Devotees of both The Sandman and Neil Gaiman will soon receive a nice placeholder while the series proper continues filming a second season of The Endless siblings’ adventures. Think of this new show — Dead Boy Detectives — in terms of being an appetizer while bringing part of The Sandman‘s fourth graphic novel volume to life onscreen. This new show’s characters, who hail from a British boarding school in a ghost-oriented journey, have something to do with the ongoing feud between Dream/Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) and Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie).
In print form, this story proved to be such a popular originating arc that Gaiman actually spun them off in a further comic book adventure for the Vertigo imprint.
How Many Episodes Are In ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Season 1?
The spin off series releases with eight episodes at once on April 25.
What else? The lead characters, Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, are ghosts who take on the paranormal mysteries that human investigators can’t seem to solve. Co-creator Steve Steve Yockey has likened the show to the Hardy Boys on acid, so there’s that aspect to look forward to as well. We do not know if the show will get any The Sandman crossover action, but fingers are crossed on that note. From the show’s description:
Meet Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, ‘the brains’ and ‘the brawn’ behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Nelson) and her friend Niko (Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.
Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives streams on April 25.
Over the weekend, Alvvays kicked off their 2024 North American tour with shows in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively. The indie-pop band — which recently appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series — moves on to Milwaukee tonight and conclude their tour right before they play Goldenvoice’s Just Like Heaven festival next month. You can find the setlist below to see just what songs they’ll play in advance.
20. “Pharmacist”
21. “Ones Who Love You”
22. “Atop a Cake”
Alvvays’ 2024 North American Tour Dates
04/22/2024 — Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
04/24/2024 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
04/25/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
05/01/2024 — Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor
05/02/2024 — Orlando, FL @ The Plaza Live
05/03/2024 — Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre
05/04/2024 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
05/06/2024 — Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
05/07/2024 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
05/09/2024 — Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre
05/10-05/12/2024 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
05/11/2024 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
05/13/2024 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
05/16/2024 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
05/17/2024 — Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
These days, a ton of music promo happens on social media, but DIIV is taking it back to good old-fashioned websites. Today, the band shared the title track from their upcoming album “Frog In Boiling Water” via their FIBW.org website.
It’s a weird and mysterious thing, filled with disorienting images and links that on the surface, don’t seem to make a ton of sense or be coherent. The group also shared a statement that reads in part, “The title track of DIIV’s new album Frog in Boiling Water is a snapshot from a world collapsing under its own weight. A cascade of atrocities wash over a population seemingly too stunned and powerless to act. Wealth is extracted and people suffer. The only obvious solution is [redacted text]. Visit FIBW.org for more info.”
The group previously said of their new album, “We understand the metaphor to be one about a slow, sick, and overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism, the brutal realities we’ve maybe come to accept as normal. That’s the boiling water and we are the frogs. The album is more or less a collection of snapshots from various angles of our modern condition which we think highlights what this collapse looks like and, more particularly, what it feels like.”
All eight first round series have completed one game after a full weekend slate of NBA Playoff basketball, and the challenge as always is to figure out what’s real and what’s a blip after Game 1.
That’s especially true on a weekend in which six of the eight games were decided by double digits. There were some dominant performances and a few games were over by the time halftime arrived. That makes parsing out what’s real and what’s not a bit tricky, but we’re going to go through each series and look at our biggest takeaway from Game 1 that we think will be the deciding factor in what happens in the next 3-6 games.
Cavs vs. Magic: Orlando’s guards have to provide an offensive boost
Both of these teams are built to play strong defense (when at their best) and they showed that on Saturday in the opener. However, we saw quickly where the biggest gap is between these two rosters, as the Cavs have a proven playoff performer in their backcourt in Donovan Mitchell and the Magic simply do not. Paolo Banchero was good and probably needs to be even better to win this series, and they’ll need more from Franz Wagner as well. However, the only way to really do that is if someone from the Magic’s guard rotation (or, ideally, a couple guys) can become offensive threats.
