Pete Davidson is talented, handsome, funny, and has a famously big… bank account. But some people can’t seem to understand how he dates many beautiful famous women, including Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, and reportedly, Emily Ratajkowski.
The pair “have been talking for a couple months now,” an insider told US Weekly, adding, “Pete makes Emily laugh and he loves how intelligent she is.” We should have seen it coming: Ratajkowski explained why women find the former SNL cast member so attractive last year on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “Guys are like, ‘Wow. What’s that guy got?’ And I’m like, I mean, he seems super charming,” she said. “He’s vulnerable. He’s lovely. His fingernail polish is awesome. He looks good!” Also, he made Ted Cruz confused and angry, which is a major plus in his favor. More than the “best sex” ever.
Still not convinced? Let a body language expert explain it.
Pete Davidson’s “powerful Alpha vibe” and reputation as a rebound date who happily “measures his relationships in months instead of years” makes him “like catnip” to Hollywood A-listers, a body language expert said today. Judi James said the comedian’s luck with the ladies also stems from his therapeutic ability to laugh at himself – rare in an industry brimming with egos and “toxic ex’s.”
James continued, “Pete is the guy with the goofy grin and the body language and fashion finesse of a party-loving teenager. Not only does Pete look like a man who is continually punching above his weight, he acts like it too with his body language. He tends to look star-struck in a very flattering way. The more beautiful a woman is the more she tends to attract the arrogant Narcissist. Pete looks like the opposite.”
It also helps that, as a comedian, Davidson’s “ability to crack great one-liners might be super-attractive, especially if he’s bringing a toxic ex down to size,” James explained.
Jimmy Fallon’s day job (or perhaps more accurately, night job) is hosting The Tonight Show, but he forays into music sometimes, too. He and Dolly Parton recently shared the single “Almost Too Early For Christmas,” for example. So, once upon a time, when he was moving into a new home, he wanted to get a piano for it. However, he struck out while asking to borrow one from Elton John, then again with Billy Joel.
He told the tale on The Tonight Show: During his interview with Bruce Springsteen yesterday (November 14), Fallon asked The Boss if people ever ask him for guitars and if he obliges. The answers were yes and no, respectively. This led to Fallon’s story, which went:
“I had just moved into a new house with my wife and kids, and we don’t have a piano. So I go, ‘You know, I bet you Elton John has got a bunch of pianos sitting around storage, right?’ So I go, ‘Elton, I’m moving to this house. If you want, I can borrow it. I will always give it back, it will be your piano. But at least I’ll give it some love and get it out of the storage.’ He said no. But he goes, ‘But, you know, thanks. I don’t give out pianos.’ But then I asked Billy Joel as well… and he said no.”
It’s a great time to find a new bourbon whiskey. With the gifting and partying seasons nearly here, new releases are hitting shelves almost daily. That keeps me pretty busy, as I taste new whiskey after new whiskey these days. To that end, I’m grabbing eight new bottles of bourbon that dropped very recently and putting them to a blind taste test. Some of them have been on shelves since, gasp, September — which feels like years ago in whiskey years — while others are hitting shelves in the next days/weeks.
For the list below, I’m keeping the parameters pretty wide. There are crazy-priced new releases we’ve never seen before next to affordable and acquirable new batches of classics. Overall, I’m looking at tasty bourbons that offer something new-yet-familiar. As for the ranking, I’m going on taste alone. There are some great bourbons on this list, so the ranking was very tight, especially in the top five bottles. Still, this isn’t about whether you can find these bottles in whatever part of the country you live in or how much they cost according to individual state laws.
This is all about what tastes best in a blind taste test. Our lineup today is:
Remus Gatsby Reserve
William Larue Weller (BTAC 2022)
Widow Jane The Vaults Aged 14 Years 2022 Release
Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Batch no. 21-08
Booker’s 2022-03 “Kentucky Tea Batch”
Nashville Barrel Company Hand Selected Straight Bourbon Whiskey Batch One Cask Strength
The nose on this is classic old-school bourbon with dark dried cherry and cranberry next to caramelized pecans inside a waffle, soft leatheriness, and rich maple syrup cut with lush vanilla and subtle woody tobacco spiciness. The palate leans into brandied cherries with a hint of blueberry syrup next to leathery notes of tobacco and dark berries with a hint of woodiness that leads to huckleberries and mulled wine spices. The end has a lovely softness that leans into apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks, singed cherry bark, and pipe tobacco loaded into an old oak barrel.
