What’s going on with Scooter Braun? Over the last few days the big time music manager has been losing clients left and right. Reportedly gone from his rolodex are Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Idina Menzel. Rumors had it Justin Bieber was vamoosing, too, but both parties have shot that one down (for now). Braun has claimed it’s really just him cutting back on the day-to-day of managing so he can spend more time as CEO of HYBE America. Others have suggested there’s a reason he’s switching jobs. Whatever the case, it’s inspired some hilarious memes on that joint previously called Twitter.
The fun seemed to begin after reports of Menzel’s departure dropped.
Idina Menzel has parted ways with Scooter Braun and is no longer managed by him. pic.twitter.com/I3hJiCpcog
The National Basketball Player’s Association is getting involved in the ongoing saga involving James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers. Earlier in the day on Tuesday, the NBA announced that Harden would receive a fine of $100,000 following an investigation into comments Harden made regarding his desire for a trade — in a statement, the league said the fine revolved around “public comments on August 14 and 17 indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team.”
Now, the NBPA released a statement of its own indicating that it believes the NBA went too far in trying to reprimand Harden.
“We respectfully disagree with the league’s decision to discipline James Harden for recent comments he made, which we believe do not violate the rule against public trade demands,” the NBPA said, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. “We intend to file a grievance and have the matter heard by our Arbitrator.”
Wojnarowski reported earlier in the day that the league believed Harden’s comments did, indeed, cross a line regarding public trade demands. Harden previously called Morey a liar while speaking to a attendees of a basketball camp, then went on to proclaim that he’d “never be part of an organization that he’s a part of.” A few days later, Harden expressed his belief that it was too late to mend fences with the Sixers. All of this came after the Sixers apparently ended their efforts to trade Harden, who requested a move earlier in the offseason.
The sausage and egg McMuffin is widely considered the king of fast food breakfast sandwiches. It’s so good that almost every fast food brand has tried — and failed — to mimic its magic. It is simply McDonald’s greatest gift to fast food (aside from the fries, of course). So the idea that another brand could ever come along and make a better breakfast sandwich is hard to fathom. In fact, if you told me at the beginning of this year that it would ever happen, I’d have just laughed at you.
Enter Wendy’s, who today just dropped two new English Muffin Sandwiches at locations nationwide. The new sandwiches feature a light and fluffy muffin topped with browned butter and black pepper, a fresh cracked and fried egg, American cheese, and your choice of oven-baked applewood smoked bacon or a grilled sausage patty. Folks, believe me when I tell you this — Wendy’s has just dropped the two best breakfast sandwiches in all of fast food.
I know, I know, it’s incredibly easy to be charmed by something new, but trust me on this one, I’ve ranked breakfast sandwiches, I’ve blind taste tested them, I’m intimately familiar with just about every sandwich on the market. Wendy’s wins, hands down. Here is why:
Wendy’s Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Muffin
Dane Rivera
Thoughts and Tasting Notes:
Easily the best part of McDonald’s famous Sausage, Egg & Cheese McMuffin is that perfectly toasted English muffin. It’s craggy, airy, and remarkably textural. But when the best part of your sandwich is the bun… how good is your sandwich really? Beat for beat (aside from the muffin), Wendy’s Sausage, Egg & Cheese Muffin is an improvement over what you can get at McDonald’s.
The sausage patty is incredible, it’s tender with a great smokey flavor that has some mild sweetness to it, a heavy emphasis on pepper, and some herbal depth. The combination of fennel and thyme with the savory meat flavor is satisfying in itself, but the sandwich is further elevated by the fried egg that has a good amount of moisture and texture to it, the salty American cheese, and the complex nuttiness of the browned butter which adds some caramel sweetness to each bite.
The muffin is spongier and chewier than the McMuffin, and while I don’t like that quite as much, it helps the sandwich from coming reading dry. Overall, each bite is more addicting than the last. But what really surprises me is the bacon-topped version of the sandwich…
Wendy’s Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin
Dane Rivera
Thoughts and Tasting Notes:
When I ate the sausage-topped version of this sandwich, I was ready to crown a new king in the world of fast food breakfast sandwiches. I generally find sausage sandwiches more satisfying and savory than bacon sandwiches, so I assumed this sandwich was going to be a slightly less delicious version and even considered not reviewing it at all. I’m glad I did because this sandwich is even better.
There is slightly more emphasis on the non-meat ingredients here — Wendy’s bacon is thick but not as thick as a sausage patty — changing the flavor profile slightly, but that allows the flavor of the fried egg, savory brown butter, and salty cheese to really shine. This sandwich is also much smokier and less sweet than the sausage version and helps to add a better crunch and sense of texture, which counterbalances the spongey quality of the muffin.
