Viral

Steve Kornacki's election map coverage did more than inform America, it energized America ... to dress like Steve, and it's paying dividends for the Gap.

The MSNBC "Map Daddy" became an unexpected star during the vote-counting chaos, as he won over viewers with his energy, commitment and his wardrobe ... especially his khakis.

After several media outlets reported they were Gap brand trousers, the company's sales got a huge boost within the first 24 hours.

According to a Gap spokesperson ... the clothing retailer saw a "dramatic increase in online traffic and within a day, we saw around 90% unit sale increase online."

For those who really want the fast track to being more like Steve -- aka the "Chart Throb" -- it was further discovered he wears the "palomino brown" pair ... of which he says he has several. No one's surprised.

Now on the tee ... A BIG-ASS ALLIGATOR!!!!!

A Jurassic Park-like beast interrupted some golfers during an outing in Florida on Wednesday ... and video of the reptile crawling around the course is WILD!!!

Check out some footage that golfers in Naples shot this week ... you can see the gator -- roughly 10 FEET LONG -- was just cruising through tee boxes without a care in the world.

"Holy ...," one golfer said while seeing the animal on the course. "This guy out for a stroll -- oh, my God!"

Gators haven't been shy about making appearances on golf courses over the past year ... remember when two beasts brawled on an 18th hole in South Carolina?

Also, who could forget the gator that stole some dude's ball in Louisiana!!!

Kevin Bacon's proud of American soldiers for serving their country, and he's shouting out a group of heroes for nailing his famous dance ... in their combat boots!!!

The "Footloose" star just shared this awesome video of 3 soldiers cutting loose to the famous song and dance routine from his classic 80s movie ... and Kevin is reminding America that our heroes also have moves.

Check out their choreography compared to Ren's in "Footloose" -- Kevin's right, they totally have it down!!!

Seems KB's really got the Armed Forces on his mind this Veterans Day ... he did some serious digging to find this funny video, which is from April, but hey, 'tis the season right.

Kevin's also honoring our vets for their service, saying all Americans owe them a debt of gratitude for fighting for our freedoms ... and he seems pretty humbled these soldiers decided to recreate his old school dance moves.

"Everybody cut, everybody cut ..."

A Pennsylvania politician is fighting off accusations that he's been posing as a gay Black man online to drum up support for Donald Trump ... and boy, this story gets weird.

Dean Browning -- a former Republican commissioner in Lehigh County -- tweeted a bizarre message earlier this week that had folks thinking he screwed up and posted something he meant to throw on to an alternative account he allegedly keeps ... maybe for good reason.

The tweet read, "I'm a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little bit and it was for the worse. Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected - which I never do when Democrats are involved."

The reason this raised eyebrows ... Dean's white, so what gives? At first, many believed Dean was tweeting something he meant to put on what's been described as an alleged "sock puppet" account -- AKA, Dan Purdy, a Twitter account that often replies to Dean, and which identifies as a gay Black man. To some, Purdy's tweets come off as a spam account.

After realizing his tweet had gone viral -- and after taking it down -- Browning came out and denied he was posing as a gay Black man, insisting that the message he tweeted had, in fact, been sent to him from one Dan Purdy ... whom Browning claims is a real person.

Soon after that, a Black man claiming to be the real Dan Purdy stood up ... and recorded a video of himself copping to sending Dean the message and backing up the sentiment of the tweet. That video has since been deleted, but many captured it and circulated it around.

Here's the kicker ... a lot of people are saying this guy who says he's Dan Purdy looks an awful lot like singer Patti LaBelle's nephew, William Holt ... who also goes by Byl Holt. Aside from the striking resemblance, Internet sleuths also noticed Dan and Will appear to use the same avatar for different profiles on social media. So ... a few things line up.

It hasn't been confirmed this is Patti's nephew, but if it is ... what a strange twist to an already confusing situation. Just goes to show (we think) -- don't judge a tweet by its tweeter.

You have to be nuts to climb to the top of a construction crane, hundreds of feet in the air, and hang from it ... but it requires a special type of craziness to do it in the nude.

Adam Lockwood, a 19-year-old climber, checked those boxes last weekend when he scaled a 660-foot crane in Benidorm, Spain, stripped naked, and dangled mid-air above the city ... without a safety rope or harness.

