From SNL Drama To Glamour UK Backlash And A Restaurant’s Perfect Clapback

A Friday mood sets the stage: feeling strong, clear-headed, and ready to wade into some thorny stories with humor and heat. We start with the Leslie Jones and Paul Rudd clash and ask harder questions about workplace boundaries, public grudges, and how identity labels get weaponized when tempers run hot. It’s not about picking a celebrity side—it’s about how fast a long workday turns into permanent outrage and what that says about our culture of airing everything online.

Then we dive into Glamour UK’s decision to honor a group of trans “dolls” as Women of the Year and the wave of backlash led by J.K. Rowling. We explore the pressure points around language, womanhood, and representation, and why so many people feel the ground shifting under their feet. Media power, social movements, and girls’ futures sit at the center of this debate, and we try to separate signal from noise without dodging the hard edges.

Next up: a Rhode Island school district’s reported $117,000 price tag for public records about a teacher’s political comments. What should public really mean when curriculum and teacher emails are on the line? We unpack the tug-of-war between transparency, cost, and public trust—and why parents keep pushing even when institutions push back.

To end on a lighter note, a negative review about a “leaf” in baked beans sparks a masterclass reply from a restaurant: it’s a bay leaf, it’s scratch cooking, and it’s the opposite of canned. That small exchange becomes a bigger lesson about how craftsmanship and communication can turn complaints into loyalty. And yes, we want your take: how do you season your baked beans—sweet, smoky, spicy, or all of the above?

If this mix of sharp stories and real-life flavor hits the spot, tap follow, share with a friend, and drop a review—then tell us your secret bean ingredient. We’ll read our favorites on a future show.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Friday Energy And Feeling Healthy
• 1:12 Leslie Jones Vs Paul Rudd Controversy
• 4:29 Glamour UK Trans Cover And Backlash
• 8:29 Rhode Island Records Fee Uproar
• 11:56 Restaurant Review And Bay Leaf Lesson
• 14:10 Question Of The Day: Seasoning Beans

