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Aaron Judge has 60 home runs this season, needing one more to tie Roger Maris for the American League home run record. It’s a big deal and the most exciting thing Major League Baseball has had in terms of a record chase in years.

However, if there is a group of fans that will not care all that much about a member of the New York Yankees trying to tie an American League record (and reach a tie for 7th on the all-time list), it’s college football fans in the South. So, as Auburn and Missouri played a tight (and ugly) game, and Clemson and Wake Forest played a tight (and much more entertaining) game on Saturday afternoon, those fans were not exactly clamoring for Judge updates as the Yankees played a matinee game against the Red Sox.

ESPN thought differently, and cut in to Judge at-bats, putting up a split screen during its ABC and ESPN games and shifting sound to YES Network every time Judge stepped to the plate.

Unsurprisingly, neither at-bat yielded a Judge home run, which only further infuriated fans (and college football media), who made their displeasure known to ESPN — particularly those watching Wake-Clemson where both cutaways happened in the middle of big plays.

Those who are mad about this are, of course, going to be more vocal about it, but it does feel like a bit of a misjudgment (no pun intended) from ESPN in assuming there’s a great deal of crossover from college football fans wanting to see this live. Some pointed out that they did this during McGwire and Sosa’s record chases, but that was also a very different time where you didn’t have MLB.TV and various streaming services that allowed you to watch games from out of market if you wanted. The split screen probably would’ve gotten some folks upset, but the real mistake was switching to sound for the entire at-bat rather than the football game people were trying to watch.

John Cena has more this fair share of championship belts. Now he has another title to add to his collection. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the wrestler, actor, and pretty good dancer has broken the Guinness World record for something very specific (and very, very kind): He’s now granted the most wishes for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, wish seeks to help children with critical illnesses.

Cena has a long history of granting Make-a-Wish wishes. He started in 2002, shortly after he began his professional wrestling career. Over time, more children requested his presence, and he’s been more than happy to oblige. Indeed, over those 20 years, he has amassed a whopping 650 wishes granted, which is now the record.

At the time he’d crossed the 500 wishes line, Cena reflected on why he does what he does. “I just drop everything,” he said. “If I can offer a fantastic experience, I’ll be first in line to do my part.” He’s also said, “I want them to have an experience that will stay with them to forever. I don’t ever want the children or their families to be treated in a way where they feel as if they’re up against anything at all.”

Back in June, Cena earned a lot of love for flew from London to the Netherlands to meet a 19-year-old boy with Down Syndrome who had fled Ukraine amidst the Russian invasion. Anyway, good guy, that John Cena!

(Via THR)

The New Orleans Pelicans made one of the biggest trades of last season when they went out and got CJ McCollum from Portland during the Blazers fire sale, a move that helped propel New Orleans into the play-in and, eventually, to the 8-seed where they went to six games with the Suns before being eliminated from the first round.

McCollum’s presence provided the Pelicans with another high-level scorer and creator, something they were lacking with Zion Williamson out and Brandon Ingram being asked to carry a considerable load. Now, coming into the 2022-23 season, there’s optimism abound for what this offense can look like with all three of those players on the court, as well as intrigue as to how they’ll structure the offense to take advantage of their varied skillsets.

The Pelicans will not be looking at this season as a testing ground for their new star trio, though, as they are confident this is the core they want to build around. After inking Williamson to a max extension when the league year opened, David Griffin and the Pelicans brass have been working on locking McCollum in for the long-term as well, getting a deal done on Saturday that will pay him $64 million over two new years tacked onto his contract, keeping him in New Orleans for four more seasons total.

It’s a big contract for McCollum, who ensures he gets paid handsomely into his mid-30s (he’ll be 35 when this contract ends), while the Pelicans now ensure they have McCollum, Ingram, and Williamson under contract for the next three years together, giving them a clear window to try and compete and grow with this core group.

