Despite inflation decreasing their value, bank robberies are on the rise in the United States. According to the FBI, in the third quarter of 2010, banks reported 1,325 bank robberies, burglaries, or other larcenies, an increase of more than 200 crimes from the same quarter in 2009. America isn’t the easiest place to succeed financially these days, a predicament that’s finding more and more people doing desperate things to obtain money. Robbing banks is nothing new, of course; it’s been a popular crime for anyone looking to get quick cash practically since America began. But the face and nature of robbers is changing. These days, the once glamorous sheen of bank robberies is wearing away, exposing a far sadder and ugly reality: Today’s bank robbers are just trying to keep their heads above water.
Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson—time was that bank robbers had cool names and widespread celebrity. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jesse James, and John Dillinger were even the subjects of big, fawning Hollywood films glorifying their thievery. But times have changed.
In Mississippi this week, a man walked into a bank and handed a teller a note demanding money, according to broadcast news reporter Brittany Weiss. The man got away with a paltry $1,600 before proceeding to run errands around town to pay his bills and write checks to people to whom he owed money. He was hanging out with his mom when police finally found him. Three weeks before the Mississippi fiasco, a woman named Gwendolyn Cunningham robbed a bank in Fresno and fled in her car. Minutes later, police spotted Cunningham’s car in front of downtown Fresno’s Pacific Gas and Electric Building. Inside, she was trying to pay her gas bill.
The list goes on: In October 2011, a Phoenix-area man stole $2,300 to pay bills and make his alimony payments. In early 2010, an elderly man on Social Security started robbing banks in an effort to avoid foreclosure on the house he and his wife had lived in for two decades. In January 2011, a 46-year-old Ohio woman robbed a bank to pay past-due bills. And in February of this year, a Pennsylvania woman with no teeth confessed to robbing a bank to pay for dentures. “I’m very sorry for what I did and I know God is going to punish me for it,” she said at her arraignment. Yet perhaps none of this compares to the man who, in June 2011, robbed a bank of $1 just so he could be taken to prison and get medical care he couldn’t afford.
None of this is to say that a life of crime is admirable or courageous, and though there is no way to accurately quantify it, there are probably still many bank robbers who steal just because they like the thrill of money for nothing. But there’s quite a dichotomy between the bank robbers of early America, with their romantic escapades and exciting lifestyles, and the people following in their footsteps today: broke citizens with no jobs, no savings, no teeth, and few options.
The stealing rebel types we all came to love after reading the Robin Hood story are gone. Today the robbers are just trying to pay their gas bills. There will be no movies for them.
Signs are meant to inform, warn, or direct, but sometimes, they unintentionally entertain. Whether due to poor wording, clever humor, or just plain absurdity, some signs end up being comedic gold.
Thanks to the internet, we no longer have to stumble upon them by accident—there’s even a whole subreddit, r/funnysigns, dedicated to collecting the most ridiculous ones.
Here are 25 of the funniest signs that prove not all signage is created equal.
1. Some people might need this reminder
“Not knowing who Taylor Swift is doesn’t make you interesting.”
Sometimes people reveal the climactic scene in a great book we’re reading before we even get there. It may be annoying, but most of the time, the ruined moment happens by accident.
A woman writing under the Reddit tag u/Embarrassed-Friend-8 shared she loves romance novels. Enough to consume four to five a month. Recently, her husband of 11 years started acting differently in the bedroom with what she describes as “themed” nights. She explains, “I’ll think ‘okay, that was fun and a little random’ and move on.” But then the real unexpected twist occurs. She continues, “A few days later I’ll be reading my book, hit a spicy scene and actually have to put my Kindle down bc it’s the same scene. Like, the same vibe, the same moves, occasionally almost the same setup.”
She thinks he might be reading ahead and playing a fun little prank. But then the story beneath the story begins to reveal itself.
“I read on my Kindle. He’d have to get into my account, figure out where I am in each book, read ahead, and then coordinate. He’s a big tech/numbers guy, so if he’s doing this I guarantee there’s a spreadsheet involved somewhere. I’m honestly not even mad. Genuinely if this is what’s happening it might be the most unhinged romantic gesture anyone has ever done for me. But he is technically spoiling the books??”
