Month: November 2023

Last week, a list of “unacceptable first date spots” emerged on Twitter that caused quite a ruckus on the Internet. It’s remarkable that Twitter still has the ability to ignite an argument that will ruffle feathers across our society. The list has a few obvious spots like a family function or a fast food restaurant that you could build a broad based consensus around.

However, the most heated debate centered on an attack of our country’s greatest chain restaurants. Waffle House, while not romantic, can prove if a partner can survive any situation with you. Olive Garden is basically Italy if you squint your eyes. Cheesecake Factory is a great restaurant to go to when you don’t know what someone likes because their menu is 12 pages long.

On Friday, the good folks at the NBA on TNT showed this list to the Inside the NBA crew, who had some reactions that were priceless to seeing some of their favorite establishments and date night activities on the list.

Ernie Johnson is a family man and you can tell he intends to stay a family man after reading this list. Dating is a difficult game in 2023 even if you’re Charles Barkley or Shaq. The big fellas will have to find countermoves for their coffee and hookah bar dates. According to the list, sporting events are out too, so this will require some real creativity on their end. At least the entire crew agreed that family functions are out on the first date, but we’re still not sure if they’ve figured out what would be acceptable.

One of the big issues the NBA is facing with the inaugural In-Season Tournament is convincing people how the whole thing works. While the clip was ultimately pretty funny, the sentiment shared by Los Angeles Clippers guard Bones Hyland is someone common: It’s a new thing, and it’s not 100 percent clear to the casual fan how it all works.

There have been plenty of attempts at explaining the whole thing — if you would like to read ours, you can go ahead and do that right here. But the New York Knicks decided to try something a little bit different in their attempt to lay out how it works, as the team enlisted my fellow Italian-American from the tri-state area Cugine to walk their fans through what’s going to happen over the next few weeks and what could happen if New York advances to the knockout portion of the tournament.

The Knicks will be one of the first teams to kick off the In-Season Tournament when it begins on Friday night. In one of the headline matchups during the first night of group play, New York is traveling to Milwaukee to take on Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Bucks. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

Sesame Street is about to enter its new era now that Elmo has experinced what it’s like to reinvent oneself. The series will get a fresh new makeover for its 56th season, which is aiming to debut in 2025.

The series will drop its familiar “magazine-style” format and instead present two 11-minute, narrative-driven stories per episode, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This will give the team an opportunity to dive into more “dynamic” and “sophisticated” stories that naturally come up on any given street, like “How do all of the streetlights know when to come on at night?” or “Why does this trash can moss monster keep stealing my mail?” or “Why do they have to bring the loud trash truck around at 5 am? Can’t they just come at 8 am when the sun is already up????” You know, normal neighborhood things.

In between each segment will be a new animated series, Tales From 123. Sesame Workshop executive VP and production officer Kay Wilson Stallings told THR that this will open up a whole new world for the street. “For the very first time, [Tales From 123] will give viewers an opportunity to go inside 123 Sesame Street, which is probably the most famous apartment building in the world.” They did not, however, receive clearance from Oscar, who resides in the trash can outside 123, so we aren’t allowed in there. Please scram accordingly.

In addition to the new style, Wilson Stallings says that every episode will have a signature song, which she hopes will be sung by some famous singers. Perhaps Taylor Swift can stop by and teach some basic math since she’s really good at that.

The timing is interesting, as Sesame Workshop’s five-year deal with Warner Bros. Discovery will end next year, meaning that if this new format goes well, they might want to renew for even more grouchy Oscar content. We can have 50 more years of this.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Halloween has passed, thus kicking off the incoming holiday season. It’s during this time of year that celebration, gratitude and reclaiming simple joys seem paramount.

It’s not always easy to be in high spirits, though. Luckily, Upworthy can help with that. Each week we curate a list of things that brought a smile to our face. Little reminders that the world is still a pretty cool place, and that a lot of the people in it are quite wonderful.

