All posts tagged: mess

A New Mess for Lee Raybon

A New Mess for Lee Raybon

Published by Daniella Wilson

[This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of The Lowdown season two on FX and Hulu.] Lee Raybon doesn’t need much help complicating his own life, but two characters who arrive in the season premiere of The Lowdown promise to make things considerably messier for the Tulsa “truthstorian.” Case in point on Lee not leaving well enough alone: Accepting a journalism award for the big exposé at the center of season one’s story, a nervous Lee (Ethan Hawke) takes a mushroom gummy and proceeds to go off the rails with a speech that basically calls everyone else in the room a sellout and a loser. It earns him a punch in the face (some things don’t change) from another reporter, but also the attention of public defender Ginger (Betty Gilpin), who puts Lee on the scent of what’s going to become the central mystery of this season. At the same time, and unbeknownst to Lee, his estranged father, Lee Sr. (Tommy Lee Jones), is headed his way. A police officer picks up Senior …

Who is in Meghan’s Cotswolds set – and why it’s a complicated mess

Who is in Meghan’s Cotswolds set – and why it’s a complicated mess

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Duchess of Sussex was spotted at the quaint Three Horseshoes pub near Burford in the Cotswolds this week with Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, seen in photos obtained by Page Six. Meghan, wearing an oversized blue shirt and white jeans, was seen chatting and laughing with the US chat show host. They were former neighbours in Montecito, and now reunite as neighbours in the Cotswolds, where Ellen lives in a sprawling single-storey minimalist wooden estate with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and an outdoor infinity pool after fleeing the US in 2024 with the re-election of Trump. Meghan famously appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2021 and adopted one of her rescue chickens. The two are said to have been friends since – which is a good thing, as Ellen can provide much-needed moral support for Meghan as she settles into the area with a friendship group that might seem a little thin on the ground. No doubt she’s working hard to expand it as we speak – the area is a …

The Capital Is a Mess

The Capital Is a Mess

Published by Sam Flores

The capital city is an absolute mess. The White House is an active construction site, with cement trucks going through the same gates typically used by the president’s armored limousine. There’s a gaping hole where half of the building once stood, a project held up by lawsuits. The South Lawn and the Ellipse, a 52-acre park between the White House and the Washington Monument, are completely torn up. The once-green grass where a temporary arena held a bloody UFC fight last month has turned brown. It looks like a demolition derby took place. The Reflecting Pool is a murky shade of green, despite a multimillion-dollar renovation to repaint it American-flag blue and mitigate its algae problem. It is now surrounded by fencing and ominous signs that read DANGER EXPLOSIVES and show a bomb being detonated. Ducks that died in the water are being tested. The National Mall seems to be wrapped in a variety of fencing, some of it in place for construction reasons, some of it to create a security gantlet for the July …

America was much more of a mess at the bicentennial than it is today

America was much more of a mess at the bicentennial than it is today

Published by Sam Flores

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America is in a pretty foul mood, and I understand why. For starters, Washington is broken, prices are high and rising and AI is scaring the stuffing out of people. Understanding, however, is not synonymous with agreement. In other words, some complaints about America in 2026 have more empirical weight than others. Crime may be too high, but it’s been going down for a while. Actually, let’s start there because crime is a good example of how perceptions don’t necessarily reflect reality. Since 2000, writes Gallup’s polling guru Frank Newport, “Americans’ views of the seriousness of crime nationwide … have averaged 43 percentage points higher than their views of local crime.” People tend to think crime is much worse wherever they don’t live. Although nearly half of Americans think crime is a very serious issue in America, only about 1 in 10 think it’s a big deal in their cities and towns. But the “where” is often less of an issue than the “when.” …

PC gaming HDR is still a mess — this is how I get it to work properly

PC gaming HDR is still a mess — this is how I get it to work properly

Published by Miika Tikkanen

In the biggest “spoiler” since the Titanic hit a big block of ice, HDR gaming on Windows devices remains a colossal clustermuck. Microsoft integrated support for the display format into its OS later than modern consoles did. As such, this tardy shift in embracing HDR is still being felt. Although I think these 5 Windows 11 settings matter more than HDR, there’s no question that even the best Steam games can struggle to convert High Dynamic Range signals properly. There are reasons why Microsoft systems can’t cope with HDR. Having to juggle between the HDR10 format, Windows’ built-in Auto HDR feature, and Nvidia’s RTX HDR implementation has created chaos, leaving many developers unsure which master to serve first. Though there’s currently no steadfast way to truly “fix” HDR gaming performance on PC, a couple of pieces of software have improved how my favorite titles handle the format … mostly. Related Just Bought a Smart TV? Do This to Make HDR Look Its Best Your smart TV’s HDR could look so much better. This free software …

