Month: December 2020

We’ve all been there: dunking on a younger sibling or cousin for celebrating their gross high school relationship “monthiversary” at Olive Garden because they think it’s fancy. And we’ve been the roasted cousin in that scenario, too. Accidentally believing that chain restaurants are the height of fine dining is a rite of passage, precisely because it’s a universal experience — as evidenced by a now-viral tweet shared by comedian John Crist early Sunday morning.

Crist’s tweet posed a simple question but had Twitter users debating the merits of their childhood favorites and looking fondly at some lost and forgotten culinary experiences. You know, like eating at a sit-down Pizza Hut. Don’t get us wrong, we are by no means saying places like Olive Garden, P.F. Changs, Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory, and the like don’t have anything to offer. They often do.

But they aren’t haute cuisine.

Under no circumstance is a restaurant with a kid’s menu fancy, because nobody wants kids at a genuinely fancy restaurant. So which restaurant did your childhood brain lead you to believe was fancy? For me, P.F. Changs was once a culinary mecca and the only restaurant I had ever been to with a statue of a horse. And for a 10-year-old, that was something!

Check more of the chatter below.

At the end of the day, whether you still love these restaurants or not, I think we can all agree that being able to sit down at a table, being served by a person that isn’t wearing a blast shield and gloves, and eating without fear of killing each other is a day we all desperately want to get back to. Regardless of where.

Before Harry Styles was a solo star with classic albums like Fine Line and his self-titled debut, he was already a massive star as part of One Direction. While all the boys are striking off on their own for now, most of them have remained on good terms, so Liam Payne took it all in good stride when he was asked recently to weigh in on the enormous amount of attention Harry received for wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue earlier this year.

In an interview with Capital FM’s Roman Kemp, Liam said he thinks people should focus on other things — especially in such a fraught year — and let Harry enjoy himself. “I thought it was great,” Payne began. “He’s enjoying himself and he’s free to do as he wishes. I think people don’t need to be so bothered about stuff. There’s been a lot more stuff going on this year, and whether or not he’s wearing the right clothes in someone else’s mind… in my opinion, just let him on with it! He’s enjoying himself.”

Meanwhile, Harry is remaining unbothered by clapping back at critics with a well-timed banana photo. But having Liam on his side is definitely a nice way to close out 2020.

Toosii and YK Osiris were attempting to host an outdoor concert for their young fanbase in Jacksonville, Florida, but the show was shut down before it even started. As concertgoers were piling into an outdoor skate park, shots rang out and the two musicians ended up getting maced in the crowd.

According to a report from Action News Jax, the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office filed an incident report about the shots fired near Toosii and YK Osiris’ concert at the Regency Square Mall. Police were speaking to the concert’s security when they heard shots ring out from nearby and concertgoers began to run for safety. Thankfully, no one was injured but police did find five bullet casings in the mall’s parking lot.

Toosii took to Twitter to deny allegations of a shooting at his show but the musician said he did end up getting maced, though he didn’t offer many details. “Last night at my show in Jacksonville, Florida I got maced for no reason at all along with several of my fans (young fans). They shut it down because of capacity so I went outside to greet everyone and this is what happened.”

Many of Toosii’s concertgoers were teenagers and he’s spoken about his fanbase’s young age before. Chatting with Uproxx in a recent interview, Toosii addressed the fact that so many young people look up to him. While he was growing up, that role model was Nipsey Hussle. “Honestly, just as far as like his head spin and keeping a level head and understanding what’s really going on in the world,” Toosii said about Nipsey’s influence. “A lot of people in my generation follow the wrong thing. Then, Nipsey was the main reason that I started investing and saving my money and doing the things that I wanted to do, because, the OG made that look like it was cool. I grew up around dope boys and doing some smack, some had guns and stuff like that. Basically, Nipsey was like a breath of fresh air. It’s like, ‘Yo, you don’t got to do that type of stuff.’”

Watch a fan-captured video of Toosii and YK Osiris in the crowd above.

The Memphis Grizzlies were one of the NBA’s best stories a year ago as they battled their way to the play-in game in the West. Ja Morant was a major reason for their surprising level of play, as he won Rookie of the Year honors in emphatic fashion, and took the league by storm in his first year in the NBA.

Morant picked up right where he left off to start this season, scoring a career-high 44 in the Grizzlies opener and following that up with 28 points against the Hawks, and while they’ve gotten off to an 0-2 start, they’ve been competitive and headed to Brooklyn for what they hoped would be their first win of the season. However, in the late second quarter disaster struck for Memphis when Morant contested a jumper from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and rolled his ankle violently on the landing. The young star was writhing in pain on the floor and was eventually taken to the locker room in a wheelchair after being unable to put any weight on that left foot.

