Month: April 2021

As one can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the 2020 and 2021 Girl Scout Cookie sales drives. So this year, the organization created a socially-distanced porch drop-off option in collaboration with GrubHub.

However, even though it’s been tough for the Girl Scouts to get out there and do in-person sales, one member in San Bernardino, California managed to break a sales record.

San Bernardino’s Lilly Bumpus, 8, sold more than 32,000 boxes of cookies over the past three months, beating the previous record of 26,000. The international organization states it doesn’t keep official records, but local councils are free to do so.

A spokesperson for the Girl Scouts of America told CNN that it applauds “Lilly’s entrepreneurial efforts, awesome sales goal, and donations!”

8-year-old cancer survivor breaks record for sold Girl Scout Cookies

www.youtube.com

The achievement is even more impressive given Lilly’s long history of health issues. She was born with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Doctors told her family that she’d probably never make it through the treatment, let alone the disease.

She underwent 14 rounds of adult-strength chemotherapy and had a portion of her chest wall removed all before her first birthday.

She recently celebrated her seventh year of being cancer-free.

“Because of the opening in her chest wall that leaves her heart exposed, she isn’t allowed to do any type of physical activities or sports,” her mother, Trish Bauer told Today.

“Lilly tried cheer, dance, and swim lessons and all of it put her in the hospital,” she added. “So last resort, me being desperate to find anything for my daughter to do with other kids to simply feel included and to be a kid, I signed her up for Girl Scouts.”

It looks like the Girl Scouts have been a good fit.

Of the 32,000 boxes Lilly sold, 5,200 will be donated to “fellow childhood cancer warriors in the hospitals,” the homeless, and to deployed troops. Lilly and her troop will donate $20,000 worth of the cookie proceeds to two charitable missions they’ll announce at a later date.

Lilly sold some cookies from a stand she put on her front lawn, but also made them available online. Over the years, the family has created a community online through her Facebook page and the Team Lilly Foundation.

Over the years, Lilly has used it to support children with cancer through surprise birthday parties and cancer-free celebrations. She’s also raised money for funerals for children who’ve lost the battle with the disease.

Lilly leveraged the support of this community by posting a letter on Facebook. “My letter explains that when someone donates a $5 box through my cookie sales that it will go to a kid fighting cancer feeling really alone or to someone that is homeless,” she said.

Then, the sales started rolling in.

Lilly’s story is a wonderful example of finding where you can help and giving it your all. Her health made it hard for her to participate in a lot of activities, but she found what worked for her, gave it her all, and it made a big difference in a lot of people’s lives.

The first season of Picard ended on a perhaps unexpected note, which we won’t spoil here. Suffice it to say there is a Season 2, and its new teaser suggests things will get even hairier than it was already.

This is a true teaser, which is to say there are no images that will presumably be used in the next batch of episodes. Instead, we get a tour around the peaceful, far-flung abode of Patrick Stewart’s retired Jean-Luc Picard. We see a model of the Starship Enterprise. We see musty copies of books, like Paradise Lost. And we hear Picard himself, musing philosophically on the narration track.

“Time can turn even our most impulsive, our most ill-considered actions into history,” Picard says. “What we do in a crisis often weights upon us less heavily than what we wish we had done – what could have been. Time offers so many opportunities but never second chances.”

By the end, things have taken a turn: We see a Queen playing card dissolve until all that’s left is the letter “Q.” Is it a timely reference to fearsome conspiracy theorist QAnon, who has poisoned so many minds across America? No, that’s just a coincidence. It’s almost certainly a nod to an old Star Trek: The Next Generation adversary-of-sorts: John de Lancie’s extra-dimensional Q, who it was already revealed is set to return.

When will we know for sure — which is to say when is Picard returning? That’s a mystery. It only recently started production, so you’ll have to hang tight. But when it re-emerges, it will be on Paramount+, the rebranded streamer that once was CBS All Access.