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Ooh, y'all, it's Friday and I am feeling good. I don't feel bloated. My inflamm I'm not having an inflammatory flare-up. My joints feel good. I don't feel like I'm retaining any fluid. I feel good. I feel like I've lost weight. Ooh, I just feel good and healthy this morning. You ever have those days where you wake up and you just feel good? I call these pre-COVID days. This is how I felt before COVID. I feel fit and I feel healthy. Okay, but I don't always feel this way. No. Sometimes most of the days, uh, I do feel a little bloated and okay, you don't really care about that. We need to get to the stories. All right, here we go. What do we have on the stories today for X over at the X file? Let's see, go to my profile. Profile. Okay. Let's see. Oh, let's start with uh Leslie. Leslie Jones. Do you know who Leslie Jones is? She used to be on Saturday Night Live. Um back when it was going downhill. Leslie Jones is she cannot stand Paul Rudd. And here's what the point I wanted to get to. She goes on this podcast and she's bad mouthing some people, and mainly she's bad mouthing uh Paul Rudd. Because he made her stay on a set. I guess he was directing something, and he made her stay on the set all day and she was tired, and all she wanted to do is go home. And here's what she says. Oh, wait, about him. Let's see. Paul Rudd sees that I don't like him. So Paul is like, oh, I'm enjoying this, Jones revealed. The guy goes, I want to take a picture with you. I'm not taking an effing picture with you. You're a piece of SHIT. I'm not gonna take a picture with you, she said. Okay, well then she goes on to say sorry, I'm getting down to the bar. Rudd snapped the photo between the two ex SNL co-workers before Jones erupted over the tense encounter. I wanted to kill him and I just get and I just get your effing hands off me, Jones recalled. I would take that as a threat. Okay, Jones had revealed her hatred of the man she previously described as a narcissist D head, peaked after he wouldn't let her leave following a long day on set. Oh, I guess at SNL. He wanted to make sure they got the skit right or something. I don't know. I thought it was a live production. Maybe they were rehearsing. She was shooting a pre-taped segment for a November 2017 SNL episode with fellow cast member Kyle Mooney when she needed to go home following the long night of filming. The guy who would direct those was a effing D hole, Jones said on the tour show podcast in February, and I don't give a F you see this. You are still probably effing Dick D head, a effing narcissist D head. Okay, here's the part I wanted to get to. This just chaps my behind. Here's what she says. He was just one of the white boys who thought he's doing Shakespeare, Jones added. What if he had gone out on a podcast and said she's just one of those angry black women? What do you think would happen to Paul Rudd? Okay, that I just no, stop all this. He's a white boy. He's a white boy. No, you're not allowed to say it anymore. Okay. You've had your fill of it. Now knock it off, Leslie Jones. And everybody and all the other people who want to call out white, all those white calls, white boy. Whatever. Okay. Alright, we need to move on. J. Cal JK Rowling leads outrage after Glamour UK names a group of trans dolls as women of the year. So they use these dolls as a derogatory term. The TERFs, dude. Now, if you don't know what a TERF is, T-E-R-F, I am definitely a TERF and I'm proud of it. Trans exclusionary radical female, I think is what they call us. The men pretending to be women have named us TERFs. Like it's a bad thing, like it's a derogatory term. It's not derogatory to me. Because I am a trans. What is it? Trans-exclusionary radical female. I think that's what turf stands for. And that I am definitely that. All right, we need let's see. Um I'm sure you've seen this story out there already, all over the place. The UK glamour magazine, putting a bunch of men pretending to be women on the cover and tell calling them women of the year. Get out my face. This is from Paige Snow from the New York Post. Glamour UK announced a group of trans women. There's no such thing as trans women. Let me correct New York Post. Glamour UK announced a group of men to be among the 2025 Women of the Year. Shut your effing pie hole. I'm so upset. But I felt good. But I feel good. Yeah, I know. I'm crazy. It's okay. It's Friday. It's a good day. Stoking outrage from outspoken author J.K. Rowling who said the honor sends the wrong message to girls. Of course it does. And I saw the other day, too, I put it out on Facebook from uh USA Today. No, People magazine, I think it was, put out this high school homecoming queen was a boy dressed in a gown. Y'all, this has got to stop. We think it's over because Trump signed some executive orders. No, no, no, sir, no, ma'am. It is not over. This crap is still happening. The British glossy said it was bestowing the annual award to the nine men dubbed the dolls, saying they these trailblazers saying they these trailblazers work tirelessly to empower, uplift, and celebrate trans voices. You mean they want to shut females up? That's what you mean. They want to shut females up. That's what they're saying. But Rowling, the Harry Potter author who's spoken out against the trans issues, panned the decision. Well, of course. So she says, I grew up in an era when mainstream women's magazine told girls they needed to be thinner and prettier. I remember that too, JK. Now Mainstream Women's Magazine tells girls that men are better women than they are. Yes, that is exactly what they're saying. Um now Mainstream Okay, I already read that. Rowling was not the only one who attacked Glamour UK for its cover. Zubi, never heard of Zuby, a British rapper who has also advocated against the transgender community, agreed with Rowling and criticized those who celebrated the cover. Um so yeah. The trans movement is easily the most misogynistic movement in modern history, especially because of its scale and mainstream acceptance. Uh Ollie London, a fellow Brit who has become a vocal critic of the trans community after detransitioning, joined in on the outrage. I did not know Ollie London had detransitioned. I just thought he was a gay man. Uh so yeah, there you go. There's a whole long article. A lot of people are speaking out again. It's that, but you know, nobody cares. None of this is gonna happen. They're still on the cover of the stupid glamour UK magazine. All right, moving on. We have two more stories, and I'll try to get to it quick. This woman, I'm she's a hero to me. Uh, where is she? Rhode Island Public School. Now, and why do we call them public schools anymore when they're not really public schools? Because the government gives the money. So they're really government-owned schools. We need to start calling them what they are government schools. Charged mother, get this. They charged her$117,000 for records request about teacher who called Charlie Kirk garbage. Here we go. A Rhode Island Public School District reportedly charged a mother roughly$117,000 for records pertaining to a high school teacher who was placed on paid leave after calling slain conservative act Charlie Kirk a piece of garbage. His name is Benjamin Philo, a social studies teacher. I'm surprised they still teach social studies, but what version does he teach is the question. And she requests records about that too. So he was ousted in September shortly after posting a rant on TikTok, branding Kirk a piece of garbage who hated the LGBT community on women's rights. So you can go probably find him on TikTok and watch that if you'd like. I'm not gonna do it. One irate mother submitted a public records request. I thought those were free to request, but uh I guess I'm wrong, for information related to Philo's school email and course materials, but the district pushed back with a steep fee, according to a letter from the law firm representing Barrington Public Schools. Nicole Solis is the mom sought to obtain any emails Philo sent from September 1st, 2024 onward, referencing Trump and a secondary request for more email correspondences sent January 1st, 2016. Also flagging Trump. You know, I think these school districts and lawyers and judges are catching on to this that people are starting to smarten up and request these records. And I think this is why they're trying to charge a crazy fee in order not to parents can't get them because who can afford$117,000? It doesn't say in this article if she paid it or not. Obviously, she did not. I mean, come on, who has that kind of money laying around? Solas additionally asked for all of Philo's curriculum materials he used to teach the young and impressionable minds. Okay, so here's the thing. So the records request flagged a staggering 789 emails Philo sent containing the word Trump since September 1st, 2024. That's a lot of emails, according to the letter. If she wanted to obtain all the requested materials, she would have to fork out$117,000 with the 15-year curriculum alone costing roughly$116. Jeez. The estimate that we received is exorbitant, completely unreasonable, just to get their curriculum materials. Yeah, so it doesn't say if she actually got them or not. Who knows? And obviously she didn't because she's not paying the fine the fee for that. Come on. All right. Last story. This is kind of a cute one. This I'm gonna end on a good note. So you know how people like to eat at restaurants and then they go home and they get on their little computer and they rant and give a bad review. I hate people who do that. Unless it's absolutely called for, but people do it over the stupidest thing. My napkin was folded incorrectly. Whatever. Okay, so after finishing a meal at a restaurant, a negative Nancy of a customer wasted no time running home to write a not so great review of their experience. And the restaurant's response is golden. I love clever people like this. All right, a so let's see. Um, well, the restaurant looked at it as an opportunity to promote their business, and they did with I mean absolute trophy-winning material. A screenshot of the exchange was posted to the R Funny Forum on Reddit. The funny forum on Reddit. This disgruntled dinner diner wrote, I ate here for the first time tonight. The brisket was probably the best I've ever had, but I found an entire leaf in my baked beans. I cannot make this up. Y'all ready for the response?

