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For that special pop fan on your list who might’ve missed out on Olivia Rodrigo tickets, a new gift idea might be just the ticket. Partnering with the phone case company Casetify, the singer has worked on a limited edition line of cases that are inspired by her hit debut album, Sour. According to Rolling Stone‘s report on the collaboration, the designs for the new phone cases were “hand picked” by Olivia.

The collection has been dubbed “Hardened Hearts” and features cases for iPhone and Samsung devices. Launching today, all the cases retail between $45 and $75 and will be available tonight at 7 PM PST / 10 PM EST right here. Here’s a description of the set from the Casetify website: “Featuring Olivia’s iconic aesthetic, this collection serves as a reminder to keep it tough. Just add Do Not Disturb. Check out the range of cases in this collection that are powered by Re/CASETiFY, created using recycled phone cases and bioplastics from plants.”

Some photos on the Casetify website show cases with Olivia’s now signature ransom-letter cut out letters over light purple, and black and white cases. Meanwhile, at least Olivia — and the small amount of fans who can afforded scalped tickets — are excited about her tour.

The hip-hop world faced tragedy once again this fall when Memphis rapper and beloved local figure Young Dolph was shot in his hometown. Dolph was a local hero for a reason — on the day he was murdered, he was slated to host a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. That’s the kind of heart he had for his city. Though Dolph’s murderers were caught on camera, and the car used in the shooting was linked to yet another murder, so far no arrests have been made.

But that hasn’t stopped Memphis from making sure they honor the legacy of the Paper Route Empire label head and artist. After announcing that a street would be named after Dolph, today the sign went up. Dubbed “Adolpho “Young Dolph” Thornton Jr. Avenue” in his native Castelia Heights neighborhood, the street sign unveiling ceremony precedes a larger “Celebration of Life” that will take place at the FedEx Coliseum in Memphis tomorrow, December 16, from 11 AM to 2 PM.

Memphis’ city council voted unanimously to name a street after the rapper, and Councilman JB Smiley, Jr., who was the sponsor of the honorary street name resolution said the following: “It’s about celebrating our own. Young Dolph was truly one of us.” Check out some photos of the new street name below.

First the Laura Logan mishegoss, now this: As per The Daily Beast, Fox News’ social media accounts deleted a cartoon criticizing George Soros after it was pointed out that it depicted an infamously anti-Semitic trope. The image, drawn by conservative cartoonist A.F. Branco, showed the progressive-leaning billionaire — a long-favorite target of Republican opprobrium — holding the strings of two Democratic donkeys, one holding a sign for “defund police,” other “no bail.” It’s a reference to righwing complaints about progressive criminal justice policies and Soros’ supposed influence upon them.

The caption referred to Soros, who is Jewish, as “the puppet master” — a term that has long been used as an anti-Semitic trope. The image was shared on both its Facebook and Instagram accounts. On the latter, it received 16,000 likes before it was removed.

Among the post’s critics was the Anti-Defamation League. “As we have told Fox News numerous times, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes conjures up longstanding antisemitic tropes about Jewish power + contributes to the normalization of antisemitism,” the ADL tweeted after the image appeared. “This needs to be removed.”

The network has a history of trading in anti-Semitic tropes. Last March, substitute Ingraham Angle host Raymond Arroy — filling in for the host, currently under fire for recently unearthed frantic texts she sent on Jan. 6 conveying horror at the Capitol riot that she would later downplay — devoted an entire segment to calling Michael Bloomberg, who is also Jewish, a “puppet master.” Only two weeks ago Fox Nation host Lara Logan compared Dr. Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, aka the Nazi concentration camp doctor known as the “Angel of Death.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Do you ever think about how we live in a world that is perfectly capable of producing enough food and basic necessities for every human on the planet, and yet there are still millions upon millions who don’t have enough?

We do. It’s weird and inhumane, but it’s reality. There are multiple, somewhat complex reasons for this, of course, which don’t justify but do explain it. However, the economics and logistics of making sure everyone has what they need don’t need to be understood to recognize extreme, blatant, inexcusable waste.