Hopefully it is just a very painful ankle sprain and nothing more serious, but for now there’s considerable concern for the Grizzlies about their young star. We will provide further updates when they become available on his status from the team, but one would expect him to get X-rays possibly tonight and an MRI tomorrow.

UPDATE: The current diagnosis is a left ankle sprain and Morant will not return to the game.

The New York Mets, just like the rest of us, are a work in progress. But if they know what’s good for them the very least they can do is take some free work from one of the team’s more notable fans from the world of music.

Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes, is now publicly pleading with the team and its broadcast partner to let him give the team some new music for the upcoming season. Michael Clair of MLB.com talked to Casablancas in an interview was initially to discuss the music video for “The Adults are Talking,” a single from “The New Abmornal,” which was released in April. The video is baseball-themed, and so much of the piece is discussing where that idea came from and how they executed it.

But though the band’s uniforms are straight from the sunburst Houston Astros era, Casablancas is a huge Mets fan, one who apparently wants to offer his services to the team. The band already has a Mets-related song, “Ode to the Mets,” but Casablancas apparently wants to make a proper Mets theme song for the team’s broadcasts on SNY. And the current tune bothers him enough that he’s willing to do it for free.

Still, there’s one wish Casablancas has: For SNY, the network that airs Mets games, to let him write the music they use before games.

“The SNY song was driving me nuts,” Casablancas said. “I used to watch a lot of games. I knew someone who worked for the Mets, who hooked me up with tickets sometimes. I had a whole song. I was like, ‘Let me do like the song for SNY for the game.’ It was kind of epic, rising — like an exciting game is gonna happen. But they just didn’t have their [stuff] together. And they were like, ‘We don’t have a budget.’ I was like, ‘You don’t need a budget. I’ll just give you the song. I’ll do it for free.’”

Perhaps the Mets, now under new ownership, can give him a chance and make this actually happen. There’s also another idea in play, though: Casablancas joked that the team could always play ‘Ode to the Mets’ when the team loses.

[via MLB.com]

Pat Sajak has a history of speaking his mind when it comes to what contestants say or do on Wheel of Fortune. That even includes dismissing some wistful nostalgia when the time is right. That time came last week during a Wheel of Fortune episode where the show’s host took some time to roast both the show’s past and a contestant yearning for it, which made for a lot of people looking back on what Wheel of Fortune used to be like.

TV Line has video of the moment, where Sajak recalled a contestant who said they missed the throwback “shopping segment,” in which contestants could use their winnings to secure physical prizes by way of shouting them out as their winning total went down to nothing. It’s part of the show that has been long phased out, and Sajak made it clear that he has no interest in bringing it back by calling it “the most boring three minutes of television” when the contestant brought it up.

He then went back for seconds in the show’s final moments.

Unsatisfied with his first take’s brevity, Sajak later launched into a rant at Wednesday’s show closing, confessing to co-host Vanna White that he’s always loathed the classic shopping spree gimmick.

“I don’t miss them,” he confessed on air. “In retrospect [you think], ‘Oh, that was kind of fun,’ but, really, it was this thing going around with the [contestant’s] head in a circle … It was really not exciting television. We like it just the way it is.”

White politely agreed their beloved program “is so much better now,” as they signed off.

You can see the element in action here, immortalized in a YouTube video because of a joke a contestant makes about a decorative pig, which then stares deeply into your soul to rob you of something that you’ll never get back.

Just from a tax perspective alone, the lump sum of a cash prize is much better and useful than a bunch of random “camping” equipment or whatever the Wheel staff would assemble for contestants. Cash is king, baby. Sajak made it clear that he agrees, which thankfully means you won’t see that pig on air in HD anytime soon.

[via New York Post]

When people think about single malt whiskies, their thoughts most often head to the land of William Wallace, haggis, and unicorns (the country’s official animal): Scotland. This logic holds water — when we talk about truly special bottles of scotch, we’re most often referring to single malt whisky expressions. And with the likes of Glenlivet, The Macallan, Lagavulin, and others, it’s not surprising that Scotland gets top billing.

But did you know that a rapidly increasing number of US distilleries are making high-quality single malts as well?

The find them, we went to a suitable source for most booze-related information, our friendly bartenders. We asked them to tell us their favorite American single malt whiskies/ whiskeys for winter and they didn’t disappoint. With great offerings from Waco to Washington, the US is officially putting the Scots on notice.