The Cavs are rightfully sinking back and protecting the paint first (and second) and daring Orlando to hit shots. In Game 1 the Magic could not oblige, with their backcourt really having a tough time. Jalen Suggs was 4-of-16 from the field and 1-of-7 from three, and he was the bright spot in the guard rotation. Gary Harris and Cole Anthony were a combined 0-of-13 shooting, including nine missed threes, and their most reliable three-point shooter on the night was Jonathan Isaac, hitting 2-of-4 from deep. That’s not gonna get it done, and while we knew Orlando struggled scoring in bunches coming in, Game 1 was particularly bleak.
Maybe it was just opening game jitters, but if Banchero and Wagner are going to have any chance of seeing less resistance in the paint, it’ll be dependent on the others (namely the guards) proving to be threats to hit shots to loosen up the Cavs defense.
Timberwolves vs. Suns: Devin Booker Has To Adjust To Minnesota’s Ball Pressure
The Timberwolves blasted the Suns in the biggest blowout of the weekend, and there are a lot of things for Phoenix to try and clean up. One is keeping Jusuf Nurkic on the floor and out of foul trouble, as they got smoked in non-Nurk lineups and could not keep the Wolves big men off the glass (Drew Eubanks, in particular, proved not to be the right answer off the bench). However, more intriguing to me is how Devin Booker bounces back from a rough opener.
Booker had 18 points and five assists on just 5-of-16 shooting and seemed to struggle with the physicality and ball pressure applied by the Timberwolves. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, in particular, came off the bench and hounded Booker for many of the 28 minutes he was on the floor. We know Booker is capable of big playoff performances, but him doing it consistently is going to be a must if Phoenix is going to take this series. Kevin Durant put on a masterclass, but got very little help from his co-stars.
The Suns swept the Wolves in the regular season thanks to great scoring nights that made the Wolves adjust their personnel. If Booker, Durant, and Bradley Beal cannot break the top-ranked Wolves defense from their preferred rotations and force adjustments, it’s not likely this series is going to go their way, especially if Grayson Allen is limited after rolling his ankle and not returning to Game 1. After a lot of chatter about how much Minnesota could keep Rudy Gobert on the floor against a Phoenix team that, in theory, is a nightmare to play drop against, Gobert played 37 minutes (the most of anyone on the Wolves) and was a +19. That can’t continue if the Suns are going to have a chance in this series and the only way to change that is for Booker to figure out how to join Durant in the shot-making parade.
76ers vs. Knicks: Philly Has To Figure Out The Non-Embiid Minutes
In a collection of words that seem to pop up whenever they make the playoffs, the Sixers got smoked (-21) in the 12 minutes Joel Embiid was not on the floor in Game 1. With the big fella clearly laboring, it’s hard to see him touching 40 minutes per game in this series and if they have to navigate 12 minutes per night without him, they’ve got to figure out how to come closer to drawing even. Some of that is on Paul Reed to figure out how to match the Knicks physicality on the glass, as New York once again dominated on the boards in a first round game — this is not an easy task, as both of the Knicks’ centers (Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson) are elite rebounders.
However, it’s also that the Sixers need someone other than their stars to contribute offensively, because we know the defense is going to take a hit with those bench units. Tobias Harris was a no-show in Game 1 — which has become an all too frequent sight for Sixers fans — and the only guy that really stepped up beyond Embiid and Tyrese Maxey was Kyle Lowry (18 points). Philly’s top two is certainly good enough to give them a chance in this series, but they simply need more from the “others.”
That was my biggest concern about Philly going into this series, as the Knicks have more guys I trust to give them contributions, even if they don’t have a true second star alongside Jalen Brunson right now. That’s why they could survive an off night from Brunson (22 points on 26 shots), and the Sixers couldn’t even take advantage of that poor showing while getting 62 points from their stars.
Nuggets vs. Lakers: Can The Lakers Put Together A Full 48 Minutes Every Single Night?
There is no more difficult task in the NBA right now than beating the Denver Nuggets in a playoff series. The reason is, you have to play 48 minutes of very good basketball just to beat them, and very few teams are capable of doing that four times in seven games. In Game 1, the Lakers came out aggressive, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis dominating on offense. By halftime, the Lakers advantage was just three despite all that effort. In the second half, it was just a few lulls that cost L.A. a chance at winning the game, but that was also the exact same script as last year’s Western Conference Finals sweep.
