Do you ever step back and marvel at the miraculous things human beings have figured out how to do?
Less than 200 years ago, no human being had ever played a saxophone, there was no such thing as anesthesia and if you had even a simple brain tumor, you were just out of luck.
Now, a team of doctors in Italy has successfully performed a highly complex, nine-hour brain surgery on a man while he was awake and while he played the saxophone. Not only that, but the patient reported feeling “tranquility” during the surgery and only spent a few days in the hospital after the surgery before being discharged.
According to CBS News, a 35-year-old male patient had a brain tumor removed at Paideia International Hospital in Rome, Italy, on October 10. The surgery was led by Dr. Christian Brogna, a neurosurgeon who specializes in complex cancer surgeries and “awake surgery,” in which patients are not put under general anesthesia. According to the Mayo Clinic, certain brain surgeries actually require a patient to be awake and responsive during the procedure to lessen the risk of the surgery damaging areas of the brain that could affect vision, movement or speech.
Dr. Brogna told CBS News that this particular surgery was located in “a very, very complex area of the brain” and also pointed out that the patient is left-handed. “This makes things more complicated because the neural pathways of the brain are much more complicated,” he said. Recent research shows that left-handed people differ in brain asymmetry from right-handed people and that the right and left hemispheres of the brain tend to be more connected in people who are left-handed.
The team of 10 who successfully completed the surgery was made up of neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists, neuropsychologists, neurophysiologists and engineers from around the world. Though other awake craniotomies that included a patient playing a musical instrument have been done before, the level of complexity and cutting-edge technologies used in this surgery made it a notable accomplishment.
Why the saxophone? The man had told the surgeons that retaining his musical abilities was of the utmost importance to him.
“Awake surgery makes it possible to map with extreme precision during surgery the neuronal networks that underlie the various brain functions such as playing, speaking, moving, remembering, counting,” Brogna said in the hospital’s news release. Playing music during the surgery gave the surgeons a visual of where those functions were in the patient’s brain and helped them ensure they were keeping them intact.
Several times during the surgery, the patient played the theme song from “Love Story” by Francis Lai and the Italian national anthem on his saxophone. (You can watch him playing in the video below shared by Voice of America.)
“To play an instrument means that you can understand music, which is a high cognitive function,” Brogna told CBS News. “It means you can interact with the instrument, you can coordinate both hands, you can exercise memory, you can count — because music is mathematics — you can test vision because the patient has to see the instrument, and you can test the way the patient interacts with the rest of the team,” he said.
Such surgeries require intense preplanning and familiarity with the patient’s normal functioning, and the team met with the patient six or seven times in the 10 days leading up to the surgery.
“When we operate on the brain, we are operating on the sense of self, so we need to make sure that we do not damage the patient as a person — their personality, the way they feel emotions, the way they get through life,” Brogna told CBS News. “The patient will tell you what is important in his life and it is your job to protect his wishes.”
As amazing as surgery like this is, Brogna reminds us that there’s still so much we don’t know about the way the brain works. Prodecures like this one help doctors learn in addition to helping patients.
“Each operation in awake surgery not only allows to obtain the maximum result in terms of removal of the pathology, but it is a real discovery,” Brogna said in the hospital’s news release. “Each time it offers us a window into the functioning of this fascinating, but still in many ways mysterious organ, which is the brain.”
Mental health is a very complex issue and it would be naive to say there are quick and easy solutions to significant issues. However, there are many things in our lives we often overlook that may be bringing us down that can be substituted for simple habits that can help bring us back up.
The National Institute of Mental Health says that maintaining our mental health requires routine maintenance known as “self-care.”
“Mental health is more than the absence of a mental illness—it’s essential to your overall health and quality of life,” the Institute says on its website. “Self-care can play a role in maintaining your mental health and help support your treatment and recovery if you have a mental illness.”
This perspective on mental health suggests it’s just as important to focus on our mental well-being as we do on our physical. The NIMH says that cultivating an attitude of gratitude, regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating healthy and staying hydrated can all have a positive impact on our mental health.
A Reddit user by the unfortunate name pissed_at_everything reached out to the online forum asking people to share the small changes they’ve made that had a big impact on their mental health. The post received nearly 5,000 pieces of advice.
“What is something that drastically improved your mental health?” they posted on the AskReddit subforum. A lot of people said that eliminating toxic things from their lives had a big impact, whether it was social media, people or negative self-talk. There are bound to be a few suggestions on the list that can help you, too.
