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When Lenny Kravitz first sang “All of my life, where have you been? / I wonder if I’ll ever see you again” on his 2000 hit single, “Again,” he was likely referring to a past love. But fans of Kravitz — as well as fans of memes — get to see a familiar favorite again.

Today (September 23), Kravitz made his debut on TikTok, with the legendary scarf. You know, the giant scarf. The scarf that launched a thousand memes.

In his first-ever TikTok, Kravitz is seen walking toward the camera wearing the scarf, saying “Grab your big scarf. It’s the first day of fall.”

Kravitz was first seen photographed wearing the scarf back in 2012, while he was out running errands, as photographed above. However, the size of the scarf spawned many a joke and meme on the internet. Some fans have even photoshopped the picture, growing the scarf larger and larger over time.

He has addressed the memes on several occasions, including a 2020 interview with GQ, in which he said “You look at some of those [images] and it’s just like, ‘Okay guys, the scarf is three times bigger than it really is in this picture, but it was big and it was cold.’”

But thankfully, it seems like he recalls this memory fondly.

You can see a clip on the TikTok above.

A lot has changed for Russell Brand in the last week. The British performer has been accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct. Though Brand has denied the allegations, the claims are so severe that he’s received sharp blowback, including being demonetized on YouTube, where he has over six million subscribers. He’s still going strong at Rumble, the far right video service, but now they’re paying the price for their actions.

As per The Guardian, a number of companies have pulled ads from Rumble, the most prominent being Burger King and Hello Fresh. You may be thinking: Wait, Burger King and Hello Fresh advertised on a home for Don Jr. and other extremist conspiracy theorist wackos? Apparently! Other companies that no longer advertise on Rumble include the fashion and cosmetic retailer ASOS and the London residential complex the Barbican.

Brand has long had a home on Rumble, which purports to be a haven for free speech, i.e., a place where you can spread nonsense without any consequence. Once upon a time Brand was a fierce cheerleader for progressive values. He still is, to a point, but he’s also added anti-vaccine and other far right beliefs to his repertoire. Last year, after YouTube took down a video in which Brand spread misinformation — misinformation he himself admitted as wrong. He then claimed he was being censored, then declared he’d found a new, more welcoming home over in the MAGA land that is Rumble.

The allegations against Brand are largely from the days when he was at the height of his fame, during which he admitted he was “very, very promiscuous.” Some of the claims include that he raped a woman against a wall and that he took advantage of a woman when she was 16. On Friday Brand posted a video on Twitter/X and (yes) Rumble in which he claimed the government was trying to censor him.

(Via The Guardian)

A 29-year-old woman had a baby girl, and after a brief maternity leave, she had to return to work. She couldn’t afford childcare, so her husband, 35, reluctantly agreed to watch the baby while she was at work.

“It’s important to know that he’s been unemployed since 2021,” the woman wrote on Reddit’s AITA subforum. “He receives benefits. It’s also important to know that he’s extremely lazy. He doesn’t cook, clean, or help out in any way. I was nervous about leaving her home with her father, but I had no choice.”

The mother had reason to be worried about leaving her baby home alone with her husband, but in the beginning, things seemed fine. “When I came back from work, she was clean and sleeping. The next few times I came home, he was either playing with her, feeding her, or out for a walk with her. I was happy,” she wrote.

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The mother thought things looked nice on the surface, but they weren’t as they seemed.

“A few days ago, my neighbor told me that as soon as I leave, the baby cries, and she cries for hours,” the mother wrote. “My neighbor said that she knocked on our door, and he finally answered it. He was sleeping. I concluded that he sleeps all day and right. Before I come home, he pretends to care for her.”

The mother hatched an elaborate plan to see if he was watching the baby or sleeping all day.

“I decided to take the day off of work. I left home at my regular time,” she wrote. “I waited 30 minutes and then went home. Sure enough, he was knocked out, sleeping with his stupid noise-canceling headphones on. I went to my daughter’s room, scooped her up, and took her to my friend’s house.”

Two hours later, she called her husband and said she was coming home. He was frantic because he couldn’t find the child and almost called the police. The wife then explained to her husband that she had taken the baby while he was asleep. When she got home his mother was there “calming his nerves,” and they both had strong words for the wife.

