Lifestyle
A 3rd person has died in connection to the listeria outbreak in Boar's Head products
This image provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July 2024 shows a label for Boar’s Head liverwurst. The company recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats on July 30, 2024, expanding an initial recall on July 25 after a liverwurst sample collected in Maryland tested positive for listeria.
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There has been a third death connected to the listeria outbreak among Boar’s Head deli meats, the CDC said Thursday.
A person most recently died in Virginia, adding to the two previous deaths reported in New Jersey and Illinois.
In addition, 43 people have been hospitalized across 13 states, including Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
Boar’s Head first issued a recall in late July, which it has since expanded to include all of its deli meat products, including its prepackaged selection.
“The true number of sick people in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses,” the CDC said. “This is because some people recover without medical care and are not tested for Listeria.”
Those who have purchased the brand’s items should throw them out or inquire about a return at the store where it was bought. Additionally, clean any surfaces that came into contact with the meat, such as refrigerators and containers.
Some symptoms of listeria contamination may include fever, muscle aches, a stiff neck, convulsions and confusion, and could be more severe in people who are pregnant, over the age of 65 or have weakened immune systems. Symptoms may take one to four weeks to show up, or as many as 70 days. If you start showing symptoms, call a healthcare provider.
The median age of those infected so far is 77.
Hulk Hogan‘s former close friend is not shying away from the upcoming Gawker movie … instead he wants to collab with them … and, he’s got lots of insight ’cause he was at the center of the scandal!
A rep for Bubba the Love Sponge — a famous radio DJ whose wife wrestled between the sheets with the Hulkster in the now-infamous sex tape — tells TMZ … Bubba’s not currently working with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on their movie, but he’s willing to collaborate.
We’re told he feels the story’s already out there, so Bubba’s not hiding from it … and, he wants to ensure the pair get the facts right in their flick.
One of the biggest facts … the rep says Bubba wants BA and MD to make it clear the sex tape was stolen and he didn’t leak it.
If you don’t know … Bubba was married to Heather Clem — the one who appears in the sex tape alongside Hogan. We broke the story years ago that Bubba and Heather had some arrangement in place where Heather could have sex with other men so long as she recorded it.
After the sex tape came out, Hogan sued Bubba and Heather. Ultimately, Bubba settled with Hulk outside of court for just $5,000 and an on-air apology.
Bubba might be cool with Matt and Ben, so long as they get the facts right, but we know Hulk won’t be working with them … as we told you, he’ll consider legal action if the two creators step over the line.
As for casting … Bubba’s pitching Jonah Hill to play him in the movie — or Matty Matheson of “The Bear” fame if Matt and Ben want someone more low-key.
BTW … although Bubba’s not involved with the biopic, he is working on a 3-part docuseries about the scandal set for release in the fall.
A general view as the final Olympic Ring is lifted into place to assemble the Olympic Rings during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
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The Paris Olympics wrapped up Sunday with a lavish closing ceremony. It marked the end of a remarkable 2 1/2 weeks of competition and controversy.
We take a look at the celebration.
An overview shows Lithuania’s athletes parading during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Japan’s athletes take part in the athletes parade during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
Gold medalist of women’s marathon swimming, the Netherlands’ Sharon Van Rouwendaal, celebrates with her medal on Sunday.
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Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images
Athletes wave a French flag during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, Sunday.
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Natacha Pisarenko/AP
Silver medal winner, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, gold medalist Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan and bronze medalist Kenya’s Hellen Obiri pose during the podium ceremony for the women’s marathon event on Sunday.
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A pianist performs during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Phil Noble/Reuters
Athletes parade on Sunday.
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Petr David Josek/AP
The Golden Voyager descends into the stadium as a light show takes place on Sunday.
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New International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission member Marcus Daniell during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Dancers perform during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
Athletes pose for a selfie on Monday.
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Ashley Landis/AP
French opera singer Benjamin Bernheim performs Hymn To Apollo on Sunday.
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Gold medalist for the women’s long jump, Tara Davis-Woodhall of the United States, reacts during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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An overview shows Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles holding the Olympic flag on Sunday.
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Actor Tom Cruise descends from the roof of the stadium on Sunday.
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Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. singer H.E.R. performs during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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British athletes react during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Athletes of Suriname sit on the floor during the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
People watch a TV program airing the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday.
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (center) shakes hands with France’s judoka Teddy Riner on Sunday.
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A photograph of swimming gold medalist Leon Marchand of France celebrating winning the men’s 200 meter individual medley final is projected in Montmartre overlooking the fireworks of the closing ceremony on Sunday.
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Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Imagine that your local public library is inhabited by an undiscovered race of tiny people. They’ve hidden themselves in the racks, tucked behind books and magazines, amidst history and fiction, new media and old. If you’re lucky, you might spy them — or at least their tiny homes, which are filled with minuscule beds, microscopic stools, itty-bitty flowers and furniture fashioned out of found objects such as board game pieces and one-use spice bottles.
And these little folks need help. You have been cast as a “Teeny Tiny Beings Residential Specialist,” charged with finding the micro-humans new homes. It appears the librarians — giants, like us, at least to the microscopic persons — have been moving things around.
The immersive experience works like this: You’ll check out a box filled with instructions and various items. They’ll lead you around the library, sometimes to hidden, hollowed-out books, allowing you to piece together a story.
