so in honor of Halloween, she wore a new costume every day this month. From David Bowie to Katniss Everdeen, her costumes pay tribute to some amazing pop culture icons.




Kelly told The Huffington Post she made the majority of Sully’s costumes. “I use lots of duct tape and hot glue!” she said. The mom also bought a few props and outfits, styled wigs and hair extensions and made a chalkboard to draw themed backdrops. 


Additionally, Kelly’s mother Lisa ― who has a knack for sewing ―  made the purple Prince blazer. 


“She used to make all my costumes growing up, so I think it’s so special that she has had a hand in helping to make this year so awesome,” Kelly said.




Sully’s dad, Brendon, also pitched in by helping to choose the best costume photos. “I almost chose a Katniss photo with Sully giving a big smile because it was so cute, but Brendon convinced me to chose the one where she was giving her ‘serious face,’” Kelly said. “And he was right. That turned into one of my favorites.”


Kelly said her daughter loves dressing up. “She’s always putting on accessories, hats, kitty ears, whatever clothes she can manage to put or drape on herself and runs to the mirror to look and pose,” the mom said. “She also has as much fun at clothing stores as toy stores. It cracks me up.”




Sully also likes to get into character. “She’s has fun with ‘faces’ as we call it. She practices in the mirror when she doesn’t know we’re watching. I’ll say show me ‘happy face,’ ‘angry face,’ ‘sad face,’ ‘surprised face,’ etc, and she does it!”


The mom said she hopes Sully’s Halloween photos bring joy to others. 


“With so much sadness and fear in the news everyday I like being able to spread a little love,” she said. “I’ve been told by many people, many I’ve never met, that this is the highlight of their day and it brings them happiness.”


Keep scrolling and visit Kelly’s Instagram to see more of Sully’s magical Halloween costumes.


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The Complete And Unfortunate Timeline Of Your Halloween Costume Idea

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Halloween costume ideas are a lot like outfits for a new job. At first, it’s all about dazzling people and price is no object. But eventually, it’s like, who cares, this “I’m With Stupid” shirt is just fine.


For the majority of people, there is no avoiding the inevitable devolution of your Halloween costume idea. Now that Halloween is finally here, we have the complete timeline.


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'Quantico' Star's Musical Tribute To 'Hocus Pocus' Is Everything

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Jay Armstrong Johnson fulfilled a lifelong dream Sunday with an epic musical tribute to “Hocus Pocus.” 


To celebrate the release of his debut album, the “Quantico” and Broadway actor took the stage of New York nightspot Feinstein’s/54 Below dressed as Winnifred Sanderson, the fearsome and fabulous witch played by Bette Midler in the cult Halloween classic.


At the start of the “not so scary” Halloween bash, the actor-singer made a bewitching entrance with “I Put a Spell on You” from the 1993 film before an enthusiastic (and heavily costumed) crowd, as seen in the above video.  


The night was billed as an encore of Armstrong’s musical cabaret act, albeit with a spooky twist. In addition to tunes from “Jay Armstrong Johnson: Live at Feinstein’s/54 Below,” the 29-year-old performed an epic “Witch Medley,” a dazzling mashup of songs from “Into The Woods,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Wicked.” Another highlight was Johnson’s take on the “Annie” showstopper, “I Don’t Need Anything But You,” featuring an appearance by Broadway veteran Lindsay Mendez as Satan. 



Last month, The Huffington Post got a sneak preview of “Jay Armstrong Johnson: Live at Feinstein’s/54 Below” just ahead of the album’s Sept. 16 release with “The Chicken Song,” a gospel-infused ode to fried chicken performed by Johnson and YouTube sensation Todrick Hall.  


Known to audiences for his Broadway roles in “Hands on a Hardbody” and the 2014 revival of “On The Town,” Johnson told HuffPost in April that the concert and album, which explore his journey from bullied gay teen to stage and TV star, were very personal labors of love. “I’ve known that I’ve wanted to do a concert of this nature for a while, and I was just waiting for the right time,” he said.  


