Month: February 2021

It was one year ago today that former-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declared that the coronavirus isn’t something American citizens should be concerned about.

“This president will always put America first, he will always protect American citizens,” she told Fox Business host Trish Regan on February 25, 2020. “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism, and isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of Barack Obama?” To celebrate the, um, anniversary of McEnany’s bold (and knowingly incorrect and wildly dangerous) claim, The Daily Show put her lies to music.

“One year ago today, Kayleigh McEnany made a really bad COVID prediction, but what’s really special is how she also made a bad terrorism prediction in the same sentence,” the tweet reads, along with a montage of McEnany’s claims versus what actually happened. How it started: “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here” and “we will not see terrorism.” How it ended: “500,000 Americans have now been killed by COVID” and “major breaking news of a coup attempt as a pro-Trump mob of rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol.” McEnany calling Obama’s presidency “awful” was followed by Lou Dobbs complaining about the infamous tan suit, and how Democrats are “so desperate because of these low poll numbers, they’re willing to do anything.” Speaking of desperate, here’s McEnany desperately trying to pull a “nothing to see here,” folks.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is out there, day after day on the Senate floor, for his fellow Democrats who are working their $15 minimum wage proposal into ongoing stimulus talks. The much maligned Sen. Josh Hawley has introduced his alternative (tax credits), which is actually kind-of surprising since he’s not keeping with the Republicans’ full-on opposition to the hike. That particular perspective is a widespread one within the party and was articulated in a very awkward (and frankly silly) way by Republican Senate Majority Whip John Thune, who posed his (rather tone-deaf) argument on Twitter.

“I started working by bussing tables at the Star Family Restaurant for $1/hour & slowly moved up to cook – the big leagues for a kid like me- to earn $6/hour,” Thune wrote while posting a video speech to claim that $15 per hour would destroy businesses. “Businesses in small towns survive on narrow margins. Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business.”

Thune is 60 years old now, meaning that he’d have been earning $6 per hour (still somehow twice the minimum wage) as a cook in the late 1970s. If one accounted for inflation, that’d work out to over $20 per hour in 2021 dollars.

Bragging about making twice the minimum wage in the late 1970s and arguing about raising the minimum wage now, well, is not a great look.

While our bourbon-by-price project is deeeeeep into the good stuff at this same price point, Scotch whisky is notably different. Because of importing, tariffs, and increased costs across the supply chain, the bottles we’re looking at today put us right in the middle of really high-end blends, special finishes, and the classic (but still fairly young) single malt whiskies. It’s a good place to be if you like the juice from Scotland, but not near the heights that we’re headed.

For this list, we’re only looking at price point and taste. These are bottles that generally fall between $70 and $80. Of course, those prices will vary (sometimes drastically) depending on both where you are in the country and what establishment you buy your booze from (if you’re not in the US, all bets are off).

While they aren’t all straight sippers yet, we vouch for all of these expressions for anyone who wants to spend less than a C-note but still wants something a little more exciting and complicated than a typical blend. Let’s get to it!

Compass Box The Spice Tree

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $70

The Whisky:

London’s Compass Box is one of the most interesting (and lauded) blenders in the game. Their Spice Tree is a masterful marrying of six whiskies mostly from the Highlands with a focus on French wine cask finishings. There’s also some Highland Clynelish aged in ex-bourbon in there too, which adds a unique dimension to this particular mix.

Tasting Notes:

This honestly edges more towards a rye-heavy bourbon than your classic Scotch blend on the nose, with Christmas spices, light orchard fruit, and vanilla popping off. The taste is a velvet mouthful of slightly malty whisky that leans towards those holiday spices with clear notes of caramel apple candies and a touch more vanilla. The end sharpens the spice to cloves and cinnamon as the roundness of the vanilla and malts fade pretty quickly.

Bottom Line:

If you’re into bourbon and curious about blended scotch, this is the perfect bottle to take that leap. It’s truly an accessible whisky all-around and kind of feels like going home again. You don’t even really need a rock or water to mellow it out but a little water will help it bloom.