As this story started to gain traction, the comments section filled up fast with amused, confused, and thoroughly invested people. It’s hard to resist a great story that begins with, “11 years and he’s still out here finding new ways to be surprising. I genuinely don’t deserve him and also he is ruining my books.” These are some of the Redditors’ thoughts:
“Made the mistake of reading this post to my husband and I think I actually saw a light bulb turn on above his head — gonna start locking my Kindle…”
“Book mark your favorite scenes…give him a selection so there’s still an element of surprise.”
“You made me laugh so hard this morning!”
“Yes, but ruining them in the BEST possible way!”
“Absolute legend behavior, but you’re right, he needs to drop some DLC that isn’t in the source material for the real surprises.”
“This is adorable and also sweet and romantic!”
“I mean, the husband is looking at this as ‘ok, challenge accepted!’”
“Girl, start reading some spicier stuff!”
A woman looks through a spyglass. Photo credit Canva
The mystery is uncovered in a Reddit update
In an update to the original post, the woman shared that she was very appreciative of the comments and support from readers of her posting. “Turns out you all were right. He had access to my shared Kindle library and got this idea for a prank, but once he did it a few times he really got ‘invested.’” She continues, “He’s going to stop spoiling my books but we did come up with another arrangement, also thanks to the comments here. I’m going to give him a list of pre-approved spicy scenes and he’ll choose (in no specific order) which he wants to surprise me with.”
This husband was willing to go the extra mile to keep their relationship moving in a healthy direction. And yet, there was one more little update she had to add in, “YES there was a spreadsheet. Chili pepper emojis for spice levels. A column for notes (needs wine, links to Spotify playlists, etc). Color coding. Multiple tabs. More organization than even I was expecting. It will be ongoing and is now shared so I can drop in my own chili peppers and notes.”
A romantic couple as the sun sets. Photo credit Canva
Romance novels are not just for the ladies
Romance novels aren’t simply a niche. It’s one of the most widely read genres worldwide. It’s not just casual reading either. Romance readers are voraciously digesting an average of five novels per month. A 2021 study in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications found that most readers are in relationships and looking for little escape and relaxation. Writing that is exciting, easy, and fun to read matters more than the sexual content.
What might be surprising is that romantic literature appeals to male readers more than you might think. In a 2025 survey conducted with fans of romance books by Talker Research, 63% of the men considered themselves die-hard fans. Also, men spend 364 hours annually reading romance compared to women, who spend 312 hours.
A couple eats watermelon together. Photo credit Canva
A little bit of romance matters
Research shows that doing something new together can reignite connection. A 2024 study in Science Direct found that passion and intimacy are directly related to overall relationship satisfaction. And it’s not the big swings at romance that matter most. It’s the small, attentive actions that bring more intimacy.
A 2023 review in the National Library of Medicine found that in the psychology of a romantic relationship, responsiveness, emotional attunement, and mutual investment build a stronger, lasting connection.
Romance might seem like something we’re all supposed to instinctively know how to do. This husband is willing to invest time and creativity into his marriage, even if his first attempts didn’t land perfectly. What she thought was a small frustration slowly turned into a stronger connection. All of this good started by simply trying and reading a little ahead.
Like many young, urban professionals, we run on coffee. We especially enjoy frequenting independently owned cafes that pride themselves on ethically sourced beverages, strong local ties and a hip aesthetic.
They’re the kinds of places that sneer at the homogenization and predictability of Tim Hortons, Second Cup, Dunkin and Starbucks.
What was up with all the exposed brick? Why did so many of the baristas look cooler than us, but also so similar to one another? And why did most menus appear on a chalkboard, as if we were still in kindergarten?
Weren’t we supposed to be in one-of-a-kind, authentic settings that make us feel unique and, let’s admit it, slightly elevated?
As it turns out, the visual patterns we noticed had never been backed up by research. So after a quick cortado, we set out to test our hunch that local coffee shops had adopted a uniform aesthetic.
Measuring homogeneity
We asked over 100 American and Canadian young professionals living in cities to share an interior image of their favorite independent coffee shop, describe why they liked the shop’s appearance, and document aspects of its interior design.