Here are 19 of the responses we thought were most helpful.
1.
“Sleep.” — ortolon
2.
“Silencing my activity on social media, and replacing my time spent on there by reading books instead. I’ve finished 6 books since the start of January. I feel so good about myself because of it.” — chick3nslut
3.
“Knowing it’s okay to leave some people behind.” — Black_Guardian-
4.
“Being honest and transparent about how I’m feeling. ‘I’m not mad at you, my brain just hates me right now,’ has helped mitigate lots of fights and awkward conversations.” — Nillabeans
Ansteve1 added:
“Being honest with myself and those closest really helped. Even on bad days I don’t feel like I am hopeless.”
5.
“Something small that has helped me is saying aloud ‘What a beautiful day, today is.’ It’s small but I have better outlook.” — turtlepawa123
6.
“Exercise.” — iamnobody1970
Counterboudd added:
“It sucks at how well it works. I used to hate my mom telling me that exercise would reduce my depression but she was absolutely right. The issue is that when you’re really depressed it’s the last thing you feel like doing. But nothing else has as much of a positive effect on my mental state as regular exercise.”
7.
“Taking vitamin D and B supplements and getting enough sleep. Really helped reduce excessive thinking and fixating on negative things from my past.” — AnDagdadubh
Tracknumberseven added:
“One exercise I sort of figured out myself is: Whenever I find myself regretting things or remembering embarrassing moments is to tell myself to ‘look forward, not backwards’ and I’ll start thinking about things I’m looking forward to or things I’m grateful for.
“If I can’t think of any of these things then I’ll think of things I don’t have to worry about, like having a paycheck. Failing any of that I go smaller and think about positive times, making someone laugh or helping someone out and usually by that time I’ve forgotten about whatever I was thinking about in the first place.”
8.
“Deleting my Facebook account.” — theStormweaver
MichaelM_yaa added:
“Yeah, so it turns out that the algorithms that keep users addicted to social media are WAY more powerful than the AI bots that can beat the best chess players in the world. People tend to engage media that makes someone enraged or negative. it further polarizes humans. it also is a massive disinformation sink as a majority of its users do not fact check any info they see.”
9.
“Moving to a place that wasn’t winter 8 months of the year and I was close to the ocean. Haven’t felt suicidal in over a year and a half, probably for the first time since i was 16.” — wyrd_werks
10.
“Getting a job that paid a living wage improved my mental health 1000%.” — rigel899
11.
“Enforcing boundaries in work.” — SmartPromegranate4833
12.
“Saying no to things that I don’t actually want to do instead of trying to help everyone out.” — LoanOptionsai
13.
“Stopping hormonal birth control. Didn’t realize how much it was messing with me.” — impossibility_day27
14.
“Eating breakfast.
“I’d often describe to my boss and coworkers that I’d have a really bad brain fog that I sometimes couldn’t think at all. I usually wouldn’t eat until around 1pm or 2pm when I’d been up since 9am. I had to start getting up around 8am or sometimes 7am and I would have extra time to get food.
“Once I did, the brain fog went away and the change was immediate.” — Christygl7
15.
“Quit having grudges with people. Let them go and you’ll be relaxed.” — Weak_Carpenter_7060
16.
“Adult hobbies. Surfing. Fishing. Running. Mine are solo activities, but you just need something challenging that you have to work at to get better. It gives you little things to look forward to so you’re not focused on all the depressing bs.” — musashi-swanson
17.
“Cutting back on negative self-talk. It’s difficult to stop doing and to catch myself thinking poorly about myself but I try my best. I’ve started replacing it with kind things in a sarcastic tone, for example I often call myself a ‘national treasure’ or ‘god’s favorite’ (i am not religious, it just makes me smile) and the sarcasm scratches the itch, it works very very well. My goal is then to replace the sarcastically nice self-talk with genuinely kind and positive self-talk.
“It’s helped tremendously with my self image honestly.” — bunnihun
18.
“I take ten minutes a day (usually before bed) to tidy things up. I’m always surprised at how much I can get done in just ten minutes, and it’s so much easier to keep the place clean that way. When things start getting really bad, the fact that I’ve always got a clean place is incredibly helpful.” — future-unperson
19.