Glenfiddich 15 Old Solera Reserve

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $74

The Whisky:

This Speyside whisky is a special bottle. The juice is aged in three barrels — ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and new virgin American oak — for 15 long years. Those whiskies are then vatted into a massive tun (tank) made of Oregon pine. The other ripple is that the tun is never more than 50 percent empty, creating a sort of lineage going back to 1998 to the new juice going in with each new batch.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a real sense of sunny wildflowers next to smooth and rich honey with hints at nougat and dried red berries on the nose. The taste holds onto some of that, with hints of marzipan, rose water, plummy sherry, and a light dusting of cinnamon. The finish is mild and silken and really touches on honey-soaked berries and an almost jammy chewiness.

Bottom Line:

This bottle is crazy crushable. If you wanted to give someone an example of what “smooth” means in whisky, this is the bottle. It also makes for a great gift bottle, given the unique nature of the finishing.

The Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

The Balvenie is renowned for doing everything in-house from grain-to-glass and for being the distillery that spearheaded the whole “finishing whisky in a different cask” movement. In this case, the juice spends 14 years maturing in ex-bourbon barrels. The whisky is then batched and transferred to barrels that The Balvenie aged their own blend of West Indies rum in.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a welcoming rush of buttery toffee up top with hints at brown spices, bright red berries, and a touch of sweet malts. The palate brings around creamy vanilla dotted with those sweet and slightly tart red berries next to a very soft and sweet oakiness. The finish is medium-length, full of soft wood and vanilla cream, and a touch of that spice.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those drams that may have you saying, “Oh, shit! That’s good!” We like to drink this one neat because it’s so easy, then try it with a little water to find more depth and nuance.

Dewar’s 18

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $76

The Whisky:

The heart of Dewar’s is Aberfeldy whisky. This blend is a testament to Master Blender Stephanie MacLeod’s prowess in bringing good whisky together to make great whisky. The juices are aged for 18 long years in American oak before they’re vatted into a large oak tun and allowed to rest before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s that signature Aberfeldy honey on the nose with hints of almonds, stone fruits, and red berries. The palate dials all of this in with a marzipan vibe next to more honey, bruised apricot skins, and dark chocolate-covered red berries. The end is soft, silky, and brings a final bite of sweet oak with a slight tobacco chew.

Bottom Line:

While this rules as a sipper on the rocks, it really shines as a killer cocktail base. And if we learned anything from our highball experiments, it will also make for a hell of a highball.

The Glenrothes Whisky Maker’s Cut

ABV: 48.8%

Average Price: $77

The Whisky:

The bulbous offering from The Glenrothes is all about the sherry. The expression spends an undisclosed amount of years in first-fill sherry casks (first-fill as in this whisky was the first thing to go into the barrels after the sherry came out of them). The whisky is then batched and vatted before being proofed down only slightly.

Tasting Notes:

You’re met with candied orange peel spiked with hints of eggnog spices and a touch of gooey pine resin. The taste holds on tightly to that candied orange, while adding in a velvety vanilla cream generously dusted with those eggnog spices and a softer touch of almost sweet wood. The finish zeroes in on the orange and nutmeg as the vanilla and oak fade away on the slow end.

Bottom Line:

This is a great brunch whisky, especially if you’re pairing it with French toast. It’s also just a super easy-sipping dram to have around. And we’d argue that the cool bottle makes it a solid gift too.

Caol Ila 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $77

The Whisky:

This dram from Islay is a stonecold classic and at the heart of many a great blend from Johnnie Walker to Compass Box. The juice harnesses Islay’s signature peated malts and ocean-adjacent barrel warehouses to create a 12-year-old single malt whisky that stands as one of the greats while remaining accessible to the peat curious.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a matrix of dried roses soaked in water touched by orange oils, almonds, and a trace of classic Listerine buzziness. The sip has a savoriness that feels like olive oil speckled with coarse sea salt next to a distant billow of briny smoke, all counterpointed by sweet malts and fruits. The finish sweetens the smokiness with a fruity-yet-spicy tobacco edge while the end fades towards an almost sour hint of citrus.