Though Halloween will soon be over, Johnson and his team captured “I Put a Spell on You” for posterity with the video, and we’re feeling charmed by this spooky ― and sassy ― musical gem once again. 


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Laurie Hernandez Wrote A Memoir And We're Flipping Out

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Laurie Hernandez will soon add published author to her impressive résumé. 


The 16-year-old gymnast, who conquered the 2016 Rio Olympics and was dubbed “Queen of the Ballroom” on “Dancing with the Stars,” is releasing a memoir. The book will follow her journey to becoming an Olympic gold medalist, People reports


The memoir, I Got This: To Gold and Beyond, is set to be released on Jan. 24. The title seems to allude to the viral moment when Hernandez whispered “I got this” to herself before her beam routine in Rio. 





“I hope I can help inspire people to go for their dreams,” Hernandez told People. “People have seen me at my best, but I don’t think most of them know everything that it took to get me to where I am today.”


Hernandez’s memoir will be published just months after fellow Final Five gymnast Simone Biles’ own autobiography Courage to Soar is set to hit the shelves on Nov. 15. 


The gymnast expressed her excitement over the news on Monday afternoon via Twitter. 






You can flip out now. 





Check out an exclusive first look at the memoir’s cover at People.com.  

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Artist Barbara Kruger Calls Trump A Loser On The Cover Of New York Magazine

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The special election issue of New York Magazine hit newsstands today. Its cover image, by feminist artist Barbara Kruger, is as scathing and gorgeous a Trump takedown as there ever was.


The cover features a close-up, black-and-white photo of the Republican presidential candidate with a red banner reading “LOSER” plastered across it. Nowhere is his name mentioned. It’s the perfect insult for a candidate who has made the word his trademark, hurling it at nearly every person, place and thing that dares criticize or disagree with him. 


Kruger is known her simple and cutting juxtapositions of word and image, which manipulate the language of advertising to critique systems of power, capitalism and oppression. With iconic works reading “Money Makes Money,” “Plenty Should Be Enough,” and “Your Body Is A Battleground,” Kruger’s words seem ready-made for Trump’s excessive persona and misogynist campaign. 



Editor-in-chief Adam Moss explained the motivation behind the image in a New York Magazine piece. The editors, he expressed, “were drawn to it, in part, for the three ways in which it could be interpreted: as Trump speaking (single word epithets being his specialty); as a description of Trump; and as a call on the election result. On this latter point, who knows ― and we confess to being a little rattled when the Comey letter news broke just as were shipping it.


“But in the end we felt that the power of Kruger’s image transcended any one meaning you could read into it. The issue analyzes many aspects of Trump’s extraordinary candidacy, and an important point is spelled out in the headline we appended to the bottom corner: Trump has already changed America, not much for the better. Which adds a fourth meaning: in that sense we are all losers too.”


Bless you Barbara Kruger for this beautiful art object and prescient prediction of the election results. We’re almost there, people. 


Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly
incites
political violence
and is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-911_565b1950e4b08e945feb7326"> style="font-weight: 400;">serial liar, href="http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b"> style="font-weight: 400;">rampant xenophobe,
racist, style="font-weight: 400;">misogynist and href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-birther_56022a33e4b00310edf92f7a"> >birther who has
repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from
entering the U.S.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


Annette Bening Is A California Mama In The Lovely New '20th Century Women' Trailer

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Really, the “20th Century Women” trailers just keep getting better. A new one was released Tuesday, and it has us excited for the movie ― which we already love ― all over again.


Starring Annette Bening as a 1979 California divorcée struggling to teach her son to be a decent man by herself, “20th Century Women” is an ode to the passage of time and the desire to live an increasingly better life. Bening’s character recruits two younger women (Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig) to help impart the ways of the world upon her teenager (Lucas Jade Zumann).