“Stopped paying close attention to the news. I realized I wasn’t going to be making a big change in the world and all it was doing was getting me upset so I stopped. The world is just as messed up and/or ok as it was then and I’m much less stressed about it all.” — rhett342
Most 11-year-old boys are goofing off with their friends, staying up way too late yelling into gaming headsets or harassing their younger siblings, but not Jayden Hooker of North Carolina. Jayden has been spending his spare time finding a way to raise money to help end period poverty in his school district after an eye-opening experience with one of his classmates. The sixth grader explained that he realized there was a lack of access to free products when one of his friends started her period at school and had to go home.
You may be wondering why a sixth grade boy is so concerned with periods but to Jayden, this is just a natural part of life that shouldn’t be taboo. When Upworthy talked to Jayden and his mom, Deanna Hooker, she explained the importance of making sure her son knew about periods. Hooker said, “The nature of what I do day in and day out working with Aunt Flow, our true mission is making period products free for those that need it, so the conversation came from how I am and what I do for a living.”
Someone’s mom doesn’t have to work for a company fighting period poverty for boys to know about periods and period products. Because it’s a biological fact, just like needing to use the bathroom after drinking a bottle of water, it could be beneficial if all boys learned about a bodily function that affects half of their classmates. Period poverty among students has jumped to nearly a quarter of all students being unable to afford period products; 84% of students have missed class or know someone who has missed class due to lack of access to period products. This is a problem that could use attention, and maybe seeing a boy promoting these products will help stop the stigma around these conversations.
It’s not just Jayden and his mom. Many parents in the school district and PTO members have helped donate items to Jayden’s ultimate goal of free period product dispensers in the bathrooms at his school. Hooker told Upworthy, “He attends a Title 1 middle school and this is something that has never been provided. But so many parents and PTO members have donated and now we have enough product for the year and can provide 2-3 dispensers in the school.”
The project has been difficult to get off the ground as they’re still in the process of trying to convince the school board to allow the dispensers to be installed, but that isn’t deterring Jayden. The determined 11-year-old is aware that the nurse has some products students could use but many don’t due to embarrassment or being unaware they’re there. For Jayden, it’s more than just going to the nurse. He explained, “The nurse should be helping people who are sick and she shouldn’t have to help people who are just needing pads and tampons.”
The kid has a point. When people think of the school nurse, they tend to think of not feeling well, which is what the nurse is there for, but getting your period isn’t an illness. If these dispensers are available, a student wouldn’t have to alert a teacher to get permission to go to the nurse to then tell the nurse they need a pad or tampon. That’s a lot of personal information to divulge for children that are navigating middle school.
Jayden is passionate about getting these dispensers installed for not only the girls at school but for his younger sister. He said, “I want the awkwardness of the topic to go away and for people to have the proper education so when people do need it, it’s there for them.” He continued, “Toilet paper is free so pads and tampons should be too.”
There’s a lot to process about the story alleging crappy dining behavior from James Corden. To some, the outgoing late night host is a mensch who likes singing in cars. To Keith McNally, the legendary New York City restauranteur of the SoHo mainstay Balthazar, he’s a “tiny Cretin of a man” who has been banned from his joints. What did he do? According to a manager’s reports, he was, to put it lightly, pretty rude, prone to childish outbursts over minor dining issues.
As the Internet is wont to do, though, some zeroed in on a specific aspect of the story. According to the second of two unflattering reports, Corden’s wife one day ordered “an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad.” Corden was livid when his wife discovered a “little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk.” When the waiter returned with the fixed dish, they accidentally brought home fries instead of a salad. That’s when Corden got really mad, over home fries.
But let’s back up here: She ordered an “egg yolk omelette”? An omelette comprised entirely of gooey yolk? Without the soft egg whites that hold it together and give it fluff? Is that even possible? Is an omelette without any egg whites even an omelette? Perhaps it requires another name, or maybe just call it “hollandaise.”
There’s a lot to get angry about in these claims. Yelling at servers and waitstaff, especially at one of the most demanding restaurants in a restaurant town, is not cool. That being noted, some made sure to dwell on the “yolk omelette” aspect, which left many confused.
for every egg white omelette there must be a corresponding egg yolk omelette
James Corden’s wife ordering an egg yolk omelette with gruyere is the kind of Hollywood decadence we all suspect is happening but rarely see exposed like this https://t.co/OYC5AIzjFm
To some, though, it was a reminder to not be rude to those working in bustling restaurants.