Bedtime Is a Mess | Psychology Today

Bedtime Is a Mess | Psychology Today

Published by Jenni Sidey

In many, if not most, American homes, bedtime is a mess right now. Many children won’t go to sleep without a parent in the room, call for their parents a million times, get out of bed over and over, come to sleep in their parents’ bed in the middle of the night, or start out there and never leave. Parents are exhausted, and they get little or no evening time to themselves. Why is this, and what can we do about it? Well, there is obviously not one answer that fits every family and every situation, but one thing has occurred to me. And that is, that in this age of Gentle Parenting, parents are often shying away from insisting that their children go to bed and stay in bed. They are often having trouble being firm about this; in other words, they are having trouble not being nice or gentle. They are having trouble raising their voices, if needed, to make sure their child knows it is time to go to sleep, and this …

How to Not Mess Up Your Kid

How to Not Mess Up Your Kid

Published by Jenni Sidey

Parenting is hard. For everyone. You will never be able to end all toddler tantrums or child misbehavior. However, research can point us in the right direction. It shows how to parent in ways that minimize child anxiety and depression (called “internalizing” problems), as well as behavior problems (called “externalizing” problems). Parenting Styles and Child Problems Diana Baumrind noted that there are four different kinds of parents: authoritarian, permissive, disengaged, and authoritative. Authoritarian parents are highly demanding of their children but show little support for them, whereas permissive parents have low expectations of their children but show high levels of support. Disengaged parents are low on both warmth and demandingness. Lastly, authoritative parents demonstrate high levels of supportiveness, along with high expectations for beneficial behavior. Research shows that these parenting styles are associated with child mental health and behavior outcomes. Children of authoritarian parents demonstrate increased levels of externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (Bornstein, 2015; Pelaez, Pickens, & Hart, 2008; Rinaldi & Howe, 2012), suggesting that a combination of high control and little warmth is …

The Intellectual Right Is Mad at the Mess It’s Made

The Intellectual Right Is Mad at the Mess It’s Made

Published by Sam Flores

In 1961, William F. Buckley Jr. had a problem. The preeminent intellectual of the conservative movement was being outflanked to his right by the John Birch Society. Founded just three years earlier, the group had grown to tens of thousands of members, fueled by its claim that Communists had infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. government. Buckley reportedly complained at the time that he was incessantly asked about the organization. By 1962, Buckley had had enough. In what conservatives have since heralded as a principled maneuver, Buckley used the pages of his magazine, National Review, to excoriate Robert Welch, the society’s leader, as a ham-fisted operator who was unable to understand nuance, who was incapable of leading a proper right-wing movement, and who “anathematizes all who disagree with him.” Buckley’s diatribe is credited with limiting the influence of the Birchers, as they were known, in mainstream politics. Buckley’s fight has been replicated by high-brow conservatives in other eras when they believe that the conspiratorially minded among their brethren have gone too far and risk …

An Ash Wednesday ‘mobilization’ showed us a way out of our country’s mess

An Ash Wednesday ‘mobilization’ showed us a way out of our country’s mess

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is nestled among the well-kept homes of the working-class Chicago suburb of Melrose Park. On Ash Wednesday (Feb. 18), an altar had been erected under a tent outside the church surrounded by a thick crush of 2,000 people who prayed, sang and jostled our way through the ritual. (Fifteen hundred more were somewhat more comfortably inside the church.) When it came time to distribute first ashes, then the Eucharist, there were no neat lines, no aisles or pews — the church building housed only the overflow crowd who would have otherwise blocked the street. But this was not chaos. Strangers united by faith and peaceful purpose were patient with one another, helped each other. We knew why we were there. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and the local congressman, U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, prayed outside with us. They were not the most honored guests, however; nor was Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, who had come to preside at the Mass. We were there to …

Spaghetti is a mess. So, why is it so romantic?

Spaghetti is a mess. So, why is it so romantic?

Published by Sam Flores

In an alley behind Tony’s Restaurant, two dogs share a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs under the moonlight. A red-checkered tablecloth. A bottle of Chianti turned makeshift candelabra. “Bella Notte” drifting through the night air. They lean in for a single strand of pasta — and accidentally kiss. The now-iconic scene, notably from Walt Disney’s 1955 animated classic “Lady and the Tramp,” remains one of the most timeless cinematic moments of romance, often referenced like clockwork every Valentine’s Day. But most importantly — or, rather, interestingly — is its impact on food, transforming the humble spaghetti and meatballs into a grand act of intimacy. In a 2015 interview with Yahoo, former Disney studio archivist Steven Vagnini shared that Disney himself scrapped the pasta scene from the film’s first storyboards before directing animator Frank Thomas changed his mind: “Walt wasn’t convinced that that would be a very clean-cut scene. As you can imagine, if you have two pets and they eat a plate of spaghetti, it’s hard to envision that being too graceful.” Spaghetti is …