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Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans are enjoying a strong 2022-23 season, posting a 23-14 record and projecting quite well in the muddled Western Conference. Williamson recently spearheaded a comeback win with a 43-point masterpiece against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he has been a force in 29 of the Pelicans’ first 37 games after missing the entire 2021-22 campaign. Unfortunately, Williamson is going to be on the shelf for a while, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting he will miss “multiple weeks” with a hamstring strain.

The team went on to announce that Williamson will be evaluated in three weeks.

Williamson left the team’s road loss in Philadelphia on Monday with the hamstring issue and, while this isn’t a worst-scenario, a multi-week absence isn’t fantastic. He is averaging 26.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game with elite efficiency (65.2 percent true shooting), and Williamson is also making clear strides on the defensive end. In addition, the Pelicans have a +7.8 net rating with Williamson on the floor this season, with New Orleans dipping to a modest +1.4 net rating when he’s on the bench.

The Pelicans host the Houston Rockets in a favorable matchup on Wednesday but, after that, the schedule gets more difficult. New Orleans takes on the scalding-hot Brooklyn Nets at home on Friday before a five-game road trip that includes visits to Dallas, Boston, and Cleveland. It remains to be seen as to just how long Williamson will be out but, with Brandon Ingram sidelined since late November, the Pelicans will have less firepower for a while.

Everyone expected the first day of the narrowly GOP-controlled House of Representatives to be a s*itshow. But it was even worse than people imagined. As feared, a cadre of rogue MAGA lawmakers, among them Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert (but not her former bestie Marjorie Taylor Greene), refused to promote Kevin McCarthy from House minority leader to speaker of the House. Even after three votes, they showed no sign of abating. That threw not only House Republicans into chaos but Republican media as well.

As per Mediaite, on Fox News’ top rated late afternoon group chat show The Five, multiple pundits tore into the quisling Republicans, whose antics are threatening to turn control over to the Democrats. (Indeed, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries got more votes than McCarthy — and exponentially more than Jordan.) They even pissed off the show’s most easily pissed off co-host.

“You know, it’s time to get together as a party and stop embarrassing yourselves in front of the rest of us,” crowed Judge Jeanine Pirro.

But it was Dana Perino who hit the gang with the best/worst line. Lamenting that it could be days before the House picks a new speaker, she compared them to some of the most dreaded foes of the GOP.

It’s like the opposite of the Squad. They make the Squad look positively reasonable in this situation,” Perino said. “And a lot of this is just an ideological thing. Might be a personal thing. Like, I don’t like you. Okay.”

Perino also feared that House Republicans’ inability to unite is not a good omen:

“I think that conservatives overall in the country remain deeply dissatisfied with Joe Biden. And every day that the Republicans are going to spend in this exercise with their heels digging in with the name calling started to ratchet up. They’re talking about now internally within the party, enemies, you know, that kind of thing is hard to forget. And one of the first things that this group is going to have to do is come together and decide whether to raise the debt ceiling. So you thought this ballot is a is a tough one. Wait till you get to that one.”

McCarthy has spent the last two years appeasing the more extremist parts of his party. He even flip-flopped on the Jan. 6 riot, initially condemning it only to kiss up to the MAGA wing. And now look at him.

(Via Mediaite)

For the last two years, Kevin McCarthy has refused to condemn the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. Surely he thought appeasing them would lead to him becoming Speaker of the House. But on Tuesday, during the first day of the narrowly GOP-controlled chamber, his dreams came to naught. Three separate votes were held to see who would clinch the needed votes to get the job. And just as he feared, three separate times he came up short.

As per The Associated Press, McCarthy, who has been the House Minority Leader since 2019, needs 218 votes to succeed the departing Nancy Pelosi. As a small but pivotal cadre of Trumpy Republicans vowed to block his ascent, McCarthy himself warned that if they “play games” they may wind up handing the House to the Democrats, who had nominated New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

They did not listen. In the first round of voting, 19 Republicans refused to vote for McCarthy. He even got fewer votes than Jeffries, who, again, is a Democrat. By round two, McCarthy had only received 203 votes — again, fewer than Jeffries, who still didn’t get the magic 218. A third vote was even worse, with McCarthy losing another 20 votes. Eventually everyone called it a day and agreed to try again Wednesday.

