Month: March 2022

Popeyes makes the best chicken sandwich in the fast food universe. We’re not just echoing common consensus, we’ve done a deep investigation into the matter. Not only have we eaten, reviewed, and ranked just about every fast food chicken sandwich we could get our hands-on, we’ve also tried a number of delicious chicken sandwich fillets completely plain (meaning no bread, toppings, nothing!) in an effort to deconstruct the flavors to get a better idea of who really makes the best bird (we’re kind of crazy like that), and Popeyes came out on top in both occasions.

So it shouldn’t surprise you all that much when I tell you that Popeyes also has the best fish sandwich in the game. They have their proteins on lock.

The Popeyes Flounder Fish Sandwich was first introduced around this time last year (coinciding with Lent) for a limited time and served as Popeyes’ first foray into the world of fish fillets. It was a home run but not one that stuck around too long. Well, it’s back now and this time Popeyes is also rolling out a spicy version of the sandwich which is exciting because… I mean c’mon, it’s spicy, spicy is always a welcome inclusion in the fast food realm.

But how does the new recipe stand up to the OG, and is this still worth getting in 2022? We found out by trying both sandwiches. Here are our thoughts.

Classic and Spicy Flounder Fish Sandwich

So I’ve talked up this sandwich a bit and then… well, look at it. I don’t blame you if you feel like something isn’t adding up because this thing doesn’t look so hot. Never mind not looking good, it doesn’t even look mildly appetizing — like maybe it got left in traffic. This is one of Popeyes’ biggest weaknesses in general, their chicken sandwich also looks like roadkill and the chicken tenders are so haphazardly battered that sometimes you get entire bites that contain nothing but crispy salty breading. But who cares? I won’t pretend presentation isn’t important, but at the end of the day flavor is all that matters and, like the chicken sandwich, this delivers.

First of all, it’s flounder — as far as fast food fish sandwiches go, that’s pretty rare. Flounder has a super mild and subtly sweet flavor, it’s not something that could be described as “fishy,” it tastes very clean. Couple that with Popeyes’ spicy Cajun seasoned breading, and the result is a mix of bold zesty cayenne and paprika flavors, with a delicate-bordering-sweet aftertaste. The sandwich is topped with thick brine-y pickles, and savory tartar sauce, but the real star is the fish.

Last year in my review I mentioned that the breading to meat ratio was all off, the OG version featured a thicker batter that didn’t adhere to the filet properly, that’s been improved here, the breading is much lighter and less distracting.

The new sandwich also includes a spicy version that is topped with the same spicy sauce used on Popeyes’ chicken sandwich in place of the tartar sauce. If you’re sensitive to spicy food, stay away from this one, the filet is already spicy on its own thanks to the cayenne pepper in the breading, so this double down on spice can be overwhelming. If you do like spicy food, definitely give it a try though.

I think it’s a slight improvement over the Classic version of the sandwich. The spicy sauce ditches the tang of the tartar sauce for a smokier flavor that sizzles on the tongue and adds an extra top note to the aftertaste and plays well with the briney earthy flavor of the pickles. The sandwich doesn’t need this spicy addition, it’s already good on its own, but more flavor is never a bad thing. Be warned though, it does have a notable kick.

The Bottom Line:

Mild, fresh, light, flakey, and with a semi-sweet finish that tastes even better spicy. This is the best fish sandwich in fast food, and it’s only available for a limited time and, in my experience, constantly selling out — so move fast!

Find your nearest Popeyes here.

Trump Steaks. Trump Airlines. Trump Vodka. Trump University. Trump: The Game. Tour de Trump. Truth Social, the former president’s attempt at a Twitter clone, doesn’t have his name in it. But it may soon join a long, long list of failed products from someone who’s repeatedly gone bankrupt. And of course, Trump is reportedly whining like a little baby about it.

The instantly sketchy social media service had a soft launch back on President’s Day, and right off the bat things didn’t go so hot. It was only available on iOS, and only in America. There was no web version. What’s more, many of those eager to sign up were instead added to a massive queue that still, some two weeks later, hasn’t abated.

