General General 3 min read

Which is your go-to flavor?

Go beyond mozzarella and pepperoni with these 10 delicious pizzas

Image: Nataliya Vaitkevich

Yes, pepperoni is great. So are Margherita, mozzarella, Neapolitan, and Chicago deep-dish. But what about the lesser-known relatives of the pizza family? There are words of praise to be said for Mexican pizza with its chorizo topping or fragrant pesto pizza with pine nuts. Venture beyond the classics and take a look at these 10 mouth-watering slices of heaven. Have you ever tried any of these?

1
BBQ Chicken Pizza

Image: Daniel Hooper 🌊

Not all great flavors match, but pizza and barbecue chicken certainly do. This delightful fusion features tangy BBQ sauce, tender grilled chicken, and often sweet onions , creating a perfect balance of sweet and savory.

Some recipes are known to include smoked bacon or sweet corn, adding an extra layer of flavor. It’s a modern, flavorful twist on traditional pizza.

2
Supreme Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

The name itself sets the stage for a memorable flavor, and this pizza does not disappoint. Supreme Pizza is a hearty option designed to satisfy everyone. It combines several toppings, including pepperoni, sausage, onions, peppers, and mushrooms .

While it can be made at home, the sheer number of ingredients might make it easier to enjoy from your local pizzeria.

3
White Sauce Pizza

Image: Ivan Torres

The omnipresent tomato sauce, which gives a noble base flavor to our pizza toppings, is set aside for this iteration and trades seats with a creamy white sauce instead.

Combine olive oil and garlic to coat the dough or make a homemade white sauce. This white pizza version can use a ricotta cheese base. Keep the toppings simple so the sauce remains the star—think mozzarella cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, and fresh herbs.

4
Pickle Pizza

Image: SuckerPunch Gourmet

Another flavor that shouldn't work—but does—is a pizza topped with pickled cucumbers. Some pizza joints across the country offer this unique version that uses pickles and spices as its topping .

The pizza is completed with the classic tomato sauce and a light cheese, to avoid clashing too much with the vinegar from the pickles.

5
Grilled Pizza

Image: Revolve Pizza Oven

Unlike the previous versions, the distinctive flavor of this pizza comes from its unique cooking method. The stretched dough is placed directly on the grates over hot coals , cooking it on one side, flipping the dough, and topping it in reverse—cheese first, sauce second. After this, the pizza goes back to the grates in order for the other side to cook and for the cheese to melt.

The resulting pizza is a crispy, airy, well-charred delight with a smoky flavor. Grilled pizza can be topped with virtually any ingredient according to personal preferences.

6
Green Peppers Pizza

Image: Anna Evans

A healthy and popular pizza topping in America, green peppers bring a crispy and refreshing dimension to any slice. Combined with onions and maybe even mushrooms they create an extremely flavorful, crispy, and crunchy ingredient that adds a refreshing dimension to a pizza.

7
Mexican Pizza

Image: Nik Owens

Mexican food is often associated with tacos, guacamole, nachos, and other delicious treats but Mexican pizza is a force to be reckoned with, too. The main ingredients are chorizo, jalapeños, pepperoni, red onion, and cannellini beans . It’s spicy and tangy, with a satisfying texture thanks to the ground meat and beans.

If you ever see this on the menu, don’t hesitate—go for it! You won’t regret it.

8
Burrata Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

Burrata cheese is like the supreme version of mozzarella: creamy, soft, and utterly delicious. A good burrata pizza includes cherry tomatoes, pistachio mortadella, and, of course, burrata cheese .

It’s not often you’ll find this on your local pizzeria’s menu, so if you spot it and want to try something special, give it a shot!

9
Greek Pizza

Image: Brenna Huff

Mediterranean cuisine goes beyond Italian flavors and Greek pizza adds some interesting ingredients to the recipe. This version is characterized by its thick, slightly wet dough, greasy cheese, and tomato sauce with a strong taste of oregano .