Solving that riddle will require the Lakers to get more from their role guys. D’Angelo Russell was, again, quite bad shooting the ball (6-of-20, 1-of-9 from three). The problem is, while Darvin Ham certainly could look to keep him on a shorter leash going forward, there’s not exactly a great replacement. Gabe Vincent and Spencer Dinwiddie didn’t even attempt shots in 20 combined minutes and had a grand total of two assists between them. They were basically NPCs on the offensive end, and that’s not going to work if the Lakers are to keep up.
Denver’s stars attract attention and rightfully so. Nikola Jokic was spectacular per usual, and even a so-so night for Jamal Murray produced 22 points and 10 assists. However, the thing that makes the Nuggets stand out is how they can constantly rely on the other three starters for contributions. All five hit double figures scoring in Game 1. Aaron Gordon did a bit of everything (12 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists), and does so most every night. Michael Porter Jr. looks like he still remembers how to shoot, which is an improvement over last year’s playoff run, and alongside Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, they provide ample floor spacing for their stars to operate between.
The Lakers just don’t have that same kind of consistency around LeBron and AD. Making matters worse, they lost a Game 1 in which Denver was good but not great. At some point in this series, the Nuggets are going to be great and the Lakers probably lose that game even if they are, too. That means they’ll need at least five complete games out of the next six to win this series, and that is a tall order I’m not sure they’re ready to fill.
Celtics vs. Heat: Miami’s Going To Need To Do That Thing Where Everyone On Their Team Can’t Miss
The Celtics bludgeoned the Heat in Game 1 and while there was some fourth quarter shenanigans that forced Boston’s starters back in to squash a Miami run, this one went pretty much according to script. There’s not much for Miami to do in this series without Jimmy Butler, other than hope the entire team can get red-hot from three. That’s happened before, but it occurred while Butler attracted attention and forced teams to help off shooters. This time, they’ll need to get hot on contested threes if they’re going to make things interesting, because they’re just outmatched otherwise.
Clippers vs. Mavericks: The Mavs Have To Figure Out Their Frontcourt Rotation
Game 1 was a bit funky because the Clippers were so dominant in the first half and then coasted to the win. I think there are things for the Mavs to takeaway from how they got it going offensively in the second half, as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving both seemed to figure out how to get to their spots and get into a rhythm against the Clippers. That’s important going forward, for sure, but the real question for me is if Dallas’ bigs can answer the bell going forward.
Ivica Zubac dominated with 20 points and 15 rebounds (all of which came in the first three quarters), and the Mavs seemed to be throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck in the second half. After Daniel Gafford didn’t work out early, they tried rookie big man Dereck Lively II, but he didn’t fare much better. Ultimately, Jason Kidd rode with small-ball with Maxi Kleber and PJ Washington, but after hitting a couple early threes, Washington went cold and Kleber was way off on his attempts from deep. I have confidence that Kyrie and Luka will be better for a full 48 going forward, but if Dallas is going to win this series, they’re going to have to find a frontcourt rotation they’re comfortable relying on (and one that provides balance on both ends).
Bucks vs. Pacers: Will Tyrese Haliburton Meet The Challenge?
Damian Lillard’s 35-point first half was the story of Game 1, but the most jarring stat line belonged to Tyrese Haliburton, who had a triple-single (as Charles Barkley would call it) with 9 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds on 4-of-7 shooting. After struggling when he rushed back from injury around the All-Star break, Haliburton had seemingly regained his shooting form in the final weeks of the season. However, he was oddly passive in Game 1 and cannot have another game with just seven field goal attempts.
The Bucks turned up their defensive intensity and ball pressure in the opener, but given their limitations at the guard spot defensively, there’s no world where they should be able to force Haliburton into a performance like that. It’d be one thing if he tried to be a facilitator amid an off shooting night, but he has to have his fingerprints on the game more to at minimum provide Pascal Siakam with support. I can understand that Siakam is the mismatch with Giannis Antetokounmpo out, but Haliburton can’t be pushed to the periphery to this degree again.
