Month: January 2023

For weeks barely a day has gone by without some leftfield, sometimes disturbing, usually creatively surreal allegation made against newly sworn-in GOP representative George Santos. He embellished his CV. He lied about his heritage. He wasn’t above claiming his mom died in the 9/11 attacks. Last week someone dug up a photo and then a video purporting to show young Santos as a drag queen during his time in Brazil. Santos of course denied that one, but there may be proof that he confirmed it a long time ago.

Politico checked in on the Wikipedia bio for a user named “Anthony Devolder,” a much-used alias for the embattled new congressman. It’s lousy with spelling and grammatical errors. But it also includes a startling admission, claiming that he “startted [sic] his ‘stage’ life at age 17 as an gay night club [sic] DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sic] GAY ‘BEAUTY PAGENTS [sic].’”

The page was last edited on April 29, 2011, strongly suggesting it wasn’t some modern day chucklehead trying to spread misinformation about a guy with enough problems. The bio also contains basic information about Santos (or Devolder), including that he was born on July 22, 1988 to a Brazilian family with a European background.

Snatos has used the Anthony Devolder alias plenty of times before, including with the Navy veteran who accused him of stealing fundraising money for his dying dog (which then died).

For months, the GOP has turned drag queens into an unexpected and bizarre target of their culture warfare, even after a gunman shot up a drag queen show.

Meanwhile, new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy punished Santos for misleading voters into electing him to Congress: He only appointed him to multiple lesser committees.

(Via Politico)

For nearly a year, the FDA has flirted with banning menthol cigarettes. Those efforts have amped up recently, with New York City considering a ban, too. Few have been as angry at this as insurrection defender and incompetent elections soothsayer Tucker Carlson, who’s dedicated multiple segments to getting weirdly angry about the subject, despite cigarettes having nowhere near the public pull they once did (unless you’re Post Malone). As is Tucker’s wont, he went a little farther into the breach than usual on Friday night, even claiming that highly addictive cigarettes, which are incredibly hard to quit, somehow “free the mind.”

“Why do they hate tobacco? It’s not because it causes cancer,” Tucker railed. “They don’t care about your health. They closed the gyms during COVID. Anyone who closed a gym during a pandemic that kills people who are fat clearly doesn’t care about your health at all.”

That’s some truly tinfoil hat logic, given how easily COVID could spread at a gym, but that wasn’t even the kookiest part. This was: “They hate nicotine. They love THC. They’re promoting weed to your children but they’re not letting you use tobacco or even non-nicotine-delivery devices, which don’t cause cancer. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind and THC makes you compliant and passive, that’s why.”

As anyone who’s had to quit smoking tobacco knows, tobacco certainly does the opposite of freeing your mind. It causes both physical and psychological distress. Over the last couple decades, tobacco has grown increasingly unpopular, which surely doesn’t sit well with tobacco companies. Indeed, the world hasn’t heard pro-tobacco nonsense like the kind Tucker has been spouting since the ‘80s.

Tucker’s pro-tobacco ranting certainly turned heads.

It’s yet another example, like demonizing COVID vaccines, of Republicans passionately telling their base to do things that kill them.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ comeback win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night featured one awfully bizarre moment right at the start of halftime. Cameras caught Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks jawing with Shannon Sharpe, the Hall of Fame tight end and Fox Sports personality who is no stranger to attention Lakers games.

Things seemed to really escalate when Sharpe got riled up over the interaction. Steven Adams and Tee Morant, among others, went at Sharpe, which led to the referees and stadium personnel holding everyone back from one another. It was awfully bizarre — although basketball fans had a whole lot of fun with the entire thing — and after the game, both Brooks and James commented on what went down, with Brooks expressing that “the blogger or whatever he is” should have been ejected from courtside.

As for James, he was asked about the incident after the game and expressed his appreciation for how he and Sharpe always have one another’s backs.

It is worth mentioning that, after Sharpe issued a statement where he said he was extremely willing to tussle with the Grizzlies, he seemed to patch things up with Morant during the game. Memphis will return to Los Angeles to play LeBron and co. on March 7.

When Robert Milburn came across a tiny, hairless creature the size of his thumb in his driveway, he had no idea what it was. So he took it inside, wrapped it up to keep it warm and started Googling.

After figuring out it was a newborn squirrel that had probably fallen out of its nest, he put it back outside in a shallow box and waited to see if the mom would return for it. She did come to check it out, but then left it again. (Later, Milburn would find out that the baby squirrel had a mouth deformity which most likely made it unable to suckle properly.)