Welcome to the Bureau of Nooks and Crannies, a new exploration-focused, play-inspired experience found inside the Lincoln Heights branch of the Los Angeles Public Library system. It is but one of many, as the Bureau of Nooks and Crannies soon will be found in libraries in Atwater Village, Baldwin Hills, Chatsworth, Pacoima and Vernon, each location home to a different game-like endeavor designed to get guests to view their local libraries — and the world outside of them — a little more imaginatively.
If in Lincoln Heights we’re tasked with lending a hand to hidden, fictional mini-humans, in Atwater Village we’re asked to fantasize that we’re ghosts, friendly haunts who treat books as entryways for thoughtful, personal reflections.
As I moved through the Atwater branch pretending to be a spirit, I was instructed to shut my eyes and trace my fingers along a shelf. Then, I was to open a random book and let my fingers land on a page. Without looking at the cover, I found I settled on a passage about finding emotional balance. I wrote it down, knowing I would need it later.
All Bureau of Nooks and Crannies experiences spring from the mind of Andy Crocker, an L.A.-based artist who specializes in theatrical, experience-driven entertainment, having previously collaborated with the likes of Walt Disney Imagineering and Cedar Fair’s theme parks. Beginning Aug. 16, guests will be able to check out a box filled with instructions and ephemera, such as magnifying glasses, and explore a fanciful tale.
While the boxes can’t leave the library, the quests, geared for all reading ages, can be completed in less than an hour. None are difficult; we’re simply tasked with being creative.
Artist Andy Crocker, a local game designer/theatrical director, with her immersive experience at the Atwater Village branch library.
Some ask us to find books and passages that can inspire us. Others lead us to hollowed-out encyclopedias, home to ghostly index cards full of contemplative prompts that compel us to compose a life’s story in a few sentences. That’s where that passage I jotted down came in handy. To Crocker, each is an individual art piece, and each aims to place us into a meditative state.
“I love puzzles and I love games,” Crocker says. “But this, in particular, I was really trying to design an experience as art. The world is very stressful. The library makes me feel at peace and curious and in control of my time. I love that it’s a public space where I can also have a private moment. We can be alone together. To me, that is sacred.”
They’re games — mostly. But we’re more like mischievous researchers rather than puzzle solvers, tasked to wander a library and hunt for camouflaged narratives, each one prodding us to pause, ponder and pretend. Some branches tackle big-picture themes — looking decades into the future or grappling with lost loves. Moments will delight us, such as finding a not-so-hidden illuminated mail drop. Others inspire introspection.
We may be prompted, for instance, to consider what makes a good home, or challenged to imagine how we may perish. In Lincoln Heights, I suggested a residence be hidden behind a section on Eastern philosophy — dreaming the pocket-sized humans would find the history gratifying, and sensing the thick I Ching book could hide a fancy mini-pad. In Atwater, my ghost in its mortal form had a melancholic ending, dying of a broken heart but finding solace in the wonder of thousands of books.
A peek inside one of Andy Crocker’s mini dioramas as part of her Bureau of Nooks and Crannies experiences for the Los Angeles Public Library system.
(Alex Choate)
I was out in the world and among company, but with a chill and inventive task, especially one with an invented history, I felt a calming sense of community. This is the power of play.
“It’s guided meditation through play,” Crocker says. “I can’t meditate, but I can find a sense of serenity and presence when I’m in a playful state. It’s a guided meditation through imagination. I really believe that play is one of the most accessible entry points to presence, and I believe that presence is important to caring about the world.”
The Bureau of Nooks and Crannies is part of a residency program the library established in partnership with the nonprofit Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Participants receive a $20,000 honorarium. Crocker’s work is guaranteed to run at least through early December, although Todd Lerew, the foundation’s director of special projects, says branches are free to leave the experiences up longer.
Crocker also has created two audio installations, one dedicated to downtown’s Central Library and another that works with all 72 branches. The audio portion is a soothing, slow guided walk through the libraries, a meditation that asks us to look and touch rather than breathe deeply. Her projects, says Lerew, are designed for guests to rediscover a “sense of wonder.”
Completists will discover that Crocker’s six installations are a connected world. The imagined Bureau is dedicated simply to items — or emotions or creatures — that hide in plain sight, be it a small unseen population, a ghost or a lost love. The tiny folks of Lincoln Heights, for instance, send letters to the itty-bitty residences of the Pacoima branch. Crocker notes some during playtesting have gone deep when analyzing her hidden dioramas.
Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times features columnist, imagines a ghost story for himself at the Atwater Village branch library in Los Angeles.
“It’s very whimsical and sweet, but folks who have played it have asked if it’s asking questions about gentrification or who is invisible in the world or how we use our privilege to help others,” Crocker says. “Some people are just like, ‘Whee! Tiny things!’ Both are 100% acceptable.”
The beauty of Crocker’s installations is their open-ended nature, which comes from centering them around prompts rather than puzzles. Her inspiration was twofold. One, watching her young daughter wander the library with wide eyes and wanting adults to remember that surprise. And two, as she was creating the experiences she was reading the work of author and professor Ruha Benjamin, specifically the recent “Imagination: A Manifesto.”
“She talks about how if you can’t imagine a better world, we’re in big trouble,” Crocker says. “Working your imagination muscles in a comforting, energizing way, I think, is important. One of the threads among all my work, whether it’s for thousands of people at a time at a theme park, or one person at a time at a library, my goal is to offer imagination assistance.”
Crocker’s Bureau of Nooks and Crannies is a reminder that such aid is freely available. One needs only a library card.
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