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With his hit shows “Drake & Josh” and “Zoey 101” coming to an end, Dan Schneider was focused on his next project. The new series starred “Drake & Josh” alum Miranda Cosgrove as a girl making her own web series with her best friends, played by Jennette McCurdy and Nathan Kress. After debuting in early September 2007, “iCarly” opened to strong ratings and never looked back, eventually overtaking “SpongeBob” as the network’s most-watched show.

Schneider recalled the experience on his blog:

I never dreamed the audience would embrace “iCarly” the way it has … within less than a year, we saw “iCarly” become more than just a successful show. Thanks to the fans, “iCarly” became part of American pop culture.

Emma Stone on “iCarly.”

“iCarly” ran on Nickelodeon for seven seasons. The series received critical acclaim and even drew huge celebrity guest stars like Emma Stone, Jack Black and Jimmy Fallon on its way to becoming one of the Nickelodeon’s most successful shows of all time. Fan’s loved the series’ interactivity, but now, even two years after series finale “iGoodbye” aired Nov. 23, 2012, there is still a lot viewers don’t know.

She’s Carly. She’s Sam. And these are 11 things you didn’t know about “iCarly”:

Image: Giphy

1. Jennette McCurdy hated a lot of the food she had to eat.

On the show, Sam eats pretty much everything she can get her hands on, but McCurdy told RadioFree.com that she definitely differs with her character there:

There are times when I have had to eat food that I hate, like for example the pie. Or on the first episode, I had to eat so much ham I threw up, and then had to go eat more. That was horrible! I had to eat Cheez Whiz … Didn’t like that.

The actress said the props department worked hard to make the food great, but she revealed to Rosie O’Donnell in a 2012 interview that she hasn’t had ham since the pilot episode.

2. You can actually call Sam’s phone number.

Image: Giphy

According to iCarly Facts Tumblr, the episode “iLost My Mind” gives out an actual working number for Sam Puckett.

Calling the number “503-664-0452” connects you to a voicemail message from Sam basically saying to hang up because she’ll never check her messages.

3. No one knows what the goat did to Carly.

One of the greatest mysteries from “iCarly” comes in the episode “iGot A Hot Room.” In one particular scene, Carly mentions an infamous incident with a goat at a petting zoo.

Schneider wrote in his blog that he gets asked a lot about what the goat actually did to Carly, sometimes even by Cosgrove herself, but that it will probably always remain a mystery:

When we wrote that script, the writers and I had fun thinking about things the goat might have done … but we all had different ideas. And, as you know, it was never stated in the episode. So, this one is up to your own imagination. There is no correct answer. It’s anyone’s guess.

4. Carly was very close to being named Sam or Josie.

Image: YouTube

When answering fan questions about how he decided on a name for the series, Schneider said it came from talking with Steve Molaro, who’s now executive producer for “The Big Bang Theory.” The show creator said the main character’s name in his original script was Sam. That would have been Carly’s name, except the URL for iSam was already registered. Schneider said he then bought the URL for iJosie.com, but he later decided on iCarly.

Had Schneider been able to buy iSam.com, Carly and Sam would likely have been Sam and Kira, respectively, which were the characters in the original script.

5. “iCarly” gets away with a lot of hidden adult jokes.

Whether it’s Disney movies or Nick, a lot of kids programming has been shown to have hidden adult humor in it, and “iCarly” isn’t any different. Smosh outlines a lot seemingly innocent jokes that could be taken to have a double meaning. Others more blatant examples are the “Fifty Shades of Grey” reference above and Freddie’s apartment number, which you can see in this scene from “Sam & Cat” bares a striking resemblance to certain texting emoticon:

6. There’s even more “Drake & Josh” crossover than you think.

“Drake & Josh” references are scattered throughout “iCarly.” Examples include Carly and Spencer (Jeremy Trainer) both watching themselves on “Drake & Josh,” visual references like pictures and even this gem from Drake Bell, which appeared on the episode “iBloop”:

Before “iCarly” debuted, there were also references to the show in “Drake & Josh.” Most notably, a movie marquee in “Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp” had a message from Schneider thanking Molaro and also saying, “Now She’s Carly.”

7. The cast’s reactions to fan videos were real.

Image: Giphy

Fans could actually go on iCarly.com to send in videos, suggestions and interact with the show. The “iCarly” writers then incorporated fan feedback into the programming, which made the show a very real experience.

