When you’re a robber armed with a knife and you enter a Chinese restaurant with the goal of robbing the place, a couple of cooking utensils shouldn’t bother you, right?
Not so for a crook in Brooklyn, NY, who sought to rip off Chen’s Garden earlier this month. But just as he was about to jump the counter and make his move towards the register (one can assume), a couple of cooks armed with what appears to be cooking ladles, and a stool, scared off the would-be robber, who apparently has a soup aversion?
Police released surveillance video in hopes someone would recognize the hoodie-clad dude who needs to seriously think about a new line of work. You’d think bringing a knife to a utensil fight would be a winning move, but when you’re afraid of a giant soup spoon, you gonna lose either way.
Police think this is the same guy responsible for a string of hits at fast food places, like Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC/Taco Bell, where an employee was threatened at knife point to take nearly $900 from the register.
The National Academy of Sciences on Thursday released a groundbreaking report, “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research.” The report states that there is conclusive evidence marijuana is effective medicine.
The report did not find clinical evidence for all conditions marijuana treatment is often associated with, but it recognizes its efficacy for treating many medical conditions such as “chronic pain in adults … chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms.”
“This report is vindication for all the many researchers, patients and healthcare providers who have long understood the benefits of medical marijuana,” said Michael Collins, Deputy Director of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. “To have such a thorough review of the evidence conclude that there are benefits to medical marijuana should boost the case for federal reform. It also underlines how out of touch the DEA and other marijuana reform opponents are when they claim otherwise.”
The report is skeptical of marijuana’s benefit in treating some medical conditions, such as cancer. Nonetheless, the report, “a comprehensive review of the current evidence regarding the health effects of using cannabis and cannabis-derived products,” is a strong rebuke to many of those who have denied that marijuana can be used as medicine.
It also found evidence that “suggests smoking cannabis does not increase the risk for cancers often associated with tobacco use – such as lung and head and neck cancers.”
Currently 28 U.S. states have medical marijuana laws, and 16 additional states have CBD laws (a non-psychoactive component of medical marijuana). Last summer, the DEA announced that it would not reschedule marijuana. The NAS report notes that “There are specific regulatory barriers, including the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, that impede the advancement of cannabis and cannabinoid research.”
Just this week, President-elect Trump’s candidate for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions, was asked at his nomination hearing about what he would do about medical marijuana patients who are following state law but violating federal law. Sessions gave a “wishy-washy answer,” acknowledging the Department of Justice’s limited resources but ominously saying, “I won’t commit to not enforcing federal law.”
Medical marijuana amendments routinely passed the Republican-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee over the past three years, while an amendment to end federal marijuana prohibition outright failed by just nine votes last year in the House.
The uncertainty over medical marijuana and how the Trump administration will approach the issue is expected to drive efforts at reform in Congress. Advocates anticipate the reintroduction of the CARERS Act, a bill that would let states set their own medical marijuana policy without federal interference, and would remove many research barriers.
Snappy weather calls for comfort food, and there’s nothing more comforting than soup. There’s also nothing more comforting than cheese, but outside of French Onion Soup we don’t often see the two paired. Making a soup with cheese (and cannabis Olive Oil to drizzle) will probably blow your mind, it turns out to be so simple and delicious.
Making broth with cheese as a flavoring is born of the Italian traits of non-waste and of rich flavors, in even simple foods. Tossing a grating cheese rind into the Sunday Sauce is a common way to complicate a tomato sauce into perfection. There’s no need to ever toss those rinds if you know how to use them. If you are a frequent thrower of cheese parties, this may change your life.
Hard cheeses tend to be saltier than softer ones, and are aged to develop really unique savory flavors. Italian hard cheeses like Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, and Piave are excellent for this recipe. Simply save rinds and once you have at least a full sandwich bag, get ready to make the tastiest soup of your life. If you have other hard cheeses like Manchego you can also use them provided you keep the bulk of the rinds on the Italian side off the cheese wheel, you’ll get salty richness without too much ‘funk’ like with some types.
Super Zuppa
Slightly inspired by both Smitten Kitchen and Chef Charlie Shelton
½ lb Hard cheese rinds (Pecorino, Parmigiano, Grana, Asiago, Piave, Manchego)
1 Medium red onion
1 Bulb garlic
Salt to taste
5 peppercorns
10 rosemary needles
4 c vegetable broth
6 c water
Soup Ingredients:
Kale
Veggie Sausage (or an Italian sausage of choice)
White beans
Cannabis olive oil*
Toasted Italian bread
Quarter onion, peel garlic, and place all ingredients into a large stockpot, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 45 minutes, strain with a fine sieve.