Predictably, Trump — whose attention span is famously short, whose failures outweigh his successes, who’s spent his life exaggerating his might to the gullible — is doing little but fuming to anyone who will listen. As per The Daily Beast:

In recent weeks, sources have heard the former president on the phone swearing gratuitously and asking things like, “What the f*ck is going on” with Truth Social.

He’s repeatedly groused about the negative press and the less-than-stellar optics of the rollout, these sources said. And he’s demanded to know why more people aren’t using it—why the app isn’t swiftly dominating the competition.

Sure enough, the numbers so far aren’t promising. Trump may have inspired a legion of copycats, but now he has to compete with a packed playing field of competitors following in his footsteps. For instance, Gab — the “free speech” service beloved by Nazis and other white supremacists — averages about 650,000 visitors a day. Truth Social kicked off with two million, but it’s already sunk to about 300,000. That puts it on par with Gettr, the platform run by former Trump aide Jason Miller.

Moreover, the Truth Social app was, as of Friday, the 72nd most popular app on the Apple AppStore. For contrast, Facebook is 5th and Twitter, his former favorite hangout, which permanently banned him over a year ago, ranks 22nd. The light traffic may be explained by the persistent long lines to get an account. But once the kinks are belatedly worked out and the soft launch builds to a regular launch, we’ll bet Truth Social will be as much a success as Trump Ice.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Back in 2017, a woman broke into Drake’s house in Los Angeles and allegedly stole bottles of water, Pepsi, and Sprite. The woman, 29-year-old Mesha Collins, was later caught inside the home wearing one of the rapper’s hoodies. She was eventually arrested and convicted of trespassing. However, the ordeal is not over just yet. According to a new report from TMZ, Drake recently filed for a temporary restraining order against Collins. The filing reportedly states that she continued to make visits to Drake’s home, and as recently as last month, sent him threatening emails.

In one of the emails, Collins allegedly wrote that Drake should “put a bullet through your head now b*tch.” If Drake wins the temporary restraining order, the court-ordered protection would extend to his son Adonis and his mother and father, Sandy and Dennis Graham. Drake’s filing comes after Collins pursued a restraining order against him after she unsuccessfully filing a $4 billion lawsuit. In the latter, Collins claims that Drake defamed her by sharing private information about her through his songs and on Instagram.

“In April 2017, somebody broke into my Los Angeles home when I was not there,” Drake said in response to that lawsuit. “At the time of that incident, I was not told any details about the trespasser, including her name.” He added that it was through the new lawsuit that he “learned that Plaintiff is the same person who broke into my house in Los Angeles in April 2017.” As a result, a judge dismissed her lawsuit, and a later attempt by Collins to revive it was also denied.

It’s been a week-and-a-half since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, receiving massive pushback from abroad as well as from Ukrainians themselves. The news has been troubling. Sometimes it’s been surreal. And on Friday night’s Jeopardy!, the brainiac game show inadvertently added to everyone’s woes.

Like any program, Jeopardy! tapes its shows well in advance. Big-time winners, like Amy Schneider, have to hide the truth about how well they’ve done — and when they finally lose — from the public. Back in early-to-mid January, when Friday’s night’s Ken Jennings-hosted episode was taped, the idea of Russia invading Ukraine about a month-and-a-half later seemed pretty far-fetched. So, in the simpler times of early 2022, no one thought anything about having a) a category called “Bordering Russia,” and b) an answer whose question was “What is Ukraine?”

The full $800 clue went as follows: “The Kerch Strait — along with serious border issues — separates Russia from this country on the Black Sea.” The “answer,” of course, is the nation weathering increasingly aggressive Russian forces, who’ve even targeted Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, in an assault that thankfully didn’t lead to continent-threatening catastrophe.

