The privilege (and the pressure) that comes along with being asked to be the maid/matron of honor or the best man at a wedding is immense. You've got parties to plan, rings to keep track of, and most importantly, speeches to make that will hopefully inspire love in a roomful of friends and family.
So, when that speech lands with the crowd in a less-than-desirable way, it can be difficult for the anxious bride and/or groom. Whether it's nerves, too many tequila shots, or just plain poor planning, it's something to which many of us can relate.
Now, there are times when no amount of nerves or alcohol can account for a speech so terrible. But if there is a silver lining, it's likely that it gave the entire wedding party and guests something to bond over.
Many Redditors shared their cringe-inducing but very funny maid of honor experiences, and they absolutely do not disappoint.
One person posted a thread titled, "Maid of Honor speech gave me physical cringe." They describe a woman who seemed to have issues with not being the center of attention in her family. She was quite vocal about how she truly felt about her sister—the bride.
"Honestly, we’ve heard enough about my sister for one day. I’m a little sick of it.”
She then outed her sister's pregnancy, which, according to the Redditor, no one knew about except the bride and groom. "I can’t wait to meet the little one." Gasp.
Understandably, the comment section was active. Many even wondered why family members are often automatically put in the wedding party. One shared, "This is why I'm a firm believer that siblings/family do not get an automatic spot in the bridal party. Of course, thankfully, this tradition is dying down, and most siblings in the bridal party were chosen to be there."
In another Reddit thread entitled, "The worst speeches I've ever heard" on the subreddit "Wedding Shaming," people share their brilliantly awkward speech horror stories.
One user shares this strange gem: "At the last wedding I went to, the Maid of Honor very, very obviously loved the bride as more than a friend. The words 'love story for the ages' were used. She also mentioned how it would be them in a different lifetime. She openly wept at the idea of her husband having her for the rest of their lives without the Maid of Honor. It was awkward."
Everyone's great except the groom
The Groom - The Wedding Of Christell & Jon - Hestercombe G… | Flickrwww.flickr.com
Another user shared, "My sister made a horrible speech at my other sister's wedding. The groom's brother made his speech first. It was exactly what you would want—warm, funny, talked about their childhood, how they grew into adults, and the like. My sister was next, and right off the bat, she made an unfunny joke insulting the groom. She insulted the groom a few more times, insulted me, and extremely overplayed her relationship with our sister."
E-Bay or E-Harmony?
eBay | eBay, Gift Card, 1/2015 by Mike Mozart of TheToyChann… | Flickrwww.flickr.com
It's not always the Maid of Honor. Sometimes, it's the officiant. Someone commented, "How about this one: The couple has been married before, both divorced, and she has one son. The wedding official at city hall said in his speech, 'You have told me you two found each other on E-Bay. Well, that figures, because that's where you find used stuff, right?—Oooh, it was a dating site! My bad!'"
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How your perceive your time alone could impact your perception of it.
A new University of Michigan experiment published in Cognition & Emotion is showing that sometimes labels do matter. They have found that people who are experiencing solitude are less lonely when they refer to it as “me-time” rather than “isolation.” They have found that just labeling it as “me-time” improves the person’s perceptions and boosts positive feelings, regardless of where the lonely period is taking place or any activity being done.
In two separate studies, Micaela Rodriguez and Scott W. Campbell examined how “me-time,” “isolation,” and other terms used to describe time alone impacted a person’s emotions, behavior, and perception during their solo experiences. The first study had 500 U.S. adults assigned to one of five labels to describe alone time: me-time, time alone, solitude, being alone, or isolation. Each person’s rating on their assigned term was based on several aspects, including how positive or negative the term itself felt, the perception of that term’s impact on a person’s well-being, and whether the participant would actively seek out or avoid that type of alone time. The participants were also encouraged to share their experiences associated with the term they were assigned. The results revealed significant differences among the terms, with “isolation” being the less desirable and “me-time” being the most sought after, given that the latter time is implied and associated with other terms such as “self-care” and “relaxation” while “isolation” leaned more towards social exclusion.