Add kale after 5 minutes. After 8 minutes, beans should be tender and kale well wilted and soft, even the stems. Serve hot in a large bowl, add some of the sausage, garnish with toast rubbed with garlic for dipping, drizzled in cannabis olive oil* and grate more fresh cheese and pepper generously on top. If you want more spice add red pepper flakes, but not too much, it’s a delicately flavored broth.
Decarboxylate starting material for 20 minutes at 225 degrees, 10 for hash and wax, in a sealed container. Add ½ c olive oil to a mason jar with cannabis and seal. Heat in water bath for 1 hour, strain and funnel into a clean bottle.
You can sub in pasta or tortellini for any of the above ingredients, or even just use all four. Even with vegetarian sausage, this combination with kale and beans makes it a filling, hearty meal that is fuel for a long evening of whatever you do on cold winters nights, from Hygge to Hamilton tickets.
I’m a mother of two kids, and I’m home alone with them all day. ALL DAY. From 6 am Cheerios to 6 pm mac-n-cheese, with laundry and playgrounds and Spongebob in between. (Do you know that Spongebob as 1.8 million Twitter followers, btw? I’m one of them. Caillou only has 1,700. I’m one of them, too.) Anyway. Clearly, I’m bored out of my mind. But sometimes… while my children are sweetly napping, I’ll slip outside and take a few nips from my vape pen. And suddenly, washing Sippy cups is fun! Am I bad parent?
Mom in Minnesota
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Dear MIM,
Experts may not agree, but I think smoking pot (in moderation) can actually make you a better parent. And I say this as a normal, productive member of society—and a mother myself, who, yes, often finds it more fun playing Uno for the umpteenth time after a toke or two. It makes me more engaged, more in the moment; so that when I’m playing Uno with my kid, I am PLAYING UNO WITH MY KID. Not thinking about work or weekend plans or wishing I were alone reading my New Yorker or watching “The Affair” instead.
There are a million parenting books out there with titles like Happy Parents, Happy Kids; Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids; Calm Parents, Happy Kids… I haven’t read any of these books, of course, and I highly doubt they recommend parents get stoned. Still, their basic premise holds true. If you’re happy, odds are, they’ll be happy. So if a little marijuana, now and then, makes folding laundry and making mac-n-cheese more tolerable (and tasty), enjoy! Just don’t let them see you smoking.
Being a maid of honor at a wedding can be stressful, but the pressure is no excuse to down nearly an entire bottle of cinnamon-flavored liquor before stealing the best man’s car (nearly running over him in the process), as a Florida woman allegedly did last weekend.
Maid of honor Amanda Willis reportedly made it through David and Jennifer Butler’s ceremony before hitting the bottle as the new couple had their first dance and their cake. She quickly got shitfaced
“She was a mess,” guest Robert Templeton told NBC 2. “She drank almost a whole entire bottle of Fireball.”
“She was drunk within 20 minutes to half an hour,” the bride added.
After finishing her Fireball, Willis allegedly began demanding car keys from other guests before taking keys from the pocket of the best man and taking off in his car, nearly hitting him over in the process.
“She took off, and his feet were dragging across the ground. He had to hit the E-brake,” Templeton said. Eventually guests dragged her from the car, at which point she ran back inside.
“She grabbed up the big bottle of Captain Morgan and just guzzled it like this,” Butler said.
Willis then allegedly attacked Templeton, at which point the police were called. As she was being arrested, she reportedly claimed she was having an asthma attack and began showing signs that she was having a seizure, so deputies took her to a local hospital where she NBC2 reports she “exposed herself to deputies, assaulted two medics and kicked over her bed pan, according to the sheriff’s office.”
She was arrested and faces charges of larceny, battery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and violation of probation. Worst of all she and Butler are, unsurprisingly, no longer friends.
In December, Caroline Charter uploaded a video of her mother laughing hysterically as her daughter Suzanne repeatedly tries and fails to make it up an icy driveway. The video has since gone viral, and now has nearly one million views on YouTube
“This just made my Christmas,” Charter wrote on YouTube. “Ice rain storm made my parents driveway a little treacherous for my sister Suzanne, and my dad.”
“Hysterical laughing track provided by mum,” she added. “Must watch with sound up!!”
After the video took off, Charter spoke with the Mirror UK and told the full story behind the clip. “That day, I was hosting my husband’s family for Christmas celebrations, so needed to get back to prepare, she said. “I actually waited out the initial flash freeze, ice rain that was coming down, but was down to the wire on when people were going to start arriving so had to leave.
“Good news, is that the roads were salted, but their driveway is quite slopped and I wasn’t prepared for the wet ice, she said.That’s the thing about Canadian weather, it can be unpredictable but you still need to crack on with your day.”