This is great whiskey.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Coconut cream pie and sour cherries tossed in sea salt mingle with butterscotch candies, old leather boots, menthol tobacco, and brandied cherries dipped in dark chocolate. The palate has a creamy and luxe eggnog creaminess with plenty of nutmeg, clove, and allspice next to a white vanilla cake cut with poppy seeds and cinnamon dust. Theres’ a cedary woodiness on the end that leads to Mounds bars and old lawn furniture.
Another classic and delicious whiskey right here.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a mild sense of graininess on the nose with a hint of vanilla wafer honey sandwiches with mild winter spices — woody cinnamon, allspice, star anise — next to a hint of sweet tobacco layers of cherry and apple pie filling. The palate has a very Tennessee vibe with soft bran muffins next to vanilla wafers layered with nougat and cinnamon with a hint of root beer cut with cherry syrup. The end has a mild chocolate milk powder feel next to old oak, worn leather, and root beer-laced tobacco leaves.
This is another excellent pour.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Burnt caramel candies and lush vanilla lead the way on the nose with hints of dry straw, sour cherry pie, and spiced apple cider with a touch of eggnog lushness. The palate has a sense of spicy caramel with a vanilla base that leads to apricot jam, southern biscuits, and a flake of salt with a soft mocha creaminess. The end is all about the buzzy tobacco spiciness with a soft vanilla underbelly and a hint of cherry syrup.
This felt classic but not quite as deep as the last three.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of sour cherry and vanilla cookies on the nose with a supporting cast of dark tobacco packed into old cedar boxes with a rough and worn leatheriness tying everything together. The palate opens with a vanilla white cake frosted with cherry and chocolate — a bit like a Black Forest cake — that leads to orange oils, clove, and old pine boards with a touch of sap. The end has a fruitiness that leans towards a spicy star fruit with a fresh vibe next to light pear tobacco with a pine humidor edge.
This is another killer pour.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a soft fruitiness to the nose with a sense of blackberry jam next to marmalade with a hint of nutmeg next to Cherry coke and fresh orange zest nearby. The palate leans into the sweeter side of the orange — almost tangerine — before a hint of rye bread sneaks in with salted butter and some cinnamon sugar. The end has a warm spiciness that leans into winter cake spices and candied fruit before a sense of candied citrus peels leads to a finish of spiced tobacco and old oak staves.
This was fruitier for sure, but that balance of citrus really made it work.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a nice layer of wet brown sugar on the nose next to toffee candies, toasted wood, and a hint of dark spice. The palate is lighter but hits notes of that dark spice next to pancake syrup, apple pie, and caramel drizzle with a hint of vanilla cookies. The end has an orchard fruit vibe with a touch more of that wood and vanilla before the fruitiness kicks back in.
This was perfectly fine but just didn’t jump out at me.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a distinct chocolate malt vibe on the nose (think milkshakes not malted grains in whiskey) that leads to dark prunes and figs with a hint of nuttiness. The palate has a note of orange zest next to black licorice with vanilla cookies and almonds making appearances. The end is short and sweet with a hint of vanilla lushness, meaty raisins, and Almond Joy vibes with a heavy dark chocolate coating.
This was pretty fine too. The chocolate note was a nice change of pace.
Part 2: The Ranking
Zach Johnston
7. Savage & Cooke The Burning Chair Bourbon Whiskey — Taste 7
This whiskey is made from sourced barrels that are at least four years old. The whiskey — made from a combine mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley — comes from Tennesee, Kentucky, and Indiana before being sent out to Napa Valley to be finished in Cabernet barrels. Those barrels are vatted and proofed down with local springwater from the Alexander Valley in Northern California.
Bottom Line:
As I mentioned above, this is fine whiskey. There’s just nothing to draw your attention to it in a lineup like this though. That all said, this would make a perfectly suitable cocktail whiskey.
This Colorado whiskey is made at high altitudes. The bourbon is then re-barreled into PX sherry casks that held sherry in Spain for decades. Once the flavor profile is just right, the barrels are batched and the whiskey is proofed with that Rocky Mountain water for bottling.
