Marjorie Taylor Greene is a middle aged person who had to be taught about the Holocaust. She’s bought a conspiracy theory summed up as “Jewish space lasers.” And yet guess what? She’s also now an author. On Tuesday, the MAGA lawmaker announced the pending release of her memoir, entitled, simply, MTG. It’s not out for another two months, but advance word is already uninspiring.
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: My first book, ‘MTG’, will be released on November 21st! https://t.co/FkPe7OfSOl
Over the past few years, “Don’t Say Gay” bills have been introduced across the U.S., sparking widespread controversy about how LGBTQ issues should be addressed in schools. Supporters argue they protect children from inappropriate content by restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in educational settings.
Opponents believe these bills marginalize LGBTQ individuals by fostering stigma and potentially infringing on teachers’ ability to openly address students’ questions or experiences.
Author and comic book expert Marc Tyler Nobleman recently found himself at the center of the controversy, and his simple rationale for using the word “gay” in his school presentations presents an age-appropriate and inclusive way to approach at the issue.
Nobleman has spoken in schools in “about 30 states and almost 20 countries” to inspire children to write and do research. He’s the author of the book “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-creator of Batman” about the fabled superhero’s unsung co-creator.
THE RIGHT WAY TO WRITE: Visiting Author #MarcTylerNobleman, writer of numerous fiction and nonfiction books for young readers, met with students in Grades 3-8 last month. He inspired curiosity, shared his research process, and provided guidance. #TaipeiAmericanSchool
Artist Bob Kane is known as the creator of Batman; however, Bill Finger is believed to have refined the costume and given the character his secret identity as Bruce Wayne, amongst other contributions.
Nobleman notes in his speeches that one of the significant reasons why Finger lives in obscurity is that he died in 1974, and his son, Fred Finger, was gay and died of AIDS complications at 43 in 1992. Without an heir, the movement to get Finger the proper credit lost any hope.
However, the twist in Nobleman’s presentation is when he reveals that through his research, he discovered that Fred Finger had a daughter, Athena. This led to DC Comics officially recognizing her grandfather as Batman’s co-creator in 2015.
“It’s the biggest twist of the story, and it’s usually when I get the most gasps,” Nobleman told the Associated Press. “It’s just a totally record-scratch moment.”
After a presentation at Sharon Elementary in Forsyth County, Georgia, on Monday, August 21, where he mentioned Fred FInger’s orientation, the principal handed Nobleman a note saying, “Please only share the appropriate parts of the story for our elementary students.” So, he removed any reference to Fred Finger’s sexuality over his next two days of presentations.
The school’s principal, Brian Nelson, sent a letter to parents after the initial presentation that read: “This is not subject matter that we were aware that he was including nor content that we have approved for our students,” Nelson wrote. “I apologize that this took place. Action was taken to ensure that this was not included in Mr. Nobleman’s subsequent speeches and further measures will be taken to prevent situations like this in the future.”
But after some soul-searching, in a presentation two days later, Nobleman said the word “gay” once again. After discussing the situation with the school, the remaining assemblies were canceled.
Nobleman shared his reasoning for using “gay” on X, formally known as Twitter, and his rationale makes a lot of sense. “And as I’ve told Jennifer [Caracciolo, the school’s chief communications officer] and her colleagues, mentioning a sexual orientation is NOT the same as discussing sexuality.”
Answering student questions is ALSO not a problem.
Teaching without parental approval of every line is not a problem.
And as I’ve told Jennifer and her colleagues, mentioning a sexual orientation is NOT the same as discussing sexuality.#pride#saygay
That’s a huge point missed in much of the debate surrounding LGBTQ visibility in education. There is a big difference between discussing sexual acts—whether heterosexual or otherwise—and someone’s orientation, especially when there’s a good chance that there are children of LGBTQ parents in the audience.
Further, in a world where same-sex marriage and heterosexual marriage are treated equally, why is mentioning one orientation any different than the other?
“If a child asks me if I am married, can I say I have a wife? This is discrimination. It is also extremely insulting and dangerous to our children,” Nobleman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We have so much LGBTQ teen suicide because they are not welcome to speak up about their own lives in their own community.”’
Caracciolo likened saying “gay” in front of third graders to talking to kindergartners about one of the greatest atrocities in world history. “It would be almost like if someone was doing a speech to kindergartners and they talked about the Holocaust and the horrors of the Holocaust,” the district’s chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Caracciolo, said, according to The New York Times.
“I asked her not to compare a kind of love to mass murder,” Nobleman wrote in Newsweek.
