Latest news with #EastboundandDown
Irish Examiner
26-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Charity event to raise funds for palliative care unit in Kerry
Family and friends of a young girl who died from a rare form of cancer are to hold a charity bike ride to help raise funds for a palliative care unit in Kerry and Tipperary. Lily Anna Sebestova, aged 10, from Tralee passed away on November 15, 2024, after a three-year battle with cancer. Lily had donated her hand for cancer research to help others during her illness. Her heartbroken mother Lorraine told the Irish Examiner how the family was forced to live apart during her daughter's treatment in Dublin due to a lack of facilities closer to home. 'We practically lived in Dublin', she said. 'Lily suffered and that broke us all up." We were living like a separated family. I was in Dublin and my husband was in Kerry with our son. Ms Sebestova vowed that she would try and 'help others' just as her daughter wanted by highlighting the long distance they were forced to travel due to a lack of palliative care services in Munster. Now, a group of bike riders have launched a fundraiser, 'Eastbound and Down' in aid of the Kerry Hospice Foundation and Cashel Ward Palliative Care suite. The non-stop 1,500km ride will take place over a 24-hour period from July 4, beginning in Dunmore Head and finishing at Kerry General Hospital. Writing on their Idonate and Facebook page, the group said: 'Last year we raised just under €10,000 for the Kerry Hospice Foundation but this year we are raising much needed funds for a new much needed cause as well as the Kerry hospice foundation. 'The Cashel ward palliative care suite , a place where children can go if needed. Unfortunately, cancer touches every house at one time or another and we need to help out to raise funds to make their last days more comfortable for those suffering. 'So, our run leaves at 11am from Dunmore head in Dingle, we go to Malin Head, Burr Point, Mizen Head, and back to the Kerry General Hospital in 24 hours non-stop riding, 6 of us on motorbikes which will be tracked by Fleet Data so you can follow us as we are moving. 'This run is in honour of a little girl we lost last year to the dreaded cancer, Lily Anna Sebestova, please donate and share this page far and wide'. Lily Anna Sebestova, aged 10, from Tralee passed away on November 15, 2024, after a three-year battle with cancer. Lily battled hard against alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma - a rare and aggressive form of cancer. The tumour is extremely fast growing and usually occurs in teenagers and young adults and spreads widely at an early stage. Her mother said 'everything went against us' even the form of cancer her daughter suffered. 'It was so rare I didn't even have another parent to talk to about it' she said. She described her daughter as a 'firecracker' and the 'biggest advocate for herself in her journey in cancer'. 'Her diagnosis did not stop her,' she said. 'She had her hand amputated and by the time we were home she was down looking for pancakes and she was whisking the batter next to me five days later. 'She was an inspiration. From day one, she took on board what was given to her, and even though we cried, and we carried this pain, she did it. She donated her hand; she signed that paper in the hopes of changing lives. She did that.'
Fox News
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Reporter's Notebook: Where we stand with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Do not underestimate the importance of Thursday's meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. Those committee chairmen are looking for guidance from the president about what they need to put in the "big, beautiful bill." Republicans agree on broad principles. But specifics are the key to either passing or failing this bill. Most Republicans are willing to get behind the president. He has more power in this dynamic than the committee chairmen. But they have not yet scheduled their meetings to write details of the bill, because they aren't sure exactly what the White House wants. Congressional Republicans are just 26 days away from the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the bill. Multiple House committees hammered through their plans for the bill. But the two most important committees – Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce – still have not met. The Ways and Means Committee is in charge of writing the specifics of the tax policy. Energy and Commerce is asked to cut $880 billion. Some of that will touch on entitlement programs if the GOP truly goes that deep with cuts. But already, Republicans are running out of track with such tight deadlines. In the movie "Smokey and the Bandit," country star Jerry Reed sings the title track, "Eastbound and Down." The lyrics go: "We've got a long way to go. And a short time to get there." That epitomizes the problem facing congressional Republicans as they race to finish this bill soon – with the hardest decisions yet to be made.
The National
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Why Danny McBride decided to end Righteous Gemstones without telling his co-stars
Not following the career of Danny McBride? If you're a fan of comedy, you really should be. Over the past 20 years, particularly in his work with HBO, he's become poet laureate of the American id. In Eastbound and Down (2005-2009), Vice Principals (2014-2016) and The Righteous Gemstones (2018-present), he has created some of the funniest, raunchiest and best-crafted shows of the 21st century. The hallmark of great comedy is timing, and McBride has always known instinctually where to place the punchline. And while he has said in the past that The Righteous Gemstones was built to run forever – McBride estimated a 72-season run – it was while writing season four that he knew this was where it had to end. 'I could just kind of feel it,' McBride tells The National. 'I kept coming to resolutions, and themes of moving on. But when we got to set, I didn't announce to everyone this is the end. If we didn't stick the landing, I wanted to leave myself the chance to do it again. But then, as we got closer to the ending, I felt we had done what we needed to do with this story. 'It's sad. I love all these people, and it's sad to look back at what you have created together, knowing that it's the end of a chapter. It's a whole bushel of emotions. But at the end of the day, I felt good about it. It was an awesome experience – and so much fun to tell this story with this group of people.' What is this story exactly? Think Succession set at a megachurch in the American south. McBride plays Jesse Gemstone, the eldest son in a world-famous televangelist family who made millions preaching values they do not uphold behind closed doors. And when their secrets are under threat of exposure, the family bands together like never before. McBride's earlier work was more character-focused, but Righteous Gemstones is tightly plotted and over-the-top, full of twists and turns and big swings. That is probably because McBride himself has become so versatile, having written the last three Halloween films as well as the most recent Exorcist reboot. As a result, he has crafted a show unlike any other, which has left his fellow stars, even the tenured performer John Goodman, using acting muscles they did not know they had. 'It's been great because there's a lot to deal with here that I've never had to deal with before in any other character. It's a new field for me, and because of that, it never gets boring,' says Goodman, who plays the family's patriarch, Dr Eli Gemstone. Goodman is putting it lightly. His co-star Tim Baltz, who plays BJ, lays out a few more examples that make it clear just how wild this show's ride really has become in its four seasons. 'This covers so much more ground than a lot of other characters in other shows do. Just speaking for myself, I got baptised in what looked like the '80s Dune movie. I learned how to roller skate. I fought a man naked. I learned how to pole dance. I kiss a capuchin monkey. These are all things I could have never anticipated. And all of that felt natural and emotionally true the entire time. That's what's so good about this show,' says Baltz. Baltz, like many of his collaborators, did not actually know the show was over when they finished filming – as McBride never explicitly said it was the end. 'On the last day, we kind of had a feeling. No one was addressing it. Then Danny gave a speech, and the emotions started to come out a little bit, because we realised it was probably the end,' says Baltz. And while it's hard to say goodbye, the world of the Gemstones is so vibrant that not everyone involved feels it's really over – particularly Edi Patterson, who not only served as a writer but also plays Judy Gemstone. Patterson says: 'I feel like the Gemstones still exist in a world that's still happening. It just doesn't feel like the end of anything to me. I feel like they're still so alive. That's the fun part of this show – this is a world you can go into, a world so vibrant it's never really gone. 'It's bittersweet, but I'm so proud of what we did. It was a really wild and special thing. Oh man, what a gift. This was the greatest job ever.' The Righteous Gemstones season four releases weekly on OSN+
