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Former-president Donald Trump and his wife Melania attended game four of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros, months after calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball over the All-Star Game being moved out of the Georgia capital to protest voting restrictions. Trump seemed to have a grand ol’ time at the World Series game, though, as it gave him an excuse to do the tomahawk chop.

The chop, a stadium-wide chant and longtime tradition at Braves games, has been under renewed scrutiny as part of a national discussion about racism and racial imagery in professional sports. Several advocacy groups and observers have accused the chant of mocking Native American groups and decried it as racist… Trump has frequently sought to capitalize politically on such controversies as part of an effort to galvanize the White voters who make up much of his political base.

During Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, host Jimmy Kimmel segued from “outdated pumpkins” to Trump attending the game. “Trump claimed he was personally invited to the game by the commissioner of baseball, but a spokesperson for the commissioner of baseball said Trump invited himself to game. I wonder who we should believe there,” he joked. After reading Trump’s statement about boycotting MLB, Kimmel added, “Six months later, he’s guzzling Diet Coke and doing the tomahawk chop at a Braves game in Atlanta. The only exercise he gets is if it’s something racist.”

You can watch the monologue above.

(Via CNN)

What a wild few years this has been for release dates. Morbius was initially due in October 2020, and we saw the first teaser trailer trailer in January 2020, after significant interest in a moody first look from Jared Leto. That interest, most likely, sourced from people wondering how he’d make a comic-book comeback from his rather awful Joker turn in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. Now, the timeline is all fudged because Leto struck a different Joker turn in Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut, and he’s also preparing to play the most cartoony Gucci family member of all in House of Gucci.

The dude is addicted to prosthetics and not looking like himself. That much is evident, and after a featurette showed Leto promising a “web of possibilities” (the Tobey Maguire-Spidey fans enjoyed that one), we’ve got a full-on trailer. Yep, the Sony powers that be knew that we wanted to see Michael Keaton as Vulture and Jared Harris as the most dignified guy in the room. From the synopsis:

Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but when his experiment goes wrong, he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.

Leto, for better or for worse, is making his official debut in the Sony Marvel Universe as Michael Morbius, a brilliant biochemist who becomes The Living Vampire in a Spider-Man spinoff (about the character who hails from 1971’s Amazing Spider-Man #101 issue). It sounds like Michael Morbius is not-so brilliant from the way that he botched his own self-experiment, and even though there’s a split second of Ripped Leto, this trailer frankly makes me want to watch The Fly, so there’s that. Yep, the powers that be really wanna build up the Sony Spider-Man Universe, although this probably won’t arrive with the fanfare of those Venom flicks. Still, we’re getting more comic-book Michael Keaton, and that’s never a bad thing.

Morbius arrives in theaters on January 28, 2022.

In a recent interview, Adele noted that there aren’t any features on her upcoming album 30. In fact, no song on any of her studio albums has had a credited feature. In the interview, she said, “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s not calculated. It’s just never been right for some reason.” She does have her eye on one fellow singer in particular, though: In a recent Vogue interview, she declared that her dream duet partner is Chris Stapleton.

Well, her dream came true, because Adele got a Stapleton feature on her new album, the tracklist of which was revealed yesterday. True to Adele’s word, Stapleton isn’t appearing on the core 30 album, but a Target-exclusive deluxe version of the album includes a rendition of “Easy On Me” that features Stapleton. Aside from that, the Target deluxe edition includes a pair of other bonus tracks, “Wild Wild West” and “Can’t Be Together.”

Check out the 30 tracklist, including the Target-exclusive bonus tracks, below.

1. “Strangers By Nature”
2. “Easy On Me”
3. “My Little Love”
4. “Cry Your Heart Out”
5. “Oh My God”
6. “Can I Get It”
7. “I Drink Wine”
8. “All Night Parking (with Erroll Garner) Interlude”
9. “Woman Like Me”
10. “Hold On”
11. “To Be Loved”
12. “Love Is A Game”
13. “Wild Wild West” (Bonus Track)
14. “Can’t Be Together” (Bonus Track)
15. “Easy On Me” (with Chris Stapleton) (Bonus Track)

30 is out 11/19 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

Folks, buckle up because you are about to go on a wild ride.

On Monday night, college football twitter became enthralled by a story that at first seemed too outrageous to be true, but as facts and important people involved in the story came forward, it only got stranger.

Word emerged from an unverified account that claimed a monkey owned by Texas special teams assistant Jeff Banks bit a young trick-or-treater on Halloween. It seemed like such a ridiculous thing that it had to be a fake story, but as people did more digging, they learned that it was, in fact, partially true.

The real story was that Banks is now with an ex-stripper named Danielle, fka “Pole Assassin” — which, as an aside, is one of the best stage names in history — who was once on Jerry Springer and has a monkey named Gia who used to assist her in her act. The monkey even has an Instagram page which features some incredible content.

