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I think it’s safe to say that Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn have one of the most aspirational mother-daughter relationships in Hollywood. Sure, aspects of their inseparable closeness—following very similar career paths, never going a day without talking to one another and even living on the same street—might not be everyone’s ideal, but their strong, healthy bond is something that virtually every daughter would like to have with her mom. We all want mom to be equal parts bestie and role model, and Hawn has seemingly aced that balance.

So it’s probably no wonder that for Hawn’s 77th birthday, Hudson posted a loving tribute on Instagram showing photos of them together throughout the years, along with some lovely words. However, no one could prepare for the level of pure heartwarming, tear-jerking goodness her message would contain. Seriously, Hudson is a fabulous actress, but she might have missed her calling to write amazing Hallmark cards.

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“So lucky I get to celebrate my beautiful mother everyday BUT TODAY Nov 21 was the day she was born!” her caption began, followed by wondering out loud to the cosmos about how such a radiant being could have come into being.

“I wonder if God knew what had been concocted in the stars to create this beaming light? I have a feeling it was by no accident that she shares this otherworldly lust for life and joyous spirit,” she wrote.

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She then commended her mother for her unwavering fierceness, saying, “Be not fooled, my mother has depths that reach far beyond a tip toed dance through life. She has challenged the toughest minds, stood tall for her worth, she blazed trails for us to walk a little easier through and cut a lot of those weeds that love to scratch at women’s ankles trying to get us to turn back, she follows through during the toughest moments and never takes no for an answer.”

She continued, “My mothers life is a treasure trove of wisdom that I feel deeply honored to know intimately. Most importantly, she always wanted and continues to aspire to be the best mother and grandmother. And well … let’s just say, she’s winning at that.”

May we all have a Kate Hudson in our lives to write us a birthday message.

Hudson wrapped up the post with a simple, eloquent, “You’re my everything.” Along with some heart and birthday cake emojis—it’s still a birthday, gotta keep things festive.

The gushing love that Hudson and Hawn share isn’t just reserved for birthdays. Recently the pair were making headlines for their matching glows at the premiere of “Glass Onion” (which Hudson stars in). And back in October, Hudson shared Hawn doing a fitness routine along with the caption “Does it get any cuter…?! I can’t 🥰” to help support her nonprofit Mind Up.

Kate Hudson & mom Goldie Hawn 💖 at the “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Photo: Paul Smith / https://t.co/ujg1bkeuCp ⚡#KateHudson #GoldieHawn @KnivesOut #GlassOnion #KnivesOut pic.twitter.com/S1Xr1H6MCf

— Paul Smith ⭐⚡ (@Featureflash) November 15, 2022

Hollywood might be full of posturing and illusion, but the pure love Hudson and Hawn share rings so authentic. It’s basically the definition of mother-daughter goals. Long live their inspiring chemistry.

Let’s first put your mind at ease—yes, there was a plane crash involving more than 50 shelter dogs but they all survived.

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, a twin engine aircraft transporting the canines from Louisiana to Wisconsin crash landed on a golf course at the Western Lakes Golf Club in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. But—as ABC News assured—all the dogs, along with the three people onboard, survived. The worst injuries were just a few bumps and scrapes.

With that out of the way, let’s get to how this unexpected event led to many pups finding their forever homes much sooner than anticipated.

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Apparently, it was love at first rescue for the first responders who arrived on the scene. “As soon as I found out all of them were OK, my first thought was: one of them is coming home with me. So this is my little Lucky,” Elle Steitzer, a firefighter and EMT at Lake Country Fire Rescue, told ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN 12 while cradling her newly adopted furry friend.

Similarly, Amber Christian, a firefighter and paramedic at the department, told WISN 12 that her new dog Artemis “just kind of fell out of the sky in front of me, so here he is.”

Marley, the last named pup in the article, allegedly jumped into the arms of Deputy Chief Tony Wasielewski right after the crash. Wasielewski went in to find her the next day. “When they let her in the door she bypassed my wife and ran to me, jumped into my arms, gave me kisses. I started to tear up a little bit and said, ‘Oh boy, I guess we got a dog,'” he shared.

