Quantcast
Channel: Gawker
Viewing all 24829 articles
Browse latest View live

The Worst Moments From CNN's Awful Coverage of the South Carolina HS Classroom Arrest

0
0

Don Lemon, who could always fall back on teaching yoga if that whole news thing doesn’t work out, because his ability to put his whole foot in his mouth is incredible, pulled another sick eka pada sirsasana Tuesday while covering a school cop’s forceful arrest of a black student in South Carolina.

CNN’s Lemon got into it with commentator and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin, arguing that seeing video of the officer flipping the student over in her desk, throwing her across the room and pinning her down just isn’t enough to pass judgment on whether the arrest was proper.

“We don’t know what happened. You weren’t sitting in the room, Sunny. You don’t know if she wasn’t standing up. You do need to know more, and as a prosecutor, you should want to know more,” Lemon said.

Gotta hear both sides, as Desus often says.

As a former prosecutor, Hostin perhaps knows a little bit more about the law around the appropriate use of force to affect an arrest than journalism major Don Lemon.

“She is sitting there, she is not resisting, she is sitting there in a chair,” Hostin shot back. “That is unreasonable force, that is excessive force, and it’s assault.”

And Lemon wasn’t the only person appearing on CNN who wanted to focus on the student’s behavior, rather than the officer’s.

On New Day, former NYPD officer and current CNN police analyst Harry Houck admitted the arrest “looks really bad” on video, but maybe the student just wasn’t obeying the officer—in which case, everything that happened afterward was justified, in Houck’s view.

“You pull her out of the chair and take her down. That’s exactly what you do,” he said. And by the way, “she did not get hurt. It just looks bad in the video.”

Marc Lamont Hill, political commentator and voice of reason in this particular conversation, attempted to point out that perhaps the problem is teachers calling police to deal with a student who won’t get out of her chair, but he was condescendingly shut down by host Chris Cuomo.

Cuomo wasn’t interested in Hill’s very valid point because it wasn’t “specific” enough for him, and “you’ve made that point before.” So he cut back to Houck, who said, simply, “You must comply.”

Officer Ben Fields has been placed on leave, and the FBI and the Department of Justice are investigating the violent arrest as a possible civil rights violation, but CNN’s commentators really want to focus on whether the student obeyed the cop in this situation—whether she “wasn’t standing up”—as if that makes the video we all saw any easier to watch.

CNN: You must comply.

[h/t Raw Story]


Deadspin I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year’s Most Influential Teens | Kotaku Here Is A Mont

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

0
0

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Today, Time released its list of the 30 most influential teens of 2015. It’s a wide-ranging list that includes celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and Malala. They’re all wonderful, inspirational kids. After looking through the names, I’ve determined that in a fight, I could kick the asses of at least eight of these teens before they beat me.

The breakdown of the list is 10 boys, 20 girls, so I only have 10 teens to choose from, because I’m not going to hypothetically beat up a girl teen. Out of those 10, with no weapons involved, I could beat up eight. A breakdown of each opponent, if they came at me one at a time:

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Absolutely. He’s 13. Moziah would be the warmup. I’d hit him with a bunch of devastating ankle picks.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Ahmed, my man. It sucks that you’re moving to Qatar, but if I had no other choice, I’d destroy you. Your gizmos wouldn’t save you in the cage.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Yes. Next.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Martin’s an athlete, so this would be tricky, and he’d probably resort to kicking quickly. Kicking’s allowed, but it’d just take longer for me to knock him out. The hype might not get to his head, but my fists would.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

This kid has deceptively broad shoulders, but I’d take him down in under six seconds so he could Vine it.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

We meet again, Jaden. The greatest thinker of our time definitely spends time working out, but his peaceful personality is his biggest weakness, and I’d use that to my advantage.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Here’s a scoop for ya, William: I’m going to whoop you.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

At this point, I’d start getting tired. This influential teen would burn most of my remaining energy, but my hands would influence his face.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

Joshua got arrested for trespassing, and the scariest person to fight is someone with nothing to lose. My fatigue from beating up a bunch of difference-making teens would set in, and Joshua would strike the blow that ended my journey.

I Could Defeat At Least Eight Of This Year's Most Influential Teens

If not Joshua, Kim would definitely incapacitate me. Nineteen-year-olds are barely teens and shouldn’t be allowed on this list.

[Time]

Top photo: AP


Contact the author at samer@deadspin.com.

Burning To Death at Tahj Mowry's Halloween Party Would Be the Worst Way to Die

0
0

Burning To Death at Tahj Mowry's Halloween Party Would Be the Worst Way to Die

This post is not about what you think would be the worst way to die. This post is about what I think would be the worst way to die, which is this: burning to death at Tahj Mowry’s Halloween party while dressed as an alpaca.

This is not a situation I have created in my own mind. This is something that almost happened to *clicks over a tab* Jean-Luc Bilodeau, 24, star of the ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy (hmm?). I now cede the floor to TMZ:

‘Baby Daddy’ star Jean-Luc Bilodeau had to be rushed to a hospital after his Halloween costume went up in flames in the middle of a party.

Sources confirm Bilodeau was at costar Tahj Mowry’s party Saturday night when his alpaca costume — made out of cotton balls and lycra — caught fire. Paramedics transported the ABC Family star to a nearby hospital to get treatment for burns on his arms and legs.

Bilodeau is expected to make a full recovery, as is the house of Tahj Mowry, which is no longer under threat of being haunted by the ghost of an ABC Family star who burned to death while dressed as an alpaca.

I ask that all stars of ABC Family sitcoms remember to be extra safe this Halloween.

[image via Getty]


Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.

500 Days of Kristin, Day 276: Honestly We're Pretty Boring

0
0

500 Days of Kristin, Day 276: Honestly We're Pretty Boring

Kristin Cavallari, whose debut book Balancing in Heels (formerly titled Balancing on Heels) is shuffling toward a bookstore near you, recently sat down with PopSugar for an interview about her life. Ever wonder what Kristin and her husband Jay Cutler do on date night?

Read and be healed:

PopSugar: What’s your favorite thing to do for a date night with Jay?

Kristin: Honestly, we’re pretty boring! A perfect night for me right now is waiting to eat dinner together until the kids have gone to bed so that we can actually connect and talk and then watching Ray Donovan and going to bed. That is a dream night for me! Once I have this baby, it will be nice to actually go out to dinner and have a glass of wine, but right now I have no interest.

Good to hear that Kristin is keeping her interest in wine at bay during this time.


This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photo via Getty]

Sheriff: Student Was Wrong To Disrupt Class But That Does Not Justify South Carolina Deputy's Actions

0
0

An internal investigation into the arrest of a high school student by one of his officers will be finished within 24 hours, Sheriff Leon Lott said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Even though she was wrong for disturbing the class,” Lott said, “I’m looking at what our deputy did.”

http://gawker.com/the-worst-mome...

Earlier in the day, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced that they were opening an investigation of their own into the incident at Spring Valley high school. “I have spoken with the FBI and U.S. Attorney William Nettles today as I travel back from Chicago. Their investigation has begun,” Lott said in a statement on the Richland County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page.

“The criminal investigation will be best served with the FBI as the lead agency. We do not want any issues with the community or those involved having questions concerning conflicts of interest in this investigation.”

Lott elaborated at the press conference on Tuesday afternoon, referring to a third, unreleased video of the arrest that apparently shows the targeted student hitting Ben Fields, the School Resources Officer who has been placed on administrative leave, with her fists.

“Even though she was wrong for disturbing the class,” Lott said, “I’m looking at what our deputy did.”

“If she had not disrupted that school, disrupted that class, we would not be standing here today.”

The girl’s actions are not relevant to the department’s investigation, however. “What did he do? That’s what I’m looking at.” Lott said, adding that his “responsibility is the appropriateness of the deputies actions”

Lott expects the internal affairs report to be concluded so quickly because “The fact pretty much speak for themselves,” he said.

Although: “I would hope that race played no part in this whatsoever. That’s important to me and important to this department.”

