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“Sadly, Kaya was recently diagnosed with an untreatable cancer so we have the solemn honor of taking her on what will be her last flight as she goes home to rest where she was born and first met Cole,” the pilot announces as Kaya is met with a series of cheers.

Kaya is then seen being wheeled through the airport, showing nothing but smiles.

Watch the emotional clip below:

See on Instagram

According to NPR, Lyle and Kaya spent their final day together at a few other their favorite haunts—a local Dallas pub, Lyle’s old college stomping grounds, and finally, a pond where Lyle used to study with Kaya accompanying him.

“I just laid with her for several hours, and told her how much I loved her and how loved she was,” Lyle told NPR. “I just wanted her to feel comfortable and happy in her last few hours.”

Thank you for your service, Kaya. You have saved countless lives, and your hard work will undoubtedly save many more.

The best Valentine’s Day cocktails are the ones that you can make easily but also taste delicious with a sexy edge. The Between The Sheets is exactly that. This cocktail is so freaking tasty. The mix of lime, orange, cognac, and light rum come together to make something truly special in a glass.

This cocktail is also pretty damn easy to make. The liquor in the mix is all equal measures. There’s a touch of lime juice that needs squeezing. Otherwise, you just have to shake a cocktail shaker with some ice and prechill a couple of glasses. Anybody can do it.

The best part is that this drink has a lightness to it that’s enticing. The sweet citrus really helps it feel like it’s floating on a cloud. And yes, the name is adequately sultry for the occasion.

All of this makes the Between The Sheets a great Valentine’s Day cocktail — so let’s dive in!

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Between The Sheets

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. cognac
• 1 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. triple sec
• 0.25 oz. fresh lime juice
• Orange peel
• Ice

You don’t have to go crazy with ingredients here. I’m using standard Hine Rare Cognac and Equiano Light Rum. They’re both great for mixing and won’t break the bank. The rest is pretty straightforward.

What You’ll Need:

• Coupe (prechilled)
• Cocktail shaker
• Cocktail strainer
• Paring knife
• Hand juicer

Method:

• Add the cognac, rum, triple sec, lime juice, and ice to a cocktail shaker. Affix the lid and shake the drink vigorously for about 15 seconds or until the shaker is ice-cold to the touch.
• Get the prechilled glass from the freezer and strain the cocktail into the glass.
• Express the oils from the orange peel over the cocktail and rub the peel around the rim and stem of the glass. Discard the peel. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is so good. It’s light, delicious, and a little boozy. There’s a nice depth of oakiness and dried fruit from the cognac that plays nicely with a hint of funk from the rum with a touch of sugar cane. The lime adds lightness while the orange liqueur sweetens the whole affair. The orange oils at the end are essential in adding to the lightness, sweetness, and softness of the cocktail.

This is a winner for easy cocktail shaking tonight. Trust me, it’ll wow.

Drake has been in the headlines quite a bit recently, given his ties to XXXTentacion’s murder trial. Some might be wondering: what exactly is the Canadian rapper’s connection to it all?

One of the suspect’s lawyers, Mauricio Padilla, tried to subpoena Drake in January before a judge gave a mandatory order that he has to appear for a deposition by February 24 — or he will be held in contempt of court.

Drake’s lawyer, Bradford M. Cohen, has since responded to the deposition filing, according to Rolling Stone.

“No evidence has been provided to substantiate the assertion that [Drake] in any way contributed to, had knowledge of, or participated in the alleged incident, and to mandate that he appear for deposition for something that he very clearly has no relevant knowledge of is unreasonable,” he shared.

Padilla had previously included Drake on a potential witness list, despite the four men already being charged in connection with XXXTentacion’s 2018 death. Earlier this month, the lawyer also alluded to a social media post that supposedly proved Drake’s involvement in the murder.

“If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” XXXTentacion reportedly wrote in an eventually-deleted Instagram Story. “I’m snitching right now.”

However, he later denied the post, writing online, “Please stop entertaining that bullsh*t on Twitter. My accounts were previously hacked.” Padilla did not reference this retraction from XXXTentacion in court.

In addition, back in December, one of the suspects, Robert Allen, allegedly denied Drake’s involvement. Allen testified that he had never met Drake, nor received money from him or any associates. He also was unaware who XXXTentacion was at the time of the murder.

The quest for the best chicken wings recipe continues! Last week, I attempted to test the best chicken wing recipes on the internet and see if I could improve them. I thought I made a pretty valiant effort and even got my new and improved recipe(s) up in time for “the big game.”