“Several first responders on the crash scene of a plane transporting 53 shelter dogs have adopted the dogs they helped rescue. One rescue gave the workers “first dibs.””
https://t.co/h6k0zJ8cyO

— GerdasEquineRescue (@GerdasEquineRes) November 20, 2022

The remaining doggos were taken to various shelters throughout Wisconsin. And by the sound of it, folks couldn’t wait to take them home. Elmbrook Humane Society, which took 11 dogs, gave “first dibs” to the first responders of the plane crash. And as Stephanie Deswarte, the shelter’s front desk manager, told ABC News, there were quite a few calls.

Though people aren’t normally allowed to adopt before a dog goes up on the website (to keep things fair), Deswarte thought that the situation called for an exception, “since they were obviously in the thick of it, and they did such a great job trying to help with the whole crazy situation.” As of Nov. 22, puppies Charlie Brown, Linus and Sally have been adopted, and another first responder plans to take one home on Saturday.

First Responders Adopt Dogs They Rescued from Plane Crash in Wisconsin: ‘Fell Out of the Sky’ https://t.co/8Q5QlNIUox

— People (@people) November 20, 2022

While the cause of the crash is still unclear and under investigation, it’s a huge comfort to know that not only was no one hurt, but that it ended up saving many dogs from shelters. According to the ASPCA, around 3.1 million dogs enter shelters each year, with approximately 390,000 being euthanized. In many ways, these sweet pups escaped death twice. A double whammy, heartwarming, tail-wagging miracle all around.

As families across the U.S. start prepping for family gatherings and feasts of turkey and mashed potatoes, people are engaging in the usual debates over the origins of Thanksgiving. Kids in American schools are learning various versions of the Pilgrims in Plymouth story, most of which are overly simplistic and many of which are flat-out wrong. People in Native communities are experiencing the familiar whitewashing of their side of that story, and people of goodwill are feeling torn about how—or whether—to celebrate Thanksgiving in light of the problematic history that has been ascribed to it.

Considering the whole, long evolution of the holiday, here’s an idea: Let’s officially decouple Thanksgiving from U.S. history entirely and make it a holiday that celebrates gratitude for gratitude’s sake and nothing more.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting we “erase history” here. I’m simply suggesting we stop associating this holiday with any specific historic eras or events and distill it down to its pure essence. Despite the elementary school dramatizations seared into our collective psyches, there is barely a shred of a thread actually linking the Pilgrim origin story for our modern Thanksgiving holiday. Not only do we have the problematic mythology surrounding that “First Thanksgiving” event, but the entire idea that the Pilgrims are why we celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday today is totally untrue.

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According to Britannica, there was evidence of a meal shared between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, but that didn’t lead to some big, widespread holidays of thanksgiving, and the “thanksgiving” celebrations that were held early in American history were not associated with the Pilgrims.

“For the Pilgrims, giving thanks for the autumn harvest wasn’t a new concept,” shares Britannica. “As a tradition with roots in European harvest festivals and Christian religious observances, ‘days of thanksgiving’ were fairly common among the colonists of New England. Throughout America’s colonial era, communities held their own unofficial Thanksgiving celebrations, and few people associated them with the Plymouth settlers.”

In fact, the more direct link from U.S. history to our current Thanksgiving holiday came more than 250 years after the Mayflower landing. In 1863, just a few months after delivering his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving holiday proclamation, which reads:

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, …to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving… And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him …, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

That proclamation is seen as the beginning of the national holiday, according to the National Parks Service, and largely thanks to the 36-year effort of a woman named Sarah Hale. As editor of Boston’s Ladies’ Magazine, Hale had publicly called for a national Thanksgiving holiday and she wrote to President Lincoln directly pushing for the holiday just a few weeks before he made the proclamation.

Notably absent from Lincoln’s proclamation? Any mention of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. According to research shared in The New Yorker, it was the late 19th and early 20th century panic over immigration that led to the mythology of the Pilgrim-oriented origins of Thanksgiving—nearly 300 years after the fact.

However, I maintain that the history of Thanksgiving, at least in terms of how and why we celebrated it, isn’t important. The Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t need an origin story, problematic or otherwise. Giving thanks, especially during a harvest season, has been a standard tradition in cultures around the world for millennia—it’s a worthy holiday all on its own. Gratitude is a value we all share and there’s no reason why we have to tie it to any particular historical era or event.

