samhexum

https://qns.com/2025/02/billy-joel-and-sting-to-rock-citi-field/

FX is on the verge of renewing freshman comedy English Teacher for a second season, multiple sources confirm to TVLine exclusively. We hear that production is tentatively set to resume later this month.

@WilliamM is now a Twins fan... The Twins are going to sign outfielder Harrison Bader, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a one-year deal for the VaynerSports client, with a mutual option for 2026. Bader is guaranteed $6.25MM and can earn another $2MM via bonuses. Bader, 31 in June, is a glove-first guy. From 2018 to 2024, he has been credited with 75 Outs Above Average, the top mark among all outfielders for that span. His tally of 48 Defensive Runs Saved in that stretch is only marginally less impressive, putting him sixth in the majors overall.

Wasn't that part of the plot of a recent Ryan Murphy miniseries?

Villagers have said they’re fighting a “David and Goliath” battle against a billionaire entrepreneur’s plan to create a huge $37,200-a-night wedding venue on their doorstep. Residents in Huntingfield, Suffolk, which has a population of just 150, claim the “all singing, all dancing”‘ entertainment center, which could hold 288 people, will destroy their rural idyll. The location, known as Blyth Barn, is part of luxury holiday firm Wilderness Reserve owned by Jon Hunt, founder of estate agency Foxtons, and visited by stars such as Zoe Sugg and Jack Whitehall. However, the venue, which includes professional chefs and spa therapists on site, has angered locals who say it has gone “too far.” They are particularly concerned about the approval of a 24-hour alcohol license, the effect on local traffic and late-night disturbance. At the end of last year, the business applied for a premises license at its latest development called Blyth Barn on the Valley Farm estate. Proposals for the venue to serve alcohol 24 hours a day were approved by East Suffolk Council earlier this month. An extraordinary general meeting of Huntingfield Parish Council on Thursday, Jan. 30, saw 50 objectors turn up to discuss the “biased” application. The Wilderness Reserve has also sought “part retrospective” planning permission to reconfigure three approved holiday lets into a single guest house known as Blyth Barn. Once finished, the 17-room property will have a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, gym and party room. Lorraine Brennan, 61, and Nina Roe, 39, are two villagers who have objected to the plans. They said residents had initially been informed there were plans for a “rural retreat” that have now spiraled into the entertainment venue. They are concerned that their “tranquil and peaceful village would be destroyed” by visitors who may overspill and cause nuisances in the village. They also had worries about drunken behavior, drug taking and a lack of security. “We feel as if we’ve been disregarded and unconsidered all in the name of money,” said Lorraine, who has lived in the “very old village and small farming community” for eight years. “We were pleased when the application went through for the Valley Farm site as the old gothic farmhouse has been in disrepair for the last 40 years,” she admitted. “We thought the idea of a rural retreat would be a really good thing for the village. “Then in December 2024, we’re told they want to turn it into an entertainment center. It will be larger than our village,” Lorraine complained. “We’ve had four years of construction noise disturbing the peace of the village already. This has got to a point where it’s gone too far. “All of the construction traffic goes through the heart of the village as well as every staff member and guest. It’s a single-track road.” Lorraine also shared that the issue has been “quite mentally distressing,” adding, “Our village and close community has been ruined.” She said that the village is “very lucky” that it already has a “wonderful pub and little village hall,” but noted that they both shutter by 11 p.m. “Why should this development be allowed a 24-hour license?” Lorraine asked. “It’s a David and Goliath battle.” The reserve’s barrister presented the case at the licensing meeting on Jan. 15 and described the venue as a “deconstructed hotel” that aims to “promote nature, sustainability, and the rural economy.” The alcohol license was granted on several conditions, including the Challenge 25 policy being adopted — it involves requesting ID for anyone under 25 — and CCTV. The meeting also heard that a noise management plan should be prepared in consultation with East Suffolk Council before it is submitted. The music sound levels should not exceed 85 decibels in the day and 75 decibels in the evening, controlled by acoustic limiting devices. “Nobody has considered the knock-on effect this will have on traffic, light pollution, noise or the wildlife. Guests will be moving down into the village, coming into the pub — nobody in the venue can stop that,” said Nina Roe, who has lived in Huntingfield all her life. “It was noted that it was antisocial to use a single narrow lane, and they would use another access point. But all the roads into the village are single lanes,” she continued. “Guests are picked up in Land Rover taxis and helicopters pick them up and land all over the village. These aren’t noiseless vehicles. “We’ve been misled.”

