Author: Jesse

Kalima Watson is an ancestry detective, and he wants to help you get in touch with your family history because he knows it can change your life.

It shifted his.

“When I delved into my own ancestry, it was life-changing,” he said. “I learned about their stories, the hard things that they did, some of the difficulties that they’ve gone through, challenges that they overcame, and just knowing that helped me to feel like I could draw on their power and then face hard, difficult things as well.”

It encouraged Watson to push himself, to take some chances. He got a tattoo and went on a fitness journey, all because he felt “empowered” by his ancestors.

He learned of one relative who was originally from Africa but ended up in Hawaii, and how his life played out there. He also learned about Scandinavian ancestors who traced back to Vikings.

“It made me feel like it’s something that everyone should have access to,” he said, “because if it could be that empowering for me, imagine what it could do for the world.”

About a year ago, Watson started making videos about some of his ancestors. In May, he began building a fanbase, and within a week, he said, his Instagram follower count shot up from from 700 to 100,000.

“To me,” he said, “it [was] a sign that people are interested in their ancestry and that it can be empowering.”

Now, Watson creates a steady stream of videos on social media so others can learn about their family history. He’s amassed nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram under his account, @justkalima.

The Eagle Mountain resident is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a faith that places a high value on the study of family history. The church describes its FamilySearch library as “one of the largest genealogical libraries in the world.”

Watson uses tools like FamilySearch and Ancestry to help gather documentation and research people’s ancestry. Then, he said, he uses ChatGPT to help with the story-building aspect and get a sense of what was going on in the world during the time that ancestor was alive.

In his videos, Watson dons a medieval knight look, ready to share tales. “People like characters,” he said of his attire, which consists of chain mail and small, round glasses.

“What caught me off guard is, the first probably 10 or 15 videos that I made, nobody mentioned it,” Watson said. “They just kind of accepted that that was the person they were watching. At this point it’s part of the brand, but initially it was just to be goofy and memorable.”

These days, most of the videos Watson makes are for his followers.

Some of the things he has discovered include one follower’s ancestor “who took a bullet in the Civil War and then switched sides,” another whose relative nearly revived an ancient kingship in Ireland, and another who helped build the foundation of modern politics in Greece.

Some followers come to Watson with as little information as their family members’ names, while others might know a thing or two about their family’s past already.

Shane Purdue, a follower from Dallas, Texas, who discovered Watson’s account “by chance” scrolling through Instagram Reels, already had an ancestral family free set up, but Watson helped him unlock new stories he’d never heard before.

“I briefly explained to him a little bit about my great-grandfather and his time serving in the war, and he expanded on that and found all this extra information,” Purdue said. “[He] found a bunch of records, escape and evasion reports, which we were not aware of at that time.”

Purdue showed his grandmother the video, who was “very excited” to learn more about her dad.

Watson said he hopes his videos can not only help people learn about their family histories, but also encourage younger people, who may be less inclined to dig into the past, to get in touch with their roots.

“That’s kind of the whole reason behind it,” he said, “to change that narrative.”

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While presiding over the mostly-empty U.S. House of Representatives last week, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore of Utah’s 1st Congressional District saw an opportunity, he said, to embarrass his young sons.

While reporting the “ayes” and “nos” for a vote on a joint resolution, Moore joked the results were “6-7” — referencing a popular, mostly meaningless obsession currently rampant among America’s youth.

At the time, the Utah Republican was serving as the speaker pro tempore, a temporary role in which House members serve to oversee the chamber’s business, including calling for votes and managing debate.

“The question is on passage of the joint resolution. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say no,” Moore said.

With only a few lawmakers on the floor for the debate, Moore received a weak number of replies from lawmakers who said aloud their vote.

“It’s about 6-7,” Moore said with a small smirk and while doing the juggling hand gesture that’s part of the popular meme.

Moore kept a mostly straight face and went on to determine that “the ayes have it” before Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., made a request to formally hear the votes and laughed at Moore’s joke, causing Moore to smile at the podium.

In CSPAN footage of the floor at the time, two young staffers can be seen laughing and shaking their heads.

In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, Moore said the joke was “definitely not planned.”

“It just came to me while sitting in the chair as speaker pro tempore, which can admittedly get a little boring when there’s limited floor activity,” the lawmaker said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was mostly so I could embarrass my kids. I’m away from my boys a lot in this job, and things like this can get their attention and bring us together.”