Gratitude is also good for us. Many studies have shown that people who regularly practice gratitude tend to be happier and less depressed. According to Harvard Medical School, gratitude “helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

So let’s place our focus of this holiday on the beauty of gratitude and on how giving thanks can make us better humans. Let’s collectively agree to end ridiculous Thanksgiving school plays and make the holiday curriculum about why gratitude is good for us. Let’s focus on teaching accurate history all the time instead of watering down or misrepresenting complex historic events to explain to young children why we celebrate certain holidays.

Let’s give thanks for our loved ones and the yummy food we’re about to consume and officially make the holiday as lovely and simple and universal as that.

Feast Week is here and Thanksgiving brings high-profile opportunities for the NFL. A trio of games are set for Turkey Day and, with no byes in Week 11, there is plenty left over for Sunday and Monday. After a nice run in Week 9 and Week 10, Week 11 was a bit less kind, but we avoided total disaster with a 2-3 mark and spirits are high.

Before revealing this week’s quintet of picks, let’s take stock.

• Week 11: 2-3
• 2022 Season: 28-26-1

Come get these winners.

Minnesota Vikings (-2.5) over New England Patriots

It would be fun to give something out during the standard Thanksgiving doubleheader in Detroit and Dallas, but nothing is screaming at us. Instead, we land on the nightcap and a perplexing line. Minnesota laying less than a field goal here is a harsh reaction to a blowout loss (shout-out to having Dallas last week) and likely some negative stigma on Kirk Cousins in primetime. Trust me, I do understand the cringe element of leaning on Cousins in this spot, but the Vikings should be 5 or 6-point favorites in this game. Lay the small number.

Jacksonville Jaguars (+4) over Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore’s offense isn’t exactly scaring anyone these days, myself included. I’m usually partial to the Ravens’ efficiency, but laying more than a field goal here against a Jaguars team coming off a bye seems wrong. I would pick Baltimore to win straight-up, but grabbing four is enough.

Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins OVER 46 points

I genuinely don’t enjoy giving out Overs in this space. Miami has scored 31 points or more in three straight games and, against a poor Houston defense, that streak should continue. We’ll need the Texans to help us a little, but fading Miami’s defense a bit something I’m comfortable with. Root for points.

New Orleans Saints (+9.5) over San Francisco 49ers

It won’t be fun, but this number is a touch high. San Francisco lit the world on fire on Monday evening in a thrashing of the Cardinals. The look-ahead number was 8 before last week, and I’d make it 7.5. There isn’t a huge gap in those prices, but I’ll “sell high” on San Francisco in a week in which I don’t show a ton of edges.

TEASER: Carolina Panthers (+8.5) over Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers (+8.5) over Indianapolis Colts

This isn’t the prettiest teaser in the world. In fact, it’s hideous, and I understand it. There is still value in these Wong teaser legs across two key numbers in each instance. Denver’s offense hasn’t been able to score enough to threaten the 8.5, even with very little trust in Carolina at home. Pittsburgh is the more appetizing leg with Mike Tomlin’s record in these spots and a trustworthy defense. Let’s get weird.

This article has been updated.

When a professional chef says that Thanksgiving dinner is “the Olympics of cooking,” you know that shit is serious. But every year, millions of well-meaning amateurs try their best to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for their families and friends, following complex recipes that haven’t been attempted since the last Thanksgiving (who the hell roasts a turkey in May?), in quantities that far exceed their respective comfort zones and skill levels.

This isn’t just unrealistic, it’s unfair. Especially to the poor men and women slaving over lumpy gravy in the kitchen.

While making a perfect Thanksgiving dinner is impossible (even professional chefs recognize the insane degree of difficulty), we’ve teamed up with Jason Quinn, the head chef/owner at Playground DTSA, winner of The Great Food Truck Race, and judge on MTV’s “Snack-Off,” to help identify some of the most common ways you “make Thanksgiving a shit show” (his words), along with some helpful hints on how to avoid these culinary disasters.

Jason isn’t just a culinary-world star, he’s a Thanksgiving dinner specialist. Every year, he closes down his restaurant for the day and cooks a full Thanksgiving feast for his closest family and friends (along with a few stragglers), so the man knows a thing or two about cranberry sauce and stuffing.

Mistake One: You’re Roasting Your Turkey Wrong… Trust Us.

It is tempting to say that roasting a turkey is the Rubik’s Cube of cooking, but that isn’t quite right; a Rubik’s Cube can be solved. Roasting a turkey correctly is about goddamn impossible, and there are a variety of reasons why.

