Month: March 2021

As the debate over whether schools should resume in-person teaching rages on, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its “Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention.” The findings include “All schools should implement and layer prevention strategies and should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing” and “Evidence suggests that many K-12 schools that have strictly implemented prevention strategies have been able to safely open for in-person instruction and remain open,” the key word being “evidence.” The Republican National Committee did not offer any evidence when it tweeted a call to re-open schools over the weekend – but it did (unintentionally) prove the importance of education.

“Keeping schools closed has DEVESTATING effects on the mental health, social, and economic situation, and academic achievement of America’s children. The science is in — schools can safely reopen,” the tweet from @GOP read. It has since been deleted, however, after everyone noticed the typo: that is not how you spell “DEVASTATING.”

Journalist Dan Rather tweeted, “Tweeting without spell check can be devestating,” while another Twitter user wrote, “Extremely on-brand for the Republican Party to misspell ‘DEVESTATING’ while complaining about inadequate schools. Oh, the irony.”

Stay in school, kids (whether virtually or in-person), or else you’ll get schooled like the GOP.

Post Malone hasn’t shied away from busting out a cover in recent years. Most famously, he raised millions of dollars for charity with a full set of Nirvana covers around this time last year. Now he’s gotten back in the saddle, which is appropriate phrasing because he covered two contemporary country music icons during Matthew and Camila McConaughey’s We’re Texas virtual benefit concert over the weekend.

Joined by Dwight Yoakam’s band, Malone busted out a rendition of Brad Paisley’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” which he didn’t try to genre-shift and kept faithful to the original version. To conclude the two-hour broadcast, Malone and Yoakam’s band gave a rollicking performance of Sturgill Simpson’s “You Can Have The Crown.”

Elsewhere during the show, Kacey Musgraves also popped up, sitting in her bedroom and armed with an acoustic guitar to cover Willie Nelson’s classic “On The Road Again.” Musgraves also spoke about how she came to be involved with the event, saying it started with the sort of phone call she doesn’t usually answer: “I don’t answer unknown numbers, but for some reason I did and it was Matthew. Obviously it was a hell yes for me.”

Watch the full concert above. Malone’s cover of “I’m Gonna Miss Her” begins at 2:03:54 into the video, his cover of “You Can Have The Crown” begins at 2:10:34, and Musgraves’ rendition of “On The Road Again” begins at 1:26:23.

John Oliver’s recently resurfaced Meghan Markle prediction led to a sympathetic revisiting last week, but Oliver has no love lost for another Meghan: the daughter of late Senator John McCain and co-host on The View. He previously referred to her as “the most embarrassing child of a prominent figure,” and that’s really something, considering that (back in 2019) he chose McCain over any of the Trump kids. Sure enough, the Last Week Tonight host has revealed that his opinion on McCain hasn’t changed, and he ripped into her response to the Atlanta Spa Shootings, during which Robert Aaron Long allegedly killed at least six Asian women before attempting to claim “sex addiction”as a motivation, rather than a straight-up hate crime.

Oliver, naturally, wasn’t having that explanation, nor is he a fan of the Sheriff Department Captain Jay Baker declaring that Long simply had “a bad day.” Oliver dove into how former President Trump fueled anti-Asian sentiment with his “China virus” and “Kung Flu” rhetoric, and then Oliver circled over to Meghan McCain, who was perfectly cool (one year ago) to use such terms to describe a deadly disease-turned pandemic. In the below clip (after the 3:30 mark), Oliver lets her have it.

“If the left wants to focus on P.C.-labeling this virus,” McCain stated a year ago as relayed above. “It is a great way to get Trump re-electeI don’t have a problem with people calling it whatever they want. It’s a deadly virus that did originate in Wuhan.”

Oliver’s response: “Take the word from a wealthy white woman who’s dressed like she’s about to lay off 47 people over Zoom.” He then took issue with McCain’s posting of a “Stop Asian Hate” image on Twitter, and yeah, it’s not the best look, considering what McCain previously declared.

As Oliver points out, “There has to be an understanding that saying, ‘I don’t have a problem with calling it the China virus’ is very much giving space for that hate to grow.” Will McCain respond to the slam dunk against her? We’ll be watching.

The 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is only three days old, but it has already been the most wild and unpredictable tournament we’ve ever seen. One of every seed in the tournament, aside from a 16, won a first round game, and after a day of the second round, a 15-seed, 12-seed, 11-seed, and 8-seed have all punched tickets to the Sweet 16.

Sunday night’s action was capped off with 12-seed Oregon State toppling 4-seed Oklahoma State and presumptive top pick in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft Cade Cunningham, in a 80-70 win in which they led wire to wire. That win marked the 11th upset of the tournament by the NCAA’s definition — a team seeded five or more spots below their opponent winning — which set a new record for upsets in the first weekend with 8 games still to be played.

