Happy 35th birthday to Lord Dragonfly, Tom Hiddleston. [Dlisted]
Taylor Swift has the most iHeartRadio nominations. [Mashable]
Cristiano Ronaldo wore a terrible grey suit. [Socialite Life]
Teresa Giudice is lying to her daughters. [Wonderwall]
Andrew Garfield has a new girlfriend. I already feel sorry for her. [LaineyGossip]
Kourtney Kardashian’s jeans are atrociously bad. [Celebslam]
No, you need one pair of glasses for every day, then a backup pair. [XOJane]
Margot Robbie is a terrible speller. I feel her. [The Hollywood Sigh]
The best costumes of 2015… Cinderella should not be on this list. [Mode]
Kelly Osbourne is not a diva, says diva Kelly Osbourne. [ICYDK]
Texas needs to go with God. [The Frisky]
Kevin Hart isn’t here to spend time with reptiles. [Seriously OMG WTF]
Emily Ratajkowski wore leather to a Super Bowl party. [IDLY]
Cristiano has such poor fashion sense. He only looks good in the Emporio Armani underwear ads. That is what he should wear for everyday
Who has money for more than one pair of glasses? Is having multiple glasses a thing??
Thank you! If it’s gauche to own only one good pair and a backup, I’ll just have to reconcile myself with that.
Well, in my country, there’s a company that actually does different types of campaigns, one of which is: you pay for one pair of glasses, and they offer you 2 extra pairs…
I will confess to having two pairs I wear regularly, prescription sunglasses, and an old pair in case of emergency. I wear glasses almost every day and rarely wear contact lenses, so it didn’t seem all that extravagant. If you buy multiple pairs, the extras are usually deeply discounted.
I have two pairs – one’s an older pair I keep at the office, the other I keep at home. If you’re in the US there are places that sell glasses for comparatively cheaper prices (e.g. Warby Parker).
Thanks to Warby Parker, I have a growing wardrobe of eyeglasses and prescription sunglasses.
Warby Parker is the best! In addition to being very cheap they also replace lenses for free if they scratch within a year. They’re replacing mine now actually, and they were really cool about it.
Before PRK, my vision was poor and weird enough that a single pair of glasses cost about $1500 after insurance (and I have fantastic insurance that even covers trips to a massage therapist).
It was simply prohibitively expensive for me to have two pairs of glasses, or even one at all. I kept my old glasses and stuck to contacts that didn’t fit right until I got zapped. Best idea ever.
I wear contacts but I have three pairs of eyeglasses. Because, first, I’m not supposed to wear the contacts 24/7 – and particularly don’t like to wear them when flying. A few years back, I had a nasty reaction to the contacts lens solution I was using and had to wear the eyeglasses I had, which were not an up-to-date prescription. And then, I broke those. So, I was going about in my out-of-date prescription sunglasses. I was absolutely miserable. Once we figured out the lens solution problem, I had money left over at the end of the year in my small health saving account, which coincided with a sale on frames. I brought everything up to date. Fall back eyeglasses, back-up pair, and sunglasses.
How much do glasses cost in the US? Here in the UK, glasses and contact lenses aren’t free on the NHS if you’re a working adult (kids, pensioners, people on welfare and some others get free eye care but not your normal Joe). But glasses and eye tests are affordable. My last eye test was about a year ago and my prescription had changed so I needed new glasses. I paid £25 for the test and just under £100 in total for two pairs of single vision glasses, one normal, one sunglasses. If I’d bought the cheapest available, I could have gone as low as about £60 for two pairs of glasses plus the £25 for the test.
Sixer, my glasses last year cost £208.50 which was after a 25% discount for being over 60 (so free eye test). That was for ultra thin varifocal lenses.
I stopped wearing contacts about 20 years ago – when my arms got too short!! 🙂
@Sixer, it depends on what you need and what your insurance plan covers (if you have one). The last time I got new glasses it cost me around $400US out of pocket, and that was after my employer’s insurance covered what little they did. Insurance generally doesn’t cover anything towards the cost of a second pair if you get them at the same time – at least mine doesn’t.
In Portugal, it depends on the type of lens (progressive, for near sight, and so on) but a pair of glasses would cost between 100€ and 300€. The eye test is for free at MultiOpticas, a brand that sells glasses and has doctors working for them… Mine costed me 200€ , which would be 120, 130 £ , and they gave me the sunglasses for free…
Blimey Spidey! But mine are single vision. Specsavers!
Dara – that’s expensive!
@ Sixer – that was at Specsavers!! Because my prescription is relatively strong I choose the ultro thins because they look better, but of course it adds to the price. I’m on yearly checks at the moment because of a posterior vitreous detachment I had a couple of years ago.
