Fifth-grade teacher Emily E. Smith is not your ordinary teacher.
She founded The Hive Society — a classroom that’s all about inspiring children to learn more about their world … and themselves — by interacting with literature and current events. Students watch TED talks, read Rolling Stone, and analyze infographics. She even has a long-distance running club to encourage students to take care of their minds and bodies.
Smith is such an awesome teacher, in fact, that she recently received the 2015 Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.
It had always been her dream to work with children in urban areas, so when Smith started teaching, she hit the ground running. She had her students making podcasts, and they had in-depth discussions about their readings on a cozy carpet.
But in her acceptance speech for her award, she made it clear that it took a turning point in her career before she really got it:
“Things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I “couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.” I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.”
Smith knew that just acknowledging her white privilege wasn’t enough.
She wanted to move beyond just empathy and find a way to take some real action that would make a difference for her students.
She kept the same innovative and engaging teaching methods, but she totally revamped her curriculum to include works by people who looked like her students. She also carved out more time to discuss issues that her students were facing, such as xenophobia and racism.
And that effort? Absolutely worth it.
As she said in her acceptance speech:
“We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture — so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw light in their eyes I had never seen before.”
The changes Smith made in her classroom make a whole lot of sense. And they’re easy enough for teachers everywhere to make:
— They studied the work of historical Latino figures, with some of the original Spanish language included. Many children of color are growing up in bilingual households. In 2007, 55.4 million Americans 5 years of age and older spoke a language other than English at home.
— They analyzed the vision of America that great writers of color sought to create. And her students realized that our country still isn’t quite living up to its ideals. Despite progress toward racial equality with the end of laws that enforced slavery or segregation, we still have a long way to go. Black people still fare worse than white people when it comes to things like wealth, unfair arrests, and health.
— They read excerpts from contemporary writers of color, like Ta-Nehisi Coates who writes about race. Her students are reading and learning from a diverse group of writers. No small thing when they live in a society that overwhelmingly gives more attention to white male writers (and where the number of employees of color in the newspaper industry stagnates at a paltry 12%).
— They read about the Syrian crisis, and many students wrote about journeys across the border in their family history for class. The opportunity particularly struck one student; the assignment touched him so much that he cried. He never had a teacher honor the journey his family made. And he was proud of his heritage for the first time ever. “One child cried,” Smith shared, “and told me he never had a teacher who honored the journey his family took to the United States. He told me he was not ashamed anymore, but instead proud of the sacrifice his parents made for him.”
Opportunities like this will only increase as the number of children from immigrant families is steadily increasing. As of 2013, almost 17.4 million children under 18 have at least one immigrant parent.
Smith now identifies not just as an English teacher, but as a social justice teacher.
Smith’s successful shift in her teaching is an example for teachers everywhere, especially as our schools become increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. About 80% of American teachers are white. But as of last year, the majority of K-12 students in public schools are now children of color.
As America’s demographics change, we need to work on creating work that reflects the experiences that our students relate to. And a more diverse curriculum isn’t just important for students of color. It’s vital for everyone.
As Smith put it, “We, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.”
Life hacks are tiny nuggets of wisdom that can make our daily lives easier and more enjoyable. They’re clever shortcuts and ingenious solutions to everyday problems that we sometimes don’t realize are unique to us until we share them with others.
They can save us time, money and effort, all while adding a dash of fun and creativity to our routines.
One would think that we’ve heard every hack known to man. However, a group of Redditors have come together to share the “completely original” life hacks they came up with and there are many new ones that we’ve never heard.
It all started when a Redditor with the username reddit_API_is_sh** posed an awkwardly-worded question to the AskReddit subforum: “What are some of your personal life hacks that you came up with yourself, not necessarily completely original?” The question received over 1,400 responses from folks with life hacks that can help people with nearly every phase of their lives, whether domestic responsibilities, education, or raising kids.
So here are 17 of the best “completely original” life hacks shared on Reddit.
1. Teach ’em Spanish
“If your child watches the same DVD over and over so many times that they know it by heart, switch the language and let them learn Spanish.” — BulletDodger
2. Cleaning motivation
“When I don’t feel like cleaning, I put on a ‘Watch Me Clean’ show on YouTube, and somehow, within 10 minutes, I get up and start cleaning. I need to try that with exercising next.” — Affectionate-Big5784
3. Friends are plants
“You really have to invest in friendships the older you get. The analogy of them being like a plant that needs watering is so true.” — Wirsteve
4. Poo trick
“I put a little bit of tp in the toilet before number 2 to combat splashing.” — TraditionalLadder473
5. Develop interests
“The best way for me to deal with loneliness is actually not to pursue platonic or romantic relationships actively, but to keep myself busy working on and developing my interests. (Additionally, it’s important for me to do this both in a solitary and semi-social way – taking classes, joining groups, etc. However, I don’t use these semi-social outlets to make friends per se, but as a way to just be around like-minded people.) I find actively pursuing relationships when I am in a state of loneliness stress is a recipe for bad outcomes. I always meet the best people when I am more at peace with my life. Also, one of the big perks of having a relatively slow social life is time for personal development and working on interests.” — Zazzlekdazzle
6. Duvet hack
“No matter what size bed you have, get a duvet that’s at least one size bigger.” — Meganetism
7. Memorization
“For upcoming exams that require memorization, I just read through the paper once in morning, noon, afternoon and evening. Don’t try to forcefully remember; just read, maybe out loud if you can’t focus. Over several days, the brain naturally remembers it effortlessly. This, of course, requires doing it ahead of the exams for at least 1 week; try to break the bad habit of studying rushed the night before the exam the next morning with this. Repetition is mother of all learnings.” — Reddit_API_is_sh**
8. Shop satisfied
“Don’t go to the supermarket hungry.” — Posiotive_Judgement581
9. The night before
“Always set up your outfit, lunch, bag, keys, etc. the night before.” — H3rata
10. Always show up
“Just show up. Whether for your job, your BF/GF, your sports team, your parents, or whatever. Just showing up, even if you’re empty-handed, even if you can’t play, even if you’re not totally prepared for the meeting, just show up. Bailing on stuff and not being present is the worst thing you can do. Always show up.” — Gottapeenow2
11. Be quiet
“Say less. People will over-explain and give you the advantage.” — Arseblaster420
