Category: Worldwide

There comes a moment in everyone’s social media life when they get stressed because they’ve been followed by an authority figure. When your boss, mother, or priest starts following you, social media immediately becomes a lot less fun.

When that happens, it’s time to stop posting photos of yourself partying it up with an adult beverage. You gotta hold back on some of your saltier takes, and you have to start minding your language. Also, you have to be very careful about the posts you’re tagged in.

Model, TV personality, and author Chrissy Teigen has been suffering through a mega-dose of this form of social media stress since January 20 when President Joe Biden followed her on Twitter. His follow came after Teigen made the request.

Teigen is one of the most popular voices on Twitter with over 13.7 million followers.

On January 19, after the inauguration, the @POTUS Twitter feed was turned over from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Teigen is a vocal supporter of the new president and thought being followed by him would be nice after spending nearly four years blocked by former President Trump.

Teigen, a staunch Trump critic, was blocked by him after tweeting “lol no one likes you” in response to a tweet lashing out at his own party for not being supportive enough.

It’s unclear why he was angry about the lack of support, but he was dealing with the Russia investigation and Obamacare repeal at that time.

“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President,” he tweeted (although you can’t read it now because he’s been banned from the platform).

Well, the day after he was inaugurated, Joe Biden followed Teigen making her one of only 11 accounts he follows. The rest are cabinet members and family. At the time, Teigen appeared to be pleased with the new follower, writing, “my heart oh my god lmao I can finally see the president’s tweets and they probably won’t be unhinged.”

However, in the coming days, the follow caused Teigen an incredible amount of Twitter stress. How would you feel knowing that just about everything you tweeted would be seen by the president?

As they say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

This caused Teigen to be more thoughtful about what she shared on Twitter and reduced the number of tweets she made each day.

Earlier today, she asked Biden to unfollow her so that she could flourish. “I love you!!! it’s not you it’s me” she wrote.

After that, the president set her free with an unfollow.

She tweeted a sigh of relief. Now, she can use all of the colorful language she wants without having to endure the potential scrutiny of the president.

Although it must be freeing for Teigen to be able to say what she wants, her move may have been a little short-sighted. Who wouldn’t want to be able to have a direct line to the president of the United States whenever they want?

Tiger Woods was involved in a single-car rollover accident on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, when his car apparently lost control going down a steep hill and rolled over causing “moderate to critical” leg injuries. Woods was taken to the hospital and his agent relayed that he was in surgery, with L.A. authorities indicating that they were not considered life-threatening injuries.

Woods isn’t just an icon to the golf world but the sports world as a whole, as he became one of golf’s first crossover athletes and helped explode the popularity of the sport by making it look cool and bringing attention from well beyond the traditional golf realm. As such, his impact extends beyond just this current crop of PGA Tour stars that looked up to him but athletes from all over the sports world, and as footage of the aftermath of his accident began circulating and word emerged about the severity of his accident, support began pouring in from athletes all over.

Among them was Justin Thomas, a close friend of Woods’ and the current top-ranked golfer in the world, who happened to be taking the podium for his WGC press conference when word of the accident broke. Thomas was emotional discussing it, noting he’s just hoping for the best and thinking of Tiger’s kids and family.

Others from the golf world began offering their thoughts, prayers, and support for the greatest of all-time.

Many from the NBA, NFL, and MLB also offered their hopes that Tiger will be alright and make a full recovery.

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How’s it gonna be when Stephen Jenkins sues this podcast?

I hope you liked last week’s parody songs and Third Eye Blind frontman anecdotes, because the newest episode of Pod Yourself A Gun has more of both. Amelia Cady joins Matt and Vince to talk about The Sopranos Season four episode two, “No Show.”

Listen to the podcast to hear Amelia describe Matt on heroin, Stephen Jenkins prancing away from an argument, and how Tony Soprano’s raw animal magnetism drives her desire to exhume Gandolfini’s body so she can doo doo doo, doo doo-doo do him.