Milburn didn’t think the wee one would survive, but he decided to do his best. He took it back inside and began feeding it puppy formula with a syringe every three hours, around the clock. He said it was “like having a newborn baby in the house.”

It worked. The squirrel grew and grew and they began to bond.

Once Milburn knew the babe was going to make it and could identify it as a male, he named him Bobby. (Robert T. Squirrel, to be precise—the T is for “The”).

Milburn shared the story of Bobby’s rescue and their relationship with Newsner’s We Love Animals channel, and I feel a duty to warn you that the video will almost-pretty-much-for-sure make you want a pet squirrel. Milburn shared the video on his TikTok channel dedicated to Bobby, where it has collected more than four million views.

Watch:

@robertsquirrel

From an interview on Newsner who has 30 million followers in 11 languages

But that’s not where the story ends.

Bobby has a family now out in his little squirrel house. He and his squirrel wife, Barbara Ann, are the proud parents of four youngsters—Peepers, Jeepers, Creepers and Sneekers.

“Peepers seldom ventures from the treehouse, and Jeepers is a bit more adventurous. Creepers creeps out further, and Sneekers sneaks into other trees,” Milburn shared on his website, bobbysquirrel.com.

Milburn’s @robertsquirrel Tiktok channel has a trove of sweet videos like this one, in which Bobby came inside because he was scared of a thunderstorm.

@robertsquirrel

Scares #bobbysquirrel #storm #thunder #throwbackthursday #fyp #nature

He knew just where to go for safety and comfort. Too sweet.

Bobby is totally comfortable going back and forth from his outdoor home to his human’s home—and his human’s pockets.

@robertsquirrel

Pocket Squirrel #bobbysquirrel #squirrel #fyp #nature #funny #love

In fact, Milburn shares, Bobby comes to visit him inside almost every day.

Unfortunately, Milburn has run into some trouble with his HOA, which informed him that he needed to stop feeding the squirrels in his yard as they were considered a “nuisance.”

But who could watch Bobby listening to his story being told in the video below and tell us he’s a nuisance? Come on now.

@robertsquirrel

Happy time #bobbysquirrel #throwbackthursday #squirrel

Milburn has been asked if squirrels make good pets, and he has clarified that raising one as a newborn is very different than trying to domesticate a wild squirrel. Squirrels do have sharp teeth and long claws, he pointed out in a video with this face covered in Band-Aids. (He shared that he’s been working on building a friendship with Barbara Ann, who grew up in the wild, and while it’s slow-going, he feels he’s making progress.)

Milburn has also created a children’s book called “Bobby and Friends,” which includes 10 short stories for children ages 2 to 11 and an accompanying coloring book.

People can’t get enough of Bobby the squirrel, and who can blame them? He’s the pet squirrel most of us wish we could have—one who has a full outdoor life as he should, but who also likes to come in for some cuddles with his people.

Just when you thought Jennifer Coolidge’s renaissance in pop culture couldn’t get any better, guess again. We’ve seen her completely steal the show on television, film and even music videos, but now the Emmy award-winning actress is expanding her talents to new platforms with her very first TikTok.

All glammed up and in front of a green screen, Coolidge, in an attempt to do “something cool” for her TikTok debut, begins reciting the millennial hit “Jenny From The Block” like she’s onstage at a slam poetry night.

Coolidge then cuts to none other than the OG Jenny from the block herself—Jennifer Lopez.

Needless to say, this video went viral instantly.

Coolidge’s video got instant approval from fans. I think the person who wrote this comment sums up the general consensus: “Only Jennifer Coolidge would be able to master TikTok on her first TikTok.”

Another added, “Not since Leslie Jordan have I been so excited to see someone join TikTok.”

@jennifercoolidge Trying out TikTok! 💋👀 @jlo ♬ Jenny from the Block (Bronx Remix – Edit) – Jennifer Lopez

There’s just no denying that Coolidge has a delightful brand of weird that is so well suited for a place like TikTok. While this might have been the “White Lotus” star’s first personal contribution to the platform, she has definitely had viral moments on it before, as with a delightful dance remix based on her character from the show’s second season. So to expect anything less from a video created by the comedy queen herself—with the help of a fellow queen named Jennifer—would be foolish.