1) Don’t be a dick to your servers 2) This seems to track with what others have said about Corden 3) Didn’t we cancel McNally after his defense of Allen/Maxwell 4) Who tf orders an all-egg yolk omelette?! https://t.co/8ZRK3jFhnZ
And others were reminded of other alleged Corden blunders.
I don’t know if this Popbitch story about James Corden is true, but the fact that it *could* be tells you everything about him. pic.twitter.com/Kne7ySjskm
Sometimes, a couple can gel together so well it seems almost like they were made for each other. Apparently, for Elon Musk, though, he was actually convinced his former flame Grimes — with whom he shares two children, X Æ A-12 Musk and Exa Dark Sideræl Musk — really was a simulation he’d created in his mind, according to author Devin Gordon in a new docuseries about the Tesla CEO for the BBC. In The Elon Musk Show via Cosmopolitan, Gordon tells interviewers that Grimes agreed with his oddball theory, which stemmed from their similar interests and sense of humor.
“She [Grimes] told me repeatedly that Musk has this theory of her that she’s not real,” he said. That she’s a simulation who was created by him and exists in his cerebral cortex as sort of the perfect companion to him. Which sounds a little crazy and maybe even a little creepy, except, she agrees with it. She said she does feel like this simulation which was perfectly created for him… Her interests are all the same as his and her music is very technologically oriented.”
Special barrel finishes on whiskey are nothing new. The number of them you can find is pretty new, however, with new expressions popping up all the time. The barrel finish on a whiskey spans every single style of the brown juice these days, from bourbon to Irish whiskey to American whiskey and beyond. That means it’s time to take a look at some special barrel-finished whiskeys in a blind taste test to find some worth drinking.
For this blind taste test, I’m not sticking to a single genre of whiskey. Barrel finishing a whiskey is about more than just bourbon or scotch. It’s about adding that little something extra to the flavor profile — an “x-factor,” if you will. So to that end, I grabbed bottles from Ireland, Canada, Kentucky, Colorado, and Indiana that span American blended whiskeys, blended Irish tipple, American single malts, rye whiskeys, and sour mash whiskeys. It’s an eclectic mix with a barrel-finished throughline.
The nose opens with a tinge of orange oils and salted dark chocolate with floral honey, soft vanilla, and toffee brittle with a hint of pitchy firewood and apple-cinnamon toast. The palate has a smoked cherry vibe next to oranges stuffed with clove and allspice. There’s a soft eggnog creaminess and nutmeg sense on the mid-palate that leads to vanilla and cherry tobacco, warm winter spices, and more of that firewood pitch.
This is pretty damn nice overall.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
A bit of buttermilk biscuit is overwhelmed by ester-y fruit and diacetyl butterscotch on the nose. The palate has a bit of dried apple and vanilla pudding with more of those ester-y fruit notes and a hint of steeliness. The finish is short and sweet with a tinniness and fake fruit candy vibe next to minor notes of toffee and spice.
This is a big ol’ nope from me.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a deep sense of blackberry jam over a Southern biscuit with plenty of brown butter, vanilla sauce, and apple fruit leather with a dash of cinnamon, allspice, and star anise next to a whisper of cherry cream soda and orange-chocolate tobacco packed into a cedar box. The palate is soft and supple with a brandy butter vibe next to mince meat pie with powdered sugar icing, meaty dates, black tea, and rich Black Forest cake. The end subtly meanders through shaved dark chocolate and stewed cherry, eventually landing on a vanilla-laced tobacco leaf rolled up with apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks and old wicker canes.
This is a wonderful pour of whiskey.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a hint of caramel malt next to apricot jam, old lawn furniture, grilled pineapple skins, Nutella, and some orange blossoms with a whisper of rye crust with caraway leading to a dry sense of hazelnut shells and wild sage. The palate opens with rich honey next to orange oils, dusty prunes, mango skins, and maybe a hint of cumin and dried red chili. The end mixes a touch of lemon oils with black peppercorns as the honey and mango cream toward a sweet and tropical fruit end that’s countered by rich notes of nutmeg and pineapple tobacco.