@Sixer, don’t I know it! Vision coverage really does vary widely in employer-covered policies. Those were my first glasses after getting a new job and I nearly fainted when the doctor’s office gave me the bill. At my old job a similar pair would have cost me about half that. Granted, I splurged on designer frames since I wear them almost continuously – but the frames themselves were the smallest portion of the bill.
Health costs in the US just seem to be outrageous whichever way you turn, don’t they? But Mr Sixer is looking over my shoulder and saying I should tell you how much we pay for petrol/gas so that you don’t feel so bad. So… googles… price for gas at the pump here is about $6.50 a (US) gallon. Or £1 per litre in PROPER measurements. 😉
@Sixer, most people in the US do not have vision or dental coverage. The average cost of an exam starts around $100. Frames and lenses price separately. For those who have vision insurance coverage, the policies vary widely but the standard is one exam every two years and a pair of glasses every two years or one years worth of contacts every two years. The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare doesn’t extend to basic vision or dental services. Very low income folk, I mean poverty level, can get glasses and some extremely basic dental services through Medicaid, depending on which state they inhabit. The states have the options of picking up those services but few do. Our health care system is pretty much inaccessible.
@Sixer, well all tax paying Americans really pay more for gas than the price at the pump. The government subsidizes the oil industry heavily, always has. So no American ever really feels the true cost of gas because a big portion of it is hidden in the federal budget.
Once I lost vision coverage, I uploaded my now years-old prescription to zenni and bought $30 glasses. I’ve been using them for years. The quality isn’t as good but you can’t beat the price.
Mr Balls has horrible vision and has progressives at that and he was able to save about $300 using zenni to replace his rimless specs.
I live in Switzerland, new glasses can cost you up to 500 CHF (about the same in $) and the test is about 150 CHF. It really is not affordable at all …
I only need glasses for distance and driving, not all day, so I have 1 pair of regular and 1 of sunglasses. My last prescription only changed slightly, so I kept the old glasses as backups. That’s it. My insurance doesn’t cover the vision screening or glasses – because stumbling around half blind NEVER leads to other injuries, right?
I want to try Warby Parker next time I need new ones. The ones I currently have are from Costco, and are great and not terribly expensive.
I think I’ve noticed my vision getting worse with all the reading I’ve been doing at the computer screen. I’m going to have to blame CB.
Are you sure it is the reading?
Hahaha. What exactly are you implying spidey?
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m sorry , but there’s gorgeous pics of TH and you guys are debating spectacles? Are your spectacles so bad you can’t see the pics? Happy birthday Tom.
Baam ! So true, so true. I think you probably answered your own question. lol
Hell with the pics I’m off to watch the new HR trailer again. I strongly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.
It’s called multi-tasking we can look at pics and debate specs at the same time.
It’s definitely quantity over quality, though. The difference in clarity between the $900 pair I bought from a brick and mortar store, versus the $90-130 dollar pairs I bought online (with the highest lens quality available) is noticable, to say the least. I’m not sure even optomologists are aware of this, mine actually recommended I save money by buying my glasses online. The cheap glasses still give me tension headaches if I wear them all day, the expensive ones don’t.
$900 pair! Damn. I convinced my mother to pay about $60 – $80 more and get a pair of Adidas sports glasses. They’re very light weight, and have been her most comfortable glasses so far. She no longer complains about the discomfort on her nose ridge and wears them as long as she wants now. Plus they look good. They were about $250* – $280 with progressive and transition lens prescription after insurance covered $100. She didn’t get them online but I’ve seen the frames on some sites for $145.
What glasses are $900? How is the clarity better, do they use a better lens manufacturer?
by progressive lenses do you mean varifocal?
I understand for my mom’s glasses it’s an alternative to regular bifocal lenses where the two focal regions are graduated from one to the other so that the lens looks like regular glass with no line marking one focal region from the other. I don’t know what varifocal is.
Thanks Cranberry – you have just described my varifocals – they grade down from distance at the top to reading at the bottom of the lenses. And as my optician said – the bit in the middle so you don’t trip over the cat!
“$250* – $280 with progressive and transition lens prescription after insurance covered $100”
*Correction*
Her Adidas eye wear glasses were over $300. Maybe $350-ish with prescription and $100 insurance contribution.
Yay! I hoped you wouldn’t let this auspicious occasion go by unremarked (although evidently untagged.)
Especially as the Crimson Peak DVD/blu Ray was released today AND a new High Rise trailer.
Is it coincidence that on Hiddleston’s birthday, they release a trailer with him in (essentially) his birthday suit?