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Cosgrove talked about the crazy videos fans would send in and said the cast’s reactions to these videos on the show were real. She recalled one fan video that involved someone squirting milk out of their eyes that made the cast scream “at the top of their lungs.”

Cosgrove also told Kimmel that in her spare time she makes funny videos with her friends, which basically means she’s Carly Shay in real life, too.

8. You can visit the Shay’s apartment building, but it’s not where you think.

Though the Shay’s supposedly live in Bushwell Plaza in Seattle, the actual building seen on the show is nowhere near there.

A variety of sources report exterior shots of the Shay’s apartment building are actually from the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. Images of the building are said to be digitally altered for the show.

9. “iCarly” had a secret “Harry Potter” connection.

Image: Giphy

To win a bet against Freddie in “iFence,” Sam reads a book called “The Penny Treasure.” Previously, she hasn’t been interested in reading, but Sam learns to enjoy it and describes the experience as “TV in your head.”

In real life, “The Penny Treasure” doesn’t actually exist. Apparently the book used in the episode was a copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” with a fake cover put on it.

10. You can actually visit websites from the show … sort of.

Since the show is all about a girl and her friends making a web series, a variety of other made up websites are also mentioned. These include iGibby.com, Nevilocity.com, SamPuckett.com and many others.

You can actually visit these sites, but Carly’s nemesis Neville will probably “rue the day” when he finds out that these sites are all set up to redirect to iCarly.com.

11. “iCarly” creator Dan Schneider always knew how the show would end.

Image: Tumblr

Schneider wrote on his “iGoodbye” blog entry that he knew how he wanted the series to end from the very first season, and that’s exactly how it turned out:

I had this vision of the front door opening, Carly hearing her dad’s voice, turning, breaking into a huge smile, yelling “Dad!” and running into his arms. I saw that scene in my head back in 2008. So, it was kind of surreal when we filmed that very scene, in 2012.

And … we’re out.

DENVER (AP) — Republicans in search of a way to oppose President Barack Obama’s moves on immigration without alienating the nation’s fast-growing population of Hispanic voters can find a playbook in Colorado.

GOP Rep. Cory Gardner won election to the Senate in the midterms in a state where 14 percent of voters are Hispanic. His GOP colleague, Rep. Mike Coffman, won re-election in a district where 14 percent of residents were born in foreign countries. Both opposed last year’s failed bipartisan effort in the Senate to overhaul the nation’s immigration system, a top priority of immigrant-rights groups, especially its centerpiece: a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Both also spoke warmly of the contributions made by immigrants and shifted to the center on other immigration issues. Coffman even learned Spanish.

Coffman went on to win his race by 9 points. Gardner tied Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in two heavily Hispanic counties that normally vote overwhelmingly Democratic on his way to a narrow victory. Democrats acknowledge the two Republicans benefited from a change in how they talk about immigration, departing from a bombastic approach that emphasizes border security and deportations.

“Villainization is a huge issue,” said James Mejia, former president of Denver’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “If you can stop being nasty about it, people will listen to the things you have to say.”

For years, Republicans have struggled to balance a desire to improve the party’s standing among Hispanic and Asian-American voters and the rock-solid opposition among conservative to anything they consider “amnesty” for people living here illegally.

Hispanic and Asian-Americans overwhelmingly voted Democratic in 2012, after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for some immigrants to practice “self-deportation” and Obama responded by allowing many immigrants brought to the country illegally as children to stay and work.

Colorado’s Hispanic voters had helped Democrats win every race for Senate, governor and president since 2004. Earlier this year, some Colorado Republicans feared they were in for a repeat when Ken Buck, who as a county district attorney took aggressive action against immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, started the race for the GOP Senate nomination as the favorite.

But Gardner cleared the field when he entered the Senate race and, during the summer, took steps toward the center. After initially voting to repeal Obama’s executive order allowing children brought to the country illegally to work in the U.S., he voted in August to uphold it and said he supports citizenship for such immigrants who served in the military. He also said he’d be open to letting people who are in the country illegally “earn” legal residence, though not necessarily citizenship.

Perhaps as important, Gardner spoke warmly of immigrants. Asked at an event whether jobs should go to Americans or people living here illegally, he said the system needs to serve those who want to build a better life for their families.

Some immigrant rights groups were frustrated that Udall’s campaign did not do more to highlight his differences with Gardner. Republicans, meanwhile, said if they can talk about immigration without insulting immigrant voters, it allows them to address other priorities.