Thunder vs. Pelicans: Can Brandon Ingram Fight His Worst Instincts?
There was a sequence in the fourth quarter of the highly entertaining opener to Pels-Thunder that I felt was a great illustration of the frustrating nature of the Brandon Ingram experience. Down three with five minutes to play, Ingram slotted a beautiful pocket pass to Larry Nance Jr. on the roll for a dunk to keep a run going.
It was gorgeous, unselfish basketball. The kind of thing you need from your stars to win games in the playoffs. Less than a minute later, however, Ingram spent 12 seconds dribbling to nowhere against Lu Dort and tossed up a horrible leaning jumper that wasn’t even close.
On the night, Ingram scored 12 points and was 5-of-17 shooting from the field. This was not a heat check situation for a guy that was rolling, but a player struggling with Dort’s defense all night dribbling the air out of the ball and taking a bad shot on a key possession. He wasn’t alone in doing this for the Pelicans, as the game ended with CJ McCollum trying to iso Cason Wallace and getting the ball poked away, forcing him into a running three at the buzzer.
The Pelicans can absolutely hang in this series defensively, and watching these two teams slug it out could be a treat. But if we’re going to get to see that for more than five games, the Pelicans stars, headlined by Ingram, have got to stop trying to break down OKC’s tremendous defenders in isolation on the dribble. When New Orleans moved the ball, good things happened. They have some spacing with Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones (who had an off night but has to keep shooting) and they have some play finishers with Nance Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas (who crushed on the glass inside with 20 boards).
Ingram, in particular, has to trust those guys and the fact that the more they’re involved, the more space there will be for him to operate. If he does, we could be in for a very fun opening round series.
Reasons to not invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:
-All the guests will be too busy asking “wait, is that Tom Cruise? It looks a lot like Tom Cruise. I’m 99 percent sure it’s Tom Cruise. How do they know Tom Cruise?” to focus on you, the birthday boy or girl
Reasons to absolutely invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:
-He might start breakdancing
The Mission: Impossible star attended former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham‘s 50th birthday celebration over the weekend in London. Other guests included Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Guy Ritchie, and the rest of the Spice Girls, all of whom got to Cruise start breakdancing. According to the Daily Mail, “Cruise stunned many when he demonstrated a series of breakdancing moves.”
After a formal sit-down dinner, the Top Gun: Maverick actor was one of the most enthusiastic dancers in the crowd of 120 at the private members club Oswalds, in Mayfair. One guest said: “People were absolutely dumbfounded.” Sadly, cameras were strictly banned by the Beckhams and its not thought that anyone sneaked a picture.
Between his moves at Posh Spice’s party and Risky Business being added to the Criterion Collection, Tom Cruise dancing is having a moment. Just wait until Mission: Impossible 8 when he dances and runs at the same time. It’s maybe not as impressive as climbing the Burj Khalifa, but I bet you can’t do it.
Netflix‘s Baby Reindeer is based upon the true story of creator, comedian, and leading man Richard Gadd. He did, of course, make changes to characters so that they are not recognizable as the real people who inspired (in the worst form of the word) some of these characters, but nonetheless, what the characters did and are going through are both rooted in fact.
In the limited series, Richard’s character switches up as “Donny,” a bartender who is sexually assaulted by a male who Donny had considered a friend. While reeling from residual trauma, he finds himself faced at work by Martha, who is portrayed by Jessica Gunning. Long story short, he does not discourage her affections (and she nicknames him as “Baby Reindeer”), but then she grows obsessed with him. This, as well, turns into a traumatic experience for Donny, who calls the police on his stalker, who has begun threatening him and displaying abrupt mood swings. In the series, Martha is eventually handed a nine-month prison sentence, and Donny is granted a five-year protective order against her, but what happened to the real-life woman who was a basis for the Martha character?