Bottom Line:

This is a definite, “Holy Shit!” whisky. It’s peated and smoky, sure. But that smoke is so subtle and refined in the build of this dram that it’ll draw you in more than push you away. Add some water or a rock to really let this one bloom in the ol’ Glencairn.

Tamdhu 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $78

The Whisky:

Speyside’s Tamdhu upped their game a few years back by replacing their 10-year expression with this masterful whisky. The juice is aged for 12 years in a combination of American and European oak that held sherry first. They use both first-fill and re-filled barrels in the aging process before vatting the results, proofing with Speyside’s rich water, and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a bit of a Christmas cake vibe with candied orange, plenty of dark spice (especially cinnamon sticks), a maltiness that feels bread-y, a touch of sweet oak, and maybe a hint of peppermint candy. The taste veers more into the ripe and red berries with that cinnamon still in play but the breadiness is more like a buttery sugar cake with sherry/plummy depth. The end offers an interesting fade — with everything dialed in, creating shortbread and raspberry jam that’s just touched by the faintest wisp of fruity smoke.

Bottom Line:

This is really f*cking tasty for a 12-year-old. It’s silken enough to drink neat, but if you really want to dive deep into those flavors, you’ll need to nose and water this dram and take your time exploring its depths.

Oban Little Bay

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $78

The Whisky:

This expression from the tiny-yet-legendary Oban distillery is a highwater mark in whisky-making. The single malt is a blend of whisky matured in American and European oak barrels touched by sherry. The juice is then batched and instead of being of vatted in a big tun, it’s re-barreled in small-format barrels for a final maturation before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a spicy, fruity, and nutty Christmas cake next to bright pops of red berries, pear, and apricot. The candied orange from the Christmas cake rises to the surface on the taste, next to ripe pears and the feel and taste of salted dark chocolate just touched by mint. The finish is slow and so mild — with that salted chocolate vibe carrying on towards a final touch of that Christmas cake in all its glory.

Bottom Line:

We’re pretty big fans of Oban around these parts and this dram is a great example of why. It’s smooth with a capital “S” and only gets better and more unique as you take your time nosing and tasting over and over again (just don’t forget the drops of water).

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $79.99

The Whisky:

This no-age-statement blend leans into that signature Walker marriage of Highland and Speyside whiskies with a small dose of Western Scottish juice for good measure. The lion’s share of the whisky involved in this bottle is Clynelish, a Highland whisky that adds a dash of peat to the mix.

Tasting Notes:

Honey and oak greet you with a distant fruity nature and a little warmth. The fruit kicks up on the palate and becomes slightly tropical as a counterpoint of rich vanilla creaminess arrives. The end is subtle and long with the fruit and honey standing tall against a very distant echo of earthy peat.

Bottom Line:

This is a masterfully blended scotch. There’s an openness to Johnnie Walker when you get into its higher echelons and this bottle really does go down easy. While it shines on the rocks for sure, it really can be sipped neat — maybe after a big meal, next to a roaring fire.

Highland Park Valknut

ABV: 46.8%

Average Price: $79.99

The Whisky:

High up on the Orkney Islands, Highland Park is making whisky for the Vikings. Valknut (a knot of three triangles honoring those who fell in battle) uses locally grown “Tartan barley” that’s malted with a bit of peat. That whisky spends an undisclosed amount of time aging in American oak that held sherry. The juice is vatted, proofed with Orkney’s soft water, and bottled in a bespoke Viking-inspired bottle.

Tasting Notes:

Imagine vanilla pods warming up in a pan and just starting to release their oils and smoke next to a hint of black pepper and cedar. The palate holds onto that vanilla while adding a touch of black licorice and clove next to more cedar and maybe … fennel crusted rye bread. The finish holds onto the spice with a chewy tobacco vibe next to an almost fatty smoke from a backyard salmon smoker and a touch of orange oils.

