Last week, Amazon Prime released its highly anticipated series “Cross,” and the masses are loving the atmospheric black detective saga based on James Patterson’s acclaimed book series. The series stars Aldis Hodge within the title role of Alex Cross.

Since the series is ready in Washington, D.C., it was an actual pleasure to look at it from the angle of a resident and DMV resident. The motion of the series takes place not only within the capital of the country, but for once you possibly can feel prefer it. Instead of the uninspired aerial shots of the U.S. Capitol and famous monuments that the majority shows and flicks set in DC add to convey a regional flavor, this photo captures the character of town itself.

There are shots of colourful row houses, scenes of residents crowding the streets, neoclassical buildings not only near the White House, and (minor plot spoiler) sketchy, mysterious white people in Georgetown. It was very nice to see that DMV boysthe bike crew that loudly strolls the streets of the DMV receives an honorable mention.

However, in trying to indicate real life in Washington, it appears that evidently the showrunners got one thing unsuitable. No one – and I repeat, absolutely – goes to Ben’s Chili Bowl as often as Alex Cross.

The man consistently eats at the historic and now iconic chili spot. Whenever he isn’t home or solving cases, Cross apparently stuffs his face with chili dogs. This is de facto weird. Several of his friends and colleagues also stay there consistently. They even hold intimate discussions at full volume about sensitive matters they supposedly want the general public to find out about. It’s not only me; as more and more people discover this program, more persons are beginning to notice this strange habit.

“I’m halfway through Cross on Amazon Prime and the most incredible thing is how often they eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl.” wrote user @thekeyresource on Threads. “Anyone who has lived in DC knows that only tourists eat there. DC residents purposely don’t eat there multiple times a week 🤣.”

For those less familiar, yes, Ben’s Chili Bowl could be very real. In fact, because the first season finished filming, Hodge visited the plant. In addition to being very tasty, the restaurant has existed in town for over 60 years. It was founded within the late Fifties by Ben Ali, a Trindadian-born immigrant who attended Howard University, which is positioned near Ben’s.

As someone who grew up less than 40 minutes from Washington, D.C., and worked, lived, and played in town for the higher a part of a decade, I can assure you that Ben’s is just not an on a regular basis place to live. It’s not even generally considered a spot to hang around through the day. Most people visit Ben’s at the top of a night at the bar on U Street (where he relies).

First, eating as much chili dogs as Cross claims wouldn’t be healthy. Seriously, what adult male together with his body type eats chili dogs that always? Alex Cross is certainly on some bougie keto weight-reduction plan.

Plus, a D.C. skilled actually is not eating greasy, yet delicious, seriously sloppy chili dogs in the midst of the work day. Let’s be honest: If Alex Cross is de facto a DC character, he gets Chipotle. It gives you numerous energy during your lunch break and burrito.

Plus, Ben’s is not the only restaurant on the town. This is just not the one historical case. This is not the only issue that matters to Black people. I mean, I’d expect Alex Cross to be holed up at Stan’s, the cocktail bar and restaurant on Vermont Avenue, and even the Florida Avenue Grill. If the showrunners wish to spread the love even more, there are many Black-owned restaurants like Dukem Ethiopian, Horace & Dickie’s Seafood Carryout, NuVegan Cafe, HalfSmoke and more. DMV guests typically visit several restaurants, not only one everlasting location.

A slight spoiler, but given the subdued, depressed and stressed widower vibes, I actually think Cross also frequently reflected on his complicated life at the bar. He would actually be at a bar like Stan’s. Honestly, there is no such thing as a reason to eat out. The man lives together with his grandmother who helps him deal with his children; it must involve cooking for them!

But after I take into consideration Cross being a widower scuffling with grief, I begin to wonder if all of the chili dogs are a plot device. Maybe he’s waiting for some time at an everyday diner, hoping to assuage his sadness with all those hotdog buns.

There are some iconic TV characters which have such a cultural imprint that it have to be difficult for the person playing that character to completely break away from them. One such figure is Steven Q. Urkel, also often called Stefan Urquelle. If you lived within the ’90s, you might not have watched Family Matters, but you knew exactly who Urkel was. He was the annoyingly nerdy neighbor of Carl and Harriet Winslow, who was also in love with their oldest daughter, Laura Winslow. And when you were a young black boy within the ’90s who wore glasses and was even slightly nerdy, people called you Urkel.

Hi. I was Urkel.

