The recent Framing Britney Spears documentary shed light on the struggles the titular pop star has gone through and continues to endure. This led to multiple reactions online, including from Dua Lipa and now from Kim Kardashian.
Kardashian just got around to watching the documentary and in a series of Instagram Story posts today, she began by noting that it made her feel “empathy” for Spears and that she remembers similar experiences she has undergone. She continued:
“When I was pregnant with North I was suffering from preeclampsia, which made me swell uncontrollably. I gained 60 lbs and delivered almost 6 weeks early and I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like — as well as being compared to Shamu the Whale by the media. Looking at all of the photos of myself online and in magazines made me so insecure and I had this fear of wondering if I would ever get my pre baby body back. I was shamed on a weekly basis with cover stories that made my insecurities so painful I couldn’t leave the house for months after. It really broke me.
Luckily I was able to take these frustrating, embarrassing feelings and channel it into motivation to get me where I am today, but to say this didn’t take a toll on me mentally would be a lie. I’m sharing this just to say I really hope everyone involved in the business of shaming and bullying someone to the point of breaking them down might reconsider and instead try to show some understanding and compassion. You just never fully know what someone is going through behind the scenes and I’ve learned through my own experiences that it’s always better to lead with kindness.”
Kasdashian then shared a depressingly long gallery of tabloid covers and memes commenting on and poking fun at her weight. She ended by concluding, “These are just a few examples… I’m tired of googling! Ok heading off to my workout now LOL.”
Ordering a “scotch on the rocks” is one of the most classic bar orders in the history of time. But that order is a bit like someone ordering a “beer” from a bar on TV or in a movie. What beer? No one orders just “beer” or just “scotch.” They order a specific brand — a PBR or Guinness or Chivas or Jack Daniel’s.
To give your next “on the rocks” order a little clarity, we’re calling out ten Scotch whiskies we dig served that way. Drams that, in our opinion, legitimately benefit from a few cubes of ice.
There’s really no right or wrong answer when ordering a scotch on the rocks. A lot of the juice out there is built specifically to be taken that way. That being said, you don’t need to go too wild with the prices here. A solid mid-range scotch (think in the $50 range) will get the job done nicely. Especially now that prices are sure to start dropping after the trade tariffs that jacked up prices of scotch in the U.S. have finally ended.
The ten bottles below aren’t really ranked. They’re simply bottles we like to drink with a rock or two. Prices are all under $75, so today it’s all about the taste — let’s dive in!
The blend is a “pure malt” blended whisky, meaning that it’s made only with single malts (usually blended scotch is made with both grain and malt whisky). In this case, the juice is pulled from all over Scotland with a focus on Speyside, Highland, Lowland, and Island malts, including a minimum of 15-year-old Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.
Tasting Notes:
This sip draws you in with the smells of an old, soft cedar box that’s held black pepper, sweet fruits, and oily vanilla pods next to a hint of green grass. The taste really holds onto the cedar as the fruits lean tropical, with a hint of dried roses pinging in the background. The end builds on that by adding a note of spicy tobacco, a splash of sea spray, and a distant billow of campfire smoke.
On The Rocks:
This is one of Johnnie Walker’s best blends, by far. The whisky really opens up on the rocks and takes on a slight creaminess that pairs well with the spice and cedar.
Old Pulteney is all about sea vibes. Their entry-point spirit is aged for 12 years in second-fill bourbon casks before it’s batched, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of creamed honey with a touch of sea spray on the nose. The taste really holds onto that creamy honey while notes of wildflowers and oaky spice mingle with malts. The end is fairly short and leaves you with a sense of that creamed honey and a touch of spicy warmth.
On The Rocks:
This becomes more floral as the ice releases water and cools the dram down. Next, a touch of espresso bean bitterness arrives, providing a nice counterpoint to the velvet honey sweetness.
The Balvenie 12 is a classic bottle of whisky. The juice is aged for 12 years in ex-bourbon and then finished in old Olorosso sherry casks for nine months before it’s vatted, proofed with soft Speyside water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Clear notes of sherry plumminess and nuttiness mix with a touch of honey and vanilla on the greeting. The taste holds onto those notes while adding in hints of marzipan, cinnamon sticks, and an almost chewy-sherry sweetness next to oak. The finish is very long, fills you with warmth, and has a soft and sweet edge.
On The Rocks:
This is already remarkably well-rounded. With ice, there’s an amping up of the nuttiness and plummy nature of the dram to the point of a berry jam that’s been hit with eggnog spices.
This is an entry whisky not only to Speyside but to single malts in general. The juice is aged in a combination of used American and European oak before it’s married, rested, proofed with Speyside’s iconic water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
This dram is creamy like a vanilla pudding with a bright pear orchard and some mild toffee. That leads towards a very easy and soft woodiness with a touch of candied pear and more vanilla cream. It’s also very light and approachable while still feeling like a solid whisky.
On The Rocks:
This is a really solid choice for an “on the rocks” order. The ice brings about this almost … warm and creamy oatmeal filled with raisins, vanilla beans, brown sugar, dried pear, and cinnamon. It’s super comforting while also being very crushable.