On the social media platform, Moore, a father of four boys, shared a clip of the moment and said, “My kids tell me I’m ruining it.”

And in his statement to The Tribune, Moore wrote, “They were definitely embarrassed … so mission accomplished.”

The “6-7” meme and its accompanying hand gesture blew up on TikTok and Instagram this year, largely credited to the song “Doot Doot” by the rapper Skrilla, which includes the line, “I know he dyin’ / 6-7 / I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip).”

But don’t go trying to decode the meaning much further than that: It’s essential meaninglessness — and the obsession adults have with understanding what it means is part of the point.

“There’s not really a meaning behind 6-7. … I would just use it randomly,” one 10-year-old told The New York Times earlier this month.

The meme has gotten so big that Dictionary.com recently named it 2025’s “Word of the Year.”

“Perhaps the most defining feature of 6-7 is that it’s impossible to define,” the website wrote when awarding the phrase its high honor. “It’s meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot. It’s the logical endpoint of being perpetually online, scrolling endlessly, consuming content fed to users by algorithms trained by other algorithms.”

Moore, at any rate, seems inclined to embrace it.

During a telephone town hall last Thursday, while talking about the recent government shutdown and the fact that, due to the Senate filibuster rules, ending the shutdown required at least 60 votes in favor.

“There’s currently 53 Republican senators and 47 senators that caucus with the Democrats, so there needs to be at least, like, seven [senators],” Moore said before pausing slightly. “I’m not going to say six-seven. I’m going to say seven or eight.”

Elijah “Scooby” Davis watched the eyes of the quarterback, as Jalon Daniels dropped back in the pocket.

The Kansas quarterback then launched the ball toward his receiver, running a flat route.

But Davis had other plans.

The Ute cornerback jumped the route, intercepted the pass and the rest was history: 97 yards later, Davis found pay dirt and gave his Utes a 24-14 lead with 8:05 remaining.

After a sluggish performance on both sides of the football, No. 13 Utah’s three interceptions against Daniels proved the difference in its 31-21 victory over Kansas on Black Friday in Lawrence.

The Utes officially ended the regular season with a 10-2 record and a 7-2 mark in the Big 12.

Junior quarterback Devon Dampier was also a catalyst in the victory, finishing with 253 passing yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed the ball 11 times for 50 rushing yards.

The Utes opened up the game with a 3-0 lead over the Jayhawks with 8:39 remaining in the first quarter after Smith Snowden intercepted KU quarterback Jalon Daniels for a 17-yard gain.

Kansas running back Daniel Hishaw responded with a 7-yard rushing touchdown with 12:03 remaining in the second quarter. The score gave the Jayhawks a 7-3 lead.

Dampier and the Utah offense were finally able to find life a drive later, following a quiet first quarter. The junior quarterback found freshman tight end JJ Buchanan for a 58-yard touchdown reception.

Utah held a 10-7 lead at the half, but things went south for its defense in the third quarter. Daniels connected with KU wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. for 34 yards. Several plays later, Daniels sneaked forward for a 1-yard rushing score to retake a 14-10 lead with 8:16 remaining in the third quarter.

After recovering a Byrd Ficklin fumble and forcing a punt, Kansas appeared to be in the driver’s seat with 13:45 remaining. But once again, Daniels threw an interception, this time to defensive back Jackson Bennee in the end zone.

Dampier and the Ute offense led a four-play, 80-yard drive after Bennee’s pick, which was capped off by a 28-yard touchdown pass to Larry Simmons.

On the next series, Davis picked off Daniels for the 97-yard pick-six. The Jayhawks were able to stay in the contest, however, after Daniels found wide receiver Leyton Cure for a 21-yard touchdown.

Dampier and Simmons put the game on ice with a 48-yard touchdown, which gave the Utes a 31-21 lead with 2:14 left in the game. The touchdown was Dampier’s third passing score of the afternoon and 22nd of the regular season.

The Utes, however, were eliminated from Big 12 contention later Friday night when Arizona State lost to the Arizona Wildcats.

Logan • Bronco Mendenhall was on his remote Montana ranch when he first heard of “the pig farmer.”

And there might not have been a quarterback more tailored for the coach-turned-cowboy.