You can watch the teaser in the video above.

After a difficult fortnight for Jeopardy! fans who believe in science, the syndicated trivia show returns on Monday with a new guest host: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The former winner of Celebrity Jeopardy!, Rodgers is one of several guest hosts the show tabbed while they search for a permanent replacement for Alex Trebek, who died last year at the age of 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

While most fans of the show expect a decorated champion like Ken Jennings or perhaps the show’s executive producer, Mike Richards, to take over, you can count Rodgers among the people who feel it’s possible to play quarterback and also permanently host Jeopardy! And his enthusiasm for the gig is already undeniable. Ahead of his first episode, the official Jeopardy! Twitter account sent out a video preview of the Packers quarterback taking the stage and talking a bit about the opportunity.

It’s admittedly a bit weird to hear Johnny Gilbert say “and now here is the guest host of Jeopardy! Aaron Rodgers.” But it’s no weirder than, say, having Dr. Oz host the show and make hundreds of former contestants mad in the process. And Rodgers certainly seems excited about the opportunity to hear answers in the form of questions.

“As a lifelong fan of Jeopardy!, it is an incredible honor to guest host,” Rodgers said. “I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of amazing things, but winning Celebrity Jeopardy! and getting to share the stage with the legend, Alex Trebek, is something I will never forget. Alex was such a gentleman. So smart, so precise. I was in awe. And I will work hard to honor his legacy.”

It’s a lovely opening statement before he gets down to business, and one that will immediately endear him to longtime fans, even if they may root for the Chicago Bears. If you’re curious when Rodgers had time to record his two weeks’ worth of episodes, it was reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday that he got the 10 episodes in over a two-day period in February, after the Packers were done playing football.

That timing is important, of course, as he certainly has plenty to do in Green Bay during football season. But as Claire McNear wrote for The Ringer, Rodgers is not exactly content with a guest spot. He’s absolutely willing to make taping the show and playing professional football work. In an interview with McNear, he made it clear he wants to take over for Trebek if he can make the timing work.

A lot of people joke that Alex Trebek had the ultimate dream job on Jeopardy!—he was paid pretty well to work just 40-something days a year. So I’ve got to ask—would you ever consider giving up football to host Jeopardy!?

I don’t think I’d need to give up football to do it. They film 46 days a year. I worked 187 this year in Green Bay. That gives me, eh—[pauses]—178 days to do Jeopardy! So I feel like I could fit 46 into that 178 and make it work. It would be a dream job for sure, and I’m not shy at all about saying I want the job. That’s how I went into it. I want an opportunity to be in the mix.

I feel like I bring something different to the stage—I’m the youngest of any of the guest hosts, I’d be the youngest host of just about any major game show, I bring an audience from the NFL, and I feel like I appeal to nerdy people, too, because I was a nerd in high school and got caught in that weird phase of wanting to be a jock and an athlete and also really caring about getting good grades. And at the same time, there’s not many bigger fans of the show than me. I’ve been watching it for years and years and years. I respect the show and appreciate the history of it, and also there’s my background of stepping in for a legend and their footsteps. I feel like all that combined makes me a pretty good candidate.

The math checks out here, but it would be an exhausting schedule. Those 46 days are filled with five episodes each day, and hours of prep time beforehand learning pronunciation, keeping up appearances on camera and having the stamina to make every episode great for both people at home and the contestants. Remember: unless you make it to the Tournament of Champions (usually by winning five straight games) you get one run on Jeopardy! and that’s that. What made Trebek so good at his job for so long is that his commitment to the show made everyone involved feel special in their 22 minutes of fame. It’s a tough task to replicate, especially if you’re also one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history still very much on the job.

The full interview has a lot of details about how Rodgers prepared for the guest spot, and it’s clear he put in the work to be a good host. It’s not a surprise a highly dedicated athlete would prepare for hosting duties like he would any other opponent, but expecting to film a lot of Jeopardy! and play 17 or more NFL games a year is certainly a tall task. If he’s up for it, though, he’s definitely got a better shot at the full-time gig than Dr. Oz.