It’s a historic occurrence. Indeed, the last time a Speaker of the House wasn’t voted in on the first ballot was 100 years ago, in 1923, when it took nine votes to find one. That’s still not as bad as 1856, when Congress was stalled for a whopping two months.

McCarthy could still nab the gig. Or maybe Jeffries will get it. Jim Jordan, the wackadoodle MAGA maniac, is one of the nominees and in the third ballot he received 30 votes — a good sign that he’s not going to get the job. In the meantime, many pointed out that by not snuffing out the extremist parts of his party, McCarthy sold his soul for nothin’.

There were jokes about alleged 2020 voter fraud.

But it was clear to some that McCarthy is one of the least liked people in Congress, appealing to no one.

McCarthy had reportedly already moved some of his stuff into Pelosi’s old office, which may have proven premature.

There was a lot of schadenfreude for McCarthy.

And for House Republicans in general, who are now in disarray.

(Via The AP)

Budgeting your money doesn’t have to be hard. If you’re young and employed you probably know all to well the feeling of living paycheck to paycheck. Of busting your back — and mental health — at a job that makes you feel either underappreciated, under-supported, or lacking any free time to, you know, live. Or worse, all three at the same time!

Luckily, we live in an era where there are a lot of qualified individuals out there who have that whole financial literacy thing down pat and they are offering that advice to people on their Instagram and TikTok. So as we step into 2023, allow us to introduce you to the budgeting gurus that you need to follow to help stretch that dough.

The Broke Black Girl

Dasha Kennedy is a financial activist that shares contemporary and culturally relevant financial literacy resources at a near-constant clip on her Instagram. Her main focus is on the financial hardships of being a black woman in the modern age, but the tools and advice she shares apply to everyone.

From how to develop a $1000 emergency fund for the year, to how to manage your time and monitor your finances, and how to set money aside to invest, Dasha is always offering a brilliant bit of financial wisdom that actually seems doable, no matter your income level.

Above all else, she’s funny and relatable, which is rare with financial gurus who always seem so secure in their funds and plans. Dasha isn’t afraid to be real and reveal that it’s okay to not have it all figured out.

HumphreyTalks

Humphrey Yang is a personal finance, money, and investing guru who respects your time, and we love him for that. On his TikTok, Humphrey Talks, Yang offers all sorts of sensible tips for investing in Roth IRAs and why things like compound interest and consistent investing can better set you up for retirement in a small easy-to-digest package.

And if you want to go deeper, his YouTube channel offers longer videos that offer more detail regarding investing tips and how to make your money work for you.

MrsDowJones

Haley Sacks of MrsDowJones has been recognized by major publications like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, and has been named one of Fortune’s 40 under 40 and InStyle’s Badass 50 for her adept skill at educating young people on how to save more money.

What makes Sacks fun to follow is that she gears her money-saving tips to things that we actually care about right now, like buying concert tickets or negotiating better wages from our bosses while still offering the practical tips that’ll help your later lives remain financially stable.

MilanSinghhh

With 2.6 million followers on TikTok, Milan Singh is one of the top finance creators on TikTok, and watching even a handful of his videos, it’s easy to see why.

His tips are sensible, direct, and subject-specific, with simple tips on everything from budgeting your sneaker obsession, to how to start a business, and how to combat small everyday charges you probably don’t think about and how they add up to carve up your earnings.

NickTalksMoney

Nick Meyer does what so many financial gurus don’t do well — he makes financial literacy fun. Money is fun, financial advising, is not!

But Nick Meyer makes learning about how to stretch your dollars as entertaining as all the other TikTok videos you watch thanks to a heavy reliance on costumes, green screens, and jokes.

ILikeToDabble

Daniella Flores is the self-proclaimed side hustle queen and focuses her efforts on helping neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ folks increase their money-making abilities via side hustles and work-from-home resources.

What makes Flores so special is that she helps to turn your own interests into money-making endeavors, rather than offering you tips on ways to make money that don’t necessarily speak to your personality or skills.