Bottom Line:

This is a truly interesting dram that bridges malted smokiness with what could be a ten-year-or-older Texas bourbon vibe. It’s really unique while also being very tasty and subtle. You’ll definitely want to add a little water or a rock to really dig into the depths on this one, though — rather than sipping neat.

The Pokémon franchise is commemorating its 25th anniversary this year; While Pokémon Red and Blue, the first games released in the US, came out stateside in 1998, the original Japanese games, Red and Green, were released in 1996. Anyway, part of the celebration has included collaborating with Post Malone on a couple things. Malone is performing a virtual concert for Pokémon Day this weekend, but ahead of that, he has released a new cover tied to the partnership: a rendition of the Hootie And The Blowfish classic “Only Wanna Be With You.”

Malone keeps the cover mostly stylistically faithful to the original version, and even though the song doesn’t have any clear preexisting connection to Pokémon, Malone has turned in a fun recording nonetheless. He slightly tweaked the lyrics, shifting the focus of one line from the Miami Dolphins to his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, as he sings, “I’m such a baby ’cause the Cowboys make me cry.” Longtime Pokémon fans may have also noticed that the song has a sample from the second-generation Game Boy/Game Boy Color games Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, specifically the music that plays in Ecruteak City.

Darius Rucker, who of course sang and co-wrote the ’90s classic, is over the moon about Malone’s rendition, tweeting of it this morning, “The smile in my face will not leave for a long time. This is awesome. My bro @PostMalone bringing it. Hell yes man!!!!!!!!!”

Listen to Malone’s rendition of “Only Wanna Be With You” above.

There were 500 days in between seasons four and five of Better Call Saul, so fans of the series are used to waiting a while between seasons. That’s good because they will almost certainly have to wait even longer between the fifth and the final season.

The last episode aired in April 2020, and if AMC were to maintain the 500-day break, Saul would return on September 21st, 2021. That’s unlikely, although early 2022 is looking like a definite possibility. Production on the final season is set to begin in March, according to the Albuquerque Journal, while a local casting company is currently looking for background players, who will need to be available in the second week of March when filming begins.

One cast member has also tipped off that they’re heading to the set to begin production. Last week, Michael Mando — who plays Nacho — noted on Twitter that he was leaving Canada for New Mexico to resume production.

After quarantining for two weeks, Mando should be ready to go, which aligns with the March date that Bob Odenkirk recently suggested would signal the beginning of production.

There are 13 episodes, and it will reportedly take 8 months to film the final season, which production is likely to continue into November. By that point, everyone on set should be vaccinated. For those who are most worried about the actor in the highest risk category, 74-year-old Jonathan Banks, take comfort in the fact that 70 year olds have been eligible for vaccinations in every state. He has almost certainly been vaccinated by now, so he should be able to shoot the final season with much less concern.

We’ll bring more. updates on the final season, which Bob Odenkirk calls “supremely intense,” as we hear them, including whether Bryan Cranston or Aaron Paul will return to the franchise.

Brian Williams was in rare form on Wednesday night as The 11th Hour host dropped zinger after zinger on Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson for his nonsensical attempt to blame “leftist provocateurs” posing as Trump supporters for the January 6 attack on the Capitol building. Williams even found time to dunk on Chuck Todd. While opening up a panel discussion by referring to the senator as “RonAnon Johnson,” Williams roasted his MSNBC colleague by noting that Johnson is “the rare conspiracy theorist who is a regular on Meet the Press.” And the hits just kept on coming.

After showing clips of Johnson using a blog post from The Federalist to accuse outside agitators/”fake Trump supporters” of wearing disguises to infiltrate Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, Williams quipped, “We paid extra to have those translated from the original Russian.” The MSNBC host also dropped this scathing bon mot after discussing Johnson’s wild claims: “A number of Republicans, despite our electronic age, still prefer to work by gaslight.”