If "Free Solo" gave you the sweats ... the sight of Adam completely free and solo and tempting fate might be too much.

Apparently, this is nothing new for the daredevil hailing from Manchester, England. Lockwood's in the midst of a string of death-defying climbs all over Europe the past few months, and earlier this year he was given a 2-year suspended jail term for scaling buildings and cranes in Manchester and posting videos online.

He's even done naked climbs before, but he says this is the first time he's hung naked. Adam reportedly said ... "It's a bit of a challenge and unique. I thought why not," and added ... "Thankfully the weather was hot which helped."

Lucille Bridges, who made a historic walk with her 6-year-old daughter, Ruby Bridges, in 1960 -- into a segregated New Orleans public school -- has died.

Ruby announced her mother's passing Tuesday night ... calling her a hero and "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." Lucille's cause of death is unknown but Ruby paid a touching tribute to her saying, "Today our country lost a hero. Brave, progressive, a champion for change. She helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six year old little girl."

Lucille -- who gave birth to Ruby the same year as the landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education to end racial segregation in schools -- is memorialized alongside Ruby in Norman Rockwell's famous painting, "The Problem We All Live With" ... which shows Ruby carrying her school supplies as U.S. Marshals escort her.

When the NCAAP requested Ruby attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School as a first-grader in 1960 ... Ruby's father, Abon Bridges, was reluctant. But, according to the National Women's History Museum, it was Lucille who insisted because she wanted Ruby to have the education she herself missed out on. Lucille walked Ruby to school every day amid hateful and racist rhetoric spewed in their direction.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said, "Lucille's strength was unbounded during this period. Lucille insisted, seeing the action as an opportunity to help all Black children, and walked Ruby, with federal marshals, past chanting and taunting white protesters and to the schoolhouse. Mother and daughter both revealed their character and courage."

Rockwell's painting came back into the spotlight during the run-up of the presidential election ... with an adapted version showing now Vice President-elect Kamala Harris walking with Ruby's shadow cast on a white wall. The painting's been dubbed "That Little Girl Was Me."

Ruby wholeheartedly approved the image saying, "I am Honored to be a part of this path and Grateful to stand alongside you, Together with Our fellow Americans, as we step into this Next Chapter of American History!"

Lucille had 5 children. Her husband died in 1978.

She was 86.

A guy who went fishing in Egypt got more than he bargained for when his catch for the day tried going down his gullet before he could even fry it up ... and it almost killed him.

This went down last week near Beni Suef -- about 90 miles south of Cairo -- when this poor fella came stumbling into an ER down there gasping for breath and unable to speak. He obviously had something funky in this throat -- and that thing, it turned out, was a live fish.

Doctors diagnosed the blockage in his windpipe after running him through an X-ray and other tests, and then immediately got to work in extracting the damn thing with some tools.

Check out the procedure ... it's pretty gnarly. The man's laid out on a table as they pry his mouth open with one device and fish the scaly creature out with another -- eventually they hook it and yank out. As you can see, it's a tiny thing, but got lodged in there good.

Word is the guy was okay after all ... but as for how this happened in the first place -- bizarre, to say the least. Apparently, this dude caught this tiny fish and put it between his teeth to free up his hands so he could attend to another fish he had on the line.

This little bastard started squirming and broke free from his jaw's grasp, and went swimming in the dude's mouth. The lesson ... don't bite off more than you can chew (or swallow).

'Memba those murder hornets, and their TWO queens found in a Washington State nest? Turns out that was just the tip of the hive ... because there could be a lot more queens out there.

The WA State Department of Agriculture now says the nest they recently eradicated near had A LOT more queen hornets inside than they originally thought ... closer to 200 rather than just a measly 2. Big difference!!!

You'll recall that after an initial sweep in late October, the team went out there again when they realized they were short a female hornet ... which they believed might still be inside. They chopped down the tree in question and ended up finding two ladies in the nest -- one new and one old, they say -- plus a crap ton of larvae in different stages of development.

Welp, the WSDA now says there were actually up to 500 live specimens in the trunk -- 76 were fully developed virgin queens, 190 larvae, 108 pupae (next after larvae, almost all of which were queens) ... AND 112 worker hornets. That was the haul from this one job.

One WSDA official is quoted as saying the team got there "just in the nick of time" -- and, yeah, you can say that again. But, it leaves a major terrifying question ... how many other queens (or queens in development) might still be buzzing around, and how far did they travel???