A TikTok user who goes by @Dumpsterdivingfreegan shares videos of what she finds in the dumpsters of grocery stores, and it’s completely mind-blowing. Even if you already know that stores waste a lot of food, wait until you see what she finds. It’s not just food that’s at or near its expiration date, though there is a lot of that. She finds toiletries and household items—sometime by the case, all brand new—just thrown into the dumpster.

Watch:

Many of us would question pulling perishables from a dumpster, but if it’s cold enough outside and you knew they’d been tossed recently, why not? In a logical world, these foods would only be thrown out because there was something wrong with them, but that does not seem to be the case.

In another video, she said she hasn’t bought groceries in two years because she’s able to get so much from dumpster diving.

She also says she donates far more than she keeps, and she does leave things behind for other people or homeless people to find. There is always plenty to go around.

She wipes down what she can with disinfectant and hasn’t run into any issues with food being bad or anyone in her household getting sick from eating it.

When you see what and how much stores are tossing—perfectly good food that’s not even at its best by date yet—it’s understandable that she hasn’t had to buy groceries. According to Business Insider, grocery stores are responsible for about 10% of the food waste in the United States.

But it’s not just food.

Stores throw away all kinds of merchandise. According to this dumpster diver, many stores have a policy that they throw away cases of product if one item in the case gets broken. She has found cases of wine where just one bottle was broken. And check out this case of perfectly good plants that some people paid good money for:

And if perfectly good plants being tossed isn’t enough to move you, how about toilet paper? That’s right. The precious commodity that people were waiting in ridiculous lines for and rationing due to hoarding-induced-scarcity. But not just any toilet paper! The environmentally-friendly bamboo kind that costs far more than toilet paper should, tossed into a dumpster for reasons none of us can guess.

The irony of a store that sells all kinds of eco-friendly items throwing so much into landfills unnecessarily is enough to make your brain explode.

Why don’t they donate this stuff instead of throwing it away? Yes. That is the million-dollar question.

Some stores do donate some or most of their overstocked or close-to-due-date items. But as we see here, the habit is not universal, it might vary from location to location, and some stores actually have policies against it for whatever reason. It seems reasonable in the modern world to expect perfectly good items to not end up in landfills when people are in need of them and when our Earth is already dealing with too much trash. It makes no sense.

You probably have dozens of questions for @dumpsterdivingfreegan and she answers tons of them in her videos and comments. I highly recommend perusing her TikTok channel, where she’s really an open book about money and dumpster diving. While it’s seriously shocking what she finds, it’s equally interesting how she lives her life and organizes her finances.

And it will definitely motivate you to find out if stores in your area throw out merchandise and to encourage them to find a more humane and environmentally conscious way to process excess, because the waste in these videos is simply obscene.

Like a lot of us, Ted Lasso had a pretty all-over-the-place 2021. The Apple TV+ sports comedy-drama dropped its second season. It won a bunch of awards. It became more beloved than it was already. Then there was a backlash. Then there was a backlash to the backlash. There might have been a backlash to the backlash against the backlash. But it’s tricky keeping track of these things. Mitt Romney and a profoundly unpopular Democrat made a Ted Lasso-inspired meme, which it seems even star Jason Sudeikis, who plays the world’s peppiest man onscreen, thought stunk.

But ol’ Ted is looking to end the year on an up note. On Wednesday, a week-and-change before Christmas, the show dropped a surprise holiday gift: an animated short entitled Ted Lasso: The Missing Christmas Mustache. It turns our cast of footballers and coaches and whatnot into Claymation creations (but with the same voices), with everyone trying to figure out a big mystery: What happened to Ted’s beloved facial hair? It’s gone missing, and just in time for a big Zoom call.

Naturally, there’s a heartwarming message at the end of the four-minute short. It is Ted Lasso after all. The third season is still being written, which explains why the cast reunites but only via voice. But don’t worry: Surely they’ll have another chance to throw some wild parties when the program Hoovers up a bunch more awards next year.

You can watch Ted Lasso: The Missing Christmas Mustache in the video above.