The typical ingredients for Greek pizza include artichokes, feta cheese, and Kalamata olives.

10
Pesto Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

If you associate pesto with pasta rather than pizza, you are not alone. But, as a fellow Italian specialty, pizza also benefits greatly from this aromatic sauce and its ingredients. The rich flavors of cheese and pine nuts in pesto complement the basic ingredients of a cheese pizza perfectly. Topped with parmesan cheese, mushrooms, and oregano , this pizza is nothing short of amazing.

General General 3 min read

Do you have a landline?

Can you tell what this was for? 12 items we no longer use!

Image: Luca Onniboni

Little by little, many of the things we used just a few decades ago have been phased out by newer technologies and changing habits. Your relatives no longer invite you over for a family viewing of holiday photos on a slide projector—they share them in the family WhatsApp group. Hardly anyone calls you on a landline anymore—they call your smartphone instead. Take a look at the following 12 things we no longer use. Do you miss any of them?

1
Paper road maps

Image: Sylwia Bartyzel

Paper maps—atlases, or topographic maps—are beautiful and there is always room for those as home decorations or teaching geography in schools. But as far as bulky roadmaps on your back pocket go, smartphones with GPS capabilities have made them obsolete.

2
Bathing machine

Image: Uta Scholl

Back in the day, modesty was far more strictly enforced than it is today. Forget about simply wearing your beach clothes to the shore—the bathing machine was a device, popular from the 18th century to the early 20th century, that allowed beachgoers to change out of their regular clothes , put on swimwear, and wade into the ocean.

3
Public telephones

Image: Pedram Farjam

Before cell phones existed, coin-operated pay phones were the go-to option for contacting someone or leaving a message. Pay phones were everywhere—on street corners, in malls, restaurants, airports, train stations, and hotels, allowing people to make calls in public places.

4
Teleseme

Image: Zoshua Colah

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, luxury hotels featured an electric signaling device in each room , allowing guests to request goods or services from over 100 options. An attendant in the hotel office would receive the request via a corresponding teleseme and ensure the order was fulfilled.

These devices were eventually replaced by private branch exchange (PBX) telephone systems.

5
Slide projectors

Image: Nathan Anderson

As mentioned earlier, slide projectors were once a common household appliance in many homes and a popular form of entertainment . However, they became obsolete as video projectors became more affordable and accessible.

6
Phonebooks

Image: Brittany Colette

Imagine a book containing the home phone numbers of everyone in your city . It once existed and was delivered annually to every household with a landline by the telephone company. These hefty directories became obsolete with the rise of online listings and the death of landlines in favor of cell phones.

7
Typewriters

Image: Bernard Hermant

Imagine not being able to revise what you’re writing without scrapping the whole page . While that situation was a great exercise for your focusing abilities, it was phased out by home computers and word processors, which allowed for infinite rewrites in no time.

8
Photo Album

Image: Laura Fuhrman

Smartphones have made photography more accessible than ever, yet we print fewer photos than before. When photography wasn’t digital, people took their film rolls to be developed , returning with 36 crisp pictures—some of which, if deemed worthy, were carefully placed in photo albums .

9
Cassette tape players

Image: Dave Weatherall

If you're over 40, you’ve probably owned a cassette player—whether a Walkman, a boombox, or any other model. Cassettes were sturdy, reliable, and easy to use . However, with the arrival of CDs, which offered superior sound quality and the ability to skip tracks at the press of a button, cassettes and their players quickly faded into obscurity.

10
Encyclopedias

Image: James

Before the internet, encyclopedias were the primary source of knowledge. These extensive book collections adorned bookshelves in homes and public libraries, offering detailed descriptions of almost any subject imaginable , all listed in alphabetical order .

11
Fax machines

Image: alecale35

By today’s standards, sending and receiving faxes wasn’t particularly fast, but at the time, it was a game-changer. The fax machine digitized documents with a scanner and transmitted printed pages over telephone lines . However, it became obsolete with the rise of email, scanners, and smartphones.