The scientists there aren't oblivious to that -- they say they do believe there might be more nests in the area, but aren't sure where just yet. They also say they're going to scour that area for at least 3 more years to make sure the hornets are fully wiped out.

The only officer to be charged in the Breonna Taylor case is just now accused of sexual assault -- something the alleged victim claims his bosses knew about, but did nothing to correct.

Margo Borders is suing Brett Hankison, claiming he sexually assaulted her in 2018 after a night out at a bar where he worked security. She says she was drunk around closing time, and Hankison offered her a ride home.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Borders alleges Hankison invited himself into her home and plopped down on the couch, while she went into her bedroom to change.

Borders says she passed out, but claims Hankison came into her room, got naked and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious. When she finally woke up, she claims she screamed for him to get off her, and Hankison grabbed his uniform and left.

The next day, Borders claims Hankison contacted her, insisting they'd engaged in consensual relations. She also claims more than 10 other anonymous women have come forward to make statements about Hankison's alleged misconduct with them.

She's also suing several of his co-workers and supervisors -- on the police force and at the bar -- claiming they were aware of his alleged abuse but never took action to stop it.

It doesn't sound like Borders herself filed a police report, but she claims several of the other women made police reports that never got pursued.

As you know, Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment in the Breonna Taylor case ... for allegedly shooting into a neighboring apartment, but not for shooting and killing Breonna.

He's pled not guilty, and has been fired from LMPD.

Stop the search ... this California man just won Father of the Year honors after building his own Disneyland roller coaster just to entertain his family during quarantine.

Sean LaRochelle of Napa spent around 4 months building a scaled-down version of the famed Matterhorn ride. It's a 2-story, single-passenger roller coaster ... and you can tell Sean did everything in his power to get every detail of the alpine-themed ride.

Check out the videos ... his 400-feet of track includes Swiss flags, waterfalls and even the ticked off Yeti inside the mountain!!! The aerial shots of his mini Matterhorn are also pretty awesome -- we're thinking Sean needs to go Hollywood.

Sean's kid can thank coronavirus for their backyard playground-on-steroids. Disneyland closed in mid-March due to the pandemic, and 2 weeks later Sean started building the ride. He finished in July.

Ya might've guessed it, but Sean's working on a degree in architecture, and says he had some socially-distanced help from about 30 friends and family members. Doesn't hurt to come from a family of architects.

BTW, his child is only 6 months old. Sorry kid, you're just not tall enough for this ride yet.

RuPaul is ready to transform into a new look, although ... this one's gonna require a lot of growth.

The famous drag queen and host of "RuPaul's Drag Race" is now getting his famous mug molded into a Chia Pet ... just like Barack Obama and Bob Ross before him.

Yes, Chia Ru starts out bald -- just like its inspiration -- gone bald, but we're told it'll only take a couple of weeks before it's rocking a full head of very green hair. For best results, give it lots of attitude ... talking to plants helps 'em grow.

The terracotta figurine goes for $24.99 as an exclusive launch on Loot Crate ... and Ru says his Chia Pet is "the perfect metaphor for life -- to grow you must tend to your garden and love yourself."

Well said, Ru.

Joe Biden has his work cut out for him unifying the country ... a driver allegedly crashed a car at a Trump rally, and video shows the President's supporters beating his ass.

Here's the deal ... police in Santa Maria, CA say a 20-year-old driver was cited for crashing into cars near a pro-Trump demonstration Sunday, and witnesses detained him at the scene until officers arrived.

Cops say the driver was antagonizing folks who were participating in the rally, and was throwing objects. Police say he then drove through an intersection without yielding, crossing through the rally before hitting a vehicle.

Video from the scene shows a group of people detaining a man in the middle of the street, applying what appears to be a chokehold and pinning him down while telling him, "Welcome to MAGA country." Footage also shows a heavily damaged car rolled onto its side.

Congrats are in order for the Fleetwood Mac "Dreams" skateboarder -- Nathan Apodaca popped the question to his girlfriend, and she said YES!!!

Sources close to the couple tell TMZ ... Nathan proposed to his girlfriend, Estela Chavez, Saturday night in Las Vegas, dropping to one knee at the Nobu Hotel inside Caesars Palace.

