Santa Barbara to San Sebastián, happier life, one stubborn snag

✈️ One California family moved to Spain and is happier in every way... almost

Sometimes the grass really is greener, but there are still patches.

It’s common to dream of packing it all up and putting down roots somewhere else. Politics, boredom, or the call of adventure can set you to daydreaming, but one family from California did the unthinkable. They actually did it.

In Spain, they swapped two-car commutes for bike rides, sticker-shock medical bills for universal care, and stingy vacation days for real time off. As Erik Barnes reports, the shift felt transformative for the kids and their parents alike.

There is one hitch that keeps this from being a perfect postcard. Think slow paperwork, surprise midday closures, and social circles that are tough to crack. The question is whether the gains beat that grind.

✨ 5 magic phrases that instantly make people take you seriously

Don’t put a pin in reading this article, it takes precedence over all previously assigned tasks.

They say dress for the job you want. Turns out the same goes for your communication style. But if you’ve ever sat in on a management meeting, you might think the secret to communicating like a boss is to pile on as much meaningless corporate jargon as possible. “Let’s put a pin in that.” “It’s on my radar.” “We’ll circle back.” You know the drill, and you know it makes your soul die a little every time.

Real authority doesn’t come from buzzwords. It comes from clarity. That’s what author and executive coach Melody Wilding discovered after years of coaching leaders at top companies. In her book Managing Up (and in this piece by Mark Wales), she shares five deceptively simple phrases that instantly make you sound like the person in charge without ever resorting to the corporate bingo card.

“Here’s what I’m seeing…” is a subtle swap that replaces hedging with confidence. “What we need next is…” offers a crisp call to action that leaves no one guessing what’s expected.

The rest of Wilding’s go-to phrases are just as easy to steal and way more powerful than “synergize” will ever be. Getting all five into your daily rotation? Absolute fire drill. Consider this top of the stack.

And what did we learn?

Last week, we got into the ever-growing price of throwing a wedding. 44.1% of you correctly answered that the latest national average per guest is $284. Either quite a few of you have tied the knot recently, or my accidentally making the correct answer the only one with a non-zero number at the end, skewed the results. Either way, in this economy, may I suggest eloping?

🎬 The lost art of beginnings: 3 title sequences critics will never stop talking about

Once upon a time in the opening credits…

These days it can be hard to tell when the elaborate studio logos end and the movie actually begins, but once upon a time, the opening titles of a film were miniature masterworks in their own right. Think of the scrolling crawl and epic fanfare that launched us into Star Wars, the smoky nightclub stage that pulled us into Cabaret, or the jittery scrapbook nightmare that opened Se7en.

Openers like these weren’t filler; they were mood-setters, tone-makers, and sometimes the best part of the film. The masterful, standalone opening sequence is almost extinct — replaced by the sleek text-on-black of Dune, the cold open chaos of Oppenheimer, or the barely-there titles in Barbie. But when three minutes of brilliant front-credits ruled the earth? We’ve collected the three legendary film intros that critics say still hold the crown for the best title sequences ever made.

💬 From the group text…

We’ve covered sharks and crocs. On the off chance you need one more thing to scare you out of the water… BEHOLD THE WATER BUFFALO!