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A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It’s a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.

When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.

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— (@)

The teen’s height doesn’t stem from a gland issue; he comes from a family of tall people. Both his parents are over 6 feet tall.

Eric plays football for Goodrich High School in Goodrich, Michigan, but doesn’t wear cleats, which led to a sprained ankle. He also suffers from ingrown toenails that are so severe he’s had two nails on his biggest toes permanently removed.

Last year, the family was lucky enough to stumble upon five pairs of size 21 shoes at a Nike outlet store. It was discovered they were made especially for Tacko Fall, the NBA player with some of the most enormous feet in the game. To put things in perspective, Shaquille O’Neal wears a size 22.

However, Eric soon grew out of those as well. The family was left with one more option: have orthopedic shoes made for Eric at the cost of $1,500 with no guarantee he won’t quickly grow out of those as well.

After his mother’s heartfelt plea to Hometown Life, the family got much-needed help from multiple companies, including Under Armour and PUMA, who are sending representatives to Michigan to measure his feet for custom shoes.

CAT has reached out to make him a custom pair of boots. Eric hasn’t had any boots to wear for the past five Michigan winters.

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— (@)

Kara Pattison started a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the family to help them purchase custom shoes for “the rest of the time Eric has these feet.” It has raised nearly $20,000 for the family in just over a week.

“The success of this fundraiser is well beyond what was ever expected,” Pattison wrote on the site on March 18. “The Kilburns plan to open a bank account dedicated to Eric’s future footwear and some specialized sports equipment. He can use this to get a helmet that fits for football along with pads. They will also look into a football and track jersey for him.”

The sense of relief felt by Rebecca, Eric and the rest of the Kilburn family must be incredible. It has to be frustrating to be unable to provide your child with something as basic as footwear.

“It’s been overwhelming,” Rebecca told Hometown Life. “I have been this puddle of emotions, all of them good…It’s the coolest thing to be able to say we did it! He has shoes! I am not usually a crier, but I have been in a constant state of happy tears…We are so grateful.”

This article originally appeared on 03.23.23

Everyone has a list of nostalgia-inducing beverages that they’ve left behind with childhood. Capri Sun, Kool-Aid Jammers, Sunny D — pick your poison, it’s not like you wouldn’t drink a bottle (or pouch) of any one of these if you were offered, but you’re probably not throwing them into the grocery cart on your next market run. For me, those drinks are Tampico, some sort of weird artificial spin on orange juice, and Mountain Dew, gamer fuel, a soda that everyone leaves behind when they’re a teenager (or they no longer have teeth).

It’s not like my tastes have grown more sophisticated with age (I still love sugar-packed drinks) I’m just a lot less inclined to drink things where the top main ingredients are water and high fructose corn syrup. But when both brands came out with boozy versions of their beloved products, I knew I had to taste them. But why just taste them when I can blind taste them?

Methodology:

For this blind taste test, I tried each beverage one at a time at random in an unmarked glass. I’d like to tell you it was hard to guess which drink was which brand, but Mountain Dew had this radioactive glow to it that kind of gave it away.

We tried both flavors of Hard Tampico and four different iterations of Hard Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Here was today’s tasting class:

• Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast
• Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Mango
• Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Pineapple
• Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Punch
• Tampico — Hard Punch Citrus
• Tampico — Hard Punch Island

After my tasting, I meditated on my impressions a bit and ranked each flavor from worst to best, though I’ll be honest, I’m using the word “best” very very generously. Let’s dive in!

Part 1: The MTN Dew Tampico Taste Test Challenge

Taste 1:

A strong candied flavor dominates the palate. It’s a bit fruity and juicy, with some hints of pineapple, mango, and the slightest hint of cherry on the backend. That fruity medley dissipates fast and you’re left with a slightly bitter malt liquor flavor.