It’s been 11 long years since the last Final Destination film, which is way too long for one of the most creative and bloodiest series out there. But like many dormant franchises, it’s coming back. New Line has even found their directors, and to show that they’re the right people for the job, their pitch ended with them faking a decapitation.

Those directors are Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who directed the 2019 sci-fi film Freaks. (Solo, Lipovsky handled the 2014 film Leprechaun: Origins.) In a new piece about how they landed the gig directing a movie centered around Rube Goldbergian deaths, The Hollywood Reporter reports (in a bit teased out by The AV Club) that the two got creative:

The duo made their pitch to New Line execs and producers together, with a burning fireplace behind them. As they wrapped up the meeting, the fire came alive and the mantel began burning. The filmmakers stopped and, after a tense moment, quickly extinguished the flames. As they sat down, everyone relieved the accident had passed, a wrenching creak was heard and suddenly, the whizzing ceiling fan broke off and flew down, decapitating one of the filmmakers.

As one might imagine, the execs were at first worried then delighted when they realized their Final Destination 6 helmsmen had pulled off a neat trompe l’oeil using a “combination of prerecorded footage and visual effects.” It was, as THR put it, the “cherry on top.”

So next time you’re up for a job, make sure you stand out from the pack by pretending that you’ve had your head sliced off by an out-of-control fan, much like SNL’s instant classic Dead Poets Society parody.

(Via THR and The AV Club)

Rudy Giuliani could have had a cushy retirement. Instead he teamed up with Donald Trump. The one-time “America’s Mayor” has been through a lot in the last two years, from creative public embarrassments to jaw-droppingly large lawsuits. On top of everything else, he’s apparently fallen behind on payments to his most recent ex-wife, and that may land him in the slammer.

As per The New York Post, a Manhattan judge on Friday gave Giuliani an ultimatum: Pay his former wife Judith Giuliani, whom he divorced in 2019, $225,000 plus lawyers’ fees by the end of next month. If he doesn’t, Justice Michael Katz said, he will be “forced to remand the defendant into custody.”

Mind you, that’s not even the full amount he allegedly owes. In her lawsuit against him, Judith claimed her ex-husband owed her payments totaling $262,000. At a previous hearing last month, though, Giuliani claimed that the amount he owed her is a “gross exaggeration.” He claimed he would provide proof of his claim. He never did.

On top of everything else, Giuliani didn’t even show up to the hearing on Friday. “For him to snub his nose at the court and not bother showing up and appearing in court — God forbid somebody would do that to him when he was US attorney,” said Dror Bikel, Judith’s lawyer. Then again, given that his law license has been suspended in New York and Washington D.C., perhaps he forgot what it’s like to deal with the courts.

(Via The New York Post)

How would you like to have the same gig for over four decades? That’s how long James Earl Jones has been voicing Darth Vader. But his tenure as one of the most memorable voice performances seems to be coming to an end.

In a new piece from Vanity Fair (in a bit caught by Deadline), Matthew Wood of Lucasfilm revealed that Jones, who’s 91, has signed over the rights to his voice to the company. Instead of summoning him to the recording booth now and then, they can simply use AI to replicate his distinctive baritone. Wood said he was “looking into winding down this particular character,” but that he “wished to keep Vader alive.” In other words, Jones is letting computers take over the job of a character who’s part computer himself.

Jones was already a celebrated actor by the time he did voicework on the original Star Wars (for a character embodied onscreen by David Prowse), though his esteem didn’t result in a hefty paycheck. He’s surely made a ton of money off it since, and he’s even used it on CB radio. He’s not the only actor who’s throwing in the towel for a role they’ve played since the late ‘70s: Jamie Lee Curtis is also done — for the second time — with playing Laurie Strode.

(Via Vanity Fair and Deadline)

Nicki Minaj‘s headlining set at Rolling Loud New York was a celebration of her hits, both old and new. Over the course of her career, spanning over 15 years, Minaj has become a force in hip-hop with her several solo hits and her iconic collaborations.