What is good alone time versus unhealthy alone time?Photo credit: Canva
The second study had 145 undergrad students complete a survey measuring their baseline beliefs about alone time and its association with self-esteem, loneliness, and social support. They were then randomly placed into a 30-minute period of solitude framed either as “me-tme” or “isolation.” These sessions were in a self-selected location in which the participants weren’t allowed to use their phones or the internet, but could do non-social activities such as writing, reading, or drawing. After their solo session was completed, they rated their emotions and the experience, while describing the thoughts they had during their experience alone. They then reassessed the beliefs they had about alone time prior to the session. The results found that the participants who were told to have “me-time” had more positive feedback than the people who were told to have 30 minutes of “isolation,” even though there was no difference between the two in the study other than linguistics. Many of the “me-time” participants did the same activities during their alone time as the “isolated” participants, but there was still a difference in how they perceived their sessions.
So what does this mean? Many folks who spend a lot of time on their own might be wondering if it’s healthy for them, especially those who enjoy it. Knowing that the right labeling of their alone time could impact their outlook on it, but at the same time there are studies out there showing that living alone and lack of social interaction increases the risk of depression and dementia in adults. So positive or negative labeling aside, what is healthy “me-time” and unhealthy “isolation”?
Exercising by yourself could be good for your body and mind.Photo credit: Canva
Well, it kind of depends on the purpose of your alone time. There are benefits to it, such as taking moments of self-reflection and letting your brain defragment/decompress. “Healthy” alone time can include working out, reading, doing something creative like painting or sculpting, or spiritual practices like meditation or prayer.
In terms of “unhealthy” alone time, well, that depends. It’s not the same amount for everyone given the different reasons for alone time and a person’s personality. However, a general metric is that folks that spend over 75% of their time alone tend to be experiencing loneliness rather than enjoying or working in solitude. If you turn down an invitation from friends, ask yourself why. If its due to a lack of confidence or a negative self image, that’s different than turning it down because you’re “peopled out.” If you are experiencing heavy periods of alone time and find yourself spending it in bed, thinking negatively about it, or experiencing negative self-talk during it, just labeling it as “me-time” probably won’t remove those issues.
How you spend your alone time could indicate whether it is healthy.Photo credit: Canva
If you are indeed experiencing loneliness, you may want to reach out to friends and family to shake things up in your routine by scheduling a lunch or doing a needed errand together. If that doesn’t feel possible, many people consult a therapist or counselor that can help create a plan to reduce loneliness or find its root source. In short, it may be helpful to reflect upon what you’re experiencing when you’re by yourself to see if it's beneficial for you.
Whatever the case, the fact is that when it comes to feeling alone, you’re not alone.
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We look back at 5 of the most hilarious 'Saturday Night Live' auditions.
Saturday Night Live is a comedy institution, and no one would expect auditioning to be a cake walk. But over the years, numerous cast members have opened up about how terrifying and painfully awkward that process can be.
The final auditions are typically held at Studio 8H in Midtown Manhattan, where SNL is filmed, with a small crew of top brass in attendance—and getting a laugh is apparently no easy task. Not to mention the sheer peer pressure of it all: "I get in the evaluator, and net to me is a guy with tons of props," Bill Hader told Howard Stern, recalling his experience. "I go, 'I don’t have any props.' [It was] Andy Samberg—that’s when I met Andy Samberg! He told me that he was looking at me, like, 'Ah, that guy doesn’t need props!'" (It should be noted that some future stars, like the great Mike Myers, manage to bypass the audition process altogether.)
With all of those fear factors in mind, it’s kind of amazing that anyone does well. But tons of SNL performers were already primed for live TV—and luckily for us, we have the footage to prove it. Ahead of a massive, three-hour 50th-anniversary special, which airs Sunday, Feb. 16, we decided to revisit some of the sketch show’s most hilarious auditions. (Remember: They’re not all publicly available. If only we could see Eddie Murphy do his thing…)
Dana Carvey (1986-1993)
Dana Carvey is a combustible comedic force who could improvise nonsense for an hour and make it funny. And his SNL audition is no exception, filled with impressions that aim for dead-on realism (then-current cast member Dennis Miller), amplified silliness (Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach), and borderline-surrealism (a "senile" take on Robin Williams’ wacky stage persona). It also features a nod to Carvey’s younger brother, Brad, whose sheepish voice and body language wound up forming the basis of Garth Algar, part of his Wayne’s World sketch (and films) with Mike Myers.