Some other topics covered are Meadow Soprano’s gap year ambitions, Carmela’s sick Mary Higgins Clark-related burn, a gay mafioso named Don Purple, Young Vince’s encounter with Anthony Kiedis, and how Matt was just a little too poor to join the fingering cult. Even in their reductionism, Amelia, Matt, and Vince have quite interesting things to say about death and loss.

Just getting what you want is for babies. We want five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you’re an adult you can do that for us.

Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts.
Email us at [email protected]; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030.
Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. (-by @brentflyberg)

Mike Conley has always been perpetually under-appreciated throughout his career. It took a few seasons for him to really find his niche in the NBA as a member of a Memphis Grizzlies team that was trying to do the same, but through steady improvement, he helped comprise the Grit-n-Grind core that brought the organization and the city of Memphis back to relevance and respectability. Along the way, Conley established himself as a fringe All-Star candidate, but was never quite able to overcome the deep talent pool in the West.

That could potentially change this season, as Conley is playing some of the best basketball of his career while the Jazz stake out their claim as a viable contender. It would follow that Conley might try and parlay that into a bigger payday when he hits the free agent market this summer, but he quickly put that notion to rest, saying in no uncertain terms that he’s happy right where he is.

Via Tony Jones of The Athletic:

“Utah’s got me,” Conley said. “I was talking about this to my wife recently. We love it here. I don’t think I can go anywhere else that plays the way we play. We’ll see this offseason, because when that time comes there will definitely be a lot of chatter.

“But, from where I sit right now, this team is so unique, in the way we play. And everyone has bought into what we want to do on both ends of the floor.”

At 25-6 on the season, the Jazz hold the best record in the NBA and have won nine out of their last 10 games. Conley is averaging 16.4 points and 5.6 assists while shooting better than 41 percent from downtown.

(The Athletic)

Golf legend Tiger Woods rolled his car in a single-car accident on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles on Hawthorne Blvd. and sustained what authorities described as “moderate to critical” injuries.

Woods, who had hosted his Genesis Invitational tournament this weekend at Riviera Country Club and had stayed in Los Angeles for some promotional shoots with Dwyane Wade and David Spade, rolled his car on Tuesday, and the jaws of life had to be used to extract him from the wreckage. His agent, Mark Steinberg, released a statement to reporters saying that Woods was in surgery for “multiple leg injuries” and thanked fans for respecting his privacy and for their support.

Per ESPN’s Michael Eaves, the injuries are not considered life threatening but he may have sustained leg fractures in the wreck.

Photos and videos of the crash site show Woods’ car completely torn up and on its side well off the road, and authorities are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the cause of the wreck.

As we await word on the extent of Woods’ injuries and how surgery went, the sports world simply hopes for the best for an icon of not just golf but an entire generation of athlete across all sports. Woods’ impact on the golf world is hard to fully describe, and as PGA pros were beginning media responsibilities for this week’s WGC event, word of Woods’ accident broke and emotions were high for his friend Justin Thomas.

For many of us, the idea of interrupting someone when they’re talking is almost always a no-no. Conversation means taking turns—listening while another person talks, taking some time to think about what they’ve said, and then responding accordingly. Interjecting before a person is finished speaking is seeing as “cutting them off” and perceived as rude.

While this perception may be part of the historically dominant Northern European culture in the U.S., it’s not a universal thing. In fact, the opposite is true within many cultural groups.

TikToker Sari (@gaydhdgoddess) explained how conversing works in Northeastern Jewish culture, and how her being “an interrupty person” isn’t actually a sign of rudeness, but rather a sign of active engagement in the conversation. This concept is called “cooperative overlapping,” and while it may appear to be “interrupting” to an outside observer, it’s a standard conversation style for people accustomed to it.

“You’re overlapping just like at the end of what someone’s saying, you’re not trying to cut them off because you don’t care what they have to say. You just, you already got the gist, so you’re building up on it. So to us, good conversation, there are not any pauses. If there’s a pause, I think somebody doesn’t want to be speaking to me anymore, unless they’re visibly thinking or chewing or something.”