According to Jason:

Even if you do know what you’re doing, there’s a lot of problems [with roasting a turkey]. Turkeys range from 13 to 23 pounds, so anytime someone is giving you advice, how likely is it they’re talking about the size bird you have? It’s a one in ten chance. So, right off the bat, misinformation is a huge thing. Secondly, people always want to peek and look inside [lowering the oven temperature], and everyone wants to baste [drying out the turkey], and there’s so many different ways that people go about it that can yield an inferior product or undercooked or overcooked. How many people can really say they’ve had truly outstanding turkey on Thanksgiving?

How To Fix It:

Because roasting a whole turkey to the proper temperature is extremely difficult, even for a skilled chef like Jason, he simplifies the problem by making that turkey considerably less whole:

Cooking the turkey is the hardest part of the whole day. There’s a million different ways to make mashed potatoes, and half a million of them are good. If you break down the turkey into smaller pieces and cook them separately, you’ll have a higher margin for success. Confiting the legs, covering them in some sort of fat and slowly baking them in the oven, no one’s gonna not like that. Roasting just a crown, just the two breasts, is much easier [than cooking the whole bird]. It’s easier to cook white meat perfectly than trying to cook white meat and dark meat perfectly at the same time.

And Jason isn’t the only chef who endorses this method. Everyone from Serious Eats to The New York Times have championed dissection roasting (not the actual name for the thing, but it should be). You may lose a few seconds of “wow” factor of carving the turkey at the table, but that process has its own pitfalls, and once your guests start eating a bird that is properly cooked (both white and dark meat), you won’t be hearing any complaints.

Need more convincing? According to Jason, when he was a kid and the turkey was roasted in the traditional way at Thanksgiving dinner, “no one ever ate the legs.” But the first time he confited the legs, “no one ate the breast.”

Here’s how you can break down and roast your bird and confit the turkey legs.

Mistake Two: Your Stuffing Is Boring

In America, we love carbs so much that we jam them into the body cavities of birds. And while the germ theory has taken the fun out this method, stuffing remains one of the most popular side dishes at Thanksgiving. Many amateur chefs embrace stuffing for the culinary canvas that it can be and insert delicious touches like cornbread and chorizo into the mix. But sadly, far too many families are stuck with the most basic of moist breadcrumbs and seasonings.

How To Fix It:

Jason not only sees the stuffing as a chance to showcase some of his favorite ingredients (he’s a big fan of a cornbread base), but he also considers it a perfect opportunity to fill in any missing gaps in the dinner’s flavor profile:

Everyone has family recipes. If at your family Thanksgiving there’s always green bean casserole, putting green beans in the stuffing is out of the question. But if there’s no mushroom dish at your Thanksgiving, then maybe a mushroom and Italian sausage and cornbread stuffing would be really killer. It really comes down to filling in the gaps of what’s not already being made at the dinner. Stuffing is a great vessel for whatever else isn’t being served.

Here’s how you can make your own cornbread stuffing.

Mistake Three: Your Potatoes Are A Mess

Though roast turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce are mainly seen as holiday foods, mashed potatoes are a year-round staple. But despite our familiarity with this dish, mashed potatoes are often still a culinary dumpster fire of gummy paste and/or bland lumps.

How To Fix It:

For Jason, tasty mashed potatoes start with the right equipment:

Mashed potatoes are probably one of the things that are the easiest to mess up. You have to use the right potatoes, a Yukon gold or a new potato, something that’s nice and waxy, so not a russet potato. I peel them and boil them in nicely salted water. Don’t skimp on the salt; that’s the best opportunity to flavor the potatoes. I would invest in a potato ricer or a food mill. These will make the potatoes into these nice, small, broken up pieces that mix really well into dairy.

My favorite method is to taking a little bit of room temperature butter — and when I say a little bit, I mean ‘a lot’ — and some cream that has been warmed up with garlic, and a little bit of Boursin cheese would be killer, and I put all that in a bowl. Then once my potatoes are boiled, I put them through the ricer or the food mill right over the dairy mixture, so as the hot potato hits it, it starts to melt even more. Then I mix it up with a rubber spatula, and it’s the silkiest, creamiest potato puree. It’s really easy, but just delicious.”

Here’s how you can make mashed potatoes with a ricer.

Mistake Four: Your Cranberry Sauce Comes From A Can

Though we spend the other 364 days of the year actively avoiding gelatinous, cylindrical foods, some people think that serving canned cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving is somehow acceptable.