After his remaining presentations were canceled, Nobleman emailed administrators involved in the controversy and asked them to take three specific actions:
-Apologize to their community for the principal’s apology.
-Apologize to their community for censoring an established author who did what he was hired to do: Pump up their kids about reading, writing, and research.
-Challenge the standards that stigmatize any mention of LGBTQ people.
As a soccer match between German teams Preussen Munster and Würzburger Kickers went into its final minutes, a defender from the Kickers, 23-year-old Leroy Kwadwo, stopped to point out a problem in the stands.
A Munster fan was making monkey noises at Kwadwo, a black player of Ghanaian descent. It was a clearly racist heckling—an issue that has publicly plagued the international sport in various venues, even as recently as last week. But this time, the response from the crowd far outshined the racist in the stands.
First, the man was quickly identified by his fellow Munster fans and ejected from the game. While stewards escorted him from the stadium, the crowd chanted, “Nazis out! Nazis out!”
Some fans also stood and applauded Kwadwo and the player received supportive pats on the back from opposing team members as well.
u201cChills.nnIn Germany, a fan hurled racist slurs towards Leroy Kwadwo, a Ghanian football player.nnWhen other fans saw it, they alerted security, who escorted the man out.nnThen, as opposing players came to hug Kwadwo, the entire stadium stood up and chanted “Nazis Out!”u201d
Kwadwo thanked fans via social media the next day for their “exemplary” reaction, the Associated Press reported:
“I was racially abused by one single spectator. It just makes me sad. I indeed have a different skin color, but I was born here in this wonderful land that has given my family and I so much and made so much possible. I am one of you. I live here and can live my calling as a professional with the Würzburger Kickers.
Something like yesterday just makes me sad and angry because everyone has to know, racism does not belong in OUR world. We all have the opportunity to oppose it and stop it if it happens.”
Munster said it would seek to ban the racist fan from all German stadiums for three years, which is the toughest sanction the sport itself can implement. However, the man also faces legal consequences and is being charged with incitement.
“As repulsive as the monkey noises against the player were, the subsequent response from the rest of the spectators were so impressive,” the Preussen team said in a statement.
According to CNN, Preussen Munster president Christoph Strasser said of the heckling: “It is not something that belongs on the soccer field and certainly not in our stadium. We don’t want and need people like that here. We clearly distance ourselves from such statements and I apologized to the Würzburgers immediately after the game.”
If we have to live with nasty racists in our midst, it’s at least encouraging to see a huge crowd reject it with such immediacy and fervor. Nazis out, indeed.
In June, Faye Webster returned with “But Not Kiss,” which Uproxx selected for its weekly column “Best New Indie Music” because it “captures her knack for unconventional love songs.” Webster did it again with “Lifetime,” her delicate single that dropped on Wednesday, September 20.
Romance is found in simplicity throughout the stripped-back track. “Can’t imagine me / Before you / In a lifetime,” Webster sings softly, repeating the refrain over and over again, subtly illustrating the repetition necessary to sustain a lifelong love. She then delivers another sweet sentiment: “Every minute / You are in it.”
In the accompanying Kyle Ng-directed video, Webster gradually ages. Last week, she posted a sneak-peek photo of herself wearing prosthetic makeup to appear older, about which her longtime friend Lil Yachty commented, “I wanna hug u and let u bake me cookies” as well as “omg u so cute granny faye!!!”
Fans will have an opportunity to see Webster during her Faye Webster: Live In Concert Tour, beginning on October 17 in Washington, DC. The North American leg will last until until November 17, closing at The Eastern in Atlanta, Georgia. Webster will stage her European/UK leg in May 2024.
Watch Webster’s “Lifetime” video above, and see Webster’s upcoming tour dates below.
European summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to plan an epic trip to Italy. In fact, the 2023 Uproxx Fall Travel Hot List celebrated Europe’s famed “shoulder season” over and over. And if you’re visiting a globally popular, tourist-heavy city like Venice, well… it’s almost essential that travel when the rush of post-graduates and honeymooners has died down. Otherwise, finding a place to eat a slice of pizza is like trying to swim upstream against a raging river of humanity.
It’s no wonder that Venice draws such a vast crowd of travelers, though. Between its famous canals, picturesque bridges, and many winding alleyways, the dreamy city of water feels like walking through a painting. There’s an undeniable sense of whimsy you feel right when you step out of the train station and into the car-free cobblestone streets. Of course, there’s also no shortage of cheesy, carb-loaded indulgences to help you power your adventures.
