5.22.25 News of the Week
WNBA Drama Explained, Tiki the Foster Dog, Sanchelorette
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese Drama Explained
The WNBA season started this week and they knew what they were doing having the Indiana Fever face off against the Chicago Sky. Why? Because Caitlin Clark plays for the Fever and Angel Reese plays for Chicago. And people have been trying to make this a rivalry for a minute now.
Caitlin and Angel have been pitted against each other since 2023 March Madness, when LSU beat Iowa in the finals. It was clear LSU was going to win a few minutes before the game ended, prompting Angel to point at her ring finger, imitating Caitlin's "you can't guard me" gesture. People thought it was sooooooo disrespectful, most likely because it was a black woman mocking a white woman and no one checked their racial biases before posting about it online and calling Angel rude and entitled.
Ever since then, the media (and honestly, the WNBA too) has been trying to make this a rivalry. I get it, rivalries sell tickets. But if I'm really honest… it's not the best rivalry. Because Caitlin is clearly the superior player, and for a rivalry to really be really good, they've got to be on equal footing.
Caitlin was last year's rookie of the year; she averages about 10 points more points than Angel in each game. Angel is a good player in her own right, she's just not the generational talent that Caitlin is yet, and that's okay! She plays in the WNBA and some people (cough myself) have never even made a basket.
It's also not a good rivalry because it's making Angel Reese unsafe. The Indiana Fever is now backing an investigation into hateful, racist comments that fans yelled at Angel during Saturday's game. A lot of those comments were made after an incident in the third quarter when Caitlin fouled Angel to prevent her from making a layup. That foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul, which pissed Fever fans off…and then they somehow blamed Angel? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's racism for you! Also, the Fever won that game 93-58, so take it down a notch.
Since then, Caitlin has made statements supporting the investigation and saying there's no place for hate speech in the game or society. And Angel has reposted videos saying she's unsafe at Fever games, which really got Fox News all hot and bothered (classique!).
I think fans need to remember that this is a game. It's not something that should put anyone in danger or make them feel unsafe. I think Chiney Ogwumike said it best -- if the players aren't bothered by a foul, then we shouldn't be either. And also, don't say racist, fucked up shit to someone who is just there to do her literal job.
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Lauren Sanchez Parties in Paris
Or, as Internet has dubbed it, the bachelorette party from hell. I would feel bad for Lauren Sanchez but she's marrying one of the richest men in the world who is actively pandering to the Tr*mp Administration, so… yeah, this is the bachelorette party from hell.
According to Lauren's IG post, "forever starts with friendship" but I'm pretty sure she just met some of these women a few days ago. Who are these people, you may ask?
Well, we’ve got billionaire klassics, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner. Kim has been partying with Bezos for a hot minute now and Kris was at Lauren’s launch into space, so it kind of makes sense that they’re there. Kim was also probably celebrating graduating from law school. She’s officially done after six years, meaning that tattoo Pete Davidson got that says "my girl is a lawyer" is half true again! RIP Skete.
Then there’s Katy Perry, who spent 10 minutes in space with Lauren. I’ve never been to space, so I don’t know how that changes a person, but these two are now so inseparable that they’re sharing the same chair. Just don’t tell Gayle King.
Amongst the famed celebs are fancy wives, including super producer Brian Grazer’s wife, Veronica, and pro-footballer Tony Gonzalez’s wife, October. Why Tony Gonzalez? Well, I was today years old when I learned that Lauren and Tony share a son together. Mind blown.
Honestly, the craziest guest to me is Elsa Collins who runs an immigration advocacy nonprofit. Mama, what are you doing there? Handing out leaflets and hoping they come around to seeing immigrants as people?
Hailey Biebs on Vogue
She did it, y'all! Hailey made the cover of American Vogue. And that's something Justin told her she would never do!
Her cover reveal came out two days ago, prompting Justin to make the obligatory "congrats babe" Instagram post. But instead of just saying, you know, "congrats," he instead told the whole world that a few years ago, they got in a massive fight and he told Hailey that she would never be on the cover of Vogue. And then he followed that reveal up with a very apologetic "Yikes I know, so mean."