Reuniting with her “Super Freaky Girl (Queen Mix)” collaborator, Bia, the two performed the remix of Bia’s breakthrough hit, “Whole Lotta Money.”

During the night, Minaj was also joined by Lil Uzi Vert, as they performed their remix of Uzi’s 2017 hit, “The Way Life Goes,” which contains a prominent sample of “Landslide” by Oh Wonder.

Earlier this year, Minaj dropped a series of collaborations, including one with Fivio Foreign called “We Go Up.” Fivio joined Minaj on stage tonight for a performance of the New York drill track.

One of Minaj’s most famous underground collaborations is 2014’s “Chiraq,” which featured a then-unknown G Herbo. Herbo surprised the audience tonight as he joined Minaj on stage to perform “Chiraq.”

Also during the night, Minaj performed some of her mixtape classics, like “Itty Bitty Piggy” from her 2009 mixtape, Beam Me Up, Scotty.. She also performed an acapella rendition of fan-favorite “Moment 4 Life” from her debut album, Pink Friday.

In clips shared by fans, Nicki is seen performing to an energetic audience, the members of which appear to know all the words to the songs in Minaj’s massive catalog.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Not everyone is a fan of DaBaby‘s new song, “Boogeyman.” Taken from his new surprise album, Baby On Baby 2, not only does “Boogeyman” feature DaBaby claiming he slept with Megan Thee Stallion the night before she was allegedly shot by Tory Lanez, but it appears to have been lifted from a Toronto artist.

Singer and songwriter Layla Hendryx spoke with Rolling Stone today, claiming that DaBaby has plagiarized parts of her own song titled “Boogeyman.”

A friend of Hendryx, whose Twitter account has since been set to protected, shared clips comparing both songs.

“The whole [cadence], the whole flow for the hook is stolen from me,” Hendryx said. “One, it was done so sheisty, and two, the fact that he used the song to basically diss another black woman while you’re stealing from another black woman is just wild to me.”

Hendryx said a friend of hers shared her song, “Boogeyman,” to an A&R earlier this year, and believes that’s how the song made its way to DaBaby. She also shared that she’s had similar experiences in the industry, however, she is even more upset about the fact that the song takes aim at another artist.

“It’s just not something that I want to be a part of,” Hendryx said. “Even if they did just put me out with a credit, that’s not something I want to write for. I do not want to write for DaBaby. I would’ve said no to begin with. Just let me have the choice with my own art.”

Hendryx revealed that she is currently pursuing legal action against DaBaby.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

For most of human history, people had to make their own clothing by hand, and sewing skills were subsequently passed down from generation to generation. Because clothing was so time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, people also had to know how to repair clothing items that got torn or damaged in some way.

The invention of sewing and knitting machines changed the way we acquire clothing, and the skills people used to possess have largely gone by the wayside. If we get a hole in a sock nowadays, we toss it and replace it. Most of us have no idea how to darn a sock or fix a hole in any knit fabric. It’s far easier for us to replace than to repair.

But there are still some among us who do have the skills to repair clothing in a way that makes it look like the rip, tear or hole never happened, and to watch them do it is mesmerizing.

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A video of someone stitching a hole in a knit sweater has gone viral on Facebook, with more than 17 million views on the original TikTok in August and more than 21 million views and 95,000 shares on a Facebook post of the video shared two weeks ago. Why? Well, you just have to see it.

The video begins by showing a hole in a light pink knit sweater. Using a needle, yarn and a tiny latch hook device, the person demonstrates how to fill the hole to make it look as if it never existed in the first place. Putting a patch over a hole is one thing, but this is something akin to magic.

Watch:

#craft #diy #handmade

@berdievgabinii

#craft #diy #handmade

What we’re witnessing here is a combo of knowledge and experience in the fiber arts, of course, but what it looks like is sheer sorcery or some kind of really complicated calculus problem. Who figured out how to do this? And why is it so satisfying to watch?