12. Why worry?
“I adopted a snippet of conversation from the movie, ‘Bridge of Spies.’ At three, separate points in the movie, there is this fragment between Hanks (the Lawyer) and Ryland (the Spy) (whose birthday is today, too): Lawyer: You don’t seem to be worried about «event».Spy (after a short pause): Would it help? I like that. There’s no point to getting your knickers in a twist over events you have no control over, cannot influence, etc. My life is considerably more relaxed with that attitude.” — DeeDee_Zee
13. Stay silent
“When someone says something outrageous (racist, mean, hurtful, whatever), do not respond at all. Go completely silent. Leave their comment hanging there like a fart. Let them marinate in what they just said.” — jimstirlingssurgeon
“Repeat exactly what they’ve said out loud back to them. Say nothing else after. It gets them thinking. As a Black woman who recently moved to Australia, I’ve had to adopt this approach instead. It’s been a wonderful strategy.” — kymikeobabe
14. Touch grass
“If you’re feeling sluggish or down in the dumps go for a walk or get out in nature, even if it’s the last thing you want to do.” — Cherrycola250ml
15. No sugar in the AM
“Don’t start your day with sugar—it helps reduce cravings throughout the rest of your day, and your snacking will take a back seat. I think it’s spiking your glucose early that does it. Start with something savory and packed with protein.” — Emotional_Camp_7681
16. Clean for 10
“Every morning I spend 10 minutes cleaning something before I go to work. Dishes we left to soak overnight, folding laundry we air dryed, organizing the coffee table. A little adds up to a lot.” — k_lo970
17. Space heater
“In the winter, I put a small space heater in my bathroom and put it on only when I’m in the shower. When I get out, it is so pleasant in the room. No chills, no goosebumps. I can dry off and put on my lotion in comfort. It’s glorious. If you want to do this, you have to make sure to buy a space heater that is designed for the bathroom and has one of those safety plugs.” — lordmattimcauthon
It’s a valid query — since both Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam make a great single-barrel product that’s both easy to find and easy to afford. You can grab both of these bottles from most liquor store shelves right now. So let’s find out exactly which one you should be buying via a blind taste test.
Before we dive in, to be clear, these whiskeys are very distinct. Which is which is obviously, as soon as you nose them. Jack Daniel’s whiskey goes through the Lincoln County Process — a sugar maple charcoal filtration. This makes the flavors from the yeast — fruits, florals, soft sugars — more accessible during aging. Jim Beam doesn’t go through this process, making Beam’s whiskey oakier and spicier with a deep cherry vibe.
Part 1 — The Jim Beam Vs. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Blind Tasting
Zach Johnston
Taste 1
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with classic notes of vanilla sheet cake, salted caramel, wintry mulled wine spices, and a sense of cherry pie in a lard crust next to a hint of dried corn husk, old broom bristle, and dark chocolate pipe tobacco.
Palate: The palate layers orange zest next to sticky toffee pudding, old leather, and cherry tobacco next to dark chocolate with this lingering sense of coconut cream pie lurking somewhere in the background.
Finish: The finish leans into more woody winter spices (especially cinnamon bark and nutmeg) with rich toffee and cherry-chocolate tobacco braided with dry sweetgrass and cedar bark.
Initial Thoughts
Cherry and woody spice? This is Jim Beam, baby! It’s also pretty delicious. I would say that the end was a little weak compared to the nose and palate, but only slightly so.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A clear sense of toasted oak, dark apple tobacco, apricot jam, and a hint of molasses drives the nose toward pear syrup and pancakes covered in blueberry sauce.
Palate: Notes of caramel corn, mild winter spice barks, and plenty of oily vanilla beans are countered on the palate by cream soda, cinnamon cookies, and soft apple butter tobacco with a mild chewiness.
Finish: The sweet banana fruit arrives on the end and marries well to a peppery spice, apple clove gum, and mulled wine that amps up as the end draws near with a touch of woody pipe tobacco on the very end.
Initial Thoughts
This is a fruit bomb, which is pure Jack. It’s also just deeper somehow. There’s more here and it ends on a lush and vibrant note that’s almost chewy.
