Hallmark continues to try and outdo itself in the realm of the classic holiday rom-com with Christmas on Call . The movie took the premise of Christmas in Philadelphia, PA and ran with it, concocting an ode to the city full of Eagles paraphernalia, local references, and even a cameo by Donna Kelce, mother of retired Eagles center Jason Kelce . Sara Canning and Ser’Darius Blain star in this title as busy First Responders attempting to find a sense of belonging and holiday cheer in the City of Brotherly Love. CHRISTMAS ON CALL : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? The Gist: Talented emergency room doctor Hannah Michaels (Sara Canning) has recently moved to Philadelphia to follow in her doctor father’s footsteps, but she hasn’t had time to explore the city or meet people outside of work due to her demanding work schedule. While on the job, she meets EMT Wes Sullivan (Ser’Darius Blain), a born and raised Philadelphian who stays calm under pressure and serves as a pillar of his local community. Wes shows immediate interest in Hannah, and when he learns that she’s new in town, he offers to show her the wonders of Philly at Christmastime. Wes starts introducing Hannah to the community, which helps her feel less alone while she’s far from the rest of her family in Seattle. Although the two sometimes struggle to find time for each other due to their equally busy work schedules, they still manage to grow closer while decorating a tree, eating cheesesteaks, singing a capella, and serving their community. At the same time, there is a subplot following cops Danielle (Reena Jolly) and Sanjay (Erik Athavale), whose temporary partnership proves initially awkward and combative as they reconnect a year after the former seemingly ghosted the latter. There’s also a subplot revolving around hospital front desk worker Emerson (Monique Marcker) as she goes through the holidays missing her daughter, Chloe (Juliette Schroeder), who is in the armed forces and stationed overseas for Christmas. There’s even an additional subplot tracking new EMT Julia Sanchez (Tamara Almeida) as she fights to overcome her own self-doubts in order to figure out if this intense and arduous career path is for her. Can all of these people find community, happiness, and peace over the holidays? And will Hannah’s grueling career prevent her from falling in love with both Wes and Philadelphia? What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Rather than movies, Christmas on Call felt more reminiscent of TV shows like St. Denis Medical , Grey’s Anatomy , and Brooklyn Nine-Nine , combining the comedy, drama, and workplaces of each title with a Hallmark holiday flare and a fixation on Philadelphia. Performance Worth Watching: I thought that John B. Lowe was consistently affable, if not suspiciously Santa-like, as Hannah’s talented and nurturing superior at the hospital, Dr. Stanfield. His calm, jolly demeanor was always pretty pleasant to behold. Memorable Dialogue: “Philly is literally like the best Christmas city in the world!” In the WORLD, Wes, really?! A Holiday Tradition: Station House 21 has an annual holiday open house for both First Responders and the local community, full of festive food, beverages, and lots of holiday karaoke. Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It’s Christmastime and our leading lad and lady are basically constantly on call with their jobs so, yes, Christmas on Call is perfectly apt. Our Take: Disclaimer: I am from Pittsburgh, PA so I’m admittedly biased (Philly is our cross-state rival) but will maybe kind of try to be impartial here. I’ll just begin with the obvious: Christmas on Call is pro-Philly propaganda. From the b-roll of major monuments and local attractions to the incessant Eagles references to all of the people saying how amazing the city is, especially during the holidays, this is clearly a movie by and for Philadelphians. Or it’s by the Philadelphia Tourism Bureau trying to get Hallmark viewers to visit for Christmas. Either way, there’s no doubt that Christmas on Call is, at the very least, an effective love letter to Philadelphia, and you can practically feel the affection for the city and its culture through the screen. But if you have no strong feelings about Philly, or if you have strong feelings against the city, this may not be the movie for you. The movie relies so heavily on Philadelphia references that you could easily make a potentially deadly drinking game out of all the times the city or some sort of local activity, sports team, or food item is mentioned. Take the city aspect out of it, and you also get a somewhat bland love story that’s hindered by Wes seeming way more into Hannah than she’s into him from the start, making them seem better as friends than lovers by the end. In fact, I found that Wes might have made more sense romantically with his coworker, Julia, since they spend so much time together on the job and also seem to bond throughout the movie. There are also so many subplots that it ends up detracting from the overall impact of each one and makes it hard to feel fully invested in and emotionally connected to the characters. When the only things that make Christmas on Call stand out from all the other Hallmark movies out there are the Philadelphia setting and Donna Kelce cameo (which isn’t even THAT unique since she also appears at a food joint in Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story ), then maybe this isn’t worth making time for unless those two factors particularly pique your interest. Our Call: If you’re from or love Philadelphia, you should definitely STREAM IT just for the joy of all the local shoutouts and Easter eggs, but for everyone else, perhaps SKIP IT — Christmas on Call was not made with us in mind.By DAVID BAUDER Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a Person of the Year designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview. Related Articles National Politics | Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’ National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg The fact-check accompanies a transcript of what the president-elect told the newsmagazine’s journalists. Described as a “12 minute read,” it calls into question 15 separate statements that Trump made. It was the second time Trump earned the Time accolade; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a particularly hard choice over other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton. Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been fact-checked in the near-century that the magazine has annually written about the figure that has had the greatest impact on the news. But it has done the same for past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump. Such corrections have been a sticking point for Trump and his team in the past, most notably when ABC News did it during his only debate with Democrat Kamala Harris this fall. There was no immediate response to a request for comment on Friday. In the piece, Time called into question statements Trump made about border security, autism and the size of a crowd at one of his rallies. When the president-elect talked about the “massive” mandate he had received from voters, Time pointed out that former President Barack Obama won more electoral votes the two times he had run for president. The magazine also questioned Trump’s claim that he would do interviews with anyone who asked during the campaign, if he had the time. The candidate rejected a request to speak to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the magazine said. “In the final months of his campaign, Trump prioritized interviews with podcasts over mainstream media,” reporters Simmone Shah and Leslie Dickstein wrote. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
'Very blindsided with it': Brandsma out as Filer head football coach, pending school board decision
SATURDAY'S BOWL GAMESBrock Purdy participated in the start of Thursday's practice with the 49ers but the San Francisco starting quarterback was not on the field for the majority of the workout, casting doubt over his availability to play Sunday at Green Bay. Purdy is dealing with a right shoulder injury and the 49ers are also potentially without left tackle Trent Williams and Nick Bosa due to injuries. Bosa was listed as out of Thursday's practice with an oblique injury. Williams also didn't suit up Thursday. He played through an ankle injury last week after being listed as questionable. Purdy's typical Thursday post-practice media session was scrapped until Friday as the 49ers did not make any quarterback available. Kyle Allen would step in for Purdy as the starter if he can't play against the Packers. Run game coordinator Chris Foerster said the 49ers aren't where they want to be at 5-5 because they haven't won close games, not because of injuries. "Seven games left is like an eternity," Foerster said. "So much can happen. Do the math. What was our record last year? It was 12-5. I was on a 13-win team that was nowhere near as good as the team last year." With or without Purdy, Foerster said the challenge for the 49ers is not to give up the ball to a defense that has 19 takeaways. The 49ers have 13 giveaways this season. --Field Level Media
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Newby also added six assists for the Seahawks (5-2). Nolan Hodge added 15 points while shooting 6 for 10, including 2 for 5 from beyond the arc and had six rebounds. Harlan Obioha had 12 points and shot 5 of 5 from the field and 2 of 5 from the free-throw line. The Mountaineers (5-3) were led in scoring by CJ Huntley, who finished with 17 points. Jalil Beaubrun added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Appalachian State. Alonzo Dodd had 11 points. UNC Wilmington took the lead with 15:43 left in the first half and did not relinquish it. The score was 44-33 at halftime, with Hodge racking up 15 points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .When baseball historian Bill Humber first heard about the golden at-bat idea that Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred floated on a recent podcast, he was a little taken aback. "I kind of laughed, actually," Humber said Wednesday. "I thought it was one of the stupidest ideas I'd ever heard." MLB has seen its share of change of late, but the thought of a team using one at-bat each game to send any hitter it wants to the plate — even if it's not their turn in the batting order — was quite a curveball. "This can’t be real," former Blue Jays pitcher and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens posted on social media. Wild-card playoff tinkering, pitch clocks, shift rules and automatic runners are some of the more significant changes to the game in recent years. All had varying levels of detractors and the golden at-bat discussion is no different. Critics are eyeing it like a meatball thrown across the middle of the plate. "It doesn't really fit within the logic of the game in my mind," said Humber, a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer. "I look upon it quite askance to be honest with you. I don't see the point of it in a way. "I mean to some extent, the magic of baseball is those unheralded batters who arrive at a situation that one wouldn't have thought that they would ever have been in, and allowing them to bat in place." Humber cited a number of grand baseball moments that might not have happened if a golden at-bat rule were in effect. "One can imagine when Bobby Thomson hit his famous home run against the (Brooklyn) Dodgers in 1951, Willie Mays was on deck," he said of the 'Shot Heard 'Round the World' that gave the New York Giants the National League pennant. "What if they had a golden at-bat and put Mays at bat, maybe he would have struck out or popped up or hit into a double-play or who knows what. There's lots of situations like that." What about the two famous World Series-winning walkoffs? Would the skippers have used a golden at-bat to get their best pure hitter to the plate? Bill Mazeroski went deep to give Pittsburgh the Fall Classic in 1960 and Joe Carter's walkoff blast in 1993 gave the Blue Jays their second straight World Series title. Mazeroski's power numbers were middling while Carter, who led the Blue Jays in homers and RBIs that year, had a mediocre batting average. "I think the magic of the game are those moments that are unpredictable and yet kind of create some of the joy of the game in our memories," Humber said. " I think this kind of runs afoul of that tradition. "I'm not a fan, let me say that. But that's not to say it won't happen." Manfred first mentioned the golden at-bat idea publicly in an interview with John Ourand on Puck's "The Varsity" podcast. The commissioner said the subject came up at a recent owners' meeting. Retired sportswriter Dave Perkins, who covered the Blue Jays for years over his long career at the Toronto Star, said use of a golden at-bat would be "a travesty." "On the surface I say it's absolutely stupid and ridiculous," he said. "But a lot of other things I thought were stupid and ridiculous worked their way into the games and they're even OK with me now." The subject of potential rule changes like the golden at-bat came up when Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins met with the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America earlier this week. "It's interesting to me because we went through so much change over the last couple of years," he said. "Getting to that change was a scratch and a claw and a climb. And then once the change happened, everyone — for the most part — thought, 'OK, that went OK and it seems like there's a better product on the field.' "So now the dialogue around change is with a much more open mind whether it be players, staff, the exchanges, the ideas, even if they seem very difficult to wrap your head around. They're not getting stiff-armed as much as they were the first go-round." Scott Crawford, operations director of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, said he prefers a traditional setup where any player can be a hero at any time. "I like the team aspect of the game where you get your shot," he said. "You can be a No. 8 hitter and you can come up with a big hit and win a World Series and (a superstar like Shohei) Ohtani can strike out." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024. Follow @GregoryStrongCP on X. Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
McDonald’s ( MCD ) has had a rough year. The fast-food chain has been battling low sales all year as consumers across the country are increasingly avoiding fast-food restaurants in order to dodge inflated prices. The trend has contributed to McDonald’s facing a 3% year-over-year decline in its net income during the third quarter of this year. 💰💸 Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE Daily newsletter 💰💸 McDonald’s was also recently hit with an unsettling E. coli outbreak, which affected multiple restaurant locations across the country, scaring away even more customers. Related: McDonald’s makes a desperate move to win back fleeing customers The outbreak sickened more than 100 people, hospitalized 34, and even killed one person. It is the first serious public health issue McDonald’s has faced at its U.S. restaurants in more than 40 years . McDonald's faces another major headwind To add to McDonald’s list of woes, the company’s espresso machines are now malfunctioning at multiple U.S. locations, which is posing a safety risk to its employees, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. A faulty component in the machines, which are manufactured by Melitta, could forcefully emit steam, causing the part to break. As a result of this issue, McDonald’s customers will have to find a new place to get their expresso fix since the fast-food chain is temporarily pulling hot and cold expresso drinks from its menus at multiple restaurants across the country. Bloomberg/Getty Images McDonald’s sells a wide variety of expresso drinks such as its Caramel Macchiato, Mocha Frappé, French Vanilla Cappuccino, etc. The drastic decision from McDonald’s comes after Melitta, which is investigating the issue, advised McDonald’s operators in a letter to stop using the machines for up to three weeks, according to the Journal. "We have moved quickly to decommission these machines in McDonald's restaurants and are staying in contact with our supplier to resolve the issue," said McDonald's in a statement to the Journal. "We are still determining the scope of the impact." McDonald's is on a rocky road to recovery Another calamity is the last thing McDonald’s needs. Last month, McDonald’s had to remove its Quarter Pounder hamburger from menus nationwide as a result of the E.coli outbreak. Related: McDonald’s new $5 Meal Deal isn’t going as planned (so far ...) During an earnings call on Oct. 29, McDonald’s Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden confirmed that the outbreak caused “daily negative sales and guest count” at the company’s U.S. restaurants. “We certainly are fully focused on getting the U.S. business back to the momentum that we were seeing, working hard to kind of restore [the] confidence of all of our consumers,” said Borden during the call. More Food + Dining: In late October, McDonald’s put the Quarter Pounder back on its menus, and the company has been doing expensive damage control ever since. The company is reportedly spending $100 million to help attract customers back into its restaurants. McDonald’s is investing $35 million in marketing to advertise its value meal deals and $65 million toward franchisees that were negatively impacted by the outbreak. Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocksNewmont's EVP & COO Viljoen sells $374,310 in stock
Using Hot Water to Balance the GridA celebrated author argues that it's not at all impractical to study subjects like writing, languages, music and history
By DAVID BAUDER Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a Person of the Year designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview. Related Articles National Politics | Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’ National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg The fact-check accompanies a transcript of what the president-elect told the newsmagazine’s journalists. Described as a “12 minute read,” it calls into question 15 separate statements that Trump made. It was the second time Trump earned the Time accolade; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a particularly hard choice over other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton. Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been fact-checked in the near-century that the magazine has annually written about the figure that has had the greatest impact on the news. But it has done the same for past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump. Such corrections have been a sticking point for Trump and his team in the past, most notably when ABC News did it during his only debate with Democrat Kamala Harris this fall. There was no immediate response to a request for comment on Friday. In the piece, Time called into question statements Trump made about border security, autism and the size of a crowd at one of his rallies. When the president-elect talked about the “massive” mandate he had received from voters, Time pointed out that former President Barack Obama won more electoral votes the two times he had run for president. The magazine also questioned Trump’s claim that he would do interviews with anyone who asked during the campaign, if he had the time. The candidate rejected a request to speak to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the magazine said. “In the final months of his campaign, Trump prioritized interviews with podcasts over mainstream media,” reporters Simmone Shah and Leslie Dickstein wrote. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.None
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