This Highland whisky is built around the famed Strathisla Distillery. The whisky is crafted to work as a sipper or mixer, with real complexity built-in. It really shines in both respects.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a matrix of oak, nuts, malts, and fruit up top. The fruitiness leans into orchards in full bloom as a minerality drives the taste towards spicy tobacco with a hint of creamy vanilla. The oak peeks back in with a little more maltiness, as the end slowly fades alongside a mild chewiness.
On The Rocks:
This is the classic on the rocks whisky. The ice really mellows down the maltiness and warmth while highlighting a slightly savory edge with plenty of vanilla tobacco chew and a dry nuttiness.
This is a classic bottle of peated malt. The Islay whisky is made with locally peated smoky malts and then primarily matured in ex-sherry casks for the years. Those casks are married and then cut with local lake water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of stonefruit, orange oils, and earthen peaty smoke that greets you. The palate leans into the iodine and earthiness with plenty of campfire smoke next to black pepper, vanilla, and an underlying nuttiness. With a little water, a coffee bitterness arises next to a hint of black licorice. The end really embraces the smoke, adding fattiness like an old meat smoker as the fruit and nuts make a final appearance on the very slow fade.
On The Rocks:
This is a peaty whisky but really mellows nicely with a rock or two, making it a bit more accessible to the non-peat lovers out there (myself included). The licorice and anise amp up a tad with this preparation, while the citrus shines a bit brighter and the smoke is tempered down.
This Highland whisky is a standard that feels like a classic. The juice is aged in ex-bourbon for nearly a decade. The whisky is then transferred to former sherry casks for that crucial finishing touch of maturation for around three years. It’s then proofed down with that soft Highland water to a very accessible 80 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Oranges studded with cloves mingle with a deep dark chocolate foundation and a hint of eggnog creaminess and spiciness. The palate goes even deeper on the orange and spice as heavy vanilla arrives — the husk, seeds, oils are all present. The end is fairly succinct and touches back on the chocolate with a bitter mocha-coffee vibe and more of the vanilla.
On The Rocks:
Ice really amps up the bitterness of this dram by highlight the dark chocolate bar that’s bespeckled with crushed coffee beans and orange rinds. That vanilla also stays in the mix as the taste leans into the oiliness, kind of like chewing on a vanilla husk.
This Highland malt is the cornerstone of the much-beloved Dewar’s Blended Scotch. This whisky is a very accessible single malt that spends 12 years resting before it’s married and proofed with that soft Highland water and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
The heart of the nose is in the mingling of pear and honey with a hint of Christmas spice, especially nutmeg. The palate expands on that with a lush maltiness, creamy vanilla, mild spice, and more of that honey and orchard fruit. The end gets slightly nutty and bitter with a little water as the honey, fruit, and spice linger on the senses.
On The Rocks:
There’s a real sense of that honey when ice is in the mix. It becomes creamy and velvety. The spice mellows a bit but zeroes in on nutmeg and clove even more so.
This whisky is a bit of a conversation starter that also delivers a solid taste. The whisky is a retread of the actual whisky Sir Ernest Shackleton took with him on his voyage to Antarctica in the early 1900s. The juice offers a recreation of that exact dram — with a few of the rougher edges taken off to make it a little more palatable to today’s drinker.
Tasting Notes:
Malty crackers dusted with brown sugar and cinnamon greet you. The taste builds on those notes, with plenty of orange zest and caramel-dipped apples next to a whisper of oak. The orange drives the sip towards its short yet malty finish.
On The Rocks:
This sort of gets dusty with those spices when iced — kind of like an old wooden box that once held spices left in a cellar. The cinnamon is the real highlight, but you’re also met with a touch of bitter orange and coffee beans next to a warm malty note.
Glenfarclas is a bit of an outlier from the Highlands. The whisky is distilled with old-school fire-heated stills (most stills use steam) to this day. The juice is then aged exclusively in ex-sherry casks for 12 long years.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a rumminess to the nose that touches on molasses, prunes, nuts, and jam. The taste holds onto that vibe to the point of having an almost spiced rum sweetness and spice with clear notes of holiday spices, plenty of dried fruit, and a roasted almond element. The end long and spicy, leaving you with a Highland hug.
On The Rocks:
Ice definitely calms down the spiciness a bit but amps up the jamminess and adds some serious vanilla roundness. The nuttiness gets a bit drier as well, veering into nutshell territory.
Donald Trump can get his videos back, but only if he plays nice. Earlier this week, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told the Atlantic Council that the former-president’s channel will be reinstated “when we determine that the risk of violence has decreased… Where we stand today it’s hard for me to say when that’s going to be, but it’s pretty clear that right now where we stand that there still is that elevated risk of violence.” It’s unlikely Trump will ever get his Twitter account back, as the social media app “permanently suspended” him “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Not that he cares, or anything.
