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On Monday MAGA governor Kristi Noem started her week a little unexpectedly: She dropped a bizarre, unprompted, five-minute-long video that appeared to be an infomercial for a dental chain in Texas. Noem is governor of South Dakota. Why was she shilling for dentists four very large states south of her? And given that Noem made no sign that it was paid advertising, why did it play like it was? Surely she knows that not identifying paid advertising as such on social media was illegal. If she didn’t, she knows now.

Per Mediaite, Travelers United, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, filed a suit against Noem on Wednesday, accusing her of violating the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CCPA). The filing claims she made “undisclosed advertisements” for the chain, entitled Smile Texas, which constituted an “unfair or deceptive practice.”

In an interview with Mediaite, Travelers United lawyer Lauren Wolfe acknowledged that they hadn’t yet found direct evidence that Noem was engaged in quid pro quo with Smile Texas. Maybe Noem just really enjoyed their dental work, performed some 1,000 miles from her state. But if Noem didn’t receive payment for shilling for Smile Texas, then it “doesn’t make any sense.”

In the filing, TU called bull on Noem’s video:

Someone with a very busy job does not take time off of that job to make a free advertisement for medical services in another state. There are many dentists and cosmetic dentists in South Dakota. No one with an extremely important job in the South Dakota would fly to Texas to receive dental treatment and then sit in that office and film an advertisement without some form of compensation. Kristi Noem acted here as an influencer. She likely either received free dental care in exchange for this advertisement, discounted dental care in exchange for this advertisement or she was paid and received free dental care for the advertisement. Unfortunately Noem did not mark this as an “Ad” or “Advertisement” when posting so she is participating in an unfair and deceptive practice.

In the video, which again runs longer than most popular songs, Noem opened up about a bicycling accident she had some years ago, which resulted in losing teeth. But when she went to Smile Texas, in the Lone Star State, she received “absolutely phenomenal” work that “finally gave me a smile that I can be proud of and confident in.”

Noem isn’t the only MAGA figure who’s been acting funny of late. Alabama senator Katie Britt became a national laughingstock after she dropped a creepy rebuttal to Joe Biden’s fiery State of the Union. And then there’s always Marjorie Taylor Greene.

(Via Mediaite)

Calvin Ridley was an intriguing free agent in a fairly shallow wide receiver class (especially after Mike Evans and Michael Pittman Jr. re-signed with their teams), but with a very strong WR Draft class, it remained to be seen how many teams would chase him.

The Jaguars were in the mix to keep him and the Patriots had reported interest, but ultimately it was the Titans that offered him a 4-year, $92 million contract with $50 million guaranteed to be their No. 1 receiver after lacking at that position severely the last two years.

That was a surprising contract figure for many. Ridley had a nice season during his return from a gambling suspension in his first year in Jacksonville, catching 76 passes for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns, but no one was quite sure if the league would view him as a long term No. 1 and pay him like it. Tennessee did, and when some questioned the deal as being too much, Ridley responded with a very funny, matter of fact reply.

That’s exactly what Ridley should say, as he wasn’t the one who gave out that deal. He just took what the market gave him and can now cash in on at least $50 million. Whether that’s too much to pay him isn’t his problem and the Titans certainly believe in his ability to provide Will Levis with the kind of receiving threat needed to take a step forward.

The Boys recently revealed the release date for their fourth season of Supe shenanigans, and here’s some more positive news: Amazon’s similarly themed Invincible will be back sooner for the final half of the second season.

What Time Will ‘Invincible’ Season 2, Episode 5 Be On Prime Video?

Following the mid-season hiatus that caught some viewers off guard, viewers were keen to find out if and when Mark/Invincible (Steven Yeun) would be able to overcome the Viltrumite empire while also sorting out his daddy issues. That wait has almost come to an end, and Thursday, March 14 will be the official day that the magic starts to happen again. Or at least, we’ll find out if Mark puts that information about his father’s books to good use, or if Nolan (J.K. Simmons) was somehow tossing another dagger into the mix.

You never know what you’ll truly get with Omni-Man, after all.

The next four episodes will likely breeze by on a weekly basis, and then we’ll be waiting for the third season. That’s how TV goes! Gotta embrace it and appreciate the great storytelling when it happens. And hey, if you need something else to watch on Amazon while the rest of the (short) wait ticks by, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine) already has a full season available that is well worth your time.

Aaron Rodgers has played all of four snaps for the New York Jets, which acquired him in a trade with the Green Bay Packers last offseason. Whether he plays any more this season is a major question right now, and it has nothing to do with the ruptured achilles he suffered at the very start of the 2023 campaign.