Overall, the sandwich is very well-balanced. It’s meaty but doesn’t rely on its protein to dominate the flavor. Crunchy and textural, savory, buttery, and slightly sweet — can you tell that I dig this one?
The Bottom Line:
Whether you’re more down for sausage or bacon, one thing is for certain — both sandwiches offer a significantly better eating experience than the mighty McDonald’s McMuffin by focusing on great base ingredients. Wendy’s wears the crown as the new king of breakfast.
Lonzo Ball will spend the 2023-24 season continuing his rehabilitation from a torn meniscus back in January 2022, as he will miss a second consecutive full season with the Bulls due to setbacks in his recovery.
Recently, Ball opened up about feeling bad for the Bulls, noting he felt they’d built a “perfect team” around him to maximize his unique talents, as evidenced by their hot streak to start the 2021-22 season that had them in first in the East prior to his injury. Since, the Bulls have been unable to replace Ball and have struggled, and will enter this season once again facing an uphill climb to crack the East playoff race without Ball’s services.
We have rarely gotten positive updates about Lonzo’s knee over the past two years, and on Tuesday, Stephen A. Smith stated on First Take that he’s heard it’s difficult for Lonzo to even stand up after he’s been sitting down.
“I don’t think he’ll ever be the same… I’ve heard that it’s even hard for him to get up from the sitting position… I’m really, really sad for him.”
Stephen A. Smith on Lonzo Ball missing another NBA season after his latest knee surgerypic.twitter.com/d5HjCyXfTK
There were reports a year ago that Ball still experienced discomfort going up and down stairs, so this certainly didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility, but it did paint a picture of a player that was unlikely to return to the floor. Ball, however, has been emphatic that he’ll make a return to the court one day in the future, and didn’t appreciate this latest update from Smith that he wanted to prove was false. Ball posted a video to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon showing himself standing up and sitting down multiple times using only his injured left leg, while telling Smith to check his sources and to “stop yapping.”
This is now back-to-back days where an athlete has gone on Twitter to shut down a Stephen A. report, as Stefon Diggs did the same on Monday after Smith said he wants out of Buffalo. For Ball, this seems to have been almost a cathartic post to make because he hasn’t really had much positive news to share with the world about his knee, but being able to show himself doing single leg squats in and out of a chair represents the most positive thing we’ve seen from Ball in more than a year. He might be a ways away from being back on the court, but it certainly seems as though his latest surgery has cleared up the lingering pain he’s dealt with and, hopefully, that’s the first step towards him making a full recovery, even if a delayed one.
This time last year, Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the wealthiest people in the world. Today his life is very different. The crypto bro-turned-suspected fraudster appeared in court for the first time since his bail was revoked about two weeks back, where he pled not guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. Other than that how’s he doing? Not great!
As per CNN, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer told the court that his client’s stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn is not the pleasant escape one would assume. For one thing, officials there have not been accommodating to his vegan diet, nor have they been regularly dispensing his Adderall prescription.
“He’s literally now subsisting on bread and water, which are the only things he’s served that he can eat, and sometimes peanut butter,” lawyer Mark Cohen said.
What’s more, the detention center is notoriously overcrowded, prone to keep its inmates in inhumane conditions. In many ways it’s the opposite of where Bankman-Friend was prior, which is under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, where he had been ordered to stay since late December. Before that he was The once mighty FTX honcho has been at the center since August 11.
Bankman-Fried’s period of house arrest came to an end in part because he had been accused of attempting to intimidate potential witnesses against him, among them his former business partner and ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. A certain former president may want to take note.
If found guilty of the fraud and conspiracy charges against him, Bankman-Fried faces more than 100 years in prison. Surely he’s lamenting the good old days right after the collapse of FTX and during the multiple investigations into his alleged wrongdoing, when he was killing time by sleeping and playing video games.
There are few beer styles as self-explanatory as sours. As the name suggests, this is a style of beer known for its sour, acidic flavor profile. This unique taste comes from the use of various bacteria and yeasts added during the brewing process. Bacteria include Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces, and others. These ingredients add funk, barnyard flavors, acidity, and a ton of lip-puckering tartness.
But just because two beers are labeled “sour ales”, doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily taste anything alike. Brewers add various fruits and other ingredients to round out the flavor notes. On top of that, the different bacteria and yeasts add different flavors and aromas as well.