Her Instagram is full of quick bites of information, but if you want the real cheat codes, you’ll have to visit her I Like to Dabble blog, which goes way more in-depth.

HerFirst100k

If you want to simultaneously fight the patriarchy while making bank, Tori Dunlap is the creator for you. Through her TikTok, HerFirst100k, Dunlap instills her 2.2 million followers with the tools to negotiate their way to better and more equitable wages.

From how to talk to your boss, to negotiating for your dream job, to what sort of money mistakes to avoid, Dunlap keeps you educated in easy-to-digest videos that are as fun to watch as they are informative. She’s also written her own book, Financial Feminist, which should be required reading for every person in their twenties looking to get paid what they’re worth.

PricelessTay

Taylor Price, which, yes, is actually her real name, is host to some of our favorite finance tips on Twitter.

Whether it’s negotiating your check-out bill at Target using the company’s little-mentioned price-match policy, hacking your resume, or how to better take advantage of your credit card benefits, Price lays out the financial mistakes that are all too common that carve into your budget and how to get ahead of those mistakes so you end up with more money in your pocket.

“Brokeback Mountain,” Ang Lee’s beautiful film about love and repression, was a turning point for LGBTQ cinema in 2005 because it was one of the few mainstream Hollywood films to put a love story between two men front and center.

These days, such a film would hardly raise eyebrows, but 17 years ago it was the subject of scorn from conservative circles for pushing the “gay agenda.” Its stars, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, took considerable risks making the film because it could have jeopardized their status as leading men. But their pitch-perfect performances helped make the edgy material relatable to the general public.

Film critic Roger Ebert perfectly explained why the story resonated with people in his 2005 review. “‘Brokeback Mountain’ has been described as ‘a gay cowboy movie,’ which is a cruel simplification,” he wrote.

“It is the story of a time and place where two men are forced to deny the only great passion either one will ever feel,” he added. “Their tragedy is universal. It could be about two women, or lovers from different religious or ethnic groups—any ‘forbidden’ love.”

Fifteen years after Ledger’s death, Lee praised his performance in Empire magazine’s Greatest Actors issue. As a director, Lee was able to explain why his subtle performance as Ennis, a repressed cowboy, worked perfectly in the film in ways that the general public may have missed.

“Heath Ledger was a brilliant young actor. God only knows what he would have achieved later in life. He had so much talent—I’m sure he would have been a great director,” Lee wrote in Empire.

“Brokeback Mountain has the elegiac mood of a Western and an inner-twisted repression—Ennis is a very repressed character, macho but gay, gay but homophobic—and often there is no vocabulary to express his feelings,” Lee continued. “So Heath’s aura powers the whole story. He did a lot of preparation, mostly on his own. And he often surprised me with what he brought to his work.”

Any actor can “go big” and chew up the scenery with a flashy performance, but portraying a character with nuance is a lot harder.

“What stays with me is the nuance, the quieter moments,” Lee wrote. “The trick is to know how to turn a performance down and still shape it. There is a scene I remember very clearly, where an old girlfriend [Linda Cardellini] runs into Ennis at a diner. Ennis is alone, eating a slice of apple pie. Linda is acting her heart out, she’s in tears, confronting Ennis: ‘Why did you do this?’ But she doesn’t get a word from him. Throughout the whole scene, Heath does nothing: he just eats the apple pie. But watching the dailies, the crew were all crying too, saying, ‘Just leave the guy alone!’ I both understood, and cherished, Heath’s quietness, the subtlety of the moment, and how he carried himself in that scene. We are all very lucky we were able to make movies with an actor of that calibre. He had a God-given gift.”

It is sad to contemplate the incredible talent taken from the world when Ledger died at the young age of 28. But by creating a character that helped mainstream America understand that heterosexual love isn’t the only type worth fighting for, he helped to create a better world for so many who didn’t have a voice.