“We are a very close family, so we laugh a lot and don’t think twice about mocking each other out of love,” she added. “Apparently, other people can relate. I am just glad my mums laughter has spread so much joy – that is all that matters.”
Charter has since added a update to the YouTube noting that a portion of the proceeds from the video will be donated to “raise awareness for mental health and depression.”
A woman who claims Chipotle used a 2006 photo of her in an advertisement without her permission is suing the restaurant chain for just over $2.2 billion, which represents all of the company’s profits since the photo was taken.
The Sacramento Bee reports the photo was taken in 2006 as Leah Caldwell ate at a Chipotle near the University of Denver. According to the lawsuit, Caldwell was approached by a photographer as she left the restaurant and asked to sign a release form, which she refused to do.
Eight years later, Caldwell says she walked into Chipotle in Orlando, Fla. and recognized a photo of herself on the wall; a few months later she claims she spotted the photo in Sacramento and Rosevill. According to her lawsuit, the photo was first used in 2006.
Caldwell has issues beyond the photo being used without her permission; she also claims the company, or the photographer, by editing in people and objects, including bottles of alcohol, that were not in the original photo.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., photographer Steve Adams, and Chipotle Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells were all named in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Dec. 20.
Often, we don’t think before we speak. When you’re in a heated argument, or a soliloquy of sorts, the words tend to flow without fully processing. As a good friend likes to say, “The world learns what I’m about to say at the same time I do.”
But those words tend to define us and few places is this as true as it in Canada. Without reservation, you can always determine if you’re speaking to a Canadian through one simple phrase: “Eh?” (You really know you’re speaking to a Canadian when the “aboots” come out.)
Canadians are not particularly amused when you eagerly point out their “eh” habit, but the word has become emblematic of the country in a way that is now mostly out of their control. In response, some have embraced it, adopting it as an element of Canadian patriotism.
Atlas Obscura dove deep on the phenomenon. As they pointed out, the word finds various usages and meaning despite it being a small two-letter word. Adding it to the end of a sentence can turn a sentence into opinion, a form of criticism, a question, or a sense of surprise. It can also be added as a narrative tic, adding “eh” to the end of phrases to maintain a listener’s interest. Sort of how Americans will add “right?” or “you know,” or, “like” in sentences that don’t really warrant them. Like, you know, right?
But “eh” is considered a more rural tag and isn’t as common within Canadian cities. “It’s considered rural, lower-class, male, less educated,” said Elaine Gold, the founder of the Canadian Language Museum and a recently retired lecturer at the University of Toronto who’s studied “eh.” Though that hasn’t stopped the country from claiming the word as part of its fabric.
“It’s really come to mean Canadian identity, especially in print,” Gold later added. “Even though urban people might not be using it so much anymore, in print it’s huge.”
“Eh” may be associated with another stereotype of Canadians: the idea that they’re polite to a fault. After all, as [University of Toronto linguist Jack] Chambers noted, “eh” is a signal of politeness and seeking accord. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that an unfailingly polite population would make good use of “eh”?
Gold disagreed, which perhaps indicates Canadians aren’t as inclusive as the stereotype might indicate. So why do Canadians say “eh”? Definitively the truth is out. But like hockey and snow and politeness, saying “eh” just might be part of being Canadian.
“More than three billion in jackpots have been won on Wheel of Fortune slots, and more than 200 versions of the game have been produced and distributed around the world.”
I was talking shop with one of my siblings last week (he happens to work at Mohegan Sun Gaming Resort) and he mentioned something that I couldn’t shake from my mind. I wasn’t sure if my comprehension was askew from the funk of the skunk in my hand or if he was serious. He said, “Not sure if you knew this, but there are slot machines for Titanic (the movie), “Friends” (the TV show), and “Sex in the City.”
Convinced that this was part of the new “anything goes, no boundary, entertainment branding culture” we live in, I set out to learn how shows become slot machines. I discovered that skinning slot machines with entertainment properties isn’t new and that it dates back more than two decades.
The cerebral sativa strain in my brain was obsessed with understanding how someone like Betty White could wind up on a slot. After some investigation, I hit the jackpot when I spoke with Phil O’Shaughnessy (senior director global communications, gaming) at IGT: the leader in “gaming solutions that anticipate the demands of consumers wherever they decide to play.” Phil was friendly and full of information.
Galinsky: Phil take me to the beginning. When did this whole thing start? O’Shaughnessy: Licensed branding came to the slot machine business with IGT Wheel of Fortune slots in 1996.
Photos courtesy IGT Inc.
G: And are you licensing with “Wheel of Fortune” the show or…?
O: We license the brand from Sony, and in fact in 2016 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Wheel of Fortune slots. In that 20-year period, the concept of licensed brands in slot machines has taken off. More than three billion in jackpots have been won on Wheel of Fortune slots, and more than 200 versions of the game have been produced and distributed around the world.