While appearing on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co earlier today, Kayleigh McEnany, the ex-press secretary who recently joined the blonde white woman ranks at Fox News, was asked by host Stuart Varney whether she’s been in communication with Trump. “I spoke to him this week. I spoke to him, certainly, in the wake of the Twitter ban,” she replied. “He said it was kind of freeing not to have Twitter. He has a lot of time on his hands. So, I think he’s doing just fine without social media.”
McEnany’s comments echo those made by former campaign strategist Jason Miller, who claimed that Trump “feels happier now than he’s been in some time… That’s something [Melania] has backed up as well. She has said she loves it, that he’s much happier and is enjoying himself much more.” No one believed it then; now one believes it now.
If Trump is doing “just fine,” why did he reportedly ask others to tweet his insults after being banned? He’s already planning his return to social media, according to Miller. McEnany was, naturally, not asked about this. Instead, she went off on cancel culture. Every time a Fox News contributor mentions those two magical words, they get another dollar added to their paycheck (I assume). You can watch McEnany’s interview here.
I gotta say, the quality of questions that came in for this edition of N(ot) B(ad) A(dvice) are extremely interested in turning the mirror around on the game and how we participate in it. Very our shot clocks, ourselves. And in a season that’s been oscillating between jarring and oblivious, it’s not a bad thing to be doing. Questions about where to look for joy in basketball if you aren’t finding it in the current season and how to escape the never-ending, M.C. Escher-eque experience of online NBA discourse. There’s also a little breather about the ESPN scorebug in there as a buffer for your brain, enjoy!
If you have NBA questions you want answered in the future, email them to [email protected].
Hey Katie,
I’ve loved the NBA for the entirety of my adult life. It’s brought me more collective happiness than almost anything else over the last several years, but right now I just cannot be bothered to watch games. Whenever I turn on one, I almost always end up reading or doing something else so that the game is transformed into background noise. I’m still keeping up with the season enough to be conversant and to hide my general disinterest but I’m tired of feeling this way. I’m sure a big part of this is due to my belief that games shouldn’t be happening right now, but it also feels like I’ve lost the ability to find the same joy I used to. What would you recommend?
– Ambivalent in Akron
As someone who is right there, listlessly drifting beside you, I get it. Can I say I feel a certain amount of relief when I hear another person is feeling the same things as I am this season? Because I do. And that’s probably where I’ll start as far as recommendations.
Commiseration can be soothing. How many times this year have you wanted to complain about something this past year but felt like it was too small or selfish or obvious? Like the fact that you wear the same thing every day, or it’s time for bed when you remember waking up, like, two hours ago? But every time I complain about these exact things to friends or family there’s always a little jolt of “YES!” because for a minute we’re out of our own loop. Even if all our loops are the same, and we know all our loops are the same, it feels like a break.
So, find some comfort in complaining about the season. Feel relief when you realize other people are feeling what you are. It’s so weird we all continue to talk about our little stats and have debates around All-Star snubs when attempting to keep up with the season, it’s like we’re keeping a little dream of the past alive in our hearts for the sake of what, continuity? Habit? The past is dead, ambivalent, and in a lot of ways, so is basketball Before This.
Like everything we were doing a little over a year ago, we’re never getting back there. The hope is that we move forward to a better place, but at some point we have to realize that a year spent in stasis was a year gone by, it just didn’t have any of its normal markers, there’s no rhythm or finality to that time passing. This season the NBA has been like that, too. I think that’s why it’s so easy to drift, whether watching a game or in feigning interest. We know how little is at stake when there’s so much more to reckon with. A big part of me thinks the NBA should just call this season and start up next fall, because going through the motions to salvage something sure seems like taking a jackhammer to the whole facade in fast forward.
Anyway, I know I’m not giving you much tangible stuff to make you feel good about basketball again so here are some sure things: Klay Thompson’s Instagram, old Dunk Contests, any Spurs HEB commercial compilation, this YouTube search.
And if you find yourself drifting during a game, picking up your phone or a book, wandering to different rooms as if searching for a former version of yourself, maybe turn the game off. Break your own loop.
Hey Katie,
What’s the deal with the ESPN scorebug? Why does it take up so much space! I thought we were trying to get rid of the letterbox format.
Gotta be honest, I never knew it was called that. Certainly a more effective title than “big score window” or “lower half info graphic.” But you’re not alone, there are whole Reddit threads dedicated to finding the answer and helpful comparative graphics.
I’m guessing it has something to do with our attention spans eroding through the years with the advent of smart phones and the constant churn of information going into our brains, plus all the squinting at screens, and the decline of eyesight in the mean age of ESPN’s viewership? But mostly advertising.
Hi Katie,
Here’s my question:
I have mostly been enjoying watching games this season but I have become totally overwhelmed by The Discourse. Whether it’s relatively insignificant things like debates about Shaq’s role as an analyst or genuinely significant stuff like wondering why the league is holding an All-Star Game during an ongoing pandemic, I feel worn out reading and discussing this stuff. And I’m not dismissing the people who are still wholeheartedly engaged in The Discourse. But, in this particular place in my life, I can’t really manage to participate in it. Is there a way to still follow the league and enjoy watching the games without getting drawn into The Discourse? Or are these things inextricable from one another?
