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John Oliver may have recently dragged Dick Wolf’s Law & Order shows for their unrealistically swift portrayals of justice, but that sure hasn’t stopped viewers from tuning into the franchise’s current three shows on the NBC airwaves. Law & Order: SVU leads the way with a total of 24 seasons (and more to come with both Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T) under its belt, and the original series is not too far behind after its recent revival. Then there’s Law and Order: Organized Crime, which has been cranking through its third season with plenty of Chris Meloni yet not enough octopus to go around.

All three shows have now officially been renewed for even more neatly tied-up yet vital stories on NBC. As Variety reports, 22 new episodes of both Law & Order and SVU are on the way with 13 more for Organized Crime. This isn’t surprising news, of course. This franchise has been the network’s prime-time bread and butter for decades, and Dick Wolf must see no reason to ever end this journey. Hargitay shared a statement with Variety:

“All of us at ‘SVU’ feel honored to be able to continue telling these essential stories… While we have seen significant changes in our culture, injustice persists and too many voices still go unheard. That cause is as much mine as it is Olivia Benson’s, and I gather strength from knowing that the longest-running drama series on television is one that elevates women’s stories, and the stories of those in our society who have been marginalized and harmed. To know that I get to be a part of someone’s experience of feeling less alone, less isolated, more in community, more connected, that is the true privilege and gift.”

Make no mistake, Hargitay walks the walk. She launched the Joyful Heart Foundation, which is designed to help society change the conversation around sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. She has also made a series of PSAs aimed towards raising awareness of the backlog in rape-kit processing across the U.S. And as Detective Olivia Benson, she continues to spread that same awareness across the airwaves.

(Via Variety)

If you’re planning a trip to Europe in 2023, you’re likely going to hit up the usual tourism suspects — the flea markets of East London, Berlin’s never-ending nightclubs, ancient Roman ruins, and so forth. In between all that site-seeing, you’re going to need a drink or three. Luckily, you’ll already be in Europe where a great brewery and beer are never too far away.

Finding a good beer in most corners of Europe is often simply a matter of following the locals, doing some research, and asking some experts for guidance. After all, you don’t want to waste your time or money on cheap, pissy beer on your vacation in Europe. Right?!

To help you find the coolest breweries to visit, we went to the experts for help. We asked a handful of well-known brewers, beer professionals, and craft beer experts to tell us the European breweries you need to visit in 2023. Keep scrolling to see these monuments to beer that rival any leaning tower you’d want to stand near and pretend your holding for a novelty photograph you’ll never look at again.

Big Mountain Brewing Co. in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France — Charlotte Herndon, taproom and events Manager at Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing

The Brewery:

Big Mountain Brewing Co. is a must-visit brewery. It’s located in the Chamonix region of France, and regardless of the season the mountains and environment have so much to offer in terms of your experience. Mont Blanc is a premier skiing location and home to the world’s first Winter Olympics which really makes the location something special.

What To Drink:

The brewery has a great selection of IPAs spanning a wide range of percentages, including a 1.8% micro which is great as a post-hike refresher. The brand focuses on sustainability as well, which is very important in such a location and industry that taps into the environment.

Kellerwald Forchheim in Forchheim, Germany — Ryan Pachmayer, head brewer at Yak & Yeti Brewpub and Restaurant

The Brewery:

In Germany, I would really suggest visiting the Kellerwald in Forchheim. It’s about a 20-minute train ride south of Bamberg, and around two hours north of Munich. There are over twenty beer “kellers” (real underground beer lagers) dug into the hillside with over a dozen individual breweries represented. If you don’t go during summer’s Annafest, where all the breweries are represented, you may only get to experience a handful of these breweries during the warm season, but the atmosphere is second to none.

What To Drink:

They bill it as the world’s largest beer garden, and whether or not that is true, it is a special place to experience and drink the beer. If you’re there at a particularly slow time, ask for a tour of a keller. They don’t all connect to each other anymore, but in my experience, the hosts are plenty eager to show off these historic tunnels. The quality of beer will vary considerably here, so either do some research or just go in looking for beer from a smaller, local producer, such as Eichhorn. The larger Löwenbräu is also quite good.

Klosterbrauerei Andechs in Andechs, Germany — John Trogner, brewmaster and co-founder at Tröegs Independent Brewing

The Brewery:

Back in the very early days of Tröegs, my brother and I each trekked across Germany, hitting small breweries and pubs in regions known for specific beer styles. About an hour southwest of Munich is Andechs, a monastic brewery at the top of a mountain that’s been around for more than 500 years.