[via The Ringer]

Ah, the community Easter egg hunt. Is there more of a mixed bag than this adorable spring/Easter tradition?

While cute kiddos with festive baskets hunting for colorful eggs is the stuff of Instagram fever dreams, the reality can sometimes be less than picture-perfect. We’ve all witnessed overzealous parents racing to make sure their kid gets as many eggs as possible, bigger kids swooping in and swiping the prize before a wee one can get to it, less competitive and more reserved kids feeling overwhelmed by the free-for-all chaos, and some children inevitably ending up in tears.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. A Netherlands neighborhood egg hunt shared on Facebook highlights how kids can enjoy the thrill of the hunt without the sometimes brutal competitiveness.

Janelle Hanchett moved from California to Haarlem, Netherlands with her husband and four kids two summers ago. Hanchett, who writes about parenting and life at Renegade Mothering, shared that they attended a neighborhood egg hunt this weekend and were happily surprised by how it went down.

“We just had the neighborhood egg hunt and they did it quite differently,” she wrote. “The kids run and find eggs but put them in a big communal basket, then they’re divided evenly among all the kids. They even include siblings in the neighborhood who weren’t even there (being, you know, too ‘big’ for such things (or having hidden the eggs)). And the little girl too shy to participate. And they all got the exact same number of eggs.”

“This is so smart and lovely I have no idea how/why I never thought of it,” she continued. “I always hated the competitiveness of egg hunts — the faster or selfish kids grabbing up what they could at any costs. The milder, younger, slower kids left behind. Seriously that shit gave me so much anxiety I could hardly watch egg hunts. I can’t understand why I never thought of this.”

A fun, cooperative egg hunt? How remarkably civil.

I asked a Dutch-American friend if this is the way it’s done in general in the Netherlands, and his friends who live in various parts of the country concurred that yes, this is how they do it.

“Equally shared at the end of the day, no stress at all,” wrote one person.

“Otherwise it would end in tears for sure,” wrote another.

Well yes, actually. Tears and/or violence. (Google “egg hunt turns violent” for Easter egg kerfuffles that got so bad they made the news. Good times.)

Some people on Hanchett’s post mentioned that they do egg hunts similar to the Dutch way. Because my own kids vary in age so much, our family egg hunts have always looked somewhat similar to it as well. We hide a number of eggs that can be evenly divided by the number of kids, and then tell the kids how many eggs they’re supposed to find. Once they reach that limit, they can keep searching, but they aren’t to give away where any others are hidden unless someone who’s still looking asks for help. The kids love it. It’s just as much fun, and so much less stress than the every-kid-for-themselves, keep-everything-you-can-find method. But I’ve never seen it done that way in any community egg hunts.

It’s actually not all that surprising that such a reasonable idea comes from the Netherlands, where egalitarian principles are simply a way of life and kids are taught the value of taking care of the whole from a young age.

“If this isn’t the most perfect metaphor for how the two countries approach social resources,” wrote Hanchett. “Whew. And no, no kid complained or said ‘But I found more!’ Because that, too, is taught. As easily as we can teach our kids that there isn’t enough so they better plow down the little guy to GET THEIRS—rewarding them for being the biggest asshole in the garden—we can teach them that there is absolutely enough if everyone does what they can, throws it in a basket, and passes it around.”

Some will undoubtedly look at this idea and say, “Well, that sounds like communism!” but that’s a pretty long stretch. This is not a government mandate—it’s a society cooperating to make sure that everyone can enjoy the fun and festivity of a kids’ holiday activity. This approach tacitly acknowledges that some kids will have a natural advantage, some kids will be overly competitive, some kids don’t have the ability (or desire) to grab eggs quickly, etc., and that those realities will lead to a pretty crappy outcome for some kids. The seeking and finding activity itself still allows for those differences, but when you’re hunting for the benefit of the whole, the selfish element takes a back seat.