People enjoyed Williams’ brutal barrage of zingers that the veteran anchor was still trending on social media going into Thursday morning. You can see some of the reactions below:

As for Johnson, the Wisconsin senator has been experiencing intense backlash for peddling bonkers conspiracy theories during the Capitol hearing. Along with Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, Johnson being allowed time for questioning has been roundly criticized as people note that he was one of the vocal supporters of the insurrectionist rally and the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen for Trump. In a nutshell, it doesn’t look good that active participants in the violent Trump rally are now part of that rally’s investigation.

(Via Mediaite)

Jewell Loyd is one of a handful of athletes carrying on the legacy Kobe Bryant left of connecting with the next generation of hoops lovers and players. But few know that legacy as intimately as Loyd. Over the past several years, Loyd has worked with NBA assistant Phil Handy, who was a close confidante and trainer for Bryant and now serves on the Lakers coaching staff.

Now, Loyd is partnering with Handy and the app he developed through his training business, 94FEETOFGAME, to develop workouts for young women learning basketball. Loyd’s contribution is called the Gold Mamba Workout, in which she takes viewers through simulated game routines that they may see on the court. She is also giving away 24 items from her Gold Mamba apparel company to app users in a tribute to Bryant.

It’s just one way Loyd hopes to develop the pipeline of young female basketball players and give them tools she didn’t have growing up.

“We know that in high school and even younger girls drop out of sports, so trying to (help that age group) is super important to me,” Loyd told Dime this week. “And I do a lot of giving back, so (Phil) was like, why don’t you focus on the women’s side and present workouts and ideas, concepts that I use on my daily training, to give back. That’s kind of how it started, just an idea, something we’re both passionate about.”

When Bryant was still alive, he frequently made visits to WNBA team facilities, league events, and often spoke with the UConn women’s basketball team, where his late daughter Gianna hoped to play. That’s the elite of the elite, where Bryant could make the biggest impact, but through projects like the app and Loyd’s workout, the impact is at the grassroots level and can reach more people.

“Growing up, I didn’t really train,” Loyd explained. “I just always played outside. I was always at the park. But for basketball, there were no apps, there was no platform where I can interact with superstars and help me refine my game, because that wasn’t a thing. We just went out there and played our game.”

Technology has made it much easier to access information and connect with people, and the reach of Handy’s company made it a no-brainer. Growing the game wasn’t Bryant’s only goal, either; he was constantly trying to develop the more technical aspects of players’ games and build out a nice for fans to connect more with the wonky parts of the game.

That’s what Handy continues to do today, and it’s a vacuum Loyd has observed in how basketball is taught and digested as well. Inexperienced players can freeze up either because of too much or too little information, because their coaches and trainers didn’t personalize the learning touch.

“Sometimes they just want to throw things at you and (act like) everyone goes through the same exact workout and that’s just not true,” Loyd said. “With Phil and our workouts, it eliminates that because you’re training your instincts, which I think is a big part of sports, but also knowing how and when to use your moves.”

After Bryant passed away last January, many in NBA media explained how Bryant would meet with them privately to preach the importance of covering the game through all its intricacies. Through his ESPN+ show Detail, Bryant led by example, deconstructing the game to its most basic components in an understandable way. A key part of that entire effort, though, is teaching young players how to develop the small pieces of their game and the work ethic to bring it out of themselves.

As for Loyd, a more refined approach helped her have the most efficient season of her career in the “Wubble” in 2021 and help the Seattle Storm to their second championship in three seasons. Cap constraints led the Storm to trade two key pieces over the offseason, however, leading to uncertainty over how the team might defend its title.

Loyd isn’t worried. While starting forward Natasha Howard may be gone along with sharpshooter Sami Whitcomb, the Storm still kept their Big Three of Loyd, Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird intact. With that core, Loyd believes they can beat anybody.

“We’ll get to camp and we’ll figure out pieces, but you know it’s also a business, and you understand that,” Loyd said. “I think for us it’s very rare to have a team that stays together for six and seven years, and a lot of us were together for a long time.”