In fact, Fields “has been dating an African American female” for some time, Lott said.


Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

911 Call: Employee Told Cops: "I Don’t Feel Comfortable" Letting John Henson In Store

0
0

911 Call: Employee Told Cops: "I Don’t Feel Comfortable" Letting John Henson In Store

Milwaukee Bucks forward John Henson said last week he had been racially profiled at a Whitefish Bay, Wis., jewelry store, where he went to buy his first Rolex only to find the doors locked. Henson rang the bell and nobody answered, because store employees were in the back calling the cops.

http://deadspin.com/bucks-john-hen...

Since then, Henson and the police have issued lengthy statements on what happened. The jewelry store called it a “misunderstanding.” Now add to that the dispatch audio, released Friday, documenting phone calls from the store as well as chatter between dispatch and the officers sent to the store. The full audio, via WTMJ, is below and worth listening to, but there are a few key moments notable for how they sound in comparison to the store owner’s statement that this wasn’t racial profiling.

The audio starts with a call from Friday, Oct. 16, with a woman saying the store had gotten “a couple suspicious phone calls” and would like an officer to come and sit in front of the store until it closes. The dispatcher asked the woman to describe the calls and she said ,“They’re just asking about what time we’re gonna close and they just didn’t sound like they were legitimate customers.”

The audio picks up again on Monday, Oct. 19, the day that Henson said he was profiled. In this call, the woman tells dispatch, “We had some suspects Friday. They had stolen plates on their cars. The officer told us if they came back we were supposed to call again. They’re at our front door now, and we’re not letting them in.”

(Henson said he was in a dealer-provided car, per his Bucks contract. Police Chief Michael D. Young later said that an officer told the store on Friday that the plates “were potentially stolen but that they were not listed as stolen” after a check with the dealer revealed the dealer had no idea what happened to the plates.)

The dispatcher asks questions about the vehicle: what are the plates, what does it look like, etc. The store employee explains that she can’t see the vehicle because she’s hiding.

Employee: “I am hiding in the office. I don’t want them to see me out there. We’re pretending like we’re closed. So no one is on the floor. We’re not opening the door. We’re just staying in the back.”

Dispatcher: “Okay.”

Employee (to someone not on the phone): “He’s not answering the telephone calls is he?”

(inaudible chatter by someone not on the phone)

Dispatcher: “You can’t see them though right now?”

Employee: “I’m taking a look at the monitor. They are at the front door. They’re looking into the window. They’re just kind of pacing back and forth. I don’t feel comfortable letting them in. I just really don’t at all. It seems bad to me.”

Later the employee is heard telling someone “Stay out of the view. Stay out of view.” When dinging noises appear in the background, she explains,“They keep ringing the bell. They keep ringing it over and over again.”

Eventually officers arrive and the dispatcher says she is hanging up. There’s more chatter as the officers talk about the plate and what the dealer had told them. An officer asks dispatch to call the store and tell them to come to the front door.

Dispatcher: “I have officers there they’d like for you to come to the door if you could please.”

Employee: “Why? I don’t feel like it. Why do I have to come to the door. Can the officer come to the back? I’m not going to the front door.”

Dispatcher: “OK, they’re going to come to the back. Can you meet them in the back then?”

Employee: “Who’s coming? The officers?”

Dispatch (her voice is raised): “The officers are out there with those subjects and I have an officer that would like to speak with you Patty. Now he’s gonna go to the back door per your request.”

Here is the full audio, via WTMJ. Enjoy the Wisconsin accents.

Image via Associated Press

A Narrative Movie With Hard Dicks and Hardcore Sex: Gaspar Noé's Love 

0
0

A Narrative Movie With Hard Dicks and Hardcore Sex: Gaspar Noé's Love 

Some time in the middle of Gaspar Noé’s new movie Love, star Karl Glusman ejaculates all over the camera. It’s a sight gag because the movie is in 3D, and probably the only instance of an anatomical closeup in the whole, sex-filled 135-minute movie. Generally, Love is more focused the bonds of its love-triangle-trapped characters Murphy (Glusman), Electra (Aomi Muyock), and Omi (Klara Kristin). When they are depicted having sex, as they frequently are onscreen, whomever’s having it is almost always in the same frame at all times. They are often performing actual sex acts, like the three-minute hand job/finger bang that opens the film.

“My biggest dream is to make a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality…Why haven’t we seen this in cinema?” asks Murphy, Noé’s film student protagonist. More than virtually any other narrative feature that came before it, Love honors the cruciality of sex in relationships (especially new relationships). It presents the fragmented recollections of Murphy’s doomed relationship with Electra with a reflective sentimentality that comes close to wallowing at times but, nonetheless, I found extremely moving and relatable. “Why is the measure of love loss?” asked Jeneatte Winterson’s narrator in her novel Written on the Body. Noé (whose other movies include Irréversible and Enter the Void) doesn’t ponder this as a question, he accepts it as a fact: the measure of love is loss in this movie and it hurts like hell.

The cuts between the film’s long takes are signaled by 12 frames of black, creating a half-second blink that approximates “how your brain works when you dream or you think of the past,” as Noé explained to me earlier this week in the office of Love’s publicist. I found him to be gravely serious as we discussed hardcore sex on screen, Glusman’s “strong” dick, and indulgence. An edited and condensed transcript of our chat is below.

Gawker: I realized when watching Love for a second time that I haven’t watched this much heterosexual sex in one sitting since I was a teenager, since VHS.

Gaspar Noé: When they ask me what I think of pornography, I say, “Since it moved to digital, I don’t get excited in any way by computers.” I think they are cold and I think images of sex you see on these websites are colder and colder and unemotional. I really don’t relate to that. I think my last joy of watching sex was on a TV screen with VHS.

I also wonder what it does to sexuality to take in so many sex acts with so many different people in a single sitting.

The worst thing is that erotic images actually are disappearing from our context in Western society. There were things in the ‘60s and ‘70s that were much sexier than nowadays. You had magazines like Playboy or Penthouse or Mayfair. But also, there were all these erotic movies with Sylvia Kristel, with Laura Gemser that could really turn you on as a young boy. But nowadays, I don’t know what the young kids can masturbate on. When I watch those images that you can Google very easy, any kid can Google them easy, they’re cold and cruel and mostly about dominance. They’re not linked to any emotions. People never kiss, girls don’t have pubic hair, guys are all are strong as firemen with tattoos. They’re not relatable for most people, for most girls or for most boys. It’s weird how sexual positive emotions have been disconnected from the movie industry.

What spoke to me about this movie is that it’s invested in the importance of sex to a relationship, especially early on as a method of fostering love.

For me, it’s the closest film I’ve done to real life—at its best and its worst. Maybe the most painful moments in my life were related to sentimental problems and the most joyful were linked to sentimental joys. The love/passion films should be a genre by itself. Why are there so many spy movies, so many bank robbery movies, so many horror movies, sentimental comedies, but not movies reproducing what love is? Everybody’s obsessed with it. Whether you are straight, gay, or whatever else, everybody is obsessed with having an ultimate connection with another person. I’ve seen some of my friends ready to commit suicide because of an unexpected breakup with their girlfriend.

The Murphy character raises a similar question in the movie—“My biggest dream is to make a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality…Why haven’t we seen this in cinema?” But I think the movie answers that question itself through its marketing [like this site that people can use to send messages in virtual cum]: It seems that actual sex in a movie does distract people.

There’s nothing in this movie that haven’t seen. Maybe most people haven’t taken the risk to test themselves in a swinger’s club. Most couples haven’t had a situation in which they bring a transvestite to test how strong their love is. All the rest of the movie is an experience that people know but is not portrayed on a movie screen for reasons that are beyond my understanding. I think they are more abstract. We live in a patriarchal society in which whoever’s in power to control the sexual life of the other people will do it. But then it happens in an abstract way. There are no legal issues that prevent you from shooting movies like mine. It’s more that people are afraid of showing that or commercializing that.