For reasons that are difficult to fathom (though probably involve Stockholm syndrome), some people even claim to like canned cranberry sauce. Some of these poor misguided souls even prefer it over cranberry sauce that is actually a sauce. So, if you are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, please keep several cans of the stuff on hand for these finicky guests. Then please throw those cans at them until they agree to leave.

How To Fix It:

According to Jason, cranberry sauce is one of his favorite foods to make for Thanksgiving. Not just because the tart cranberry sauce balances the other dishes, but also because it is one of the easiest components to prepare:

For me, [cranberry sauce] is one of the easiest things in the whole making of Thanksgiving dinner. It doesn’t have to be served hot and it can totally be made ahead of time. Also, fresh cranberries are readily available, so there’s no reason to use anything out of a can or a jar or anything like that. I’ll usually take whole cranberries and cook them with orange juice and brown sugar or maple and some cinnamon sticks. I’ll cook them until the berries start to pop a little bit and make sure that it’s the right kind of sweet, tangy balance. That’s it; super easy. You can do it in an hour, you can do it in 15 minutes if you need to rush it. Or you could stew it all day if you like your texture a little bit softer with no bite on the cranberries at all.

Here’s how you can make your own cranberry sauce.

Mistake Five: Your Desserts Are Too Heavy

As much as most people love pumpkin pie and expect it during Thanksgiving dinner, Jason brings up a simple, but thought-provoking observation: Why in the hell do we eat this stuff after Thanksgiving dinner? After all, we just finished stuffing ourselves with turkey and potatoes and dinner rolls and a food that is a literally called stuffing, and then how do we put a topper on that sweaty cavern rave of carbs and lard and sugar? With several more slices of carbs and lard and sugar.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a feast, and it should be, but it doesn’t necessarily have to end with us passed out on the couch, with our belts unbuckled, and our guts bubbling, and family political arguments only a faint buzz in our ears.

[Author’s note: Faking a nap is a stellar way to avoid family arguments both political and otherwise. Consider that a bonus Thanksgiving tip.]

How To Fix It:

After courses of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing croquettes, and other amazing dishes, Jason serves his guests something entirely unconventional, but entirely delicious for dessert:

Lately, I’ve been using persimmons and marinating them with a sweetened lemon juice and serving them with a Kurdish yogurt cheese called labneh. I mix cinnamon and brown sugar into that, and serve it with the persimmons. And that’s a pretty awesome light dessert for after Thanksgiving.

Here’s how you can make a light dessert of your own. But maybe keep a pumpkin pie (or two) around just in case you have a few traditionalists at the table.

The biggest shopping holiday of the year is here! But if you’d rather spend your money on adventure and once-in-a-lifetime experiences than on clothes and home appliances, you’re in the right place. This weekend on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday — from November 25 to November 29 — you’ll find major discounts on hotels, flights, tours, travel packages, travel accessories, and more.

It’s not likely that deals this good will pop up again throughout the year (at least not all at once across the travel industry), so you might as well take advantage of the opportunity now. Below, we’re sharing the top Black Friday travel deals you need to know.

HOTEL DEALS

• As a part of Hilton Waikoloa Village’s Cyber Sale, you can get up to 30% off the Kohala, Hawaii-based resort’s best rooms. Book here.
• Signia by Hilton San Jose is offering an exclusive package that includes $75 worth of beverage and dining credit along with 10,000 Hilton Honors points. Rates start at $211. Book here.
• Westgate Resorts is offering up to 50% savings on the best available rates for bookings made between Nov. 23 and 28, 2022. Westgate has more than two dozen locations across the US — including Orlando, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Park City, and more. Book here.
• The Kessler Collection, which has 11 locations nationwide, is offering 23% off luxury stays from January to March 2023 when booking between November 28 and December 4. Book here.
• Throughout the entire month of November, when you book a room at The Portofino Beach Resort in Beliz for any dates between Nov. 15, 2022 and March 15, 2023, you’ll save up to 55% on your stay. Book here.
• Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort in Oranjestad, Aruba is offering up to 30% off standard rates when you book now until November 29, for travel through October 31, 2023. Book here.