When shelter-in-place orders were first put into effect in the US at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Lady Gaga declared that she was avoiding large groups and people older than 65 years old, instead opting to stay at home with her three French bulldogs. Tragically, it appears that isn’t possible for Gaga right now: TMZ reports that last night, thieves shot Gaga’s dog walker and managed to steal two of the dogs, named Koji and Gustav.

Gaga’s dog walker was reportedly out with the dogs just before 10 p.m. in Los Angeles yesterday when at least one gunman shot him and made off with two of the three dogs that were being walked together. The dog walker was taken to the hospital and is expected to fully recover. Law enforcement sources indicated that since French bulldogs are an expensive and in-demand breed, it’s possible that the thieves were not specifically targeting the dogs because they belonged to Gaga.

Whatever the case may be, Gaga, who has been working on a movie in Rome, is reportedly “extremely upset” and is offering a $500,000 reward for the return of her pets, “no questions asked.” An email address, [email protected], has apparently been set up for this purpose. Gaga has yet to publicly address the situation.

Former Trump immigration architect Stephen Miller’s strong ties to Nazis and white supremacists did not surprise when people saw how quickly he moved to push a Muslim ban back in 2017. Not long after, his anti-Mexican policies were praised by xenophobes, given that Miller called for separating children from parents while arguing that failure to adhere to a “zero tolerance” policy at the border would be a display of anti-patriotism. His hard-line policies were not subtle by any stretch, so it’s really something when Miller guested with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, where he railed against Joe Biden for rolling back a Trump immigration ban.

Miller argued that Biden’s policy would encourage unaccompanied minors to flood into the U.S., and he believes that allowing them to enter is the cruelest move of all, which is rich, coming from a former Trump advisor who was accused of crimes against humanity by critics and the public at large. Here’s what the man who lost a high-school election to the Cobrasnake offered:

“What we are seeing here is the cruelty and inhumanity of Joe Biden’s immigration policies. He came into office and announced that there’s an open door, and that young people who come into this country illegally are going to be resettled instead of returned. He is forcing thousands of young children into the arms of smugglers, into the arms of traffickers, into the arms of coyotes… That is cruel. That is inhumane.”

Such baseless accusations have also recently been the talk of the town for wild-eyed Don Jr. and Ted Cruz, who retweeted a Babylon Bee (parody) article on the subject. The conspiracy-theory crowd’s embrace of a certain lie (that Biden will put “kids in cages”) prompted Washington Post to debunk the rumors in an effort to halt the lies, but that hasn’t stopped Miller from spreading the venom to the Fox News audience. And people are beside themselves with both laughter and rage.

That Miller “should be on trial at The Hague” is all over the story, along with musings about whether he sleeps “upside down” at night.

After going sequel crazy in the late 2010s (that’s not necessarily a complaint: Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 are great; Cars 3 is… not), Pixar is back to making original films. Either Onward or Soul is likely to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, if not both, while Luca looks like the next sunny success for the animation studio.

Directed by Enrico Casarosa, Luca is a coming-of-age story set in a seaside town in Italy, where one young boy [experiences] an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides,” according to the official plot description. So, it’s Pixar’s Call Me By Your Name? Not quite: “Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.” Jacob Tremblay voices Luca, while We Are Who We Are star Jack Dylan Grazer is his best friend, Alberto.

“At the heart of it, it’s a story about friendship,” Casarosa told Entertainment Weekly about Luca. “So, I really was inspired thinking back about my best friend. I met him when I was 11. I was very shy and timid. My family sheltered me. I met this kid, who was very free. His family situation was a little bit messy, and he could do whatever he wanted. He was a bit of a troublemaker. So, he opened up my world, got me to get out of my comfort zone. I thought many people have friends like that [who] challenge you and make you find yourself. I thought there’s something so wonderful about how much they become architects of ourselves, how we find our identity.” Also, sea monsters. Don’t forget the sea monsters.

Luca comes out on June 18.