In the end, the only [onscreen] sex you can see is that which is linked to the sex genre, it’s almost coming from a separate planet. The idea is on that planet, people have sex. Those Martians can have sex and we can show them with a telescope, but in real life, we should not show what us, the humans, do in our lives. Maybe most people are afraid of being cheated. That’s like a silent obsession most people have. The worst reviews I had for this movie were coming from men that were very hateful to Karl and to me. They don’t want to promote a movie in which their girlfriends or wives or daughters could be excited by the young guy and his strong dick. It’s a very reptilian reaction to the movie, because they feel danger from a movie that might excite the object of their desire.

Maybe this movie poses a specific challenge to heterosexual men because of the way you shot it, where the two people are almost always in the same frame at the same time and there aren’t really closeups. You see much more of his body than hers—there isn’t any visible labia, even.

I did not want to do images that are not linked to your real life. When you have sex in real life, you are mostly kissing the person, and you are not watching their genitals. I was not obsessed with genitals. I just thought it was good to have that funny [cum] shot in the middle of the movie...

Because of the 3D?

...Yeah, because of the 3D. But also, there is that scene in which he’s giving head to her, but the problem is it’s less visual. The way the female body is, the genitals are internal. It’s more graphic the other way around. It’s not that I didn’t want it. I don’t have bigger issues when it comes to shoot a face, a hand, or genitals. I shot some images of Electra’s magic triangle, but they would not fit in the movie. I removed them because they made no sense, and also I didn’t want the movie to be linked to that genre of videos you can find on the net.

How important to you was it for Murphy to have a good dick? [Note: Gusman’s dick is a very good dick.]

As a heterosexual man, I was far more obsessed in the casting of the girl initially, and also because of the nature of the movie, it was harder to find a girl or girls who’d be willing to do the movie. In France, every single friend I have wanted to be in the movie and show his dick. Guys are always proud to show their dick, whether it’s small or big. I did not ask [Gusman] to get naked in front of me before the first day of shooting me. I just asked a girl who knew him, “How is he?” She said, “He’s OK. Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine.” I discovered his dick on the first day of shooting.

Besides that, I would say that the movie’s mostly about the energy of the people who are playing, and also their charisma and their voices and their joy. The three of them are extremely charismatic so that made the movie. Also, we were improvising the dialogue. We were improvising everything. So, Karl didn’t stop proposing ideas. From behind the camera, I was whispering to them to say things, and then I would cut my voice in the editing room so they would just say things that came to my mind at the very last moment.

Was any of the sex simulated?

Yes, of course. But I don’t want to get into those issues because, for example, I thought it was unarousing to know that in that great movie Blue Is the Warmest Color, they were announcing that the sex was fake. Sex is one of the best parts of life, so I wanted to make a movie about love addiction and show its carnal aspects. How it is cooked is secondary, what counts is the result. When people are kissing...when it’s not needed, it’s not needed. When it’s needed to be done, you can do it for real or it can be cheated. The rape scene in Irréversible was not real. Whatever, I would say it’s not important to say what is, what is not.

When you’re doing something meticulous—and I know it wasn’t autobiographical—where is your head regarding indulgence? Do you wonder, “Am I indulging myself too much?” or is it just, “I am an artist and I’m free...”

Oh I am not an artist. I make movies from time to time. My father is a painter. He is an artist. Some people can claim they are artists when they do great music, but I would rather say it’s a movie that I think is close to life as I’ve seen it. It personal, but it’s a group [effort], because it’s a mix of what I’ve experienced and what my friends have experienced.

Both times I saw it, the biggest laugh happened when they’re discussing baby names and Murphy suggests “Gaspar.”

Usually the moment when people laugh the most is when the girl says she’s 17 soon, and he says, “I fucking love Europe.” The age of consent in France is 15. It was not supposed to be funny, but I would say I’m a joyful person. I make jokes in life. Karl is a very joyful, playful person. Movies, even when you have a story, they end up being a documentary on the charisma of the people you are filming, especially if the dialogue is improvised. In the end, the movie is kind of a comedy now, but it was not meant to be that.

Love is in select theaters today.


500 Days of Kristin, Day 279: Kristin Finally Confirms Relationship With Hoover® Cordless Vacuum

0
0

500 Days of Kristin, Day 279: Kristin Finally Confirms Relationship With Hoover® Cordless Vacuum

Last week, we learned a new thing about Kristin Cavallari, which is that she loves to clean her house with a Hoover® Cordless Vacuum. She did not reveal this news herself, however—it was Hoover® that trumpeted it with a press release. Kristin has remained silent on her apparent relationship with the vacuum...until now.

No cord, no bull, no confusion.

Hoover!!!!!!


This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photo via Getty]

Man Stuck In Tree After Car Floods Gives Best Weather TV Interview Of All Time

0
0

Man Stuck In Tree After Car Floods Gives Best Weather TV Interview Of All Time

“Wait, wait, you’re still in the TREE?” And so, we come to the crux of the greatest weather television interview of all time.

Kerry Packer, a man in Austin, Texas, found himself a victim of the torrential rains currently hitting the city. Floodwaters overcame his car, and as it floated along he realized he’d have to get out and grab something to save his life. He grabbed onto a tree, climbed it, and did what any of us would do.

He called his local news station, Austin’s ABC affiliate KVUE.

Unaware that he’s still in the tree, local KVUE anchors ask how Packer and his wife are doing. Packer goes details how the flood waters snuck up on him and swept him about half a mile, before jumping out of his window and climbing up a tree. “So I’m up about 20 feet in a tree right now,” he adds.

“What?!” comes the response, which is weirdly enough what we’re all thinking. “What are you, what, uh, are you okay? How’s your energy, you’ve been there quite some time?”

“Oh no, I’m fine,” Packer assures us. “Thankfully this is the nicest tree here. It’s a little cold, but I did Boy Scouts for 20 years, so I know how to keep my energy up and keep warm, so I’m doing fine.”

The other anchor then asks whether or not he sees any help, or if anyone’s coming to his rescue, or if, you know, there’s any land just hanging around Packer and his tree.

But no, it’s nothing but water, for as far as the eye can see.

The interview basically continues like that for a while, with the anchors becoming increasingly dismayed and incredulous, before just sort of leaving it with a bit of a prayer for Packer.

Anyways, as of this writing, Packer is still in that tree.

Prayers up for Packer.


Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: 0D03 F37B 4C96 021E 4292 7B12 E080 0D0B 5968 F14E

Clinton Lawyer Attempts to Explain, to Hillary, Her Own Feelings About Her Blackberry

0
0

Clinton Lawyer Attempts to Explain, to Hillary, Her Own Feelings About Her Blackberry

In February of 2012, Hillary Clinton (then secretary of state) had a new Blackberry and couldn’t find its emojis. Longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines wrote Hillary Clinton a detailed email, released today by the State Department, explaining why Hillary Clinton didn’t like her previous phone.

In a previous message, Clinton wrote, “I am quite bereft that I’ve lost the emoticons from my latest new old berry,” asking “Is there anyway I can add them?” Detecting the distress of his boss, Reines walked Clinton through her own emotions and thought processes in what is a very strange email: “So without having actually seen your latest new old berry, I’m guessing that the reason you like it is the familiarity of the device coupled with the familiar operating system.”

Clinton Lawyer Attempts to Explain, to Hillary, Her Own Feelings About Her Blackberry

This exchange took place on Valentine’s Day.

A month later, apparently having gotten another “new old” Blackberry, Reines once more had to explain mental states to Clinton:

Clinton Lawyer Attempts to Explain, to Hillary, Her Own Feelings About Her Blackberry

:) is the happy face, :| is the angry face.