Bottom Line:
Again, fine. The PX sherry cask comes through nicely albeit in a very straightforward or average way. Once again, this feels like a fine choice for mixing cocktails.
5. Nashville Barrel Company Hand Selected Straight Bourbon Whiskey Batch One Cask Strength — Taste 6
This brand-new release from the much-loved Nashville Barrel Company is Indiana whiskey that’s at least six years old. The small batches are made from a handful of barrels and bottled as-is without filtering or proofing.
Bottom Line:
This is where things get good. Each whiskey from here on down is a winner. This one had a little warmer mid-palate, which could have used a rock if sipping. Sipping whiskey aside, I really want to try this in an old fashioned next. It’s complex, fun, and full of good dark citrus notes that’ll suit that cocktail.
This special release from Maker’s Mark is their classic wheated bourbon turned up a few notches. The batch is made from no more than 19 barrels of whiskey. Once batched, that whiskey goes into the barrel at cask strength with no filtering, just pure whiskey-from-the-barrel vibes.
Bottom Line:
I really like classic Maker’s Mark already, especially for easy Manhattans. This amps that up. It’s a really solid sipper either neat or on a rock that makes a hell of a Manhattan.
3. Widow Jane The Vaults Aged 14 Years 2022 Release — Taste 3
This sourced New York whiskey is made from 14 to 19-year-old barrels of whiskey from Tennessee and Indiana. Those barrels were sent out to Brooklyn and blended and then re-barreled into Missouri Ozark casks that were air-seasoned for three years before they were coopered and charred. Finally, the whiskey was blended in a small batch and bottled as-is without filtering but was cut with limestone mineral water from the Rosendale Mines in New York.
Bottom Line:
This is really good whiskey. It does have a distinct Tennessee grain/vanilla/wafer vibe but it’s part of a bigger whole and layered so nicely with classic bourbon flavors. Overall, I can see this being a super easy and rewarding sipper neat or with a single rock.
Distilled back in the spring of 2010, this whiskey was made with a mix of Kentucky corn and wheat and barley from North Dakota with that Kentucky limestone water. The distillate was filled into new white oak from Independent Stave from Missouri with a #4 char level (55 seconds) and stored in warehouses C, K, and N on floors 2, 3, and 4 for 12 long years. During that time, 64% of the whiskey was lost to hungry angels. Those barrels were then batched and this whiskey was bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
Yup, delicious, perfectly balanced, deep, fun, and rewarding. This whiskey is pretty much perfect. I almost made a three-way tie for first place with this. But there’s just a little bit more accessibility to the next two that eeked out a win for them.
The latest Booker’s is a nod to “Kentucky Tea” which isn’t tea at all. It’s when you add a little whiskey to a glass of water and then that looks like tea. The juice in this case is a blend of bourbon barrels from seven locations across six different warehouses. The final product was bottled without any fussing at cask strength.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious. It might be my favorite Booker’s of the last two years. It’s purely classic Kentucky bourbon vibes next to a real depth and soft beauty. This is a great sipper.
From the newly minted Ross & Squibb Distillery (formerly just MGP of Indiana), this whiskey combines barrels that were filled in 2005 and 2006. Those carefully selected barrels were small batched into this fine whiskey. The final blend was bottled as-is at cask strength.
Bottom Line:
This was everything you want from a bourbon. It’s delicate yet bold. It’s classic but feels kind of fresh too. It’s an amazingly easy sipper that just works. You feel like you’re drinking a great and classic bourbon from the first nose to the last sip.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I try not to do ties on these rankings. But those top three pours were just too good. I stand by all of the top six ranked above. Each one offers something a little different and each one is a great pour.
The Booker’s is probably going to be the easiest to find amongst the top three. It’s 100% worth the price of entry. The Great Gatsby is also worth that price tag if you’re looking for a one-off special bottle to gift or show off to whiskey lovers. It’s really delicious.
If you are looking for something a lot more affordable, then the Maker’s Mark Cask Strength is the way to go. You’ll be able to find it and it’ll be a crowd-pleaser.
Madonna is one of the most beloved pop stars of her generation and of all time, but she seems to be facing a bullying problem right now, so much so that she’s taken to social media to share a message about it.
In an Instagram Story she posted on Sunday (November 13) night (as Express notes), Madonna shared a photo of her self with a text overlay that read, “Stop bullying Madonna for enjoying her life.”