And because the Halloween spirit doesn’t have to expire after October 31st, this week’s list of 10 smile-inducing things includes quite a bit of spooky fun—creative costumes, furry friends interacting with jack-o-lanterns and a friendly ghost vacuum to boot.

Scroll down and enjoy.

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1. Sisters create a super realistic rollercoaster costume for Halloween.

@laurie.dabbs.gayton

♬ Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players

A perfect combination of design and performance. No notes. Give them all the candy.

Speaking of Halloween…

2. Hundreds of New Yorkers perform a flawless ‘Thriller’ flashmob routine

See on Instagram

No doubt more than half of these folks were Broadway dancers. New York has to be one of the most fantastic palces to celebrate Halloween.

3. British baby sitter lulls kid to sleep by reading a coffee manual

@meggmordaunt

♬ original sound – Meg Mordaunt

Apparently, reading from the manual was the child’s request. But quite honestly, that voice could read the phone book and it would sound oh-so soothing. Perhaps that will be the next reading material!

4. Snow leopard gets spooked by a pumpkin

@tanganyikawildlifepark It was a very scary pumpkin 🎃 #snowleopard #leopard #leopards #catsoftiktok #bigcats ♬ original sound – Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Proving that all cats are the same, not matter the size.

5. George Washington shares his dream for America’s wacky measuring system in a hilarious “SNL” skit

Comedian and host Nate Bargatze delivers an amazingly understated performance as Washington, which makes the comedy sing in this one. No wonder viewers hailed it an “instant classic.”

6. Kitties waiting patiently for their steamed milk is too cute for this world

@jessielubrooke They all line up and wait by the eapresso machine every morning for “milky.” Its oatmilk 😁 #catsoftiktok #cats ♬ original sound – JessieB

They’ve got their own little cat cafe going on! If only we humans could be this patient at Starbucks.

7. Toddler gets pulled over in her hot pink kiddie jeep

Most adorable lawbreaker of all time.

8. Meet Peanut, the world’s oldest chicken

Peanut was a late hatcher, but 20 years later and she’s still clucking. Considering the average life expectancy of a chicken is around 5-10, that’s quite a feathery feat.

9. Woman dresses her Roomba vacuum up as a ghost

@abc7ny Spooooooky clean! 👻🧼🧹 #fyp #cleantok #roomba #halloween ♬ original sound – ABC7NY

Well now she has to keep the costume on for the rest of the year, obviously.

…and last but not least…

10. Little girl can’t stop saying “that’s my mommy!” after finding out she’s getting adopted

There is still good in this world
byu/SweetyByHeart inMadeMeSmile

This sweet little girl can’t take her eyes off her new mommy. Melts the heart on so many levels, doesn’t it?

Hope this roundup helped brighten your day. If you enjoyed this post and want to see more like it in your inbox, subscribe to our free email newsletter, The Upworthiest, here.

Some people have an innate ability to pick up languages. One of the indicators that someone can quickly learn multiple languages is their musical ear. Those who can distinguish tones can also detect minor pronunciation differences between different languages, such as how a “D” is pronounced differently in English versus Spanish.

Studies also show that people who are great at picking up multiple languages have good memories, and they can encode things in long-term memory and retrieve them quickly.

An excellent example of someone who has the innate ability to pick up multiple languages and knows how to have fun with them is Teona Sima, who goes by The Language Blondie on special media. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Macedonian and Turkish. She also has the incredible ability to speak languages in the accents of people from other countries.

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Here’s a video that went viral on TikTok with over 40 million views where she speaks English in 12 different accents: American English, Greek, Australian, French, Russian, Spanish, Macedonian, British English, Serbian, Indian, Turkish and Italian.

Can you figure out where she’s from, originally, just by hearing her do multiple accents?