Part 2 — The Runner-Up and Winner of the Jim Beam Vs. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Blind Tasting
Zach Johnston
2. Jim Beam Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Each of these Jim Beam bottlings is pulled from single barrels that hit just the right spot of taste, texture, and drinkability, according to the master distillers at Beam. That means this juice is pulled from less than one percent of all barrels in Beam’s warehouses, making this a very special bottle at a bafflingly affordable price.
Bottom Line:
This is a really good bourbon, especially for the price. But the finish needed something a little longer lasting. I’d say build this into a cocktail and you’ll be all set for a great old fashioned or Manhattan.
1. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey
This was first introduced in 1997. The whiskey is hand-selected from barrels on the upper floors of Jack’s vast Tenessee rickhouses. The whisky is bottled at a slightly higher proof to allow the nuance of the single-barrel whiskey to shine.
Bottom Line:
This was just more rounded while still feeling 100% approachable. It was fresh and vibrant and landed the finish with a deep sense of aged whiskey. Overall, this felt like an easygoing sipper for any ol’ day when there’s time to slowly sip some whiskey.
OG Anunoby has missed the last five games for the New York Knicks with a bone spur in his right elbow. The Knicks had been listing Anunoby as day-to-day, with Tom Thibodeau providing little in the way of insight into the severity of the issue for New York’s new star wing.
Unfortunately, rest did not do enough to alleviate the issue and day-to-day will now turn into more than a month total away from the court for Anunoby, as he will miss another three weeks at least after having surgery to remove the bone fragment from his elbow.
BREAKING: New York Knicks F OG Anunoby had surgery to remove a loose bone fragment in his right elbow and will miss a minimum of three weeks, sources tell ESPN. Procedure is considered minor and he’s expected to resume basketball activities in three weeks. pic.twitter.com/jws9NC1s32
The goal, of course, is for Anunoby to be back and fully healthy for the final push to the playoffs in March. The Knicks have climbed into a tie for third in the East, and are comfortably ahead of the Pacers in sixth for the final guaranteed playoff position. Still, they will have to navigate the next week before the All-Star break without both Anunoby and Julius Randle, who will be re-evaluated at the end of the break as he recovers from a dislocated shoulder. All-Star does provide a week off that cuts into how many games Anunoby will miss, but it will still be at least nine more games without him.
The Knicks do have some reinforcements coming via the trade deadline after making a move to add Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks from the Pistons, but there will still be a lot of burden on Jalen Brunson (who tweaked his ankle recently) and the rest of the Knicks if they’re going to hold onto their current spot in the top-4 without Anunoby and Randle for a decent chunk of time.
The Super Bowl is coming up this weekend with Halftime Show performer Usher ready to bring the soul, but fans looking forward to seeing what game DJ Tiësto would have contributed to the festivities will unfortunately be disappointed in that regard. The DJ has made the “tough” decision to pull out of the show due to a family emergency according to Variety based on social media posts he shared today.
“Me and my team have been preparing something truly special for months, but a personal family emergency is forcing me to return home Sunday morning,” he wrote. “It was a tough decision to miss the game, but family always comes first. Thank you to the @NFL for the collaboration and looking forward to working with them to deliver something incredible together in the future !”
Me and my team have been preparing something truly special for months, but a personal family emergency is forcing me to return home Sunday morning. It was a tough decision to miss the game, but family always comes first. Thank you to the @NFL for the collaboration and looking…
Super Bowl LVIII was to be the first with an “in-game” DJ, with Tiësto playing during breaks in the game. Some would even appear during CBS’ broadcast. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to wait until some other time to see what Tiësto had up his sleeve. The NFL undoubtedly has a backup plan, but as of press time, it hasn’t yet been revealed which DJ will come off the bench to take Tiësto’s place — or if the league will just nix the plan altogether this year.
Well… at least we still have the ads. So. Many. Ads. (It’s a good crop this year, too.)
An $18 McDonald’s Big Mac Meal recently made headlines as further evidence of the pains of inflation. I’ve seen all kinds of takes here, with people and publications blaming Joe Biden’s economic policies (it is an election year after all), or suggesting the fault is with fast food workers themselves for accepting their well-deserved wage increases. It’s a thorny issue and, truth be told, much of this is a simple market correction in an artificially deflated food system.*
Make no mistake, fast food prices are rising. But what a lot of these headlines and the online chatter seem to miss is that generally, a Big Mac Meal doesn’t cost the average consumer $18. To say otherwise is completely disingenuous. The $18 Big Mac that gets cited again and again in articles like the NY Post’s “Why McDonald’s is charging $18 for a Big Mac Meal — and why there’s no relief in sight,” is about a specific McDonald’s franchise restaurant at a rest stop in Darien, Connecticut — where a Big Mac meal will cost you $17.59 and an Egg McMuffin will run you $7.29.
That’s a lot of money, for sure. But when we’re talking about a specific franchise restaurant (franchisees set their own prices) located at a rest stop where prices are often grossly inflated (have you ever gotten gas between cities on a road trip? It’s nuts), this doesn’t paint an accurate picture of what the average American consumer faces. The truth is, that the Federal Reserve has done a pretty good job of bringing down inflation rates and dodging a full-blown economic recession. The United States Department of Agriculture says that food prices are decreasing at the grocery store and yes, increasing away from home (meaning fast food) but not nearly to the point that these reactionary publications would suggest.