Directed by Mike Mills (”Beginners”), “20th Century Women” will be a player in the ongoing Oscar race. It opens Dec. 25. Watch the new trailer below, and soak in the good vibrations of the Talking Heads.




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Photos By Girls, Of Girls, For Girls, Show The World What It's Like To Be A Young Woman

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In a black-and-white photo that could, at first glance, be mistaken for an advertisement sans text: a row of women lie on their stomachs, each resting their heads on a propped-up hand. Although they’re posed similarly, the girls’ differences are on display, too. Some have thick, dark hair while others rock frizzy blonde updos. Some have elastic hair ties wrapped around their wrists while others don bauble-y bracelets.


The simply arranged photo could’ve easily been an image that upholds harmful ideas about women ― that the entire gender can be characterized as striving for the same rigid beauty standards, succeeding and failing in different degrees. But the women’s slightly varying poses, expressive faces and not-so-performative postures set the photo aside from the girlish imagery we’re exposed to in beauty ads and magazines.


The photo was taken by a young woman ― Ophelie Rondeau ― who helped launch a girls-only photo collective, Girls by Girls, with her friend Ashley Armitage. The duo are just two of the women rethinking how we choose to photograph the lives of women. Rondeau’s picture was submitted to, and shared by, a project similar to her own, called #girlgaze, a “curated collection of images taken by female photographers that demonstrates the power of the girl gaze.”



Begun by a coalition of women CEOs, artists, photographers and models, #girlgaze started out as an Instagram hashtag through which budding female artists could help proliferate their work. The descriptor could be used liberally; so long as a woman was in front of or behind the camera and the work didn’t adhere to the established aesthetic of the male gaze, a submitted image was eligible for sharing.


Now, select photos from the curated series can be found at an exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles through Feb. 26. A description of the series on the gallery’s site reads: “Largely sourced through social media, the curated images’ raw vitality is their only constant ― female, WOC, and trans-identifying perspectives are presented on everything from identity and standards of beauty to relationships, mental health and creativity.”


Select photos from the series depict women expressing themselves on their own terms, rather than for the sake of adhering to patriarchal beauty standards. In a self-portrait taken by Amaal Said, the artist wears two nose rings and a purple headscarf to match her purple eyeliner, brow liner and lipstick. In a more journalistic interpretation of the #girlgaze prompt, Dominique Booker shared an image of a young black girl wearing a wizened, exasperated expression while holding up a sign that bluntly reads, “Stop killing us.” And, in a photo by Emma Craft, three young women run through a field, displaying action rather than the rigid, appealing poses typically reserved for women subjects.


The project’s greatest strength might be its variety; the female gaze, it seems to say, is a sweeping one, not a single, quiet perspective that’s easily quelled.


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Toddler Goes All Out With 31 Adorable Halloween Costumes

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For 22-month-old Olive, every day in October was just like Halloween.


Olive dressed up in costumes each day, and her mom Maria posted photos of each look on Instagram.




Though they initially started this project to enter an online clothing store’s contest, Olive and Maria continued the daily costume tradition even after losing. “It evolved into a fun little challenge each day,” Maria told HuffPost.


Olive’s costumes were a combination of DIY and store-bought items. They also incorporated much of her existing wardrobe. 




The mom said she hopes her daughter’s costumes bring joy to those who see the photos and “convey how much fun we had picking, creating and wearing (and playing in) each costume.”


She added, “We loved seeing her react to the costume and try to get into character. It was important to us to pick costumes that she could recognize and have fun with.”


Keep scrolling and visit Maria’s Instagram for more adorable costume photos.


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And Here Are Some Very NSFW Paintings Of Male Celebs Pleasuring Women

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Warning: This post contains explicit imagery and may not be suitable for work environments. If you scroll down, you will see paintings of naked women and men performing cunnilingus.


“The square root of 69 is eight-something, right?” Drake calculates in his verse on Rihanna’s 2010 song “What’s My Name.” He croons knowingly: “’Cause I’ve been tryna work it out.”


