On March 23, 1839, Boston Morning Post editor Charles Gordon Greene was writing a satirical piece making fun of the Providence Journal. At the end of a throwaway paragraph, he stuck in an abbreviation: “o.k.” It stood for “oll korrect,” which was an intentionally misspelled version of “all correct.”

That joke became the most widely used expression in the English language.

Greene wasn’t being random. According to History.com, the late 1830s were in the grip of an abbreviation craze, especially among young, educated elites in Boston. The twist was that they deliberately misspelled words first, then abbreviated them. It was the 1800s version of texting slang, and apparently it was hilarious at the time.

Once women reach a certain age, society does something weird. It starts sending messages that you’re simply too old to dress as if you have a social life. In general, it seemed as if society had been moving away from those unrealistic expectations laid upon moms and women over the age of 35, but maybe not.

Jessica Buwick, a mom on TikTok, found out fairly quickly that people still have interesting ideas about how “old people” should dress when going out in public. The mom, who was 37 at the time, ordered a plethora of outfits to try on in search of one for her son’s graduation after seeing other moms on social media dressing up more for graduations than parents did when she graduated.

Sure, you could venture to Las Vegas to experience Phish’s legendary Gamehendge saga in 360 at the Sphere, but it would pale in comparison to the palpable, electric joy that permeated throughout the audience after an elementary school cast decided to bring it to life. 

A small-town teacher with a big idea

Every year, music teacher Kirk Kubicek, the leader behind this massive project, tries to give his students in the smaller schools throughout the mountains of Colorado something special for their year-end musical production, despite not having access to the same resources as schools in the flatlands.