@thelanguageblondie

#accentchallenge #accent #accents #languages #language #languagelearning #accentqueen #imitation #american #british #english #australian #spanish #french #italian #turkish #greek #serbian #macedonian #russian #fyp #tiktok #viral #fypシ #indian #acting #challenge #polyglot

Sima has an incredible ability to interpret the English language with multiple accents, so she must be from an English-speaking country, right? Nope, she is actually from Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, where the native tongue is Macedonian. Over 1.3 million people speak Macedonian as a first language.

Currently, Sima is a student at the American University in Bulgaria and is a marketing intern.

Sima told Unilad that her ability to mimic other accents has allowed her to convince others that she is from Ireland, Los Angeles, and Australia. She says that she started to pick up her knack for accents at the age of 11 or 12.

“I grew up watching Superwoman, Miranda Sings, and Liza Koshy, and I imitated them a lot at home, which I think was crucial for my language learning skills as they involve a lot of careful listening and imitation,” Sima explained.

She believes anyone can learn her language skills, but it takes time. “You will absolutely sound terrible in the beginning, but don’t get discouraged, practice, practice, practice, then practice some more, and you will inevitably master it!,” she continued. “The important thing is to have fun with it and do your best to imitate exactly what you hear.”

Sima’s advice mirrors that of Emily Sabo, a linguistics researcher who says motivation is one of the most critical factors in language acquisition. People who find themselves in a new country where they don’t speak the language learn a lot faster than those who are studying it for fun.

Another one of Sima’s most impressive videos is where she pretends to be a newscaster speaking multiple languages: Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, French, Spanish, Turkish and English (UK and US).

What’s great is not only does she appear to be a native speaker when doing the accents, but she has that proper serious newscaster delivery.

See on Instagram

Here’s a video that went viral on TikTok with over 40 million views where she speaks English in 12 different accents: American English, Greek, Australian, French, Russian, Spanish, Macedonian, British English, Serbian, Indian, Turkish and Italian.

Can you figure out where she’s from, originally, just by hearing her do multiple accents?

[Video]

Sima has an incredible ability to interpret the English language with multiple accents, so she must be from an English-speaking country, right? Nope, she is actually from Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, where the native tongue is Macedonian. Over 1.3 million people speak Macedonian as a first language.

Currently, Sima is a student at the American University in Bulgaria and is a marketing intern.

Sima told Unilad that her ability to mimic other accents has allowed her to convince others that she is from Ireland, Los Angeles, and Australia. She says that she started to pick up her knack for accents at the age of 11 or 12.

“I grew up watching Superwoman, Miranda Sings, and Liza Koshy, and I imitated them a lot at home, which I think was crucial for my language learning skills as they involve a lot of careful listening and imitation,” Sima explained.

She believes anyone can learn her language skills, but it takes time. “You will absolutely sound terrible in the beginning, but don’t get discouraged, practice, practice, practice, then practice some more, and you will inevitably master it!,” she continued. “The important thing is to have fun with it and do your best to imitate exactly what you hear.”

Sima’s advice mirrors that of Emily Sabo, a linguistics researcher who says motivation is one of the most critical factors in language acquisition. People who find themselves in a new country where they don’t speak the language learn a lot faster than those who are studying it for fun.

Another one of Sima’s most impressive videos is where she pretends to be a newscaster speaking multiple languages: Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, French, Spanish, Turkish and English (UK and US).

What’s great is not only does she appear to be a native speaker when doing the accents, but she has that proper serious newscaster delivery.

[Video]

Nature is a wondrous, magical thing. Everything from a falling star to the morning dew is its own small miracle. As children seeing the world for the first time, it’s easy to appreciate every natural phenomenon to the fullest (remember sticking your tongue out to taste the rain?) but those feelings are rarely so common in adulthood.

That’s why it’s so cool when we see grown-ups able to conjure true childlike awe—it’s almost like we remember to give ourselves permission to do the same.

Recently, people were brought to this space of pure joy after watching a Ugandan man experiencing snow for the first time.

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The video was posted by a man named Peter, hailing from Uganda, and Marie, a Canadian woman. The couple have dedicated their entire TikTok account to documenting their life and travels.