So after establishing that there is actually a monkey that lives at Banks’ residence and this story could indeed be true, his girlfriend jumped into the fray on Twitter and confirmed that the incident took place but it was not as vicious a bite as initially reported.

https://twitter.com/BrianMFloyd/status/1455366167082647553

She also took people on a tour of the backyard to show how far a child had to wander out of the haunted house zone they had set up, through multiple gates that said not to go through to get to the monkey’s cage/habitat area where the bite happened.

This, of course, was a terrible idea as it potentially incriminated her and the monkey, and at some point she was told to delete her tweets (and ultimately the entire account), but not before the internet was able to screenshot the tweets and pull the video in which she gave that tour. No one knows what the legal ramifications are in all of this, but it did spark a lot of jokes about monkey law and how Texas football is now definitely back.

We will continue to monitor this situation to see if there are further updates on Pole Assassin’s monkey and if this somehow becomes a thing that Texas has to release an official statement on.

British television tends to be much more colorful than in America. Yanks can’t even do Taskmaster, the brilliant game show in which comedians perform ridiculous assignments, for more than one season. But a new Channel 4 program has taken the old-fashioned dating game show in an even more ludicrous and wholly unexpected direction than HBO Max’s FBoy Island.

It’s called The Love Trap, and it premiered about two weeks ago in the U.K. In its native land, it was instantly infamous, as per The Sun, and with good reason. At first it sounds pretty stock: Twelve women compete for the affections of a single eligible bachelor, David Birtwistle. The twist is that half of them are only in it for the money. Birtwistle has to guess which ones are sincere and which ones are liars. And at the end of each episode, he, uh, um, erm, sends one contestant sailing through a trap door.

A clip from the ending of a Love Trap episode found its way onto American social media on Monday, some 12 days after the show premiered. It only shows Birtwistle choosing one woman to be jettisoned. And when she suddenly tumbles to an unknown future — hope she’s okay! — it was clear that it blew a lot of minds.

Some compared it to a task on Squid Game, which have already inspired nasty copycats.

Presenter Joel Dommett is very proud of what he helped create, saying, “I love lying, love, and trap doors so it’s all I’ve ever wanted. It’s genuinely a huge idea and I’m excited that they have trusted me at the helm.”

The Love Trap is currently not playing on American television, but it is streamable on Channel 4’s site. In the meantime, it’s not the first time it seemed like Squid Game had already become real.

The Boston Celtics have not gotten off to the start to the season that they had hoped, falling to 2-5 on Monday with an unbelievable collapse at home against the Bulls in which they saw a 19-point second half lead become a 14-point loss thanks to being outscored by Chicago 39-11 in the fourth quarter.

Offensive execution in the fourth quarter has been an issue in a few of their losses already, as they’ve struggled to establish much of an identity beyond hoping one of Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown can get hot and carry them down the stretch. Part of that is going to be on new coach Ime Udoka to install an offensive system that creates that identity and trust among all five players on the court, but it’s also incumbent on Tatum and Brown to be willing to give the ball up rather than trying to create 1-on-1 all the time.

After scoring just 11 against the Bulls, with both Tatum and Brown going cold late (particularly Tatum), Marcus Smart didn’t hold back about the late game issues and how it has to start with their two stars doing more for their teammates because they’ve become too predictable, via Chris Grenham of Forbes.

“I would just like to play basketball,” Smart said. “Every team knows we’re trying to go to Jayson and Jaylen. Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jayson and Jaylen. I think everybody’s scouting report is to make those guys pass the ball. They don’t want to pass the ball. That’s something that they’re going to learn. They’re still learning. We’re proud of the progress they’re making, but they’re going to have to make another step and find ways to not only create for themselves but create for others on this team to open up the court for them later down in the game where they’re always going to have to take those tough shots or take tough matchups when they do get the 1-on-1 or they bring the trap. It’s something we’ve been asking them to do and they’re learning. We just gotta continue to help those guys do that to help our team.”

Smart isn’t necessarily wrong here, but it is about as open and honest a critique as you’ll hear from a player about his teammates in a postgame situation. Brown and Tatum can slip into hero-ball mode and when that is going poorly and they don’t try to go to something else, that has to be frustrating as someone perched in the corner off the ball. Smart isn’t just airing them out, but noting that it’s part of the learning process for two players still growing into that starring role. Still, the frustration is apparent and it will be very interesting to see how the Celtics respond going forward, because things are trending in the wrong direction right now.

In the immediate, we won’t hear a response from Brown or Tatum, who both declined to talk after the loss.

Without Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, the Philadelphia 76ers put together a rousing effort in defeating the Portland Trail Blazers by a 10-point margin at home. That victory was encouraging on a number of levels for Philadelphia but, during and after the game, the attention seemingly shifted to an unexpected storyline surrounding Damian Lillard. During the first quarter, fans at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia began to chant “We Want Lillard” while the All-NBA guard was at the free throw line.

After the game, Lillard acknowledged the love from the folks in Philadelphia.

