National Weather Service Reveals Winter Outlook for Every Region

Winter is still a few months away, but the National Weather Service‘s Climate Prediction Center has already put out its updated outlook showing what could be in store across the country. The new maps were published on Thursday and cover December, January and February. There’s plenty of time for things to change between now and then, but the maps give us something to work with as the colder months approach, and El Niño is a big part of what they show.

 

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Princess Diana’s “Revenge Dress” Heads to Auction

On June 29, 1994 — the same day her then-estranged husband publicly acknowledged his infidelity — Diana, Princess of Wales, stepped out wearing a chic, black dress, making a fashion statement that reverberated around the world. Now, the silk gown that became known as the “revenge dress” is heading to auction at Sotheby’s in December. Although the dress had been created by the Greek fashion designer Christina Stambolian for Diana three years earlier, it hung in her closet until that fateful evening. She selected to pair the form-fitting dress with Manolo Blahnik heels, a pearl-and-sapphire choker and a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch bag. She couldn’t have gotten her message across more clearly had she shouted, “I am not a victim anymore!” The public adored it, and Diana was back. The dress is expected to sell for around $300,000. However, in 2023 a black-and-blue evening dress Diana wore to a 1985 dinner sold for a record $1.15 million, 11 times the pre-auction estimate.

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Amazon Could Owe You Cash As $2.5 Billion Settlement Expands

If you were eligible for a settlement payment stemming from the historic Amazon Prime settlement last year, you could be owed even more money now. The FTC announced on Thursday that Amazon will accelerate and expand payments to eligible consumers under last year’s $2.5 billion settlement, which involved allegations that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and knowingly made it difficult for them to cancel. This week, a federal court approved a joint motion filed by the FTC and Amazon approving measures to accelerate and expand future redress payments to consumers. Under the revised order, more consumers will now qualify for refunds from Amazon and the maximum payment cap has been raised from $51 to $200 total. As part of the revised order, consumers who have accepted payments will be eligible to receive an additional $149, for a total of $200. This last round of supplemental payments will start by April 2027 and will also be distributed automatically.

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Things Boomers Did on Vacation That Would Be Unthinkable Today

A vacation looked very different when boomers were growing up. Road trips could begin without a hotel reservation, kids piled into station wagons without screens to entertain them, and getting lost meant unfolding a paper map or asking a stranger for directions. AAA still offers printed maps and its TripTik route-planning service, a reminder of how travelers once navigated long trips without GPS. Some of these old vacation habits sound wonderfully spontaneous now, while others are hard to imagine families accepting today.

 

For some road-tripping families, finding a room was part of the trip rather than something completed weeks beforehand. Parents could drive until everyone had had enough, then start watching for roadside motels advertising “VACANCY”. The obvious drawback appeared when those signs said “NO VACANCY” instead. 

Long before a pleasant voice announced “recalculating”, someone in the passenger seat had to figure out where the family was going. Fold-out highway maps, road atlases, handwritten directions, and AAA TripTiks guided generations of motorists. 

For plenty of children, the “way-back” of a station wagon doubled as a playroom, nap space, and observation deck. Kids might stretch out with pillows, move between seats, or ride in rear-facing cargo-area seats. Federal safety requirements and state laws were dramatically different then.

There was no location sharing, “Find My” feature, or quick text from the interstate. Once a family pulled out of the driveway, relatives might hear nothing until someone reached a motel, restaurant, or pay phone. Being unreachable wasn’t necessarily considered an emergency; it was simply what leaving home meant. 

Getting lost once involved talking to people. A driver might pull into a gas station and ask the attendant which road led back to the highway, or stop at a diner for directions to the nearest motel.

Imagine driving for hours without screens for the kids. There was always the radio, assuming everyone agreed on the station. Otherwise, young passengers had comic books, coloring books, travel games, toys, the scenery, and each other. “I Spy” and the license-plate game could consume remarkable stretches of highway. 

 

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