It’s been over a year since Pop Smoke’s tragic death, and the rapper was shot and killed during a home invasion, and his passing still haunts the music community. It’s not surprising how any form of disrespect towards him may cause turmoil. An example came recently, when Audrey Jackson, the late rapper’s mother, shared on her Instagram page that her son’s gravesite was vandalized.
On Monday, Jackson posted a string of Instagram videos that captured the damage that was done to her son’s gravesite. “So, chips leftover from either them trying to break in or from it being fixed to at least have it covered,” she says in the video. “But this was unnecessary, whoever you are.” She also shared her frustration at the damage in the post’s caption, writing, “Whoever you are, you have my attention. Now what!?.”
In a separate post, Jackson showed Pop Smoke’s father cleaning up the damage. The vandalism was initially reported by TMZ on September 11, which showed that someone pried it open. The publication also reported his casket may have been pulled out, as scrape marks on the floor suggest, but this was not confirmed by Pop Smoke’s family.
You can take a look a Pop Smoke’s mother’s Instagram posts above.
Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers struggled mightily in their 2021 season opener. The Packers took on the New Orleans Saints and got ran off the field, with New Orleans picking up a 38-3 win. Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, did not look like someone capable of making magic when he’s on the field, going 15-for-28 with 133 yards, no touchdowns, and a pair of interceptions.
Rodgers appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday and discussed the game. Specifically, he wanted to point out one play: the first interception that he threw. As Rodgers tells it, he took a pair of shots below the belt that led to him getting picked off by rookie defensive back Paulson Adebo.
“I don’t like to make a lot of excuses for interceptions,” Rodgers said. “There’s some sh*t ones, there’s some ones you wish you had back, there’s some ones that really aren’t your fault. That one was entirely due to the double nut shot I took.”
As Rodgers explained, he was trying to step up in the pocket and throw the ball to Davante Adams, but while he tried doing that, disaster struck. He took a “left kinda clothesline” and “somebody on the right, with a right kind of cross.”
“I guess I’ve gotta overcome that and throw a better ball in that situation,” Rodgers said, much to the delight of McAfee and AJ Hawk. “That was a painful one, they got their money’s worth on that one.”
This is certainly not to take away from Adebo, who will forever get to say that his first career pick came against one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. But while it’s hard to totally make out what happens in the pocket, it does seem pretty obvious that something happened to Rodgers, because it is exceedingly rare for him to miss a receiver that badly. At the very least, let this be a lesson to any young football player (and also Aaron Rodgers): wear a cup.
For the better part of the last two years, Britney Spears has used her Instagram account to complain about her longstanding conservatorship and the ways it has restricted her lifestyle. She criticized those close to her who failed to when they were needed needed. She also slammed the paparazzi and apologized to her fanbase for misleading them about her well-being. But it recently vanished, for reasons currently unknown.
Spears’ Instagram page was either suspended or deleted on Tuesday, leaving many to question what happened to cause its removal. The news comes just two days after she used her Instagram account to confirm her engagement to Sam Asghari, her boyfriend of four years. In a post to her page, an image shows her standing beside Asghari, showing how much she likes the ring he got for her. To the proposal, she happily replies, “Yes!”
The turn of events also comes after her father filed a petition with the Los Angeles Superior Court to end her 13-year conservatorship. Jamie Spears said his daughter is “entitled to have this Court now seriously consider whether this conservatorship is no longer required.” He added that, “grounds for establishment of a conservatorship may no longer exist.”
You wouldn’t think it, because of how filling a few slices can be, but pizza is wanting for sides. Something about pizza just doesn’t feel complete. It has all the same basic ingredients as a burger — meat, cheese, sauce — but somehow doesn’t make a full meal. Wings, while a good addition, are perhaps a little too filling, and adding an order to the side of your pizza makes it so that you constantly have to decide which is more deserving of whatever room is left in your stomach.
That’s not the vibe — nobody wants to stress over whether they should be eating another wing or another slice of pizza. Garlic knots and cheese bread, while sensible options, feel redundant; it’s just pizza without the good stuff. This brings us to the salad. Salad is the best accompaniment to pizza, but busting out a knife, fork, and bowl while you’re eating finger food can be unnecessarily cumbersome.
So what we need is an extra little snack that is just as easy to eat, requires only our hands, and pairs well with the salty flavors of pizza. And now Little Caesars thinks they have the answer to our dilemma with their new M&M’s Minis Cookie Dough Brownie.