This particular clip, which has racked up nearly 6 million views, shows Peter overcome with joy as gingerly places his hands on Canadian snow.

“Oh my god! I’m so so happy to see the snow my first time,” he says, grinning ear to ear.

Giggling, he continues to pat the snow, calling it “beautiful” and “white” with utter reverence.

Finally, he even introduces himself to the snow, saying “Nice to meet you.”

Honestly, there’s nothing that can be written to properly capture the moment. You have to see it for yourself.

@peterandmarie @PETER ROCK CBM. Seeing snow for the first time in Canada 🇨🇦❄️🥶 #firstsnow #seeingsnowforfirsttime #ugandanincanada #canadawinterlife #interracialfamily ♬ original sound – Peter & Marie 🇺🇬🇨🇦

Many viewers noted how special seeing snow for the first time can be.

“I love it when people experience snow for the first time, (it’s) like they’ve found childlike joy all over again,” one person wrote.

And while snow might be a rarer sighting than other natural phenomena (about two-thirds of the world’s population have never seen it), it certainly isn’t the only one that can take our breath away.

As John Keats once said, “the poetry of the earth is never dead.” Maybe the first step to reclaiming childlike joy is to look at the world around us with pure appreciation. Sensing the poetry in it all. It might be a challenge to truly see things as though it was the first time, as we once did in our youth. But now, with the wisdom of adulthood, we know that it could be our last. So enjoy it to the fullest.

So go ahead. Touch the snow. Taste the rain. Bask in a flower bloom. Remember that life is a miracle.

Just a few months before her death, Lisa Marie Presley had vowed to speak out about Sofia Coppola’s new movie, Priscilla, which focuses on the tumultuous and controversial courtship between Presley’s mother and the late legendary singer Elvis Presley.

According to emails obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie was furious over the portrayal of her father and wrote Coppola in September 2022 shortly before the film started production. Lisa Marie had seen a version of the script and described it as “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous.” Presley also pleaded with Coppola that the film would only further strain her relationship with her mother.

“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?” Presley wrote in one of her messages.

Presley later vowed to take her fight against Priscilla to the media.

“I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly,” Lisa Marie wrote.

While Presley wouldn’t get a chance to contest the film, Coppola did respond to her emails. The writer/director reportedly wrote back, “I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.”

According to Variety, the film is based on the book Elvis and Me, and prior to Lisa Marie’s complaints, there were already efforts to “tone down” some of the book’s elements about the couple’s relationship that would not play well with modern audiences.

Priscilla is now playing in theaters.

(Via Variety)

Alan Ruck doesn’t have a great history with cars, but at least he is aware of it. The Succession actor perhaps had one too many pieces of candy corn on Tuesday night (October 31st) and ended up in a four-way crash that landed him inside a pizza joint. Life moves pretty fast after all.

The crash left two people injured, but otherwise, it seems like everyone is okay, including Ruck. “I’m fine, thank God nobody was killed,” the actor told TMZ. Even though the Succession star was walking with a limp and sleeve over his knee, he claimed, “This wasn’t because of the accident, this is because I’m getting old.”

The cause of the crash is still unknown and police are still investigating the surveillance footage, which clearly shows Ruck’s Rivian truck half inside the restaurant. It’s a very unconventional way to trick or treat. The actor reportedly stuck around after the crash to help others, and local business owner Tim Ratcliff told KTLA, “I asked [Alan], ‘Are you okay?’ And the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Is everyone [else] okay? I think I hit someone. Is he okay?’” Ratcliff claimed that the actor didn’t know why he crashed, though TMZ reports that there was “no indication” of a DUI.

Hopefully, Ruck’s dad won’t notice that the mileage is a little off on his car when he gets home from work.

(Via Decider)

The NBA’s In-Season Tournament officially begins on Friday night. For the next month-plus, teams will compete on Tuesday and Friday nights for the right to win the inaugural NBA Cup, and while it remains to be seen how well it will go over, the league is banking on this adding a level of competition and excitement to the early days of the regular season.