The husband went to live at his mother’s house, and their family members have been telling the wife that she’s a “terrible” person. She admits that her tactics may have been a bit “extreme” but doesn’t think she’s in the wrong.

Her husband was obviously neglectful and putting the baby in extreme danger, so it was commendable that the mom saw the situation for herself and took the baby to a safe place. However, the situation could have gotten worse if her husband had called the police and reported the kidnapping.

It probably would have been best if she had caught the husband sleeping and called him out for neglect instead of escalating the situation with a fake kidnapping. After the incident, the mother left her husband, took the baby to live with a friend, and is considering pressing charges against him.

The commenters on the Reddit thread overwhelmingly believed that the wife did the right thing by catching the husband in the act and leaving him.

“FYI, this isn’t just a leave your husband because he sucks. You need to leave him before you loose your child. Neglect is abuse. Your neighbor was nice and called you instead of CPS. But if you stay with your husband they can take your child from you as well,” mandytheratmom wrote. “So you managed to get inside the house and grab your child and he never noticed you? What if something happened to your kid while he had his noise-canceling headphones?!” Elderberryown666 added.

The mother responded to the repeated calls to leave her husband with a simple remark that sums up the whole story: “I’m done with him. He’s waiting for an apology.”

Madeleine Albright once said, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” It turns out that might actually be a hell on Earth, because women just do better when they have other women to rely on, and there’s research that backs it up.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. “Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination,” Brian Uzzi writes in the Harvard Business Review.

Part of the reason why women with strong women backing them up are more successful is because they can turn to their tribe for advice. Women have to face different challenges than men, such as unconscious bias, and being able to turn to other women who have had similar experiences can help you navigate a difficult situation. It’s like having a road map for your goals.

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​It’s interesting to note that women in leadership positions who lacked this style of support system didn’t make as much as the women who did. “While women who had networks that most resembled those of successful men (i.e., centrality but no female inner circle) placed into leadership positions that were among the lowest in authority and pay,” Uzzi writes. Men and women have different needs, and that even extends to their tribe.

But it’s not just in the workplace. A 2006 study found that women who had 10 or more friends were more likely to survive the disease than women who lacked close friends. The study found socially isolated women were 64% more likely to die from cancer, and 43% more likely to have a breast cancer reoccurrence. Friendship is literally the best medicine.

Never underestimate the power of a group text with your girlfriends. Having a place to commiserate over sexism and support other women with goofy gifs when someone succeeds can enrich your life on all fronts.

This article originally appeared on 12.03.19

Most of us who live in the U.S. are used to looking out a window or walking out our front door and seeing squirrels. The cute, fluffy-tailed rodents often appear perfectly pettable, but they generally scamper away when humans get too close.

That is not the case for TikTok creator Derrick Downey Jr., however, as he has not only befriended his neighborhood squirrels but goes all out to help them live their best squirrel lives.

Downey shared a video in May of 2022 in which he chats with a couple of squirrels on his porch while feeding them and offering them water. That video received over 26 million views and kicked off a whole series of videos showcasing the adorable antics of Richard, Maxine, Hector, Consuela, Norma (may she rest in peace), and Hood Rat Raymond. He’s built Richard a house, rescued Maxine’s babies, mourned Norma’s transition (to wherever squirrels go when they die) and more.

People can’t get enough, and who can blame them? Squirrels are the best (when they’re not tearing up your patio furniture and stealing cotton for their nest, as Downey has experienced.)

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Here’s how it all started:

@derrickdowneyjr

#fyp

It’s fun to see how he has built up trust with his squirrel friends. He even shared a video showing some of the steps it took to get them to eat from his hand.

@derrickdowneyjr

Building trust takes patience 🐿❤️ Maxine and I working on a building a stronger bond, she’s more at ease when Richard is around but I would day today was a success. #foryoupage #squirrelsoftiktok #squirreltok #trustissues #derrickdowneyjr

Part of what people love about Downey’s videos is the way he talks to the squirrels—it almost feels like therapy. As one commenter wrote, “I think I just healed my inner child.” Others compare Downey to a real-life Disney princess.