Those games would be:
13 North Texas over 4 Purdue
15 Oral Roberts over 2 Ohio State
15 Oral Roberts over 7 Florida
8 Loyola Chicago over 1 Illinois
12 Oregon State over 5 Tennessee
12 Oregon State over 4 Oklahoma State
11 Syracuse over 6 San Diego State
11 Syracuse over 3 West Virginia
13 Ohio over 4 Virginia
11 UCLA over 6 BYU
14 Abilene Christian over 3 Texas

There are a number of theories as to why we’re seeing so many upsets. For one, a team like Loyola Chicago was probably underseeded as an 8 and, as such, they were much closer to 1-seed Illinois than most any other 8 would have been and were able to dominate wire-to-wire. There’s also probably something to playing some of these games in smaller gyms with a very limited capacity that makes a smaller school team feel a bit more comfortable, along with the fact that most any shooter will tell you it’s easier to fire away from deep in an empty gym. With lower bowls unoccupied, it’s a better environment for threes and that’s the quickest way for a team to erase a talent gap by bombing away from the arc. Finally, this has been a really weird season of stops and starts, absences and a general lack of rhythm, so these top teams might simply not be as cohesive as they usually are.

In any case, it’s been rather thrilling to see all of the upsets and we have another day of second round games that might bring us more. We’ll see if these Cinderellas can continue their runs into the second weekend, but at least thus far Indianapolis has been quite hospitable for the lower seeds.

Rudy Giuliani had a pretty wild back end of 2020, spending much of his time clumsily trying to overturn the election for his client, former president Donald Trump. But even between the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle and the presser in which black goo melted down his head, there was this: He became the biggest part of the sequel to Borat. But we’re only now learning one big detail about the gotcha scene: He did everything he could to throw star Sacha Baron Cohen and team in jail.

As per Deadline, producer Monica Levinson broke the news at a Producers Guild of America panel, saying he called the cops on the makers of the hit mockumentary. “He claimed we were trying to extort him at the time, which — we didn’t ask for anything,” Levinson said. “He called all of his New York City cops and said extortion, which was a federal crime. Very smart to bring that up.”

The scene in question finds Giuliani unzipping his pants on a bed while in the presence of actress Maria Bakalova, who he thought to be 15 years old, all while cameras rolled. He received a Razzie nomination for his efforts, while Bakalova was this week nominated for an Oscar.

What Giuliani did actually succeed in doing was locking the Borat crew out of the hotel suite, forcing them to have to rent new equipment. Luckily they had already spirited the footage out of the room.

“That’s always out first,” Levinson explained. “We would hide tapes in our pants. There’s always ways to make sure we got out the data.”

Luckily not even the former mayor of New York City could get the city’s finest to bust them for doing something that was fully legal.

(Via Deadline)

When Oral Roberts took down Ohio State in the first round on Friday afternoon, it was the first of a number of top Big Ten teams falling in the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and facing Tre Mann and the Gators in the second round, few expected them to back it up with another upset.

It was a close game throughout, but one Florida appeared to have within their grasp, leading by five at the half and six with six minutes to play in the game, but the Gators could never make a run to put Oral Roberts in their rearview mirror. Instead, it was the Golden Eagles that looked like the composed team down the stretch in pressure situations, as Max Abmas once again steered the ship as a facilitator, with Carlos Jurgens and Kevin Obanor hitting big shots late as they outscored the Gators 16-7 in the final six minutes to emerge with an 83-80 win.

Obanor led all scorers with 28 points, including that bucket to take the lead late, to go along with 11 rebounds and four steals, as the Golden Eagles hounded the Gators offense all night. Florida shot well, but turned the ball over 20 times in the game, which is a recipe for disaster. Abmas had 26 points and seven assists as he continues to be sensational for ORU, and Jurgens hit timely threes late when the Eagles needed them.

In the end, Florida had two shots at forcing OT late, but after the first missed, the second was a desperation heave that never had much of a chance and the stunning run for the Golden Eagles continues.

It’s the second time a 15-seed has made it to the Sweet 16, as ORU joins Florida Gulf Coast in such a feat, and awaiting them in the Sweet 16 is a high-scoring Arkansas team coming off a thriller of their own with Texas Tech.

This week’s Season 10 bonus episode of The Walking Dead — filmed under COVID protocols — takes place almost entirely in a railroad box car. It also takes place almost entirely in the mind of the character, Princess.

Princess, played by Paola Lázaro, is the newest series regular on The Walking Dead, and in the original Season 10 finale, she was taken captive by Commonwealth soldiers along with Yumiko, Eugene, and Ezekiel. In “Splinter,” the action picks up from that episode, and it’s told from the POV of Princess, who witnesses the soldiers hit Yumiko before throwing Princess into a railroad car. The thing about Princess, however, is that, by her own admission, she suffers from ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, crushing loneliness, and that small dark place do things to her head.

It’s clearly what happened in “Splinter,” because it was often difficult to tell what was real and what was not in the episode. “There are stories you tell yourself,” an obvious fantasy version of Ezekiel told Princess, “and there is the truth.”