While the post doesn’t address anybody specifically, it does come shortly after 50 Cent shared a screenshot of an article about Madonna titled, “Madonna Using Rap Music For Clout On TikTok Is Pathetic And Truly Disturbs My Spirit” on Instagram. 50 wrote, “I told y’all grand ma was on bullsh*t! like a virgin at 64. LOL.” In another post from this summer, 50 likened Madonna to an alien.
Madonna responded to the latter post at the time, writing, “I guess your new career Is getting attention by trying to humiliate others on social media. […] You’r just jealous you won’t look as good as me or have as much fun when you are my age!”
Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Along with The Simpsons, meat, and the media (sorry?), you can add cold weather to the list of things that Morrissey has an extreme distaste for. Nearly five years to the day after the former Smiths singer last cancelled a concert in California because it was too cold out, Morrissey cancelled his Sunday night show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles roughly 30 minutes in because it was apparently too cold out.
“As I think you know, it’s extremely cold,” Morrissey told the crowd before playing “Billy Budd.” “Can you tell? I can. However, we will steam on. Where to? God knows.” A few songs after that, the former singer of The Smiths left abruptly left the stage.
The befuddled crowd was then addressed shortly thereafter by two of Morrissey’s band members. “Sorry, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the show is not going to continue,” the man who looked to be Moz’s guitarist told the jeering crowd. “Very sorry. We’ll see you next time. Apologies.”
The set ended after Morrissey’s ninth song, The Smiths’ 1987 “Girlfriend In A Coma.” Weather reports indicate that it was around 57 degrees in Los Angeles on Saturday, so it’s a bit perplexing why the Manchester singer would succumb to a fairly mild California evening chill. Perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye, but his history and words on stage on Saturday night before leaving all point to Moz feeling a bit too chilly to carry on.
Anyone who owns a dog can attest to the amazing comfort they provide during times of stress or discomfort. Research shows that dogs have a biological effect on us that elevates our levels of oxytocin, which is known as the “love hormone.”
Unfortunately, most of the time, dogs aren’t allowed in the place where people need comfort the most: hospitals. Even though evidence suggests that that visiting with a pet while hospitalized improves a patient’s mood while reducing their anxiety.
For brevity’s sake, we’ll refer to Mellifluous_Username as “Mel.”
“My wife was in the hospital after a very invasive surgery, which after a few days, looked like it did not produce ideal results,” Mel wrote. “The prognosis was not good. She was able to speak, but was not eating or drinking, and relied completely on her IV and hard pain pills. In one rare instance of cogent speech, she convinced me to sneak our dog into her private room, so she could see her ‘one more time.'”
Mel decided he could sneak their 50-pound Austrian Shepherd into her hospital room by hiding it in a suitcase.
“I packed her in, with the lid unzipped, and placed her in the car until we arrived at the hospital,” Mel wrote. “When we arrived, I ‘explained’ to her that I would open the zipper in a few minutes and that she could see her Mommy.”
As they slipped their way through the s hospital wings, the dog was quiet as a cat burglar. When asked about the suitcase, Mel told the nurses that he was bringing “items to make my wife more comfortable.”
“When we entered the room, my wife was asleep,” Mel wrote. “I unzipped the suitcase, and the dog immediately jumped on the bed, and gingerly laid across her chest, somehow avoiding the wires and IV. She positioned herself to where she could look directly into my wife’s eyes, and laid completely still, until about twenty minutes later, when my wife woke up, and started moaning in pain.”
“The dog immediately started licking her, and quietly moaned, as if knowing that barking would definitely blow our cover,” Mel wrote.
“My wife hugged her for almost an hour, smiling the whole time,” he continued. “We were busted by one nurse who was so touched that she promised not to tell. When my wife finally went back to sleep, I loaded the dog back in the suitcase, and she somewhat sheepishly obliged.”
Mel’s wife passed away a few days later, but his dog has yet to learn the sad truth. “Now, whenever I grab the suitcase, the dog thinks we are doing to see her again,” he wrote.
Anyone who has admired a famous person has probably imagined what it would be like to meet them in person. Some people might even fantasize about randomly striking up a conversation with said celebrity and exchanging more than just fleeting autograph-signing pleasantries.