While just about any Italian getaway is sure to cost you a pretty penny (er… Euro), the good news is that there are a few simple ways to reduce your vacation budget. I recently visited Venice with my best friend, and we were able to create an iconic Venice itinerary without spiraling into credit card debt. And considering we both like pretending we have the lifestyle of the wealthy and famous — while owning the bank accounts of a struggling creative and a recent medical school graduate — that’s saying something.
So, to help you save on your next Italian adventure, I’m sharing my best budget traveler’s hacks to Venice, below.
Waking up to a view of the canals sounds wonderful, but the price it’s going to cost you does not. Accommodations are one of the most expensive parts of any travel experience, so opting for an affordable hotel or hostel is guaranteed to help you save big. Instead of staying within the parameters of Venice’s waterways, stay in the Marghera neighborhood — the actual city side of Venice near the Venice Mestre train station. You’ll have to take a 10-minute train ride into town every day but the inconvenience is worth it if you’re trying to be budget-conscious.
I recommend staying at A&O Hostels. It’s basically like a hostel and hotel hybrid, and you can choose to stay in a bunk room with other travelers or in your own room. The 309-room property is located just a two-minute walk away from the station, making it easy to go back and forth to your room when needed. Solo travelers will love the lounge area next to the lobby, where you’ll find a fully stocked bar, snacks, tables, and common spaces where guests hang out each night. Bunks start at around $18 per night, and individual rooms start at about $63.
Plus, you can get breakfast included so that’s one daily meal you don’t have to worry about buying. Bonus: A&O will especially appeal to eco-tourists, as the brand is aiming to be the first European hostel group to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2025.
My favorite travel hack for saving money on vacation is to take a food tour. Sure, it might cost $100 upfront, but you’ll get a several hours-long activity, learn about a city’s food culture and traditions, and fill up on an array of delicious local delicacies. I genuinely do this whenever I’m traveling on a tight budget, and it’s honestly always so fun and interesting.
I typically book my food tours through Devour, a small group tour company that leads intimate food experiences. On my trip to Venice, I opted for the Tastes & Traditions of Venice: Food Tour with Rialto Market Visit. This was easily one of my favorite activities I did in Venice. First of all, I appreciated that my tour guide was an actual local who was born and raised in Venice. In addition to each stop on the tour, she gave us the inside scoop on what food spots were overrated tourist traps and which ones were actually worth the hype.
Throughout the tour, we tried traditional Venitian fare like tramezzini, a breakfast sandwich made with meats and cheeses; Select Spritze, Venice’s classic version of an Aperol Spritz made with a bitter Italian aperitif called Select; and a sample of various seafoods from the famous Rialto Market. The market was my favorite stop on the tour, as it gives you a glimpse into the city’s history that still resonates in its culture today. You’ll also get to sip on espresso and wine, then finish off with some chocolatey treats. In total, you’ll get eight food tastings (which are actually much bigger than you’d expect from just a tasting), as well as four or more drinks at seven locally owned businesses. It really is an excellent way to combine food, fun, and culture all into one slot on your itinerary, saving you a few bucks in the end.
PS: Our guide told us not to eat the cannolis in Venice because they’re basically just a tourist gimmick from a freezer package. If you want a real-deal cannoli, go to where they were actually created in Sicily. I’ll admit that a cannoli was literally the first thing I ate in Venice, so… don’t make the same mistake I did?
I get it. I wanted my dreamy gondola ride around the canals of Venice, too. But paying $100 for 30 minutes just isn’t worth it, whether you’re on a budget or not. Lucky for you, I figured out a hack that will help you get that gondola Instagram pic for only €2. There are public gondolas that transfer visitors across the larger waterways without bridges. You’ll have to ride with a group, and it takes about two minutes to get across so you’ve got to move fast, but you can still get a few good snapshots (as proved by the photo I took above… perhaps?) and a ride in a classic Venetian boat.
Plus, if you don’t get the photos you wanted the first time around, it won’t cost you much to try again on the way back!
Not only is this a cheap way to get your gondola experience, but it’s also an extremely convenient way to get around, especially when your feet get tired from walking around the city all day.
4) Take a Small Group Tour
Chloe Caldwell
I’m not one for big group tours, but I actually do really love more intimate small group experiences. And oftentimes, these offer a decent mix of sightseeing, food or wine tastings, and education — a cultural combination that can be hard to achieve on your own as a tourist. This kind of value alone makes it worth the cost and embarrassing headsets, in my opinion. It’s also a great way to meet other English-speaking travelers, especially if you’re flying solo.