The M&M’s Minis Cookie Dough Brownie was tested late last year across Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, and Kentucky, under the name Kooky Dough Brownie. We’re glad they changed the name because that means I don’t have to spend a paragraph roasting them over how stupid it is. Anyway, it looks like the test launch was a success as now the snack is available at all Little Caesar’s outlets nationwide for just $3.60 under its new, better name.
So has Little Caesar’s finally solved our pizza-side-order dilemma? Let’s find out.
M&M’s Minis Cookie Dough Brownie
Dane Rivera
As I alluded to earlier, I like the name of this thing because it telegraphs what exactly it is we’re eating — it’s a brownie topped with a layer of cookie dough and M&M’s Minis. Simple. Flavorwise, this snack smacks you with sweetness and has a slightly salty flavor on the backend which ping pongs back to sweetness courtesy of the generous topping of M&M’s Minis. It doesn’t have that dense richness I expect from a good brownie, instead what I got was much airier and more focused on the cookie dough half of the snack, which can be overwhelmingly sweet.
The crunch provided from the M&Ms is a nice addition and brings back some of the chocolate flavors that are masked by the cookie dough, but ultimately it just adds to the sweetness, which is something this brownie needs less of — something I thought I’d never say about a brownie.
Dane Rivera
Each order comes with four cookie dough brownies which are each 210 calories with 17g of sugar. That’s quite the snack, not quite as sugary as a soda (which is also a must with pizza) but more calories than your average can of Coke. I took the liberty of measuring this brownie, because why not, and found that it measured out to two inches by two inches, and is one and one-half inches high, with the brownie portion occupying almost a whole inch.
That doesn’t sound like a big snack, but trust me, this thing is so overly sweet that it’s kind of hard to get through that small square.
The Bottom Line
Dane Rivera
Overall, I think the M&M’s Minis Cookie Dough Brownie tastes pretty good but served alongside pizza, it’s just too damn sweet. The idea of eating one of these after a few slices of pizza seems crazy (especially if you like beer or soda to accompany your pie) unless what you’re aiming for is a stomachache. Instead, put these in the fridge and eat one cold a few hours after dinner — that’s more viable.
Sounds like we’ll have to keep looking for the perfect pizza pairing partner (other than beer, that is). The search continues!
Way to bury the lead, Jeff! Yesterday’s news of Jeff Bridges’ cancer remission revealed the beloved Hollywood icon also faced COVID 19, which had him hospitalized for over a month. This put many things on hold, including filming for his new FX thriller series Old Man.
Taking on chemotherapy is no easy task. Pile that onto losing smell, restricted breathing, and medical isolation, and anyone would want to throw in the towel. But for the ever optimistic Bridges, dealing with two health crises simultaneously became a beautiful life lesson, which he shared in a handwritten letter found on his website.
His letter starts with a brief, lighthearted telling of his cancer/covid experience, saying covid made “cancer look like a piece of cake,” and “Covid kicked my *** pretty good, but I’m double vaccinated & feeling much better now.” He even granted us a rather impressive Darth Vader doodle.
“While I had moments of tremendous pain…getting close to the Pearly Gates…I felt joyous and happy most of the time. This brush with mortality has brought me a great gift. Life is brief and beautiful. Love is all around us, & available @ all times. It’s a matter of opening ourselves up to receive the gift WE, (I) want some other gift that Life isn’t giving us. I mean, who would want to get Cancer and COVID? Well…it turns out I would. I would, because I get to learn about love, learn things that I never would have if I never got it.
Jeff goes on to share exactly what he learned, and it’s a message that really hits home, both literally and figuratively:
“Here’s a flash I had: Home is a place where a person can receive, give, and learn about love. And that place, HOME, is really wherever you are @ any given moment, right now, for instance.”
He then recommends some interesting book titles, song selections, and even a video about albatrosses, which I think we can all agree has equal value.
For anyone struggling to see the gift in times of pain, may Jeff’s candid and genuine words remind you to view wherever you are as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, grow, and most importantly, to love.
Social media on Tuesday was flooded with tributes to Norm Macdonald, who passed away after a decade-long battle with cancer that he kept private. People honored the comedian by sharing clips. They remembered how he (probably) got fired from SNL for doing too many O.J. Simpson jokes. Seth Rogen admitted that he “essentially ripped off” his deadpan delivery when he was starting out. But one of the most moving tributes came from an unexpected place: You guessed it, Frank Stallone.