Fried wings are hard to beat and fairly straightforward to make, provided you feel like doing all that setup and cleanup. The trick for home cooks and recipe writers is trying to come up with a recipe that combines the crispy skin and juicy meat of fried wings with the simplicity and scale of baked ones (“scale” here means the ability to make a bunch at one time on standard cooking equipment).

Like I said up top, I think I did a decent job accomplishing that with last week’s recipe, combining a pan sear with a shorter bake on a rack. I did, however, run into one problem during testing. Sharp-eyed readers might have noted that I didn’t really have a clear fix for it at the time. Basically, if you’re baking wings on a sheet pan over aluminum foil or parchment paper as I suggested, the fat from the wings has a tendency to drip down into the sheet pan and burn, smoking up the oven and/or the house/dwelling in the process. In my house, this sets off the smoke alarm a lot.

While I didn’t really have a fix for that beyond a better oven, higher ceilings, and less intense baking, one of my readers came through with a proposed solution:

A layer of baking soda on the sheet pan, very interesting… This tip supposedly comes via the Anova Precision Oven subreddit, so thanks to those folks. Naturally, I had to try it out. I made another batch of wings (again, just in time for the “big game”), and SPOILER ALERT: it worked.

And when I say it worked, I don’t just mean that the chicken smoked less, or that my smoke alarm only went off half as many times, I mean there was no smoke at all, that I could detect. I was able to crank the oven as hot and hard as I wanted (heh) without having to wave a terrible towel at my crying wolf-ass smoke alarm every seven minutes.

Clearly, this warranted a rewrite. So here it is, my updated recipe for crispy baked wings.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken wings
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt*
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder*
• 2 teaspoons onion powder*
• Pinch black pepper* (*OR, just use your favorite, pre-mixed seasoned salt blend)
• A little oil (olive, peanut, canola, ghee, whatever)
• About 1/2 cup baking soda

For the sauce:

• 1/2 cup of Frank’s Red Hot
• Stick of butter

Equipment

• A sheet pan with a wire rack that fits over it.
• A pan
• A pot (though you could just reuse the pan)
• Tongs
• Whisk
• Mixing bowl

Time: About 80 minutes.

Directions

Combine your dry spices, baking powder and cornstarch (but NOT the baking soda), and pour it over your chicken. Massage it over your meat. Go ahead, I know you love massaging your meat.

Now, tear off some aluminum foil or parchment paper and use it to cover the bottom of your sheet pan. Take your baking soda and spread it in an even layer over the foil or paper, and then cover that with your wire rack. Now arrange the raw meat on your wire rack. I know how you love arranging your meat over a rack– sorry I’ll stop now.

This step you can do ahead of time and it actually improves the product. Ideally, leave this spiced and lightly coated chicken uncovered overnight in the fridge, though it doesn’t take that long. You just want the skin to dry out a little — probably 30 or 40 minutes would be sufficient.

Now, preheat your oven to 475F. Get your pan on the stove going at medium-high heat. Add a little oil to your pan, enough to coat the bottom. Once it’s almost to smoking, start dropping in your chicken in batches. Heat them in the pan until the skin starts to brown and the skin visibly tightens, and then remove them back to the sheet pan.

Once your meat is all browned and arranged on a rack, cram that meat back into your oven and bake hot and hard for 15 minutes. Then flip it over and cook for 15 more minutes. Note: your chicken drying time, as well as oven type, wing size, and altitude will all affect your cook time. So use your eyeballs (and your nose).

You want your skin nice and crispy but not blackening.

Now make your sauce. Take a pot (or your pan) and heat the hot sauce on low heat. When it juuust starts to bubble, start adding in cubes of cold butter while whisking. When all the butter is incorporated, remove it from the heat.

Once the wings are cooked until crispy, toss them with your sauce, then re-arrange on your rack and bake for five more minutes. (I like the re-baking-with-the-sauce step because it makes the wings slightly less messy. They’re still going to be messy, just slightly less so. You can also re-sauce after for saucier wings).

This was what my foil looked like afterwards:

I rode it hard, cooking the wings at high heat, and partly with sauce on them, which burns even more easily. And still, no smoke. It’s a miracle.

And yes, the wings were pretty good too. Crispy, but still juice, saucy, but not to the point that it was dripping down to your elbows. They were so good that I almost didn’t mind that I’ve eaten wings probably eight different times in the course of the past week. These wings were so good that it was a perfect place to begin my wing fast. It’s going to be a month before I even want to look at a chicken wing again.

Or at least until the next reader comes through with a really good chicken wing recipe tip.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his recipes here.