Taste 2:

I mean… it’s blue so you know it’s Baja Blast. This is highly candied, it doesn’t taste like fruit so much as it just tastes, well, blue. You could taste this blindfolded and know it’s blue! It tastes just like Baja Blast with a kick of alcohol. It’s off-putting but strangely, I don’t hate it… it tastes like summer.

Taste 3:

It’s hard to pin down the flavor of this one, I’m getting some mango in there, maybe a bit of blood orange — it’s a medley that never stops shifting.

Taste 4:

Whoa, this one is super sour. As soon as it hit my palate it had my salivary glands juicing with a wince-inducing tart flavor. The citrus flavors here are strong and zesty, I think this would make a great base for mixing harder liquor in. I… kinda like it.

Taste 5:

The faintest hit of pineapple flavors this one. The aftertaste is weird and bitter and stains the tongue in the worst way.

Taste 6:

Somehow worse than Taste 5. Where that one had faint whispers of pineapple, this one can only be described as rough, brutal, and bitter, none of which are desirable flavors. It’s like licking a cactus.

Part 2: The Drink Ranking

6. Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Mango (Taste 6)

ABV: 5%

As I said in the blind taste test portion, the sensation of drinking this is like licking a cactus. It’s incredibly harsh and bitter. Now that I know it’s mango I’m even more puzzled. They should’ve called this one “road kill.”

The Bottom Line:

Mango-flavored malt liquor is always a hard flavor to land and Hard MTN Dew Baja Blast Mango solidifies that. If you already love Mango White Claw or Truly, you might like this (though it’s less juicy and more carbonated than both), but if you’re on the fence over mango, this isn’t going to win you over.

Buy Hard MTN Dew Baja Blast Mango here.

5. Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Pineapple (Taste 5)

ABV: 5%

Mountain Dew isn’t known for ‘pineapple-flavored’ drinks (most of their flavors aren’t fruit based at all) so this comes across to me as a boozy version of Cactus Cooler, a southwestern soda that tastes a bit like a Big Stick Popsicle in drink form. Mix this thing with cherry and it easily would’ve ranked higher in our list.

The Bottom Line:

Decent, it feels like it’s missing an ingredient but as it stands it’s a nice mix between high carbonation, pineapple, and malt liquor.

Buy Hard MTN Dew Baja Blast Pineapple here.

4. Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast Punch (Taste 3)

ABV: 5%

With Hard MTN Dew dominating the bottom half of this ranking, I think it’s safe to assume where we stand on the idea of boozy MTN Dew. The Baja Blast Punch delivers a medley of hard-to-pin-down fruity flavors that might end up being your favorite because it’s so hard to define.

You can’t just easily dismiss it as a “bad pineapple drink,” it’s noticeably fruity, and… since you can’t define the flavor, you can’t say it’s a bad version of any one flavor.

The Bottom Line:

Fruity but hard to decipher, and better for it.

Buy Hard MTN Dew Baja Blast Punch here.

3. Tampico — Hard Punch Island (Taste 1)

ABV: 8%

Hard Tampico is noticeably boozier than Hard MTN Dew, with 8% ABV rather than 5%, which means the kick here is much stronger, but at the same time, much more bitter. You can really taste the malt liquor here, and it combines with this medley of tropical fruit flavors in a really off-putting way.

It’s easier to swallow than most of the Dews, but it tastes like some sort of unholy union. Like a fruity cocktail made with really cheap vodka.

The Bottom Line:

Too strong for its own good. Tampico Hard Punch packs a punch, but that strong malt liquor flavor doesn’t pair perfectly with this blend of fruity flavors.

Buy Tampico Hard Punch Island here.

2. Hard MTN Dew — Baja Blast (Taste 2)

ABV: 5%

I like this, I don’t know if it’s the nostalgia or what, but Baja Blast is the best flavor Mountain Dew makes and this tastes exactly like you slipped some cheap grain alcohol into a fountain cup full of Baja Blast. It’s not good in the way a perfectly crafted margarita is but… it gets the job done!

I’m sure I’ve mixed Baja Blast and alcohol on my own in the past. Now I don’t have to because the brand is doing it for me!