The show’s producers were aware that a category that seemed fine in January is triggering in early March. When the clue appeared, the show’s producers added both a disclaimer in the upper left side of the screen, reading “Recorded on January 11, 2022,” as well as a tweet ahead of the episode’s airing that further clarified the matter.

The night’s champ, Margaret Shelton, incidentally, did not get that one.

(Via THR)

With Devin Booker in the health and safety protocols and Chris Paul sidelined due to a thumb injury, the Phoenix Suns needed someone to come up big to help them rally back from a double-figure fourth quarter deficit against the New York Knicks on Friday night. That someone ended up being Cameron Johnson, who had the best game of his NBA career and banked in a buzzer-beating three to give Phoenix a 115-114 win.

Johnson came off the bench and scored 38 points, with 21 of them coming in the game’s fourth quarter. The former first-round pick knocked down nine of his 12 attempts from three, with the best of the bunch coming as the horn went off to signify the end of the game. After Alec Burks split a pair of free throws to put New York up three in the game’s final seconds, the Suns pushed the ball up the floor.

It looked like the plan was for Cam Payne to attract the defense, dump the ball off to Johnson, and let him pull up, but Johnson received the pass from basically the midcourt logo. Instead of panicking, Johnson took a dribble, pulled up, and let one fly from 30 feet out. Despite it being late, the bank was open at Footprint Center to cap off his career night.

The win gave Phoenix 51 wins on the season, tying the number they achieved last season, and helped them push their lead atop the Western Conference to eight games over the 2-seed Golden State Warriors.

The New York Knicks found themselves with a double-digit lead over the shorthanded Phoenix Suns on Friday night when an altercation involving Julius Randle and Cameron Johnson led to Randle getting ejected. Randle threw his shoulder into Johnson while Evan Fournier shot a three, and after Fournier knocked down the triple, Johnson appeared to say something that Randle did not appreciate.

It’s unclear what, exactly, Johnson said, but nevertheless, Randle went right up to him and went face-to-face. An official stepped in to try and separate the two, but as the jawing continued, Randle slapped the referee’s arm away before shoving Johnson. Nothing really happened beyond that — Johnson got held back by some Suns coaches, while players on both teams got Randle away from the situation.

Despite the fact that this was relatively tame, both Randle and Johnson were assessed technicals. Randle’s night came to an end a moment after that happened, as it was announced that he was assessed a second for escalating the situation. It was not specified which moment got him the second technical, although it stands to reason that slapping away a referee’s arm did him no favors.

Right after Randle’s ejection, the Knicks went on a 7-0 run to take a 12-point lead into the game’s fourth quarter.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have played some pretty good basketball in recent months, as the team has made a push for the postseason without needing the play-in tournament. Entering Friday night, Minnesota sat 34-29, good for seventh place in the Western Conference and 2.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets for the 6-seed.

All of this is to say that, with less than 20 games left in the season, the Wolves are going to have to fight tooth and nail to secure a top-6 spot in the West. They’re going to need plenty of things to go right, and fortunately for them, Friday offered up the chance to beat one of the worst teams in the league, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The issue: At one point in the game, Minnesota had to go 5-on-7 thanks to the Thunder’s floor cleaners. Jordan McLaughlin stole a bad pass and pushed for a fast break bucket, but the folks responsible for wiping up wet spots didn’t see what was happening. As such, McLaughlin ran into one of them and bricked a shot. D’Angelo Russell had a chance for a putback, but was unable to convert.

The Timberwolves can take solace in knowing they were up comfortably when this happens, but if I may editorialize for a moment, I don’t think their offense will have a good time the remainder of this season if they have to try and score with the floor cleaners out there.

It’s hard to keep your home clean when you have a child, but when you have four, unless you have a live-in maid, it’s completely impossible. There is no dishwasher fast enough to keep up with the dishes in the sink and no magical point where all four children have it together enough to put their toys away.

The problem is that if you take your eyes off the prize and let a day go by without cleaning up, you’re practically drowning in chaos.