Sincerely,
Run Down in Rockridge
This weirdly feels like a full-circle from the first question, doesn’t it? And this is kind of a twisted chicken and egg thing. Does NBA Twitter run on the NBA or is it a self-cannibalizing chicken with a bunch of burner egg accounts? It’s hard to tell anymore.
The Discourse is tricky. It’s something that started because people love to talk about what they love and really stretch it out in ways that don’t always make sense. It’s also created some needed channels for underrepresented voices in sports media to talk, react, and connect with people. It can build some rare bridges, too, between people who never considered that there was another way to talk about basketball than how it always has been and even if things got messy, you could still come away feeling like you’d learned or contributed something.
And that was in good times. Tie into that the fact that everyone right now is pretty messed up, lonely, has a strange and new kind of fear-PTSD-grief-malaise melange feeling fallout that even modern science can’t really get a handle on yet, and The Discourse has mutated or final-formed on us. We’re all just freaked out and yelling at each other about what market has what energy, who’s a nerd (all of us, we all are) and, like, shot selection? It’s at the point where The Discourse is mainly about The Discourse, and not even about the root thing of basketball. My general rule, if I feel the little Discourse demon on my shoulder dig its claws in and urge me to get into some is to think, “Do I actually care about this and is this going to make me feel worse?” I’d say 80 percent of the time the answer is no, I don’t, and yes, it is, and I disengage.
My natural inclination is to think that more people will begin to extract themselves like you have, Run Down, and either watch games unencumbered or text with their friends if they need a place to put a stray riff. We’re all sort of screwed for that now, the feeling of existing without constant observation, but it’s probably still good to examine that urge from time to time. You said you feel worn out even reading and attempting to discuss and I say you’re already tired enough, you don’t need to try any harder to relax.
Following Meghan Markle’s 2017 engagement and subsequent marriage to Britain’s Prince Harry, it’s fair to say that she’s endured a difficult time in the U.K. The British press continuously publishes negative articles about the couple, and the lack of a defense from the palace eventually led the Meghan and Harry to move to California. That’s where they’ve spent the pandemic, and Meghan’s getting back into the TV groove with a Netflix deal (along with Harry) and more. That hasn’t stopped the ugliness, and even though Meghan recently won a privacy lawsuit against a tabloid, she’s been greeted with news that Buckingham Palace is investigating “bullying” claims made against Meghan by staffers.
All of this is dovetailing with Meghan and Harry’s upcoming tell-all interview with Oprah for CBS Evening News that will air on Sunday, and the embattlement appears to be hitting a fever pitch, especially after the British royals were painted in a highly unflattering light for their alleged treatment of Princess Diana on The Crown‘s latest season (which led the British government to request a “fiction” disclaimer, although Netflix said no way).
Many are startled at the seeming similarities in the situations of Prince Harry’s mother and his wife, and there’s an added twist that many, including Meghan’s former Suits co-star, Patrick Adams, has noted. In a lengthy Twitter thread, he’s defending her while expressing disgust at what he describes as “endless racist, slanderous, clickbaiting vitriol spewed in her direction” by the British press. He’s appalled, too, at what he calls “OBSCENE” treatment of Meghan by “the Royal Family, who’s newest member is currently GROWING INSIDE OF HER, is promoting and amplifying accusations of ‘bullying’ against a woman who herself was basically forced to flea the UK in order protect her family and her own mental health.”
The entire Twitter thread is worth reading. Ultimately, Patrick illuminates Meghan as a kind and giving person and “a powerful woman with a deep sense of morality and a fierce work ethic.” He ends by advising the British press and the Royal Family to “[f]ind someone else to admonish, berate and torment. My friend Meghan is way out of your league.” Read the full thread below.
Meghan Markle and I spent the better part of a decade working together on Suits. From day one she was an enthusiastic, kind, cooperative, giving, joyful and supportive member of our television family. She remained that person and colleague as fame, prestige and power accrued.
She has always been a powerful woman with a deep sense of morality and a fierce work ethic and has never been afraid to speak up, be heard and defend herself and those she holds dear. Like the rest of the world, I have watched her navigate the last few years in astonishment.
She fell in love, moved to a new country, became a household name across the entire globe and began the difficult work of trying to find her place in a family dynamic that can at best be described as complicated and at worst, seemingly archaic and toxic.
It sickened me to read the endless racist, slanderous, clickbaiting vitriol spewed in her direction from all manner of media across the UK and the world but I also knew that Meghan was stronger than people realized or understood and they would regret underestimating her.
And then they welcomed Archie. And on any sort of decent planet that would be a time to stop sharpening the knives and let these two people enjoy the magical early months and years of starting a family. But we don’t live on that planet and instead the hunt continued.
It’s OBSCENE that the Royal Family, who’s newest member is currently GROWING INSIDE OF HER, is promoting and amplifying accusations of “bullying” against a woman who herself was basically forced to flea the UK in order protect her family and her own mental health.
IMO, this newest chapter and it’s timing is just another stunning example of the shamelessness of a institution that has outlived its relevance, is way overdrawn on credibility and apparently bankrupt of decency.