If you, too, have a thing for Jewish Canadian rappers, this might have been the moment you first started fantasizing about Drake’s skills at going down. 



In her series “A Dream Come True,” Russian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Alexandra Rubinstein brings such star-studded fantasies to life through vivid and extremely graphic oil paintings. Each features a celebrity heartthrob’s face sandwiched between a lucky lady’s legs during a break from cunnilingus in which he strikes a pose for the artist.


The series, Rubinstein told The Huffington Post, is an attempt to visualize, in quite straightforward terms, female pleasure, which she feels is too often omitted from today’s mainstream representations of sex. 



One of Rubinstein’s inspirations for the works was old-school ‘70s porn ― specifically its willingness to depict women’s physical desires and needs on screen. “Despite the heteronormative narrowness, I find it surprisingly progressive,” she said.


“Its emphasis on female pleasure and foreplay is lacking in today’s porn, as well as in mainstream media. The male perspective dominates the representation of sexuality, and I wanted to explore sex and fantasy from the women’s point of view –– quite literally.”


In this sense, Rubinstein certainly delivers, serving up perspectives that capture just what it might look like if Justin Bieber popped up for some moody eye contact before digging in.


”The female point-of-view draws attention to and eroticizes men, making them the objects of desire, not the women,” Rubinstein said. Over time, the artist opted to base her paintings off celebrity head shots for a cheeky and surreal vibe. Also, head shots.



The images certainly aren’t for everyone. Sure, some viewers will find the content a bit hardcore or perhaps creepy, but even the less prudish might be disturbed by the paintings’ disembodied depictions of women’s parts. Even though the painted women are receiving pleasure as only Jon Hamm can deliver ― or Leo, or James Franco ― they’re still pictured only as floating vaginas.


However, Rubinstein insists her mission is not to objectify either sexual player, but to visualize and normalize an erotic act that’s often kept hidden beneath the sheets.


“I don’t think this series, or my other work, are so much about objectifying men, as they are about reframing the way we see female desire and sexuality,” she said. “Sexuality is just another extension of the behavior we expect of women. I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not innately timid, selfless or non-existent.”



You can purchase prints from the series on Rubinstein’s website.  

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Gary Johnson’s Running Mate Says Donald Trump Is Straight Out Of '1984'

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In 1984, George Orwell told a cautionary tale about a dystopian society led by the tyrannical figurehead “Big Brother.” Though the English author published his novel in 1949, there are some uneasy parallels with Donald Trump’s campaign, according to Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld. 


Weld drew the comparison to the Republican presidential nominee when he appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday, bringing a copy of the book with him.






“Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room,” Weld read from 1984. “In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the top of their voices.”


“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate ... was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in,” he continued. “And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.”


In the book, members of the ruling party must gather each day for the “Two Minutes Hate” directed at the enemy. Seem familiar? Weld, running mate of Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and a former Massachusetts governor, certainly thinks so.


“Sound like a Trump rally?” he asked. “Welcome to Donald Trump’s America, everybody.”


Trump has been criticized for stirring up anger and inciting violence at his rallies. At a rally in Phoenix on Saturday, a Trump supporter chanted “Jew S. A.” at reporters. Last month, a man outside a rally in Pennsylvania swatted a reporter’s microphone out of her hands. At a September rally in North Carolina, a man slapped multiple protesters.


“I think his whole campaign has been full of dog whistles and stirring up envy and resentment and, not too strong a word, hatred,” Weld said. “I think the most important thing for the country is that Donald Trump not be elected president.”


Weld previously said he believed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate, but Johnson would still make a better president.


Weld isn’t the first to draw parallels between Orwell’s short novel and the present. Though the book is simple enough to appear on most high schoolers’ required reading lists, it’s frequently been used to critique contemporary politics and widespread surveillance.


In 2009, for the 60th anniversary of the book’s publication, English author Robert Harris told the Independent that he thinks 1984 is “the most influential book ever written, and so you could say the greatest book ever written.”