A comedic Swiss Army knife with an everyman face and the robust voice of a veteran broadcaster, Phil Hartman was nicknamed "The Glue" by his cast mates for holding the show together. He showcased exactly why during his jaw-dropping audition, doing characters that ranged from a grizzled private eye to a wacky product pitchman to an incompetent German impressionist. This 11-minute video doesn’t quite cover all of Hartman’s talents, but it comes close.
For my money, Ferrell’s versatile (and somewhat insane) audition is the best of all-time—possibly the reason SNL released it in full on their YouTube channel. Almost all of his bits wound up on the actual show: a riotous impression of Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray (here reading lines for a play), a seemingly normal adult playing with cat toys with the mannerisms of an actual feline, and (my favorite) a parent whose gentle requests for their child to "get off the shed" gradually morph into in-the-red rage.
As one of the most eccentric and brilliant comic voices from 21st-century SNL, it’s fitting that Fred Armisen probably clinched his audition by portraying a character no one else on Earth would have attempted: a percussion-wielding, catchphrase-loving Venezuelan nightclub comic named Fericito. Armisen, who himself is half-Venezuelan, recalled in the Peacock documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night that Fericito was a loving homage to Puerto Rican-American artist Tito Puente. "I used to go see [him] in concert, and he would make these little jokes," he said. "'Did you feel it? Not you—her!' [Shrugs.] It was almost like a little mini-obsession: 'What is this thing he does? I wanna try it. I wanna try a little of that.'"
A master of cartoonish voices and wild shapeshifting, Kristen Wiig brought her A-game to the SNL audition, presenting multiple characters that wound up as staples on the show. In this clip, you can see her workshop Aunt Linda, the outraged and overwhelmed woman who finds herself reviewing movies at the Weekend Update desk, and the melodramatic Target checkout lady who becomes overwhelmed by the scent of a customer’s candle.
There are some days when you’re just looking for a nice, positive laugh. A lot of comedy films out there that are biting, snarky, and mean-spirited. That’s not bad on its own. Such comedy allows people to laugh at the angry parts of life. But those comedies don't always fit the mood you want when you’ve had a harsh day or a day filled with rage-baity news. On the opposite end, you probably aren’t in the mood for anything that’s too corny, preachy, or have that “we’ve all learned something today” motif that makes you roll your eyes.
Fortunately, there are some movies out there that have positive feel-goodness but don’t sacrifice quality laughs to keep up with the light vibe. Here are a few movies that are able to keep the balance between genuinely funny and genuinely lighthearted.
The Princess Bride
While the film can fall under romance, fantasy, adventure, and other categories, a primary bent throughout The Princess Bride is its ability to be all of those genres and a comedy, too. While the film is a fairytale love story with swashbuckling it’s peppered with several lighthearted and, more importantly, funny jokes and gags that keep it balanced from being too saccharine. As film critic Roger Ebert said in his review, “While younger viewers will sit spellbound at the thrilling events on the screen, adults, I think, will be laughing a lot.”
This Wes Anderson movie about a young refugee’s rags to riches story as life as a bellboy at a luxurious hotel provides some cozy moments and quirkiness that have become Wes Anderson’s trademark. However, there are plenty of madcap jokes and scenes that bring about legit laughter during an otherwise sweet story set during darker times. As the New York Times puts it, “This movie makes a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures.”
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is directed by Taika Waititi, known for What We Do in the Shadows and Thor: Ragnarok among other loud and fun comedies, but what sets this movie apart is that it sounds outright cheesy on paper. The film is ultimately about a foster child and his guardian that are total opposites finally bonding together while surviving nature and avoiding the authorities. Yet the father-figure/surrogate son connection feels genuine and not sickeningly sweet due to some of the crasser-yet-not-mean-spirited laughs, making it an “off-kilter charmer” according to The Guardian.