All of his patience and trust-building have paid off. Watch how Maxine will now jump right onto him for a snack.

@derrickdowneyjr

Jump #pets #squirrel #foryoupage

Downey built an elaborate home on his balcony for Richard and Maxine, which was even showcased in Architectural Digest. He decorates it seasonally, which is hilarious. They even have furniture, a fireplace and a television. Check this out:

@derrickdowneyjr

Maxine never invite me to watch TV with her #cocomelon #fyp

But it’s not all fun and games for Downey’s squirrel friends. When some trees were cut down in front of his apartment, a nest of squirrel babies was displaced. The tree trimmers put the babies in another tree, but Downey was afraid dogs could get to them where they put them. He took their nest inside, made sure they were warm and comfortable and tried to feed them.

Then he found out that they were actually Maxine’s babies! Watch Mama Maxine collect her young ‘uns and take them to a new nest she made.

@derrickdowneyjr

Rescuing these baby squirrels and reuniting them with mama Maxine, was the greatest feeling ever! 🐿️ #babysquirrel #squirrels #squirrelsoftiktok #wildlife #wildliferescue #animallover #nature #foryou

It’s delightful and strangely addicting to follow the goings-on of Downey’s squirrel friends and watch him interact with them. Follow @derrickdowneyjr on TikTok for more.

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn’t exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

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Many of us have read written accounts of enslavement, from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography to some of the 2,300 first-person accounts housed in the Library of Congress. But how many of us have heard the actual voices of people who were enslaved telling their own stories?

ABC News’ Nightline with Ted Koppel aired a segment in 1999 in which we can hear the first-person accounts of people who had been enslaved taken from interviews conducted in the 1930s and 40s (also housed in the Library of Congress). They include the voice of a man named Fountain Hughes, who was born into slavery in 1848 and whose grandfather had “belonged to” Thomas Jefferson.

As Koppel says in the segment, “The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak.”

Indeed, hearing formerly enslaved people share their experiences of being bought and sold like cattle, sleeping on bare pallets, and witnessing whippings for insubordination is a heartbreaking reminder of how close we are to this ugly chapter of our history. The segment is well worth ten minutes to watch:

This article originally appeared on 03.09.20

At 1:30 am on a Monday morning in February, an AMBER Alert went out in southern Louisiana about a missing 10-year-old girl from New Iberia. It was believed she had been kidnapped and driven away in a 2012 silver Nissan Altima.

A few hours later at 7 am, Dion Merrick and Brandon Antoine, sanitation workers for Pelican Waste, were on their daily route when they noticed a vehicle that fit the description in the alert.

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The sanitation workers thought it was suspicious that a silver sedan was parked alone in a field in St. Martin Parish.

“Something told me, like just look, I said what is that car doing in that field like that? What the car doing? Guess what, that’s the dude with the little girl,” Merrick said in a Facebook Live video. “That’s God.”

The video has been seen over 1.5 million times since it was posted on Monday morning.

To prevent the possible kidnapper from escaping, they parked the large sanitation truck the wrong way on the highway to “Make sure they couldn’t get out,” Merrick said. Then, they called 911.

When police arrived they arrested Michael R. Sereal, the man whose car was mentioned in the AMBER Alert. The police were also able to safely recover the girl who appeared unharmed. She was later taken to the hospital to be evaluated by medical personnel.

The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department’s online sex offender registry has a Michael Roy Sereal but authorities wouldn’t confirm it’s the same man.

The young girls’ family got in touch with the two men who saved her and have shown amazing gratitude. “I’m just so happy and blessed that I have actually seen the car and we actually responded like we were supposed to respond,” Merrick told KHOU.

Merrick hopes that his actions will inspire others to be proactive as well. “Don’t be scared if you see something. If you know something is wrong, report it,” Merrick said. “Call authorities because it could save someone’s life.”

The two men were applauded by the St. John Parish’s Sheriff, who offered to buy them lunch.

“I was just doing my job man. I was just doing my job and actually came across somebody who needed help,” Merrick said. “Got me tearing up.”