Like, what if you were out for the evening and just happened to bump into a rock star? What if you invited them to your house … and they said yes? What if you kind of got to know each other and they remembered you and told stories about you for decades?
That would never happen, right? Except it did, for a young Bruce Springsteen fan, back in the heyday of his meteoric fame in the 1980s.
Springsteen shared the surprising story on “The Graham Norton Show” when the Irish show host asked him about it.
“You do seem to go above and beyond,” Norton began before asking “The Boss” to tell a story of how he had met a fan at a cinema. Springsteen shared that he had gone by himself to a showing of a Woody Allen film in St. Louis, Missouri, on an off night between shows, when a young fan recognized him in the lobby and asked the singer if he’d like to sit with him and his girlfriend.
“So I said, ‘OK,'” said Springsteen, to which Norton responded, “See already I just think, ‘That’s a hard no.'”
After the movie, the fan asked Springsteen if he’d come home with him and meet his parents. Again, Springsteen said, “OK,” much to the surprise and delight of his fellow guests on Norton’s show.
So at 11 o’ clock at night, this kid brought Bruce Springsteen home to meet his mom, and her reaction to the stop-by was the best. Watch:
u201cIf you ever met your hero youu2019d hope theyu2019d be as cool as this!nnBRUCE SPRINGSTEEN tells GRAHAM NORTON about the time he made a fansu2019 dreams come true.u201d
“Oh my god, let me make him some eggs,” has to be the most peak Midwest mom reaction to Bruce Springsteen showing up unannounced ever.
The story may seem unbelievable, but it’s true … for the most part.
The main difference between The Boss’ retelling and the news story about it from 1988 is that the kid wasn’t with his girlfriend, but his sister. And the mom made him more than just eggs.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the random meeting happened on Oct. 16, 1980. The mom, Sophie Satanovsky, reportedly said, “Right — and I’m Raquel Welch,” when her kids first introduced Springsteen to her. And once she believed who he was, she scolded the kids and Springsteen for riding with strangers. (The son, Steve Satanovsky, passed away years ago, according to the Post-Dispatch, but he always cherished the encounter.)
Springsteen has a reputation for being the real deal. Bob Costas, who has interviewed the singer multiple times, told the Post-Dispatch, “He is always the coolest guy in the room, and there isn’t one thimble’s worth of, ‘You know I’m the coolest guy in the room.’ That authenticity is irresistible in an extremely acclaimed and accomplished person who could easily get away with another kind of behavior.”
It’s always lovely to see people who could be arrogant, aloof jerks turn out to be the genuine article. And nice to know that our dreams of randomly meeting our celebrity faves actually do have the tiniest chance of coming true.
The adoption proceedings in the courtroom may have made Jennifer Hubby 5-year-old Cameron’s legal mother. But his words at the end of the proceedings showed the true bond between mother and son.
According to USA Today, at the end of an adoption hearing in Bernalillo, New Mexico, Judge Cheryl H. Johnston asked if anyone had any final words. Cameron shocked everyone when he spoke up. “I wanted to say that I love my mom so much and that’s she the best mom I ever had,” the boy told the judge.
The boy’s heartfelt words made Jennifer emotional so Cameron put his arms around her in a loving show of support. The touching moment was caught on camera by Milly Davies, Jennifer’s best friend who can be heard welling up as she films the magic moment.
It was the perfect encapsulation of what it means for mother and son to be united through adoption.
“I’ll never forget it,” Jennifer told Good Morning America. “The judge asked if we had anything to state for the record, and that’s when we turned the camera on and I said a little something that was really not moving at all. I was just nervous and wanted to see the final decree and Cameron, I think he looked at me and he said, he whispered, ‘Can I say something?'”
It was incredibly brave of the boy to speak up in such an intimidating setting for a child.
“He said, ‘I love my mom so much.’ And then I started to cry,” Jennifer recalled. “You can see my head dip. And then he turned to me and held me … it was super emotional. And you can hear people tearing up, and you can hear the judge respond and she goes, ‘Oh, my gosh,’ and then she had her own little words of encouragement for Cameron.”
“Well, you know what. It’s important to tell people you love them and they care about you,” Judge Johnston told Cameron. “And so you’re a lucky guy. I’m glad you love them. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s a good thing.”