Folks who are loving this JCool/JLo combo (which, c’mon, is everyone) can look forward to the upcoming action-comedy movie “Shotgun Wedding,” premiering on Jan 27 on Amazon Prime. The trailer promises Coolidge as a curlers-wearing, shotgun-wielding mother-in-law to be. What’s not to like about that?

In the meantime, we’ll be watching this TikTok on repeat.

A woman named Jackie pulled a move straight out of a romantic comedy recently, and it has the internet rallying around her potential love interest. Jackie met a guy at a bar and liked him so much that she gave him her phone number. Well, 80% of her number, that is.

The world heard about it on January 17 when Twitter user Henpecked Hal and shared a picture of the napkin with her partial phone number written on it. “My 22-year-old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it’s going pretty well,” Hal wrote in the tweet.

“Call me! 512-3*1-2*04,” the message read, along with “I’m worth it.” The 512 is an area code in Austin, Texas.

After congratulating his cousin on meeting his “dream girl,” he asked: “Did you get her number.” The cousin replied, “most of it.” The Tweet also attached a photo of a list of phone numbers the cousin called to try and get in touch with the elusive Jackie.

“My 22 year old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it’s going pretty well”

u201cMy 22 year old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it’s going pretty wellu201d

— Henpecked Hal (@Henpecked Hal)
1673980495

The tweet has gone insanely viral, racking up nearly 60,000 retweets, 85.6 million views and 776,000 likes.

The next day, Hal revealed that the woman reached out to him. In the screenshot of her message, she wrote: “Heeeyyy, so you likely won’t see this but I’m Jackie from the tweet!”

“Tell your cousin that next time I see him I’m going to…” she continued, but Hal blurred out the rest of the message to conceal her identity.

“I just talked to him! WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER????” Hal replied. “He said he’s halfway through the list, which means he’s actually like 10 per cent of the way through it.”

Update 1/3: WE FUCKING DID IT! pic.twitter.com/ccQ1puS8OJ

— Henpecked Hal (@HenpeckedHal) January 18, 2023

“He may not be as clever as he thinks,” Jackie responded, “give me HIS number, I’m taking over this operation.”

A lot of people in the comments said they thought Jackie was cold or arrogant for playing hard to get and making poor Hal’s cousin try 100 different numbers to find out which one was her. But Hal says that it’s all an extension of the conversation the two had at the bar.

“For the people saying she’s arrogant, high maintenance or whatever: these kids talked for an hour about a shared interest in true crime, mysteries, etc,” Hal tweeted. “My cousin bragged that he always solves the case before the show ends (editor’s note: not this time). I think she’s awesome.”

So, all Jackie did was give him another mystery to solve. If he’s such a great amateur detective then he should be able to reach her, right?

Some people in the comments have suggested that the story is fake. One person noted that the notebook page with the phone numbers on it had an indentation at the top which could be the “5” in Jackie’s phone number from the napkin. The implication is that Hal wrote on the napkin while it was on top of the notebook, leaving an indentation. But other people pointed out that the writing didn’t match.

Yikes! Forgot to take your napkin off your notepad first… pic.twitter.com/0gCKeSxz12

— Tommy Balloons (@franchise193747) January 18, 2023

Through everything, Hal has received a ton of support from people on Twitter trying to help his cousin’s love life.

The cousin could use ChatGPT to create a Python script that could automate much of this 😂

There are only 100 permutations here (10^2), so it’s not that bad. pic.twitter.com/Wl2drylf1F

— Amir Salihefendić (@amix3k) January 18, 2023

“The programmers who sent scripts and code, the excel junkies who sent me docs to share with my cousin, y’all are wild,” Hal tweeted. “I couldn’t come close to getting back to everyone, but I appreciate it.”

Nearly 90 million people have followed the story of Hal’s cousin and Jackie. Let’s hope there’s a happy ending or at least they get to meet up and see each other again to talk about the mystery that brought them both together.

A game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers took quite the unexpected turn as the two teams made their way into the locker rooms for halftime. Videos from Crypto.com Arena showed that several Grizzlies players, primarily Dillon Brooks, jawed with Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe.

This did not sit well with Sharpe, who was pretty fired up. Things began to escalate when Sharpe, Grizzlies big man Steven Adams, and Tee Morant had to be held back from one another, which led to Sharpe releasing a statement to Dave McMenamin of ESPN where he said “they didn’t want this smoke, Dave.”

As Ja Morant’s father explained to Mark Jackson of ESPN and Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, the incident did not lead to any hard feelings, and the two actually seemed to patch things up in the third quarter — neither Morant nor Sharpe were removed from the arena after the skirmish.