The Bottom Line:

Baja Blast with an alcoholic kick, what could go wrong? (Narrator: Everything)

Buy Hard MTN Dew Baja Blast here.

1. Tampico — Hard Punch Citrus (Taste 4)

ABV: 8%

Far and above the best of this tasting class, Tampico’s Hard Punch Citrus mixes tart and zesty citrus flavors with enough alcohol to result in a buzz, and for that, it’s our favorite. I’ve had a lot of these hard fruity beverages, White Claw, Truly, Vizzy, Topo Chico, Spindrift — I’ve never had one that is as juicy, sour, and tasty as Tampico Hard Punch Citrus.

And with 8% ABV, it manages to be a lot stronger than the majority of brands on the market.

The Bottom Line:

The fruitiest, juiciest, and most boozy canned malt liquor drink currently on the market. Without a doubt, Tampico Hard Punch Citrus is good, no childhood nostalgia for the brand is even necessary.

Buy Tampico Hard Punch Citrus here.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is out now and racking up rave reviews. Its soundtrack, produced by Metro Boomin, has been equally well-received, although it might not reach the same high watermark as its predecessor. That’s because the original Spider-Verse soundtrack, released in 2018, contained “Sunflower,” one of the most successful songs ever — whether from a movie soundtrack or not.

In a new interview with Variety about his twin roles in the film’s production (he also makes a cameo as one of the many alternate universe Spider-Men), he says he didn’t let the success of “Sunflower” intimidate him. “‘Sunflower’ was a great record — was it 17 times platinum or something like that, something insane? And things like that don’t happen often, so I didn’t even want to go into it with the mind of how am I going to top ‘Sunflower?’”

“So more than trying to make a song that’s 20 times platinum, I just wanted to focus on making a great album and a listening experience from top to bottom that you’re just going to want to keep playing. So there might not be a ‘Sunflower’ or a song that’s like 15 or even 10 times platinum or anything like that, but there might be a bunch of songs that people really love and make and integrate as a part of their everyday lives.”

Among those songs is “Hummingbird” by James Blake and “Mona Lisa” by Dominic Fike, both standouts that fans have taken to like a spider to a string. Meanwhile, of his Metro Spider character’s appearance in the film, the St. Louis star said “it really blew my mind.” “I’m still not thinking it’s going to land in the movie,” he admitted. “So we just read the lines before the screening one morning, and everybody just bust out laughing. But then for them to animate the character and put him in the movie with my dreads and the bandana, it was just so surreal. Especially coming as I’m a lifelong Marvel and Spider-Man fan.”

You can check out the Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse album here.

As promised, on Tuesday Chris Christie became the latest challenger to Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. He’s not portraying himself as some Trump-lite. He’s all about tearing his ex-buddy a new one, in a go-for-broke attempt to de-MAGA the Republican Party. Christie entrée into the primary race seems to have broken Fox News. As an example, anchor John Roberts (no, not the Supreme Court justice, that must be confusing for everybody) went off on a bizarre milkshake monologue for which he quickly had to apologize.

As per Mediaite, after Christie formally threw his hat into the ever-widening ring, Roberts, during a group discussion, launched into the longest and most byzantine soliloquy about milkshakes since There Will Be Blood:

We wonder about the net effect on the race, and to use a modification of a metaphor we were using on the panel earlier today. It’s like, you have two milkshakes, right. If the Republican Party is two milkshakes, and this one representing almost half the party — because that’s what the polling shows — has got one straw in it, and that’s Donald Trump’s straw.

And the other milkshake, which represents the non-Donald Trump part of the Republican Party, has how many straws in it now? And now we’re gonna have Chris Christie’s straw in there, and judging by Chris Christie’s physical stature, he could drink a lot the milkshake if he wanted to. But you’re not affecting the Donald Trump milkshake.