To help you on your sour beer journey, we turned to the brewing community for help. We asked a few of our favorite craft beer experts and brewers to tell us the best sour beers to drink right now. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks.
Backacre Sour Golden Ale is simply divine and impressive beyond words. Perfectly balanced acidity leans against a light, wispy shredded wheat-esq body. It’s Simply stunning.
Tasting Notes:
It has an intimidating acidic, citrus, and wild yeast aroma that simply dares you to indulge. And be glad you did, because the playful yeast and fermentation organisms are all in the right order here and have found harmony with grain and water.
Whiner’s Le Tub. What’s not to love about a blended, partially barrel-aged, wild farmhouse ale that’s available in cans year-round? This beer is impressively complex but still easy to drink. It’s also dangerous at only 6.4% ABV.
Tasting Notes:
Le Tub is tart, zippy, and refreshing. Waves of lemon and white wine blend with subtle Saison funk.
Rodenbach for sure. The original Flemish Red Ale has just the right amount of tartness to balance out its full body. It’s a great beer to start your sour beer journey and one you’ll come back to again and again.
Tasting Notes:
It has massive complexity from the oak foeders that it is aged in. Well balanced, tart, and absolutely delicious.
I’m not always a fan of modern sour beers. Often, I observe, yes that brewers can make a sour beer, but should they? But one thing you can’t go wrong with is Cantillon Gueuze. This is the beer I believe all the other sours wish they were.
Tasting Notes:
Just a huge funky depth of flavor. Hay, barnyard, and lemon zest all greet the nose and taste buds. It’s not a beer I could drink all day. But I find it very refreshing and great with food.
Pretty much any sour beer made by Russian River is going to be a winner, but I think my favorite of theirs is the Compunction. It is a mixed fermentation that takes almost a year to complete in wine barrels. After which the beer is aged for an additional three to four months on pluots (which is a cross between a plum and an apricot).
Tasting Notes:
This blonde ale is complex, contemplative and unique. The pluots give Compunction a beautiful light purple/pink color. The beer has an overtone of the pluots and their tartness, mixed with the aroma and flavors of the bacterial fermentation and the Brettanomyces. It is all rounded out with hints of the oak barrel and the wine that was previously in it. Complex and funky, yet refreshing and enjoyable. Masterly designed and stunningly executed.
Alesong’s Touch of Brett is one I look forward to drinking every year. It’s their most award-winning beer for a reason. Almost infinitely complex, with the Brett blend in French oak barrels at a higher ABV level. The team in Eugene has really created a winner with that beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is citrus and funky Brettanomyces. The palate is filled with grapefruit, lemon zest, and tart barnyard funk.
Side Project Pulling Nails
Side Project
Garth Beyer, certified Cicerone and owner of Garth’s Brew Bar in Madison, Wisconsin
Pulling Nails from Side Project is always a go-to when I’m looking for wild, blended, complex, yet balanced beer. The level of depth that you get when tasting it is – pardon the pun – wild.
Tasting Notes:
You’ve got flavors ranging from oak and chardonnay to peach pit and tangerine bitter peel. As it changes temperature, the complexity shifts into an entirely different flavored beer. This isn’t just a beer, it’s a flavor journey.
Rodenbach Classic is one of the benchmarks of Belgian sour beers and the first one I really fell in love with. Just the right level of sour and a hint of sweet fruitiness, this Flemish Ale is one to admire. But its Rodenbach Grand Cru brings it to a whole new level.
Tasting Notes:
This blend of Flanders red ales is known for its mix of tactic acid tart flavor, oak, and ripe fruit. It’s definitely worth trying if you enjoy the original Rodenbach.
Dewey Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Dewey
Andrew Hueston, USBG bartender at El Vez in Philadelphia
Dewey Beer Company Strawberry Pretzel Salad. This sour is so bizarre but so good. It’s based on a local dessert that the people of South Delaware will fight you to the death if you insult it.
Tasting Notes:
This very unique beer is known for its mix of salty, tart, fruity, and refreshing flavors. It’s the kind of beer that needs to be tasted to be believed.
Plan Bee Barn Beer
Plan Bee
Frederic Yarm, USBG bartender at Josephine in Somerville, Massachusetts
Barn Beer from Plan Bee Farm Brewery is one of the most elegant wild ales that I have ever tasted. The coolship method and the brewery’s location inside a barn inoculate the beer with microbes.
Tasting Notes:
This adds lightly tart cider, earthy leather, and pineapple accents to this farmhouse beer that is bolstered by lemon and pine notes from the hops.