FLIGHT DEALS

• Icelandic airline PLAY is offering 35% off flights to Iceland and 40% off flights to all of PLAY’s other European destinations through November 29. Offer valid on flights between November 24, 2022 and March 31, 2023. Book here.
• Eat.Drink.Sleep, a Southern California boutique hospitality company, is offering 25% off room rates at all five of its hotels this year with travel dates available for the next year. Discounted rates are available from November 25, 2022 to November 28, 2022. Book here.
• Norse Atlantic, a Norwegian low-cost, long-haul airline, is offering major discounts on European flights (as low as $119 one-way tickets) through November 29, from travel between December 2022 and October 2023. Book here.
• Asian airline Cathay Pacific is hosting its biggest fare sale of the year until November 28th. Choose from over 30 destinations in Asia and get flights in Economy class starting at $679. Book here.

EXPERIENCE DEALS

• Cabana Vans — a luxury camper van experience in Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — is offering 20% off 3+ night stays through March 2023 with code HOLIDAY2022 when you book by November 29. Book here.
• Oceania Cruises is offering two-for-one cruise fares, free economy air, and a choice of free shore excursions OR a free beverage package OR shipboard credit and free gratuities. Available now through November 30. Book here.
• EF Ultimate Break (UB), a leader in immersive group-based Gen-Z and Millennial travel experiences up to $1,200 (or 35%) off select destinations known to top — such as Japan, Greek Islands, Bali, Egypt, and Europe. Book here.
• Explore Worldwide, a global tour operator, is offering up to 20% off select departures (more than $1,000 on some trips) through Oct. 31, 2023. Book here.
• City Experiences by Hornblower, which provides tours in top-tier destinations — like France, Italy, Spain, the U.K., the U.S., and more — is offering 25% off all Walks and Devour sightseeing and culinary tours using code “BFRIDAY2022.” Book here.
• Go City, which is an app-based multi-attraction sightseeing pass and a leader in experienced-driven travel, is offering up to 15% off passes in 29 of the world’s top cities. Book here.

BOOKING DEALS

• Travel booking app, Hopper, will be offering discounted airfare on participating airlines as well as sales on resort room rates, rental houses, and rental cars on November 29th. Download the app here.
• Booking.com is offering up to 30% off at nearly 900 hotels and resorts in the U.S. and others around the world. Browse discounts from now through December 1, for stays through December 31, 2023. Book here.
• In addition to subscriber-exclusive discounts, Priceline is offering 10% off sitewide on Express Deals with code BF2022. You’ll also find major savings on rental cars, packages, and cruises. Book here.

A story out of Hopewell, Texas, is about finding a ray of light in a very dark time. NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reports that on Friday, November 4, a tornado destroyed the home of Dakota Hudson and his girlfriend, Lauren Patterson. The couple rode it out in the bathroom and when they emerged from hiding, their home was destroyed.

After checking in on their neighbors, Hudson realized that the engagement ring he bought for Patterson was lost among the debris. “Needle in a haystack doesn’t come close to what we were looking for,” Hudson said.

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A Paris Junior League softball team stopped by the property to see if Hudson and Patterson needed help with the cleanup. Hudson asked the team to please help him find the ring.

“When you tell 20 girls someone is going to get engaged if they find a ring, they are going to find it,” Hudson said. Outfielder Kate Rainey miraculously found the ring, stuck in the mud, seven feet from where it was hidden in the house by Hudson.

“I was just kind of digging through the mud in this certain particular spot, and I kept digging there,” Rainey said according to KXII. “I don’t know why I felt led to dig right there, and I found a little piece of a metal circle, and it was not metal. It was gold. I didn’t believe it.”

Hudson celebrated the incredible moment by spontaneously dropping to one knee and proposing. Patterson said yes.

“We’re safe. We’re here. Everybody’s alright. It’s a miracle the ring was found. What better time to do it?” Hudson said.

Monte Morris is a little tired. He’s fresh from practice and the Wizards have only been home from Japan, where the team played its two preseason games, for a few days. The jet lag still lingers.

“I loved Japan, it was my first time there. I liked the people, they were really nice. The city, it’s clean. That was more shocking for me, to see how clean it was. When we got to the practice facility, and they advised us to take off our shoes at the door,” he chuckles in recollection.

Fresh, too, are some of the pieces Morris — a subtler fashion aficionado compared to others in the league (or alongside him in the Wizards lineup), but a fan of fashion all the same — picked up in Tokyo.