McDonald’s knows its high prices are hurting business, recently its CEO Chris Kempczinski acknowledged the pressure its rising prices place on consumers making under $45,000 a year. So it’s up to McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants to figure out how to draw those customers back (Taco Bell is doing a pretty good job).
This conversation got us thinking — How much does an actual Big Mac Meal cost? Prices vary from city to city, so we rounded up the price of the Big Mac Meal and some of our other fast food favorites from five of the most populous cities across the United States to see how much damage eating out will cause to your finances. The five cities we chose were New York City, New York, Los Angeles California, Chicago Illinois, Atlanta Georgia, and Houston Texas.
The restaurants we chose were McDonald’s (obviously), Chipotle, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s, simply because these are four of our favorite fast food restaurants and they’re located in each of the five cities. We focused specifically on combo meals (except Chipotle, which doesn’t have combos), and chose two or three popular orders. See the details below.
*We’ve been paying too little for fast food for decades. — you shouldn’t be able to raise a chicken, kill a chicken, portion a chicken, cook a chicken, bread a chicken, flash freeze a chicken, send a chicken across the country, unpack a chicken, fry a chicken, box it up with a toy and two sauces, and sell it for $3 — that’s insanity and it’s why chicken farms are so gross and unethical, etc.
McDonalds
Unsplash
Manhattan
Big Mac Meal: $13.49
10pc Chicken McNugget Meal: $12.69
Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese: $15.29
Los Angeles
Big Mac Meal: $12.09
10pc Chicken McNuggets Meal: $11.59
Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese Meal: $13.99
Chicago
Big Mac Meal: $11.89
10 Pc Chicken Mcnuggets Meal: $12.29
Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese Meal: $13.09
Atlanta
Big Mac Meal: $11.29
10pc Chicken Nuggets Meal: $11.29
Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese: $13.29
Houston
Big Mac Meal: $9.99
10pc Chicken McNuggets Meal: $10.59
Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese: $10.89
One thing this exercise put into perspective is that in two of the most expensive cities in the country, a Big Mac Meal costs about $5 less than that $18 mark, and that fast food is priced pretty competitively across the board from restaurant to restaurant.
While a restaurant like Taco Bell has a more robust “dollar” menu, the combos from each restaurant cost around or near the same price as the competition. The question we should ask ourselves as consumers is, what am I paying for? Is a Crunchwrap Supreme Combo at $13.38 made with powdered beans and highly processed meat, as much of a bang for your buck as say a burrito from Chipotle for $11.29, where ingredients are fresher and prepared on-site in the restaurant? Does that matter when ordering a side of guacamole and a drink is probably going to cost you more the a Crunchwrap Combo?
There is no right or wrong answer here, it’s a matter of preference. Perceptions of value are for each of us to develop on our own.
This year’s NBA trade deadline didn’t feature much in the way of star power, as teams instead spent the deadline hunting for depth improvements and ways to bolster their rosters for the playoff push rather than completely shake them up.
That said, the lack of big activity meant there were opportunities to make moves on the edges to improve rosters while much of the league stayed put. Figuring out winners and losers this year was a bit tricky, because there didn’t seem to be a ton of opportunities to make a big swing, as everyone seems intent on saving those moves for the summer now. That said, there were teams with clear needs at the deadline and only some of them addressed them. Others that were supposed to be big players at the deadline were left without a dance partner, while some top teams still managed to find some smaller upgrades to bolster their position for the playoff chase.
So, who won and lost the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline? Let’s dive in…
WINNERS
New York Knicks
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The Knicks already had been the stars of trade season with their acquisition of OG Anunoby earlier in the year, sparking their run up the standings, but they continued to bolster their roster at the deadline by way of the Detroit Pistons. New York brought in Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks for Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, Malachi Flynn, Ryan Arcidiacono, and two second round picks, giving them some additional depth and shooting on the wing without parting with any of their best draft assets.
Losing Grimes is not nothing, and they certainly gave up some long-term upside in the deal for what they hope is a short-term boost. Defensively they got worse, but Grimes was playing just 20 minutes a night and similarly to the Anunoby deal, giving up some talent that didn’t necessarily fit Tom Thibodeau’s vision to get vets that do makes sense for the Knicks. Bogdanovic will provide some needed floor-spacing and secondary shot-creation on the wing, although he’ll need to be paired with the Knicks best defensive groups to work. Burks is a vet who has played for Thibs and the Knicks recently and should slot into a lower-usage role in New York than he was playing in Detroit, where his value as a spot-up shooter will be valuable and some of his issues as an on-ball player will be mitigated.
To be clear, the Knicks didn’t make a massive leap at the deadline, but they did make some improvements (while maintaining flexibility for this summer) which is more than can be said about most of the East’s top teams. If nothing else, after years of lacking any sort of coherent vision or plan, New York at least has identified the path it wants to take as an organization and keeps making moves that push that vision along, which is a win for fans that have wanted that for so long.