Making an egg hunt a cooperative team event rather than an individual competition may seem like a revolutionary idea, but it’s a brilliant one. Thanks for the inspiration, Netherlands!

Debris (NBC, 10:00pm) — Teens are appropriating the Debris to take out elderly citizens, so the team’s investigating while Finola has the answers that Maddox wants with the help of Brian.

Running Wild With Bear Grylls (Nat Geo, 9:00pm) — Bear Grylls is back at it again while being more rugged than the rest of us, this time with Terry Crews in Iceland.

Hemingway (PBS, 8:00pm) — One of America’s most legendary (and complicated) writers gets the documentary treatment, courtesy of filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Breeders (FX, 10:00pm) — Martin Freeman’s starring turn in this comedy enters the sophomore season with new parenting challenges. This week, sudden death strikes the Worsley family while Ava struggles with telling Paul something, and Ally’s attempting to confront her feelings for Luke.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! — David Alan Grier, Topher Grace, All Time Low

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Milo Ventimiglia, The Lucas Brothers, Kali Uchis

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — John Cena, Senator Tammy Duckworth

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Bob Odenkirk, The Fratelli

In case you missed these picks from the weekend:

Made For Love (HBO Max series) — HBO Max recently struck dark-comedy gold with The Flight Attendant, and the WarnerMedia streamer is poised to do so again with Cristin Milioti maneuvering around a premise that’s even more dizzying than that of Palm Springs. Cristin stars as Hazel, and Ray Romano plays her father, who’s attempting to help her flee from a god-awful marriage with a guy (Billy Magnussen) who’s implanted a chip in her brain so that he can track her every move and emotion. It’s such a cynical spin on relationships, and it’s terrifying, all of it, to consider, but heck, this show will suck you into its compelling vortex. Did we mention that dad is a widower with a “synthetic partner”? Oh boy.

Concrete Cowboy (Netflix film) — Idris Elba in a cowboy hat should be enough of an attraction here, but assuming that you want to know about the all-important plot, here we go. A troubled teen (Caleb McLaughlin) spends the summer in North Philadelphia, where he’s torn between diving into a life or crime or embracing the urban-cowboy subculture that’s embodied by his estranged dad (Elba). The story’s based upon Ghetto Cowboy, the novel by G.Neri, and the film co-stars Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, and Clifford “Method Man” Smith.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has seen a number of Twitter suspensions in recent weeks for a variety of reasons, as the social media site has cracked down on people posting a variety of messages advocating for violence, insurrection, or spreading misinformation about things like COVID-19 and vaccines. But what Twitter is decidedly not doing is punishing people for celebrating Easter.

That hasn’t stopped the Georgia Representative from claiming persecution for her beliefs after another temporary freezing of her Twitter account. The latest instance happened on Easter Sunday, with Greene claiming her account was put on ice after posting this tweet about Jesus.

According to Greene, who in the past has been very eager to say wild, dangerous or just completely bewildering thoughts out loud, that message may have gotten her thrown in temporary Twitter jail. Mediaite has a screenshot of a long message she posted to Gab, a popular social media site for conservatives, where she wondered whether her account was suspended because of her Easter message.

“After tweeting, ‘He is risen! Happy Easter!’ I was suspended this morning for 12 hours!” Greene wrote on Gab. “Was it my Christian faith?”

She also suggested the suspension could have been the result of her “willingness to Fire Fauci.”

“Message to Big Tech,” she wrote. “I’LL NEVER STOP!!!”

What’s actually happening here, though, is not Big Tech declaring war on QAnon believers. According to a Twitter statement, Greene’s account was locked “in error.”

“We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service. In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error. This action has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated,” a Twitter spokesperson said.