I think not. 😉
Haha. An auspicious day it is. How lovely that we also get such nice gifts as a new HR trailer too. Thanks TotallyB for the heads up.
Birthday suit trailer? I’ll be right back . . .
Why are his fans called Dragonflies?
Hint hint: check the top picture.
The best Hiddlesburp photo shoot of all time. Except, of course, for the one with the potted plant. But nobody wants to be an aspidistra if they can be a dragonfly, do they?
Thought of you today, Sixer, when I read someone’s translation of a Chinese actress’s post about Hiddleston–she refers to him as Legs!
HA! Really? Excellent. I always knew I was onto a winner with that one!
lmao that jacket is ridiculous.
BANG! BANG! Birthday Boy! (wink, wink)
That second snap is all GUNS for me.
Sixer, are you watching Happy Valley this eve? I’m hoping it’s avail on iPlayer tomorrow.
Nutballs: I am! Might even watch live! It’ll be on iPlayer almost immediately after it’s finished so 10pm UK time.
Thanks. I noticed the jacket pic but, figured it was simply a wink to his fans. I’m surprised one (admittedly ridiculous) photoshoot gave his fans their name.
Sixer, if so I’ll be watching it tonight!
@Hudson Girl, see the comment from Totally Biased below. It really is only here on CB that you see any reference to his fans being Dragonflies. It was originally used by some of the regular commenters on Hiddleston articles to gently mock the named-fandom phenomenon. That’s how I continue to use it, even if others don’t.
Nutballs – it was great! And on my iPlayer now.
Dara – that’s how I recall it also. It was to distinguish between CB dragonflies and Tumblr Hiddlestoners.
Oooo Sixer… can’t wait to until homework’s done and I’m FREEEEEEE!!!
***EDITED: I’m an idiot, as Sixer points out the pic is right up there at the top of the page.***
It’s from a jacket he wore for the Flaunt magazine shoot.
Google Hiddleston Dragonfly jacket, and you should get plenty of pics. I think it is mostly to distinguish many Hiddleston afficianados on CB from the general pack of Hiddlestoner fandom.
I was going to post this exact question, but didn’t have the guts. Some people can get bent out of shape if you don’t understand the reference. So thank you for potentially falling on the sword.
Check Guillermo del Toro’s tweet to Tom today!
HIDDLE-E-DEEE ! HIDDLE-E-DOO !
He’s such a cutie pie.
Happy Birthday to my darling husband who appears in his birthday suit in the new High Rise trailer. Birthday cake and champagne are served on the veranda
The veranda? What, not
The Balcony?
Heeeee.
Not the balcony because we don’t need Sienna Miller tossing things at us.
Oh yay, I’ve arrived early enough to catch the festivities have I ? Ok what do I do now? Can I have one of those Tommybangers? I don’t know what’s in it, I just love the sound of it or the idea of it. lol 🙂
I think Nutballs has that particular drink recipe.
I feel like we need to concoct a new drink to commemorate those balcony scenes. Perhaps something based on the recipe for a Fuzzy Navel…
*crosses arms*
Mine has blood oranges, gin, sugar and angostura bitters. If you can top that Dara dear, be my guest.
Harrumph.
Oh Nutballs that does sound nice, and I have a blood orange tree that’s putting out loads right now, and they’re so sweet jJust like my little hiddle buns up there.
That new HR trailer is crackballs!
Did y’all see the new Night Manager trailer on Vimeo? New scenes and more Debicki.
The Night Manager footage was gorgeous – although it was a bit spoilery. There was quite a lot there that gave away how the plot had changed in the later episodes. Hope everyone got their look that wanted to – the video has been marked private again.
I’m glad TNM is an AMC co-production – they know how to run a marketing blitz. If what they’ve done recently for The Walking Dead or The Badlands is any indication, there will be loads of photos and video extras for each episode.
Dara, I can still see it online. Google “The Night Manager Vimeo” and two different accounts have it.
Why do you dislike Garfield ?
have you read any of his interviews? he seems super bitter and insecure, and just the type of dude who sits alone at parties, begrudging people who have fun.
Thank you Kaiser I totally forgot. I’m a baaad dragonfly. I’ll have to spank myself later.
Cranberry, you are clearly not on Twitter. His birthday is trending (or at least was) on Twitter and Facebook.
Also (referring back) his only tweet today has been that lovely (and violent) new trailer.
As is so often true, Jeremy Irons has the best line of the day–in the trailer.
“I am the architect of my own accidents”
I’m kinda partial to “you’re an excellent specimen”
😉
Cranberry I may have to do some personal research on that! 😉
You’re right TotallyB I’m not on Twitter or Facebook (shock and aw). I’m a bad, lazy, lurking dragonfly, and I still haven’t spanked myself today.