She explained that the reason some people find Jewish Northeasterners “grating” (think Bernies Sanders, she said) is because their conversation style is different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or wrong—it’s just different.

The term “cooperative overlapping” comes from sociolinguist Deborah Tannen, who described how it works in her book “Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends.” In a later essay, Tannen described how people with different conversation styles might interpret interruptions and pauses in speech:

“A speaker who stops talking because another has begun is unlikely to think, ‘I guess we have different attitudes toward cooperative overlap.’ Instead, such a speaker will probably think, ‘You are not interested in hearing what I have to say,’ or even ‘You are a boor who only wants to hear yourself talk.’ And the cooperative overlapper is probably concluding, ‘You are unfriendly and are making me do all the conversational work here’… ‘”

In other words, these conversational differences can lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings if we don’t recognize and understand what’s happening and why.

A few caveats are in order, of course. Not all Jewish people participate in cooperative overlapping as a rule, and there are several cultures outside of the Jewish Northeast who do. People from various Eastern European, Indian, and African-American cultures, as well as different geographical regions (generally New York/Northeast), have shared that such interaction is common and viewed as active engagement. It can also be common among people with ADHD or other neurodivergences.

As Anil Dash wrote on Twitter, “Ahhhh omg it feels so validating to hear this has a name! I really struggle with talking over people (I understand many experience this very negatively) but it’s an incredibly difficult pattern to change because it’s literally how I grew up communicating enthusiasm & support. Not talking ‘with’ someone is like leaving them alone, similar to refusing to look at them when talking.”

The difference between cooperative overlapping and actually rudely interrupting may be subtle, especially for those who aren’t used to it. Those of us from cultures that take distinct turns talking and allow pauses between turns may find cooperative overlapping overwhelming, and the seemingly chaotic conversation style can feel offputting.

But that discomfort goes both ways. People from overlapping cultures can interpret pauses as coldness or indifference.

Of course, there are personality differences that come into play with all of this as well. Some people within a cultural group may find that the dominant conversational style within that group doesn’t work well for them individually. And it’s also important to acknowledge that there’s a difference between cooperative overlapping in a conversation within a friend group and someone actually trying to dominate the conversation within a different power dynamic. The word “cooperative” is key here. If it becomes competitive, that’s a whole other thing.

The bottom line is communication varies a lot between cultural groups and it’s good to understand those variations. What’s normal or acceptable in one might feel uncomfortable to another, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Learning about these differences and adjusting our expectations accordingly can go a long way toward more enjoyable conversations for all.

The Hold Steady has been a preeminent indie rock group of this century, as they have regularly put out rock-solid albums between 2004 and now. Their latest, Open Door Policy, is a new 2021 release, and now they’ve promoted it with a performance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. The band brought their recent single “Family Farm” to the show. They gave a dynamic performance, with understated verses led by Craig Finn’s vocals, sandwiched between energetic blasts of guitar and horns.

Craig Finn previously told Apple Music of the song, “The lyrics mention the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo in ‘Eruption,’ and here we are when the record’s released and Eddie Van Halen has passed. And I think that the reason I love this and why I bring this up is because a lot of people talk about things like Springsteen or The Replacements when they talk about The Hold Steady. But in some ways, Van Halen was also a big influence. There’s one guy who’s kind of talking or yelling, and there’s another guy playing a lot of guitar solos.”

Meanwhile, the band recently sat down with Uproxx and Finn told us of their new album, “I’m super excited about it, but I’ve struggled to tell people what’s different about it. I think there’s been a continuation of figuring out this six-piece line-up and where everything goes and I think that that’s a huge part of the story. It’s allowed us to be more expansive musically than maybe we have in the past. There’s maybe a little bit more of headphone moments. There’s this weird scraping of guitars, some weird little noises that brought something we haven’t done before.”

