For the first time since Jan. 30, Joel Embiid will suit up and play in a basketball game. After reports indicated that the reigning NBA MVP would try to return from a meniscus injury sometime this week, the Philadelphia 76ers upgraded Embiid’s status to questionable ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Joel Embiid has been upgraded to questionable for tonight’s game.
Embiid was on pace to go back-to-back as MVP at the time of his injury, as he’s averaging 35.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.8 blocks, and 1.1 steals in 34 minutes per game for the Sixers, which found themselves towards the top of the Eastern Conference. And then, Embiid started to suffer knee issues that led to him missing time, including back-to-back games ahead of their Jan. 30 matchup against the Golden State Warriors.
In that game, Embiid was on the ground when Jonathan Kuminga dove for a loose ball and landed on his bad knee. Eventually, the decision was made for Embiid to undergo a procedure on his meniscus that would sideline him for a considerable amount of time, but left the door open for him to come back.
The Sixers are currently 40-35, which puts them in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, 1.5 games behind the Miami Heat for the 7-seed, and 2.5 games behind the Indiana Pacers for the 6-seed. The team has seven games left in the regular season as they hope to make a major move to either avoid the Play-In Tournament, or get to host the 7-8 game.
Fast food needs innovation to survive. And we’re not talking about automated drive-thrus or flex-pricing, that stuff is, well… dumb. We’re talking about new food. Your Taco Bell Chicken Cantina menus, seasonal fish sandwiches, the KFC Chizza!
Okay, maybe not that last one. But we love to see a big brand take a chance because sometimes a new menu item just knocks it out of the park and reinvigorates a whole menu.
I’m giving the whole nut of the article away here, but that’s how I feel about McDonald’s new Spicy Chicken McNuggets. This isn’t the first time McDonald’s has launched a spicy nugget, the dish first hit the McDonald’s menu in 2020 and has made sporadic appearances since then, always for a very limited time. But this is the best iteration I’ve ever tasted.
Unfortunately, the spicy nuggets will once again only be available for an unspecified limited amount of time, so if you want to try ‘em, move fast. Here is why you need to pick up an order.
Spicy Chicken McNuggets
Dane Rivera
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The heat hits immediately when you bite into this nugget, building at the back of the throat at first bite and steadily moving up the tongue as you continue eating. The prominent flavor is cayenne pepper, but I can also taste the bright and subtly smokey characteristics of a hot pepper blend. This version of the nugget has that same airy and crispy breading as the OG nugget, providing a great texture and a lot of crunch.
Other than that, the chicken tastes the same as the OG nugget. It’s simply a spicy version of a classic, but if you love heat, you’re going to prefer this.
One way this nugget falls a bit short is that, for whatever reason, it’s a tad bit drier than the OG nugget. Because of that, I think this nugget requires sauce in a way the original doesn’t. So what’s the best sauce here? You have to treat these nuggets like you would wings — so go with ranch. Ranch will add richness and tang to the spicy profile, elevating it to a much more savory and satisfying place.
If you want to double down on the heat, Spicy Buffalo would be our next choice.
The Bottom Line:
Superior to the chain’s OG nugget. McDonald’s is pretty good at bringing this one back, but it’s time to stop fooling around and just give this permanent menu status. If you haven’t tried them yet, they’re a must-pick-up.
Valerie Bertinelli stopped by Tuesday morning’s episode of The View, and it was clear right out of the gate that something was… off. After sitting down on the panel to promote her new cookbook, the actress turned Food Network personality kicked things off by noting that she and Whoopi Goldberg had already been “bitching” backstage.
From there, things only got weirder as Bertinelli seemingly had no clue about the dishes she supposedly prepared for the co-hosts. In fact, she got downright testy when asked about them.
“What is this? Did I make this?” she said before being asked by Joy Behar if one of the dishes was turkey, prompting Bertinelli to snap back, “Joy, I don’t know.”
Realizing she just made things very awkward, Bertinelli attempted to steer the conversation towards politics, only to be censored as she once again swore on air.
“I just want you to know how dang important it is for everyone to vote,” she said, urging the audience to participate in local elections before the first of two censored moments that occurred during the chat. “Please, vote for your own benefit. Thank you. I get a little excited, and I just have to think about our queen Taylor Swift and…”
The sound cut out at the end of Bertinelli’s comment, though her lips appeared to mouth “calm the f— down” as the audio dropped.
The conversation got even more frantic as Bertinelli lashed out at online trolls, who she called “a**holes” in another moment that required censoring. After launching into a few other tangents, Bertinelli attempted to bring her scattershot appearance to a close with a bizarre historical quote.
“Just like [Winston] Churchill said, when you’re going through hell, keep going,” she said. “Was it Churchill? I don’t care. But, when you’re going through hell, you keep going.”