“Celine, Dior, Balenciaga, Cartier, Rolex,” Morris lists off the stores he made a point to stop in. “I did a few things, bought some nice things that I’ll be able to show during the season when I dress up for games. I like their little shopping centers. It was nice.”

In Tokyo, the team didn’t have very much downtime. But Morris still noticed, in his and the team’s excursions to sumo matches and local restaurants mostly led by teammate Rui Hachimura, the difference between the styles and cuts in the menswear looks compared to home. It was noticeable, he says, that things are “more tailored,” while baggier fits are popular in the United States. Morris was also a fan of the “variety and different options” he saw in Japan.

That variety harkened back to the way Morris started to approach fashion in the first place.

“I always had good swag, even before I had money I knew how to put stuff together,” Morris says of how his approach to figuring out his personal style started. Someone he’s shared that evolution with has been his longtime friend and new teammate, Kyle Kuzma.

“For me, I like the risks that Kyle takes with it,” Morris says. “I like some of the stuff he wears. But me, if I don’t feel it, I won’t put it on. I won’t wear it just to take a leap. Sometime this year, I’m sure he’s going to give me some ideas. It just happens like that, especially with a best friend too.”

Morris’ favorite fits, it turns out, are perfect for fall in D.C.

“I’m more of a turtleneck, sweater type guy. More casual, like Chelsea boots. That’s when I look like my best self, I feel like. I’m trying to stay in that lane,” he says. “Fall attire. I think I can jump into that real well.”

Jumping into best fits — whether in fashion, relationships, or in Morris’ case this season, a new team — takes a great deal of self-awareness. To know who you are and not feel pressure from outside forces as styles or situations change. Morris was selected in the second round of the Draft by the Nuggets and played with the team for five seasons. His role as a rotational player changed considerably when he was inserted into the starting lineup for an injured Jamal Murray. When he and teammate Will Barton were traded to the Wizards at the end of that breakout season, it meant that he would play for someone other than Denver for the first time in his NBA career.

Morris’ game — steady, collaborative, with the fitting nickname “Count of Monte Assist/TO” — is a kind of like a closet staple, something you reach for again and again. It would’ve been complimentary to nearly any outfit in the league, but a major reason his fit with the Wizards has felt so seamless was the familiar face that welcomed Morris to the team: former Denver assistant and current Washington head coach Wes Unseld Jr.

“Me and his relationship has always been more than basketball. I know that I can go to his office and talk to him about anything in life. Him being my coach now is giving me more confidence because I know he’s going to demand that high level,” Morris says of playing for Unseld again. “He deserved this opportunity, everything coming his way, he worked very hard. He can tell you the same for me, two guys that are worth everything they put in the work for, it’s only right it comes together like this — I wouldn’t have wanted it any different.”

Besides a familiarity for Morris’ game, and where Unseld knows how to push and play him in games, the transition to a Wizards team one season into a much-needed overhaul has been, thus far, smooth. Fast forward to a month into the season and the Wizards are more than hanging around in the East. Washington has leaned into a defensive identity, and as of this writing, they’re eighth in the league in defensive rating and find themselves sitting at fifth in the conference with a 10-7 record.

“You can just tell around the league that people are sleeping on us, but in our locker room, we’re like this,” Morris crosses his fingers together. “We’re together. We’re all trying to complete one go. To shock the naysayers. So the locker room vibe is totally different.”

To that end, Morris notes the uptick in “team bonding” activities the Wizards are doing, but the sense of familiarity goes deep. Morris and Kuzma grew up together in Flint, Michigan. Delon Wright and Kuzma both went to the University of Utah. Barton was in Denver with Morris and Unseld, while Wizards cornerstone Bradley Beal — plus relative newcomers Hachimura, Deni Avdija, and Corey Kispert — have all come up with the club.

It makes sense, then, that the bigger adjustment for Morris came off the court. Oftentimes it gets skimmed over that, along with team dynamics shifting in a trade, the real lives of the people involved get thrown in flux, too.

“The move was the toughest part for me, and reality kicking in,” Morris says of first getting to D.C., and the time immediately following his trade. “Like, this is your new home, finding where to go with [a] GPS. All that’s new for me.”

It’s rare in the ceaselessly shifting landscape of the NBA for an athlete to stay with a team, whether because of a trade or making moves in free agency, for five seasons. As much as the trade to Washington was an upset to the style and fit Morris made for himself in Denver, the move offered an opportunity for a new look, a fresh start.

