After struggling to get a large tree in a stand and get it straight for decades (my late husband always swore it was a true gift for me to always be able to choose a tree with a crooked trunk!), I finally gave in and bought a VERY expensive Christmas tree stand several years ago. <https://www.christmascentral.com/swivel-straight-1-minute-christmas-tree-stand-for-real-trees-up-to-10-5572292/> I have no idea where I bought it locally, but it's exactly like this. Once you have one of these, you will never again go back to an old fashioned stand. Don't be fooled by cheaper imitations! Only the real thing will do and you'll have it forever. It is SO easy to use, it swivels to straighten the tree and then locks in place. It also holds a TON of water - no daily Marine-crawl under the tree to keep it from drying out. I do add a "Waterhog" round mat under it - I know they are available from Orvis and also other places. It's an "insurance policy" that water doesn't get spilled while the tree is being watered. Don't ask me how I know about this... For many years, we had 5 cats. I will never forget awakening in the night to a very distinctive sound, like no other...the sound of an 8 ft, fully decorated Christmas tree crashing to the ground. Now this was with our old Christmas tree stand, but let's just say that the lights and ornaments looked like they'd been put on by drunken elves until we took the tree down (right after Christmas - it was that bad). We would have had far more broken ornaments if we hadn't learned with our first Christmas tree to TIE ON the ornaments with narrow red satin ribbon. It lasts forever - many ornaments still have the ribbon from 51 years ago. You can buy it by the bolt quite cheaply at places like Michael's or JoAnne's - just buy it now - sells out quickly. And yes, we use the fishing line/eye hook method of attaching it to the wooden built in bookcase in the corner where the tree goes. No cats, but I still do this "just in case". Many decades ago, before I was married, I had a cat named Mehitabel (yes, named for the famous Archie and Mehitabel characters). At that time, most people put foil icicles/tinsel on their trees, a tedious task if done properly, one piece at a time, and an unholy nuisance when the tree is taken down. One evening we walked into my parent's living room, and there were two eyes glowing from INSIDE the Christmas tree. There sat Mehitabel about 3 feet up in the tree, on a thicker branch near the trunk. Not a single thing was disturbed - not even one piece of tinsel. She just sat there, looking like the famous Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland! We never saw her get into the tree or exit it - she had her mysterious ways!

I love that these are views from regular homes from all over the world, and not necessarily fabulous views, but giving a tiny glimpse of what others see and how they live. I first tried to view the site on my phone, and the "open a new window" button covered too much of the picture. Much better to be viewed on a computer screen.

Thanks for that link! I had not been to Bored Panda in a long time, and so I took a bit of time to look at the Target Dress Challenge. It never occurred to me that people would buy dresses at Target, but then it's been decades since I've been in a Target store. I did buy a shirt, some shorts, and some socks when I was at a Meijer's grocery store in Michigan. I was surprised to find clothes there, but I did need socks at the time, as the weather was cooler than I expected.

The comments for so many of those are hilarious as well 😄 And I forgot to add that I'm willing to bet that many of those questionable choices were made not by designers/architects, but by managers/supervisors. you should see some of the paint color and materials choices made by our center supervisors over the years.