This was a heavy-duty pour but ultimately delicious.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a fleeting sense of dark chocolate malts next to black cherries tossed in smoked salt, walnut cake with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg, and tart red berries swimming in a cream cut with vanilla pods. The palate dried out those cherries and adds in some meaty prunes, dates, and figs next to old cellar beams with an echo of prosciutto fat somewhere deep in that body of the palate. The end leans into woody mulled wine spices and rich creamed honey with a touch of buttery milk chocolate with a nutty edge and slight tobacco burn.
This is another stellar pour of whiskey.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens like a fruit orchard with a butterscotch underbelly next to singed marshmallow and cherry stems. The palate is sweet thanks to that butterscotch with spiced apple cider notes and a hint of stewed cherry with cloves and maybe a little banana bread lurking in the background. The end is light and sweet with apple candy next to vanilla extract and more of that butterscotch.
This was fine.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Interesting. The nose opens with a sense of fresh squash with a good dose of winter spices, light caramel, and wet malts rounding things out. The taste has a moment more of that fresh squash before hitting a note that’s — I swear — corn-encrusted fried catfish served on a banana leaf plate with cranberry sauce and a light sense of pumpkin ale and toasted coconut. The end lingers through the fall-inspired spices and ales vibes with a sweet squash cut with brown sugar and honey folds into a light tobacco leaf vibe.
This is just fascinating.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a sense of Swedish Fish next to orange marmalade on scones with a touch of rum-raisin, walnuts, and winter spices rolled into soft tobacco. The palate layers pine-y honey with salted caramel, oatmeal cookies with walnuts, raisins, and plenty of cinnamon and vanilla next to a hint of Cherry Coke. The end fades through woody cinnamon sticks and old star anise as apple-cinnamon tobacco folds in with dry sweetgrass and old cedar bark.
This was really nice. Not the best pour of the set, but up there.
Part 2: The Ranking
Zach Johnston
8. Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Finished in Imperial Porter Barrels — Taste 2
This new whiskey from Coors is all about that Colorado Rocky Mountain water in the proofing. The whiskey is a blend of a four-year wheated bourbon from Indiana with four-year four-grain bourbon from Kentucky, a four-year single malt from Colorado, and a seven-year rye from Indiana. Those barrels are batched and then the whiskey is re-barreled in Imperial porter barrels for a final rest before batching, proofing with that aforementioned Rocky Mountain water, and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This just did not land today. It was tinny and had a fake fruit vibe that I couldn’t get behind. This is a hard skip for me.
This bourbon (from Kentucky) is heavily wheated only 51 percent corn and 45 percent wheat, plus a mere four perfect malted barley in the mix. The whiskey is aged for a few years before it’s batched, proofed, and bottled. Finally, a honey-soaked oak spire/stave is added to the bottle for a final touch of flavoring before you open it.
Bottom Line:
This was fine. It was a solid wheaty bourbon with a touch of honey. Nothing really stood out though.
6. Broken Barrel Luciferous American Single Malt Whiskey — Taste 7
This whiskey is made from 100 percent Indiana single malt whiskey. Those barrels are then re-barreled into Amaro and French oak casks for final maturation. The final blend is a mix of 80 percent Amaro barrels and 20 percent French oak before and bottling at cask strength.
Bottom Line:
This was fascinating. It was so different and … worked. I really like the pumpkin ale vibes, especially this time of year. There’s something here worth going back for and exploring more of that flavor profile.
5. Guero Rye Whiskey Aged 6 Years Finished in Cognac Barrels — Taste 8
Savage and Cooke
ABV: 50%
Average Price:
The Whiskey:
This Tennessee whiskey is sent out to Savage & Cooke in Northern Cali for a final rest. The juice is a 51 percent rye that’s cut with 45 percent corn and four percent malted barley in the mash. After several years of resting, the whiskey is re-barreled into Fine Champagne cognac casks for a final rest. Once ready, the barrels are batched and the whiskey is proofed down with local spring water from the Alexander Valley.
Bottom Line:
This was really good. I can see using this for solid cocktails or as an on the rocks pour. The only reason it’s a little lower is that it didn’t jump out at me beyond “hey, this is good stuff!”
This release takes Michter’s signature Kentucky Sour Mash and finishes it in toasted barrels. In this case, it’s an 18-month air-dried and lightly toasted barrel that carries the whiskey to the finish line before proofing and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This did pop. There’s a real sense of a toasted barrel finish that’s distinct and adds something to the overall vibe of the whiskey. This also feels like the first whiskey on the list that works great as a sipper neat or with a little water to plumb those flavor depths a little more thoroughly.