Ledger had the perfect response to a reporter who said people may be disgusted by the film.

u201cHeath Ledger’s response to calling the relationship in “Brokeback Mountain” disgustingu201d

— Iz (@Iz)
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“It’s obviously about two men in love and it’s obviously gay-themed and it’s very easily labeled, but unfortunately, people are quick in life to label something that they’re uncomfortable with,” Ledger said at a press conference. “The pure fact of it is that it transcends a label. It’s human. It’s a story of two human beings, two souls who are in love. Get over the fact it’s two men. That’s the point…

“And if you can’t understand that, just don’t go see the movie,” Ledger concluded.

French Montana is back. The Bad Boy rapper will drop the sixth installation of his Coke Boy mixtape series later this week. The project will be in collaboration with DJ Drama and released as a Gansta Grillz mixtape. Coke Boy 6 is expected to drop on Friday, January 6. The DJ and record executive announced the forthcoming project on Instagram yesterday (January 2), writing, “2023 New Year… Same Hustle” in the caption.

The mixtape was initially slated for a December release date, but it was pushed back for unforeseen reasons. Coke Boys 6 will serve as French’s first full-length project since 2022’s Montega LP, which dropped back in June 2022.

Outside of music, the “No Shopping” rapper has been focused on his philanthropic side, raising over $200 million for the Ugandan healthcare system. French Montana was bestowed with the “Innovator Award” while attending the annual Pencils Of Promise Gala at the Museum Of The Moving Image in New York City this past October.

“MAKING MORE HISTORY FOR MY PEOPLE!” he wrote on Instagram back in October. “Thank you, @pencilsofpromise, for honoring me with the Innovator Award at last night’s gala. Healthcare and education is a fundamental part of our human rights and should be accessible across the globe.”

The new year did not start well for Jeremy Renner. On Sunday, the Oscar-nominated actor was hospitalized after a “traumatic injury” involving a snow plow, which sent him to the ICU. Details at the time were thin on the ground, but now we know more. For one thing, he may have been hurt while being a good Samaritan. For another, his injuries were even worse than previously reported.

As per CNN, Renner was at one of his homes in Washoe County, Nevada, which was hit with three feet of snow. The MCU actor was clearing his driveway so that family members, visiting for the holidays, could leave. His family was with him at the time of the accident, his publicist says. The Reno Gazette Journal reported on Monday that he was assisting a stranded motorist, but that has yet to be confirmed or denied.

It’s still unclear exactly what happened, but an early report claimed that he’d run over one of his legs with the plow. Later it was revealed that he suffered “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries.” He is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital, where he is recovering from two separate surgeries, where it’s been reported that he’s in “critical but stable condition.”

More details will surely emerge later, but in the meantime, best of luck to Jeremy Renner.

(Via CNN and Reno Gazette Journal)

Cardi B channeled her inner emo kid as she appeared at a massive party at Miami’s E11even nightclub to ring in the new year.

While she gave a solo performance of her hit collab with Megan Thee Stallion, “WAP,” she also took some time to reminisce on some songs of years’ past. After all, they don’t call it Rockin’ Eve for nothing.

At some point in the night, Cardi sang along to Fall Out Boy’s 2005 song, “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down.”

“Anything you wanna hear, ’cause that’s just who I am this week,” Cardi sings to the crowd with a glass of champagne in hand. “Lying in bed, next to the mausoleum.” While she didn’t get exactly all the words right, the video is so fun that you can’t help but acknowledge her effort.

Fans greatly enjoyed the wild crossover too. “Cardi B singing Fall Out boy is so real I love her,” one person tweeted.

Back in September, Cardi posted some throwback pics of herself in high school, and claimed that she while she might not have called herself emo, she was close with them. “The emo kids in school were actually really cool and will give me free cigarettes,” she wrote.

Continue scrolling for some additional reactions to Cardi B’s NYE cover of Fall Out Boy.

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

There are plenty of predictable reasons a New Year’s Eve fireworks show might get canceled, but “let’s let the walrus sleep” isn’t one of them.

That’s exactly what happened in the U.K. town of Scarborough, however, as residents rang in 2023.

According to British Divers Marine Life Rescue, a walrus was sighted on a boat ramp in Scarborough around 11:30 p.m. on December 30. The wildlife rescuers had hoped that the male walrus—nicknamed Thor—would rest for a bit and then slip back into the harbor by the time the public woke up the next morning. Instead, he got comfy and decided to park it for a while.