“It made political ideas exciting ― it highlighted the way human nature can impose itself on politics,” he said.


HUFFPOST READERS: What’s happening in your state or district? The Huffington Post wants to know about all the campaign ads, mailers, robocalls, candidate appearances and other interesting campaign news happening by you. Email any tips, videos, audio files or photos to scoops@huffingtonpost.com.


Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly
incites
political violence
and is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-911_565b1950e4b08e945feb7326"> style="font-weight: 400;">serial liar, href="http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b"> style="font-weight: 400;">rampant xenophobe,
racist, style="font-weight: 400;">misogynist and href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-birther_56022a33e4b00310edf92f7a"> >birther who has
repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from
entering the U.S.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Watch A Gentleman Caller Thirst After Mo'Nique In This 'Almost Christmas' Clip

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This is a clip from a movie where Mo’Nique talks about the age of her vibrators. 


“Almost Christmas” is about a dysfunctional clan whose newly widowed patriarch (Danny Glover) asks for one thing this year: peace. From the looks of this clip ― exclusive to The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL ― he’s not going to get it easily. 


The movie’s cast is stacked: Kimberly Elise, Omar Epps, Gabrielle Union, J.B. Smoove, Romany Malco, Keri Hilson, Nicole Ari Parker, Jesse Usher and John Michael Higgins all co-star. “Almost Christmas” opens Nov. 11.




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Brazil's 12-Year-Old MC Soffia Fights Racism with Rap

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Tween rapper MC Soffia, breakout star of the Rio Olympics opening ceremony, may sing about dolls and dreadlocks, but her message to young black girls in Brazil is serious: “When a black person suffers, we all suffer.”


Sporting shocking-pink dreadlocks, a black sparkly catsuit and a giant bow, 12-year-old rapper MC Soffia stole the show at this year’s Olympic opening ceremony in Rio in August. She performed on stage alongside Carol Konka, one of Brazil’s leading female rap artists and instantly became an international sensation.


Asked by a fellow performer shortly before going on stage what it meant to be part of such a big event, she said: “I’ll be representing all the black kids from the outskirts who can’t be here talking, I’ll be their voice.”


Within minutes of appearing on stage, photos of her performing were splashed across Twitter and other social networking sites, while several international papers declared her the star of the show.


For a country that has struggled with racism, it was a powerful moment brought about by a young girl who says her music is inspired by her experiences of being bullied growing up.


Afro-Brazilians make up 53 percent of the country’s population, a total of about 106 million individuals. It is the world’s largest black population outside Africa and the second largest after Nigeria. According to UNICEF, black Brazilians aged 12 to 18 are nearly three times more likely to get killed than their white counterparts.


MC Soffia, whose real name is Soffia Gomes da Rocha Gregório Correa, began rapping when she was in primary school.


“My mother took me to a hip-hop workshop when I was six,” she says. “When I started singing, I wanted to make rap music because it helps you say how you are feeling, what you’re seeing and what is happening.”


Her lyrics are mix of childish ideas and powerful political messages. In one song called Menina Pretinha – “little black girl” in Portuguese – she sings: “Barbie is cool but I like Makena [black dolls made by Lucia Makena] best.”


The song, about a fairytale princess with dreadlocks, continues: “Exotic doesn’t mean beautiful; you’re not cute, you’re a queen.”


Her no-nonsense attitude reflects a new generation of young black girls in Brazil who are being raised to feel more confident, and to fight racism, from an early age.


“I don’t want children born today to suffer in the way I have suffered,” she says. “I was a victim of racist bullying. I didn’t do anything about it [at the time] but now my school has an anti-bullying group, where we discuss this kind of thing.”


Her message to young black girls is simple. “The first thing you need to do is to accept yourself, to love yourself,” she says, adding that girls need to stand up for themselves when people criticise them or say things mean about their appearance. When someone mocks her hair, she says she always knows what to say: “My hair is not kinky, it is coily [sic],” she says. “Kinky is your prejudice.”