3. Barrell Gold Label Seagrass Rye Whiskey Finished in Martinique Rum, Madeira, and Apricot Brandy Barrels — Taste 4
This very limited and high-end version of Barrell’s Seagrass rye is made from two sets of 100 percent rye whisky from Canada. The first set was finished in apricot brandy casks before heading to Barrell’s blending house in Kentucky. The second set was finished in Martinique rhum barrels before transport to KY. Finally, a little bit of each set was then re-barreled and into Malmsey Madeira barrels for a final rest. All of those barrels were then slowly blended into this whiskey and bottled completely as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was marvelous. It was lush and bold. It’s straight-up great from top to bottom. Why is it third then? It was a lot. I can see this being a little off-putting if you’re not ready to be pulled on a wild ride. I dug it, but I’m looking to push the boundaries.
2. Teeling Whiskey Single Malt Aged 32 Years Purple Muscat — Taste 5
This whiskey was distilled all the way back in 1990. 28 years later the whiskey was re-barreled into one cask from Portugal, a Purple Muscat French oak cask, and left alone for another four years (a very long time for a finishing barrel). Finally, 2022 was the year and the cask was drained and 238 bottles of this elixir were sent out into the world as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was delightful. It was subtle but carried clear and distinct notes that sang on the senses. You felt transported while drinking this. It was beautiful neat but really blossomed with a drop of water or two.
1. Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels Cask Strength — Taste 3
This modern classic is a yearly limited release from the beloved Lousiville distiller. The juice is made from a mix of locally sourced barrels that are finished in Ruby Port casks. The best of the best are hand-selected by Angel’s Envy’s team for as-is batching and bottling with only 14,000 odd bottles making out this year.
Bottom Line:
This is goddamn perfect. I wrote “excellent” in my notes. This is the bottle to grab when it drops in your local area this season.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
There are some really solid whiskeys in this lineup. Look, you can skip number eight completely. There are some solid Five Trail releases and their cask finish isn’t one of them (at least not yet anyway).
Numbers seven through four are all very solid whiskeys. I recommend trying them all. That Guero release is probably going to be the most familiar if you’re into classic rye/bourbon notes. The Michter’s Sour Mash will be more on the dry end but still delivers classic Kentucky whiskey vibes with plenty of cherries sweetness, dry woodiness, and depth.
Overall, it’s the top three that popped the most. And it wasn’t even close. That Barrell Gold Label Seagrass, Teeling, and Angel’s Envy were amazing. They all could have been tied for first place really. The Angel’s Envy won out simply due to it being the most refined and engaging overall. It felt as great as it tasted.
House of the Dragon’s penultimate episode dropped more than a few jaw-dropping reveals ahead of the season one finale. Not only was Aegon crowned king, but a hunt through the city turned up quite a bit of dirt on the reluctant ruler and his family — and gained the Hightowers some powerful enemies in the process.
Before news of King Viserys’ death could spread, both Otto Hightower and Queen Alicent sent men into the city to find the wayward prince. While Otto dispatched twin Kings Guard soldiers Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk, Alicent sent Ser Criston Cole and her son Aemond to retrieve Aegon so that they could set their plan to usurp the throne into motion. The brothers stumbled upon the first lead when they found one of Aegon’s bastards in a child fighting pit in Flea Bottom and were approached by an agent of The White Worm — a major player in the game for the Iron Throne who has only been whispered about until know.
Who Is The White Worm?
In the early days of House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen had a paramour named Mysaria. A former slave from Lys, Mysaria came to Kings Landing and became a trusted confidante of the Rogue Prince. He brought her to Dragonstone and announced his intentions to make her his second wife, but their relationship broke down when she discovered Daemon was simply using her to cause trouble with his brother. When Mysaria popped up again in episode four, she took care of a drunken Daemon, revealing she had amassed power in Flea Bottom and crafted her own network of spies, the original “little birds.” She was working with Otto Hightower at the time and one of her “children” was responsible for passing along rumors of what happened in the brothel between Daemon and his niece, Rhaenyra.
Fast forward to episode nine’s “The Green Council,” and Mysaria is still controlling the flow of information in Kings Landing, but she’s doing it under the ominous moniker, “The White Worm.” After one of her spies tells the Kings Guard soldiers that The White Worm knows where to find Aegon, Mysaria sets her terms. She’ll help Otto, but he’ll have to come to her — a display of dominance that proves she’s not one to be messed with. The twins initially find Aegon with Mysaria’s help but are challenged by Aemond and Ser Criston Cole and eventually abandon the young prince.