Photo: AP


Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: E93A 40D1 FA38 4B2B 1477 C855 3DEA F030 F340 E2C7

How Grantland Died

0
0

How Grantland Died

ESPN killed Grantland today. There were hints that this would happen, starting with the departure of Grantland founder Bill Simmons in May. This summer, news broke that ESPN would be making enormous budget cuts over the next two years. Last month, Grantland suffered a crippling blow when four top editors—Sean Fennessey, Juliet Litman, Mallory Rubin, and Chris Ryan—left on the same day to join Simmons at a still-unannounced project, and Dan Fierman, Grantland’s editorial director, went to MTV. When Deadspin reached out to ESPN last week to ask if Grantland was being shuttered, a spokesman declined comment. Today it became official. The 40-odd remaining writers and editors at the sports and culture website found out virtually when everyone else did.

http://deadspin.com/espn-has-kille...

This morning, interim editor-in-chief Chris Connelly told his staff that there was a mandatory conference call at 1:50 p.m. Some writers were out on assignment; one was even at an airport. Once everyone called in, Connelly broke the news. According to Buzzfeed, he started off by letting the staff know that “ESPN has decided to direct its time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across its enterprise” before congratulating them for all the great work they’d done.

John Walsh, the longtime ESPN executive editor often credited with launching Simmons’s career and helping to birth Grantland, says he’s less surprised that the axe fell than by the timing. “Oh, wow,” Walsh, who retired earlier this year, said upon getting the news. He let on that he “had some sense that this could happen” after taking some time to collect his thoughts on the death of his protege’s brainchild.

“I didn’t know it would be now,” he said. “This was Bill’s vision and Bill’s baby and these were Bill’s hires, and he’s brilliant. I’m sad that it’s ending, just like the rest of the people who are concerned with the literate sports word world. It’s a loss.”

In retrospect, the editorial exodus looks to have been more or less the end. One Grantlander says that no one knew the four editors were leaving to join Simmons until the day they left. That’s because, another source says, Simmons has been warring with ESPN both by acting as a source for writer Jim Miller, and by more nefarious means.

While Grantland writers are on contract, editors are at-will. The four editors’ exits were coordinated, and Simmons, according to this source, told the editors who jumped ship with him that a condition of their employment was that they couldn’t warn anyone at ESPN they were leaving, in order to hit the site as hard as possible.

“He put his beef with [ESPN president John] Skipper above the jobs of dozens of people,” one Grantland staffer said.

It’s still up in the air what will happen to all of the staffers. ESPN says it will honor its contracts. Grantland’s sportswriters are expected to be brought over to ESPN.com. As one senior ESPN source told CNN, “We’re getting out of the pop culture business.”

Ben Affleck Knew Hillary Clinton's Secret Email Address

0
0

Ben Affleck Knew Hillary Clinton's Secret Email Address

While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, many of her own governmental colleagues were unaware that she used an off-the-books email server with a secret address. But Ben Affleck apparently knew.

The following exchange is from 2012, when Affleck emailed Clinton at her private address regarding his non-profit, the Eastern Congo Initiative:

Affleck’s own email address is redacted from the exchange.

[h/t Matt Viser]

Photo: Getty


Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: E93A 40D1 FA38 4B2B 1477 C855 3DEA F030 F340 E2C7

Never Sleep Again: Your Ten Best Stories of Absolute Terror

0
0

Never Sleep Again: Your Ten Best Stories of Absolute Terror

We asked and you delivered. With over 3,000 comments on this year’s Scary Story contest, this year’s submitters brought their best—sharing hair-raising, spine-tingling tales that were so scary that certain Jezebel writers were forced to sleep with their lights on. These are the ten most terrifying.

Reader, beware! These are not for the faint of heart.

Count the Crosses by Supernova: Bullshit Jedi:

I used to work in a very remote town, while living in my hometown 30 miles away. I was 20 and my Dad had just secured me my very first car to make the commute, it was a mid 1990’s Thunderbird with oxidizing paint, leaked every fluid I put into it, and had shitty gas mileage. Needless to say I was in love.

My parents knew that while I was a very reasonable person I was also 20 and had to drive down a two lane 18 mile stretch of very bad country road. Dad decided to give me an assignment for my first trip to work in my new car he called me as I was leaving for work on my first morning driving out there.

“It’s foggy today I want you to be careful.” Our area of the country is known for fog that has less than 300 feet of visibility on average.

“Yeah, of course I will. I’ll call mom when I park.” I had already told her I would.

“I want you to do something while you’re driving today.”

“Sure, what?”

“Count the crosses” he said.

As I drove to work in the fog I counted the crosses westbound of the road and made a mental note of the number. I got to work safely, called my mom before punching in and went about my day. At the end of my shift the fog had cleared and I drove home and counted the crosses eastbound. Later that evening my Dad asked me.

“How many were there?”

“I counted 19.”

“That’s 19 people who died on the road you’ll drive every day. Those are only the recent ones too, there have been more. You remember that when you’re driving.”

I got used to the drive every now and then there would be a cross that was new. Sometimes another would be gone or knocked over, some were replaced regularly around holidays, others were forgotten and were reclaimed by the Jimson and tumble weeds.

My job was toxic it was starting to harm my physical health and my mental wellbeing, my great relief was driving. I used to blast Tom Petty and Aerosmith over my killer stereo and sing along. I could shed worst of the day behind the wheel driving became my joy.

It was when I was driving home after a night shift around Labor Day when I first saw him. He was standing on the side of the road thumb out headed East. I was young and knew not to pick up a hitchhiker, they are very unusual in our area there was no car broken down on the shoulder and the area was so remote that it didn’t make a lot of sense for him to be out there, there was nothing for 10 miles in any direction. What was odd was he didn’t seem to see me, his eyes were fixed on the road behind me there was a stain on his pants and shirt but in the darkness I couldn’t tell much more than that. I kept driving.

My Grandmother was diagnosed with cancer that same week. She passed away on All Saints Day.

I saw him again in the same spot before New Years. I thought he was a farm worker and was cutting across the fields to get to the road to hitch a ride. I noticed again that his shirt and pants were stained once again he didn’t see me he was looking past me, eyes fixed on the road behind me.

I was hospitalized with pneumonia on New Years Eve after I had a seizure.

I saw him once more, it was the last time. It was June I was cracking at work, drinking, thinking that my loved ones would be better off without me. It was evening but the sun hadn’t set so I finally really saw him. He didn’t see me, I don’t think the other cars saw him he looked vacant, hopeful, staring into the sinking sun. He was about 40, he was Latino, he had on a grey tee shirt, dirty jeans and faded red baseball hat the stains I had seen on him before were blood. By then I knew they would be. I wasn’t surprised to see him but I was my expecting him. I was rattled pretty badly, I went home and drank until I could sleep and not dream.

I quit for my own wellbeing later, I was heading down a bad path it was the best thing I could do for myself. I went to pick up my paycheck and as I headed home I pulled over to the shoulder where he had always been. It was full daylight then, I looked around but it didn’t take me long. Strangled in some overgrowth I found the battered faded cross that read “Papi” 1964-2005. I planted the cross firmly into the ground and left one of my mothers nicer roses that had survived the summers heat. I thanked him for his help in my best Spanish and said a prayer to a deity I wasn’t sure existed anymore on his behalf. I drove away.

I don’t know if there’s anything out there looking out for us. I’m not sure if there are ghosts, or if it was something my wounded mind made up to warn me that was teetering close to the edge. I doubt I’ll ever know. A man did die on that road none the less, another father warning me of dangers, like my own did. If he was real though, I hope he finally got a ride home.

John Told Me To by ramseyfay:

Over the summer I took my son and his friend on a ride at the local fair. My son has Down syndrome, which is relevant to the story in that he doesn’t have the sort of fantastical imagination of his peers. Said differently, he doesn’t make shit up. As we were sitting waiting for the attendant to buckle everyone in my son hit himself. (This is NOT at all normal behavior). So I was all “WTF?” He replied, “John told me to.” Me: “Who is John?” (We are literally locked and loaded into a spinning something of death). He replies, pointing in front of us: “John and Steven, the guys standing in front of us with ketchup [blood?] all over their faces.” No one was standing there. He has never mentioned them or done anything like this since.