Paramount Plus has finally made good on its threat/promise to bring a new Frasier revival series to the masses. The first teaser for the beloved sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer has arrived, and if you’re a fan of the original theme song with its incoherent lyrics about tossed salads and scrambled eggs, holy geez, are you in luck.
As previously reported, the Frasier revival will catch up with the radio psychiatrist as he returns to Boston where he made his first appearance as a cast member on Cheers. Original Frasier cast members Peri Gilpin and Bebe Neuwrith will also reportedly drop by as guest stars, recurring their roles as Frasier’s love interest and notoriously robotic ex-wife, respectively.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Filmed in front of a live studio audience at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, the new series follows Frasier Crane (Grammer) in the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill. Frasier has re-entered the building!
In addition to Grammer, the new series stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Frasier’s son Freddy; Nicholas Lyndhurst as Frasier’s old college buddy turned university professor Alan; Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and head of the university’s psychology department; Jess Salgueiro as Freddy’s roommate Eve; and Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew David.
The Frasier revival starts streaming October 12 on Paramount+.
How’s this for the world’s greatest understatement? Moms do a lot for their kids.
Seriously, beyond the obvious sacrifices of, you know, bringing a child into this world through their own body, moms go to almost cartoonish lengths to keep their little ones happy and safe—quite literally wrangling wild animals if they have to.
Or, in this case, luring them out with crickets.
A mom named Shelby Rideout is going viral on TikTok for hilariously documenting her determination, torment—and ultimately, utter exhaustion—while trying to rescue her son’s pet frog who went rogue by hopping into a nearby hole in the bathroom.
Bizarre? Yes. But still relatable? Absolutely.
The whole fiasco started, apparently, when her son wanted to take the frog (aptly named Kermit) out of his habitat to play in the bathroom. You can see how this would be a recipe for disaster.
“The frog jumps around. Literally three seconds. It jumps to the vanity. There’s a freaking construction hole under the vanity. This big frog jumps and is lost in the wall,” Rideout says in the clip.
With her son in “hysterics” over the M.I.A. amphibian, Rideout became hellbent on saving the day, which is why we find her in the video hunkered down in the bathroom closet, trying to wait Kermit out.
“My son’s asleep in hysterics, thinking he’s going to have a dead frog in the wall — not on my watch,” she declares.
You’d think a trap with a delicious cricket waiting inside and a bowl of water would do the trick. But sadly, no luck. Rideout even “prayed to Saint Anthony.” Still nadda.
“I wish I could tell you I was joking. I’ve been in the closet for an hour,” she says. But since the frog began popping its head out, there’s no way she can give up.
“This. This is motherhood,” one person commented.
Another hour goes by, and Rideout posts a follow-up video. At this point, her original video has been viewed 8.9 million times.
Voice gravelly, eyes bloodshot, Rideout has tried using various other strategies—more crickets, a plastic fish tank tube, fake sounds to make him think he’s being chased—all to no avail.
Luckily, someone suggests that Rideout turn off the lights to make Kermit more comfortable. Sure enough, that works.
“I got him! Got him! I got him! I got him! I got him!” Rideout cries right before admitting, “We had a fish die from mouth to mouth. I could not have two deaths on me this week.” That in itself is a whole other crazy story.
All in all, people were just as thrilled about Rideout’s victory as she was. And they couldn’t help but commend her dedication.
One person wrote, “And the award for the best mom ever goes out to…”
Another added, “Your son will never forget how much effort you put in for him.”
It might not always involve frog rescues, but so many moms out there would do equally crazy things for their kids. God bless their resolve.
Even though parents may try to shield their children from tough topics such as economics and social status, they develop their own sense of them as they age. Studies show that children as young as 5 know the difference between being poor, middle-class or wealthy.
By age 11, children are fully conscious of brands and see them as the “dominant feature in their product categorization compared with other perceptual attributes.”
A father was recently embarrassed by his 11-year-old daughter at the supermarket when she called him out for buying generic products instead of brand names. He shared the story on Reddit’s Mildly Infuriating forum, where many commenters shared advice on teaching preteens about household economics.
The post is probably relatable to a lot of parents who’ve had to tighten their budgets given the steep rise in prices over the past few years. When prices go up and your wages stay the same, providing for your family becomes even more difficult.
“Been food shopping with my kid for years. She’s 11 now and has developed an opinion on everything. She questioned me on why I buy Pricerite (generic) brand items over brand name. I explained when you only have $100, you can’t use it all up buying brand name foods, it goes further if you buy items at a good price,” the father explained in his post.
Even though the daughter seemed to understand her dad’s point, she made fun of him to the cashier while they were checking out.