Furkan Korkmaz
The NBA’s longest active trade request has finally come to an end as Furkan Korkmaz was included in the deal between the Sixers and Pacers that brought Buddy Hield back to Philly. Korkmaz has been trying to get traded for five years now, asking to be included just about every time the Sixers are on the market for a deal but continued to be employed in Philadelphia. Now, he finally gets his wish and is joining the Pacers, although it’s hard to see him having much of a larger role in Indy than he had with the Sixers. Still, perseverance pays off and Furkan has finally been freed.
UPDATE: Korkmaz has been waived by the Pacers, so…maybe not a winner.
ESPN Sources: The Pacers are waiving Furkan Korkmaz, who they acquired in the deal with the 76ers for Buddy Hield.
I include the Mavs in the winners category because I think they made their team undoubtedly better at the deadline, but I certainly understand those that aren’t thrilled with the process that got them here. Dallas effectively undid a large chunk of its offseason and had to unload a pair of first round picks (and swap 2028 picks with OKC) in order to right the wrongs of this summer, so it’s not as if this was some dominant deadline by them. That said, P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford certainly seem like considerable upgrades in the frontcourt to what they’ve gotten this year from Grant Williams and Richaun Holmes.
Dallas desperately needed another center behind rookie Dereck Lively II, and Gafford fits a similar role as Lively that should allow the Mavs to play a similar style no matter what center is on the floor. Gafford is not as tall as Lively but is still a good rim protector (2.2 blocks per game) and is very bouncy and active on that end — he graded out positively on the defensive end in most metrics this year despite [gestures at everything else in Washington]. On offense, he’s not a deft post-scorer but he’s a great play finisher, which is the exact kind of center you want with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Gafford is a very good roll man and vertical spacer, and should provide another lob threat for Luka and Kyrie to throw it up to. That archetype has worked very well for the Mavs with Lively, and adding another at a relatively low cost to have 48 minutes of solid center play that fits your needs is an upgrade for the Mavs.
Washington is an interesting player with some upside who is having a down shooting year in Charlotte but historically has been able to space the floor at the four and has some defensive versatility. That, of course, was also the idea with signing Grant Williams this offseason, but aside from a solid year as a spot-up shooter, Williams did not pan out in his first season with Dallas. They quickly chose to flip him into Washington, who is on a smaller deal with two more years left after this one, and hope that he’ll find more comfort playing alongside Luka and company. On the whole, Dallas is better but gave up some future flexibility (and trade assets) to make it happen. That’s the cost of missing on an offseason of moves with expectations to compete now, and they’ll hope they remedied those mistakes on Thursday and can get back in the contender realm of the West.
Boston Celtics
The Celtics also did some nice work on the fringes at the deadline, adding Xavier Tillman from the Grizzlies as another strong and versatile defending big and picking up Jaden Springer for a second round pick from the Sixers. The Tillman pickup is a bit of a luxury add for a Boston team that isn’t desperate for frontcourt help but it certainly doesn’t hurt to add some insurance for both Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. Mostly, the Celtics are winners cause no one really closed the gap on them at the deadline.
Without any star movement, the only team that clearly got better at the deadline in the East was the New York Knicks. Philly was fairly active — Buddy Hield is a nice addition for them but I’m not particularly high on the Cam Payne for Patrick Beverley swap — but they failed to address their frontcourt issues, which is a considerable issue with Embiid out for awhile. The Bucks adding Beverley makes a lot of sense given their awful perimeter defense, but that’s doesn’t feel like a needle-mover in terms of being a contender and they didn’t address their needs on the wing at all. The Cavs unsurprisingly stayed put having made their moves this offseason and are banking on getting healthy being their midseason upgrade. All told, the Celtics still feel like the class of the East by a decent margin and made some solid moves on the periphery, which makes them a winner.
Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Phoenix Suns
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Like Boston, none of these teams made ground-shaking moves, but each bolstered their roster while seeing other contenders in their conference stand pat. OKC adding a veteran wing in Gordon Hayward and clearing out some of their backcourt bloat on the roster (while doing some more vintage Presti stuff by moving a pick this year for a future pick swap with Dallas) was a nice move to consolidate a bit of talent and hope Hayward can help out in a smaller role than he played in Charlotte. The Wolves likewise take two players that were mostly out of the rotation and add Monte Morris, who has proven to be helpful on a playoff team in the past, to backup Mike Conley and give them steady point guard minutes for all 48. The Suns flip a bunch of their end of the rotation guys for Royce O’Neale, who is an upgrade on the wing in terms of two-way help provided he can pick up his three-point shooting when surrounded by more talent, and David Roddy (who probably isn’t a factor but will be a body to replace some of the guys on the way out).
They were all solid moves on a quiet day, and improving the roster when others didn’t is a win at a slow deadline.
The “Did The Most Stuff” Award Winners
Detroit Pistons
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I have no idea what the Pistons are doing, but they were definitely active over the last 24 hours. They spent Wednesday and Thursday smashing a big button that says TRADE and no one seems quite sure what the plan is in Detroit. I don’t want to call them losers, because to be honest, there’s not a whole lot more to lose and I think some of what they did was understandable. It’s just, similar to what I mentioned with the Knicks, they’re in that zone of seemingly just pressing buttons and hoping for a good outcome, rather than having a cohesive plan for constructing this roster.