12
VHS tapes and VCRs

Image: Leonard Reese

Being able to see any movie you want at home feels ordinary today, but, in the early 80s, it was a dream come true. And this dream was made possible by VCRs and VHS tapes. These bulky devices were eventually replaced by DVD players, which offered superior image quality and eliminated the need to rewind the tape.

General General 4 min read

Star power comes in all sizes

Which famous actor is 5'6"? Movie magic hides more than you imagine

Image: William Warby

The movie screen shows us everything we want... and sometimes even what we don’t. But some things aren’t so easy to notice, like the height of our favorite stars. From classic icons like John Wayne to today’s celebrities like Taylor Swift, these 10 stars fall into one of two categories: really tall… or really, really short! Can you guess how tall each one is?

1
Clint Eastwood

Image: movie studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Spaghetti Westerns wouldn’t have been the same without Clint Eastwood, and neither would cinema as a whole. He not only won our hearts with unforgettable performances but also built a career as a respected director and even stepped into politics. But that’s not all: It turns out he’s also one of the tallest actors in Hollywood, standing at an impressive 6'4"!

2
Tom Cruise

Image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tom Cruise is famous for performing his own stunts in some truly dangerous scenes. At 5'7", he may not be Hollywood’s tallest leading man, but that doesn’t stop him from skydiving while flipping through the air, piloting planes, filming atop skyscrapers without a harness, and, of course, being one of the highest-paid actors in the world.

3
John Wayne

Image: DVD (Batjac-Paramount Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Western films and war movies owe a lot to the talented John Wayne. Known as "The Duke," his tough-guy persona came not only from his roles but also from his imposing size: he stood an impressive 6 feet 4 inches tall.

4
Dolly Parton

Image: Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The queen of country music doesn’t need height to stand out: At just 5 feet tall, she became one of America’s most beloved female singers. Creator of hits like "Jolene," "9 to 5," and "I Will Always Love You," she often wears heels during performances and TV and movie appearances.

5
Danny DeVito

Image: Mario A. P., CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

If you thought Dolly was the shortest person on this list, think again, as the talented and beloved actor Danny DeVito stands at 4'10''. His height is due to a genetic condition called multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED), which affects bone growth. Far from holding him back, Danny has showcased his talent in successful films like Batman Returns (1992), Matilda (1996), Big Fish (2003), and many more.

6
Brooke Shields

Image: MSGT. Don Wetterman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Height isn’t just for men; just look at actress Brooke Shields, who stands an amazing 6 feet tall. Known for films like The Blue Lagoon (1980) and the sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996–2000), her height and striking beauty also contributed to her great success in the fashion world.

7
Dustin Hoffman

Image: Gorup de Besanez, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) are cinematic classics, in large part thanks to Dustin Hoffman’s outstanding performances. While he wasn’t the tallest protagonist at 5 '7", his height never got in the way of these and many other films achieving huge success.

8
Dwayne Johnson

Image: Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Also in the Tall Club is Dwayne Johnson, better known as "The Rock." Standing an impressive 6'5", his strength goes beyond his height and acting talent, as he also gained fame as a professional wrestling superstar.

9
Taylor Swift

Image: Marcin Wichary from San Francisco, U.S.A., CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Named Time’s Person of the Year in 2023, Taylor Swift is undeniably one of the biggest sensations of this era. But her musical talent and knack for creating hit songs aren’t all she brings to the table: Her 5'11" height also adds to her stunning stage presence.

10
Al Pacino

Image: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mr. Al Pacino may have brought to life some of the toughest characters, and even a few criminals. But his rugged image might make you think he’s a bit taller. To many people's surprise, Al actually stands around 5' 6". Short or tall, he was destined to be a star!

11
Uma Thurman

Image: Siebbi, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Brooke Shields and Taylor Swift aren't the only tall women on this list. The star of Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill (2003–2004) also ranks among the tallest. At 5'11", Uma Thurman has always stood out for her versatility and commanding screen presence.

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