For one thing: This is one strange metaphor. For another, Roberts probably shouldn’t have made that little tangent about Christie’s weight. Indeed, even the Fox News host realized fat shaming was not cricket, and he soon stopped the show dead to tell Christie he was sorry:

I just want to take a moment to address something, because I really do feel terrible about it. Earlier on the show, I was making an analogy to describe the Republican voter pool, and I made a comment that I meant to be light-hearted, but I immediately realized was hurtful toward Governor Chris Christie. I should not have said what I said. I deeply regret it and I sincerely apologize to the governor.

Roberts has a checkered if inconsistent past as a Fox News pundit. On one hand, he challenged Kayleigh McEnany when she tried to whitewash her old boss (now enemy) Donald Trump over his comments about white supremacists who like him. On the other, he once spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation after Colin Powell’s death.

(Via Mediaite)

Cancel culture strikes again. Trump supporter Patrick Stedman, who did nothing but participate in a tiny, inconsequential coup of democracy itself, has now been kicked out of his dad’s wine club.

The South Jersey local is currently on trial for taking part in the Jan. 6th insurrection — a coordinated attack by angry Trump voters who hoped to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency. Stedman tweeted his involvement in the mob assault that afternoon saying, “I was pretty much in the first wave, and we broke down the doors and climbed up the back part of the Capitol building and got all the way into the chambers.” He also shared a video of himself in former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Despite the evidence, Stedman refused to accept a plea bargain, claiming he didn’t engage in any violence or property damage during the siege.

He’s also arguing that he should avoid jail time because he’s already been punished enough via his restricted social life. While fundraising the money needed to pay his attorney fees, Stedman described how he’s been ostracized by family and friends for simply trying to “defend” the country he loves.

“Classmates and family members informed the FBI on me. I was disinvited from family gatherings,” he wrote. “My father and I were kicked out of the wine group he founded 40 years ago.”

Not the wine group, you guys!

Stedman’s also disappointed that his attempt to overturn a presidential election has been met with such outrage that he may no longer be able to move to Poland to live with his wife. What’s worse, he can’t even look at old wedding videos anymore because, “nearly none of the people I see are people I speak to.”

Really, what is prison compared to the loss of annual father-son wine tastings and those balmy Polish summers?

(Via Courier Post)

I’m not sure what’s going on these days with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s political strategy. Granted, she’s been a puzzler for awhile, to the point where it’s hardly worth trying to comprehend her perspectives. Yet it’s notable that the congresswoman from Georgia has been at odds with several of her far-right BFFs lately. She fought with Lauren Boebert in the bathroom and lost Matt Gaetz by supporting the “sh*t sandwich” of a debt-ceiling deal, which has also apparently caused a “divorce” between Greene and Steve Bannon.

Greene doesn’t seem to care about essentially having zero political allies now, though. When she gets her mind set on something, things get strange. She gets laser focused and acts like she’s never heard of, say, “disgusting” porn websites. This also seems to be the case with climate change, which Greene has perhaps just now realized is a threat to humanity. That’s the vibe that one gets from her bizarre faux-concern about how “migrants in America” shouldn’t be here because they would be subject to natural disasters.

“Natural disasters. Talk about climate change!” Greene sounded uncharacteristically aghast on the subject. “We have an extremely diverse climate. We have a wide range of natural disasters. 97 natural disasters occurred in 2021. I don’t think that it’s very safe for migrants in America. These natural disasters include wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, winter storms, cold waves, tropical cyclones…”

A not-unfounded take on social media: “I think MTG just became aware of problems with the climate.”

Ruth from Ozark also has something to add.

From there, no one is sure what to make of this display. “Bless your heart” is one cutting response, and no one knows what Greene’s point is, other than putting her anti-immigration spin on everything.

There are a lot of things that are impossible to explain to people who haven’t experienced Grey’s Anatomy: the operation on a deer episode, the bomb inside a body cavity plot, or the ghost sex sequence. For an outsider, it sounds silly, but you must understand that it’s silly from the inside, too. Nobody was really taking this seriously.