On Tuesday, Rodgers got floated as a potential VP candidate for Robert Kennedy Jr.’s longshot bid for the White House. There’s apparently some mutual interest, with the two holding conversations and Rodgers joining Jesse “The Body” Ventura at the top of Kennedy’s list. But in a bit of completely unsurprising news, the Daily Mail reports that Rodgers’ current employer is not especially happy about the fact that he’s being floated for a new gig.

DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal that the Jets are ‘upset’ with Rodgers and say it is ‘ridiculous’ to think he could be campaigning and playing football at the same time.
…
A source said: ‘Lots of the Jets coaches and players want Aaron to commit to the team and worry about winning the Super Bowl over a chance to be in the White House.

‘Aaron and Robert aren’t going to win but for Aaron to consider helping run the country over playing for the team has many with the Jets all upset because you have to pick one or the other.

Of course, we haven’t heard from Rodgers on the subject, so it’s hard to know the extent to which he’s entertaining this or what his hypothetical plan would be. But if he is Kennedy’s pick when he announces his VP on March 26 in California (which, it’s worth mentioning, is Rodgers’ home state), there will unsurprisingly be a ton of questions about how this is all going to work, especially considering that Rodgers has expressed his desire to play football for a few more years.

When the Philadelphia Eagles’ season came to an unceremonious end last weekend, many fans were, understandably, more than a little pissed.

Take the rest of the night off to sleep in your shame, boys. Photo by Elsa/Getty Images.

After the final game, one fan allegedly commented on Facebook that the team had “played like they were wearing tutus!!!”

Photo by David R. Tribble/Wikimedia Commons.

…according to the Pennsylvania Ballet, which reported encountering the post on the social media site.

The Pennsylvania Ballet, whose company members regularly wear tutus, had a few choice words for anyone who thinks their light, frequently pink costumes mean they’re not “tough.”

Commence epic reply…

---

(full text transcribed under the post).

A Facebook user recently commented that the Eagles had “played like they were wearing tutus!!!”

Our response:

“With all due respect to the Eagles, let’s take a minute to look at what our tutu wearing women have done this month:

By tomorrow afternoon, the ballerinas that wear tutus at Pennsylvania Ballet will have performed The Nutcracker 27 times in 21 days. Some of those women have performed the Snow scene and the Waltz of the Flowers without an understudy or second cast. No ‘second string’ to come in and spell them when they needed a break. When they have been sick they have come to the theater, put on make up and costume, smiled and performed. When they have felt an injury in the middle of a show there have been no injury timeouts. They have kept smiling, finished their job, bowed, left the stage, and then dealt with what hurts. Some of these tutu wearers have been tossed into a new position with only a moments notice. That’s like a cornerback being told at halftime that they’re going to play wide receiver for the second half, but they need to make sure that no one can tell they’ve never played wide receiver before. They have done all of this with such artistry and grace that audience after audience has clapped and cheered (no Boo Birds at the Academy) and the Philadelphia Inquirer has said this production looks “better than ever”.

So no, the Eagles have not played like they were wearing tutus. If they had, Chip Kelly would still be a head coach and we’d all be looking forward to the playoffs.”

Happy New Year!

In case it wasn’t obvious, toughness has nothing to do with your gender.

Gendered and homophobic insults in sports have been around basically forever — how many boys are called a “pansy” on the football field or told they “throw like a girl” in Little League?

“They played like they were wearing tutus” is the same deal. It’s shorthand for “You’re kinda ladylike, which means you’re not tough enough.”

Toughness, however, has a funny way of not being pinned to one particular gender. It’s not just ballerinas, either. NFL cheerleaders? They get paid next to nothing to dance in bikini tops and short-shorts in all kinds of weather — and wear only ever-so-slightly heavier outfits when the thermometer drops below freezing. And don’t even get me started on how mind-bogglingly badass the Rockettes are.

Toughness also has nothing to do with what kind of clothes you wear.

As my colleague Parker Molloy astutely points out, the kinds of clothes assigned to people of different genders are, and have always been, basically completely arbitrary. Pink has been both a “boys color” and a “girls color” at different points throughout history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — longtime survivor of polio, Depression vanquisher, wartime leader, and no one’s idea of a wimp — was photographed in his childhood sporting a long blonde hairstyle and wearing a dress.

Many of us are conditioned to see a frilly pink dance costume and think “delicate,” and to look at a football helmet and pads and think “big and strong.” But scratch the surface a little bit, and you’ll meet tutu-wearing ballerinas who that are among toughest people on the planet and cleat-and-helmet-wearing football players who are … well. The 2015 Eagles.

You just can’t tell from their outerwear.

Ballerinas wear tutus for the same reason football players wear uniforms and pads:

To get the job done.

This article originally appeared on 01.05.16

Madalyn Parker wanted to take a couple days off work. She didn’t have the flu, nor did she have plans to be on a beach somewhere, sipping mojitos under a palm tree.