Some of the older folks reading this article already are having the song “It Had to Be You” running through their heads as soon as they saw the title. This 80s romantic comedy questioning whether or not men and women can be “just friends” goes beyond the premise to deliver some quality jokes, great quips, and that one scene that is so well known that it was turned into a mayonnaise commercial for the 2025 Super Bowl. While When Harry Met Sally... is a love story, it stands above the pack of most rom-coms due to its grounded nature and ability to show the ugly, struggling parts of a relationship. It’s a film that believes in love wholeheartedly without being lovesick. As put in a retrospective review on Film Magazine, “For a film steeped in the authenticity of real modern life, it had a total fairy tale ending, yet it worked so bloody well.”
While on the surface it appears as a run-of-the-mill children’s film starring a CGI character, Paddington 2 is somehow very earnest, sweet, and honest while also providing quality laughter and witty jokes that even make the most cynical adult giggle. Seeing Hugh Grant as a scene-chewing actor turned thief makes the movie a riot alone. A film doesn’t get a 99% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes for just being a quality movie made for kids.
Emma Beddington, a writer for The Guardian, had a challenge: Try to live one month without any single-use plastics and record her progress each day. Her experience was more difficult than she could have imagined.
Sure, you could use reusable bags to carry groceries and buy fresh produce instead of packaged veggies, but virtually everything else in the store had some form of plastic packaging, whether it was a bag of chips, sliced bread, a jug of milk, and packed cuts of meat (luckily for the last one, she’s a vegan).
While she was able to achieve her shopping by inconveniently buying reusable paper or cloth bags, wrapping, etc. then shopping from specialty shops and bakeries that don’t use plastic containers or bags, she still fell short after nearly two weeks of mindfully running around and finding places and items that were plastic-free . While she was shopping for supplies for a night of cocktails, she blanked out and accidentally bought ice in a plastic bag.
But who could blame her? Throughout the globe, single-use plastic is a part of nearly every consumer product or the packaging. Even if you take away the food in the average grocery store, there are several products that use non-reusable plastic packaging or containers such as laundry detergent, toothpaste, dish soap, shampoo, and more. Even paper products such as toilet paper and paper towels are sealed in plastic wrap. Even if you do find a place in which you can purchase items with a reusable bottle, container, or bag, it’s often a specialty store for specific items and you’d have to find other shops in your area or online that can refill your supplies with the containers you provide. It’s nearly impossible to escape single-use plastics in the modern world.
Even non-fast food restaurants contribute to the single-use plastic problem.Photo credit: Canva
It’s an ever-growing problem, too. According to the Smithsonian, 85% of U.S. plastic waste in 2021 went to landfills instead of being incinerated or recycled. Even recycling the very few types of single-use plastics that are able to be recycled don’t do much. Those plastics are typically repurposed for other single-use plastic items like soda bottles that eventually end up in landfills anyway.
It’s not just harmful to Earth’s health, but our health, too. Discarded plastic bottles and food containers found in our oceans and lakes eventually turn into microplastics that can be found in the fish we consume and in our tap water. These microplastics have been linked to increases in risk of heart disease, liver disease, and other health problems. A 2024 report by CNN showed that the human brain samples from cadavers contained a spoonful of microplastics in each one.
Even recycled plastic ends up in a landfill eventually.Photo credit: Canva
So what can a person do about all of this? Well, there are small ways you can individually help by refilling and using metal water bottles, coffee tumblers, cloth grocery bags, and containers while also buying products and supporting businesses that use green alternatives to single-use plastics whether they come from farmer’s markets or online. In terms of the bigger picture aside from voting with your wallet, you can start or contribute to letter campaigns to companies saying that you would buy their products more often if they provided alternative ways to purchase or collect them without single-use plastics or disposables. If you feel moved, talk to your local, state, and federal representatives about this issue and with enough people they could introduce a bill to help bring more attention, awareness, and action towards this global problem.
Using a reusable metal water bottle is one small yet impactful way to reduce plastic waste.Photo credit: Canva
It may not seem like much at first, but big change usually starts with small, determined, and inconvenient actions.
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File:Manuscript illustration of 2 women making pasta Wellcome ...
On the western edge of the Monte Albo mountains in Sardinia, Italy stands the comune, the municipality, of Lula. Twice a year, on May 1 and October 4, groups of people make the pilgrimage to Lula on foot from Nuoro, some 40 miles away for the Feast of San Francesco. Upon their arrival, they’re rewarded with a recipe some 300 years old: Su filindeu, or tears of god, a pasta so difficult to make there are now only a handful of people in the world who can do it.