St. George Baller

Demetrëa Dewald, lead bartender at Bar Mateo at Zinc Café in Los Angeles

Baller by St. George Spirits is simply put straight-up baller.

Made from American barley and aged in bourbon and French oak wine casks then filtered through maple charcoal, this spirit has a delicate yet robust palate that is one of a kind. With a tinge of sweetness and smoky after notes, don’t waste this beauty in a cocktail. I recommend drinking it neat with a water back to help cleanse the palate between sips and experience the true complexities of the spirit.

High West High Country

Alex Tack, bartender at Rex 1516 in Philadelphia

This is an interesting category of whiskey because the definition is still fairly open-ended. It seems like a lot of the products vary as a result. I do like the ones that aim to be a bit like an American expression of a Scotch. Of that loose category, High West’s single malt is one I have tried and can confidently recommend.

It has a nice touch of smoke, and a nice balance of smoothness and alcoholic “heat” — perfect for cold weather.

Corsair Triple Smoke

Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

Corsair Distillery has some great single malts, but their Triple Smoke is by far my favorite. It’s made with three types of smoked malted barley; using peat, cherry wood, and beechwood. It gives the whisky a super unique nose and the palate is where the complexity of smoke and the subtle cherry and stone fruit all come together for a one-of-a-kind profile in the single malt world.

Town Branch Malt

Sean Ebbitt, owner and bartender at Bluegrass Tavern in Lexington, Kentucky

My favorite American single malt whiskey is Town Branch Malt. With its 7-year age statement, it’s one of the older American-made single malts available.

They age it in a barrel that has been used for Town Branch Bourbon, and Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. This unique aging process gives it sweet cereal notes and hints of molasses.

Hill Rock Single Malt

Gavin Humes, bartender at Scratch|Bar & Kitchen in Encino, California

There are quite a few that fit this category, but for me, Hill Rock Single Malt is the best. The late Dave Pickerell, who is a bit of a legend in the distilling world, helped create the distillery, and the product they’re turning out is out of this world. After spending time in the charred barrels, it’s finished with Oloroso and Px Sherry Casks to give it a smooth and delicious complexity.

Westland American Oak

Freddy Yanez, bartender at Unreserved Beer Garden in Orlando

Westland is one of my favorites. It has oak and toasted caramel notes from the charred barrels used for its aging process, making it the best choice for a drink with character this time of year.

Writer’s Picks:

Westward American Single Malt

This unique single malt was made with locally sourced barley, brewed with ale yeast, and aged in new, charred, American oak casks. The result is a complex, well-rounded whiskey with hints of sweet malts, dried fruits, and dark chocolate.

Virginia Port Cask Finished

This single malt from the folks at Waco’s Balcones is filled with hints of dried orange peels, caramelized sugar, sweet vanilla, charred oak, and subtle spicy cinnamon. For a sipper, it’s a great chance of pace from your usual Scottish-made single malts.

Balcones Texas Single Malt

This single malt from the folks at Waco’s Balcones is filled with hints of dried orange peels, caramelized sugar, sweet vanilla, charred oak, and subtle spicy cinnamon. A nice burst of winter in a glass, straight from the Lone Star State.

Stranahan’s Single Malt

Made only using Rocky mountain water and locally sourced barley, this single malt is aged for four years in American oak barrels before finishing in sherry butts. The result is a complex, non-chill filtered whiskey with hints of sweet caramel, maple syrup, and honey.

50 Cent recently theorized that Drake and Lil Wayne would make ideal opponents in a Verzuz battle, but a different rapper thinks he’s more suited for a competition with Weezy. Young Thug said he’d be up for appearing on the series, only if he goes against Lil Wayne himself.

Thugger discussed the possibility on a recent episode of the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast. Answering the host Gillie Da King’s question about a Verzuz battle, he cited career influence when saying Wayne would be a worthy opponent.

“It would probably have to be like [Lil Wayne],” Young Thug said. “Because you got to think—we got to talk about influence. We got to talk about everything. We got to talk about everything. It’s not just about no rap.” Further clarifying his statement, Thugger said he has an arsenal of songs that everyone at his show knows all the words to. “We ain’t talking about stream sales, we ain’t talking about none of that. We talking about anthems, we talking about songs they know. When I perform, I got 30, 40 songs that the whole stadium going to know. They gone know these mothaf*ckers, all 30 songs. […] N****, Jay-Z ain’t got 30 songs like that.”

Continuing to speak about his relationship with the rapper, Thug said Wayne gave him the cold shoulder on their first encounter. “The first day that n**** didn’t goddamn dap me up,” he said. “Tried me. That n**** tried my pimping… My motherf*cking feet hurt n****, cause I’m a real stepper. Don’t do me like that.”