(Via THR)

There’s something about a dirty gin martini that feels right during the holidays. It’s big, savory, acidic, and very easy to drink. It’s also pretty damn easy to make, assuming you have the right ingredients.

When it comes to any martini, you kind of have to dial in the ratios that fit your vibe. Some folks like a splash of dry vermouth in there. Others will demand that a bottle of vermouth not even cast a shadow over their gin (or vodka) when making their martinis. Neither is wrong and we’re not here to judge your palate.

Dirty martinis are different. In this case, you need the dry vermouth to counter the umami-bomb and light lemon citrus of good olive brine (high-quality olive brine should just be water, salt, and lemon oil/juice). The addition of soft botanicals and the very distant fruit of the dry vermouth adds a balance to the hefty botanicals of the gin and the salt/citrus of the brine.

It’s a little bit of magic in a glass when balanced right — so let’s get into it!

Dirty Gin Martini

Ingredients:

• 3-oz. dry gin
• 0.5-oz. dry vermouth
• 0.5-oz. olive brine
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters
• Ice
• Olives

Let’s focus on the olives first. I’m using Iliada green olives from Greece. They’re pitted and pretty big (so you don’t need a lot). Also, the only ingredients in this jar of olives are, well, olives, water, salt, and lemon acids. That’s ideal, as it adds the umami you’re looking for while also giving the martini a touch of acid for balance.

I’m also using Beefeater 24 London Dry Gin and Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth. Each is iconic but subtle. The gin is drawn back from the juniper and leans a little more towards the orris root and wild florals while the Noily brings nice floral support with a touch of citrus and a slightly herbal edge.

Lastly, there are the bitters. I like a dash of Angostura Bitters in my martinis. It’s not traditional but adds that little botanical x-factor that’ll help your martinis pop.

What You’ll Need:

• Coupe, cocktail glass, Nick and Nora glass, or lowball glass
• Cocktail mixing jug
• Barspoon
• Cocktail strainer
• Jigger
• Toothpick

Method:

• Prechill your glass in the freezer.
• Add the gin, vermouth, and olive brine to a mixing jug. Dash with bitters and fill with ice 2/3 of the way up.
• Stir until the jug is ice-cold to touch, about 15 to 20 seconds.
• Strain the cocktail into the prechilled glass.
• Garnish with one to three olives on a stick and serve immediately.

Bottom Line:

The softness of this cocktail is astounding. The umami and acid from the brine bring this balance that lets the gin calm down while the dry vermouth slowly massages its own botanicals and sweetness towards the front of the sip.

This is savory, acidic, herbal, botanical, and pure silk in every single sip. Every time I make one of these I wonder why I don’t drink them more often. They’re super easy to master, fast to make, and just beautifully delicious — especially if you’re looking to get away from the overly sugary cocktails that tend to dominate a lot of menus these days. There’s a faint sweetness buried in this but it’s really about that balance of umami and acid with the botanicals. It’s just … right.

I’m definitely going to be making these for the rest of the festive season (as soon as the eggnog runs out anyway).

Josh Lambo’s tenure as the kicker for the Jacksonville Jaguars came to an end in October after four years with the organization. Now, Lambo is speaking out about one incident that happened earlier this year while the team was preparing for a preseason tilt with the Dallas Cowboys involving embattled head coach Urban Meyer.

Lambo, while speaking to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, said that Meyer does not refer to the specialists by their names, instead calling them “sh*tbag, dipsh*t, or whatever the hell it was.” But that apparently didn’t get under Lambo’s skin nearly as much as what Meyer did next.

“I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back,” Lambo told Stroud. “… Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dips–t, make your f–king kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.”

The kick, Lambo claims, was only about a five out of 10 in terms of how hard Meyer kicked, and after telling his then-coach “don’t you ever f*cking kick me again,” Meyer allegedly responded, “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.” The following day, Lambo says the two had a conversation, in which he said Meyer “seemingly halfway understood” that Lambo had some issues with how he was being coached. In response, Lambo claims Meyer told him that he’s the first player in his career that he’d “ever let speak to me that way,” and that if he did it again, he’d be cut.