Urkel was played by Jaleel White, a young man who grew right into a young adult over the course of the series. I have often wondered what it was like to be so famous for one particular role and how that role influenced the actor’s real life. For example, I entered Morehouse College as a freshman in 1997. At the identical time, the massive news on campus was that Keshia Knight-Pulliamwho famously played Rudy Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” was also starting her freshman 12 months at Spelman College across the road.

In Black America, Huxtables might as well be royalty. Even though all of the actors playing these characters were human, to us, the common folk, they were all symbols of black excellence and felt like members of our families throughout the series. I still remember the primary time I saw Keshia on campus; you might see people looking at her, almost in disbelief that she was actually there, physically. It was surreal, but I also wondered if she was annoyed. No one called her Keshia, just “Rudy” (at first). I can’t pretend I know her well enough to know if it’s going to ever end, but we had a category together freshman 12 months and the professor would not stop calling her Rudy. It have to be hard to be so famous for such reason that it drags you down in a way that does not allow you to be your personal person.

Jaleel White wrote a memoir titled “Growing Up Urkel.” I can’t wait to read this book. First, I imagine he has to cope with each the positive and negative effects of being related to a novel character who was actually a major a part of American popular culture – ’90s Urkel. Given his fame and a number of the squabbles with his adult companions, o that we have been hearing on the news over the previous couple of years, it looks as if his life story is probably really fascinating. In interviews, he seems so well-adjusted that he should have had a extremely solid family foundation.

I watched it recently interview White gave on “The Breakfast Club” and I was almost surprised by how great he is in front of the camera, but that surprise is because even in 2024 I still consider him as Urkel. I watched TV shows and movies wherein he acted. Well, Jaleel White is the star of probably one in every of the darkest movies of all time. “Who made the potato salad?” Yet all along I saw Urkel acting like a idiot, not Jaleel. He seems to have come to terms with it, but man, it’s really hard to imagine life in his place.

For that reason alone, I’m glad he decided to share his story with the masses, as I’m sure it’s each entertaining and informative. Also, lots of people have stories – I just don’t know the way many individuals have a story that features literally being one of the essential black figures in Black Pop Cultural history. As someone Urkel has seen for thus a few years, I can’t wait to read his story.

Plus every adult black male giving Teddy Pendergrass on the duvet of the book clearly has something to get off his chest.

In his upcoming memoir, “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling the Narrative” Keke Palmer reflects on his journey to understanding his price in each his personal and skilled life. During an interview with Los Angeles TimesPalmer talked about how the book covers a wide range of topics, including her experiences on the set of Fox’s “Scream Queens.”

Palmer played Zayday Williams on the horror comedy series for 2 seasons. During her time on the show, the actress recalls a racist encounter on set with an anonymous white star, whom she calls “Brenda” within the book. In an try to calm down Brenda after the clash along with her colleague, Palmer reportedly suggested everyone “have fun and respect each other,” to which Brenda allegedly replied, “Keke, literally, just don’t do it. Who do you’re thinking that you might be? Martin F. Luther King?”

“It was a very important thing that she said, but I didn’t let that burden be put on me because I know who I am,” Palmer told the newspaper, reflecting on the event. “I’m no victim. That’s not my story, honey. I do not care what her ass said. If I let what she said cripple me, it should.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the one negative encounter Palmer encountered while working on “Scream Queens.” In her memoir, she also describes an instance where she needed to miss filming because of a scheduling error, which led to a really indignant phone call with the series’ co-creator and director, Ryan Murphy.

“I felt like I was in the dean’s office,” she said, adding that Murphy allegedly “pissed” her off by asking for her absence. “He said, ‘I’ve never seen you act like that.’ I can not imagine you, of all people, would do something like that.

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The longtime star then remembers receiving a shooting schedule and scheduling one other business meeting on her time off. But when the day got here, the production notified her that she was indeed needed on set, and the star decided to honor her earlier commitment. After apologizing for her absence, Palmer thought she and Murphy had gone their separate ways until she spoke to a different unnamed star.

“I said, ‘Ryan talked to me and I think he’s fine, everything’s fine,’ and she said, ‘It’s bad,’ trying to scare me or something, which was kind of irritating,” she explained.

While the star hoped to form a long-term relationship with Murphy that may lead to future roles like other industry stars, Palmer felt it was more necessary to arise for herself.

“I’m still not sure Ryan cared or understood it, but that’s okay because he just focused on his business, which is not a problem for me,” she wrote within the book. “But I know that even if he didn’t care, and even if I never work with him again, he knows that I see myself as a company, too.”