As Donald Trump mulls over how best to run for president again in 2024, the potential Republican nominee is reportedly laser-focused on giving Americans what they truly need during these trying times of pandemics, inflation, and train disasters:

Public executions.

According to sources, the former president has allegedly been asking associates what they think of firing squads as he mulls a new tough-on-crime initiative that will reportedly go big on public executions that could also could include guillotines, hangings, and group killings by the state. Trump reportedly believes going full dictator on criminals will distinguish him from President Joe Biden, who has notably not tried to behead people in a concerning effort to look badass. Via Rolling Stone:

In at least one instance late last year, according to the third source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, Trump privately mused about the possibility of creating a flashy, government-backed video-ad campaign that would accompany a federal revival of these execution methods. In Trump’s vision, these videos would include footage from these new executions, if not from the exact moments of death. “The [former] president believes this would help put the fear of God into violent criminals,” this source says. “He wanted to do some of these [things] when he was in office, but for whatever reasons didn’t have the chance.”

For the record, an anonymous spokesman for Trump has denied that the former president is trying to bring back firing squads.

“More ridiculous and fake news from idiots who have no idea what they’re talking about,” the spokesman said. “Either these people are fabricating lies out of thin air, or Rolling Stone is allowing themselves to be duped by these morons.”

(Via Rolling Stone)

Last year, UK post-punk group Dry Cleaning unveiled their new album Stumpwork after releasing bewildering music videos and giving hypnotic late-night television performances. They’re back today with the announcement of their new EP called Swampy.

Swampy contains two lost tracks from Stumpwork, “Swampy” and “Sombre Two,” both of which are out now. There’s also a demo of “Peanuts,” as well as remixes of “Hot Penny Day” by Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, and “Gary Ashby” by Nourished By Time.

About the EP, the band said, “These two songs (‘Swampy’ and ‘Sombre Two’) were recorded in the Stumpwork sessions and they feel like good companions to us. They share a dusty, desolate and spacey atmosphere. On the eve of this release we have been touring through the southwest US, where these songs feel at home in the arid, Mars-like landscape of the Arizona desert.”

Florence Shaw told Uproxx in our interview that Stumpwork was a way for the band to experiment with things they hadn’t before: “We’re roaming around and trying out our as-yet unexplored interests. There are wider landscapes of sound on Stumpwork. It’s more romantic at times, maybe more emotional, more vulnerable. It’s also poppier in places.”

Listen to “Swampy” above and “Sombre Two” below.

Swampy is out 3/1 via 4AD. Pre-order it here.

Social media can be a great promotional tool for an up-and-coming rapper, and Maryland’s Foggieraw is proving to be one of the best at using it to its full potential. Over the past few months, his Instagram Reels, consisting of super short, high-concept “music videos,” have gone viral for all the right reasons: The music is distinctive, the cinematography is excellent, and the overall quality is consistent. Foggieraw himself appears to be a charming, laid-back figure, finding an appealing lane outside of the usual bounds of rap archetypes.

Here are a few of those videos:

So, who is Foggieraw?

Foggieraw moved to Maryland from Ghana at just five years old and began rapping at 18. Although he was initially more of a backpack rapper according to one early profile, he soon began to develop a more unique style, somewhere between the cerebral, “everything-must-rhyme” style normally exhibited by adherents to the more traditional genre and the freewheeling style of then-nascent “SoundCloud” or “mumble” rap.

He released an EP, The Foggie Pound, in 2016, and a full-length debut, Fogtavius Vandross, in 2018. Like many young artists, it appears that the pandemic slowed his output, but then came back strong in 2021 with The Foggie Pound 2 and spent 2022 releasing singles such as “Back Home,” “HVNSNT,” “Nothing Usual,” and “Independent Like Webbie.” Throughout the latter half of the year, he shifted focus to his visual rollout on Instagram, garnering supporters like R&B star Ari Lennox along the way.

Foggie’s a rapper on the comeup and it looks very much like he’s due to blow up at any moment. Get on the bandwagon now because it’s only a matter of time.

Whether you loved it or not, people can’t stop talking about Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which might go down in history as the most watched public pregnancy announcement in the history of the world. While Donald Trump wasn’t impressed by what he called an “EPIC FAIL” of a performance, RiRi somehow managed to overcome the former president’s review and dethrone Taylor Swift as Spotify’s top artist.