Parker, a web developer from Michigan, wanted a few days away from work to focus on her mental health.

Parker lives with depression. And, she says, staying on top of her mental health is absolutely crucial.

“The bottom line is that mental health is health,” she says over email. “My depression stops me from being productive at my job the same way a broken hand would slow me down since I wouldn’t be able to type very well.”

She sent an email to her colleagues, telling them the honest reason why she was taking the time off.

“Hopefully,” she wrote to them, “I’ll be back next week refreshed and back to 100%.”

Soon after the message was sent, the CEO of Parker’s company wrote back:

“Hey Madalyn,

I just wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this. Every time you do, I use it as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health — I can’t believe this is not standard practice at all organizations. You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work.”

u201cWhen the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. ud83dudcafu201d

— madalyn (@madalyn)
1498854569

Moved by her CEO’s response, Parker posted the email exchange to Twitter.

The tweet, published on June 30, 2017, has since gone viral, amassing 45,000 likes and 16,000 retweets.

“It’s nice to see some warm, fuzzy feelings pass around the internet for once,” Parker says of the response to her tweet. “I’ve been absolutely blown away by the magnitude though. I didn’t expect so much attention!”

Even more impressive than the tweet’s reach, however, were the heartfelt responses it got.

“Thanks for giving me hope that I can find a job as I am,” wrote one person, who opened up about living with panic attacks. “That is bloody incredible,” chimed in another. “What a fantastic CEO you have.”

Some users, however, questioned why there needs to be a difference between vacation time and sick days; after all, one asked, aren’t vacations intended to improve our mental well-being?

That ignores an important distinction, Parker said — both in how we perceive sick days and vacation days and in how that time away from work is actually being spent.

“I took an entire month off to do partial hospitalization last summer and that was sick leave,” she wrote back. “I still felt like I could use vacation time because I didn’t use it and it’s a separate concept.”

Many users were astounded that a CEO would be that understanding of an employee’s mental health needs.

They were even more surprised that the CEO thanked her for sharing her personal experience with caring for her mental health.

After all, there’s still a great amount of stigma associated with mental illness in the workplace, which keeps many of us from speaking up to our colleagues when we need help or need a break to focus on ourselves. We fear being seen as “weak” or less committed to our work. We might even fear losing our job.

Ben Congleton, the CEO of Parker’s company, Olark, even joined the conversation himself.

In a blog post on Medium, Congleton wrote about the need for more business leaders to prioritize paid sick leave, fight to curb the stigma surrounding mental illness in the workplace, and see their employees as people first.

“It’s 2017. We are in a knowledge economy. Our jobs require us to execute at peak mental performance,” Congleton wrote. “When an athlete is injured, they sit on the bench and recover. Let’s get rid of the idea that somehow the brain is different.”

This article originally appeared on 07.11.17

Robert Bush Sr. is an avid outdoorsman who runs a Facebook page called “Bob’s Pennsylvania Wildlife Camera.”

He set up a secret camera on a log that lays across a steam to capture footage of all the different animals that walked across it. The result is a relaxing video featuring all sorts of wildlife including a black bear, chipmunk, coyote, turkey, and great horned owl.

Bush is very active recording wildlife videos, which he shares on his Facebook and YouTube pages.

In the introduction to his Facebook page he captures his philosophy that is welcoming to all, with a few ground rules:

“I love the outdoors and wildlife and I am not anti-hunting, this page is not about hunting and I will not post any hunting pictures or videos on this page, this page is about the wildlife in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Please do NOT post hunting pictures in the comments, and do not comment about killing the animals or about hunting at all, and do not bash hunters or talk about anti-hunting … just enjoy the videos.”

Well said, Robert. And now, on to the first video:

You may have noticed the video is called “The Log 2.” Well, here’s the original.

This article originally appeared on 02.28.20

Parenting is a hard gig regardless of whether you planned to have children or they were a happy surprise. As many parenting books as there are out there, none of them have the perfect equation to get it right and most parents do the best with what they learned, or unlearned, from their own parents.

Samantha, a parenting content creator on TikTok under the name Raising Self, has been working hard to overcome generational trauma and parent her children differently. Recently she was doing a live video to interact with her followers when one of her children made a stunning revelation: he was scared of her.

You could tell by her expression that his confession was a surprise, and though her son barely took his eyes off the video game he was playing, the two had a very meaningful dialogue. Instead of being upset or even happy that her child was fearful, she responded with curiosity.

Some people believe that children should be fearful of their parents in order to respect them, but the exchange Samantha had with her son turned that thought process on its head. He started off the conversation by saying, “I know this might be a little shocking but I do sometimes actually find you a little scary.” When Samantha probed him a little she found that what’s causing him to be fearful is when her “grandma instincts come out,” referring to a generational pattern that his mother has been trying hard not to repeat.