Grief and gratitude might seem to be in opposition to the other, but in times of loss, they both work in tandem to help us process our pain. As the “Ten Percent Happier” blog eloquently puts it, “grief embodies our humanity even as gratitude allows us to embrace pain and hardship.”
Actress Jennifer Garner recently gave a poignant example of this.
On April 1, the “Alias” star took to her Instagram page to share the news that her father, William John Garner, died “peacefully” in the afternoon on March 30.
Though her tribute expressed the loss she felt, it made plenty of space for humor and appreciation for the precious memories she got to create with her “kind and brilliant” dad.
Garner began her caption with a joke, saying, “We were with him, singing ‘Amazing Grace’ as he left us. Did we carry him across or scare him away — valid question.”
The lighthearted moment was followed by a nugget of heartfelt truth. “While there is no tragedy in the death of an 85-year-old man who lived a healthy, wonderful life, I know grief is unavoidable, waiting around unexpected corners.”
Still, Garner noted that “Today is for gratitude,” reminiscing her late father’s “gentle demeanor and quiet strength” his “mischievous smile,” and “for the way he invented the role of all in, ever patient girl dad.”
She then sent thank-you’s to the medical staff that helped him during his final chapter, helping him get a few more days to spend with his grandchildren.
“There is so much to say about my dad— my sisters and I will never be done talking about how wonderful he was, so bear with us,” she concluded. “But for today, I share these memories with my appreciation for the kind and brilliant man, father, and grandfather he was, as well as the loving legacy he left behind.”
Along with the tribute, Garner shared a carousel of images of her dad, including a clip of their iconic Capital One commercial spot, where her father got to deliver the famous “What’s in your wallet?” tagline.
Garner aimed to honor her father in her tribute, and she succeeded.
“My heart aches a little because you lost someone so incredibly special, but also celebrates the comfort you must have in knowing what a precious and wonderful human being he was here on Earth. I am now singing to him as well!” one person wrote.
Another added, “What an amazing father and beautiful example.”
It prompted a few to reflect on their own relationships with their father.
“Dads are so precious. Sorry for your loss.”
“A father daughter bond is like no other — I’m so very sorry — sending love and prayers for your family.”
“What a lovely face he had! A wonderful father is a tough thing to beat. I had one too and know in my bones how lucky I was — how lucky you were— thinking of you and sending buckets of love.”
Part of being human means eventually losing everyone we love. We can choose to focus solely on mourning. We can also choose to try to bury the pain. But neither of those options helps us fully experience our own humanity. The hidden opportunity of grief is to feel gratitude at a profound level, as if to say “I am now more fully aware of how precious our time together was, now that it is no longer here.” May we all have the grace to embrace both sides when the time comes.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Beyoncé dreams of a world where everyone and everything can exist as they choose to. Where gatekeepers are without agenda beside guarding the integrity of the structure they earned the position and respect to protect. “Texas Hold ‘Em” lives in this utopia where patrons at your local dive bar dance in jolly unison and throw back shots of liquor.
When Beyoncé sings about laying your cards and throwing your keys up, it’s without a care in the world for what exists outside. Renaissance resides here too as its 16 songs are a safe space for Black, brown, and queer bodies who are not only in love with dance and ballroom but created a home for themselves there. In this utopia, there’s nothing to prove, there’s nothing to overcome, and there’s no one to fight. The sanctity of human autonomy is preserved and protected. You can be country today and dance under the disco ball tomorrow.
Cowboy Carter should’ve been born into this utopia. Instead, we have an album born out of disregard for Beyoncé’s country roots as well as her right to create as she pleases. When Beyoncé unveiled the cover for Cowboy Carter, she alluded to the criticism she faced after performing “Daddy Lessons” at the 50th CMA Awards. Beyoncé – born in Texas to parents with roots in Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana – had everything from her true intentions for the song to her country roots questioned. Ironic for the singer who was once considered “too country.”
As Beyoncé sings of dive bars, hoedowns, and tornadoes sweeping through the Lone Star State on “Texas Hold ’Em,” leads a “Riiverdance” with fingernails as her percussion, and cocks her weapon with promises to be “your shotgun ride ’til the day I die” on “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus, it’s clear that questions about her country background are less about “preserving” the genre, and more about excluding stories that tell the truth about country. To bill Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter as an album built to prove these critics wrong would be to shortchange it. Instead, it finds Beyoncé using the sound and environment she was born into to expand the possibilities of genre — and leave them behind.
Eight years after “Daddy Lessons,” Beyoncé returns to her “old friend” which she greets with chippy sarcasm on the opening track to Cowboy Carter. “Ameriican Requiem,” as much as it is a requiem, is a reckoning Beyoncé seeks. Between grand, orchestral vocal runs and twangy and croaking verses, Beyoncé speaks to her critics directly: “Can you hear me? / “Or do you fear me?” The exclusion of Black and brown people in certain spaces, especially ones they occupied in abundance for as long or longer than so-called gatekeepers, is an attempt to eliminate stories of strife and struggle caused by the same group who wants to whitewash those faults in hindsight.