Watch a clip of the interview above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While the most visible sour beer styles are best suited to warm-weather drinking, it’s hard to top a tart, robust, warming winter-style sour beer during the frigid months. From May ’til September, gose — with its sweet-meets-briny flavor profile — is the name of the game. But from October until the first spring thaw, we drink Flanders brown ales, wild ales, Berliner weisses, lambics, and oud bruins.

If you aren’t familiar with sour beers, winter is a surprisingly good time to get acquainted with this tart, tangy, wine-like branch of the beer family tree. They’re made using various microflora — think lactobacillus bacteria, pediococcus bacteria, and Brettanomyces. While it sounds odd (you eat yogurt, don’t you?), each bacterium creates a different, unique flavor profile for the finished beer.

Here are the wintry sour beers we’re loving as fall 2020 waves goodbye and the true cold season sets in.

Funkwerks Oud Bruin

ABV: 7.5%

The Beer:

This gold medal winner at the World Beer Cup is a barrel-aged Belgian-style sour ale. Oud Bruin is a traditional Flemish-style sour ale made for centuries. Funkwerks’ take on the classic style is made annually and matured in oak barrels.

Tasting Notes:

The result of a fermentation using Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and a few other bacterium, combined with barrel aging, creates a unique brew with hints of sour cherries, dried fruits, and rich, dark chocolate.

New Belgium La Folie

ABV: 7%

The Beer:

If you’ve been paying attention to sour beer in the US for the last decade, you’re probably aware of the OG: La Folie. New Belgium’s Flanders sour brown ale is matured in French oak Foeders that are filled with the “oldest continuous souring culture” in the country.

Tasting Notes:

The result of aging and fermenting with their proprietary culture is a beer that can be enjoyed by both wine and beer drinkers alike. It’s perfectly tart and sour with hints of sour apples, dried cherries, and rich, robust oak flavor.

The Lost Abbey Cuvee De Tomme

ABV: 11%

The Beer:

This brown ale is made using fermentable sugars that include malted barley, candy sugar, sour cherries, and raisins. After it’s fermented, it’s aged in bourbon barrels for at least a year with more sour cherries and Brettanomyces.

Tasting Notes:

Aging in oak casks gives this special brew a ton of unique flavors. These include charred oak itself, as well as creamy vanilla, rich caramelized sugar, wine-like tannins, tart cherries, and a subtle, tangy sour note.

Rodenbach Grand Cru

ABV: 6%

The Beer:

No sour beer list is complete without the addition of Rodenbach. Sure, you can grab a bottle or can of the classic Rodenbach, but why not up your game with Rodenbach Grand Cru. This Flanders-style red ale is brewed the barley malt and flour hops before being aged in oak barrels for two full years.

Tasting Notes:

This is a beer for people who not only enjoy beer, but also wine. It’s very sour, but still, thirst-quenching, and the tart flavor lingers for a long time. Flavors of charred oak, red wine, lactic acid, and dried cherries are prevalent.

Wicked Weed Silencio

ABV: 6.6%

The Beer:

This is a truly unique beer. It’s described as a bourbon-barrel-aged black sour ale. This black sour ale is aged in Kentucky-made bourbon casks with Madagascar vanilla beans and El Silencio coffee.

Tasting Notes:

The result is both tart and rich with hints of raspberries, sour cherries. But it evolves into a darker, more robust brew with hints of bitter espresso and oaky sweetness at the end.

Firestone Walker Big Mood

ABV: 8.1%

The Beer:

Firestone Walker is well-known for its forays into the world of sour beers. One of the best in recent years is Big Mood. Made in collaboration with Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, this sour beer was made using the fellow brewery’s yeast to ferment 2,000 pounds of Blenheim apricots and white wine grapes.

It was aged in oak barrels for 18 to 36 months before being blended with a barrel-aged wine hybrid.

Tasting Notes:

This wild ale is filled with tart, subtly sour fruit flavors like stone fruits, dried apricots, tropical fruits, and just might be the perfect way to forget about the cold weather outside. It’s like a Bellini for people who’d rather drink beer.

Grimm Ales Color Field

ABV: 5.2%

The Beer:

This wild farmhouse ale is brewed using chamomile, rose hips, and hibiscus and made using mixed culture fermentation. It’s dry-hopped to give the sour, tangy flavors a nice kick of floral, bitter hops.

Tasting Notes:

This multi-dimensional, unfiltered sour ale is hazy, pink in color, and starts with tart citrus flavors that move into funky yeast and nice, lactic acidity. The hops add a nice, piney, floral flavor that makes this one of the most well-rounded sour beers to drink this winter.