Mom by LieutenantDanIceCream:

I was raised Southern Baptist. We didn’t tell ghost stories around the campfire growing up. We told possession stories. And we believed in them because demons are biblical. I remember having lively debates with my friends about the biblical case for demons and how not believing in them means you don’t believe something God said. But I still doubted. It seemed too supernatural, even for a Christian.

My mother was an alcoholic, a drug addict, and had a lot of mental health problems that she never got help for. I lived with her my entire childhood and found solace in the church. She had that sort of lukewarm faith, made lots of comments like “God and I have an understanding!” instead of doing anything remotely Christian. She didn’t keep me from pursuing my beliefs so I didn’t pressure her about her own.

One Saturday, I was taking a nap in my room and I had a dream. I dreamt that my mom came in, screaming at me, angry over nothing at all. The dream was very realistic and I thought it was real until I woke up in my bed. Moments later, she came in the room screaming. Over nothing at all. Just angry and mean, spitting with rage. I tried to just sit quietly although I was so confused and frankly freaked out by this weird prophetic dream. I chalked it up to “well, she is mad and yells a lot soo....coincidence!” and put it out of my mind. Later, when my mom calmed down and I tried to approach her for a calm conversation, she looked at me like I was making the whole thing up. She didn’t remember yelling at me about anything.

A few weeks later, I was inside watching tv when I heard my mom screaming from the backyard for me to come outside. When I stepped out on the porch, she was standing near the woods holding a huge snake. My mom stood may 5’2” and this snake was at lest 7’ long. She held it by the tail, not behind the head like I had been taught in my science class, and she beckoned for me to come take it from her. My mother had always been afraid of snakes and critters in general, but she held the snake up like she was proud of it. I ran back in the house and stayed in my room. At dinner, I asked her why she was holding the snake. She didn’t remember anything and told me that I had “quite the imagination.”

I had rationalized these experiences within the context of knowing that she abused substances and was probably too drunk or high to remember these scenes. But her behavior during these two instances was truly unlike her average altered state. High or drunk, she was silly and sometimes mean but not hateful. These occurrences were strange and she was more cruel than I was used to. The strangest, though, was yet to come and I get sick to my stomach thinking about it.

I was supposed to be staying at a church lock-in overnight. My mom had dropped me off at 8pm and wasn’t supposed to pick me up until 10am the next day. She was sober and acting normal when she left the church. My friend and I were challenging each other to stay awake all night, and we were writing down what time each person eventually fell asleep. I stayed up the longest and finally gave in at 4:25am. Just as I laid down in my sleeping bag, I heard a loud bang on the window outside the chapel where we were sleeping. No one else stirred. I figured a bird had flown into the window. I settled back down and a then heard a series of loud bangs, though they were coming in rapid succession, one knock on each window in the chapel. It was like something was circling the church and hitting each window as it passed. But it was moving so quickly there was no way it could have been one person hitting all the windows. My friends started to wake up, confused, and someone suggested it was the church chaperones playing a trick on us. The exits were locked from the inside and only the pastor had the key. He was supposedly asleep in one of the Sunday school rooms so one of the kids ran to check. He came back, pastor in tow, and the bangs stopped as soon as he entered the chapel. We told him what happened and he said he would go outside to check the grounds.

He unlocked the front door and gasped loud enough to make the rest of us scream in terror. My mother was standing at the front door, looking wild, dirty, and sweaty. She was breathing heavily and muttering under her breath. The pastor asked if he could help her and she just started past him, directly at me. My heart felt like the only thing keeping it from stopping was sheer adrenaline. The last thing I wanted to do was walk out those church doors but I felt like I had no choice. She didn’t say a word; I just gathered my things and walked towards the doors. My pastor insisted that I did not have to leave and that I would be safe at the church that night but I ignored him. She was my mother, and I was terrified of her but I felt like is was the sort of fear any child would have towards a parent. I got into the car and she drove me home in silence. When I went to bed, she stood in my doorway, staring at me. I remember seeing the morning lights rising right before dozing off, still with her in my doorway.

Later that morning, she seemed genuinely shocked to see me walk out of my room for breakfast. She said she was just about to leave to pick me up from the lock in and wanted to know how I got home last night. She didn’t remember a thing.

My mom’s behavior could probably be explained through a combination of substance abuse and mental illness, but even today as an adult atheist I wonder if something more sinister was going on with her.

In the Basement with Me by foxGreyjoy and Sorrow:

When I was sixteen I would sneak out of the house at night get high and read a book (Such a rebel, I know). There was an empty forclosed home next door, and I would get inside via a basement window well and smoke in the basement’s bar area. One night it was raining pretty heavy, and I forgot to bring my lighter. I went to get it and it was still pouring when I got back.

I set up a comfy place at the bar, and turned on my camping lamp I kept there. Then I started hearing noises upstairs. I turned off the light and sat still for a moment, and realized the sound was actualy coming from the doorless room next to mine. I grabbed everything I could and made for the window, and with half my body through I heard someone running and shouting behind me. I felt someone touch me as I finished crawling out, and ran to my house where I snuck in as quietly and fast as possible.

I heard sirens soon after I made it into my house and worried that it was law enforcement that had caught me in the home. Sirens went on for a while into the night and I barely slept. I learned the next morning that someone on the next block had burned his mother’s home down with her in it, and he had been found breaking into a home later that night that was occupied several doors past the house I had been in.

It was likely him that was in the basement with me, and I still get scared thinking about it.

The Dead of Winter by ElZopilote:

Not mine, but here’s an old family story that comes by way of my late Great-Grandmother, a hardy rural Yugoslavian woman if there ever was one.

Back in the old country, a family member had died. It was the dead of winter, and family had gathered for the funeral. They’d conducted a nice service, and in the evening had all retired to the home they were staying at in the village. You have to understand these are small rural Eastern European villages, there are only like 30 residents to this day. I’ve visited.

Anyway, it was snowing heavily and the wind was howling as the mourners drank and shared memories of the deceased. All of the sudden, someone near the window heard knocking and went to investigate. Upon looking outside, the unlucky mourner was greeted by the apparition of the deceased woman they’d buried earlier that day! Knocking on the window and door. Everyone inside was terrified and remained huddled inside until it all seemed to stop.

The next morning, someone went outside to have a look around. The body of the “dead” woman was laying in the snow under the window, frozen solid. She’d been accidentally buried alive. She made her way out of the grave and back home, only to freeze to death pleading to be let inside. Everyone thought she was a ghost. My great grandma was in attendance as a little girl, and swore this was true until she died. Not a ghost story but horrifying none the less.

The Proof Is in the Poison by Flahda:

Okay, so this year I can participate since the main player who would be scandalized by airing the laundry has passed. As background, my mother had me in her late thirties and her mother in turn had her in her late thirties. My mother was the youngest of eight children and had brothers much older than she, which is how I have an uncle that is more than fifty years older than me. I went to university in the 80s, the same southern university that most of my family attended. My sophomore year, I met a senior aerospace engineering student and crushed on him badly – he looked like Peter O’Toole circa Lawrence of Arabia. We’ll call him Pete. Walking across campus one day with my gorgeous roommate, we ran into Pete and I thought I’d show off by speaking to him. This backfired as he was clearly interested in Roomie and asked her to come to a game night in his dorm room that Friday (oh, and yeah, I was invited, too). The senior engineers lived in a quad area of older historical dorms, touted as “historical” but in reality just old and unrefurbished. Roomie and I went; there were about twelve people and various board and drinking and board/drinking games were played. Fun times even though I was still crushing on Pete, unrequited.

Partway through the evening Roomie took a sip of beer and said, “Gross! Dang guys, who put Pepsi in my beer??” The guys laughed and said, “Oh, probably our ghost.” They went on to tell her that they would come back to the room and find all the books on a shelf turned around, spines in, or that everything in the medicine cabinet would be out and laying in the sink. Food left out would be covered in salt or pepper. Silly prankish things and stuff moved around that they finally had attributed to a “ghost”. I said, out of nowhere, “Maybe it was my Uncle Bennett.”

Silence.

