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A Chocolate-y, Champagne-y Birthday Party

Joanna Goddard birthday party

Joanna Goddard birthday party

This month, I decided to invite a few friends over and throw myself a birthday gathering. I’m turning 46, so it’s not a major milestone, but life is short and I figured everyone could do with a little sparkle right now. So, why not?

Joanna Goddard birthday party

My parties usually involve potato chips and ice cream bars, but my friend Maddy offered to make a giant bowl of chocolate mousse, which has been my favorite dessert since I was little. Then her friend Erin, a fine artist, asked if she could make a centerpiece with papier-mâché. Of course, the answer was yes, and on the day of the party she walked in with a GORGEOUS swan, plus ribbons and candles and tablecloths, and oh my gosh, my jaw dropped. What can women not do?!

After debating what to wear, I went with the velvet dress with gold flowers, plus sheer tights and black heels. Sézane pieces always make me feel pretty — this was my trusty first-date top — so I knew I’d love wearing it. Every time someone hugged me hello, they would say how soft and huggable the velvet felt, which felt very romantic and lovely.

Joanna Goddard freddie birthday party

Joanna Goddard freddie birthday party

Freddie arrived early, of course, and I love this pic taken THROUGH the swan!

Joanna Goddard birthday party

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erin Jang

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Everyone mingled and chatted, and the house felt noisy and boisterous in the best way.

Halfway through, we took a break to listen to music. My friend Rachel runs a music school, so I had asked her if she could recommend a student to play. She told me that Keira Eli was a star who writes her own music (!) so I was thrilled to hire her to come play two original songs.

Eric Kim

Everyone was transfixed; you could have heard a pin drop. I cannot explain how slow and beautiful and moving her songs were. The moment felt almost holy.

Next up, my hilarious friend David sang Country Roads and Passing Through…

…and the crowd sang along.

Finally, long-time buddies Rob and Adam played violin and keyboard. They wanted to keep their song choices under wraps until the party…

…so everyone cheered when they played Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.

Finally, my friends held up a tea light, so I could blow out a ceremonial candle…

And I ended the night with a kiss. I felt very lucky and glowy all evening and for the next few days — and, honestly, still! How grateful I am for these friends, as well as this online community. I told Freddie the next morning that this might have been my favorite birthday ever, and I wish I could tell my twenty-something self, who thought life ended at the stroke of midnight on your 40th, that there is so much more to come.

Thank you so much for reading! When’s your birthday? Any other Aquariuses? Aquarii? What was your favorite-ever birthday, if you have one? xoxo

(Photos by Weddings by Nato.)

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Stuff Your Kindle Day is live now — score 150+ free ebooks for 1 day only

FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on April 23. The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, isoffering cozy mystery books for free.


This has been such a huge month for Stuff Your Kindle Day. We’ve already been blessed by a number of free giveaways, and we’re not done yet.

The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, is offering participants the chance to download 150+ ebooks without spending anything. Everything that you download is yours to keep forever, so take this as your sign up to stock up ahead of the summer reading season.

Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We’ve lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.

When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

The Cozy Mystery Book Blast takes place on April 23. This free giveaway only lasts 24 hours, so you will need to act fast to download everything you want to read. Clear your schedule, make a list of priorities, and add to your TBR list with this limited-time promotion.

Which ebooks are free?

The Cozy Mystery Book Blast has a helpful hub page with everything on offer organized by sub-genre:

You can find these free ebooks from the Kindle Store and other popular retailers. There really is something for everyone in this latest book blast.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there’s no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don’t count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time, so don’t hold back.

The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal

Why we like it

These popular e-readers let you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase for a limited time.

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Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 23

We’re almost at the First Quarter which means the Moon is almost half illuminated. Each night it gets a little brighter, and this will keep happening until the Full Moon when the reverse will then occur and each night it will appear less.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Thursday, April 23, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 41% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

If you’re looking at the Moon with just your naked eye, you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Mares Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis, and Fecunditatis. If you have binoculars, the Mare Nectaris and Endymion and Posidonius Craters should also come into view, appearing from halfway up the Moon to near the top. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 11 and 17 landing spots, and the Rupes Altai.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.

What are Moon phases?

NASA says that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it passes through eight stages. Although the same face of the Moon is always turned toward us, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its path, producing the familiar cycle of full, half, and crescent shapes. These variations are referred to as lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

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Tinder responds to viral video about tricking facial scan

Earlier this month, journalist Christophe Haubursin published a YouTube video called “Something very weird is happening on Tinder.” In the video, which has over 1.5 million views as of this publication, Haubursin described a way to workaround to Tinder’s Face Check feature — the facial recognition that is now required for all U.S. users as of Oct. 2025.

What Haubursin and his interviewees discovered is a bunch of profiles that appeared normal, but the last photo on each profile was…off. It was usually a digitally-altered image of a different person in a weird scenario, like on a billboard or in a Victorian painting. And if someone matched with this person and asked about the image, they dodged the question. Instead, they asked to move the conversation to WhatsApp, where it became clear they were romance scammers.

But how did they evade Face Check? Haubursin found that Tinder and Hinge, both owned by Match Group, only need one photo for the facial recognition software. So these people may be the actual person in that odd image, and able to pass the face scan. Then, they could grift images of other people from the internet to use for the bulk of their profile.

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Tinder didn’t respond to Haubursin’s request for comment, but it did respond to Mashable’s. 

“We’re aware of the concerns raised about our Photo Verification and Face Check features. In recent weeks, we’ve taken action to strengthen our Photo Verification badging logic, including requiring greater consistency across profile photos and additional reviews to achieve higher confidence in cases that warrant extra scrutiny,” a Tinder spokesperson told Mashable. “Face Check, our more recently launched verification system, builds on Photo Verification to help confirm accounts belong to real users. We are committed to continuously improving and investing in our systems to keep Tinder safe and authentic for our users.”

Mashable also recently spoke with Hinge’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ben Celebicic, about this, as Haubursin also replicated this on Hinge (which began implementing Face Check after Tinder). Celebicic hasn’t seen Haubursin’s video, but he did say that there’s a constant battle between trust and safety teams and policy-violating actors. 

“They’ll find new ways,” he said. “We’ll find ways to prevent them from accessing the platform.”

There’s not going to be a single product the team builds that will fully prevent people from bypassing our solution, Celebicic continued. He said they have a big team working on these issues, and they’re in tune with new ways bad actors try to penetrate the platform and work to fix them.

Around one-third of Hinge’s workforce is dedicated to trust and safety, the app told Mashable, and Match Group invests $125 million annually in this area.

Trust and safety is a major concern for dating apps. In Sept. 2025, two senators sent a letter to Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, urging him to do something about romance scammers on the platforms. In Dec., a class-action lawsuit against Match Group claimed that a serial rapist was allowed on Tinder and Hinge after several women reported him. 

Facial recognition scans have boomed recently thanks to the influx of age-verification laws, which require a robust method of proving someone’s age in order to access certain content, usually explicit content. These methods include uploading a government ID to a platform, using a credit card, or in other cases, scanning your face. But, like with Face Check, people have found workarounds to evade the scan and see the content they want to see.

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