As Gadd recently told The Sunday Times (in the United Kingdom), the real-life stalker represented by Martha did not go to prison, and Gadd “didn’t want to throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell” behind bars. Additionally, Gadd told Variety that Jessica Gunning nailed the emotional essence of “Martha,” although at least on the surface, Gunning does not bear too much of a resemblance to Gadd’s real-life stalker:
“Well, we have to make them different for legal reasons. But what I needed to see was the essence of the person, the kind of energy, and no one did it like Jess. She’s phenomenal. I needed to see someone who was vulnerable one moment, angry the next, volatile but so desperate and sympathetic. I needed to see someone who could capture a full gamut of emotions. When somebody has severe mental health problems, they tend to leap from one emotion to the next, sometimes even quite quickly. And that’s very hard to do from an acting point of view, but Jess seems to have it in her pores.
Baby Reindeer‘s full first season (and there hasn’t been word on a second round) is streaming on Netflix.
I remember sitting in advanced algebra and trigonometry class in high school wondering if I was really ever going to use any of what I was learning. Math at that level meant nothing to me in a practical sense. I planned to study English and education to become an English teacher, so I couldn’t imagine why I’d need to learn the ins and outs of trig.
As it turned out, some of what I learned came in handy in the functions class I was required to take to fulfill my math requirement in college. But again, I found myself sitting in class with zero idea of why I was learning this level of math and suspecting that I was never going to actually use that knowledge in my adult life.
Now I’m a middle-aged adult and I can say with absolute certainty that I was right. In 27 years, I have not used anything I learned in functions. Not once. Not even a little bit. I agonized my way through that class to eek out a B-minus and to promptly forget everything I’d learned because it was utterly useless to me.
To be clear, higher math isn’t useless—it’s amazing. It was just completely useless to me.
You know what would have been useful? Learning about financing a car or a mortgage or understanding how and why and where to invest money. In all that time I was doing trigonometric proofs and calculating polynomial functions, I could have been learning all the various real-life math-related decisions I’d have to make as an adult.
I see the same thing happening with my kids in high school and college. It totally makes sense for students who are interested in going into math and science fields to take math beyond basic algebra and geometry. But for those who aren’t—why? There are so many more valuable things for them to take the time to learn—things that every single person really needs a basic knowledge of, such as:
Basic Psychology/Mental Health Maintenance
Every one of us has a brain and mental health is an issue for a huge percentage of people. Even those of us who don’t struggle with mental illness benefit from learning about how our minds work, gaining strategies for managing our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and understanding why people do the things they do.
How many people would have been saved by learning how to spot a narcissist before getting into a relationship with one? How many people could mitigate an anxiety spiral right when it starts because they learned to recognize the signs earlier? How many people would appreciate the support and understanding of everyone having a basic understanding of their mental health disorders?
Basic Sociology/Human Behavior
Similarly, every one of us lives in a society. Understanding social connections, relationships and group behavior might kind of come in handy. If we don’t understand the causes and consequences of human behavior, we’re going to be confused by society at best and allow or enable atrocities to occur at worst.
From learning how cults and conspiracy theories work to recognizing how our prejudices can blind us to reality, sociology has useful knowledge we all need to internalize.
Media Literacy
If we’re going to be bombarded with media 24/7, we’d better know how to process it. Understanding how journalism works, what makes a source credible, how information can be skewed and how to recognize misinformation and disinformation is vital. What is bias and how can it be mitigated? How can we recognize when an outlet values accuracy?
So many of the problems the U.S. is facing currently are due to people watching or listening to dubious news sources. Mandatory media literacy courses would (hopefully) go a long way toward changing that.
The Stock Market and Other Investments
I underestimated how much I’d need to know about the stock market when I was younger. None of that economic stuff interested me, but I wish I understood it better now.
But really, it’s investing in general that we need to understand more about when we’re younger, especially since starting young is the No. 1 best advice any financial advisor will give you.
How Banking, Credit and Credit Cards Work
Every single one of us uses a bank or credit union and credit is a huge part of adult life. And yet most people I know have had to piece together how credit and credit cards actually work through advice from friends and family and good old trial and error, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Taxes
Good gracious, right? Not just how to do taxes, but what taxes get used for.