The moment was a long time coming for Jennifer who has been in the boy’s life as his stepmother since he was born. She adopted Cameron because she wanted to be sure that she was his legal mom in case something happened to her wife, Cameron’s biological mother, Kim Hubby.
The family had to wait for Jennifer to adopt Cameron because adoptions are time-consuming and expensive. According to Child Welfare, the average domestic adoption in America can cost between $25,000 and $45,000. As of 2020, 117,470 children are waiting to be adopted in the U.S.
It took years for the Hubbys to plan the adoption and the process took six months.
Cameron’s brave words in court and Jennifer’s emotional reaction shows the true beauty of families being brought closer through adoption. One hopes that someday, the process will become easier and more affordable so more people can experience this joy.
This summer, after 78 years apart, my grandfather, World War II veteran Jack Gutman, got to reunite with his best friend from the war, Jerry Ackerman. They saw each other for the first time since the 1940s and spent two days laughing, joking, catching up and being honored by the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California.
Finding an old friend is always an occasion to celebrate, but the story of how this reunion came to be feels like true kismet. Not only were two buddies reunited, it also brought closure to two WWII veterans during some of the tougher years of their lives, while also uniting two families, now forever changed.
Take a moment and think back to what you were doing at the age of 17.
Depending on your generation, the activities might look a bit different. Baby boomers might have been sipping a milkshake at the local diner. Gen Xers might have been angstily listening to The Smiths or the Sex Pistols. If you’re a Gen Y millennial like me, you were maybe shopping for cheap jewelry at Claire’s Accessories at the mall. Regardless of what you were up to as a teenager, you probably weren’t doing what my grandfather was doing at age 17—fighting as a Navy Corpsman during the invasion of Normandy.
My Grandpa Jack was born in 1925 and grew up in New York City. When Uncle Sam called, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy. He wanted to serve his country, but had no idea the horrors of war he would witness during the Normandy Invasion and the invasion at Okinawa.
When I was growing up, my grandfather didn’t talk about the war. For years he struggled with PTSD and all of the various coping mechanisms people experiment with to get out of pain. It almost tore his life apart, but with the love and support of our family, he made his first steps toward healing.
With the help of Dylan Bender, a talented therapist with the Veterans Association, a decade of EMDR and CBT, my grandfather can now talk about his experience during the war. He even wrote a book about it.
He’s been interviewed on television, at the WWII Museum in New Orleans and he speaks to groups of students regularly. He even got to travel to Normandy, France for the 75th anniversary of D-Day as part of a documentary. You could say his journey to heal the wounds of war was pretty complete, but there has always been one bit of closure he was never able to get.
A friend he always wondered about.
In between the invasion of Normandy and his time in Okinawa, my Grandpa Jack returned to Camp Pendleton for training and that is where he met Jerry Ackerman.
“I was assigned to Oceanside, California and that’s where I met Jack, and we became instant friends,” said Jerry. “He was the most jovial, fun-loving guy ever. Always smiling and always happy.”
The feeling was mutual. “Jerry was one of my best friends after Normandy. I knew him when I got transferred over to Oceanside to the Beach Battalion. We hit it off, I guess from both being New Yorkers maybe. One thing I didn’t like about Jerry was that he was better looking than me,” Grandpa Jack joked. “We bonded together, and it was one of the greatest times I’ve ever had.”
The camaraderie of this new friendship gave my grandpa a respite from all of the atrocities he had experienced while trying to patch up dying soldiers on the beach in France. In his friendship with Jerry and another Navyman, Joe Gagliardi (who we haven’t been able to find), Grandpa Jack found solace and humanity … the very things he wanted to fight to protect when he enlisted. Unfortunately, the war hadn’t ended yet and when Grandpa Jack was sent to Japan, he, Joe and Jerry lost touch.
“We never got a chance to say goodbye when we got to Pearl Harbor,” said Grandpa Jack. “I got transferred to another ship. So all these years I often wondered about them.”
Apparently, Jerry had been wondering about my grandfather as well because one day in early 2021, out of nowhere, a silly little song my grandpa had once taught him popped into his head. It was a happy memory that Jerry desperately needed. His wife Barbara was in the hospital in New York for a health issue, and he was very down after having visited her.