In Venice, I signed up for the Premium Lagoon Excursion: Murano Glass, Burano & Wine by City Experiences. Again, it might seem like a lot of cash upfront, but it evens out. Throughout the tour, we visited two of the outer islands of Venice on a private boat transfer (AKA, no long lines or paying for public transit tickets). Our first stop was Murano, a Disneyland-like neighborhood known for its rainbow-painted buildings and traditional lace goods. We also did a wine tasting with aperitif here, so that covers your drinks for the afternoon. Then, we went to the island of Burano, known for its glassblowing factories as well as its intricate glass art pieces, windows, and souvenirs.
I genuinely loved this tour because I otherwise probably wouldn’t have gone to those outer islands, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. Exploring these areas for several hours — while getting a private transfer, learning from a local, and sipping on wine — works out to be more valuable and convenient than trying to do it all yourself.
I’m all for solo travel, but if you’re trying to save money, it’s going to cost you a lot less to travel with a friend. If staying in a private room instead of a bunk is important to you, then you’ll be able to cut your accommodation costs in half. Chances are you’re going to be eating and drinking a ton, too. Splitting entrees and appetizers makes every meal a little more affordable, not to mention you’ll get to try more items on the menu. (Again, stay in a hotel or hostel with a continental breakfast.)
Venice is an expensive destination, and visiting with a travel buddy is a surefire way to reduce costs on hotels, food, and activities. Plus, it makes it all the more fun!
As training camps get set to begin around the NBA, preseason transaction news is starting to pick up now that front offices are all back from vacation and trying to get rosters set prior to the arrival of players to camp.
While much of the focus is on the star trade requests in Portland and Philadelphia, where Damian Lillard and James Harden remain on their current teams for now, other veterans may start coming available as extension talks come and go. One of those is Buddy Hield, who has apparently had contract talks stall out with the Pacers and the two sides will now start looking at finding a possible trade for the sharpshooter, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Hield is open to a trade elsewhere, according to rival team sources, but no deal is imminent and there aren’t any current substantive talks with any other team. The Pacers did offer Hield an extension in recent weeks, but it’s believed their proposal did not make the seven-year guard feel desired, league sources said.
Hield is entering the final season of his current deal, and given his value as an elite three-point shooter, the Pacers would certainly rather get something back in return for him than see him simply walk next summer. If the two sides are as far apart as it seems on what each perceives as a fair deal for him going forward, it would make sense for Indiana to canvas the league and see if a team is willing to part with players and assets that could help them achieve their longterm plans.
Hield should have plenty of interested teams as he scored 16.8 points per game, knocking down 42.5 percent of his three-point attempts, a year ago and is a career 40.2 percent shooter from beyond the arc. The question will be whether there’s a team willing to part with a package the Pacers want in return now, or if Indiana will choose to wait this out to closer to the trade deadline when teams tend to be a bit more aggressive in trying to make roster upgrades that are needed.
Even though James Cameron has been warning about artificial intelligence for decades, it’s nonetheless ramped up considerably in the last year. While D.C. lawmakers have been slow to enact regulation — some are busy leading a clown car impeachment of the president — certain citizens are taking the matter into their own hands: On Wednesday, a group of authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the chatbot company (in)famous for replicating imitations of other artists’ work.
As per The New York Times, the charges was led by a diverse gang of over a dozen luminaries, including George R.R. Martin, Josh Grisham, and Jonathan Franzen. The authors, numbering more than dozen, accused the company of infringing on their copyrights, having used their works to train their popular ChatGPT, which can believably (sometimes) duplicate another author’s work, living or dead.
“The success and profitability of OpenAI are predicated on mass copyright infringement without a word of permission from or a nickel of compensation to copyright owners,” reads the complaint.
While OpenAI hasn’t officially confirmed that they’ve been feeding entire tomes to their chatbots, the complaint points out that their summaries of books include details not available in reviews or elsewhere, strongly suggesting they’ve imbibed entire works.
Since debuting last November, ChatGPT has led to an influx in AI-generated books that have flooded Amazon. Some include travel guides, even books on plant and fungi foraging. That last one prompted the New York Mycological Society to issue a much-needed warning for people not to put their lives in the hands of robots.
AMC’s first The Walking Dead spinoff is reanimating itself for one final batch of episodes to finish up Season 8 after a new crop of spinoffs has already seized the baton and run to France with it. From the looks of this final Fear The Walking Dead trailer, it does look like almost every character who could possibly still be alive has returned for the final season. Comic Book did report word from showrunner Ian Goldberg about giving the full-circle treatment to several characters, and he wasn’t joking.