What To Drink:

The view from the beer garden was amazing and the beers were life-changing, but the one that stood out to us was a doppelbock. We were shocked that a beer could be so strong yet still be delicate and complex. Soon after we got home, Troegenator started taking shape. It’s the beer that built our brewery and it exists because of our experience at Andechs.

Tiny Rebel Brewery in Newport, Wales — Josh Bartlett at Learning to Homebrew

The Brewery:

If you find yourself on the other side of the pond in the United Kingdom, you should pop over to South Wales and visit the flagship location of Tiny Rebel Brewery. A positively brand-new bar by European standards (eight years ago to be precise), Tiny Rebel has won countless national awards not only for their beer but also their food and overall bar atmosphere. Head in for a pint and bring home one of their amazing souvenirs.

What To Drink:

If you visit Tiny Rebel, you’ll probably want to try everything (and you should). But you absolutely must try their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and Cream Stout. Other great choices include their take on the English IPA as well as a tropical fruit-filled IPA called CLWB Tropica.

Schlenkerla in Bamberg, Germany — Phil Markowski, brewmaster at Two Roads Brewing

The Brewery:

In many beer aficionados’ minds, Bamberg is all about rauchbier, or smoked beer. There is a lot of truth to that but that’s by no means the full story. The best known is Schlenkerla, in part because they export and because they’ve been around a long time. The brewery bierstube (tavern) in the center of town is a classic place.

What To Drink:

Their rauchbier is arguably the most assertive. Dark, highly smoked with more than a hint of bacon-like aromatics and flavor. But, if you prefer your beer less smoky, Schlenkerla also brews other beers including a doppelbock and a lightly smoky helles lager.

Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium — Bryan Donaldson, brewing innovation manager at Lagunitas Brewing Company

The Brewery:

This one won’t be controversial, but Brasserie Cantillon (aka Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze) can’t be missed. The amount of history in that building is truly amazing. While gueuze is somewhat of a niche style, every fan of beer should be aware of what it is and how it is made because it shows a bit of the path to where we are today. Depending on when you visit and what is being harvested, you are likely to see a group of people sitting around cutting up fruit for one of the beers.

What To Drink:

A brief tour leads you to the tasting room (though you can skip the tour) where you can sample a number of beers or buy bottles to share (and share you should). On your way out the door, be sure to pick up some bottles for your cellar. If you are lucky, they will have a special release that day. I won’t stress a “best beer” because, honestly, they are all delicious — as long as you enjoy a good sour.

Herzoglich Barfishes Brauhaus Tegernsee in Tegernsee, Germany — Parker Penley, lead innovation brewer at Widmer Brothers

The Brewery:

Herzoglich Bayerisches Brauhaus Tegernsee is an incredible brewery on a lake right outside of Munich. Head out of the main city and try some beautiful Bavarian beer. Like many European breweries, this one’s history can be traced back to monks. While some claim that brewing was happening as early as 1050, official documents list it around 1675.

What To Drink:

They also just happen to make one of my favorite helles. Bready malts, yeast, herbal, floral hops, and totally crushable. This beer alone is worth a trip to the brewery. Not to mention all the other great beers made by this iconic brewery.

Warpigs Brewpub Mickkeller Brewing Company in Copenhagen, Denmark — Christopher Osburn, Uproxx

The Brewery:

This now world-renowned craft brewing company was founded by a former teacher named Mikkel Borg Bjergsø in 2006. It began as a bit of a nomad brand, collaborating with other breweries. Now, the company has multiple different breweries and brewpubs throughout the world, but its heart is in Copenhagen. This is where Warpigs Brewpub is located.

What To Drink:

It’s a place to eat Texas-style barbecue and enjoy IPAs, stouts, a rotation of locally made beers, and guest taps. It’s as close to beer paradise as you can get. It helps that Copenhagen is a pretty exciting city anyway.

As a hardcore fan of Coca-Cola, I have to admit that I’m loving the Coca-Cola Creations line. For the uninitiated, Coca-Cola Creations is a fairly new subsection of the brand that brings a steady stream of brand-new flavors and celebrity collaborations to the soda space. Now, I’m not one to be charmed by celebrity endorsements, I could care less what a celebrity likes, but a new flavor of soda? Bring it on.