The AMBER Alert system was created in 1996 after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered while riding her bike in Texas. Since its inception, nearly seven in 10 AMBER alert cases have resulted in children being successfully reunited with their parents.

In 17% of the cases, the child’s recovery is a direct result of the alert.

As of December 2020, 1,029 children rescued specifically because of the system.

This article originally appeared on 02.09.21

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

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Walken became famous as a serious actor after his breakout roles in “Annie Hall” (1977) and “The Deer Hunter” (1978) so people were pretty shocked in 1981 when he tap-danced in Steve Martin’s “Pennies from Heaven.”

But Walken actually started his career in entertainment as a dancer. He took his first dance lessons at the age of three. “It was very typical for people—and I mean working-class people—to send their kids to dancing school,” he told Interview Magazine. “You’d learn ballet, tap, acrobatics, usually you’d even learn to sing a song,” he later explained to Interview magazine.

As a child, he also studied tap dance and toured in musicals. He even danced with a young Liza Minelli. “I’d been around dancers my whole life, having watched my parents make musicals at MGM, and Chris reminded me of so many of the dancers I knew growing up,” Minelli said according to Entertainment Weekly. “He’s talented in every way.”

Craig Zadan, Executive Producer of “Peter Pan Live!,” agrees with Minelli. “I think that if he had been around in the heyday of MGM, he would have been a big star of musicals on film,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

His dance moves were put center stage in 2001 in Spike Jonze’s video for Fatboy Slim’s song “Weapon of Choice.” Walken says he did it because one day he’ll be too old to cut a rug. “You think, ‘Well, do it now!’ You know, you get too decrepit to dance,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

This article originally appeared on 02.15.22

Nicki Minaj doesn’t seem to be relenting from her alleged beef with Cardi B and Offset. Earlier this past week, a video of her husband, Kenneth Petty, surfaced on the web, in which he appears to be making threats to Offset, standing outside of a hotel where he and Cardi were said to be staying.

After the video surfaced, Minaj doubled down, sharing a snippet of new music on Twitter, on which, she raps, “I can’t be playin’…I married a G/ I got some…that do what I say, if I tell ’em to shoot, they pull up on the three.”

DJ Vlad later slammed Minaj, taking to Twitter to blast this move.

“Nicki Minaj’s husband is on house arrest for threatening Offset,” Vlad said. “Right after that, she previews a song on IG saying she got killers who will pull up and do what she say. This was the same Nicki who threatened to send her husband to Akademiks’ house for his comments about her.”

Last night (September 22), Minaj took to her Instagram livestream, in which she is seen in a studio ahead of an airing of her Queen Radio Amp show. She is surrounded by people who seem to be backing her up. Minaj doesn’t directly address Vlad’s comments, and issued a warning, saying, “It’s a difference between making calls and calling the shots” throughout the stream.

Neither Cardi B nor Offset appear to have responded to this particular line.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

One idea that’s been thrown around since the beginning of the Damian Lillard trade sweepstakes is for a third or fourth team to get pulled into talks to help facilitate a deal. At the start of the saga, that theoretically meant finding a third team for Tyler Herro, as Lillard wants to go to the Miami Heat and Herro, the presumed centerpiece in a deal, doesn’t really fit on Portland’s roster.

But with trade talks apparently heating back up in recent days and the Heat reportedly not being involved in them (for now), there are now questions about what a Lillard trade could look like if another team gets called up. And according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, there are multi-team deals once again on the table, with the Blazers having their eye on one player in particular.

Additionally, the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz have materialized as peripheral teams that could factor into larger deals that help facilitate Lillard’s departure from the Blazers.

Assembling such a blockbuster requires the summation of many parts. One piece of the developing Lillard negotiations that seems clear: Portland has strongly considered acquiring Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton as part of a multiteam deal for Lillard, league sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports.

It’s not hard to see why the Blazers would be interested in a guy like Ayton, who is still only 25 and fits really well next to their young core of guards. While his deal is more expensive and over the same number of years as their current center, Jusuf Nurkic, he fits more snugly onto their timeline, while Fisher noted that Nurkic could potentially head down the Phoenix if a deal like this were to come to fruition.