TikTok user and stay-at-home mom Bri James (aka @themessymama4) did the unthinkable and let her home go four days without tidying up and shared the incredible mess with everyone on TikTok.

“I know I’m going to get roasted,” she says in the clip, “but … this is what happens when two really lazy adults have four kids and don’t clean up after themselves.”

The clip shows cutlery on the floor, empty packets everywhere, dishes piled a mile-high in the sink, and clothes and toys strewn everywhere. The house looks like the parents went away on a permanent vacation and left their kids to fend for themselves.

@themessymama4

I will block those who are mean. this is to keep me accountable not for views.

The video was praised by a lot of parents who are tired of seeing mommy influencers with spotless homes and children in matching linen outfits. Finally, there was a mom on TikTok they could relate to.

“I’d MUCH rather see you clean your realistic house than watch another blonde clean an already clean countertop,” Meghan Sanders wrote.

TikTokker Its_not_that_serious put things in perfect perspective. “Dude, at the end of the day all of their fingers and toes are attached and feeling safe and loved you’re doing fine. Someday the house will be clean,” they wrote.

“Having children is mentally and physically exhausting and you don’t always have the energy to clean every day,” Rose added.

But not everyone appreciated Bri’s slice of reality. Some people thought that her messiness was borderline neglectful and that she was setting a terrible example for her children.

“Set a good example for your kids. Make them help,” carleebocciaa wrote.

“Without children = fine, your choice. With children (especially small ones) = completely unacceptable,” ACZOgirly wrote.

Shortly after posting her first video, Bri got to work on the impossible task of cleaning up the entire house. Noticeably absent from the job were her spouse and four children. She appears to clean the entire place by herself.

She showed her cleaning prowess through a series of fast-motion videos.

@themessymama4

my butt does not look flattering in these Walmart lounge pants 🤦🏼‍♀️😅

Finally, at 9:30 p.m., Bri was done with most of the job, although she still had a bit of vacuuming to do and there were still some dishes in the sink. At the end of the job, she was exhausted. But she got the job done and that’s all that matters. It’s OK to let your house fall into disarray from time to time but eventually, you have to take care of business.

@themessymama4

I’m going to bed now. 🤣🥱😴

We’ll give TikTokker Sannon Martin the final word on this story because she hits the nail on the head. “Your home is exactly like mine,” she wrote. “Some days it’s a wreck and some days it looks amazing. That’s life. You’re doing great!”

As we watch the war in Ukraine from half a world away, many Americans wonder what they can do to help the Ukrainian people.

There are standard NGOs and nonprofits, such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee, that are organizing aid to refugees inside and outside the country, of course. But not everyone feels good about putting their donation money into a big, pooled pot. Some people want to know exactly where their money is going and who it is helping.

And some people are figuring out creative ways to do that via person-to-person “gig economy” platforms like Etsy and Airbnb.

Here’s how they’re doing it:

For one, people are booking Airbnb stays in Ukraine for the coming days, which they obviously won’t be using, and telling the hosts to keep the money. When you book an Airbnb you can read the profiles and reviews of the hosts to get a sense of who they are, if they have children, etc. Some people rent out private rooms in their own homes, while others own property that they rent out, but it’s easy to see who you are renting from. When you book, you are also directly connected to the host so you can message each other.

The responses from people who have done this are both heartbreaking and beautiful.

HOW TO HELP – just booked a Kiev AirBnb for 1 week, simply as a means of getting money directly into the hands of Kiev residents. It’s really cheap and can make a small difference right now. Please share this idea #Ukraine #Russia #StopWarInUkraine #StopPutinNOW #UkraineRussiaWarpic.twitter.com/7yQDLYRkph

— DiMaggio.eth (@DiMaggio.eth)
1646303898

Just made a booking – great idea. Just got this message back from the host..pic.twitter.com/bL6W3KS1an

— John Mitchell (@John Mitchell)
1646333343

The Quentin Quarantino Instagram account, which has been used for huge crowdfunding efforts, shared the idea and the responses some followers have gotten from Ukrainians when they’ve done this. It also shared some tips, such as booking dates that are coming up soon since payments only go through to the host once the booking date arrives.