Springdale Not Stirred: Sangria

ABV: 9.2%

The Beer:

Everyone likes brunch, right?

But in the middle of a pandemic going out to eat avocado toast at 11 am just doesn’t seem right. This just might be the perfect beer for brunch at home. It’s a golden ale that was fermented using sweet Moscato grape juice in wine casks before being matured on apple, apricot, and peat juice for 18 months.

Tasting Notes:

It’s a beer, but it really does taste like brunch in a bottle. And by brunch, we mean mimosas, not sangria. It’s crisp, tangy, and filled with hints of sour apple, tart pear, and just a hint of yeast.

The vast majority of humanity can’t wait to put 2020 in the rearview mirror and embrace 2021 with open arms. Although the COVID epidemic isn’t going to end overnight, we can be pretty certain that in four, five, or maybe six months, the world will start to resemble the one we once knew.

So, in the meantime, we can use the new year as an excuse to take stock of our lives and work on some personal changes, so when the pandemic does subside, we’ll be ready to live our best life.

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A study reported by Inverse found that 44% of Americans are likely or very likely to make a New Year’s resolution for 2021.

However, historically the number of people who achieve their resolutions is pretty low. A report in Forbes shows that only about 35% of people actually stay committed to their New Year’s goals after the first month, and only 8% accomplish them.

But don’t let that get you down. A big reason why people fail at achieving their resolutions is they don’t know how to implement personal change.

So we’ve put together a list of advice from some experts in the fields of psychology and business to help you create a fool-proof plan to achieve your 2021 resolutions.

It’s not about will power

“Even though we tend to think that those who keep their self-commitments are enormously disciplined people who are better able than the rest of us to wrestle their unhealthy impulses to the ground, it turns out that those folks don’t see themselves that way at all,” Erika Andersen, author of “Growing Great Employees, Being Strategic, Leading So People Will Follow and Be Bad First,” wrote in Forbes.

“They report being moved toward keeping their self-commitments by strong positive motivations: passion, hope, compassion, excitement, curiosity,” Andersen adds.

So if you’re looking to lose weight, reframe your thinking around the positive benefits you will get from the change rather than focusing on the discomfort of self-denial.

via Unsplash

Addition by subtraction

A study out of Sweden found that “Fifty-nine percent of participants who set ‘approach-oriented’ New Year’s resolutions— those that were additive, not eliminating — considered themselves successful in keeping up their goals.”

However, only “47 percent of participants who set avoidance-oriented resolutions considered themselves to be successful.”

So basically it’s a lot easier for people to start new behaviors than to stop old ones. A big reason is that when we place limitations on a behavior, such as eating chocolate, our brain turns it into forbidden fruit that becomes an even greater fixation. Instead, focus on starting a habit of eating more fruit.

Make your goal measurable

Jen Sincero, author of “Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick,’ says the more specific we make our goals, the better.

Instead of making the resolution to, “drink more water,” one should pledge something like this: “During the first week of January, I am going to drink three 8-ounce glasses of water a day.”

Baby steps

Sincero says that the shorter the time frame we give for our goals, the more likely we are to achieve them. So if you’re looking to stop drinking, tell yourself, “I won’t drink today” and you’ll be more likely to achieve your goal than if you say, “I won’t drink all month,” which may be too daunting of a task.

This also allows you to stack up victories and stay motivated to achieve your ultimate goal.

Prepare for the dip

Everyone is ready to make big life changes on New Year’s day, but what about two weeks later, when you’re tired of substituting fruit for chocolate or you really want to plunk down $50 on takeout instead of saving money by cooking for yourself?

By preparing for the dip, we can be ready to answer the big question: “Why am I doing this?” Be sure that you’re mentally prepared to answer this question in an unequivocal way when your motivation has waned.

“I am being responsible so that I can live life without crippling financial anxiety.”

“I am creating healthy new habits so that I can have more energy and can be more active with my children.”

“I am creating a smoke-free lifestyle so that I can live longer, save money, and be free from addiction.”

It’s also good to regularly spend time thinking through your resolution and imagining a world where you’ve been successful, to increase your motivation.

Make it fun

Creating new habits doesn’t have to be boring or difficult. The more fun we have with our new behaviors, the more likely we are to continue them. Substitute old habits for new ones that you enjoy just as much.

If you hate running on a treadmill, start riding a bike. If you are trying to save money, spend time learning how to cook to replace the fun of eating out. If you are looking to drop a few pounds, replace unhealthy foods that you like with healthy snacks that are just as pleasurable.