Sometimes, a cover version of a song establishes its own legacy distinct from the original track; Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” comes to mind as such a song. Caroline Polachek has made one of those for herself in recent years, too. She started covering “Breathless” by The Corrs at shows in 2018, and towards the end of last year, she finally shared a studio version of her cover. Now she has brought her rendition back to its live roots by performing it on The Late Late Show last night.
The performance takes place in a dark and dramatically lit room, Polachek surrounded by smoke. Staying true to her studio cover, the performance departs from the original Corrs song, taking on a more modern and electronic aesthetic. Ahead of the pre-taped performance, Polachek noted, “Was v nervous for this, but oof it’s fun to be at it again..! Yes i will be in full princess mode thank you for asking.”
The studio version of Polachek’s “Breathless” cover appears on Standing At The Gate: Remix Collection, which is set for release on April 16. The album includes contributions from folks like Toro Y Moi, A.G. Cook, Chino Moreno of Deftones, and others.
As if they didn’t already feel disrespected enough this week, Jazz teammates Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were the last two names selected in the All-Star Draft by Team LeBron and Team Durant. Inevitably, somebody has to get picked last in this, but it couldn’t have come a worse time for them.
Earlier this week, both Mitchell and Gobert let loose on the officiating crew after losing an overtime thriller to the Sixers on Wednesday night. Mitchell was ejected after receiving two quick technical fouls and had plenty to say after the game, as did Gobert, who went on a profanity-laced tirade that, among other things, implied that Utah does not get the sort of love that other teams do because they are in a small market.
As was expected, the league handed them both the requisite fines on Friday, with Mitchell and Gobert receiving $25,000 and $20,000 hits, respectively.
Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert have been fined: Mitchell, $25,000 for public criticism of the officiating and his conduct while exiting the playing court. Gobert, $20,000 for public criticism of the officiating.
At 27-9 on the season, the Jazz still hold the league’s best record, despite dropping their last two games as they head into the All-Star break. Both Gobert and Mitchell will be in Atlanta on Sunday to participate in the scaled-down version of the NBA’s annual midseason festivities.
Coming to Netflix this week, Murder Among The Mormons is in some ways an au courant true crime docuseries about a Salt Lake City conman and murderer. Yet it’s simultaneously a woolly dark comedy sending up the particular idiosyncrasies of its Mormon setting and creators. Co-directed by TV documentary veteran Tyler Measom and Jared Hess, of Napoleon Dynamite fame, MATM explores a community that’s outwardly “average” almost to the point of parody (the boxy haircuts, the dorky shirts, the teetotalling) but also uses that facade to mask some extraordinary eccentricities.
To put it another way, everyone in Murder Among The Mormons is quite a character. Most of the talking heads are there to discuss Mark Hofmann, a man who trades in “church documents” — the uniquely Mormon phenomenon serving up runes, old books, and the assorted arcana of a church that was founded less than 200 years ago to enthusiastic collectors. Mormons are, as Measom puts it, “a peculiar people” and Hofmann is a Jared Hess character come to life, a rockstar rare documents trader trying to “live large” in a community so 1950s conformist that long sleeves qualify as rebellion.
Yet Hofmann quickly proves to be in the 99th percentile both of forgers and of sociopaths. One of his creations was “The Salamander Letter,” a document supposedly showing that in Joseph Smith’s first iteration of the Mormon origin story, in which an angel led him to a set of golden plates that became the Book of Mormon, the angel was a salamander.
Hess, obviously, has excelled at exploring exactly these kinds of dowdy villains and esoterica, and there are fanciful recreations in Murder Among The Mormons that feel like cut scenes from Masterminds or Gentlemen Broncos, dry as a bone and with Hess’s trademark matter-of-fact compositions — making Murder Among The Mormons stand alone in an increasingly utilitarian genre.
Of all the Mormon true crime stories of late (and there have been surprisingly a lot — Abducted In Plain Sight, American Coyote), Murder Among The Mormons, directed by current Mormon Hess and former Mormon Measom (a FoMo, if you will), is arguably the one that most explores this push-pull between outward averageness and inner aberration. I spoke to Measom and Hess via Zoom this week, about classic Mormon eccentrics, the true crime canon, and their respective childhoods in the church.
All of the characters in this were so enjoyable to me. Do you think that the Mormon community has different flavors of eccentrics than the larger world?
TYLER MEASOM: Jared being one of them?
JARED HESS: I mean yeah, definitely this particular saga had a lot of very charismatic personalities from across the spectrum. Jerry Dalea, one of the chief investigators, is just so entertaining, as well as Shannon Flynn. Across the board, I think we were not lacking in fascinating personalities.
TM: I think the members of the Mormon faith consider themselves a bit peculiar. In fact, they actually kind of embraced that term, “peculiar people.” They have odd beliefs to the rest of the world. And Salt Lake City in the ’80s was a rather small town. And not only just the Mormon faith in general, but these individuals who were document collectors in particular were cut from a certain cloth. They all had the same kind of interests, a love of history, backgrounds, faith, and also they had a very trusting nature. This is the environment in which Mark Hofmann was able to thrive, and utilize these individuals and their … I don’t want to say gullibility because they weren’t gullible, but their love of documents and history. He used that against them.