The “truth” is, everything from the moment Princess got a splinter in her thumb until the moment it came out was a delusion in this episode. Her conversations with Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel were not real. Not even the interrogation scene was real (the lights behind the interrogator were clearly the slats from the railroad car). From the moment the splinter went into her thumb until it came out — when Princess was releasing the cuffs from the Commonwealth soldier — was one of the “stories” that Princess told herself.

That’s not to say that Princess didn’t beat up the soldier who brought her food and temporarily took away his rifle, but Ezekiel had nothing to do with it. That’s not to say she wasn’t interrogated, either. It just didn’t happen like we saw it. Princess’s reality literally “splintered” the moment she got the splinter in her finger and Yumiko began speaking. That splinter also triggered (in her mind) an incident from Princess’s own childhood involving a splinter and her abusive step-father and the mother who failed to protect her. The splinter coming out is essentially what allowed Princess to snap back into reality, at which point she gave the soldier back his rifle and answered his questions. In exchange, the soldier put a bag over her head so that she could join her friends, who also had bags over their heads.

Was that real? Absolutely! What were the bags for? That’s unclear, but my guess is that the Commonwealth soldiers — having interrogated Eugene, Yumiko, Princess, and Ezekiel — found their answers satisfactory enough to take them to their community, but to ensure that they couldn’t identify the route to get there, the soldiers placed bags over their heads.

We should find out much, much more about those soldiers in the final season of The Walking Dead.

LaMelo Ball has been a revelation for the Charlotte Hornets this year, being the rare rookie point guard who has stepped in and immediately played like a star. Unfortunately for the team, it appears that Ball may be headed for the sideline for a spell, as an injury he suffered on Saturday could keep him out for the foreseeable future.

According to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Hornets believe that Ball may have suffered a fractured right wrist, although he is going to try and get a second opinion on the injury.

Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed the injury and that he is seeking out a second opinion, but also included a brutal detail for the youngster: Ball is expected to miss the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

The Hornets also announced the injury, but said that Ball is out “indefinitely.”

The injury occurred on Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers. While trying to brace his fall, Ball put down his right hand and was in visible discomfort. While he tried to play through it, he did not look like himself.

Ball has been the clear frontrunner for the league’s Rookie of the Year award, stepping onto the floor from day one in Charlotte and elevating the franchise to a playoff hopeful. Charlotte currently sits at 20-21 on the year, good for eighth in the Eastern Conference, and Ball has averaged 15.9 point, 6.1 assist, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 28.6 minute per game.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been treading water for some time, as they’ve simply been trying to get by and keep a spot near the top of the West until Anthony Davis could return to the lineup after healing up from his Achilles issue. However, with Davis still a couple weeks away from a possible return, the Lakers had disaster strike on Saturday afternoon when LeBron James got rolled up on by a diving Solomon Hill in a game with the Hawks, and had to leave with a high ankle sprain.

As of now, there is no firm timetable on James’ injury, and emotions were high afterwards as his Lakers teammates called out Hill for what they felt wasn’t a basketball play, to which the veteran responded and said he’d never disrespect the game in that way. James is out indefinitely, and for head coach Frank Vogel, his expectation is that James will have a slow recovery ahead of him and the Lakers may have to do without the future Hall of Famer for some time.

LeBron has always seemed to have the ability to shake off rolled ankles, but this one is different in the way his ankle got inverted when Hill ran into him and as we’ve seen with Davis, the Lakers will err on the side of caution with their stars. With the trade deadline looming this week, there’s time for the Lakers to make a move if they want to provide some short-term help, but any move would be made with their championship aspirations in mind.

It’s been over a year since Hank Azaria stepped away from voicing Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Indian immigrant and Kwik-E-Mart owner who’s been a staple of The Simpsons since its first season. Creator Matt Groening has said he’ll be back, no longer voiced by a white actor — just one of the aspects that had long drawn the ire of the character’s critics. (Since then, all non-white characters previously voiced by white actors will be recast.) And though he still hasn’t revealed when, Groening says he won’t do it by half measures.

“I think the Apu stories are fantastic, and he’s one of the most nuanced characters on a silly two-dimensional cartoon show. So, yeah, I’m proud of Apu,” Groening told USA Today (as caught by Entertainment Weekly) ahead of the show’s 700th episode. He admitted they’re still looking for a replacement voice actor, but that they’re “working on something kind of ambitious.” That said, he and the writers do “have to see if we can make the stories work.”

Apu’s recasting came after many years of complaints about not only a white actor voicing an Indian character, but for perpetuating cultural stereotypes. Comedian Hari Kondabolu even made a feature-length documentary about the issue, called The Problem with Apu. In the last few years there has been more forceful questioning of issues involving representation, and the Simpsons team finally gave in — an idea Groening said he’s “fine with,” though he’s pushed back a little at it.

“Who can be against diversity? So it’s great,” Groening said. “However, I will just say that the actors were not hired to play specific characters. They were hired to do whatever characters we thought of. To me, the amazing thing is seeing all our brilliant actors who can do multiple voices, do multiple voices. That’s part of the fun of animation, However, to be more inclusive and hire more people, I’m completely in favor of that.”

(Via USA Today and EW)