“Five minutes later, when checking out, the cashier greets us, ‘How are you doing today?’ my daughter replies, ‘It could be better. We can’t eat brand-name food ’cause my dad is cheap… cheap like a bird.’ And flocks her arms and goes cheap cheap cheap cheap,” the embarrassed father shared.
A group of commenters stepped in to help the exasperated father teach his daughter how to make sound economic decisions while giving her a lesson in manners.
“Next time shopping, have her bring a calculator and put in the name brand prices for each item. Then when she gets to $100, say if we bought the name brand, this is all we would be getting, since we aren’t, I can get more food,” SnooWords4839 wrote. “Hang in there, kids sometimes need visual aids while learning.”
Another commenter thought it would be a good idea for the child to learn generic and name-brand products are often quite alike. Maybe that way, she’d understand that her dad isn’t just frugal but smart.
“Do a blind taste test sometime between generic and brand name,” Tubagoat suggested. “And ask her why someone would pay more for something that tastes exactly the same. Then when she thinks she’s getting wise to your ways, blindfold her and have her taste two of the same store brand samples.”
Another person suggested a real-world way to teach a child about spending is by comparing cereal that comes in a bag versus the type that comes in a box.
“I once gave my kids $5 each to buy their favorite cereal (this, of course, was when name brand cereal was about $3 a box) they were happy to have their favorite name brand but quickly realized it didn’t last as long as the bag cereal mom buys,” ColorMeSlowly wrote. “They were disappointed and never asked for their name-brand cereal again.”
Another commenter believed the real lesson the daughter should take from the exchange is about respect.
“This is not about money, this is your child being absurdly disrespectful to you,” Luxxielisbon wrote. “Even if you were cheap and not budget conscious, that’s still your decision (assuming of course children are not being neglected). I would never presume to tell my parents what to do with their money. When she earns her own, she can decide how to spend it.”
Making it through hard times is an exercise in resourcefulness but also one in character. It teaches us to be resilient, adaptive, gracious and, most importantly, humble. For parents, hard times can also be a way to impart those tough lessons to our children so they can navigate the tough times in their lives with grit and grace.
This one’s for the girls who know you don’t have to chose between sparkles and sports.
For too long, girls have been sent the message that they have to be either/or. You’re either a girly-girl or a tomboy. You’re either into sparkly princesses or sports practices. From the early days of childhood, we’re told in bold and subtle ways to squeeze ourselves into separate boxes.
But those boxes are bullspit, and most of us know it. Girls don’t have to choose between feeling beautiful and being badass. We can be both at the same time.
Perhaps that’s why a portrait shoot shared by HMP Couture Imagery showing girls dressed up in fancy dresses andsports equipment has gone insanely viral. The shoot is called “Because you can do it all,” and in just a few days it has already been shared 175,000+ times.
The woman who photographed the shoot says a comment from a fellow mom sparked the idea.
Heather Mitchell, the photographer from Alabama who runs HMP Couture Imagery, told Upworthy how the portrait shoot came about.
“My youngest daughter is 8 and she is trying softball this year for the first time,” said Mitchell. “We were at practice a few weeks ago and I was talking with the other moms. I was saying that I hoped Paislee learned to love the game because she was athletic. One of the moms told me that she was not athletic, that she was a girly-girl.”
“I couldn’t sleep that night,” Mitchell continued. “All I could think was, ‘Why does she have to choose?’ I played every sport my school offered and wore lipstick to every game. So the next day we went to the studio and created her shot.”
Mitchell says she only spent about three minutes shooting because she knew exactly what she wanted to create. After she posted the photos of Paislee to her personal Facebook page, she got a ton of requests from other parents for the same kind of shoot. After adding two days to the schedule, they sold out in an hour—and the requests just keep on coming.
Mitchell hopes that girls see these photos and realize that they don’t have to choose one identity.
The idea that crinoline and cleats can’t exist in the same mental space is silly, but common. Girls (and boys for that matter) can love pretty things and kick butt at sports. They don’t have to be one thing or the other.
“My parent taught me that I could be anything I wanted growing up,” Mitchell told Upworthy. “I didn’t realize till I was much older that everyone is not that blessed.”
These photos are an excellent reminder to questions our assumptions and not place unnecessary limits on anyone—and an empowering example for girls who don’t fit neatly into a socially constructed box.
“I hope that every little girl that sees this series can see that there is no box,” says Mitchell. “Whatever their dreams are they can achieve.”
This article originally appeared on 4.17.19
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(@romanroycunt) August 22, 2023
(@PeteAscolese) August 22, 2023
Ed
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