“I watched this whole video and I still don’t know how you did that,” shared one commenter. (Right?!)

“Hey that was pretty neat,” wrote another. “Can you do the ozone layer next?” (Ha.)

“I could watch it a hundred times and still not be able to do this,” wrote another. (Uh, same.)

“My toxic trait is thinking I can do this 😂😂😂,” shared another. (Maybe after watching it two hundred times.)

Kudos to those who are keeping these kinds of skills alive and sharing them with the world. We may not be passing this kind of knowledge down in most families anymore, but at least we have TikTok to help if we really want to learn it.

Since ancient times, people from older generations have lamented what they perceive to be a diminishment of character qualities in the younger generation. In fact, it’s such a common phenomenon that scientists have studied and named it—the “kids these days” effect. And they have found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the elders who think youngsters are oh-so-different from how they were when they were young are generally mistaken.

But this perpetual hand-wringing over perceived generational changes is not limited to kids versus adults. It manifests in all kinds of ways, including regularly scheduled moral panic over gender roles and norms (largely based on gender stereotypes).

Gender is not a simple subject, no matter how simplistic certain people try to make it. What we view as masculine or feminine comes from a complex mixture of culture, history, psychology, biology, sociology and every other lens through which we analyze the world. Additionally, those views of what is masculine and what is feminine can come with judgments and biases, resulting in all kinds of emotions and gut responses when our gender expectations and assumptions are challenged.

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Paul Fairie, a senior research associate and professor at the University of Calgary, shared “A Brief History of Men Today Are Too Feminine and Women Too Masculine” on Twitter. The thread contained nothing but clippings showing people’s fears about gender shifts and the year the clippings came from.

He began with 2020 and 2018, sharing what appear to be quotes from Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones, three right-wing influencers who have lamented what they claim is the loss of “manly men” and masculinity.

u201c2018u201d

— Paul Fairie (@Paul Fairie)
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It’s not a new freakout, however. Fairie shared clippings from 2004, 1997, 1984, 1977, 1965, 1950, 1940 and so on—all the way back to 1886—showing people expressing concern about men becoming more feminine and women becoming more masculine.

u201c1977u201d

— Paul Fairie (@Paul Fairie)
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“Women’s-lib stuff” being blamed for the “wimping” of America isn’t surprising to see, but living in high-rise apartments causing men to be effeminate is a new one.

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— Paul Fairie (@Paul Fairie)
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Apparently lilac pajamas were considered totally unmanly, despite purple traditionally being the color of kings. Huh.

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— Paul Fairie (@Paul Fairie)
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Ah yes, the century-old women in sports controversy. “IN NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD DO YOU SEE SUCH MASCULINE-LIKE FIGURES AS THE AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE.” OK, calm down, John Alexander from 1910. If you’d lived another 110 years, you’d see how much time and energy you wasted worrying about this.

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— Paul Fairie (@Paul Fairie)
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This one from 1886 is fabulous, just for the language. “Women are growing more dashing.” (Can we go back to using the word “dashing” more often? Great word.)

So much of this sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Fretting over changes in fashion, wigging out over women advancing in athletics and wailing over what will become of men and women if people exhibit varying degrees of traditionally masculine or feminine traits.

Some of this is to be expected, as we’ve witnessed humanity moving closer and closer to recognizing gender equality. While equality doesn’t mean sameness, much of what we view as masculine or feminine is wrapped up in patriarchal views of gender roles, and the dismantling of patriarchal systems and expectations will naturally disrupt those views. Judgments over masculinity and femininity are also wrapped up in homophobia and transphobia, so greater inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people are throwing those judgments into disarray as well.

None of that is a bad thing. We don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ditch the concepts of masculinity and femininity altogether, but we do need to acknowledge that many of the things people fret over when it comes to gender are just silly.