You mentioned Shannon Flynn, who shows up with the three-piece suit and he’s got, I think, a pocket watch, and the raspy voice. Is he still in the “rare document” business?
JH: I don’t think full-time. I think it still interests him as a hobby, but I think a lot of people got out of it after what occurred. Some stayed in it. Brent Ashworth, he’s still very much involved, but yeah. Shannon, he’s a bit of a Renaissance man and has a variety of interests. He definitely looks like either Alfred Hitchcock or Winston Churchill depending on who you’re familiar with.
TM: Yeah, he was kind of forced out of the document business. It’s something he always wanted to get into, and so when he was with Mark, he was living the high life. Documents and briefcases of cash, and then when what happened happened, no one would work with him again.
You guys both come from Mormon backgrounds. Was there a sense of wanting to tell this story so that maybe non-Mormons wouldn’t sensationalize the Mormonism aspect of it?
JH: Yeah. We also spent a lot of time figuring out how much information about Mormonism to present. Because really, to understand the stakes of this story, you have to understand Mormonism, the founding beliefs, the world of document dealing, just so you could comprehend what a disruption the Salamander Letter was to the faith. We did have to strike a balance of giving enough information, but not boring people with too much theology. Ultimately, I think we figured out the best way to do that is just to show clips of old Church films that share their own origin story. Which we also love.
Can you explain exactly what the Salamander Letter was and why it was such an important thing?
JH: The founding beliefs of Mormonism start with a boy named Joseph Smith in upstate New York, who had questions about which church to join. He had a vision where he was visited by God and Jesus, and then later was directed by an angel to translate a set of golden plates that ultimately became the Book of Mormon. Here you’ve got familiar Judeo-Christian terms like “God” and “angels,” and it feels familiar with the whole Christian lexicon. And then that’s suddenly getting subverted and challenged by this letter that gave a completely different account and suddenly twisting it to occult witchcraft terms. It seemed like he was part of this folk magic ritual. So that, I believe in Christian communities, seems to totally undermine and threaten what they believed in and paints a different picture of their founding prophet. And again, this is the story that missionaries go out and teach when they’re knocking doors. .
TM: But for some — and I no longer believe in the tenets of the faith, I left the church a long time ago — but some individuals, including our editors, would look at the Salamander Letter and go, why is it so outrageous that a salamander would appear? It’s pretty outrageous that an angel would come down and appear as well. So for some, the parallels were pretty close. The outrageousness is just as outrageous.
Did you guys both do missions?
TM: We both did. Different places, of course. But yes.
JH: I got my mission call to Caracas, Venezuela. I was there when Chavez got elected. This was back in 1988. But I had hernias and I had to come home for hernia surgery. So then I was home for a couple of months and then finished the next year of my mission in Chicago, Spanish speaking. So I kind of had a stateside mission and one in South America. Tyler, where’d you go?
TM: I was in Missouri — Independence. So I spent a lot of time in Kansas and Nebraska as a 19-year-old wearing a white shirt and tie, while my friends were in college going on dates and drinking beer. So that sums it up for me, essentially.
With the Salamander Letter and some of the other forgeries that he made, do you think Hofmann was trying to publicly embarrass the Church or was he trying to forge documents that maybe he thought that they would pay him to bury, like a blackmail kind of thing?
JH: It was both.
TM: Mark’s basis for forgery was multi-fold. If you ask him — of course, he’s a very unreliable narrator, who’s to believe anything he says? — but he claims that it was all for money. However, he does admit that his intent was to bring down the Church and he would do that kind of as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, that he would appear a worthy member of the faith. He would meet with this inner sanctum of hierarchy of the Mormon Church, he would sell them documents — and not just one or two documents, he literally sold hundreds of documents. Many of them were genuine, but a lot of them weren’t. Also, I think for Mark, he had the power to change history, literally, when he came out with a document. As he says, if it were verified as true, people would accept it as true, and history books were quite literally rewritten because of the documents that he forged. The power that he must have felt in that must have given him a rise that I can’t even imagine. That need that to deceive I think was part of his DNA, to keep beating that addiction he had of fooling people, fooling everyone.
And then if he’s doing all this for money, I know that he had the little sports car, but what was the secret life that he was spending all of this money on?
JH: He traveled a lot to the East coast, to New York and he would just live large. He had a collection that he was starting to build of first-edition children’s books, so that was something that he did. But he would kind of splurge. He was horrible with money. And that’s what got him into this whole Ponzi scheme predicament that he just couldn’t get out of. He also wanted to buy a half-million-dollar home, and in Salt Lake City in the 1980s, that was a humongous amount of money. It was small things, but again, when he would travel, he would live large, he would make some big purchases, but mostly he was just terrible with money.