“Immigration is important, but not as important as a strong economy that creates jobs,” said Jerry Natividad, a Colorado businessman who sits on the Republican National Committee’s Hispanic outreach committee.

Coffman agreed to participate in a Spanish-language television debate against his Democratic challenger, who is fluent in the language. Like Gardner, he backed a proposal in the House that would have created a path to citizenship for some immigrants who served in the military.

He reiterated his support for that proposal in a statement last week that, on one hand, criticized Obama for using immigration as a political wedge issue but also rejected forcing a government shutdown — a popular idea among immigration hardliners — to stop the president’s actions.

The RNC sent field staff to organize in Colorado’s Hispanic community and the state party focused on turning out voters in the Democratic strongholds of Adams and Pueblo counties, which are respectively 36 and 41 percent Hispanic. Gardner’s campaign and other conservative groups spent $1 million on Spanish-language ads, featuring GOP luminaries such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“That helped win the confidence of a segment of our electorate that is not only of great importance but has contributed so much to our state,” said Ryan Call, the Spanish-speaking chairman of the Colorado Republican party.

Patty Kupfer, the Denver-based managing director of the immigrant rights group America’s Voice, acknowledged that Gardner and Coffman were successful “muddying the issue” in the election. But she argued they succeeded in part because Obama’s previous inaction had angered immigrants. Now that Obama is taking action, duplicating that success won’t be as easy.

“I just don’t see how Republicans can use the same strategy and expect to win at this point,” she said.

___

Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi /

This post originally appeared on Bustle.

By Paige Tutt

Will I always be perceived as the black girl with the big tits and the fat ass, or am I seen as the black girl with the big tits and the fat ass because of the way I dress? My mother would argue the latter. When I almost moved into a notoriously crime heavy part of Boston, my mom and I had a chat. She talked to me about crime rates, about how to be safe at night, about my behavior, and most importantly to her, about the “provocative” way I sometimes dressed. She believed it was inviting street harassment.

My opinion? I’m a grown woman, and I should be able to wear whatever I want. But my mother — like it or not Mom, this is true — cares a lot about how people perceive her, and me. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that her mother, my grandmother, used to always put on lipstick before she left the house. “You never know who you’re going to see,” she’d say. I was taught from a young age about the importance of perception.

So when Nicki Minaj’s now infamous Anaconda album cover caused a Twitter explosion this summer, I was especially interested to see how it was perceived. I wasn’t surprised when people said Minaj was ratchet, slutty, hyper-sexualized, and a bad role model.

When Minaj responded to the backlash by captioning her album cover “Unacceptable” on Instagram in juxtaposition with other “acceptable” images, she ended up making an unexpected but powerful point about the different standards black and white female sexuality are held to.

Angelic. Acceptable. Lol

A photo posted by Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) on Jul 7, 2014 at 8:32pm PDT

UNACCEPTABLE

Una foto publicada por Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) el Jul 7, 2014 at 8:34 PDT

The controversy that arose made me wonder what people think about me based on how I present myself. Am I asking for negative male attention if I wear something that shows off my body? Am I opening myself up to criticism if I’m not completely covered? How are the perceived rules different for me as a black woman?

When I saw fellow Bustle writer Marie Southard Ospina’s OKCupid experiment looking at how people responded to her dressing as different “types” on the site — goth, retro, natural — I couldn’t help but wonder how the results would be different for me as a black woman. I decided to give it a shot.

THE RULES

I changed the pictures on my profile once a week, allowing enough time for new people to register the change. The information on my profile always remained the same; the only thing that changed was the pictures. I didn’t respond to any message during the duration of this experiment. Every comment you see under each persona is a direct image of the original first message I received from that user. No user appears twice in the results.

THE PERSONAS

I broke myself down into a few different personas, each representing one facet of my identity: The “Video Girl,” The “Hipster/Nerd,” The “Afrocentric,” The “Professional,” and The “Me-Yoncé.”

Inspired by Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda album cover, this look was the most stereotypically “hyper-sexualized” of the five looks. This “video girl” side of me comes out from time to time on the weekends, if I’m going to concerts/events, or when I just want to look sexy. It’s the sort of look my mother would deem inappropriate.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was by far the most popular look when it came to the number of visitors viewing my profile. This look also received the most sexually explicit messages, along with messages that linked my race to my sexuality.