“I said, ‘I’m genuinely not trying to be sarcastic here, Urban, but what did I say that offended you?’” Lambo remembered asking Meyer. “He said, ‘When you responded to me out there on the practice field in front of everybody. If you have an issue and don’t like me kicking you, well then you keep that to yourself and you wait until after practice and after meetings and you come find me in the office and tell me privately.’”

In a statement, Meyer denied the incident ever happened, saying, “Josh’s characterization of me and this incident is completely inaccurate, and there are eyewitnesses to refute his account. (General manager) Trent (Baalke) and I met with him on multiple occasions to encourage his performance, and this was never brought up. I was fully supportive of Josh during his time with the team and wish him nothing but the best.”

This is the latest incident in what has been a roller coaster NFL tenure for Meyer. Earlier this year, he came under fire for staying behind after the team played in Cincinnati on Thursday Night Football and traveling to Columbus, where he was caught getting cozy with a woman at a bar who is not his wife. And this week, an explosive report alleged that, among other things, Meyer called his staff “losers.” After a loss to the Tennessee Titans this week, Jacksonville fell to 2-11 on the season.

Imagine being 6 years old, sitting in your classroom in an idyllic small town, when you start hearing gunshots. Your teacher tries to sound calm, but you hear the fear in her voice as she tells you to go hide in your cubby. She says, “be quiet as a mouse,” but the sobs of your classmates ring in your ears. In four minutes, you hear more than 150 gunshots.

You’re in the first grade. You wholeheartedly believe in Santa Claus and magic. You’re excited about losing your front teeth. Your parents still prescreen PG-rated films so they can prepare you for things that might be scary in them.

And yet here you are, living through a horror few can fathom.

The trauma of any school shooting is hard to imagine, but the Sandy Hook massacre was in a league of its own. These were first graders. Twenty babies, shot and killed in a matter of minutes. Six educators who tried to protect them.

That was nine years ago. Now the kids that survived Sandy Hook are in high school, and some of them are opening up about their experiences. Their voices deserve to be heard.

In February of this year, Sandy Hook survivor Ashley shared her story with NowThis News. Some of the scenario above was taken from her account:

Sandy Hook Survivor Speaks Out for the First Time

Ashley was 7 when she went through the trauma of Sandy Hook. She said she has experienced survivor’s guilt and the pain of people claiming that the shooting was a hoax. “I can’t give you proof except for my trauma,” she said.

Another Sandy Hook survivor, Maggie LaBlanca, shared her story at this year’s National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence last week. Her best friend, Daniel, was killed in the shooting.

“It’s been almost nine years since I endured that day. Everything has stayed with me so clearly,” she said. “The trauma never went away, and I still feel sad all the time that I’m here and they’re not. I look for Daniel everywhere because it’s hard to accept that I lost him.”

We mourn those who are killed in school shootings and focus on the numbers of deaths, but the survivors deserve just as much of our thought and emotion. It’s traumatic for anyone to have a loved one murdered or to witness someone being killed in front of them. In the worst scenarios, both of those things happen at the same time. And when it’s children who are the witnesses, that’s just a tragedy none of us should accept as normal.

This TikTok video from a Sandy Hook survivor sums it up succinctly.

These poor babies.pic.twitter.com/lpFQV5VCW9

— aunt cookie (@aunt cookie)
1639018722

At the time, we thought Sandy Hook had to be the last straw. We thought surely 6-year-olds shot and killed in their classrooms would change things. Our lawmakers would surely unite to take action—to do something, anything—to try to prevent this kind of thing from happening. People pleaded. Activists organized. And our laws have barely budged, especially at the federal level, where they have the greatest chance of actually being effective.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Most Americans agree on some very basic gun legislation. A 2019 poll reported by Politico showed that 70% of Americans support banning assault weapons, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans. Also in 2019, a National Public Radio (NPR), PBS NewsHour and Maris College poll found that 83% of Americans want Congress to pass legislation requiring background checks for gun purchases at gun shows or via other private sales.

Why wouldn’t we want to make it harder for abusers or people with a history of violent or threatening behavior to get firearms? Why wouldn’t we want to make it harder for troubled teens to get a hold of guns in their household?