I couldn’t have stopped the party any better if I had dropped a fart in the middle of the room. Feeling uncomfortable, I just kept talking to cover it up and said that my uncle Bennett Lastname had attended the school in the late 30s, early 40s, and had been the victim of an unfortunate accident. He used what he thought was mouthwash that turned out to be something else entirely and died due to the poisoning. Pete told me to come over to his closet, which was really more of a built-in armoire/closet/shelving unit. Carved into the rolled wooden edge of the shelf on the left at about eye-level was the name Bennett Lastname. My uncle.

Now that would be spooky enough, but there’s more to the story. Pete and Roomie started dating, and they also started “investigating” the ghost of Bennett Lastname. When they went to the records office of the university, they found that his roommate back in the day was Matthew Othername, from the same town as my uncle, and then they checked the university microfiche newspaper archives for info on Matthew, so they could maybe talk to him. Turns out Matthew had died a few years previously. Died in prison. Where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife, Dorothy. Murder by poisoning.

The YouTube Video by KinjaNinjaGinga:

Two years ago—around late September, early October—I experienced something that I truly believe to be malevolent and paranormal in nature.

I was living on the Upper East side of Manhattan (think Yorkville). I rented a seriously small, first floor, front-of-the-building, studio apartment (Around 350 sq ft - maybe less) and it was a loft, so my bed was above the kitchen/bathroom. And there was a gigantic window out to the street. I also have an 8 lb miniature pinscher, named Miniature, who thinks she is the ultimate guard dog. Setting details.

One night, I was clicking through the internet watching police brutality videos because the Treyvon Martin case was flooding the media and I just kept clicking on the youtube suggested videos, torturing myself. Somehow I eventually clicked on some video, I don’t even know how I stumbled across this shit, but it looked like a fucking documentary or home video made like 30 some years ago. I swear this shit was absolutely real. And it definitely dealt with the occult. There was definitely something weird happening.

For almost 7 minutes, I sat watching this shitty, old video. I was pretty confused about what I was watching and then what can only be described as a child (maybe 10?) who was either seriously suffering from the most intense mental disturbance ever or actual demonic possession, started doing HORRIBLE things to another child and I closed the computer window IMMEDIATELY. Shut my computer. Stood up and paced the fuck out of my apartment for a good 15 minutes. I was shaking and crying and I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t believe what I just watched. I felt a fear I genuinely cannot explain. I only know it made me feel terror.

I called a friend and talked about normal things for a while, not mentioning anything about what I watched, just to clear my mind of it. I had a glass of wine. Put my dog up in my loft and crawled up and went to sleep. All normal.

Except, at around 3am that night, I was woken up by a very bright, flashing light. I honestly thought someone was taking pictures outside my window. I couldn’t see the source of this flashing light, but it wasn’t the light in my apartment I could tell and coming from the window was the only other reasonable option.

I lay there, terrified, trying to think of what I should do. Finally, I grab the crowbar that I kept next to by bed, crawl down from my loft to peek out of the window. Nothing. I figure I must be crazy. So I crawl back up to my loft. Lay my head down. My TV down below turns on. I think, ‘maybe I stepped on the remote when I was downstairs’ (I didn’t, the remote was absolutely on the coffee table). I crawl back down. Turn off the TV. Stand there for a second to confirm that the TV is, in fact, off. All of a sudden I hear music coming from my loft and my dog is whimpering like crazy. I crawl back up to find that my iPhone, which is plugged in on the opposite end of my loft, 4 feet away from where I seep, has started playing music I have never heard before. I freak out, grab my dog and my phone, turn on all the lights and watch Golden Girls until I have to go to work.

While I’m getting ready to leave for work, my dog continuously barks at nothing in my loft. I go to work. I come back. I unlock my door and open, but something is partially blocking the entrance. It’s my dresser, which sits next to my front door (NYC loft, remember). I have to use ALL of my weight to push my door and dresser open enough to weasel my way in. My dog is shaking in the corner. I move my dresser back and close the door. I watch the news. My friend comes over. We’re hanging out, laughing, catching up. I get up to use the restroom and when I walk back to the main area, my friend has a horrified look on her face. She says everything on my coffee table fell over sideways. Like all at once. And she didn’t bump into it or anything. Obviously, this scares the shit out of me, but I don’t mention what happened the night before because I honestly just don’t want to talk or think about it. My friend leaves, I go to bed.

3am. The bright flashing light. I hear a knocking on wall my this time. Not from the door. From the wall. Next to my head. I grab my dog and close my eyes and tell myself it’s not real over and over until I finally fall asleep. I wake up and feel sick. Like, irritable and on edge. I get ready for work. My dog is barking at the loft. I leave for work. I come home. I open my door. ALL the books on my bookshelf have not just fallen off—they’re scattered around my apartment. On my couch, in my kitchen, throughout my living room and my coffee table has moved like 4 feet. I sit on my couch in shock, wondering if I’ve been robbed, but nothing is missing. My door and window were locked.

As I’m sitting on the couch, a lamp like 5 feet away from me breaks. Like, shatters into pieces. I FaceTime one of my bffs in Texas because I am just really unsettled and need to talk to a person where I can see them. My friend and I talk for like, an hour, laughing etc. etc, and randomly, I see what looks like a speck out of the corner of my eye. Mind you, this is fall in NYC, where it gets dark well before I leave work for the day. This is not the glare from the sun. I decide not to pay attention to it, but as I continue the conversation with my friend, I see she has a look of horror on her face.

Now, I haven’t mentioned the sinister shit of late at all. So when she tells me she saw a face next to my face, like a face that looked like it was screaming at my face, I freak the FUCK OUT. I tell her I have to go. I immediately pour a glass of wine and call my very religious cousin and ask her a billion questions about ghosts or whatever. She tells me things that only make me feel more unsettled so I just ask her to pray or whatever with me right now, because I am truly fucking scared. I am not a religious person, but I urgently felt the need to pray.

Nothing happened that night. In fact, I made my cousin pray over the phone with me every night for a week. And things happened, though less often, with the flashing lights, and the knocking, and the music playing, and things knocking over and my dog barking at nothing. I still felt a very dark, ominous presence. I bought sage to burn. I spoke with a priest. I bought holy water.

One night, I came home very drunk from a night out and my dog was whimpering and running around in a circle, like her bum was hurting. I picked her up and just started yelling, “Listen, fucker! I’m moving out in like two months! I don’t give a shit about you! You don’t scare me at all! And if you fuck with my dog, I will find a way to fucking kill you whoever you are, understand?? Now GO THE FUCK AWAY!!” And I then I crawled up to my loft with my dog and passed the fuck out.

I wasn’t much afraid of the thing after that and it didn’t fuck with my dog ever again. I moved out two months later. And I don’t watch random youtube videos anymore.

That’s Not Pawpaw by tsaritsa:

My grandfather (Papaw) died in a car accident when I was still an infant. Naturally, my mother - always a Daddy’s girl - tried to insure that I had some idea and concept of him growing up. We had dozens of photos of Papaw and my grandmother around our home, and I spent my very early childhood with a solid idea of what my grandfather looked like in life. With the exception of his height. For some strange reason, every photograph was taken while sitting. But it was definitely him, with his dark hair and eyes and spectacularly 70’s glasses.

I don’t remember when it started, but I began to get visits from Papaw. He would come into my room at night and sit on the foot of my bed. It was never frightening, because I knew that it was just Papaw. He would stand by my pillow and brush my hair from my forehead. He would pull the blankets up around my chin. He would often just stand in the doorway, silhouetted against the living room light. I remember exactly where he stood to on the door frame due to the stickers I had placed everywhere. He was short - he came only up to a scratch and sniff pickle, and he never spoke.

These visits went on for many years.

One Christmas, I decided that I wanted to make Papaw a card. I worked very hard on my construction paper and glitter monstrosity for several hours. Eventually, I caught the attention of my mother who wanted to know who the card was for. I told her it was for Papaw, and when she didn’t seem too concerned, I told her all about his nightly visits and how nice I thought it was that he still came to see his granddaughter. She asked a few questions about what he did and I grew more excited and rushed over to my bedroom door to show her where he stood.