TM: You know, at the time of these bombings, the investigators did a composite of all the money he owed and it’s over a million dollars. One of the bills was a $2,000 phone bill, like a cell phone bill. You remember cell phones in the eighties, every call cost 50 bucks. But at the same time, he had bounced a check for a subscription to a magazine for like $50. So he was just broke and in debt. He was very desperate at the time that he committed these crimes.
JH: He did buy a hot tub. That was one of his splurges. We didn’t go into that, but he would host some really nerdy, Mormon hot tub parties — alcohol free, just invite your wife, we’ll eat some rice Krispie treats and play footsie beneath the bubbles.
I read in another interview that you thought this series could have been like six or seven episodes. What are some of your favorite side stories that you ended up having to leave out?
JH: Well definitely the hot tub stories. No, I mean, there was so much stuff. One that didn’t make the cut that just kind of shows how prolific Hofmann was, is that long after he’d been in prison, over a decade after he’d been convicted, in the late 90s, this new Emily Dickinson poem surfaced that nobody had ever heard of. The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts did a fundraiser so they could buy it. It was up for auction at Sotheby’s and they bought it. They were so excited to add this to their collection. Lo and behold, Brent Ashworth, who’s in the film, calls them and says, “Hey, I hate to break it to you guys, but that came through me from Hofmann back in the 80s, and I’m 99% sure that that’s a Hofmann forgery. They were devastated. And that’s just a small sampling of how many more Hofmann documents are out there in the world that people do not know are forgeries, that maybe potentially on some level have rewritten history.
TM: Or know that they’re forgeries and they don’t want to acknowledge it because they spent X amount of dollars on it.
And then he was doing this and getting these forgeries verified by the verifying bodies. How much did his story discredit some of those people that were supposedly verifying these things as genuine?
TM: Well, Mark was great at what he did. He was a craftsman. He didn’t just get the right paper of the era, but he’d create the right ink. He used the right pen. He used the handwriting style of this individual. He used the right verbiage of this individual and he would research intently. And he fooled the top experts. But there’s no shame in being dunked on by Michael Jordan. Mark was the best at what he did. I do think he did set back the collecting world a bit, but in other ways he raised the bar on the verification of documents. What Mark did is what is happening in many ways now. We are being presented with faulty misinformation continually. I think it’s up to us to just not instantly glom onto something that we think is fantastic, like a lot of these people did when they were presented with a document that seemed too great to be true. They wanted to believe it, and they would typically overlook a lot of things. I think there’s Mark Hofmanns everywhere and we need to be a little bit more careful.
What was his first big hit as a seller and/or forger?
JH: Definitely the Anthon transcript. The document that he found that supposedly was a transcription of the symbols that were found on the golden plates that Joseph Smith translated. That was a very apocryphal story within Mormonism. Nobody knew what that document actually looked like. So when Mark supposedly found it in this old Bible that belonged to Joseph Smith’s family, this was groundbreaking for the Church, because it affirmed everything that they’d always believed and hoped for as it relates to the Book of Mormon. That immediately took him to the top leaders of the Church. The paper checked out, the story checked out. And so that really put him immediately in the big leagues of document collecting.
Did you get any sense of childhood trauma or something from him? The fact that he was so sort of cavalier about killing people, usually that comes from somewhere.
JH: I mean, he came from a very strict, devout Mormon family, with very strict parents and he was a closeted atheist at a very young age. He couldn’t really discuss his true beliefs with anyone. So there’s nothing in our research that shows that he was traumatized in any specific way, but I think just having to keep his personal beliefs bottled up in a very strict religious home was probably difficult and definitely shaped certain decisions that came later.
TM: I just think about the mental gymnastics he must’ve done. First and foremost, I think he had an interest in deceiving. I think he gained power from that. You know, it’s covered in the film, but when you’re 14 years old and you create a mint mark on a coin and make that valuable and it fools the US treasury, at that point you think you can get away with anything, especially when you’re a 14-year-old boy. Remember telling a lie and getting away with it? You think you can get away with anything. So I think that early need to deceive just kept getting bigger and bigger until maybe he felt he was infallible in some ways.
‘Murder Among The Mormons’ is currently streaming on Netflix. Vince Mancini is onTwitter. You can access his archive of reviewshere.
We’re so over winter. Snow, frigid wind chills, and hour-upon-hour of darkness really seem to exacerbate the whole quarantine thing. Who needs it, right? This year, we’re making a declaration that everyone should go ahead and head into spring early. Like next week.
Honestly, we deserve this. After the year we all had, we don’t need to sit around and wait for warm, sunny days.
Through this winter of our collective discontent, we already got our fill of stouts, porters, barleywines, and old ales. So we’re going to spend the remaining chilly nights drinking closing things out with seasonally appropriate IPAs (not all IPAs are meant for summer, fam). To find the best options, we turned to the professionals — asking a group of well-known bartenders to tell us their choices for the best IPAs to sip on from now until the weather turns for good.
Those in search of an IPA to drink this winter should look no further than Florida’s own Crooked Can High Stepper IPA. Not only is this a local gem, but it is well balanced and refreshing, from the coldest days up north to the warmest Florida days.