Actually, my favourite line of his had but a single word:
“Probably.”
I’ll refrain from further description so that spoiler-avoiders who are staying away from the latest trailer don’t have to cover their eyes.
I only came to comment on the Kourtney Kardashian link.
WTF? Everything she is wearing is a throwback to 90210/Melrose 90’s. NOTHING about that style should ever come back. It reminds me of something Josie Bisset (was that her name who played Jane on Melrose?) would have worn on Melrose.
It’s Michael B Jordan’s birthday too!.
Media is always focused on the white guy. Just like the accademy. Sigh.
The DListed included him, and he was getting birthday love on the page.
They included him. But the header picture is the standard white guy.
Hiddlestons really not done well outside the Thor franchise. I don’t really get why he’s supposed to bigger deal than Jordan? The media are also responsible when they focus on white actors over black actors. Look at that W cover.
@Tia
As you and a couple others pointed out below he’s not a bigger deal in US than Jordan, but he does have a lot of fans on the internet that drive some mag & gossip sites to have regular threads on him. That’s not media controlling the content but rather responding to a demand and providing a portal. So I don’t think this particular example falls into the “only focus on white guy” pile. Maybe if this were People magazine or he was all over EW and kind I could agree, but as you say he’s not that big still.
You should email CB and tell them you’d like to see more Jordan B-day love.
That is because Hiddles gets clicks. He is an Internet Tsunami…….
Only on a few sites and tumblr. Big sites such as DM and EW rarely mention him.
Do you call Twitter and Facebook few? He was Twitter’s most mentioned actor during different Movie Festivals. But you are right, when you say that he is not as famous as some other well known actors. No breakthrough in the USA.
EW mentioned him today, and I personally think it’s a good thing he doesn’t pop up on DM more than he does.
Tom may not be mainstream famous, but he’s getting there. Even if he’s not the featured subject of a celebrity profile, he’s being name-checked almost every time a co-star does an interview. I read through my backlog of fashion magazines during the Superbowl (with my team not playing, I had to find something to do between commercials) and Tom was mentioned in half a dozen articles in recent issues of Vogue, Bazaar, and InStyle – and not one of them mentioned Loki or Marvel. That’s progress.
Happy birthday Tom and Micheal!
Love the Tom’s voice
Love Micheal’s smile
That’s nice they’re on the same day. I like them both so hugs all around.
Happy Birthday boys!
So who is in? 🙂 More air miles for Hiddles and Olsen? Congrats Hiddles.
Nah that is history (or historical fiction)
Oh please let her pop up magically with a grin which says: Still doing him…. would be funny. Joking……
“Texas needs to go with God. ”
Huh, for one moment I thought you were talking about the band…
Happy birthday Tom 😀
That one about TX’s child detention centers isn’t giving even close to the whole story.
“In January, state officials acknowledged that the federal government pushed Texas to issue child care licenses to keep the family detention centers open, and the state agreed to try.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/detention-center-child-care-to-hhsc/
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/02/08/3747081/texas-detention-centers-child-care-facilities/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/02/08/3747081/texas-detention-centers-child-care-facilities/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds
The feds are part of the problem here, specifically a policy that Obama put in place. A decision hasn’t been made, and there is a ton of opposition everywhere. The TX Health and Human Services commission can strike down the licensing and the facility would close; which is what the advocates and the petitioners are hoping for. Thanks for distorting the issue with that cherry picked article, Frisky. There is a lot more to it than that; politics mostly.
This is from July last year, but still relevant
http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-backlash-against-family-detention-could-spark-momentum-against-2026552?rel=rel1
I forgot to mention that the other one of these facilities that was in PA got shut down by the state of PA refusing to renew and then revoked their child care license. So taking it to the HHSC was the right move based on precedent.
Ok, I’m done now. This issue is near and dear to me for a lot of reasons and it hacks me off to no end that some media outlets try to make it a black and white issue.
Am I missing something here – what has this to do with Tom’s birthday?
Nothing to do with Lord DF’s BD. It’s in reply to the “Texas, go with god story” that links to the Frisky. I object to their overly simplistic write up on the issue and the complete disregarding of the lead up to this particular problem and the reasoning behind that particular course of action. I’m in TX, and it’s gotten a lot of discussion here on local news in TX papers etc and a lot of people here are angry about it and trying to put an end to the center. And the line in the links made me mad like no one here is trying to do anything about it. I’m probably being over sensitive about it though. It just gets really old sometimes.
He seems younger.
I can’t believe that with all the lovely pictures of TH to choose from, DListed chose the one where he looks like a pervy Elf on the Shelf.
This one made me laugh so hard….