During his stint as host of Weekend Update, Macdonald would regularly set up an elaborate joke, usually about some calamity, but sometimes for a real accomplishment. And he would blame it on the actor, musician, and brother to Sylvester Stallone. The punchline was always the same: “You guessed it: Frank Stallone.” Macdonald blamed Sly’s brother for toxic waste in Los Angeles, the mass killing of fish in Maryland, and unemployment downturns in the mid-’90s. He also, for the record, once claimed he was the second most powerful person in show business (behind Rupert Murdoch). He did this over and over again, until he left SNL.
Sometimes the jokes would get big laughs. Sometimes they’d get confused shrugs. But there was one person who seemed to enjoy it: You guessed it, Frank Stallone.
“I was saddened to hear that Norm MacDonald passed away today at 61,” Frank wrote on Instagram. “He had a lot of fun with me on weekend update with, You Guessed It Frank Stallone. I thought it was funny. My only regret was that I never got to do the show with him. I thought he was an original and very funny. My condolences go out to the MacDonald family.”
Meanwhile, as of this writing, O.J. Simpson has yet to weigh in. But you can watch a half-hour of Macdonald O.J. jokes below.
And you can watch Frank Stallone jokes, plus him discussing them after the fact, above.
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt caused a stir last week when he canceled performances in Florida and Utah because the venues wouldn’t comply with his COVID-19 protocols. Oswalt requested that venues only allow audience members that are vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19.
However, in Florida, vaccine mandates are illegal and the venue in Salt Lake City refused.
“This difficult decision was made due to the rising number of COVID cases,” Oswalt said. “And also because I have an ego but my ego is not big enough to think that people should die to hear my stupid comedy.”
His decision was completely rational. Unvaccinated people are three times more likely to spread COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die of it, so why not make the venues safe for attendees and staff? Also, should we really put people at risk just to see a comedy show?
Oswalt’s decision was the complete opposite of fellow comedian Jim Breuer who refuses to play venues with a vaccine mandate. Bruer is best known for his appearance in “Half Baked” and “Saturday Night Live” from 1995 to 1998.
“Due to the segregation of them forcing people to show up with vaccination — to prove you’re vaccinated, to prove you’ve had a shot — I’m absolutely not doing those shows,” Breuer said in a recent Facebook Live post.
Announcing he was canceling scheduled performances in Michigan and New Jersey, Breuer said, “What these establishments are doing are wrong. What this dictatorship is doing is wrong.”
Some of the reactions to the cancellations on social media surprised Oswalt who thought he was being pretty reasonable about the whole thing.
@pattonoswalt sounds like a Nazi. Freedom baby! Try it sometime https://t.co/FCfyBv8rOD
— Two Party Illusion (@johnnyr40821566) 1631206515.0
@pattonoswalt Stay out of Florida! We don’t want you here!!!! Vax Nazi!!!!
Oswalt had some fun with the extreme reactions to his show cancellations on Monday night on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”
“I was like, ‘When did everyone become Thanos where it’s just like, whoever dies, dies?'” asked Oswalt.
“And by the way, if that is your philosophy, don’t die for me, go die seeing Lizzo. That’s a good last concert to see,” he cracked. “You shouldn’t die for any entertainer. But if you are, make it count. Don’t be in the hospital, (saying) ‘I’m so glad I got to see that fat nerd whine about ‘The Mandalorian.'”
“That shouldn’t be your last thing. Don’t roll the dice for that stuff,” he added.
Patton Oswalt Says His Show Isn’t Worth Catching COVID | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Oswalt’s rationale make a lot of sense. We’re at an odd place in the pandemic where large events are happening because people who are vaccinated can go out with a certain amount of confidence and unvaccinated people probably aren’t very concerned about the virus (even though they should be).
There are still risks involved with going out but we have to live our lives, so where do we draw the line? Oswalt’s decision to keep things as safe as possible at this point in the pandemic makes a lot of sense. Nobody should die just to have a laugh.
Even with America and much of the world still reeling from COVID-19, this year is no different.
In fact, two dresses, in particular, have gone viral with very different but very powerful messages about life in 2021. This year, the honor of showcasing the most talked about outfit is being shared between singer Billie Eilish and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). And much like Waithe and Watson before them, one dress wore its heart on its sleeve (or tails to be exact), while the other was subtle in its vital message about animal rights.
First was Eilish. Everyone is talking about her stunning homage to Marilyn Monroe and we get it. Eilish has been getting increasingly comfortable stepping out publicly in more adult, form-fitting attire, such as her appearance on the June cover of Vogue. During the Met Gala, Eilish talked about finding new confidence in having her figure on public display and the personal empowerment she’s gained while staying true to her past comments about body positivity. “I’ve always wanted to do this,” she said during her red carpet appearance when asked about the Monroe comparison.