While she says most of the time her life is like any other young schoolgirl – she plays with her friends and hangs out at her dad’s or her aunt’s house on weekends – she also sometimes gets stopped in the street by fans.


“When I am walking downtown, usually someone stops me to say things like, ‘you influenced my daughter,’ or ‘you inspired my niece.’” Young girls also come to her gigs and tell her how much she influences them.


MC Soffia’s own influences include Willow Smith and Beyonce. She says she wants to be that famous, too, one day.


Speaking about her Olympic performance, she says she was nervous before going on stage, but Carol Konka joked around with her, helping to keep her calm.


“The moment I started singing, I didn’t see anyone anymore.”


MC Soffia also credits Carol Konka and other rappers with helping her fight sexism in the music industry and rise as a star.


“When a woman suffers, we all suffer together and the rap scene is very prejudiced,” she says. “When I began singing, no one helped me. Only Criolo [a Brazilian rapper], he gave me a microphone as a gift. But now [that I’m well-known] I think I have earned their respect.”


In order to capitalize on her fame and newfound respect among Brazil’s more mature rappers, MC Soffia says she plans to release a new single and video soon.


“Her career is on the rise,” Kamilah Pimentel, MC Soffia’s mother, told Women & Girls Hub. “We expect even bigger visibility after the release of the new clip, [which] will talk about the empowerment of black children.”


This article originally appeared on Women & Girls Hub. For weekly updates, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list.

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'Goosebumps' Author R.L. Stine Is Writing A Comic Series For Marvel

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Millennials: your preteen dreams ― and nightmares ― are about to come true.


R.L. Stine, author of “Goosebumps” and a slew of horror series for adults, has signed on to write a comic series for Marvel.


In a recent Reddit AMA, Stine told a curious fan that he not only had an interest in writing comics ― he’s in the process of doing so. “But I’m not allowed to talk about them yet,” he added.


Before he made a name for himself as an author of horror books in the ‘90s, Stine was already a prolific writer ― of joke books.


“It’s the same kind of guttural reaction,” Stine said in an interview with The Huffington Post last year. “I’m kind of odd because scary stuff doesn’t scare me. Horror always makes me laugh. I’m always the one in the movie theatre and the shark comes up, and it chews the girl up — I’m always the one laughing. I don’t know why.”


So, he may be the ideal candidate for a comic series, capable of balancing the thrills and puns in equal measure.


There’s no word yet on whether the possessed camera from “Say Cheese and Die,” or the red-eyed dog from “The Barking Ghost” will make an appearance. We can only hope ― and brace ourselves for the youth-appropriate scares.


Also on HuffPost: Read This And Die!: An Interview With R.L. Stine


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Gimlet’s 'StartUp' Podcast Picks Controversial Character In Dov Charney

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What business does a disgraced former CEO plagued by sexual assault allegations have starring in a hit podcast? 


We’ll have to wait to find out. Gimlet, purveyor of high-quality narrative podcasts, will release a new season of “StartUp” along with three brand-new shows from the likes of “The Jinx” creators, a former “Radiolab” producer, and actors Oscar Isaac (”Star Wars: The Force Awakens”), Catherine Keener (”Capote”) and David Schwimmer (”The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story”). 


Bizarrely, producers at “StartUp,” which offers listeners an often intimate peek at what it’s really like to start a business, have chosen Charney as a subject in the new season premiering Thursday. 


“No one has really had the level of access to Dov that our hosts have,” Caitlin Kenney, head of new show development at Gimlet, told The Huffington Post. For eight months, co-host Lisa Chow followed the American Apparel founder, who was fired as CEO in 2014, as he tried “to recreate magic and once again turn the retail industry on its head.” We’re told the show will not shy away from Charney’s many controversies, which include masturbating in front of a magazine reporter and keeping sexual videos of himself with employees on a company computer. Why Charney deserves this platform is, frankly, still a mystery ― but we’ll reserve judgment until the story unfolds.