In the messages I got while this persona was up, I was heavily fetishized. Responses mentioning a love for darker women, black women, or big butts were common.

This was definitely the most difficult profile to keep up for an entire week. After the first round of responses came in, I felt really emotionally drained and exhausted. It’s hard to see how people think of you written out as opposed to just living your life without knowing.

What does it even mean when someone says “I’ve never dated a black girl but I’ve always wanted to?”

A kid from my high school once told me, after a few beers, that he’d never been with a black girl and wanted me to be his first. He smiled, an almost sneer-like toothy grin, as if what he’d said was some sort of compliment. Was I supposed to be flattered? Why am I something to be sampled, like a new type of non-dairy ice cream? “Oh I’ve had the vanilla, I think I’ll have a scoop of the chocolate just to give it a whirl.”

Some of the responses made me feel like a lot of people think of me as just a different flavor, so much so that I considered calling the whole experiment off. It wasn’t until I talked to a friend of mine that I decided to trudge on. She argued that regardless of how the comments made me feel, there was something to be learned from these responses and their honesty. So, I kept going.

THE HIPSTER/NERD

This persona is a mixture of my appreciation for FKA Twigs and my love for some things that could warrant me being called a “nerd.” It’s also how I dress when I’m in class, on campus, or studying.

If I’m wearing thick rimmed glasses, my septum ring, and a crewneck t-shirt, I’m still a black woman — I’m just not as blatantly and overtly sexual as the video girl look.

The messages this profile received reflect how dramatically a few accessory and wardrobe changes influenced who some users assumed I was, and the degree to which they fetishized me. In comparison to the “video girl” persona, this look garnered responses focused on the interests I listed on my profile. I got a lot of questions asking about Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Tasty Burger, my nose ring, and, for some reason, smoking weed (an interest mentioned nowhere on my profile).

None of the messages mentioned my race at all.

THE AFROCENTRIC

I remember the first weekend I had these braids. I was out at a bar in Boston, and some guy made a joke likening me to a member of TLC because of my hair. I remember thinking to myself, “Which member of TLC was known for having braids like this? Oh yeah, none of them.” After that, I think I became hyper-aware of the fact that people seemed to perceive me as “more black” when I had braids. I started experimenting with African head wraps and traditional prints in an effort to embrace a side of my heritage that had previously gone unexplored.

I felt that this look was the look where my race was most blatantly on display (or at least it was supposed to be), but only one visitor mentioned my race explicitly. I was expecting to have a ton of fetishized messages, but to my surprise, people just gave me compliments and occasionally mentioned information I had included in my profile.

This was the first profile where I realized maybe I couldn’t control people’s perception of me just by changing what I wore. I had expected people to have a certain reaction, and when no one took the bait, I was so insanely frustrated. It seemed I understood the way people perceived me even less than I thought I did.

THE PROFESSIONAL

I consider myself a young professional. In addition to freelancing and getting my master’s, I work at an e-commerce company. The dress code at work is extremely casual, but from time to time I have meetings as well as events I have to attend, and need to dress up a bit. This look is about as professional as I get.

This profile was one of the most interesting to observe. A friend of mine said these pictures made me look kind of shy or reserved (which is funny because I would never use those two words to describe myself). Most of the messages I received seemed to reflect that. I got the most succinct responses for this look — a lot of “heys,” “hi’s,” “hellos,” and “how are you doings.” I received no comments about my race.

The other looks showed a side of me that I think is more approachable, while this side of me is very straight-forward, a little quieter, and less open. I wondered if the way I present myself in a professional setting makes me seem at all unapproachable.

THE ME-YONCÉ

I was the most stressed about posting this persona because it was just me being me. I wear a lot of black. I wear my septum ring almost everyday. I’m usually lying around in bed. I love wearing big black floppy hats and sunglasses that make me look like John Lennon. I tried to take pictures that represent aspects of who I am and what I’m about as a collective whole.

The pattern of messages I received for this look was the most erratic, perhaps because it was the least specific. Some people talked about Tasty Burger, some mentioned my nose ring, some wrote about my hair, and some just stuck with a casual “hello.”

I think this profile came off as the most approachable, which made me happy since it was just me being me. No one really overtly fetishized me or linked my sexuality and race for this profile either.