We’ve already seen the return of Madison, which was the big one in fans’ minds. Well, it’s not quite as big as a Madison/Alicia reunion would be, so will we see that, too? There’s no telling. Actress Alycia Debnam-Carey was last seen with her feverish character choosing not to forge ahead, and although many would love to see the payoff of her reuniting with Mom, Debnam-Carey has also moved onto other projects like The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart and Saint X. Yet perhaps she could squeeze in time for a quick appearance. We won’t have to wait too long to find out.
In the meantime, this trailer has shown us that Victor Strand makes his return by stating his intent to help Madison save PADRE. Can anyone trust Strand at this point? As Dustin Rowles stressed a few seasons ago, Strand is “opportunistic, cutthroat, and loyal only to the extent that it benefits him.” He and Madison go way back, but it would also behoove his survival instincts to get in good with the new PADRE, so his true intent remains a mystery. He seems to not be enjoying how things are going in this trailer, though. Perhaps that has something to do with whatever the not-dead Troy is doing to Madison. Troy very clearly does not have good intentions.
From the synopsis:
Now that Shrike (Maya Eshet) and her influence are gone, Madison (Dickens) sets sights on transforming PADRE into the safe haven the old Stadium was meant to be. But in doing so the island becomes a target as well as a beacon as word of Madison and this land of resources spreads, attracting unwanted attention that puts PADRE back in peril and questions whether our heroes even deserve to save it.
This spinoff previously returned with a time jump, which will help it line up with The Walking Dead and its new spinoffs. Perhaps this will even help usher in the return of Rick Grimes for The Ones Who Live spinoff with Michonne. Yet as Daniel Salazar is heard saying, “No one gets a free pass,” so perhaps it’s best to hang tight, stop speculating, and see what rolls out soon.
Fear The Walking Episodes returns for its last batch of episodes beginning on October 22.
Tucker Carlson is doing just fine post-Fox News — sort of. Instead of slick, exciting, tinfoil hat broadcasts powered by Fox News might five nights a week, he now occasionally drops low-energy, underwatched rants without any music or talks to sleepy autocrats about the beach. Still, he’s doing better than he was in late April, when he was abruptly fired. In fact, in his final stretch there, he was so uncertain about his future he figured his only possible next step was to run for president.
New York Magazinereleased a segment from Michael Wolff’s new book The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty, which features a fun little insight into Carlson’s mindset in his final stretch at the conservative news network. In a bit teased out by Raw Story, Carlson, Wolff writes, was “aware that voices in the Murdoch family were relentlessly campaigning to have him fired — and that there was a not-small chance he would be.”
At the same time he was being pressured by Fox News to go all-in on Meatball DeSantis. It was then that he came up with an outside-the-box choice for who to support for the 2024 GOP presidential ticket.
“If the field was Trump, DeSantis, and various hopeful brand builders and gadflies, then Carlson, the second-most-famous person on the right — with that new political X factor, a television persona — might realistically become a true MAGA-friendly Trump alternative himself,” Wolff writes. “Once you saw it, the logic was undeniable.”
And so, while examining the underwhelming post-Fox News careers of superstars who’d left or been fired — among them Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, etc. — his “only alternative,” he decided, “might be to run for president.”
Wolff adds, “There it was, absent a note of irony: He could be unemployable but for the presidency.”
Alas, Rupert Murdoch was nonplussed when he learned of Carlson’s presidential aspirations, however inchoate. He blamed his son Lachlan for not properly controlling the increasingly conspiracy theory-friendly Carlson, telling friends bitterly, “My son wants his own president.” Murdoch even summarized Carlson’s chances with two words, the same he long ago used on Trump: “Won’t happen.’
Earlier this year, Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland was arrested for felony domestic violence charges, and though they were later dropped, Adult Swim and Roiland parted ways later in the spring. Of course, many people thought that would be the end of the long-running animated comedy, but clearly, nothing can stop this train.
The 10-episode seventh season of Rick and Mortywill debut on October 15th, though this time with new voice actors as Roiland provided the voice for most of the characters on the series. Of course, they couldn’t just change the actors without making it a whole thing. As per the official Adult Swim description:
Rick and Morty are back and sounding more like themselves than ever! It’s season seven, and the possibilities are endless: what’s up with Jerry? EVIL Summer?! And will they ever go back to the high school?! Maybe not! But let’s find out! There’s probably less piss than last season. Rick and Morty, 100 years! Or at least until season 10!
The network also released the opening credits for the new season, which promises even more bizarre weirdness audiences know and love, like skiing on tongues, zombies, and Jerry looking weirdly buff. It’s just another day for these two.
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(@mtgreenee) September 19, 2023
(@Scootmeister) September 20, 2023