Later, once Aegon has been crowned, Alicent is surprised by Lord Larys Strong in her chambers, and the two trade information. (Well, Larys trades information, Alicent trades feet pics.) Larys reveals that a network of spies has infiltrated the castle and that, rather than eliminating them, Otto has been using them to his benefit. Since Alicent has spent the entire episode going against her father’s wishes, she sees these “birds” as a threat and agrees to Larys’ plan that likens the spies to bees and Mysaria to their queen. In order to rid the Red Keep of the nest, they must kill the queen. At the end of the episode, The White Worm’s headquarters has been set ablaze, presumably by someone who works for Larys.
So, is The White Worm really dead?
Our guess is probably not. Mysaria has a significant role to play as an ally of Team Black in George R.R. Martin’s book and though HoTD has made some significant changes to its source material so far, we can’t see the showrunner wasting a character as interesting and duplicitous as what is essentially the blueprint to GoT’s Lord Varys, a.k.a. The Spider.
The Los Angeles Lakers spent the offseason reworking their roster around LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook, trying to get more defensive players, more youth, and more shooting depth around their trio of stars.
With the lack of cap space and having to operate with veteran minimums, they did have to fill out the roster with some older players, including an old friend in Dennis Schröder as a late addition to the roster. However, Schröder dealt with visa issues on his way back to the U.S. after EuroBasket and missed much of camp and, once he did arrive, quickly suffered a thumb injury that has now required surgery, with Darvin Ham announcing he’ll miss three to four weeks to start the season.
Dennis Schroder underwent a procedure to repair a ligament in his thumb today, according to Lakers coach Darvin Ham. He is expected to be sidelined 3-4 weeks, per Ham.
That is obviously a blow for a team a bit thin at point guard, which will now rely even more heavily on Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, and Patrick Beverley — and surely some time with LeBron on the ball as the primary initiator as well. The first test for the Lakers will come Tuesday night as they travel north to San Francisco to face the Warriors on ring night, and they’ll do so without their full accompaniment of point guards as Schröder recovers.
Lil Uzi Vert appears to be moving in a new direction with his latest single, “Just Wanna Rock.” Employing a Jersey club beat with a stinging synth, the song has already become a TikTok favorite due to a snippet that has soundtracked hundreds of videos since mid-September. Uzi surprised fans with an official release today. While it’s not their first attempt to step outside the cloud rap bubble that has followed them since their early days (check out “Futsal Shuffle“), it could be an indication of what fans can expect whenever they decide to release The Pink Tape.
Uzi’s been relatively quiet this year while finishing the promised album, although they did offer a brief reprieve from the wait with the Red & White EP this summer. The project featured singles “I Know” and “Hittin My Shoulder” while Uzi made sporadic guest appearances on albums from Nav, Nigo, and Pusha T throughout the year. They also made headlines with the announcement that they are non-binary, going by the pronouns they/them. Uzi’s girlfriend JT defended Uzi on Twitter after some fans criticized their coming out.
Listen to “Just Wanna Rock” above.
Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
As Kanye West delves deeper and deeper into the world of MAGA, his idol Donald Trump is moving in the opposite direction. The former president has been reportedly keeping his distance after West’s recent spate of antisemitic social media posts. Despite boasting about how the two are friends, even Trump has the wherewithal to realize the situation is going south. He’s reportedly told “multiple people” that West is acting “crazy” and needs “help.”
The former president’s comments came before West’s antisemitism hit a new level in an interview released this weekend. On the show Drink Champs, West ranted about “the Jewish people” while he’s impervious to charges of anti-Semitism because he’s also a Jew “as the blood of Christ.” He then said the Jewish people control all facets of media and entertainment and said they have “owned the Black voice” — a trope frequently espoused by neo-Nazis.
Trump has also privately signaled that it’s best if he keeps his mouth shut about West for now.
Trump turning his back on West is an interesting development in light of recent news that the rapper has cozied up to MAGA personality Candace Owens and will reportedly purchase the right-wing social media platform Parler from her husband.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said in a press release while unknowingly aware that his own opinions have become too controversial for Trump, the de facto thought leader of the conservative world. Womp womp.
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