The problem is that, like any new thing, it’s going to take a little time for people to get used to it. That doesn’t just means fans — during a press availability on Friday, Los Angeles Clippers guard Bones Hyland admitted he’s still trying to figure out how it all works.

“I’m not even gonna lie, I don’t even know what’s going on,” Hyland said. “I don’t even know what’s going on, I don’t even know how it works, I don’t know anything, honestly. I’m just looking at the schedule, and I see on the schedule, I see, like, a trophy next to one of the games. I’m like, I feel like the trophy’s supposed to be in, you know, July.

“All I know is I’m just trying to win the games, that’s all,” Hyland continued. After being told that he’ll pocket an extra $500,000 if the Clippers win the tournament, Hyland admitted that there is, indeed, some extra motivation to go out and win the whole thing.

There’s one good and one very annoying thing about going to the movie theater at least once a week. Let’s start with the good. The more treks to the cinema, the higher the chance that you’re going to watch your new favorite movie of all-time (unless it’s Freelance, then you might watch your new least favorite movie of all-time, which is fun in a different way). The bad? Being assaulted by the same trailers, over and over again.

I still remember every beat of the trailer for Midnight Special, a movie that came out seven years ago. I’ve heard good things, but I never saw it (sorry Michael Shannon!) as an act of revenge for being exposed to the preview so frequently. Maybe that’s not fair to the movie, but a person (me) can only hear the slowed-down cover of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” in the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer so many times before losing it.

More recently, I’ve seen the teaser trailer for Priscilla before every screening at my local Alamo Drafthouse. But in this case, I don’t mind. For one thing, it’s short. Also, it’s easier to sit through an overplayed trailer when it’s for a movie that looks good, and the A24 film from director Sofia Coppola looks very good.

It’s fair to assume that the teaser trailer for Priscilla — a biopic of Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ wife, played by Cailee Spaeny; a Lilo and Stitch fan portrays The King — would be soundtracked by Presley’s deep catalog of classics. It’s one of the reasons why the Baz Luhrmann fever dream starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, in an insane performance I will defend with my life, from last year made almost $300 million at the box office. People like Elvis!

But Coppola couldn’t get the rights to his music. “They don’t like projects that they haven’t originated,” the filmmaker explained to the Hollywood Reporter about Elvis Presley Enterprises, “and they’re protective of their brand.”

So instead of effective-if-obvious montages set to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Love Me Tender” and other Elvis songs with “love” in the title, Priscilla includes music from the likes of Alice Coltrane, Dolly Parton, and Tommy James & the Shondells. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I hope the soundtrack includes “How You Satisfy Me” by Spectrum, the woozy organ-heavy song from the teaser trailer. It sounds like if Suicide, well, wasn’t named Suicide. I’ve become obsessed with the track, to the point where it could break into my year-end Spotify Wrapped list. I’ve listened to the reverb-drenched song five times while writing this article, so if there are any typos, blame Peter Kember (who, fun fact, would later work with MGMT and Beach House).

An Elvis song might have made more “sense” in the Priscilla teaser. It could have done the emotional heavy lifting due to many people’s nostalgic familiarity with Presley (shout out to the “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” scene from Full House). But by not being able to use his music, “that made us be more creative,” Coppola said. “How You Satisfy Me” is an inventive choice — and it works better in the teaser than any Elvis song could. It’s evocative, mysterious, and daring, three words that a young Priscilla might have used to describe Elvis when she was first being wooed. It goes against what you expect from a biopic, not unlike Coppola’s brilliant 1980s new wave and post-punk soundtrack to the 18th-century period piece Marie Antoinette.

“Jailhouse Rock” is as overplayed as the Ant-Man trailer that drove me nuts. But not “How You Satisfy Me.” It’s as creative as Coppola hoped. If Elvis is the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, she’s the queen of movie trailer songs.

Priscilla is out in theaters now