Christina makes out in public with new beau as divorce battle with Josh continues The new couple was spotted packing on the PDA outside of Los Angeles restaurant Baltaire on Thursday. and the beat goes on...

Minnesota woman scrolling through TikTok while behind wheel kills grandfather

Nancy McKeon admits “there was a lot” of talk about the cast’s weight behind the scenes on “The Facts of Life.” While McKeon — who starred in the ’80s sitcom with Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and Mindy Cohn — doesn’t get into specifics, she reveals there were discussions about what the cast should eat and how much they should weigh. “Each one of us had to deal with things in our own way,” she tells Page Six in an exclusive interview. The NBC TV series, which ran from 1979 to 1988, centered around a private all-girls school in Peekskill, NY, and was groundbreaking for dealing with issues like drug use, eating disorders and peer pressure.

Entitlement Oh, dear lord! Heavens to Betsy! How do you solve a problem like Ave Maria?

This One-Of-A-Kind Mexican Costco That Has A Unique Attraction In The Parking Lot While most folks head to Costco to pick up groceries and grab a hot dog, one Mexican Costco’s parking lot has been drawing crowds for a very unique reason. Costco is like the Disneyland of grocery stores with plentiful free samples, $1.50 hotdogs, and unique surprises like Chinese century eggs waiting to be discovered. However, while most folks head to Costco to pick up groceries, one particular location’s parking lot has been drawing crowds for a very unique reason — a cenote. Cenotes are a formation specific to the Yucatan peninsula, which was once a coral reef millions of years ago. As sea levels decreased, the now-dry land became pockmarked with cave systems and sinkholes. These sinkholes, which drain water into the many underground river systems, are cenotes, and they’ve become major tourist attractions. While there are an estimated 10,000 cenotes in the Yucatan, with only 2,400 documented, only one can call a Costco parking lot its home. Situated in Merida, Mexico, the location where the Costco now sits was once occupied by a Cordemex factory. When construction began on the new store, the factory’s warehouses were torn down, and the cenote was discovered. Named Ka Kuxtal, which in the Mayan language means “the one that got [brought] back to life,” this cenote has become a must-see for tourists in Merida both for its beauty and bizarre location. Plus, Costco has really dressed up the area around the cenote with a scenic stone garden surrounded by native plants. While the area is fenced off, so you can’t directly approach the cenote, the view alone is something no other Costco can offer. If you’ve already started planning your trip to Merida, Mexico, to take in this unique destination, you might want to bring your Costco card along (or make sure you have your digital card on your phone). Once you’re a member, your card will get you into any Costco around the world and it’s definitely not an opportunity to pass up on, especially since Costco’s food court items around the world can be pretty delicious. In Merida, specifically, you can grab some churros, a mango smoothie, and an iconic hotdog with jalapenos and onion. Although Mexican Costco warehouses don’t differ too much from those you’ll find in America, it can be worth checking out the tequila aisle, where you can sometimes find great deals, and stocking up on the cult classic Mexican Coke, even if the taste difference might just be all in our heads. In any event, snacking on a fresh Costco churro while hanging out by the parking lot cenote is a pretty cool experience, and it’s definitely not something everyone can brag about. Knowing this unique Costco exists certainly might make your local warehouse seem a bit bland, but don’t feel too bad. At least you still have great deals to look forward to!

82,150 Gallons of Paint Later, a Blue Man Group Farewell Over 34 years, the show gave Fred Armisen a drumming gig, “Arrested Development” a hilarious story line and more. Now the cultural sensation comes to an end in New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/theater/blue-man-group-new-york-closing-off-broadway.html “Arrested Development” … hilarious story line I couldn’t bother reading an article that begins with such a colossal oxymoron.

Wouldn't it be delicious to have the person who hates you the most do it so he/she is forced to stand up in front of people and say nice things about you?