First they traded a second round pick (that should be quite good) and Kevin Knox to the Jazz for Simone Fontecchio. They then traded Monte Morris to Minnesota for Shake Milton, Troy Brown Jr. and a second round pick. After that they flipped Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks into Quentin Grimes and two second round picks from the Knicks — respectfully, I can’t see Evan Fournier, Malachi Flynn, or Ryan Arcidiacono being contributors this year or beyond. They also traded for Danuel House and a second rounder, waiving House immediately, and waived Joe Harris and Killian Hayes to make room for all the players they brought in.
On aggregate, they added three second round picks and a couple interesting players in Grimes and Fontecchio (the latter of whom they will have to re-sign this summer as a restricted free agent) and cleared up any questions about who their backcourt of the future is by giving Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey the keys. That, in and of itself, is a positive and why I don’t want to call it a terrible deadline or anything. That said, the second they gave up will be better than any of the ones they added, and given they were reportedly turning down first round picks for Bogdanovic a year ago and asking for one again this year, it seems they overplayed their hand with his trade value and ultimately had to settle for what they could get. It wasn’t a disaster, which is why they get their own space in between the winners and losers, but the plan in Detroit still isn’t particularly clear.
LOSERS
Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls
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As is now an annual tradition, the Hawks and Bulls were focal points of trade rumors for months and then did pretty much nothing at the deadline. We’ll start with an Atlanta team that was very clear in their intention to trade Dejounte Murray, only to fail to find the market they hoped for him. They reportedly talked to the Lakers, Pelicans, Raptors, and others, but could not get the two first rounders in return they wanted for the former All-Star. Not only that, they’ve been trying to move Clint Capela and De’Andre Hunter since the offseason, and again failed to find a trade partner. Now the Hawks will again push for a Play-In berth and maybe a first round appearance before the same rumors pick up this summer around the Draft. They did it with John Collins for years (and long before that, Josh Smith), and it seems one of the few constants of the organization is dangling key players publicly in trade rumors only to hold onto them by insisting the right deal wasn’t out there. That’s fine, but it certainly doesn’t help locker room morale to hear your name constantly in trade rumblings and don’t know if or when you’ll be dealt to ensure ownership can duck the luxury tax.
Then you have the Bulls, who haven’t made a deadline deal involving a player since 2021 despite similarly being heavily involved in rumors each January and February. This year they have a little cover in the form of Zach LaVine’s foot surgery, but even before that it seemed they were unlikely to move their All-Star guard. There were whispers about Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan, murmurs about Alex Caruso, and damn near shouting about Andre Drummond, but all four will be on the floor for Chicago in their next game against Memphis. Running it back loses its luster after awhile, and despite a decent run of late, you’d be hard-pressed to find many Bulls fans excited about the overall team’s prospects going forward — even if Coby White’s leap is genuinely exciting. Arturas Karnisovas even said the Bulls had the greenlight to go into a rebuild from ownership, but have decided to “remain competitive” in the East, sitting at that famously competitive record of 24-27 on the season.
Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors
The Lakers and Warriors are the same teams they were a week ago, which comes as a bit of a surprise given how things have been going. It’s not a shock given the reporting we’ve heard over the past few days, but that also doesn’t make a dud of a deadline any more palatable to fans (or stars) on either team. LeBron James has been making his displeasure known in a vintage, passive-aggressive manner of late, with cryptic tweets and walking off the floor with a Knicks towel draped around his neck after a win at Madison Square Garden. Stephen Curry, meanwhile, offered the definition of insanity in response to questions about his desire to see the Warriors make improvements, offering a rare glimpse at his own frustrations with Golden State’s struggles this year.
And yet, neither star got any reinforcements at the deadline, with the Lakers not making any moves and the Warriors only shipping out Cory Joseph for a pick. Both teams will sell it as them keeping their options open for this summer and both will probably look to make a buyout signing — the Lakers are expected to chase Spencer Dinwiddie — but I’m not sure that’s enough consolation for their stars who don’t particularly care about future flexibility. The truth is, there wasn’t a singular deal that could solve all the issues both rosters have, but doing nothing certainly seems like throwing in the towel on the season.
Toronto Raptors
On the whole, Toronto has made clear their plans for the future are to build around Scottie Barnes. They made their big moves, trading OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, well before the deadline and I think they did solidly in those deals all things considered. However, what they did at the deadline wasn’t my absolute favorite.
I know this isn’t a great draft and they didn’t trade a great pick, but they must really believe in Ochai Agbaji or be determined to acquire all the Canadians by bringing in Kelly Olynyk. The part that makes the least sense to me about the trade with the Jazz is the Olynyk portion. The veteran big is a helpful player on an expiring, but Toronto is a team that seems determined to tank out the season to retain their top-6 protected pick that would otherwise go to the Spurs this summer. I’m fine taking a swing on Agbaji — they need shooting and that was his whole upside in the draft two years ago even if it’s not panned out in limited action in Utah — but I’m just not sure about the Olynyk addition fitting with either their short or long-term goals.
They then dumped Dennis Schroder’s salary on Brooklyn for Spencer Dinwiddie and released him, which makes more sense for the tanking efforts, but certainly isn’t a particularly great deal. Again, in terms of trade season as a whole, the Raptors have at least picked a direction which I can appreciate and added some talent and draft assets that certainly didn’t appear to be available at the deadline. That said, with regards to the deadline itself, their moves didn’t make a ton of sense with the short-term plans, with the caveat that if Agbaji pops it was all worth it.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, but there are an awful lot of WWE fans who are not excited for the return of The Great One. That’s because many believe The Rock is taking an opportunity away from Cody Rhodes, who ceded his chance to exact revenge on Reigns for last year’s Mania loss and “finish the story” of winning the title he so greatly covets.