Those automated systems at work often suspend a lot of people for a variety of reasons, either for abusive language or if a tweet has been reported by people a number of times. So while Greene thinks it’s a vast conspiracy against her, like all things seem to be, it’s likely that people who don’t like Greene reported her tweets to Twitter enough that the company’s AI took action and issued the cooldown. Twitter’s official statement sounds like what they sent out the last time Greene was suspended, and it doesn’t offer any real clarifications on what triggered the cooldown. But every minor slight is an egregious act of cancelation for Greene and her ilk these days, and every event is a conspiracy just waiting to be uncovered.

[via Mediaite]

The New York Jets hold the No. 2 pick in this month’s NFL Draft and the expectation from just about everyone is that they will take quarterback Zach Wilson out of BYU with that selection. The issue facing New York is that they have a former top-3 pick from 2018, Sam Darnold, currently under center and thus far it just has not worked out with the former USC signal-caller.

All of the Jets issues are impossible to pin on Darnold, and a fresh start felt like the best outcome for all parties involved. The question was where Darnold would end up and who would be willing to part with a trade package the Jets would want for him, and we got the answer on Monday as the Carolina Panthers sent a 2021 sixth, 2022 second, and 2022 fourth round pick to New York for the 23-year-old quarterback.

The Panthers confirmed the deal with a sensational tweet.

The Panthers need at quarterback was well known, as Teddy Bridgewater didn’t take the reins last year in the manner they hoped and many expected them to get in the mix for one of the five stellar quarterbacks at the top of this year’s draft with the No. 8 overall pick. However, by dealing for Darnold and sending some serious draft capital out to get him, one would think they are setting their sights elsewhere with the eighth pick and seeking to build depth around Darnold on offense or beef up their defense with a top 10 talent. Either way, it’s an interesting move from Carolina, and one that will be debated heavily based on how Darnold performs compared to the quarterbacks that end up taken at the top of this year’s draft.

With there being chatter someone like Justin Fields might be dropping, it stands to reason that the Panthers making this move is an indication that they aren’t buying that smoke or that, for whatever reason, they’re also among the teams out on the Buckeyes QB. We’ll find out how the quarterback situation at the top of the 2021 Draft shakes out later this month, but for now the Panthers seem to believe they’ve landed their man without having to use a first to get him.

New Jersey’s own Topaz Jones has a new album and accompanying short film on the way, Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma, although prior to today, he hadn’t unveiled a release date for the projects. Now, though, he has revealed that they are set for April 23. Also today, he shared a new song from the project, “D.I.A.L.,” which stands for “dying is a lifestyle.” The track is full of soul and relaxed vibes, with Jones’ lyrical contributions both perfectly existing within the track and standing out on their own.

Jones previously said of the relationship between the album and the short film, “The film is all the things I couldn’t say in musical notes. The music is everything I couldn’t write in words, even though there’s lyrics that speak to it as well, but emotionally, it’s everything I couldn’t necessarily write down and the film is everything that I couldn’t put in song. It is single-handedly the most gratifying, fulfilling experience I’ve had as an artist.”

The film, by the one, isn’t one to be missed: It recently took home the Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction honor at this year’s Sundance Festival.

Listen to “D.I.A.L” above.

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma is out 4/23 via New Funk Academy/Black Canopy.

Last week, legendary coach Roy Williams announced his retirement after 18 seasons at North Carolina, winning three national titles, which was preceded by 15 stellar seasons at Kansas. The Carolina job immediately became the best open job in the country and, arguably, was a job that could not be topped by any other opening in America. There was speculation that the Tar Heels might go hunting for a big name, like making a call to Gonzaga’s Mark Few or any other established star in the coaching industry.