The pasta is served in a lamb broth made with generous portions of pecorino primo sale, a cheese made of sheep’s milk. While the recipe has traditionally been passed down matrilineally, masters of the delicacy like Paola Abraini--who lives in Nuoro, where the sacred recipe is also from--have started to instruct others. According to Atlas Obscura, “Abraini, who is currently in her mid-sixties, made a conscious decision to teach people outside of her family to make it, in large part because not everyone had a daughter to inherit the knowledge.”
One of those people, the site shares, is the chef Rob Gentile, who went to Sardinia to learn from Paola herself: “There are a number of people in Italy saying, ‘You know what? Anyone can learn how to make it. Why would we let this go extinct?’,” Gentile told them. Su filindeu now appears on the menu at Gentile’s Los Angeles restaurant Stella and on the menu of chef Lee Yum Hwa’s Singapore restaurant Ben Fatto 45. Another restaurant in Nuoro, Il Rifugio, also serves the pasta.
What makes su filindeu so difficult is partly the process of making the pasta itself–one thick rope of semolina pasta dough is turned and pulled eight times to produce 256 thin, almost fringe-like strands. The strands are then placed on a large disc in three layers–but the pasta can never get too dry or the layers won’t stick to each other. This large disc of pasta is then dried in the sun–in the fall, it can take up to three days. The disc is then broken into delicate shards and added to the homemade lamb broth with cheese. The other difficulty is in making the dough. Semolina can both absorb and release a lot of water, so the amounts have to be just right and account for local heat and humidity. The dough has to be extremely soft and elastic, and the only way to tell if it’s ready is really with enough experience of making it. Many have tried and failed–famously among them is lauded British chef Jaime Oliver. Similarly, Barilla pasta hoped to make a machine that could handle the process, and they too could not succeed.
Because masters like Abraini continue to pass on the recipe to others, there becomes a hope that su filindeu as a recipe will survive. While some have come through and found it too difficult, others carry on. Food archive The Ark of Taste, created by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, currently lists su filindeu as an endangered recipe. Recipes like su filindeu are important because they teach us about a location’s heritage and history. As Saveur wrote when covering the dish, “What we don't eat vanishes.”So many recipes like this have been lost already, but if there’s the opportunity to preserve it–again, why not? Not everything should be fast food, especially when slow food carries so much culture and history withit. Paola and people like her end up preserving not just a dish, but a legacy.
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People share tips for remembering that you've locked the door.
Without fail, every time I leave my house for a weekend (or longer) trip, I immediately get that old-fashioned wave of anxiety: "Did I lock the front door? Did I somehow leave the refrigerator door open? Did I accidentally turn on the oven, despite having not used it in three days?"
On many occasions, 10 minutes into my drive, I’ve had to head back home and double-check—even if it’s simply jiggling the door handle—just to ease my mind. It’s a genuine problem. And it turns out I’m not alone—after looking around the Internet, I realized that lots of people suffer from this same form of self-doubt. Luckily, some clever folks have suggestions for how to soften this creeping unease.
On the Subreddit r/LifeProTips, one user started this discussion with the prompt, "To remember if you locked the door, turned the oven off etc., say the name of a film when you do it." Interesting idea! It’s definitely easier to remember yourself saying the words "The Exorcist" or "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" than it is to visualize the task you may or may not have forgotten.
But for some of us—and I count myself as a member of this group—it’s easy to complicate that plan. As someone notes in the thread: "Brain 5 minutes later, 'Are you sure you said Bend It Like Beckham or did you just think it?'" Another user replied, "What if you mix up yesterday's film for today's, after uttering so many films?" Ugh, at least let me try this one before crushing my spirit!
Another suggestion that I particularly enjoy is to eliminate all quirkiness and get straight to the heart of the matter: "I do the same, except I say it out loud the action that I just did: 'I HAVE LOCKED MY CAR.'" One Redditor agreed with this approach, which they use at work while closing up a retail shop. "When I'm leaving, I always have employees with me, but I lock the door, jiggle the handle, and say out loud, 'THE DOOR IS LOCKED,'" they wrote. "Because before I did that, i would lie awake at night worrying I had forgotten. My rationalizing brain also feels like it helps deter thieves if they're nearby while I say that, but that's probably crazy lol."