So when Mendenhall flipped on Utah’s game and saw then-signal caller Bryson Barnes leading the way — with the announcers explaining how he tended to thousands of pigs on his family’s farm — he gravitated toward his story.

“He came in as a backup, and I was just like, ‘Man, what a tough, tough kid,” Mendenhall said. “I wasn’t watching tons of games, and I don’t consider myself a fan. But I did remember watching that game. I remember his story.”

Years later, the cowboy and the pig farmer’s relationship turned out as fitting as it sounds.

Mendenhall left his horses in Montana to coach the Aggies. Barnes, originally from Milford, transferred from Utah and became Mendenhall’s first captain.

And the pair has effectively rebuilt Utah State’s football program into a postseason contender in just 10 months.

Now Utah State is heading to a bowl game thanks to Barnes’ late-career flurry. He has 2,500 passing yards, 27 total touchdowns and a league-leading 13 yards per completion. He accounts for nearly 70 percent of Utah State’s entire offensive output.

It has Mendenhall calling for Barnes to be named the Mountain West player of the year.

“It’s Bryson Barnes every day, all day, every vote,” Mendenhall said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What he is doing for this team, simply by commitment, is setting the foundation for this program for a long, long time.”

But it wasn’t always that easy.

When Mendenhall took over Utah State’s rebuild, he had doubts about putting Barnes in charge.

Nearly everywhere Mendenhall had been, he entrusted his offense to freakish athletes. He coached Taysom Hill at BYU, who famously ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash and squatted 685 pounds. He had Bryce Perkins at Virginia, a player so athletic that he set UVa’s all-time record with 3,600 total yards in a single season.

“They’re phenomenal athletes, in terms of the sheer vertical jumps and speed and all that. And while Bryson is an amazing athlete, his testing numbers aren’t the same,” Mendenhall said.

Barnes didn’t have the track record either. While he famously came in during the Rose Bowl to spell an injured Cam Rising, at Utah Barnes only had moments instead of sustained success.

He beat USC in the Coliseum but never threw for more than 1,600 yards in a single season. He threw a touchdown against Ohio State, but was forced to transfer after riding the bench most of his career in Salt Lake.

His first year in Logan didn’t go as planned, either. He ended with under 1,000 yards passing and a fan base restless to see if Barnes was really the future.

“That [first] year was just interesting. We lost our head coach in the summer and it always felt different in that way,” Barnes said. But Mendenhall’s “offense utilizes my strengths more than [2024] offense,” he insisted.

Mendenhall started to see it that way too as they became closer.

Both had a similar story of being overlooked. Mendenhall famously always wanted to play for BYU but never got the call. Instead, he chose to play at Oregon State so he could play against the Cougars. The day the Beavers beat BYU inside LaVell Edwards Stadium, Mendenhall was doing snow angles on the stretch Y at midfield.

Barnes, too, was told he wasn’t good enough by Utah’s coaching staff. Even as he was Rising’s long-time backup, the Utes brought in star freshman Isaac Wilson and others to play over him. So he ventured to USU to prove himself.

It worked.

USU gave Barnes the reins as he beat up on Air Force and UTEP. He accounted for 421 total yards and five touchdowns against McNeese State.

“What I didn’t know, even through spring, is the competitive spirit, the toughness,” Mendenhall said. “I mean, that’s been remarkable. I saw the other side and I said, ‘Man, this is going to be a good quarterback.’ I didn’t know that part, not to the level he has been.”

Together they have enjoyed a career resurgence.

The Aggies went from four wins to six in his first year.

Barnes is having a career year. He just had his first child, Reed, in October and is looking to end his five-year college stint with something to leave behind in Logan.

“I’ve just got to run out of words. I’m kind of out of descriptors,” Mendenhall said.

To Mendenhall, Barnes has already done more than he expected.

But for one parting gift, with bowl eligibility on the line, Barnes put on a vintage performance against Fresno State. He threw for 151 yards and ran for 113 more. Facing the best run defense in the league, USU escaped to get to six wins.

Barnes followed that up by taking Boise State to the wire on Saturday night. He broke USU’s single-season record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. He finished with over 250 total yards in a 25-24 loss.

It was Barnes’ final game at Maverik Stadium, but the Aggies believe their quarterback has set the table for the future.

“I’m really excited for the direction and trajectory of the program,” Mendenhall said.

Not bad for a pig farmer and a cowboy.

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