There are reports and rumors abound about what exactly is going on behind the scenes at WWE, but many of them point to Rhodes going into the Royal Rumble believing he’d get his shot at Reigns, only for plans to change dramatically once The Rock signed on and CM Punk got hurt — ending his chance to go after Seth Rollins. This week on Raw, Rollins and Rhodes met face-to-face in the ring while “Rocky Sucks” chants cascaded down, prompting Cody to tweet this to the very vocal fans believing he’s getting screwed out of his Mania moment.
On Thursday evening in Las Vegas, taking advantage of the mass of media on hand for Super Bowl week, Reigns, Rhodes, Rollins, and The Rock will all take the stage for a press event to hype up WrestleMania 40. Prior to that, The Rock stopped by The Pat McAfee Show and decided to warm things up by cutting a vintage heel Rock promo on the “Cody Crybabies” online.
“THE ROCK SAYS THIS…
ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS SIT BACK KNOW YOUR ROLE SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND ENJOY THE RIDE THE ROCK IS ABOUT TO TAKE YOU ON..
If he’s letting this one rip on TV before the event, you can bet he’s got more planned for Thursday night. I must say, hearing The Rock talk in the third person, tell people to shut their “bitch asses up”, and make a joke about them shoving McNuggets up their asses after firing off tweets is oddly comforting.
It’s also funny watching him flip the kayfabe switch in realtime, toggling between making sure to be careful he explains he’s talking only of a subset of Cody’s fans and not most fans and not Cody himself, then cutting the promo, and then laughing about how fun it is to get back in that world.
Fifty years ago, when Paul McCartney announced he had left the Beatles, the news dashed the hopes of millions of fans, while fueling false reunion rumors that persisted well into the new decade.
In a press release on April 10, 1970 for his first solo album, “McCartney,” he leaked his intention to leave. In doing so, he shocked his three bandmates.
The Beatles had symbolized the great communal spirit of the era. How could they possibly come apart?
Few at the time were aware of the underlying fissures. The power struggles in the group had been mounting at least since their manager, Brian Epstein, died in August of 1967.
‘Paul Quits the Beatles’
Was McCartney’s “announcement” official? His album appeared on April 17, and its press packet included a mock interview. In it, McCartney is asked, “Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?”
His response? “No.”
But he didn’t say whether the separation might prove permanent. The Daily Mirror nonetheless framed its headline conclusively: “Paul Quits the Beatles.”
The others worried this could hurt sales and sent Ringo as a peacemaker to McCartney’s London home to talk him down from releasing his solo album ahead of the band’s “Let It Be” album and film, which were slated to come out in May. Without any press present, McCartney shouted Ringo off his front stoop.
Lennon had kept quiet
Lennon, who had been active outside the band for months, felt particularly betrayed.
The previous September, soon after the band released “Abbey Road,” he had asked his bandmates for a “divorce.” But the others convinced him not to go public to prevent disrupting some delicate contract negotiations.
Still, Lennon’s departure seemed imminent: He had played the Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival with his Plastic Ono Band in September 1969, and on Feb. 11, 1970, he performed a new solo track, “Instant Karma,” on the popular British TV show “Top of the Pops.” Yoko Ono sat behind him, knitting while blindfolded by a sanitary napkin.
In fact, Lennon behaved more and more like a solo artist, until McCartney countered with his own eponymous album. He wanted Apple to release this solo debut alongside the group’s new album, “Let It Be,” to dramatize the split.
By beating Lennon to the announcement, McCartney controlled the story and its timing, and undercut the other three’s interest in keeping it under wraps as new product hit stores.
Ray Connolly, a reporter at the Daily Mail, knew Lennon well enough to ring him up for comment. When I interviewed Connolly in 2008, he told me about their conversation.
Lennon was dumbfounded and enraged by the news. He had let Connolly in on his secret about leaving the band at his Montreal Bed-In in December 1969, but asked him to keep it quiet. Now he lambasted Connolly for not leaking it sooner.
“Why didn’t you write it when I told you in Canada at Christmas!” he exclaimed to Connolly, who reminded him that the conversation had been off the record. “You’re the f–king journalist, Connolly, not me,” snorted Lennon.
“We were all hurt [McCartney] didn’t tell us what he was going to do,” Lennon later told Rolling Stone. “Jesus Christ! He gets all the credit for it! I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record…”
It all falls apart
This public fracas had been bubbling under the band’s cheery surface for years. Timing and sales concealed deeper arguments about creative control and the return to live touring.
In January 1969, the group had started a roots project tentatively titled “Get Back.” It was supposed to be a back-to-the-basics recording without the artifice of studio trickery. But the whole venture was shelved as a new recording, “Abbey Road,” took shape.
When “Get Back” was eventually revived, Lennon – behind McCartney’s back – brought in American producer Phil Spector, best known for girl group hits like “Be My Baby,” to salvage the project. But this album was supposed to be band only – not embroidered with added strings and voices – and McCartney fumed when Spector added a female choir to his song “The Long and Winding Road.”