Others use technology to their benefit, taking pictures or videos of whatever might later worry them—doors, stoves, and the like—as documentation for their future selves. "I do this, especially when I leave my house for longer periods," someone wrote. "I film a video going through all the rooms so I know kitchen appliances and lights etc are off, and lastly film myself locking the door. Never get anxiety during my absence anymore now that I have the evidence."
A more unorthodox approach is to utilize an oddly specific behavior—something that would be very difficult to forget. "My version is I give one of my ass cheeks a quick grab and squeeze," someone said. "If I'm worried it's becoming a reflex and I'll forget doing that I just do a longer one or squeeze both cheeks. No idea why, but it works for me. Just needed something weird to trigger the acknowledgement." Hey, no judgment! Whatever gets the job done.
As Newsweek reports, a 2024 study at Houston’s Rice University (and later published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory) explored why people are more likely to remember certain details of an experience over others. Researchers conducted a memory test, showing pictures to 38 participants, with some of the images repeated and others new. They discovered that the most memorable images are the easiest to recall. However, the effect was reportedly lost after one day.
One of the researchers, assistant professor Stephanie Leal, said in a statement, "Our brains can’t possibly remember everything we experience, and so we have to do a bit of selective forgetting for information that isn’t as important."
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Street Scene with Darcelle XV Female Impersonators Sign - … | Flickr
The premise of a legacy drag venue anywhere, let alone in the United States, isn’t something we can take for granted. That Darcelle XV Showplace opened in Portland, Oregon in 1967 under its eponymous owner, the legendary Portland drag queen Darcelle XV, née Walter Cole, and remains open to this day is just short of a miracle. Darcelle XV Showplace, known as Darcelle’s, was the first LGBTQ+ history site in Oregon added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. According to the National Parks Service, “as a nightclub and drag venue, the aesthetic of Darcelle XV Showplace reflects the improvised, low-budget, and self-reliant illusion of glamour that resulted from its development during the late 1960s and early 1970s when drag was celebrated mostly behind closed doors due to gay discrimination and the threat of harassment.”
When Darcelle passed in 2023, at one point named the World’s Oldest Drag Queen in the Guinness Book of World Records, the venue faced some uncertainty. This was despite, as the National Parks Service shared, its status in 2020 as “one of only two known drag clubs open prior to 1970 in the United States with an owner who performed (and is still performing!) as part of the company.” After Darcelle’s passing, however, business at the club had become slow and attendance had waned; could it stay open? As of last week, however, its future remains much brighter: under new ownership, the club shares, its life will continue.
It had been Darcelle’s wish that the club’s life would continue after her passing. The new owner of Darcelle’s is Jeremy Corvus-Peck, himself a drag artist of over 30 years, an Air Force veteran, and an Oregonian business-owner, who purchased the club from Darcelle’s children. “His goal to honor the history of the club while moving us forward with innovation and creativity is highly anticipated by the current cast and crew,” the club shared on Instagram. “His desire to honor the legacy of Darcelle XV stems from their longtime friendship.” As of now, the club remains “the longest-running drag cabaret on the West Coast.”
Darcelle’s is a long beloved Portland institution and a foundation of drag history in the U.S. It’s fitting, too, then, that a new plaza is being built in the city honoring the legacy of both Darcelle herself and the club. A groundbreaking was held last July, and “early drawings show the new park will have a stage, a public art space and ‘wall of fame’ for notable LGBTQ Portlanders,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reported last year. According to updates from the Portland Parks & Recreation department, as of January 2025, underground work is scheduled to be completed on time and sidewalks will begin pouring thereafter.
That the club’s life will continue and that the plaza will honor Darcelle’s life and contributions is a huge win for LGBTQ+ history in Portland and in the U.S., especially when drag faces direct opposition from the standing current presidential administration. Because of venues like Darcelle’s and owners like Cole and now Corvus-Peck, drag and drag history have become cemented as part of American life–it’s not going anywhere.