However, it wasn’t just about a killer gown. There was a catch and we love Eilish all the more for it: She only agreed to wear the Oscar de la Renta dress on the condition that the acclaimed fashion designer agrees to stop using animal fur.
“It is an honor to wear this dress knowing that going forward Oscar de la Renta will be completely fur free!!!” Eilish, who is vegan, wrote to her 91 million Instagram followers. “I’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter.”
At the same time that Eilish was going viral, AOC was making waves of her on the political front. The New York Democrat showed up to the Met Gala in a white dress with red lettering on the back that read “Tax the Rich.” Ocasio-Cortez said she was proud that her dress was drawing attention to what she called the nation’s unfair taxation system which enables seemingly endless loopholes for wealthy Americans and corporations.
The medium is the message. https://t.co/b4Ssr6HkYR
“When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we really started having a conversation about what it means to be working-class women of color at the Met, and we said, ‘We can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions,'” AOC said during a red carpet interview about her collaboration with designer Aurora James. “While the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it.”
Ocasio-Cortez did receive some criticism from both the political Right and Left for her appearance, with some saying it was hypocritical for a public servant so critical of economic privilege to appear at an event with a $30,000 ticket price and attendees paying an estimated $250,000 per table. However, others praised the lawmaker for bringing her message of equal taxation directly to those who would be most affected by it.
Regardless of your politics, it was refreshing to see both Eilish and AOC using their respective perches and power to make bold statements for the causes they care about. And let’s be honest, it doesn’t hurt when those more serious topics are conveyed with some top-level fashion sensibility.
Last month Kevin Morby announced a follow-up/companion release to his excellent 2020 record, Sundowner. The collection of demos, dubbed A Night At The Little Los Angeles, and it was named for the back shed of Morby’s Kansas home. Early sessions recorded on a 4-track in 2017 and 2018 were what eventually made up Sundowner, and by sharing the bare bones versions he hoped to let fans hear exactly what he was going for on the finished album.
“My goal was to capture the essence of these initial recordings, and here you will now have access to the very essence I was chasing,” he explained. “Many of my favorite recordings have been made inside of an artist’s home with little to no regard of the outside world, but instead deep in their own that they are building in real time. And with that — I’d like to invite you into my own little world here and now and ask you to please step inside and spend A Night At The Little Los Angeles.”
Today, Morby shared the 4-track version of the title track, “Sundowner (4-Track Demo),” noting that close listeners will definitely locate differences between this demo and the final version. “In this demo of ‘Sundowner’ you’ll notice a few differences from the album version,” he said. “Wait for it!” Listen to the very end for one glaring difference, but check in above for other changes. The full demo album will be out in early October, and he also previously released the 4-Track Demo version of “Campfire.” Check out his “Sundowner” version above and pre-order the entire demo album here.
The Daily Show returned on Monday night, and right out of the gate, host Trevor Noah went to town on Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre speech at a 9/11 memorial event where the disgraced Trump attorney launched into a gooffy aside about Prince Andrew. Noah personally found the speech captivating because it showed how much things have changed since the 9/11 attacks.
“Twenty years ago, Rudy Giuliani was ‘America’s Mayor’ projecting calm and sobriety when the country needed it most,” Noah said while setting up a clip of the speech. “But at Saturday’s commemoration, Giuliani was… not that.”
After playing Giuliani’s speech where the former mayor did a terrible British accent while impersonating the Queen, Noah couldn’t over the fact that Giuliani swore up and down that never met Prince Andrew, and then a second later, reveals that they partied in his office:
Only Rudy can spend the 9/11 anniversary talking about the time he hung out with Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged pedophile friend. You know your speech went off the rails when people watching it are like, “I wish this guy would talk more about 9/11. What is he doing?”
I mean, my favorite part of this whole thing is how Rudy Giuliani can’t even get his story straight while he’s telling it. “I never once meet Prince Andrew. Never! I mean, yeah, one time we hung out in my office, and we had that party that time. Bernie remembers that, don’t you? Don’t you, Bernie?”
Noah ended the segment by joking, “I mean, I don’t know who Bernie is, but I bet he and his wife had a very long car ride home.” But here’s the thing: Bernie is former NYPD police commissioner Bernie Kerik who was forced to resign after a series of scandals, one of which involved having an affair in an apartment that was reserved for clean-up workers in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
So, somehow, Giuliani’s speech manages to get even worse as more details emerge. But don’t say he was drunk! “America’s Mayor” has been very adamant in follow-up interviews that he only had one Scotch before taking the stage. Just like the time he said never met Prince Andrew, you can trust him.
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: FOX 