“Get Back” – which was renamed “Let it Be” – nonetheless moved forward. Spector mixed the album, and a cut of the feature film was readied for summer.
McCartney’s announcement and release of his solo album effectively short-circuited the plan. By announcing the breakup, he launched his solo career in advance of “Let It Be,” and nobody knew how it might disrupt the official Beatles’ project.
Throughout the remainder of 1970, fans watched in disbelief as the “Let It Be” movie portrayed the hallowed Beatles circling musical doldrums, bickering about arrangements and killing time running through oldies. The film finished with an ironic triumph – the famous live set on the roof of their Apple headquarters during which the band played “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and a joyous “One After 909.”
The album, released on May 8, performed well and spawned two hit singles – the title track and “The Long and Winding Road” – but the group never recorded together again.
Their fans hoped against hope that four solo Beatles might someday find their way back to the thrills that had enchanted audiences for seven years. These rumors seemed most promising when McCartney joined Lennon for a Los Angeles recording session in 1974 with Stevie Wonder. But while they all played on one another’s solo efforts, the four never played a session together again.
At the beginning of 1970, autumn’s “Come Together”/”Something” single from “Abbey Road” still floated in the Billboard top 20; the “Let It Be” album and film helped extend fervor beyond what the papers reported. For a long time, the myth of the band endured on radio playlists and across several greatest hits compilations, but when John Lennon sang “The dream is over…” at the end of his own 1970 solo debut, “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” few grasped the lyrics’ implacable truth.
Fans and critics chased every sliver of hope for the “next” Beatles, but few came close to recreating the band’s magic. There were prospects – first bands like Three Dog Night, the Flaming Groovies, Big Star and the Raspberries; later, Cheap Trick, the Romantics and the Knack – but these groups only aimed at the same heights the Beatles had conquered, and none sported the range, songwriting ability or ineffable chemistry of the Liverpool quartet.
We’ve been living in the world without Beatles ever since.
Tim Riley is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Journalism, Emerson College
A video created by Blake Kasemeier has made a lot of people feel seen because it perfectly explains the mindset people develop when they grow up poor. But it’s not just about remembering the hard times of the past. It describes how even though Kasemeier has overcome poverty as an adult, the effects of growing up financially disadvantaged still follow him to this day.
Kasemeier tells stories on social media about parenting, grief, growing up and where they sometimes collide. He documented the loss of his mom in the 2019 podcast series “Good Grief” and has written for some of the world’s leading health and fitness brands.
The video begins with Kasemeier admitting that when he was young, he’d always save half of his food until he got home “just in case.” It was a symptom of living in a financially unstable family with a single mother who had him at 23 years old. To help them get by, she occasionally wrote “hot checks” at the grocery store and blasted a Counting Crows tape to cover up any scary sounds coming out of the car.
Even though sometimes it seemed like they wouldn’t get by and it was “close most days” — “moms always find a way.”
The video ends with a poignant stanza about the lasting effects of growing up in an economically unstable home.
“It sits inside of you. Kinda like a worry but a lot like a flame,” Kasemeier says. “These days, we are doing alright. Maybe the fire finally went out, but there is a part of me that will always taste the smoke.”
“The thing about being born rich or, rather, not poor, is that when you are broke, it feels like you are a tourist on a bad trip. A place that you don’t belong,” Kasemeier continues. “The thing about being born the other way around, is that as hard as you work to escape it, it’s always gonna kinda feel like home
The post received some emotional reactions from people on Instagram.
“I feel the last sentence is the most profound of this video—and the underlying sense of entitlement many have vs the underlying sense of lack of self-worth others may have,” thewitchofportobell0 wrote.
“Tasting the smoke is a great way to put this. Growing up this way really makes you look at some of your frugality and not norm habits in a new light. Hard to relearn,” Jakemerten added.
Even though there were hardships growing up in an economically disadvantaged family, Kasemeier wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I am deeply grateful for the way I was raised,” he told Upworthy. “Unfortunately, everyone experiences some trauma in their upbringing—I wouldn’t want to trade mine for someone else’s. I grew up to be grateful for what I have and without a feeling of entitlement to success: I expected that everything that came to me was going to come through hard work and being kind to people and that has served me very well. It also allowed me to have a great deal of empathy for what everyone is going through.”
Kasemeier further explained the mindset to help those who weren’t raised in that environment better understand the mentality.
“I can tell you that what I experience is a feeling that the other shoe is going to drop, that when I’m up (financially), I don’t expect it to last—that leads to a lot of imposter syndrome,” he told Upworthy. “There are little things—like constant anxiety that your card will decline when you go to check out at a grocery store (knowing full well that you have more than enough money). There are big things, like financial literacy.”
The video talks about economic insecurity, but is also touching tribute to his late mother, who, as he said in the post, found “a way.”
“She came from a tiny farm in rural Arkansas, moved to Hollywood where she met my dad and had me at 23 without a degree or any connections,” Kasemeier told Upworthy. “They had a shotgun wedding and divorced shortly after, my mom was left to navigate parenthood in a pretty challenging way—something I appreciate so much having kids of my own at a totally different place in my life than she was.”
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