“My parents have been married for 70 years and when something happens to one of them, like my mother’s hospitalization, it really affects the other,” said Peter Ackerman, Jerry’s son. “My father and I finished visiting her and went to a restaurant. It was there, toward the end of our meal, when a song randomly popped into his head that he hadn’t sung since his Navy days during WWII. It was a song, he said, that was taught to him by his good buddy, Jack Gutman. As my father lamented out loud about having never been able to track his friend down, using my phone and good ol’ Google, I found someone matching Jack’s description and Navy background. When my father realized I was actually calling someone named Jack Gutman his eyes were as wide as pies!”
Meanwhile in California, Grandpa Jack was having a tough time himself. His life had changed drastically when the pandemic hit. He, like everyone else, was feeling isolated, and while younger generations were turning to their devices, social media and Zoom, older generations without as much tech knowledge were feeling even lonelier. At the time, Grandpa Jack had just gotten over the coronavirus and my grandma had gotten COVID-19 pneumonia and was still slowly recovering. They were quarantined at home and Grandpa Jack was experiencing some pretty tough bouts of depression.
“I was depressed and really down, sitting in my office one afternoon and I was just thinking that life was a lot of crap,” Grandpa Jack said. “I usually try to stay pretty positive, but this day was tough. In my lowest moment of depression the phone rang, and it turned out to be a guy named Peter. He said to me, ‘Are you Jack Gutman?’ and I said, ‘Yeah…’ and he said, ‘Were you stationed in Oceanside, California?’ and I said, ‘I sure was, yeah.’ And he said, ‘Did you ever know a Jerry Ackerman?’ and I said, ‘He was my best friend. I’ve got his picture up on my wall,’ and he said, ‘He’s my father and he’s sitting right here, and he’s been looking for you for about 77 years.’ And I tell you, the tears flowed. It was just the thing I needed so badly. I could not believe it.”
The timing of this call couldn’t have been better, and it was so random that it felt kind of like fate to our families.
“I will take to my grave the look of pure joy on my father’s face when he and Jack spoke for the first time. They talked for a half hour and vowed to keep in touch,” said Peter.
For Grandpa Jack, it was an emotional and life-affirming call that helped give his days some renewed vigor. “Hearing his voice and realizing that there’s a man that for 77 years has been wondering about me, it touched my heart,” said Grandpa Jack.
When the call ended, Peter tells me that his father was beyond grateful to have reconnected with Jack. “He was almost in shock, and happier than I had seen him in a very long time,” he said. “Sitting there in that restaurant, listening to my father talking, laughing and reminiscing with Jack, I felt so happy for both of them, and a deep sense of satisfaction in having helped sew that stitch. It was as if a circle was completed. It was a highlight of my life, and I believe one of the great highlights of my father’s life as well.”
These two men could have connected at any point during the last 70-plus years but for some reason it didn’t happen until a moment when they both needed to hear from each other. Some might call it coincidence, some might call it fate, but it changed both men’s lives.
“My dad’s life had changed so much because of the pandemic,” said my mom, Paula Shaw. “He couldn’t be out with his friends and doing his speaking engagements. So when Jerry’s call came through, dad’s whole life picked up again and turned around. It gave him hope and it gave him a sense that he mattered because this man, 77 years later, remembered him and sought him out. So it was a real turning point for dad.”
You’d think that just having that phone call would have been a highlight of these two men’s twilight years, but there was more coming.
A reunion with military honors.
Jack and Jerry kept in touch over the phone for the next year, but they were still yet to see each other face to face. My mom Paula had gotten to befriend Peter and together they were able to plan a time for Grandpa Jack and Jerry to meet, with a few family members in tow.
It turned out the Ackermans were planning to be in San Diego for a wedding in June of this year and with my own family based in Southern California it would be the perfect time for a reunion.
But before that, they had a face-to-face chat with my mom when she interviewed them for her podcast, Change it Up Radio. I asked my mom what it was like to facilitate the first face-to-face interaction between Jack and Jerry on her podcast over Zoom, and she described it as life-changing.
“When I got the idea to have them see each other for the first time on the Zoom screen I had no idea how really wonderful and moving and almost life-changing it was going to be. When they laid eyes on each other for the first time, dad started to cry, and Jerry just got the sweetest, softest expression on his face. He was so touched that dad was so happy to be able to see him.”
With their podcast interview in the can and a first face-to-face reunion over Zoom a success, it was time to get together in person in San Diego.