Tom Welling arrested for DUI in Arby's parking lot The 47-year-old was busted in Yreka, Calif., just after midnight on Monday.

Possibly because the "bad boy" (or girl) is seen as the cool kid many of the others secretly want to be.

But how do you REALLY feel?

Au contrair... RE: taking care of one's ass at home... My earliest memory is of my dad teaching me how to clean myself in a stall at our pool club.

After complaining for the better part of two years that Gen Z grads are difficult to work with, bosses are no longer all talk, no action: Now they’re rapidly firing young workers who aren’t up to scratch just months after hiring them. According to a report, six in 10 employers say they have already sacked some of the Gen Z workers they hired fresh out of college in recent months. Intelligent.com, a platform dedicated to helping young professionals navigate the future of work, surveyed nearly 1,000 U.S. leaders. It found that the class of 2024’s shortcomings will impact future grads. After experiencing a raft of problems with young new hires, one in six bosses say they’re hesitant to hire recent college grads again. Meanwhile, one in seven bosses have admitted that they may avoid hiring them altogether next year. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said some or all of their recent graduate hires were unsatisfactory in some way. Employers’ gripe with young people today is their lack of motivation or initiative—50% of the leaders surveyed cited that as the reason why things didn’t work out with their new hire. Bosses also pointed to Gen Z being unprofessional, unorganized, and having poor communication skills as their top reasons for having to sack grads. Leaders say they have struggled with the latest generation’s tangible challenges, including being late to work and meetings often, not wearing office-appropriate clothing, and using language appropriate for the workspace. When asked what would make college grads more hirable, bosses responded: a positive attitude and more initiative. Intelligent’s chief education and career development advisor, Huy Nguyen, advises Gen Z grads to observe how other workers interact to understand the company culture at any new firm they may join. From there, it’s easier to gauge what’s an appropriate way of engaging with others. “Take the initiative to ask thoughtful questions, seek feedback, and apply it to show your motivation for personal growth,” Nguyen adds. “Build a reputation for dependability by maintaining a positive attitude, meeting deadlines, and volunteering for projects, even those outside your immediate responsibilities.” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently echoed that an “embarrassing” amount of your success in your twenties depends on your attitude—and the reason why is simple: Managers would rather work with positive people. Some leaders have even insisted that a can-do attitude at work will advance young workers’ careers more than a college degree. Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin, has repeatedly urged young people to ditch university in favor of the “school of life.”

Law & Order: Organized Crime has added another big name to its squad. Jason Patric will join the cast of the Christopher Meloni-led cop drama for its upcoming Season 5, our sister site Deadlinereports. Patric will recur as Detective Tim McKenna.

Jeremy Allen White is stepping out of the kitchen for the Netflix limited series Enigma Variations. The Emmy Award-winning Bear actor is attached to star in and executive-produce the adaptation of André Aciman’s novel, our sister site Variety reports. The project, which is currently only in the development stage, will be written and showrun by Amanda Kate Shuman (The Wheel of Time, Berlin Station). Aciman also wrote the novel Call Me by Your Name, which was adapted into the 2017 movie starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. The official book description for Enigma Variations follows: “Enigma Variations charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents’ cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he’ll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men—whether he’s on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York sidewalk in early spring. Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire. Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we’ve always known we were.