So far Coca-Cola Creations has given us a collaboration with DJ and electronic producer Marshmello, which ironically wasn’t a marshmallow-flavored soda but a mix of strawberry and watermelon. Next came a flavor called Starlight, which came across as a mint cola. Another was called Dreamworld, which is a “Dream Flavored” soda that was inspired by M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali (unfortunately, it did not get you high). And yet another was called Byte and was a flavor inspired by pixels. Yes, pixels.

Now Coca-Cola has teamed up with multi-Grammy award-winning artist Rosalía for Coca-Cola Move, a flavor inspired by transformation.

What does “transformation” taste like? Does it taste like a “dream”? Will it ironically taste like marshmallows? We found out by grabbing both Coca-Cola Move and Coca-Cola Move Zero to give you the full rundown on this new flavor.

Coca-Cola Move/Move Zero

The Concept:

Before we dive into the flavor, let’s talk about the concept. From the outside, Coca-Cola Move sounds pretty f*cking random. If you’re a Rosalía fan (she was my most listened-to artist of 2022), it all ties in perfectly with her excellent 2022 album Motomami. Motomami is largely an album about transformation, both lyrically and visually with mariposa (butterfly) imagery. Sonically, Rosalía takes the familiar sounds of Latin music and deconstructs it via Virgil Abloh style, thereby transforming it into something that sounds radically brand new.

So as basic as “Move” sounds as a flavor, it’s meant to evoke the same sort of sensation you get from listening to Motomami. This is dope because instead of it being a random and empty celebrity team-up (what the hell does Marshmello have to do with strawberry and watermelon flavored soda?), it seems like Rosalía actually put some thought into the concept around Move. From a flavor perspective, it sort of works.

Tasting Notes:

Move has a shifting and evolving flavor. It hits the palate with sweetened coconut notes before transitioning into cotton candy flavors and a hint of freaking marshmallows. As the name suggests, this flavor is always moving across the palate, offering up something new with each taste. There’s a certain spring vibe to this flavor, which ties into the butterfly imagery used on Motomami, but it still has that distinct chocolate and cinnamon flavor you’d associate with Coca-Cola.

The soda has a nice strong fizz but lacks that characteristic bite that Coca-Cola is known for. It’s a lot softer on the throat and the flavor lingers on the tongue like Cherry Coke.

The Zero version of the flavor tastes very similar, but it has even darker notes and comes across as a bit sweeter despite having no sugar. I prefer the full sugar version easily. But if you’re a Coke Zero drinker, the sugarless version is likely more up your alley.

The Bottom Line:

Unfortunately, as cool as I think this soda is from a conceptual standpoint, I don’t know that I need a coconut, cotton candy, marshmallow-flavored soda. Coca-Cola Move is interesting, and as a soda drinker, I appreciate that it’s a unique flavor that doesn’t exist anywhere else. For that reason alone, it’s worth seeking out. But at the end of the day, I rather just have a classic Coke.

Buy Coca-Cola Move and Move Zero.

While some members of the GOP might talk a big game about moving away from Donald Trump and embracing potential presidential candidates like Ron DeSantis, make no mistake: Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party. Case in point, the former president has routinely floated the idea of bombing Mexico, and he’s reportedly making it a key campaign promise.

“‘Attacking Mexico,’ or whatever you’d like to call it, is something that President Trump has said he wants ‘battle plans’ drawn for,” a source recently told Rolling Stone. “He’s complained about missed opportunities of his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second Trump presidency.”

Crazy stuff, right? Apparently not for the GOP. Some Republican politicians are actually trying to make Trump’s harebrained scheme happen by literally starting a war with Mexico. Via Politico:

Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he is open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target drug lords even without that nation’s permission. And lawmakers in both chambers have filed legislation to label some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move supported by GOP presidential aspirants.

Meanwhile, America continues to be plagued by mass shootings. What’s the GOP response to that? “We’re not gonna fix it.” (Nothing we can do about it?)

Bombing Mexico, however, that’s totally gonna work. What could go wrong?

(Via Politico)

A new Hulu documentary has social media losing its mind. Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told will focus on the HBCU picnic that exploded into a no-holds-barred, street party event in Atlanta during the 1990s. Just the mere mention that footage from the event might make it onto TV screens has older Freaknik attendees concerned about what kind of debauchery their relatives might see.

One “Freaknik auntie” already went viral with her understandably worried reaction to the Hulu doc below:

However, Freaknik’s popularity quickly became its downfall as citizen groups in Atlanta began condemning the event, which had grown considerably out of control after transforming from a modest picnic to a full-on rager. Via Complex:

By the late-1990s, Freaknik had sparked criticism from various groups, including the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break, which called on the local community to no longer embrace the festival.