“I like fresh starts. Sometimes you need to get a different type of hunger, or different type of result, just changing something up a little bit,” Morris says with a nod. “For me, it’s just another chapter in my book. Year five — we’ve been through five chapters already — that’s how I look at it. Chapter six, it’s just a change of location with the same drive and the same opportunities. It’s like we’re reading a book, we’re just on chapter six now.”

The attitude of managing a big move, or figuring out where he can benefit and push his new team, is something Morris says he’s gotten better at taking in stride. As someone who admittedly used to “beat himself up” over every single game and strove to be “overly perfect,” Morris has shifted to a wider lens and more long-term approach in basketball.

“Everybody wants to be an MVP, everybody wants to be an All-Star, everybody wants to win Most Improved, but at the end of the day, I always judge on wins and losses,” he says. “So if I can get wins and get to the playoffs, whether I get those awards or not, my life going forward is going to be good. My goal is to get D.C. back in the playoffs. I think this city deserves it.

“I just try to keep my demeanor as straight as I can ‘cause I’m really the quarterback out there,” he continues. “They’re looking at me for answers. I can’t panic or change my demeanor because people are watching me. I try to keep even keel, keep a smile on my face even through hard times, and people will follow. That’s what being a leader’s all about.”

With so much of the season stretching out in front of Morris and the new-look Wizards, it might be preemptive to say the fashion and form the franchise is playing with will turn into something timeless, a lasting style all their own. But the tell-tale signs of confidence that will ultimately take are there. The only carryover, and personal staple Morris is missing, lives in a different kind of lane, really its own runway.

“I’m a big bowler on the side. That’s my second hobby. I’m trying to get into the PBA in the offseason coming up,” he grins. “I’ve only been twice [in D.C.], but I used to go all the time in Denver. I’ve got my own ball and everything, I’m for real for real.

“Brad said he could bowl. I probably could take Brad,” Morris muses. “We can go up against Chris Paul and D-Book on ESPN, that would be nice,” Suddenly, the lightbulb goes off over his head — “Tell CP3, come get me for the PBA Bowl!”

Lasting style has always required the right amount of attitude, you know.

Last month, Adidas severed ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic social media posts, after which it was estimated that Ye lost his billionaire status. Since then, reports about West’s conduct as the Yeezy boss have surfaced, like the time he allegedly fired an employee for playing Drake music. It looks like things got much worse than that, though.

An excerpt from a November 22 Rolling Stone story titled “Kanye West Used Porn, Bullying, ‘Mind Games’ To Control Staff” reads:

“In the month since Adidas severed ties with West amid a hail of hate speech, more than two dozen former Yeezy and Adidas staffers have described to Rolling Stone an abusive office culture that left many of them fearing for their livelihoods. Behind the scenes, this celebrity boss did more than test the boundaries of professionalism: Former Yeezy and Adidas staffers and creative collaborators claim that he played pornography to Yeezy staff in meetings; discussed porn and showed an intimate photograph of Kim Kardashian in job interviews; and showed an explicit video and photos of Kardashian as well as his own sex tapes to Yeezy team members.”

One personal also noted, “There was no accountability. Difficult moments happened, with executives in the room — VP level or higher — and nothing would be done. You’d still show up to work the next day.”

There’s a lot more to this story than what was mentioned above, so read the full Rolling Stone report here.

If Adele was “incredibly nervous” about her Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency, she certainly hasn’t showed it on stage. Her 32-date residency began last weekend at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace and by all accounts, Adele has been magnificent. The stage production has been incredibly extra — in the best way possible. There’s been no shortage of pyrotechnics and fire even collides with water in her triumphant performance of “Set Fire To The Rain.”

But it’s an unbelievable vanishing act that Adele performs at the end of the set that really has people talking. As she closes her show with “Love Is A Game,” the final track off of her her 30 album, pink confetti showers down onto her from the ceiling above the stage. After what feels like hundreds of pounds of confetti are done falling, you catch a glimpse of the stage as the music comes to an end and Adele is just… gone.

It’s quite the illusion and it looks even more dizzying when you watch it in slow motion.

What a star. This is the kind of glitz, glamour, and magic that people want to see from someone of Adele’s stature when they go see her perform in Las Vegas. She’s even added a New Year’s Eve performance and says she expects “all-out black tie vibes” for the occasion.