Of course, this kind of event is the exact sort of thing that leads to basketball fans firing off jokes, particularly about how no human on the planet actually wants to get into a fight with Steven Adams.

There were, unsurprisingly, some mentions of Sharpe’s co-host, Skip Bayless, and how he’s react to this.

There was even a video tweeted out by the NBA of Brooks being mic’d up. It, unsurprisingly, did not include anything between himself and Sharpe, which had some fans upset.

JJ Redick and Andre Iguodala’s attention was focused on one thing: Sharpe’s cardigan.

But ultimately, there were just a whole lot of jokes about what ended up being the most surreal moment of the 2022-23 NBA season so far.

And while the Grizzlies’ official Twitter account didn’t say anything explicitly, well, we don’t think this video getting tweeted out was a coincidence.

The Kid Laroi is kicking of 2023 with a bang. Last week, the Australian pop singer shared a trailer for his upcoming full-length debut album, The First Time. Since then, he’s released the intro track to the album, called “I Can’t Go Back To The Way It Was (Intro),” and is set to release a new single called “Love Again.”

Though Laroi has kept most of the details of the upcoming album under wraps, he did speak about the album last year during an interview with Variety.

“It’s probably my most personal project so far,” he said. “I’ve been trying to experiment as much as possible with different sounds and different ways of making music. [I] tried to step out of my comfort zone a little bit, and forced myself to talk about things that I haven’t really wanted to talk about in the past. That’s why I’m so attached to it, and very passionate about it. I hope anyone else who hears it can hear that in me and [have it] resonate the same way.”

With a new album underway, fans are wondering when they’ll be able to see the “Stay” hitmaker in their cities.

Will The Kid Laroi go on tour soon?

As of now, Laroi hasn’t officially announced a tour yet, however, he is still set to perform a few dates across the US. You can see some of the dates below and purchase tickets here.

03/24 — Narragansett, RI @ Ryan Center
03/25 — Bangor, ME @ Cross Insurance Center
03/21 — Lexington KY @ Rupp Arena

Tempers appeared to flare during Friday night’s game in Los Angeles between the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies. While Memphis, which took a 53-49 lead into the half, tried to make their way into the locker room, it appeared that Steven Adams and Tee Morant got into a shouting match with former NFL tight end and current Fox Sports personality, Shannon Sharpe.

The above videos show that Sharpe repeatedly said “I bet you won’t.” According to Mike Breen, who is broadcasting the game for ESPN, one of Adams’ teammates, Dillon Brooks, started chirping at Sharpe, which appeared to upset the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. Adams went right over to Sharpe as this happened, which led to a number of folks rushing over to try and keep the peace.

Sharpe went on to confirm that things started with Brooks but escalated from there.

“My blood pressure didn’t go up a bit, nothing but love for Shannon Sharpe,” said Mark Jackson of a conversation he had with Tee Morant.

Friday night’s game is the first of three meetings between the Lakers and the Grizzlies this season. The two sides will play again in Memphis on Feb. 28, while they’ll return to Los Angeles for their final matchup with one another during the regular season on March 7.

The Kid Laroi is gearing up for his debut studio album, The First Time, which is expected this year. After premiering the record’s lead single, an emotional song that finds him reminiscing on past memories over a psychedelic synth instrumental. “No matter which way I run,” he sings. “I can’t go back to the way it was.”

Before the song’s release, he also dropped a trailer for The First Time. The grainy clips find Laroi smoking and hanging out with friends. “The first time you fall in love. The first time you get caught. The first time you feel shame. The first real kiss,” he says in the voiceover for the video.

Here’s everything to know about his forthcoming debut album.

Release Date

The First Time will likely be dropping sometime in 2023.

Tracklist

So far, the opening track is rumored to be “I Can’t Back To The Way It Was (Intro),” according to Genius. While The Kid Laroi hasn’t confirmed an official tracklist for the album, there are other suspected songs including “Love Again.”

Features

There are currently no confirmed features on the album. However, The Kid Laroi has teamed up with Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus in the past, so there’s a possibility those artists could make another appearance.

Artwork

The artwork for The First Time is still TBD.

Singles

The first single, “I Can’t Go Back To The Way It Was (Intro),” dropped yesterday. The Kid Laroi teased it as “The First Song” on social media, as it’s also been rumored to be the opening track. In addition, he has teased that the second single, “Love Again,” will drop on January 27.