unknown: 12:59

Ha ha!

SPEAKER_00: 13:00

And you know what the leaf is. You're smart, you know what it is. So the restaurant replies, so we're glad you enjoyed the brisket. I'm guessing you've never seen a bay leaves in your food before. If you see them in the future, you can rest assured that that is a sign that someone spent time and effort making your food from scratch. We pride ourselves on making everything fresh in-house. No cans ever. So you will find unique spices, blends, and herbs, uh, herbs being used in our food. That includes bay leaves. Again, I'm glad you enjoyed the brisket, and I'm sorry for the leaf surprised you. I mean, how stupid can you be? There are some stupid people out there. Okay, we need to move on to the question of the day. I have extended my time here this morning. So the question of the day is Okay, okay, so we're gonna stay on the topic of baked beans and seasoning. How do you season your baked beans? Now, this might this might be a little contr controversy down here in the south because a lot of people have opinions about how to how to uh spice up your baked beans. What is your spice? What is your added touch to baked beans? Oh, now I'm starving. I could eat a whole can of baked beans right now. I'm so damn hungry. All right, I gotta go. Y'all have a great weekend. Uh I'm gonna have a great weekend. Um uh let's see, and um oh, stay tuned for hopefully Sunday. The gent and I will remember to do the Brood Awakening podcast. Okay, for real, this time I'm gonna go. Thanks for listening. Bye.