“Do you think he can smell the pickle?” - I remember asking. “Because that’s right where his head is.”

It was then that I learned that my grandfather had not been a short man. In fact, he was a very tall man. My stickers did not go nearly high enough to reach his 6’4” height.

I have no idea who the man was who visited me for so many years, but my mother swears it was not her father.

The Ad by FridayFriday:

This truly happened to me, and maybe I should have contacted the police about it but I didn’t. I try not to think about it.

When I was in college, I made some money by modeling. Sometimes just letting photography students take pictures of me for practice, other times I’d work with professionals on fetish shoots. Did you know cast fetish is a thing? It is, and I once had a very nice crew of cast fetishists come out to my apartment, cover me in fake casts, and take pictures of me for their website. The stranger the fetish, the more money I made.

Anyway, one day I saw an ad on craiglist. Standard creepy craiglist deal - amateur male photog seeking woman willing to pose nude for him to practice his art and also add to his “private collection.” It was summer, and my jobs on campus had dwindled down to nearly nothing. I needed money, bad, so I replied to this very sketchy ad. Guy wanted me to take a bus to the Big City several hours away from the small town where I went to college. Then I would meet him at his “studio” and I would be paid $200 to model. He said I could bring a male friend along for safety. He was not expecting anything more than modeling, he promised. It would be ok, he was a normal man in his 40s with a professional job (doctor) and he just wanted more practice at his hobby.

I’m desperate to make rent. I say sure, we set a day. Day of, he emails me to be sure I’m coming alone. I say no, I’m bringing my friend as we agreed. At this point the emails are getting weird. I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach that things are not ok with this guy. I stopped replying to the emails and obviously did not attempt to go to the gig.

Life went on. Two years later, I’m living in another state but I just happen to see a news story on Facebook. It was about a trial. A professional man - a doctor - in his 40s was on trial in Big City for murdering a woman who had answered his ad for a nude model. He had murdered her in a horrible way. Based on details from news stories, I am certain - it was the same ad I had seen, the same man I had emailed, the gig I had almost taken.

Dave Is Calling by Tara Babcock:

Here is a story that I have not shared before because honestly- it creeps me the fuck out. I don’t like thinking about it. I don’t like the things it implies about the nature of the universe we inhabit, and it fills me with existential dread. It also happens to involve a friend’s suicide, so it’s not the easiest thing in the world to talk about, even without the paranormal stuff.

About seven years ago, my friend Dave* blew his brains out with a shotgun. Tragic though it was, it wasn’t much of a shock for those of us who knew him; the dude had always had some serious issues with depression and he had threatened to end his life before, many times. Add to this the fact that he had recently separated from his wife and had moved back in with his brother and was using meth again, and… yeah. The writing was pretty much on the wall.

About three weeks after his death, his widow, Jessica- who happens to be my best friend- came to see me. She was clearly upset. She shoves her cellphone into my hand and tells me that I need to hear this voicemail. She doesn’t tell me anything else about it. So I listen to it.

It was static. But underneath the static… there was a voice. It sounded like it was coming from far away and across a very bad connection.

It was Dave’s voice. I would have recognized his gruff baritone anywhere.

And he was shouting my friend’s name over and over again. “Jessica!....Hey, Jessica!...Hey!.. Jessica!”

Hearing his voice, knowing that he was almost a month in the ground, and the fact that he sounded so desperate and afraid made my blood run cold.

I handed the phone back to Jessica and just kind of stared at her stupidly for a moment. “That was Dave,” I finally said, when I could speak.

“I know,” she said.

The voicemail had apparently just shown up in her voicemail inbox, with no record of a missed call and no phone number attached to it.

We both listened to it again 3 or 4 times, just to be sure, but when Jessica went to show someone else a few days later, she was surprised to discover that it had spontaneously deleted itself. It was just gone.

About a week or so after that, my ex-husband, Ivan, stopped by to drop off our son for a shared custody arrangement. He had been Dave’s best friend since childhood, so even though things were kind of tense between the two of us, I wanted to let him know how sorry I was, and that he shouldn’t blame himself for not being there. We talked about Dave for a few minutes, and I mentioned the strange voicemail that Jessica had gotten. Far from being shocked like I thought he would, he simply nodded knowingly.

“I got one, too.” He said. “Same thing. Static, but his voice, underneath that. Only he was screaming my name instead of Jessica’s. And my phone actually showed that the voicemail- and a few other missed calls- came from Dave’s cell phone. I never heard the phone ring, though. And this was all weeks after he died.”

I was pretty disturbed by this, so I began casting about for explanations. Was it possible that Dave’s phone was still functioning? Maybe his brother was carrying it around in his back pocket and butt-dialing it? Maybe the family hadn’t turned it off yet? Ivan rejected each proposed explanation, since he had already investigated. Apparently, Dave’s family had terminated his phone service within a couple of days of his death. It should have been impossible for that phone to make any calls. And while butt-dialing might explain how a dead person’s phone could make calls weeks after the owner’s death, well… it doesn’t really explain those voicemails.

I asked Ivan if I could listen to the voicemail on his phone, but he shook his head.

“It’s gone,” he said. “It just disappeared after a few days. So did the record of the missed calls from Dave’s number. I went to show them to somebody, and they suddenly weren’t there.”

It’s been many years, but thinking about that voicemail still makes me break out in goosebumps. It was frightening to me for many reasons. For one thing, I don’t like thinking that my friend Dave, who was so tormented in life, would continue to be so in death. I don’t like how he sounded in that voicemail. He sounded terrified.

I struggle with depression myself, and there have been times in the years since when I have found myself staring over a literal or proverbial ledge, contemplating ending it all. But always, the memory of that voicemail, and of Dave’s voice, will come to me.

And I talk myself down.

Because wherever Dave was calling from, I don’t want to end up there.

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the other people in this story, both living and dead.

Happy nightmares, everyone.


Contact the author at madeleine@jezebel.com.

Art by Jim Cooke.

Leah Remini Discusses Her Once-Fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise's Bizarre Offstage Behavior 

0
0

Leah Remini has been openly critical of the religion she spent over 30 years practicing, Scientology, since her 2013 departure from the church. On tonight’s episode of 20/20, she appeared to share more behind-the-scenes details and promote her upcoming book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.

She started the show confirming a litany of accusations about her read out loud by Dan Harris in her book. “You say, ‘I am an apostate. I have lied, I have cheated,’” he said. “You then go on to admit that you have been selfish, that you’ve physically threateantined people and been a horrible wife and mother.”

“Correct,” said Remini. “I know what my former church...how they deal with people who tell their story, and so I wanted to be the one to say it.” Harris reported that on Tuesday, representatives hand-delivered a package containing damning statements about Remini to ABC News.

And say it she did. She spent a lot of time talking about Scientology’s most notorious member, Tom Cruise. She described her early dealings with him: “At first, it’s very effusive, it’s very loving, you get, like, the laser-in on you and you’re the most important thing that ever happened. It’s, ‘What are you doin’?’ and ‘How are you doin’?’ and ‘Yeah! Great, great, greatgreat, great!’”

Remini told a story about being invited to Cruise’s by a church official, who told her that Cruise wanted her to teach him salsa dancing. At Cruise’s, she said she saw two “high-ranking Scientology officials,” along with his then-girlfriend Katie Holmes. “He was, like, forcibly kissing Katie,” recalls Remini. “I said, ‘Hey, get a friggin’ room.’” Remini says one of the officials present wrote up a “knowledge report” on her that she then had to answer to in an audit.

“If you say something critical to the church, you will be written up,” she says.

Remini nonetheless remained critical of Cruise during his 2005 wild ride in the public eye (that was the year he jumped on Oprah Winfrey’s couch and called Matt Lauer “glib” on the Today show). “I was immediately dealt with,” says Remini, who concludes, “Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself. You are a person who is anti the aims and goals of Scientology. You are evil.”