But for every bizarre episode about a lion attack in downtown Seattle or a man who swallowed 10 American Girl Doll heads, there will be a heartbreaking moment between the flagship couple Derek and Meredith. Most notably, in season two when Meredith is pleading for Derek to “pick” her to be with (as opposed to his literal wife…. but that’s a whole other story). Of course, this was back in 2006 back before TikTok existed, but Meredith’s monologue helped inspire the idea of a “Pick Me” girl, who is the Gen Z equivalent of “Not Like Other Girls” trope (a distant cousin of The Mary Sue).

Ellen Pompeo, who played Meredith Grey for nearly half of her life, spoke with her former co-star Katherine Heigl about the significance of the scene, which she seems to regret nearly two decades later. Pompeo has been watching Grey’s Anatomy with her teenage daughter and seeing the show from the eyes of a TikToker with too much internet access, and that’s when she learned that her character might have spearheaded this movement, which she was trying to avoid. Via Variety:

POMPEO: So, OK, this is a real thing. My daughter and her friends, they sit around and they’re like, “Oh, she’s a ‘pick me girl.’”

HEIGL: Oh, my God! Is that what that means?

POMPEO: Yes. I’m like, “What’s a pick me girl?” They were like, “You know, girls who are like, ‘Pick me, choose me!’” And I’m like, “Hello?! Do you know who invented the ‘pick me girl’?”

HEIGL: That’s incredible.

POMPEO: Listen, I don’t know if you remember that I fought that speech so hard. That’s another really interesting thing about life — some things that I was so against, and I was like, “I can’t beg a man on TV! This is so embarrassing.” And then it turns out to be one of the most famous scenes ever.

HEIGL: It was a beautiful scene.

POMPEO: In the scene, I’m crying, but I’m really crying because I have to beg a man on television.

Again… this was 2006. There were worse shows airing at the time, so begging a man on television was not that strange. But out of context and plastered on TikTok, sure, it is a little off-putting. Not enough for Pompeo to leave the show, as she starred as Meredith for another 17 seasons. There are at least 13 other times she cried to a man on the show, but maybe those were warranted.

Still, she is fine with most of the stories from the early days, while Heigl is doing her best to forget about her ghost sex arch.

HEIGL: There would be scenes that I would be so embarrassed to be sitting next to her watching. I’d be like, “Can we fast forward this moment?”

POMPEO: Yeah. This is sex with the ghost.

HEIGL: Yeah, that. The oral sex with the ghost while somebody else was watching in the room. I don’t know how I’d explain that.

While it might seem like she’s looking back with a laugh, please keep in mind that this was not a weird, one-off episode of Grey’s with the ghost sex plotline. It didn’t resolve until NINE EPISODES LATER. So yeah, who cares about the “pick me” thing? There is a lot of unresolved trauma here. Also, this show is still on, in case you forgot.

(Via Variety)

Killer Mike‘s new album Michael is due next week and one song fans are most excited about is his collaboration with former Outkast member and full-time recluse, Andre 3000. The song is called “Scientists & Engineers” and also features Future — a one-time Dungeon Family disciple, according to Atlanta rap lore — and singer Eryn Allen Kane. However, fans almost didn’t get to hear the track after Andre told Mike he wasn’t feeling it. Fortunately, Kane’s presence on the track convinced him to change his mind when he heard the final version.

Mike recounted the story during this year’s 4th Annual Black Music Moguls Brunch in Atlanta, sharing a video of the anecdote on Instagram. In it, he recalls, “André 3000, he’s in Japan right now as we talk, playing the flute. He called me, he’s like, ‘Kill, I don’t know about the song, man. We just got a good rap record, man.’ And then Cuz [Lightyear] was like, ‘You sent him the final record?’ I’m like, ‘Nah.’ I sent it over with Eryn’s hook and stuff. He hit back with, ‘Yeah, yeah, you got the record. Who is that?!’ So thank you, Eryn, I really appreciate you for that.”