World War II veterans are harder and harder to connect with these days. According to Forbes, we lose approximately 234 of them each day. Having two best friends from the war still alive, healthy and with all their mental faculties intact is rare, so time was of the essence to get these two together for some quality time.
Unbeknown to Jerry and Grandpa Jack, my mom had arranged a visit to Camp Pendleton for them as well as for CBS News to come capture their reunion. Our family captured some of our own amateur footage, which is hard to watch without crying.
So what was it like to witness the reunion in person? “It was just lovely to see,” said Mary Jo Gutman, my grandma. “To think about the time that had passed and now they were able to see each other and touch each other, it was just a beautiful moment. Everybody that was there was having the same experience. Some people teared up and some were just in a state of shock, but a happy state. We were all just happy for them both.”
My uncle, Craig Gutman, traveled with Grandpa Jack back to Normandy in 2019 and was with him when he visited the beaches and military cemetery there. He says while that was tough, this moment of closure was nothing but joyful. “It was just so nice for them to see each other again and to be back with each other,” he said. “Even after just a few minutes they were the same 19-year-old guys, BS-ing with each other and telling jokes. To just see the joy in both of them, being able to find an old friend after so many years that they probably figured was either dead or gone and would never be seen again. It was just great.”
My aunt Marilyn Gutman describes their reunion as a full-circle moment. “When they met, it was like they had always been together, starting in on the jokes, the laughter, the camaraderie that had brought them together initially. I felt their lives had just come full circle. I felt a completeness for them, a closure of the wounds of war.”
Over the course of the next couple of days, the families got to spend time together and although I wasn’t able to be there myself, everyone who was there described loving each other instantly just like Jack and Jerry had upon meeting.
“It was like we had always been family,” my mom Paula said. “I get a little teary just thinking about it. It was like we’d known each other for years. We laughed, we had meals together, we chatted up a storm. It was crazy. It was like whatever that energy was that brought dad and Jerry together had been passed onto the families. All the family members felt that same connection.”
For my Grandpa Jack, getting to reunite with his best friend from the war was the last bit of closure he has needed during his healing journey with PTSD. It has reminded him that love is the most important thing we can give to others and that we never know how we touch someone’s life just by being their friend.
“Jack struck me as the happiest guy in the whole world,” Jerry said. “I never ever knew what he went through in Normandy. I’m very delighted to know that at least I was a part of helping Jack rehabilitate himself. I’m very happy about that. Our reunion is something I will never forget.”
Grandpa Jack told me that he spent so long working to get over post-traumatic stress but not knowing what happened to Jerry was like a wound still left open. Finding out what had happened to him gave him closure, but being able to see each other and connect was a moment he’ll never forget. “It really fulfilled a closure for me. It was just amazing.”
“I feel like for both of them there was this unfinished chapter,” said my mom, Paula. “There was so much love between these two men and the war didn’t kill it.”
Perhaps Virgil said it best when he said, “Amor vincit omnia.” Love conquers all.
The rapper posted an Instagram story of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where he and 21 recently broke Taylor Swift’s record-breaking reign of having every song in the top 10 spots. However, as the Her Loss tracks infiltrated, Swift has still maintained her No. 1 with “Anti-Hero.” So Drake posted a picture of the chart to his Instagram story and handled the situation by pettily covering Swift with emojis, thus provoking the Swifties.
Drake covers up Taylor Swift’s #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with emojis in his latest Instagram story. pic.twitter.com/M3wAECSMyu
All hell has broken loose. Obviously. One viral tweet reads: “Drake messing with the one person who has NEVER lost a fight is sending me like Taylor is not the one she will get you in silence. #taylorswift.”
Drake messing with the one person who has NEVER lost a fight is sending me like Taylor is not the one she will get you in silence. #taylorswifthttps://t.co/dqBlbRzU5L
Another wrote: “this is so funny lmao drake didn’t say anything when his fans were bullying megan thee stallion this entire week but I knew karma was gonna come for him I’m happy people can see how much of a LOSER this man is and that taylor was the one humiliating that ego.”
this is so funny lmao drake didn’t say anything when his fans were bullying megan thee stallion this entire week but I knew karma was gonna come for him I’m happy people can see how much of a LOSER this man is and that taylor was the one humiliating that ego https://t.co/a2Vvyh0M51
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