Gun rights activists will argue that no law will prevent all shootings, which is true. The U.S. has far too many guns in circulation to curb all gun violence. But some will prevent some, and some is better than none, especially when we’re raising generations of kids who have to practice what to do if a gunman starts shooting up their school.

What we have now is not normal. It’s not freedom. It’s a tragic embarrassment and a stain on our nation—one that we don’t have to accept without a fight. We owe these kids at least that much.

To learn more about common-sense gun legislation and how to make a difference, check out Everytown for Gun Safety at everytown.org and Sandy Hook Promise sandyhookpromise.org.

Guillermo del Toro has a serious movie out during the holidays: his star-studded remake of the classic film noir Nightmare Alley. It’s his follow-up to The Shape of Water, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But it wasn’t that long ago that he was making big, dumb blockbusters (admittedly very eccentric ones that, honestly, aren’t actually dumb). His last tentpole was 2013’s Pacific Rim, in which giant robots fought giant kaiju. He didn’t make the sequel, but he almost did, and now we have an idea of what it would have been like. And it sounds pretty darn rad.

As per The Wrap, del Toro said that he was hard at work on the sequel, which would have taken the series in new, even weirder directions. Alas, by the time the film was greenlit in 2016, del Toro was no longer attached. (It was made by Jupiter Legacy’s Steven S. DeKnight and dropped in 2018.) It made a couple bucks but was no one’s idea of memorable. But del Toro’s version — some of which did wind up in the sequel, albeit rejiggered — sounds very memorable.

The original starred Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi as pilots (or “jaegers”) of the towering bots that fight the super-sized monsters, battling to save humanity from extinction. We eventually discover the kaiju are also controlled remotely by pilots, in an alternate dimension by a group called the “Precursors.” But if del Toro had had his way, the sequel would have had a big reveal for these folks:

“The villain was this tech guy that had invented basically sort of the internet 2.0. And then they realized that all his patents came to him one morning. And so little by little, they started putting together this and they said, ‘Oh, he got them from the precursors.’ The guys that control the kaiju. And then we found out that the precursors are us thousands of years in the future,” del Toro explained. “They’re trying to terraform, trying to re-harvest the earth to survive. Wow. And that we were in exo-bio-suits that looked alien, but they were not. We were inside. And it was a really interesting paradox.”

In other words, the Precursors were us all along, or at least we are their ancestors, duking it out see which one perishes: us now or them then. Pretty heady stuff! And who doesn’t love time travel suddenly being introduced in a franchise’s sequel?

There was another big difference between del Toro’s version of the sequel and the one that got made: It killed off Kikuchi’s character — the orphan Mako Mori, whose parents were killed by the kaiju — in a depressingly unceremonious way. Del Toro felt they did her dirty.

“To me, the hero was Mako Mori,” he said. “I wanted her not only to live, I wanted her to be one of the main characters in the second movie.”

In any case, del Toro’s Nightmare Alley — with Bradley Cooper as a charlatan carny who runs afoul of a devious psychiatrist, played by Cate Blanchett — opens on Dec. 17.

(Via The Wrap)

What if Final Fantasy, but a kart racer? This has been done before, with Chocobo Racing on the PlayStation, but it’s receiving a sort of sequel sort of reboot with Chocobo GP on the Switch. Chocobo GP is a kart racing game and that means it’s going to have everything we expect out of that genre such as randomized items, drifting, and the potential to go from worst to first in a matter of moments. These are always fantastic party games because the wacky nature of them lets gamers of any skill level feel like they’re on an equal playing field.

We now at least know when this game is going to be coming out! On March 10, 2022, we’ll all have a new party game on our hands with Chocobo Racing GP. We’re curious to see how it will stack up against other kart racers including the dominant one, Mario Kart. That said, a niche community may be able to form around it and keep the game going even if it never gets as popular as the Mario Kart games of the world.

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: TBA
Release Date: March 10, 2022
Genre: Racing Game
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Rating: RP
Where can I buy this: Nintendo eShop
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: Unknown