Everybody will be talking about this wild movie The No. 1 movie at this year’s Sundance Film Festival that will have the masses talking when it hits theaters in a few months is “Twinless.” Bring an oxygen tank, you’ll be gasping so much. And not always from laughter. A Sundance debut was a shrewd move for writer-director James Sweeney’s totally unexpected dramedy about two 30-something men who bond over the fact that both of their twins have died. The storied cinema locale makes for a mischievous bait-and-switch. That’s because you stomp in assuming the flick starring Dylan O’Brien and Sweeney will be the familiar kin of countless other sweet, quirky indies, in which paralyzing grief gives way to hipster joy, that have bowed up here in the Utah mountains. Most of us can recite the plot from memory. There are probably vintage bicycles. And doesn’t the quick synopsis sound lovely? Two urban people losing their biological other half and filling their seemingly unfillable void with against-type friendship? Even the title comes off like a nice ’90s VHS. “Twinless” begins innocently enough, but soon transforms into something much darker and more psychologically sinister. Sweeney’s unpredictable movie twists and writhes, while never losing sight of its layered characters’ heartfelt longing. Still, don’t go for feel-good. Go for feel-shocked. Definitely go for feel-complicated. Sweeney’s compulsively addictive film begins with the loud noise of car crash, and then quick-cuts to a funeral. This director revels in abrupt cuts, which deliver laughs as well as cringes and lend the film a brisk pace that never lets up. Roman’s (O’Brien) brother Rocky is in the casket, and he and his mom (Lauren Graham) are overcome with sadness. The emotionally confused attendees fall apart when they see Roman, Rocky’s identical twin. They sob and hug him like their friend has come back to life. “We’ve never met before, but I feel like I know you,” one says. And whenever anybody on the street mixes him up for his late brother, Roman tends to lie. It’s just easier. At a support group for grieving twins, he meets spindly, awkward Denis (Sweeney), whose brother Dean died a year and a half earlier. Denis is gay and chatty; Roman is a straight, athletic meathead, who blurts out malapropisms like, “I’m not the brightest knife in the drawer.” The unlikely duo hit it off, and become inseparable. Borderline obsessive. Cue the kindness, we think. Not so fast. To give some idea of the evolving tone, during a party with a lot of simmering subtext, Sweeney splits the screen like Brian De Palma in “Carrie” or “Dressed to Kill.” From here, the less you know, the better. Sweeney — a mega-talent who is as terrific an actor as he is a writer and director — is a brilliant plotter. Those who are always a mile ahead of a script will find themselves refreshingly behind this filmmaker’s razor-sharp mind. He’s also smart to risk doing double-duty as Denis, a tricky character with a hyper-specific tone and brow-raising behavior. If handled clumsily, the the geeky friend could easily get a cool response from the viewer. Even at his worst, we give Sweeney’s endearing Denis the benefit of the doubt. Hard to admit (you’ll find out why), but I think we also all see ourselves in him. O’Brien wears two hats, too. He also plays Rocky, Roman’s extroverted gay brother, in flashbacks from before the accident. Although the stark contrast between the siblings is impressive, the actor’s most shattering moment comes in a hotel when rough Roman uncages his trapped feelings. I can’t recall such a raw performance in a comedy in ages. You’ll begin “Twinless” with basic expectations, and you’ll end it with your mouth agape. And then you’ll ask the most satisfying question there is after first encountering an exciting young filmmaker’s work: When’s the next one?

A North Merrick woman has gone above and beyond to unite lonely older strangers on Long Island — by creating a “friendship circle” with nearly 850 members. “Four years ago, I put out online that I was looking for friends that I could call my family,” the group’s founder, Ester Horowitz, 68, told The Post, adding that her motivation came from a shrinking sphere of companionship because of age and COVID. “The reaction was about 300 responses. It made me realize how many of us were feeling isolated,” she said. Now the widely popular group of women over 55 — with their spouses also invited to certain events — has genuinely brought a shine to their golden years. On any given day, a member posts on their closed Facebook channel to seek out a buddy to join them for a walk, meal or other activity. “I probably know at least 50 new people now” through the group, longtime member Toni Smith, 68, of Bellmore told The Post. The group also holds more extensive planned events such as excursions to theatrical plays, museums and game nights at restaurants. Some members are mulling over the idea of a group cruise, too. “It feels like the new version of being a neighborhood kid and knocking out the door to see if somebody can come out to play,” said Horowitz, who explained that the circle grows when its members invite their outside pals. The founder, who initially felt embarrassed to ask for new friends online in 2021, has even gathered the gals for important talks on Medicare and cybersecurity. She also organized an upcoming three-and-a-half-hour defensive-driving course, a hot ticket for the circle. “Life is better with friends,” member Jenny Jardine, 65, of Wantagh, told The Post. The connectivity was on display last week during one of their larger get-togethers — an evening of card games including Mahjong and Italian food at Patrizia’s of Hicksville.

How could I forget the Batemans?