“We cannot support events that bring lewd activities, sexual assaults, violence against women and public safety concerns; firetrucks not being able to reach victims, and ambulances not being able to reach hospitals in a timely manner,″ the committee told the Associated Press in 1998.

Regardless of the controversy, Twitter began having a field day at the thought of people seeing what their parents and relatives were up to during their younger years. You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Complex)

We’ve all done it. If there is one common human experience, it’s getting the lyrics wrong in a song. I refuse to believe that this isn’t a universal thing that transpires in all countries, cultures and languages, and if you tell me otherwise I’ll have no other choice than to believe you’re lying. But there’s something innocently hilarious about people learning that they’ve been singing the wrong words to popular songs. Someone in a Reddit community decided to ask the question that clearly a lot of people have been waiting to be asked: “What’s a song lyric that you completely misheard for a while?”

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The results were gold, obviously, because lots of lyrics are misheard and sung incorrectly until it’s emblazoned into the part of your brain that’s responsible for holding song lyrics. I remember hanging out with a friend and we were blasting “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis but when the part came when they sing “so we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us,” my friend belted “so we put our hands up like the silly can holders.” When I told her those weren’t the words she insisted I was mishearing them, so I asked, “what the heck is a silly can holder?!”

Turns out my friend had no idea what a silly can holder was and we had a good laugh. The person on Reddit that asked people to share their misheard lyrics was likely just as entertained. Like when one user’s misheard lyrics gave Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” a very dark turn, because they heard and sang “ask her if she wants to stay alive” instead of “ask her if she wants to stay a while.” Ma’am-sir, we’re going to need to see what’s in your trunk.

One person thought Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” said “Starbucks lovers” instead of “long list of ex-lovers” and honestly, it’s pumpkin spice season, so Starbucks lovers kind of works. A couple of cozy sweaters, laptops and white cups with a weird mermaid that seems to be holding two tails in her hands could make a great rom-com opening.

Some unfortunate person thought Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” lyrics were “I can’t believe you kiss your cock goodnight.” Now that’s either NSFW or someone has a really close relationship with their rooster. Either way, those lyrics are unequivocally wrong because the actual words are, “I can’t believe you kiss your car goodnight.” Car! Sweet mother of pearl, I hope they weren’t singing that in public.

Who remembers Dido? “White Flag” was definitely a bop in the early 2000s but this person thought the singer said “I will poke my eyes out and surrender.” Let’s hope they do in fact still have their eyes because the actual lyrics are, “And I won’t put my hands up and surrender,” which obviously makes much sense—bonus points for getting to keep your eyeballs.

Some of these misheard lyrics are just hilarious and also confusing because I can’t quite figure out how this person heard “I got shoes, they’re made of plywood.” The words are, and as far as I know have always been “I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying” in the Grease song “You’re the One That I Want.”

But this last one has me wondering who is Jason and why does he get his own waterfall? This user thought TLC sang “don’t go Jason waterfalls” in their hit song “Waterfalls.” I mean, we probably shouldn’t be chasing waterfalls like the lyrics actually say, but Jason waterfalls might be a pretty cool dude. We’ll never know though.

If you’ve never known the hilarity and embarrassment of mishearing lyrics, consider yourself lucky. But I’m highly suspicious that you’re making that up. No one’s that perfect, people aren’t tacos. Now go forth and belt out “pour some shook-up ramen” while the rest of the crowd demands they be doused with sugar.

This article originally appeared on 09.24.22

Grandparents can be a wealth of history and knowledge. But one TikTok user, Reagan Jones, was blown away by her grandmother’s ability to write in shorthand, so she did what a lot of people do in this century—uploaded it to TikTok. Not surprisingly, most people who viewed the video had no idea what shorthand was and some thought the whole thing was made up. The reaction to it certainly makes you question if it’s more than a lost art, but a forgotten part of history.

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Shorthand is a method of quickly writing that has been around for a centuries. The first recorded history of a form of shorthand being used was in the 4th century B.C.. In the 1800s, two different types of shorthand became popular, Pitman in 1837 and Gregg in 1888. Looking at the shorthand alphabet may make you furrow your eyebrows because a lot of the symbols look ridiculously similar. It’s full of lines that are straight, slightly curled or partially looped and some that just look like a squiggle. It’s something to behold and resembles a super secret language.