See on Instagram

You can click the right arrow to scroll through all of the the screenshots, but here are a few of them:

Worth noting that Airbnb has waived the fees for hosts in Ukraine and its nonprofit arm, Airbnb.org, is coordinating stays for 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

In addition to Airbnb, people are also using Etsy to give to Ukrainian people directly by buying from Ukrainian sellers. Some people have pointed out that sellers who sell digital files—educational or decorative printables, sewing or knitting patterns, and so on—can benefit from getting sales without having any confusion over whether someone wants something shipped.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to Esty.com and type “digital files” in the search box

2. Click “All Filters” and scroll down to “Country”

3. Under “Custom,” type “Ukraine”

You can use the country filter for any item sold on Etsy, but you do have to put something into the search bar before the filter option shows up. If you place an order for a physical item, just let the seller know upfront that you aren’t expecting them to ship anything, you just want to send them some financial and moral support.

This is a good opportunity to personalize your giving in more ways than just a personal message. If you have a crocheting hobby, for instance, you could search “crochet” and then filter for Ukraine to support a fellow crocheter. It might sound silly, but those simple human connections are meaningful, especially when people are facing down inhumanity.

The situation in Ukraine is dire, and while it’s important to support large-scale aid programs that have experience with getting people the assistance they need in a crisis, there’s more than one way to help. Sometimes putting cash directly into the pockets of people who have just lost their livelihoods to war, who might need funds to get out of the country or to get supplies that help them stay safe can make a significant difference.

The beauty of sites like Airbnb and Etsy is that they allow us to connect with and help people on the ground directly, in a way that reminds all of us of the humanity at the heart of it all.

Even in the midst of great tragedy, a female Ukrainian soldier chooses to see hope. In a short, 13 second clip, she offers a sweet smile. Her eyes peer up to a clear blue sky. She says with a voice full of warmth:

“I’m still alive, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, everything will be fine. Long live Ukraine…“

Though the soldier hasn’t been identified, her unbreakable positive outlook has taken on iconic status, comforting thousands who look at Ukraine’s plight and feel devastated. She’s already committing a heroic act by defending her country, but this adds another layer of gentle bravery.

She is not alone. Other female soldiers of Ukraine are fighting to stay hopeful in a way that might bring new meaning to the term “girl power.”

Their TikTok channels are filled with the same videos most young women their age post: glamorous makeup looks, joking around with friends, playful dancing. The key difference is … they happen to be donning military attire while doing it.

They show off their manicured hands while holding bullets, and clean their weapons to the sounds of upbeat hip-hop music. The barracks have become the backdrop to their lives, but other than that … life goes on just the same.

It feels like a small, yet powerful act of defiance. As if to say, “this war doesn’t take away who I really am. You cannot have that.” So simple, and yet a victory nonetheless.

As the threat of a possible Russian invasion became more imminent, Ukrainian women between the ages of 18 and 60 who were considered “fit for military service” were required to register for armed forces. And the list of professions considered fit is quite extensive. According to The Wall Street Journal, around 32,000 women were serving in Ukraine’s military as of Feb 17, with many set to take on a variety of combat roles.

Then, as we all know, the nightmare came true. These women and young girls were plucked from their lives in a time of need to be thrust into war. And yet, their spirits remain untarnished. That is a soft kind of power that shoots straight to the heart. And it’s inspiring.

As it gets more and more difficult to peel our gaze away from the pain, perhaps the most radical form of resilience is holding onto our enthusiasm for life. That is something each and every one of us can do, even though it isn’t always the easiest thing to accomplish.

Our bleakest moments still contain vast possibilities for a brighter future. Even in times of war, birds still sing. The sun still shines. And where we choose to place our focus matters. We can each fight for hope in our own unique way. But it’s always worth fighting for.