However, it should probably come as little surprise that UNC will be reportedly keeping the job in the Tar Heel family, as C.L. Brown of the News & Observer reports assistant coach and former UNC player Hubert Davis will be the next head coach in Chapel Hill. Davis, who played at Carolina under Dean Smith from 1988-92 before a lengthy NBA career has been an assistant under Williams since 2012 when he left his analyst job at ESPN to join the Tar Heel coaching staff.

Word emerged on Monday afternoon that the UNC board of trustees was having a meeting to discuss a contract, which many assumed meant the hiring of a new coach was imminent. Davis is apparently that man, and according to Brown, the focus has now shifted to building his staff with some calls already being made to former players to try and bring them on board.

To ensure Davis has the support he needs as a new coach, there will be an emphasis on constructing his new staff. Cunningham has asked some of the former players with coaching experience about their interest in serving a supporting role. Others like George Lynch, Davis’ former teammate and a member of the 1993 national championship team, have reached out expressing their interest. Lynch was the head coach at Division II Clark-Atlanta University and also had served two stints on the staff at SMU during the tenures of former Tar Heels’ Matt Doherty and later Larry Brown.

Davis will become the first Black head coach at North Carolina, which is a not insignificant achievement given the general lack of diversity in the head coaching ranks of blue blood programs in college basketball. It is a massive opportunity for Davis but also one that comes with the knowledge that he’s been ingrained in the program for nearly a decade, allowing for what one would think will be a fairly seamless transition from the Williams to Davis eras.

A server in Texas shared some personal information on TikTok to remind everyone why it’s so important to tip those who serve us our meals, drinks, and cut our hair.

The reminder is important at a time when restaurants, bars and hair salons are reopening across the country and many service industry workers are reeling from the downturn in business during the pandemic.

Aaliyah Cortez filmed a video of her paycheck where she shows that although she worked 70.80 hours during a pay period, she only received a check for $9.28. “So this is why you should always tip your bartenders and servers, anyone who waits on you, or provides a service for you,” she said.

The video shows that even though she was paid the criminally low federal minimum tipped wage of $2.13, the money she received in her check was further reduced by taxes, social security, and Medicare payments.

“Of course, I got tips, but this is what I got for my hourly,” Cortez said. “This is why you tip.”

The rules for wages in tipped industries vary across the country. Texas is among the 16 states where the state minimum cash wage payment is the same as that required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ($2.13/hr.).

Now, if a server making $2.13 an hour doesn’t reach the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour with tips, then their employer must make up the difference.

The best state to work in for tipped wages is California where the minimum wage is $13 to $14 an hour, depending on the size of the business.

In a follow-up video, Cortez further discussed the issue, noting that she doesn’t agree with “state laws that allow restaurants to pay under minimum wage and expect the customer to pay our wages,” she said.

“I make great money in tips, she added, “However, this is not the case for all service industry workers.” According to Cortez, people aren’t always that generous with their tips, even though their “state is expecting them to tip.”

Cortez’s video is a great reminder of two things:

First, that we should all be mindful to take care of those who serve us by giving them a decent tip. Secondly, that the U.S. needs to address the issue of the tipped minimum wage because it hasn’t changed in 30 years.

“Since 1991, the federal tipped minimum wage has been frozen at $2.13 an hour,” gender economist Katica Rot told NBC. “Meanwhile, the non-tipped federal minimum wage has risen 70.6% and consumer prices have gone up 90.24%.”

In fact, tipped employees are twice as likely (and servers three times as likely) to live in poverty than non-tipped workers.

Women bear the biggest burden of the tipped minimum wage. They represent 70% of all workers in tip-dependent occupations.

Recently, the Senate rejected attempts to raise the federal minimum wage as part of the Biden administration’s wide-sweeping COVID-19 relief package. Although that fight is far from over, it means the average person needs to step up and do their part to help out.

Cortez says that a big problem with her industry is that people just don’t tip enough. Let that be a reminder that in a world where it’s been painfully difficult to raise the minimum wage, we are all deputized to help those who serve us by pitching in with a generous tip to show appreciation and humanity.