Watch the band perform “Family Farm” above.

Nasim Pedrad was the co-host of one of my favorite SNL recurring sketches, “Underground Rock Minute” (R.I.P. Ass Dan), therefore I will watch anything she’s in. New Girl? Obviously. People of Earth? Super underrated. Mulaney? I might be the only person who watched every episode, and that includes John Mulaney. Pedrad is finally getting the lead role she’s long deserved in Chad.

The TBS comedy stars Pedrad as Chad, a “14-year-old pubescent Persian boy [who] navigates his first year of high school on a mission to become popular,” according to the official plot synopsis. “Chad’s friendships and sanity are pushed to the limits as he uses every tactic at his disposal to befriend the cool kids, while enduring his mother’s new dating life and reconciling with his cultural identity.”

Pedrad, who also serves as creator, writer, producer, and showrunner, developed a character with “nuance and specificity and flaws that are relatable,” she said last year. “It’s been a five-year journey from when I had the idea and started developing the world and character. It’s different creating a show for network. [TBS] really has been [an ideal home]. I don’t know if I would have got away with [it] on network television. How far can we push the envelope?” I realize one show is on TBS and the other’s on Hulu, but: can we get a Chad / Pen15 crossover? Netflix’s Big Mouth pulled it off, so I can’t see why not.

Chad premieres on TBS on April 6. Watch the trailer above.

Tiger Woods has been in Los Angeles for the last week serving as the host of one of his PGA Tour events, The Genesis Invitational at Riviera, and presented Max Homa with the trophy after his win in a playoff on Sunday night.

During the final round, Woods provided an update on his health, as his continued back issues have kept him from competing since December. Tiger said he was remaining cautious, noting that after fusion surgery gave him new life in his career a few years ago, he only has one shot with his back now and won’t be rushing anything, even with the Masters looming in April.

On Tuesday morning, word emerged out of Los Angeles that Woods had been injured in a severe car accident when he rolled his vehicle which required the jaws of life to be used to extricate him from the vehicle after sustaining “major damage,” per the L.A. Sheriff’s Department.

L.A. news crews provided footage of the aftermath of the wreck, showing Woods’ car apparently rolling off of the road with severe damage.

Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg released a statement saying Tiger is in surgery after sustaining multiple leg injuries in the crash.

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

Following Evan Peters’ surprise arrival on WandaVision as Wanda’s previously dead brother Pietro, fans were filled with all kinds of question about the show’s use of the Multiverse and whether it would bring the X-Men into the MCU now that Disney owns the rights to the characters. Heck, by the next episode, Pietro was decked out in a Halloween costume that clearly aped Quicksilver’s original look from the comics. But while the costume should’ve made fans go further down the X-Men rabbit hole, there was a prevailing theory that Pietro’s hairs looked like horns and was actually a visual clue that he’s secretly Mephisto.

Well, now, we have an official answer, and if you’re excited at the thought of the MCU and X-Men universes colliding, you’re going to be pretty happy. According to the hair and makeup team for WandaVision, Pietro’s hair was a purposeful callback to two classic mutants from the Fox films. Via IndieWire:

One element fans have been wondering about is the hair styling of Evan Peters’ recast Pietro. Was his look a deliberate callback to Wolverine and Peters’ role as Quicksilver in the “X-Man” movies? “It was something that Matt really [wanted]. They kind of planned that,” Bartek said. Sawyer seconded that, saying that they did try to blend the two universes.

As WandaVision nears its finale, fans have been feverishly hoping that the show will see Wanda return to her comic roots by being part of the X-Men universe. In fact, just this week, Marvel fans had Magneto trending on Twitter as they dropped theories that the powerful mutant will appear on the show and reveal himself as Wanda and Pietro’s true father. Is that even a possibility? Maybe! WandaVision has been all about Wanda’s increasingly powerful ability to change reality, so literally anything is on the table.

(Via IndieWire)