G: What other TV-themed games have you developed?
O: At IGT, we have developed TV-themed EGMs-
G: EGMs?
O: Electronic Gaming Machines. We’ve developed EGMs ranging from “Sex & The City,” to “Family Guy,” and “Orange is the New Black”. At the big gaming show, G2E, we launched a pair of Betty White-themed slots to extend our premium licensed game portfolio.
Photo courtesy IGT Inc.
G: How do you determine what shows you want to brand on the machines? O: With all of these licenses, it’s not about just slapping a popular brand on a machine. It’s really about analyzing the brand, whom it appeals to, and of great importance, whether elements from the show translate well to a slot machine.
Photo courtesy IGT Inc.
G: So did Betty White call you and say “hey Phil! I ‘wanna be on slots in Vegas” or did you reach out to her?
O: We get approached by licensors who offer their themes, and we also pursue themes that we think will translate well to gaming.
G: Ok, then tell me how you decided to bring Ellen DeGeneres to slots. She doesn’t seem like an obvious fit.
O: When we created IGT’s “Ellen DeGeneres Show” themed video slots, the process started with multiple meetings with the show’s executive producers, gaining ideas and feedback, and then presenting concepts to them to ensure consistency and authenticity. They came to our Las Vegas location to play early versions of the games. Our game studio talent made sure to include iconic elements from the show – from visual elements that look great on reels, to games from the show that played well as slot bonuses.
G: So the shows actual executive producers are involved? O: Yes. As a result of this highly collaborative process, IGT created The Ellen DeGeneres Show Featuring Ellen’s Dance Party slots and The Ellen DeGeneres Show Featuring Twelve Days of Giveaways slots, building from extremely recognizable and popular elements from the show. Both of these games feature Ellen’s voice too.
G: And Ellen’s take on this? She is proud of gracing Vegas slot machines along side Betty White? O: Ellen has talked about the games on her show multiple times, and Ellen’s team features a game finder on her website so fans can find the machines in their favorite casinos. We even extended the Ellen brands to our social gaming app, DoubleDown Casino, offering players an opportunity to experience Ellen-themed slots on a mobile device in a free-to-play environment. Our latest iteration features a “selfie” camera so players can include their own image into gameplay.
Photo courtesy IGT Inc.
G: This is far more than window dressing a machine Phil.
O: Indeed. The game hardware is extremely important to the experience as well, and with 4K displays for stunning resolution, the graphic elements really add to the entertainment experience. To cap it off, before our games go to casinos, they go through an extensive focus group research process to make sure that players like them, and that our casino partners can be successful. Those are some examples of games with licensed themes, but also, the collaborative process in creating great slot themes.
G: Which show is the leader in your portfolio?
O: “Wheel of Fortune” still stands out as the theme that has stood the test of time and generated huge international appeal. We even have a 3D version out now.
G: This sounds like it’s a fixture of the gaming casino industry that isn’t going anywhere.
O: You can definitely expect to see licensed TV brands continue in gaming, in fact, IGT delivers to legal, regulated public and commercial gaming operators across 100 countries on six continents.
G: When my TV show premieres next later this year (think it, believe it, it will happen) will you take my pitch for slots? O: If the elements of your show are fun and interactive, than it’ll be a no-brainer Galinsky.
What’s not to love about pugs. Their squished-up, dumb little faces, their oddly-shaped bodies, the confused way they cock their head to the side when they’re listening to you. Since we’ve all got nothing better to do, let’s watch a combined 16 minutes worth of hilarious pug videos together.
Guilty Pug – Bandit the Pug
In this clip, we see Bandit the pug reacting with tremendous guilt as his owner lists the ways in which he’s been a bad dog. But by the end there’s some hope as Bandit seems to agree to try his best to be a better pup.
Dog loses it after finding out he’s at pet store
Captain, which is a fantastic name for a pug, absolutely loses it when his owner informs him that they’re about to go into Petsmart. Captain is a clearly a very good dog, but he should probably calm down a little bit and also get his odd bark checked out.
Pug Loves Baby
Pugs and babies hanging out and doing fun stuff—who doesn’t want to see this?
Pugs, Pugs, Pugs Video Compilation
The YouTube summary says it all: “Pugs loving bath time, pugs eating ice cream, to pugs surfing in the ocean, these are just a few of the pugs you’ll find in this all pugs video compilation.” We can’t wait to watch.
Pug Goes Berserk After Meeting Long Lost Uncle
According to the YouTube summary, Baburao the pug hasn’t seen one of his favorite “uncles” in 10 months. When Babu detects his uncles scent, he promptly loses his mind.