Authorities cordoned off the area to prevent anyone from messing with Thor, and as news spread of the walrus’s presence, thousands of people came to see him. It’s not every day that an Arctic walrus shows up in the middle of a British town.

“Kind public asked many questions, offered and bought hot drinks and food, and expressed their appreciation of Thor being protected, with the overwhelming majority being immeasurably respectful to our visitor,” shared British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

During the night, Thor appeared to be agitated by some passing cars and lights, which led wildlife rescuers and local council members to reconsider the town’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show. Not wanting to cause stress to the walrus, they agreed to cancel the fireworks display “without hesitation.”

The Sea Life Scarborough aquarium shared a photo of Thor resting near the water along with a request to the public.

“Please be respectful of his rest and try not to disturb him. While it is a very exciting opportunity for us, naturally they do not like lots of noise and are not familiar with domestic animals so please keep pets on leads and remain a safe distance for your own welfare and his. Hopefully within a few days he will have got enough rest to move on and continue his adventures North!”

As it turns out, Thor did return to the sea after his respite in Scarborough and showed up in Blyth, another British town 70 miles north of Scarborough, a couple of days later.

Dan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation at the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, told the BBC that Thor was “heading in the right direction,” which is good, but that walruses increasingly being seen in European waters could be a sign of climate change causing a loss of sea ice. Walruses feed mainly on cockles, clams and mussels on the seafloor, but they use sea ice to rest and to digest their meals. With less sea ice in their habitat, they may wander to find land on which to rest.

Having a walrus interacting with humans can also lead to tragedy for either people or the walrus. Freya, a wandering walrus who kept hoisting herself onto boats around Northern Europe in the summer of 2022, was euthanized by Norwegian authorities who deemed her a danger to the public.

As climate change creates more and more unexpected wildlife encounters, people will have to defer to experts on how to handle them. But when it comes to fireworks, even local wildlife and pets can find them stressful. Fireworks displays have been shown to cause panic responses in birds and can result in pets trying to flee otherwise familiar environments out of fear. And according to The Humane Society, “Wildlife rehabilitation centers are often flooded with traumatized, injured and orphaned wild animals after the holiday.” As an alternative, many cities are exploring replacing fireworks with drone light displays.

Kudos to the town of Scarborough for putting the well-being of Thor ahead of its traditional New Year’s Eve celebration, and kudos to the public as well for heeding the call to not disturb the walrus during his respite. Here’s hoping Thor continues his way north and makes it back to his Arctic home safe and sound.

There were a lot of strange movie rollouts in 2022, thanks to the great post-pandemic selections that were racing to make it into the theaters. One of the more perplexing moves was Netflix going ahead with a very short theatrical release for Glass Onion in November, then making it available on the streamer a month later just in time for you to force your dad to watch it because he really likes puzzles.

The move was risky, but early streaming numbers seem promising! The Knives Out sequel racked up 127.25 million hours watched in just its second week on the streamer, sitting only behind Red Notice and Don’t Look Up. That brings the total viewing numbers up to 209.4 million hours (or about 19 million trips from New York to Greece). Considering the fact that this data is just after the first 10 days, the movie will likely surpass those titles. Nobody should tell The Rock, though. He’s already going through a lot.

Despite the experimental release, Johnson had expressed his desire to keep the film in theaters longer in order for more fans to have that experience. “I’d love it to be [in theaters] longer; I’d love it to be in more theaters,” Johnson recently told The Hollywood Reporter, adding when the movie hits Netflix, it will be able to reach a wider audience. “I appreciate that Netflix has done this, because this was a huge effort on their part, and the theater chains, to reach across the aisle and make this happen. I’m hoping it does really well so we can demonstrate that they can complement each other.” It clearly worked!

It’s unclear if Netflix will want to do the same type of release with the third film in the franchise, which is also set to get a Netflix release sometime in the coming years. Hopefully, Hugh Grant will sign on to star in that one when he’s done with Paddington 3 (if I type it, it will happen).

(Via The Wrap)