They could select these interior design features from a list of 23 common elements that we had identified in a pilot study – brick walls, marble counters, indoor plants, local art, vintage furniture and even the look of the baristas. Respondents could also write down other details they noticed.
Baristas led the pack: Two-thirds of the participants’ favorite local coffee shops had staff with tattoos or piercings. Over half had baristas with beards. Well over half of the respondents noted that their favorite shop had chalkboards, reclaimed wood features, local art, milk foam designs on beverages, local event posters and exposed brick. A large share of the shops had vintage furniture, community message boards and free books available to patrons to read. One-third of the images had indoor plants, trees or greenery.
Next up, we challenged the participants to identify the city where these coffee shops were located.
Using the images provided by the respondents from the initial survey, we asked 158 new and prior participants if they could match the location of the shops depicted in six photographs to Cincinnati, St. Louis or Toronto – cities chosen for their different architectural and aesthetic qualities.
Not a single participant was able to correctly identify the correct city for all the photos.
We gave respondents another chance by showing two pictures of coffee shops, one at a time. This time, the two shops were located in Chicago and San Francisco – again, places that pride themselves on their unique and recognizable design culture. They were now given the choice of these key cities to select from, as well as three wrong cities. Only 6% successfully located both coffee shops, and nearly 20% immediately gave up.
As one participant conceded: “Honestly, these aesthetics are very transferable now … they were random guesses and they could have been in any of the cities mentioned.”
In other words, independent coffee shops in North America have become so similar aesthetically that their location cannot be picked from a lineup. The purportedly unique and local feel of coffee shops has instead been homogenized into a singular, palatable, North American aesthetic.
Ironically, these shops have narrowed their aesthetics like a de facto brand franchise – exactly like the chain stores that their patrons ostensibly reject.
New Yorker cultural critic Kyle Chayka has attributed aesthetic homogenization to popular social media platforms like Instagram. He calls it the “tyranny of the algorithm”: Social media algorithms promote the visuals that users are most likely to engage with. This, in turn, causes the same types of visuals to be liked and shared, since users encounter them more often. Because the algorithm sees they’re popular, it continues to promote them, in a self-reinforcing cycle. In turn, coffee shop owners also see these online images and try to replicate them in their own establishments.
Artificial intelligence will likely accelerate the digital homogenization of visual culture, since AI models are trained on massive datasets that feature widely circulated images. Whether it’s popular fashion, architecture or interior design, idiosyncrasies are collapsing into a generic, hegemonic aesthetic – what scholars Roland Meyer and Jacob Birken call “platform realism.”
Finance plays a role as well. With the average cost of starting a new coffee shop between US$80,000 and $300,000, and with only a small share of coffee shops expected to stay open beyond five years, banks are keen to reduce their risk. Many of them will therefore ask aspiring coffee shop owners to opt for cheaper interior design choices that appeal to the broadest customer base.
The consumer also plays a role
But patrons of hip coffee shops may also be to blame.
Decades before the rise of social media, AI and financial risk management, scholars such as Sharon Zukin revealed how young urban professionals paradoxically embrace the homogenization of their environment in their quest for authenticity.
Those exposed brick walls? Zukin already described how Manhattan real estate brokers had marketed them to gentrifying SoHo yuppies in the early 1980s.
Like their predecessors, today’s hipsters, creative professionals and knowledge workers are essentially cultural and aesthetic consumers. Many of them crave visuals – from fashion to architecture – that are different enough to feel cool and authentic, yet safe enough to match their lifestyle and their social status. They want a tasty latte as much as a palatable interior to drink it in.
Businesses and developers are eager to appeal to these upwardly mobile consumers. At the same time, they want to reach the biggest number of customers. So they tend to create repeatable, homogenized environments in what Zukin describes as a “symbolic economy.”
In coffee shops, patrons want more than a good espresso. They want to immerse themselves in a “scene” that matches their lifestyle and aspirations. And the exposed brick and the vintage furniture do just that – even if they’ve been copy-and-pasted in cities, small and large, across the nation.
As we chase authenticity, we may just be finding comfort in carefully curated conformity.