Amongst detractors, two of the biggest complaints seemed to be Rihanna’s decision to not turn the halftime spectacle into a who’s who of former collaborators. Yet she was also criticized for “honoring” Kanye West by including “All of the Lights” in her medley of hits — a song she performed with Ye, which appeared on his 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Which only goes to prove that you can’t please everyone — though Sarah Silverman has a pretty solid theory as to why the artist formerly known as Kanye wasn’t invited by Rihanna to participate. As the comedian explained during her first night as The Daily Show’s newest guest host:

Some people were surprised that Rihanna didn’t bring out Kanye West during “All of the Lights.” But when you think about it, it makes sense. Because there wasn’t enough space for her dancers to form a swastika.

While the comment was met with some surprise by the audience, Silverman assured viewers that “I can say that because I’m a Nazi.”

You can watch Silverman’s full review of Rihanna’s performance — and how she upped the bar for pregnant women everywhere — above.

After what feels like eons of retooling and money-pit construction, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are finally on the cusp of their Casa Bonita grand reopening near Denver, Colorado. Let the sopapillas begin, not to mention the “eatertainment” that was always the biggest draw, back in the day. However, Stone and Parker (operating under their “The Beautiful Opco, LLC” umbrella) did recruit renowned chef Dana “Loco” Rodriguez in a quest to bring actual “good food” to the table, and May 2023 has been set as target opening month.

Before that happens — and before people can relive Cartman acting like an ass amid the spectacle, as he did in South Park Season 7 — the dynamic duo needs to fully staff up. Granted, the pair maintained existing payroll in the meantime while providing bilingual classes to front-and-back end workers, who also volunteered at organizations like Habitat for Humanity. So what positions, exactly, do Parker and Stone need to fill?

Well, only about 550 spots, including servers, bartenders, and overall entertainers, along with the nostalgia-driving, all-important cliff divers. Those volcanos can’t stand alone, man. As local news station KDVR reports, not everyone can fit this bill. The physical and mental qualifications are substantial. Here’s a sampling of cliff-diver duties:

Creating a magical experience through interactions with roughly 1,500 guests, aged 2-100 a day, with an upbeat and pleasant attitude
Diving from platform heights of 16-25 feet
Consistently perform the following dives from 16 feet: Front (half, twist, pike, flip); back (half, twist, flip,); inward dive (tuck/pike/straight) – include them in your video clips for audition
Being in character for 3-6 consecutive hours at a time (with appropriate breaks).
Performing shows on time and being in place for all cues.
Meeting and interacting with guests at the guest meet and greet locations.
Speaking loudly, articulately and clearly to roughly 1,500 guests.
Meeting guests from ages 2-100 and conversing age-appropriately in character
Wearing company-approved costuming created for performer
Memorizing scripts, learning cues, and associated activities
Staged stunts, staged romance, or choreographed combat
Light improv and approved character interactions

That’s only the beginning (you can read more here). Rest assured that Casa Bonita’s new owners do mention that cliff divers will be provided with health insurance along with up to $25 per hour, which isn’t too shabby for a going rate in the Denver area. All candidates must provide five-minute clips of their various diving stunts to date, and auditions will be in order. You know, May isn’t too far away.

(Via KDVR)

Even though Ted Lasso has had a bumpy road since its acclaimed first season, the crew will be heading back to the field for a third season this spring, although some of them have turned over to the dark side. March will be a huge month for fans of tension-filled television!

Ted Lasso follows the titular coach, played by Jason Sudeikis, as he attempts to wrangle his eclectic football team. The series has won a series of awards and will return for a third, and possibly final, season this spring on AppleTV+. Despite the wave of “you either hate it or you love it” conversations the show seems to have inspired, the series will hopefully make a swing in the right direction for its third season. Here’s what we know.

Plot

Since we last saw AFC Richmond, formerly good guy Nate left to work for Rebecca’s ex Rupert, abandoning Lasso and the gang. Season three will deal with the aftermath of the tumultuous season. Here is the official synopsis:

[T]he newly-promoted AFC Richmond faces ridicule as media predictions widely peg them as last in the Premier League and Nate, now hailed as the “wonder kid,” has gone to work for Rupert (Anthony Head) at West Ham United. In the wake of Nate’s contentious departure from Richmond, Roy Kent steps up as assistant coach, alongside Beard. Meanwhile, while Ted deals with pressures at work, he continues to wrestle with his own personal issues back home, Rebecca is focused on defeating Rupert and Keeley navigates being the boss of her own PR agency. Things seem to be falling apart both on and off the pitch, but Team Lasso is set to give it their best shot anyway.

Release Date

The 12-episode season will premiere on March 15th on AppleTV+.

Cast

The whole gang is back for the third round, including Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Anthony Head, Juno Temple, Hanna Waddingham, and Nick Mohammed, in addition to Sudeikis.

Trailer

You can check out the teaser below, featuring all of your favorite players crafting.