Lagunitas IPA for a winter IPA is extremely refreshing. In Puerto Rico, there is no winter. It’s about 83 degrees in February, so it’s always summer here.
I would pick a juicy, hazy IPA. Flying Dog Brewery’s Thunderpeel has all of this without using any citrus fruits. This New England Style IPA achieves juice notes through its unique blend of hops.
Austin Zimmer, bartender Le Prive in New York City
The Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing is a great IPA for the winter season. The rye, herbal, and piney notes, paired with a nice, hazy presence remind the season and are way more balanced than most IPAs.
Jeff Rogers, bar director for Jester Concepts in Minneapolis
Castle Danger Brewery’s White Pine Project IPA. The light pine flavors from the hops blend perfectly with citrus notes that remind you of the upcoming spring.
Made in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the sales of this beer help to replant the North Shore.
Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
I spend most of my summers wandering the Grove in St. Louis looking for pinball machines in various bars. The IPA I seem to have in hand is Art of Neurosis from 2nd Shift brewery. It’s big, hoppy, and malt-forward, so it stands up to frigid temps.
How can you drink something with tropic in the name and not feel like you are on a beach? Or in my case, hidden under an umbrella avoiding the sunshine out of fear of sunburn. The tropic part isn’t overbearing and doesn’t add sweetness. It just has this light pineapple/mango thing going on, with a nice balance of grapefruit to keep things nice and bitter.
This question is a little hard for me because, down here in South Florida, we don’t really have winter and almost never need to warm up. But I have lived in the Northeast and Boston area and dealt with some harsh winters and I remember drinking Clown Shoes Haze Cake.
This IPA is the perfect winter warmer because the aromatic fruit notes and malty finish give it a light-yet-warm feel, making it a perfect beer for a winter day.
Nikole Calvo, bar manager at SIX in Tampa, Florida
The best IPA to drink during the winter is Sierra Nevada’s Fantastic Haze IPA. It’s a full-body IPA with a hazy twist. It’s extremely hop-forward and is geared up to drink during the winter seasons. The fresh fruit and hops are a great take on a winter IPA.
Ryan Cunningham, bartender at Anchor and Brine in Tampa, Florida
New Belgium does a great winter IPA called Accumulation. Not unlike other beers in their line, it’s gone through a few different recipes but one thing I’ve always enjoyed is the warmness of the hop selection while not destroying your palate with IBUs.
Open an M-43 from Old Nation. New England Style IPAs generally use hops that provide tropical fruit and creamy citrus notes. Make sure to pour it into a glass to enjoy its trademark murky haze.
The best mid-winter IPA is Space Dust by Elysian Brewing Company. Its aromas remind you of winter with pine, citrus, and grass. It has a high alcohol content that isn’t noticeable and an elevated version of a classic IPA, making it a must-try.
Siobhán Cusumano, bartender at Buya Ramen in St. Petersburg, Florida
I am not the biggest IPA drinker, and with a gluten allergy, there are few options. Glutenberg does a phenomenal job capturing a warm summer day on the beach with their session IPA. It’s not overly hoppy, but clean, light, and crushable.
This juicy, hazy, crushable, 6.5 percent New England-style IPA is the perfect last winter sip. It’s filled with tropical fruits like guava, pineapple, and mango. It’s so good, you’ll want to continue drinking it well into the spring and summer.
One of the newest offerings from the Pennsylvania-based brewery, Joyous IPA is a nice mix of spicy, resinous pine and juicy, fresh pineapple, mango, and tangerine. It’s quite possibly the best beer to ease your way into spring with.
Never one to miss a chance to complain about Republicans being “unfairly” criticized, Meghan McCain bristled at President Joe Biden’s latest remarks where he called the recent decision by conservative states to get rid of mask mandates “Neanderthal thinking.” While her co-hosts on The View called the media attention on Biden’s quip “manufactured outrage,” McCain went the opposite direction and called Biden’s comment a self-inflicted injury because now Republicans are just going to close ranks even more. Via The Daily Beast:
“You can laugh and say ‘Oh, it’s a joke,’ whatever, but Republicans across the country already feel like people on the left think they’re dumb rednecks,” she continued, “they’re just stupid deplorables in baskets, nobody cares about their trucks and their flags. That’s what Republicans think the media thinks of them.”
In the end, she said, “All it does is it’s going to help Republicans be more tribal and think that we’re just deplorable Neanderthals, the left has no place for us, so there’s no unity whatsoever.”
The problem with McCain’s “tribal” prediction is that she has already repeatedly used that word to describe her reactions to criticism of the party. When co-host Sunny Hostin referred to the GOP as the “Party of QAnon” last month, McCain fired back “when I hear that I automatically get tribal” before launching into a rant about her pro-life beliefs and accusing the Democratic Party of engaging in “murder” by supporting abortion rights, which has been a GOP tactic for decades.
On a larger political level, every single Republican in the House voted against the COVID relief package last Saturday, and that was before Biden made his Neanderthal remark. Why, it’s almost like this outrage was all theatrics all along.
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