CONCLUSION

As the experiment came to a close, I felt more confused than when I had started. It seemed as if men only really linked my race and sexuality in the first profile, and the responses to the rest of the personas I presented were fairly consistent. I thought back to when Marie did her experiment on OKCupid, and her results were far more varied. When she was doing her “goth” look, people really responded specifically to that particular look. “Let’s be sad together,” one wrote. “You’re depressingly beautiful. Get it? Because you’re beautiful and I am betting depressed,” another said. When Marie was doing her “all natural, no makeup” look, people responded specifically to that particular look. One user said he respected her posting unaltered photos, but also thought she was crazy for doing so. Another said she was cute, but looked a bit sickly.

Like mine, Marie’s “party girl” look received the most sexually explicit responses as well, but even those reactions seemed directly related to what she was wearing, not her race. She’s Latina, but perhaps because Marie is so fair-skinned, her club look didn’t prompt racial fetishization in the same way that mine did.

In my experiment, it seemed users placed me into one of only two categories: over-sexualized black being, or just “normal” girl. That is what fetishization looks like — reducing someone to a type, rather than a person. This fetishization implies that people of color are no more than our bodies and our skin color, that we are something to be explored or “tried.” And as I was forced to painfully confront, that noise is difficult to block out.

After a couple of weeks doing this experiment, I started to question why I wore the things I did, especially my “video girl” wear. I took all of my going out clothes from my dirty clothes hamper, from my closet, from my drawers, and dumped them onto the floor. I started picking up each item, one by one, to decide why I wore it, if I could be in any way fetishized if I was seen in it, and whether that was enough to deter me from wearing it.

After a few hours of sorting, it seemed like almost anything I wore could possibly draw what, in the aftermath of the experiment, could be classified as the wrong type of attention, or result in me being fetishized.

Staring at the pile of clothing, I realized that people will always want to put me in a box — but that doesn’t mean I need to conform to what they think is acceptable or palatable. I don’t need to tweak my expression of my sexuality to make certain people feel comfortable or to ward off negative attention. That’s the strength in what Nicki Minaj did: her album cover said Yes, I’m a sexualized black being. So what.

And as difficult as it was in the beginning, that’s what this experiment taught me in the end. I can be sexy and black, and while people may fetishize me, that still won’t stop me from expressing my sexuality in the way that I choose to.

I decided to keep all of my “video girl” clothes, not just because I don’t want to throw them away, but because I refuse to live my life on anyone’s terms but my own.

I woke up the next morning, wiggled into my favorite jeans that hug my hips just so, popped in my septum, slid on my favorite black crop top, and with my midriff showing and head held high, I walked out the door. Would some people see my tightly denim-clad ass and crop top and think damn, I’ve never been with a black girl but I want to now? Potentially. But that doesn’t mean I have to stop wearing tight jeans. Especially these ones, because they’re my favorite.

Images: Nicki Minaj/Instagram (2), Paige Tutt

More from Bustle:

Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine Shoot Has An Insanely Troubling Racial Problem

What “11 Things to Keep in Mind Before Dating a Black Woman” Video Teaches Us About Interracial Dating in America

I’m A Black Woman Dating A White Man and This Is The Actual Reality of Interracial Dating

When the average Star Wars geek thinks of Princess Leia, two things come to mind: that Slave Leia outfit in Return of the Jedi and hair buns. Even Spaceballs made fun of those silly hair buns. You might not ever get your lady to wear the gold bikini, but you might get her to wear this robe.

The Princess Leia Ladies Fleece Robe is designed to look like the dress Leia is wearing in the first film as she makes the message to Obi Wan via R2-D2. The coolest part is that the hood has Leia’s famous hair buns on the hood. I’ll admit it’s not quite as hot as that gold bikini, but it’s still cute.

It’s made out of warm fleece and is an officially-licensed product. Pick one up for your girl for $49.99(USD) at ThinkGeek now.

There’s no love quite like that between a boy and his dog. Or a girl and her dog for that matter, either.

For proof, look no further than the portraits 19-year-old Alicja Zmyslowska takes of dogs in her native Poland.

“Since I was a child I loved animals,” Zmyslowska told Bored Panda in an interview on her inspiring photos. “When I was 4, I got two beautiful cats but my biggest dream was still to have a dog. In 2006 this dream came true.”

The animal lover’s dog portraits truly capture each animal’s individual spirit, from the goofy and playful to the serene and inquisitive.

See some of Zmyslowska’s dog portraits, below:

H/T Bored Panda

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