“We sort of feel at Gimlet in general, and at ‘StartUp,’ that there are sides to every story and multiple facets and lots of nuance that can’t be told sometimes in quick news hits,” Kenny said. “So really going in-depth on a multi-part series like this is really going to give us a real chance to tell the overall story. Obviously, he’s a fascinating character.”


On Nov. 16, the psychological thriller “Homecoming” will debut with the first of its six episodes. Told by a series of overheard conversations, phone calls and therapy sessions, the show centers on a caseworker (Keener), her supervisor (Schwimmer) and a soldier returning to civilian life (Isaac). 



Gimlet will also dabble in the popular realm of history podcasts with “Undone,” a show that looks at the lingering and overlooked impact of recent historical events beginning Nov. 14.


Finally, “The Jinx” co-creators Zac Stuart-Pontier and Marc Smerling will debut “Crimetown” on Nov. 20, which follows organized crime in Rhode Island. Kenney said there would be “unexpected developments” in the show that are “very true to the spirit of the reveal at the end of ‘The Jinx.’” (Yes, please.)


And here’s some good news for TV fanatics: In the not-so-distant future, we might see a couple of these shows translated to that medium.


After an announcement this summer that ABC is developing the first season of “StartUp” with Zach Braff, Kenney said that the company was open to the idea of adapting other shows to the screen. (They’re not alone ― other podcasts like “Lore” and “Limetown” have already dipped their toes in the moneyed world of TV.)


“It’s this moment when podcasting is getting to the next level,” Kenney said.

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R.L. Stine Releases 'Goosebumps' Titles His Publisher Rejected

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R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” books have been creeping us out for years.


There are more than 100 books in the series, but, despite that, Stine had dozens of other ideas that never made it to publication.


Now, he’s finally compiled all his rejected titles in one lovely video. He, like us, is flabbergasted they never made it to bookstores. 





We could have used The Police Killed Biggie And I Have Proof and A Big List Of My Enemies’ Social Security Numbers.





Le sigh. The world will never know the greatness that could’ve been.

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A Ballerina Brought Aunt Viv’s Killer Moves Back To Life For Halloween

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Erica Lall is a member of the American Ballet Theatre Corps. But more than that, the Jamaican-Trinidadian dancer (who was raised in Cypress, Texas) is the human embodiment of #HalloweenGoals. 


Why? Because Lall dressed up as Aunt Viv from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” this year. And not just any ol’ version of Aunt Viv. The one that auditioned for a modern dance company and killed it. Behold:




Compare those moves to this:







And this:







And Halloween is dead.







You can watch the whole Viv scene here. As a ghost, because you’re dead, too.




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Of Course The Obamas' White House Decor Is As Cool As They Are

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President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama both slay when it comes to personal style. So why would their White House design choices be any different?


Architectural Digest’s December issue offers up an exclusive scoop on the Obama family’s living quarters. The magazine takes readers through White House areas that are mostly closed off to the public, from the Treaty Room to the Yellow Oval Room to the Family Dining Room.


While the Obamas’ White House may look traditional to the naked eye, the first family teamed up with interior designer Michael S. Smith to incorporate contemporary touches you can see in the video above. 



“Mrs. Obama often talks about bringing new voices into the national conversation, and that idea informed many of the decisions we made,” Smith told Architectural Digest. “We selected artists and designers who would never have appeared in the White House before.”


The Obamas were careful to preserve the traditions of the White House while also expressing their personal tastes. Smith and the first family added abstract and contemporary artwork by artists like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Pat Steir


AD calls the Obamas’ decor choices “elegant,” “simple” and “chic.” We prefer the Beyoncé-approved descriptor “flawless.” 



For more photos of the stylish Obama White House, check out Architectural Digest. The December issue hits newsstands Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles and nationally November 8.

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