However, these stories will constantly resurface in the art Black and brown people create, making it hard for these antagonists to brush them off with claims that things weren’t that bad or that they’re a lot better now, a contradiction that melts the brain if you think about it too hard. They fear the reminder, but the constant presence of these stories that track our progress and celebrate those from the past who opened the doors for today are too valuable to be erased.
Cowboy Carter resurrects stories of Beyoncé’s past as well as those from Black artists in the South. “16 Carriages” mourns the innocent life she once had as a child in the land of milk & honey with a future she naively hoped would be just as sweet and nourishing. Though her music dreams came true, the price at which they were granted produced an “undеrpaid and overwhelmed” child, a mother “goin’ so hard, now I miss my kids,” a battered relationship between her parents that ended in their separation after her father’s infidelity. The record, just like Cowboy Carter, thrives in the face of unfortunate circumstances.
“Ya Ya,” a blood-pumping, foot-stomping, and hand-clapping chant, salutes the legacy of the Chitlin Circuit, a string of venues in the South that was home to Black artists who wanted to perform their music as they were denied the opportunity to do so in white venues. Undeniable legends like James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Little Richard, the Jackson 5, and Tina Turner all performed throughout the Chitlin Circuit. The Chitlin Circuit and Cowboy Carter are both born from the attempted exhalation by their respective distractors and oppressors. Their greatness won’t be questioned, but they should’ve been able to exist with better circumstances at their foundation.
Cowboy Carter doesn’t exist in the world that country is “supposed” to be in. Instead, it blends genres that go against tradition and brings us the brash “Spaghettii,” the bass-knocking “Tyrant,” the pop-leaning “Levii Jeans,” and the funky “Desert Eagle.” Things are much different in Beyoncé’s country, just as they were in her ballroom. With the inclusion of talented burgeoning artists like Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, and Shaboozey, she uncovers a side of country that deserves more time in the spotlight. It proves that country, just like other genres, is simply what you make of your roots and experiences that sprout from it. Everyone should be able to tell their story how they please. Cowboy Carter protects and advocates for the undisturbed existence of art from Black and brown creatives, and through 27 songs, Beyoncé stands as a winner in a fight that should’ve never existed.
Cowboy Carter is out now via Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. Find out more information here.
It’s nice and humbling to know that despite all of your best efforts, you will probably never be a billionaire. Sure, you’ll never know what it’s like to be rich, but it takes the pressure off knowing that you will never be named on a list of the world’s wealthiest people. Who wants to be rubbing elbows with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, or even Dick Wolf, who famously invented crime (only kidding). George Lucas, that’s who!
Lucas is #1 on the Forbes World Celebrity Billionare list, which also includes Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, and Rihanna. Lucas is worth $5.5 billion at age 79.
After selling LucasFilm to Disney back in 2012, Lucas has been raking in the big bucks thanks to all of the Star Wars spinoffs on Disney+. Half of that billion is probably due to the popularity of Baby Yoda, but we will never really know for certain.
Taylor Swift also makes an appearance on the list, making her the first person to be get her billions solely by writing and performing, as opposed to other ventures, like shapewear lines or inventing fictional universes. Noticibly absent from the celebrity billionaire list is Godzilla, who is worth more than all of these guys combined lately. He’s also taller.
Another Saturday Night Live cast member has fired back at the now-viral video that claims the show has never hired a “hot woman.” Newcomer Chloe Troast is the latest not ready for primetime player to take issue with TikTok user Jahelis Castillo, who fired off a scorching hot take about the looks of SNL‘s female cast members.
According to Castillo, the show doesn’t hire women that are ugly, but none of them are “hot” because that would overshadow them being funny.
“To be considered funny, you have to be more funny than you are hot,” Castillo argued. “And if you’re more hot than you are funny, then it boils down to you just not being funny at all.”
However, she took things further by calling out cast members by name before noting that the hotness rule doesn’t apply to men.
She specifically called out current SNL cast member Heidi Gardner as an example… saying the 40-year-old comedian is always forced to play the dumb blonde character, even though — in her opinion — HG isn’t really attractive … but is probably the best they have in the lineup.
Jahelis supported her theory by calling out SNL‘s past and current male cast… including Jimmy Fallon, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, and Bowen Yang, labeling them all as “relatively hot men.”