In addition to the aforementioned features, the No ID-produced Michael will also include appearances from Dave Chappelle and Young Thug (on the previously-released “Run“), Mike’s longtime partner-in-rhyme El-P (“Don’t Let The Devil“), Lil Wayne, and more, along with the previous singles “Don’t Let The Devil” and “Motherless.” It’s due June 16 via VLNS/Loma Vista.

Donald Trump‘s former attorney general is joining the growing chorus of people who are firmly convinced that the former president is staring at an indictment over his mishandling of classified documents. While appearing on CBS Mornings, Bill Barr offered his candid thoughts on Trump’s legal predicament, which looks particularly dire after the release of an audio recording where Trump can be heard bragging about having classified intel for an attack on Iran at his golf course.

“I suspect an indictment is near,” Barr said. He also said Trump could’ve avoided all of this had he not “jerked them around for a year and a half.” Them being the investigators who went out of their way to handle the matter delicately.

Via The Daily Beast:

Barr said he believes special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation turned up “substantial evidence” to indict the former president. He called Trump’s handling of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago—and another that is still missing—“risky” and “reckless,” and praised the DOJ’s approach to the case. “This is not a case of the Department of Justice conducting a witch hunt,” Barr said. “In fact, they approached this very delicately and with deference to the president.”

While Barr is certain that an indictment is near, former FBI Director James Comey is worried that it won’t affect Trump’s standing with GOP voters in the slightest.

“It is this crazy world that Donald Trump has dragged this country into but he could be wearing an ankle bracelet while accepting the nomination at the Republican convention,” Comey recently told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. ““It would be rejected if you put it in a script for a show but you could have a President who is potentially incarcerated when he is elected president, so that would be weird and awkward.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Animals can be far cleverer than we give them credit for, especially creatures we don’t think of as having distinct personalities. Most of us expect cats and dogs to do show us their unique quirks, but what about a flying squirrel?

A video is making its way around the internet that has people giggling over the dramatic antics of a large pet flying squirrel. It includes no narration explaining what’s happening and no context—it just shows a flying squirrel repeatedly faking its own death by broom.

That’s right. Death by broom. And from the way it looks, the little bugger came up with the idea on its own and made multiple attempts to create a convincing crime scene.

This is one you just have to see.

Twitter user @Birrellebee wrote that the squirrel “faked his own death, and created a whole crime scene…for attention. I think I’m in love.”

Whether the squirrel really did this just for attention or for some other reason isn’t clear, but no one seems to offering a more plausible explanation for it.

Watch:

u201cThis flying squirrel faked his own death, and created a whole crime sceneu2026for attention. I think Iu2019m in love. u201d

— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d)
1685808791

While some people have expressed understandable concern over flying squirrels living indoors as pets, we don’t know what the living situation here really is. Maybe the squirrel was injured and rescued. Maybe it can’t survive in the wild. We simply don’t know.

What we do know is that this adorable rodent deserves an Oscar for its performance. The way it gracefully somersaults right into position. The placing of the broomstick on its neck and splaying itself out flat on its back. The checking to see if anyone is looking. The repositioning of the murder weapon multiple times to figure out which one seems more believable.

Was that really what it was doing? Who knows. But it was a genuinely incredible performance nonetheless.

And of course, the people of the internet didn’t disappoint in the comments.

u201c@pimlius @nycsouthpaw Well, maybe he shouldu2019ve thought of that, befor being such a wee drama queen. Nobody likes an attention whore.u201d

— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d)
1685808791

u201c@RIDICULO_pathy @BirrelleBee I love this squirrel ud83dude02ud83eudd70u201d

— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d)
1685808791

“@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott It’s an insurance scam.”

u201c@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott Itu2019s an insurance scam.u201d

— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d)
1685808791

u201c@Marx_Bros_Thing @BirrelleBee Sameu201d

— Sarah Beeud83dudc1d (@Sarah Beeud83dudc1d)
1685808791