Remini nonetheless attended Cruise and Holmes’s 2006 wedding, which she said her friends Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were also invited to by the church in what she assumes was an attempt to recruit the then-couple. At the wedding Cruise reprised his Top Gun performance of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”

“We’re like, ‘Interesting song to sing to your bride,’” Remini says was her response.

Scientology leader David Miscavige, Remini claims, attended the wedding without his wife, which the church calls, along with the rest of Remini’s recent claims, “ridiculous and stupid.” Remini says she was punished for the ensuing knowledge report she filed, and Holmes herself responded to Remini’s behavior at the wedding in her own knowledge report. Remini read from what she said was Holmes’s letter: “I was dismayed at the behavior of Leah Remini during the events leading up to our wedding and our wedding. The behavior as a guest, a friend, was very upsetting.” In various reports, Remini was charged with being loud, late, and rude at the wedding. She was also accused of upgrading her hotel room and switching seats at the reception.

Leah Remini Discusses Her Once-Fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise's Bizarre Offstage Behavior 

This is just a fraction of her Scientology ordeal that Remini shared on 20/20. Cruise and Miscavige, of course, didn’t participate in the story. Holmes wrote to ABC News this week. She didn’t confirm or deny writing the quoted knowledge report, but she did say this:

Leah Remini Discusses Her Once-Fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise's Bizarre Offstage Behavior 

http://www.amazon.com/Troublemaker-S...


Giant Inflatable Pumpkin Bounces Through Town To Ruin Halloween

0
0

Halloween isn’t complete with out a few tricks, like a 25-foot tall, 350 pound inflatable pumpkin, on the wings of the wind, barreling into your person.

“I was so shocked to see that it was like bouncing like a basketball all the way down the road,” Patrick Sparkes with Big AZ Promotions, the pumpkin’s master, told local 12News.

The pumpkin, a promotion for a local party, broke free in storm winds. After a 40-minute search, the pumpkin was apprehended in a park, brutally deflated, and discourteously shoved into the back of a van.

Eerily enough, the pumpkin’s escape comes just days after the JLENS blimp broke free of its tether in Maryland, floating over to Pennsylvania where it collapsed onto the ground. The dirigible uprising is upon us.

Russian Plane Crashes In Sinai, Reportedly Killing Everyone Aboard

0
0

Russian Plane Crashes In Sinai, Reportedly Killing Everyone Aboard

A Russian passenger plane crashed early on Saturday morning in the Sinai Peninsula, reportedly killing every person aboard the flight.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the plane went down near the mountainous area of Al-Hasanah.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday 31/10/2015 announced that a Russian passenger plane carrying 217 on board along with seven crew members crashed in North Sinai.

The plane took off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport at 5:58 am (Cairo local time) heading for St. Petersburg city in Russia. It went off the radar at 6:20 am.

Among the 217 passengers were 17 children, according to CNN. Officials have already begun to recover bodies from the cabin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly declared an official day of mourning on Sunday, as well as ordering an investigation into what caused the fatal crash.


[Image via AP]

Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

0
0

Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

Here are the best of today’s deals. Get every great deal every day on Kinja Deals, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to never miss a deal, join us on Kinja Gear to read about great products, and on Kinja Co-Op to help us find the best.


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

The UE Mini Boom is the little brother of Gizmodo’s favorite Bluetooth speaker, and even a Wirecutter pick in its own right. If you’ve been waiting for a good deal to pick one up, Amazon will sell you a refurb for $42 today, the best price we’ve ever seen. [Refurb UE MINI BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, $42]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

http://gizmodo.com/the-best-bluet...


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

We don’t normally like to highlight mail in rebate deals, but this one’s too good to ignore. $750 gets you a Canon T5i with a kit lens, a 32GB SD card, a bag, photo paper and a Canon Pixma Pro-100 photo printer today on BuyDig’s eBay storefront, but a $350 mail-in rebate will effectively bring that down to $400. Considering that the camera goes for $650 by itself on Amazon, that’s a pretty incredible deal. [Canon EOS T5i DSLR Camera 18-55mm Lens, 32GB, Printer Bundle, $400. After $350 mail-in rebate.]

Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

It’s almost cold toe season, but you can cozy up with a new pair of slippers for just $10-$30, today only courtesy of Amazon. [$10-$30 Slipper Sale]

More Apparel Deals

http://deals.kinja.com/todays-best-ap...


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

Smash Up is a popular card game. Munchkin is a popular card game. Now, they’ve combined forces for what I assume is an even better card game.

Smash Up is the game where each player smashes two weird factions together and tries to crush all the others. The factions in this set are Munchkin races and classes: Orcs, Warriors, Halflings, Clerics, Dwarves, Elves, Thieves, and Mages! All the factions have different powers, and every team-up is different. This set may be played by itself, but all the factions are fully compatible with your existing Smash Up sets. There are also two brand-new card types. Monsters lurk around the bases, and Treasures give you new rewards when you smash a base!

Smash Up Munchkin Card Game ($24) | Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010C4OUKE/...


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

Go ahead and shut it down, because I don’t know if we’ll ever see a better Lightning cable deal. Monoprice is selling 3’ cables for $2, and 6’ cables for $3 right now, with $2 flat rate shipping for your entire order, no matter how many you buy. Stock up! [Lightning Cable Sale]


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

We’ve seen several deals on affordable clip-on smartphone camera lens kits, but this one is unique in that you get three separate clips, rather than having to unscrew and attach different lenses. This system will take up a little more room in your bag or pocket, but it’ll also save you a ton of time, which can be the difference between getting a perfect shot, and missing out. [Mpow 3 In 1 Clip-On Lens Kit, $13 with code QUMMEB8Z]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012N1HCGI


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

It’s our second boxer brief deal in as many days, but this time, you get three pairs for $10. A slightly different Hanes variety took home the crown in our men’s underwear Kinja Co-Op, so buy with confidence. [Hanes Men’s TAGLESS Ultimate Pima Cotton Boxer Brief 3-Pack, $10]

Bonus: [12-Pack: Hanes Boxer Briefs, $37]


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

To celebrate Halloween, Amazon is giving away over $70 in premium Android apps for free today. Highlights include LEGO Star Wars, Bridge Constructor, and Runtastic Pro, but be sure to head over to Amazon to see the full list.

Of course, you can download as few or as many as you want, but you might as well “purchase” everything, even if you don’t see an immediate use for them. Once you’ve tied to your Amazon account, and you can always go back and download them later. [Amazon Halloween App Sale]


Saturday's Best Deals: UE Mini Boom, Cheap Slippers, Lightning Cables, and More

If you need a capable, cross-platform photo editor, and don’t want to pay a monthly fee to access it, Adobes Photoshop Elements is a solid alternative to its Creative Cloud-based big brother.

A copy of Elements would normally set you back $70 (which is reasonable, honestly), but Prime members can pick it up today for just $40. Note: You won’t see the discount until checkout. [Adobe Photoshop Elements 14, $40 for Prime members. Discount shown at checkout.]

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosho...


More Deals


Tech

Home

Gaming

Media


Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more. We want your feedback.Send deal submissions to Deals@Gawker and all other inquiries to Shane@Gawker


Nightclub Fire at Romanian Halloween Party Reportedly Kills 27

0
0

Nightclub Fire at Romanian Halloween Party Reportedly Kills 27

A fire at a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania has reportedly left at least 27 dead and many others wounded. Officials say that pyrotechnics sparked the blaze, triggering a stampede to get out of the club’s only entrance.

The fire occurred at a Halloween party and concert at a club called Colectiv, built inside a Communist-era factory.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said in a Facebook post that he was “deeply saddened” by the news.

“It is a very sad moment for all of us, for our nation and for me personally,” he wrote.


[Image via AP]

Tyra Banks' Richard Branson Costume Is Unsettling

0
0

Tyra Banks just became infinitely more interesting.

The Top Model host unveiled her appropriately eerie costume — none other than English businessman and investor Richard Branson, her “investor hero.” It is, in the true spirit of Halloween, a disturbing scene.

Viewing all 24829 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images