It has been a popular notion for months that the Sixers would love to flip Simmons to Portland in a deal for Lillard and, for a brief time this summer, it appeared as if Lillard might become available in trade. However, that noise has quieted in recent weeks, and Lillard made sure to point out that he is committed to Portland — as he has now for some time.

This isn’t the first time that an opposing player received admiration from a home crowd that was at least partially motivated by a desire for that player to change teams. Still, it is notable that Lillard was showered with this kind of attention in Philadelphia, and with the Simmons saga continuing to unfold, it is clear that at least some of the Sixers faithful would love to see Lillard in a different uniform.

Last year, people were worried about “murder hornets,” a strain of insects who invaded America from Asia and whose stingers were likened to hot metal. Now, as per CBS News, there’s a less dangerous breed afoot in America, and they’re taking over Georgia with such multiplicity that some are comparing it to one of the ’90s’ best horror films, Arachnophobia, in which a deadly species of spiders from Venezuela invades small town California.

But these ones aren’t deadly. They’re called Joro spiders. They hail from East Asia and they’re large, colorful, and very good at webs. They’re part of a group of spiders called “orb weavers,” so named for their organized, wheel-shaped webs. (The ones Joro spiders weave are thick and golden.)

Joro spiders were first reported in America in 2014, but now they’re everywhere in the Southern state, and it’s believed they’ll soon spread southward, to South Carolina. It’s believed they enjoy the warmth and humidity in the state, which is similar to parts of Japan.

“Last year, there were dozens of spiders, and they began to be something of a nuisance when I was doing yard work,” one person, whose porch has been taken over by Joro webs 10 feet deep, told CBS. “This year, I have several hundred, and they actually make the place look spooky with all the messy webs — like a scene out of Arachnophobia.”

That said, Joro spiders are reportedly not dangerous. They only bite if attacked first, and one researcher who handled them without gloves said she received an occasional pinch but that they never broke her skin.

That said, it’s not clear yet what effect Joro spiders will have on the state’s environment and ecosystem, and there remain many unknowns. But they may prove to be a blessing. One entomologist said they suppress mosquitos and biting flies. They’re also one of the few spiders that will eat brown marmorated stink bugs, which have long been pests to crops.
 
“This is wonderful. This is exciting. Spiders are our friends,” the entomologist said. “They are out there catching all the pests we don’t want around our home.”

That said, maybe it’s not the best idea to let one’s guard down around world-dominating spiders.

(Via CBS News)

On Sunday, the day before Tucker Carlson debuted his multi-part “documentary” series attempting to whitewash the Capitol riot, The Washington Post dropped an epic, thorough investigative report on Jan. 6. Some of it had long been known. Other intel was new. Among the latter is a bit concerning Lindsey Graham. The South Carolina senator and “freeloader” has since come back around on disgraced former president Donald Trump, who helped incite the tragic melee. But on that fateful day, he was adamant that police take care of the invading Trump supporters.

As per the report, Graham — who was known to mock Trump behind his back — was furious that the Senate and House were being evacuated by Capitol police. But he had an idea. Furious, he began yelling at the Senate sergeant-at-arms. “What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You’ve got guns. Use them,” he said. “We give you guns for a reason,” he added. “Use them.”

That’s not what happened. Police were overwhelmed by the number and the ferocity of the Trump supporters who broke through barriers and windows, threatening the lives of all inside. Only one invading Trump supporter, Ashlii Babbitt was shot. Trumpists have since tried to turn her into a martyr, some even comparing her to George Floyd.

Graham was also one of a number of Republican leaders who attempted to reach out to Trump, to demand that he instruct his supporters to back off. He only got as far as Ivanka, who was also trying, without much success, to talk some sense into her father.

“You need to get these people out of here,” Graham told Ivanka. “This thing is going south. This is not good. You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down. Stand down.”

Instead, Trump spent over three hours doing nothing while his fan base ran amok. And as many of them are facing jail time, he again is doing nothing.

(Via The Post)

The New York Knicks magical run to the playoffs last season certainly doesn’t appear to be a mirage, as the Knicks have come out blazing to start the 2021-22 season with a 5-1 record that puts them atop the East two weeks in.

They started the season with a win over Boston in a double overtime thriller that had the masses going crazy inside Madison Square Garden, and as they poured out into Manhattan, Sidetalk NYC came out with an instantly iconic fan reaction video.

There are a lot of incredible moments packed into a one minute video — the “KD don’t you regret not coming to the Kniiiiicks” guy and the guy who just shakes violently both are sensational — but the guy who simply says “BING BONG” became an instant Knicks legend and, in the two weeks since, it has become a rallying cry for Knicks fans. The team has embraced it as well, debuting a new “Bing Bong” drop for made threes on Monday against the Raptors.

Not only has game ops latched onto it, but Mike Breen is even caught up in Bing Bong fever, as he dropped his first of the season after a banked in Julius Randle three to end the first quarter, replacing his iconic “BANG.”

The Knicks are as fun a team as there is in basketball to start the season and nothing gets the people in New York going quite like a good “BING BONG” right now.