Financial literacy is what I’m saying. We need mandatory financial literacy classes. (Florida has actually just become the first state to require personal finance education to graduate, so yay Florida.) I think I was required to take economics in high school, but it was much more high-level economic theory than personal finance. We need personal finance first, then the bigger picture.
First Aid/Safety/Self-Defense
Most of us probably got some first aid and/or CPR training in health class, but how comprehensive was it? Did it include infant CPR? Do we know how to recognize if someone is having a stroke? Signs of infection?
What about basic everyday safety, like why you shouldn’t leave a car running in a garage or common household fire dangers or how to spot asbestos?
Self-defense seems like a no-brainer. Basically, a “How to Stay Alive and Keep Others Alive” course that includes most everything you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones on a daily basis.
Navigating our Healthcare and Health Insurance System
Ugh. I’ve been an adult for almost three decades and everything about our healthcare system confuses and frustrates me. Maybe if we required schools to teach young people how it works, it would shine a big spotlight on how ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated it is because no one could possibly explain it in a way that’s understandable. Maybe that would push lawmakers to actually do something about it, because honestly, it’s just a gigantic mess.
There are surely others, but those are the major subjects that come to mind as vital after being an adult for a long while and seeing what my own kids need to have a decent grasp on as they make their way into the world. And honestly, there are some classes that adults should be required to take well into adulthood. Parenting classes, for example. Or local government and voting.
All subjects and courses have value to some people, but if we want students to be prepared for adulthood, we should make sure they are given the vital knowledge and skills every person actually needs and will use.
A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It’s a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.
When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.
None
— (@)
The teen’s height doesn’t stem from a gland issue; he comes from a family of tall people. Both his parents are over 6 feet tall.
Eric plays football for Goodrich High School in Goodrich, Michigan, but doesn’t wear cleats, which led to a sprained ankle. He also suffers from ingrown toenails that are so severe he’s had two nails on his biggest toes permanently removed.
Last year, the family was lucky enough to stumble upon five pairs of size 21 shoes at a Nike outlet store. It was discovered they were made especially for Tacko Fall, the NBA player with some of the most enormous feet in the game. To put things in perspective, Shaquille O’Neal wears a size 22.
However, Eric soon grew out of those as well. The family was left with one more option: have orthopedic shoes made for Eric at the cost of $1,500 with no guarantee he won’t quickly grow out of those as well.
After his mother’s heartfelt plea to Hometown Life, the family got much-needed help from multiple companies, including Under Armour and PUMA, who are sending representatives to Michigan to measure his feet for custom shoes.
CAT has reached out to make him a custom pair of boots. Eric hasn’t had any boots to wear for the past five Michigan winters.
None
— (@)
Kara Pattison started a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the family to help them purchase custom shoes for “the rest of the time Eric has these feet.” It has raised nearly $20,000 for the family in just over a week.
“The success of this fundraiser is well beyond what was ever expected,” Pattison wrote on the site on March 18. “The Kilburns plan to open a bank account dedicated to Eric’s future footwear and some specialized sports equipment. He can use this to get a helmet that fits for football along with pads. They will also look into a football and track jersey for him.”
The sense of relief felt by Rebecca, Eric and the rest of the Kilburn family must be incredible. It has to be frustrating to be unable to provide your child with something as basic as footwear.
“It’s been overwhelming,” Rebecca told Hometown Life. “I have been this puddle of emotions, all of them good…It’s the coolest thing to be able to say we did it! He has shoes! I am not usually a crier, but I have been in a constant state of happy tears…We are so grateful.”
Animals can be far cleverer than we give them credit for, especially creatures we don’t think of as having distinct personalities. Most of us expect cats and dogs to do show us their unique quirks, but what about a flying squirrel?
A video is making its way around the internet that has people giggling over the dramatic antics of a large pet flying squirrel. It includes no narration explaining what’s happening and no context—it just shows a flying squirrel repeatedly faking its own death by broom.