Samantha didn’t hesitate with her response: “Yeah, I did not know that. I’m sorry that you’re experiencing that.” She continued, “When it’s happening, please call it out. Cause that allows me to understand what behaviors I’m not doing a good job mitigating.” Even though she was shocked, the conversation didn’t end there. It’s a beautiful exchange that can guide other parents on how to navigate these types of conversations.

Watch the entire conversation below:

This article originally appeared on 12.21.22

“Dune: Part 2” has been a smash with filmgoers and critics alike. It earned nearly $370 million in its first two weeks of release worldwide and has an impressive 93% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film centers around Paul Atredies’s (Timothée Chalamet) journey from royalty to a new life on the desert planet of Arakkis, whom the inhabitants believe may be “The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise.” Paul’s journey is treacherous, as he must battle his sworn enemies, the Harkonens while trying to avoid being gobbled up by 400-yard-long sandworms with knife-like teeth.

But, in the end, it’s all about the spice.

A comedian who goes by Tom on Twitter made a fantastic video as Shai Hulud, a giant sandworm, being played by former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump. In the video, he rails against “Pesky” and “Little” Paul Atredies and says he will get a better deal on the spice trade with the Harkonens.

The video works because it’s funny to hear Trump speak about the “Dune” universe and the simple eyes and nose on the face of a sandworm are right out of early ‘70s Saturday morning TV.

— (@)

“I’m going to see this on Sunday and can already tell that this video will ruin the entire film. ‘Pesssky Paul’ in my head, every other scene,” David Paul joked in the comments. I think I’ve watched this 20 times now, and the ‘We’re gonna have paradise on Arrakis’ line gets me every time. Perfection,” Ben Page added.

We’ve all been there. Got an interview you were pretty excited about but once sitting across from your new potential boss, you do one of three things. You blabber on incessantly due to nerves. You seem to have forgotten every single thing that would be pertinent to the job in which you’re interviewing. Or, you feel as if you’ve somehow exited your body while you desperately attempt to appear normal but you know it’s not working.

Some people are simply rockstars when it comes to interviews, while others consistently look like they’re being interviewed against their will. It doesn’t seem to matter how many interviews they have under their belt, they’re just a nervous quiet mess trying not to sweat through their shirt.

One woman found herself in the latter category of interviewees, but instead of having to continue her search on the nearest job board, she got the job. The CEO took to LinkedIn to explain why.

“DISASTER! So, I interviewed a highly recommended candidate. The interview was a nightmare. She was so nervous she could barely communicate. A deer in the headlight. She BOMBED miserably. Still I couldn’t get past my gut feeling she was the best candidate for the job,” Brigette Hyacinth, Founder and CEO of Leadership HQ reveals.

Hyacinth posted the note to the professional social media platform in an effort to reach other people in the position to hire people. The CEO wanted to make sure people weren’t overlooking potentially excellent candidates due to not performing well in the interview due to obvious nerves.

Depending on what’s going on in people’s lives, interviews can be high stakes. Someone could be a newly single parent interviewing for the first time in years. There could be a situation where someone may be on the brink of eviction or foreclosure and landing that job is a matter of keeping stable housing. Sometimes people are neurodivergent and may appear awkward or extremely nervous in the interview but be fantastic assets to the company.

Let’s not forget the subset of people that just interview poorly because of anxiety, sort of like people who test poorly due to test anxiety. There are a multitude of reasons that people could bomb an interview from excessive nerves. But not everybody gets past the interview to prove they are a good fit for the company.

Hyacinth writes, “I gambled and decided to give her a try and within 6 months, she was one of my top performers. Sometimes it’s hard to know a candidate’s full capabilities in a job interview.”

Other’s agreed with her assessment, while some gave their thoughts on the whole interview process.

“The interview process is so dated. On another note companies go on about wanting to to employ more neurodiverse people, yet they put autistic people through several stage interview processes where they have to speak to people they don’t know for a long length of time, that can be so draining for them. Wish this would change and go more off references, experience, and portfolio and not having a chat with the owner of the company that they will probably never speak to ever again,” one commenter shares.

One person said in part, “Couldn’t agree more! We need to adjust many of our outdated conventional ways and pay closer attention to attitude and engagement during the interview process. Just because someone could be crippled with anxiety during an interview doesn’t mean they couldn’t be an absolute rockstar if given an opportunity.”

In Hyacinth’s case, it turned out that she was right to give the nervous woman a try. Maybe in the future other hiring managers and CEOs will be willing to take a page out of her book to give the introverts a chance to shine in a position that may be perfect for them.