Judging by the comments on the video, other people feel the same way. One commenter, Jamie wrote, “I’ve heard the term shorthand but I think my brain always took it as abbreviations not this 😳😅”

Another commenter, Samantha said, “Nah this has to be a glitch in the timeline I’ve never heard of this from any of my family member.”

@reaganjones176

This is called “short hand” and its a real form of old-style note-taking. She uses this to write herself notes daily. 😂#coolgrandma #funwithgrandma #grandparents #handwriting #shorthand

In a reply to a commenter, Jones revealed, “My grandma was a legal secretary for the railroad 🙂 She won a lot of awards for her work and shorthand in school.”

Now, that’s just cool. Sure there are still professions like court reporters and such that use shorthand, but it’s not as common as it was back when most people’s grandparents and great-grandparents were young adults. This was such a neat blast from the past. It’s clear that Jones’ grandma could probably still take home some awards for her unique skill.

This article originally appeared on 09.13.22

If there’s one thing a determined parent will do, it’s make sure their kid is getting their needs met. Even if that means they have to reinvent the wheel to do it. Rachel Griffin Accurso, or as parents across TikTok and YouTube know her, Ms. Rachel, found herself without any real options for additional resources to help her toddler who was diagnosed with a speech delay.

Accurso was looking for a developmentally appropriate show for her son but she wasn’t having any luck. That’s when she decided to take her teaching degree and get to work on creating her own show. It became a family business when she teamed up with her husband, Broadway composer Aron Accurso, who has been there every step of the way. He’s even in the episodes singing along.

“Songs for Littles” has infiltrated homes across America. If you have a toddler and internet access, you’ve likely heard of it. The show has more than a billion views on YouTube. Yes, that’s billion, with a “B.” Ms. Rachel also has more than 19 million likes on TikTok and has speech pathologists everywhere singing her praises.

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Accurso is intentional with all of her videos, doing close-ups on her mouth when introducing new words and pausing to “hear” responses from her viewers after asking a question. In her interview with Today, Accurso admitted, “A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son.” She explained that everything she does is backed by research and is recorded in her small apartment in front of a green screen.

Parents on TikTok often upload videos thanking Accurso or showing off the skill their child learned from watching her show. The journalist who interviewed “Ms. Rachel” for Today even got to record an episode of “Songs for Littles” with her.

Check out the cute video below:

This article originally appeared on 01.10.23

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, Stranger Things is veering into animated territory. The hit Netflix show will be getting its own animated spinoff series, with the Duffer Brothers back to executive produce via their company Upside Down Pictures. Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps will also produce.

“We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,” the Duffer Brothers said in a statement, per Variety. “We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues…”

Stranger Things has been a monster hit for Netflix, so it was only a matter of time before they made a spinoff show (or two or three). In typical Stranger fashion, no plot details have been released, though even if they were, they probably wouldn’t be true anyway. Those folks love their mysteries! But hey, they sure do seem excited.

The fifth and final season of the sci-fi series was ordered last year after the fourth season dominated Netflix for almost the entire summer. Production on that season is expected to begin later this year. It will only have to compete with nearly every single other show that’s slated for a 2024 release. Peak TV is back! But next year, probably.

(Via Variety)

BTS announced their indefinite hiatus last October — though 2025 is loosely pegged for a return — and each member of the historic K-pop group is getting a taste of life as a solo artist. In February, Suga announced dates for his first-ever solo tour, which will support his forthcoming debut solo album, D-Day, under the pseudonym Agust D.

Last week, BigHit Music and Suga confirmed that D-Day will release on April 21. The rollout was boosted by Suga’s single “People Pt. 2” with IU last Friday, April 7. And by the end of the weekend, Suga revealed the rest of his D-Day tracklist.

BTS fans likely were immediately drawn to the inclusion of BTS’ J-Hope as a featured artist on “HUH?!” The album also features Ryuichi Sakamoto and Woosung of The Rose.

J-Hope’s feature comes days after it was announced that he will be the next BTS member to complete South Korea’s mandatory military service, which was cited among the primary reasons for BTS’ hiatus in October. Jin enlisted toward the end of last year and is currently serving.

See the D-Day tracklist below.

1. “Haegeum”
2. “People Pt.2” with IU
3. “D-Day”
4. “HUH?!” featuring j-hope
5. “AMYGDALA”
6. “SDL”
7. “Polar Night”
8. “Interlude : Dawn”
9. “Snooze” featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto, Woosung of The Rose
10. “Life Goes On”

D-Day is out 04/21 via BigHit. Find more information here.