As you can see, Nathan's fiancée has a shiny, new diamond engagement ring, which we're told is 3 carats and valued at a cool $22,000.

BTW ... we're told Nathan got the ring from Angel City Jewelers in Los Angeles.

Our sources say Nathan and Estela have been together for 14 months, and they met at the potato factory where he works back home in Idaho.

It's been a whirlwind couple months for Nathan ... he quickly shot to fame after posting a video of him drinking juice and vibing to Fleetwood Mac on his skateboard ... and now he's making tons of money from his merch, commercial appearances and Halloween costume!

Nathan's really living the American dream ... and we're told he's planning to marry Estela in December, just in time for the holidays!

Dave Roberts is finally speaking out about the Justin Turner COVID drama at the World Series ... admitting everyone involved "could've all done things differently and done better."

The Dodgers manager broke down his feelings on the matter with KTLA on Monday ... relenting his team dropped the ball on the handling of the situation.

"This is new to all of us," Roberts said. "So, I think emotions got the best of all of us."

Turner was pulled in the 7th inning of the Dodgers' Game 6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays last month after tests revealed he was positive for coronavirus.

The 35-year-old 3rd baseman initially was sent into isolation ... but he came out of it just a short time later, saying in a statement last week that he believed he was given permission to take the field for photos with the World Series trophy.

MLB concluded its investigation into the matter and decided to NOT punish either the Dodgers or JT over it all ... but acknowledged everyone involved should've done more to keep Turner from exposing others.

While Roberts appeared to agree with the sentiment Monday ... he added he's still glad Turner got to relish in the title celebration regardless.

"I'm a cancer survivor," Roberts said. "I sat next to him. And, so, I don't apologize for that."

One day, we'll be able to zip through tubes at super-fast speeds like "The Jetsons" -- and that day is coming sooner than later thanks to Sir Richard Branson's company ... which just tried it out with humans.

Virgin Hyperloop announced Monday it had successfully tested a Hyperloop ride with a couple of passengers -- 2 company execs -- over the weekend out at their Las Vegas test site.

The track -- which is, in fact, completely tubular -- only runs about 500 meters or so, and because of that ... the pod was only able to reach up to 100 MPH.

Normally, according to techy lore, a full-blown hyperloop track should (theoretically) be capable of firing down a cylinder at around 600 MPH -- which is faster than a freakin' airplane. Unfortunately, this test didn't quite get there ... but by all accounts, it was a huge first step.

If you're unfamiliar with what a hyperloop system is exactly, it's basically propelled by magnets -- with zero friction on the vehicle you're actually traveling in. So, in other words, you're pretty much hovering ... and because of that, sky's the limit as far as speed. Again, in theory.

There are other companies and wizzes that have eyed getting into the hyperloop market -- like Elon Musk, for example -- but with Virgin ... it seems they're the first ones through the gate on this endeavor. There's other hyperloop-like tech already in use in places like Japan and Germany ... where some of their train systems use magnetic tracks.

It's not quite like this though, and if Virgin continues to roll out passenger tests with more success -- not to mention building out their track for faster speeds -- it could open a whole new mode of transportation, the likes of which we've never seen but were always promised.

Here's hoping this is the last we'll have to hear about "fake news" for a long time -- which, ironically enough, is coming to us courtesy of President Trump's own campaign staffers.

The Trump campaign's Communications Director, Tim Murtaugh, tweeted out a photo this weekend that showed the walls of the interior of their headquarters in Arlington, VA completely plastered with copies of a newspaper front page that read, "President Gore."

The paper was supposedly the front page of the Washington Times from 2000 -- Tim was trying to show they got it wrong and called a Gore win prematurely. He wrote, "Greeting staff @TeamTrump HQ this morning, a reminder that the media doesn't select the President."

The problem ... that front page is FAKE, and the outlet actually called him out over it on Twitter -- noting the photos/headline were doctored, and NOT what they ran at the time.

Of course, somebody tracked down the actual front page TWT ran in 2000 after Election Day, and sure enough ... they actually called it for George W. Bush (which, while still premature the day after, ended up being correct in the end). In other words, actual fake news that Team Trump fell for, and taped up in their offices. Murtaugh eventually deleted his post.

It's just a testament that Trump's delusion about this election and his unfounded claims of a rigged system and voter fraud runs deep through his ranks ... which is not a good sign of what's to come.