That’s right. Death by broom. And from the way it looks, the little bugger came up with the idea on its own and made multiple attempts to create a convincing crime scene.
This is one you just have to see.
Twitter user @Birrellebee wrote that the squirrel “faked his own death, and created a whole crime scene…for attention. I think I’m in love.”
Whether the squirrel really did this just for attention or for some other reason isn’t clear, but no one seems to offering a more plausible explanation for it.
Watch:
u201cThis flying squirrel faked his own death, and created a whole crime sceneu2026for attention. I think Iu2019m in love. u201d
— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d) 1685808791
While some people have expressed understandable concern over flying squirrels living indoors as pets, we don’t know what the living situation here really is. Maybe the squirrel was injured and rescued. Maybe it can’t survive in the wild. We simply don’t know.
What we do know is that this adorable rodent deserves an Oscar for its performance. The way it gracefully somersaults right into position. The placing of the broomstick on its neck and splaying itself out flat on its back. The checking to see if anyone is looking. The repositioning of the murder weapon multiple times to figure out which one seems more believable.
Was that really what it was doing? Who knows. But it was a genuinely incredible performance nonetheless.
And of course, the people of the internet didn’t disappoint in the comments.
u201c@pimlius @nycsouthpaw Well, maybe he shouldu2019ve thought of that, befor being such a wee drama queen. Nobody likes an attention whore.u201d
— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d) 1685808791
u201c@RIDICULO_pathy @BirrelleBee I love this squirrel ud83dude02ud83eudd70u201d
— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d) 1685808791
“@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott It’s an insurance scam.”
u201c@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott Itu2019s an insurance scam.u201d
— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d) 1685808791
u201c@Marx_Bros_Thing @BirrelleBee Sameu201d
— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d) 1685808791
Listening to someone speak a language you don’t know can be a trippy experience. You can glean a bit from someone’s tone of voice and maybe pick out a few words here and there, but otherwise the sounds that are coming out of their mouth are meaningless. And yet, most of us are able to figure out what language someone is speaking if we’re even just a little bit familiar with it. We know what Spanish and French and Chinese sound like, and could easily differentiate between people speaking those languages even we barely even know any words in those languages.
But what about someone rapid-fire rhyming? If you’ve ever wondered what English rapping sounds like to non-English speakers, have we got a treat for you.
The song is called “IGOWALLAH (ft. Hoodie Guy)” and according to people in the comments who have experienced learning English, it’s spot on—right down to being able to pick out a few actual words here and there.
Watch:
He even listed all of the lyrics in the caption of the YouTube video. It’s even a real song on Spotify—and the lyrics are listed there, too.
Imagine having to learn lyrics like this:
Menku. Slemper with flango bajeegin. When you firspepple on a reemstrap, dredju mether wanna gubby?
Many of the more than 34,000 comments on the video confirmed that he nailed it.
“The ‘okays’ being understandable is incredibly real considering okay is a pretty much universal word. Just goes to show the attention to detail.”
“As a non native English speaker this speaks to my childhood. Never thought I’d hear this language ever again but here we are.”
“I showed this to my non English speaking aunt and she said, “you know I don’t speak English, why are you asking me what they are saying?”
“Being able to say not actual words, but actually able to make it sound like it isn’t just slurred together, takes actual skill.”
“It’s actually impressive how well this man can speak gibberish.”
“As a non-English speaker, I can confirm that this is exactly what rap sounds like.”
“The fact that he randomly sings in Spanish just once makes it so much more accurate.”
Other people really liked the song itself.
“This song is proof that even when the lyrics are Gibberish, a catchy beat makes all the difference.”
“I’m not sure why but every few days I come back to this video for no apparent reason it’s weirdly a good song.”
“This is how you know someone puts effort into their videos, they literally rehearsed this, actually memorised the lyrics, dude did everything that it takes to make a real song and he proudly did so. 100/10 music artist dude here.”
“Why does this hit SO HARD.”
If this is your first introduction to Daniel Thrasher, you’ve got a whole world of incredibly impressive musical comedy to discover. You can find him on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
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