In response, Troast uploaded a reaction video where she sings Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” while flipping off the camera:
Troast’s response arrives on the heels of fellow cast member Sarah Sherman, who retweeted Castillo’s video with the caption, “Just found out I’m not hot. Please give me and my family space to grieve privately and uglily at this time.”
just found out i’m not hot. please give me and my family space to grieve privately and uglily at this time. https://t.co/YXvXMGvbYN
Today, in “don’t belive everything you read on the internet” news, it turns out Lizzo is not “quitting music,” as many gleaned from a post in which she vented about her frustrations with how she’s perceived in the media. Rather, she says she’s quitting on giving energy to that negativity, as she clarified in a new video post taken from what look like quite comfortable surroundings. In the video, Lizzo takes a moment before hitting the beach or the pool at whatever resort she’s currently enjoying to address the viral reports stemming from her post.
“When I say I quit, I mean quit giving any negative energy attention,” she explained. “What I’m not gonna quit is the joy of my life, which is making music, which is connecting the people… In no way, shape, or form am I the only person who is experiencing that negative voice that seems to be louder than the positive. If I can just send one person the inspiration or motivation to stand up for themselves and say they quit letting negative people win, negative comments win, then I’ve done even more than I could have hoped for.”
Lizzo says she isn’t quitting music:
“When I say I quit, I mean quit giving any negative energy attention. What I’m not gonna quit, is the joy of my life, which is making music which is connecting the people.” pic.twitter.com/itKDL68hKM
A month later, she wrote on Instagram, “I’m getting tired of putting up with being dragged by everyone in my life and on the internet. All I want is to make music and make people happy and help the world be a little better than I found it. But I’m starting to feel like the world doesn’t want me in it. I’m constantly up against lies being told about me for clout & views… being the butt of the joke every single time because of how I look… my character being picked apart by people who don’t know me and disrespecting my name. I didn’t sign up for this sh*t — I QUIT.”
If all this means is that she’s turning over her social media passwords to a qualified manager to add a buffer between herself and the negativity, then good on her. While being authentic online is key to many artists’ brands, there’s definitely a threshold of diminishing returns if it means they have to suffer bullying from anonymous nobodies with nasty spirits. Here’s hoping she finds some peace of mind as she works on her next album.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an indpendent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Life is funny sometimes. Occasionally, you’ll have full circle moments where you end up seemingly right back where you started, but with a fresh perspective and occasionally, a new role.
That’s what happened for Lil Yachty. The Atlanta rap star got his start as self-styled “king of the teens” after leaving his job working at McDonald’s. Now, he’s back on ol’ Ronald’s payroll, except this time, it’s as a celebrity endorser, appearing in a new TV commercial, doing what he does best. In a fun twist, the song he’s performing is also redux; Yachty runs off his favorite menu items in a remix of the chain’s 1988 “Menu Song,” which appeared in its ads nearly a decade before Yachty was even born. It’s surprisingly catchy — but maybe not that surprisingly, since it’s Lil Yachty using his “Minnesota”/”Poland” flow. He even throws in a little bit of his fellow rapper Pusha T’s Golden Arches jingle at the end.
You can check out the full commercial above.
McDonald’s has had some great luck partnering with rappers over the past few years. Aside from the aforementioned Pusha T-penned jingle, the chain has teamed up with Travis Scott, Saweetie, Cardi B, and Offset to share themed meals that have brought in plenty of revenue for the brand — and for the participating artists. Lil Yachty is a perfect addition to that tradition. Now, if only he could get that Uno movie back into production.
When LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat, the expectation was that they would run off championship after championship — with James rather famously saying that’d be the case in their intro press conference.
However, after making the Finals in 2011, they fell at the hands of Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks, and had to go into that offseason to do a bit of soul searching to figure out how to maximize their talent. Apparently, for Erik Spoelstra, that journey included a visit to Eugene, Oregon to sit down with football coach Chip Kelly and learn about the spread offense and how those principles could translate to the basketball court.
In the third episode of LeBron James and JJ Redick’s “Mind the Game” podcast, LeBron detailed how that information became fundamental to what the Heat did, namely with moving Bosh to the five and having him become a three-point threat in the corner, opening up the paint for James and Wade to attack the rim.
.@KingJames talks about how Erik Spoelstra’s innovative strategy and Chris Bosh’s spacing unlocked the full potential of the Heat.
At the time, Kelly’s Oregon squad was continuing the spread offense revolution in college football, particularly with how they ran the ball effectively by creating so much width. The Ducks had made the BCS National Championship game in January of 2011, Kelly’s second season as head coach, and I’d guess the running game concepts were what Spo was able to really draw on.
As James noted, they created the “Mack Truck Lane” that only he and Wade were allowed to run down in transition, pushing bigs to the outside in order to allow the Heat’s dynamic ball-handlers to attack downhill. The results spoke for themselves, and Miami’s success with a spaced out offense helped usher in this modern era of basketball we have now (with other teams like the Warriors building on it and obviously contributing in a big way), where so many bigs are three-point threats. That being tied to a visit to Oregon football is pretty wild, and it shows the imagination of Spoelstra to recognize how there are innovative principles that can work across sports.
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