Uh…
Listen, I love celeb honesty because it literally fuels my newsletter, but this is not the couple who needs to be sharing deep issues about their relationship. Girl, we already know. There's a whole TikTok dedicated to revealing all the ways that Hailey inserted herself into Justin's life to get him to date her. Maybe don't add fuel to the fire by telling the world you didn't believe in your wife.
And Internet agreed with me, which was surprising because Internet rarely supports women. He got dragged in the comments so badly that he changed the caption to "shrug emoji, you emoji, heart hands emoji, and tearing up emoji." Powerful stuff.
Hailey hasn't commented on the posts or even acknowledged it to my knowledge. She's been too busy killing it recently --her cover is beautiful and the accompanying Vogue "what's in my bag video" is genuinely funny. She shows us a journal "filled with her thoughts" that is completely empty and says her favorite perfume, Eau de Nepo. She's letting us know that she is well aware of all the things that are said about her and she really doesn't care (or at least she’s trying not to). It's worth the watch.
Tiki the Foster Dog
If you're not dissociating on TikTok for hours at a time trying to avoid thinking about the United States' rapid descent into fascism, then you might have missed the meteoric rise of Tiki, the extremely fearful shut down foster dog!
Creator Isabel Klee has been fostering dogs for years and posting about them on TikTok. I started following her when she was caring for Poutine, an American Staffy who had its ears cut and was dealing with a severe infection and skin problems. There's something about seeing these incredibly sad and, if were honest, kind of gross dogs grow into healthy and happy pups that makes me happy. Sorry I'm a human with emotions!
Enter her newest pup, Tiki, who came from a situation so bad that Isabel cannot legally tell us anything about his background. He spent the first few days in her house refusing to move from his crate and refusing food. Eventually, he started to accept cheese from her (this bitch knows what she's doing) and began to venture out from the crate into his pen.
We're on day 25, and Tiki is now letting her hold him and thinking about going outside to touch the grass (he's not quite there yet, but every day, she does try to tempt him outside with a trail of cheese). He just played with his first toy the other day! I mean, look at him go!
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Of course, people are asking what's going on with his eyes (he had double cherry eyelid surgery. Keep up!!) and telling her she should keep him. Oh, my sweet summer child. As a long time follower, I have bad news for everyone — Isabel does not foster fail. Even when I think she is for sure going to keep the dog, she never fails.
She's committed to taking in dogs like Tiki who have severe issues and rehabilitating them so they can go to a loving home. She's a huge advocate for fostering, frequently citing the stat that roughly 600,000 animals were euthanized last year, many due to shelter overcrowding. Has it made me want to foster a million dogs? Yes, but then I remember that I have my own shelter dog who is either autistic or an alien sent here to study people, and she does not know how to interact with dogs. So for now, I'll just watch Isabel's videos and cheer on her little fosters with the rest of the world.
I do want to take a moment to share my condolences to the Biden family. It was announced this week that the former president has stage 4 prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 9 (out of 10), meaning it's extremely aggressive. He has not revealed when he first learned about the diagnosis or the treatment plan, which is adding to the fodder that Biden and his aides knew his health was rapidly declining when he made the decision to run for a second term. I don't think there's a person left in the world who thinks that he should have run again, but that doesn't mean we can't all share in a moment of empathy for a husband, father, and grandfather who just received a terrible prognosis.
That’s all for this week.
XOXO,
Emily
Regarding President Biden's diagnosis: Current medical recommendations call for PSA (prostate specific antigens) testing to end at age seventy. The rationale is that false positives can lead to patient anxiety and/or invasive, risky biopsies, and that some other damn thing will probably kill you first. President Biden had his last PSA done in 2014. Although prostate cancer is usually slow growing, it can devolve into an extremely aggressive version. PSA screening can be done as part of regular blood chemistry testing. I'm 75, and I intend to have my PSA checked this year. If it comes up positive, my doctor and I can talk about what's next. If not, I outwit the Reaper again! Whether Medicare will pay for it is anybody's guess, but I urge all old men to have the test done.
Also no Mormon Wives coverage? Have we exhausted the Mormon storyline...not hating if we have.