Remember when Jeopardy! was overrun by a ridiculous scandal involving someone named “Mike Richards”? Luckily it didn’t destroy the nations’ brainiest prime time game show. Instead it quickly bounced back with some record-busting winners. First there was Matt Amodio, whose streak coincided with the Richards affair. Then there was Jonathan Fisher. Now there’s Amy Schneider.
As of the last day of November, the Oakland native had plowed through 10 shows without a defeat. With over $300,000 in winnings so far, she already qualifies for the show’s annual “Tournament of Champions.” On top of that, she’s the first transgender contestant to do so. As Schenider’s streak continues, she spoke with Clue Crew’s Jimmy McGuire about her game-changing run.
“I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t think I could do good, but this has just been so much better than I thought I could do,” Schenider said, adding, “it’s really hard to say what it means yet.”
After only 10 days, Schneider is already within striking distance of some of the show’s all-time greats. When asked who she’d most like to beat, she went big. “I mean, I’d like to beat James Holzhauer, I think,” he said, laughing. “He seems very confident, I guess I’ll say. I would sort of feel good, in a way.”
Schneider also spoke about someone who inspired her after she moved out to San Francisco and got involved in the comedy scene. She was moved by local comedian, Natasha Muse, who’s also trans. “Growing up in the Midwest in a conservative family, I got kind of a distorted idea of what it meant to be trans,” Schenider said. “So seeing her, being smart and funny and cool and just a normal person with a normal life and kids and all that, just showed me that it was something that I could possibly be.”
There’s no “bad” season for tequila, even in December as the holidays approach. We have no trouble enjoying a well-made, warming blanco (un-aged) tequila during the colder months — it’s such a versatile mixer. But winter is an even more ideal season for a bottle of reposado (aged up to a year), an añejo (aged up to three years), or even the deep, oaky extra añejo (aged three years or more).
To find the best bottles of tequila on the market — regardless of the time of year you’re doing the sipping — we once again turned to the pros who spend their time mixing and pouring drinks behind the bar. We asked a handful of well-known bartenders to tell us the one tequila they’d drink forever if they had to pick one and stick with it for the rest of their days.
Keep scrolling to check out all of their selections.
Fortaleza Reposado
Fortaleza
John Dal Canton, assistant general manager and beverage director at La Stella Cucina Verace in Dallas
Fortaleza distills and ages their tequilas according to tradition. Each year different terroirs are expressed and distilled, making each batch distinct from the last. If I could only drink one tequila for the rest of my life, choosing this one would mean I could still enjoy a different tequila every year.
Calle 23 Reposado
Calle 23
Lauren Parton, general manager of Viceroy in Chicago
Calle 23 Reposado is made and owned by a woman who came to distilling tequila via cognac. The reposado has roasted vegetable qualities alongside a sweetness reminiscent of figs, most likely from the aging in ex-bourbon barrels.
It’s an interesting tequila that’s easy to drink and would be an easy one to drink for the rest of my life.
Cimarron Blanco
Cimarron
Nicholas Karel, director of bars, lounges, and beverages at Windsor Court in New Orleans
Cimarron Blanco is the most delicious 100 percent agave tequila for its price point I’ve found. Clean and flavorful, it has notes of green agave, pepper, and a slight fruitiness. It goes down well in a shot or a sip and is perfect for cocktails.
Avion Reserva 44
Avion
Christopher Rodriguez, lead bartender at Lucy Restaurant & Bar in Yountville, California
I have to choose Avión Reserva 44 because it was the first tequila I enjoyed sipping. Because of this, it would be the one tequila I would choose to drink for the rest of my life. To me, the oaky añejo has whiskey-like notes but the agave shines through and finishes with vanilla notes.
Only one?! When it comes to tequila it is hard to go wrong and with so many high-quality producers, it can be very hard to narrow it down. If I had to choose one tequila right now, I would pick ArteNOM Seleccion de 1146 Anejo. The aging regimen is what sets this tequila apart from the rest. The total aging is almost three years split between used Cabernet Franc, French oak barrels, and Canadian and Tennessee whiskey barrels.
All of this leads to an extremely complex tequila that you can enjoy sipping for the rest of your life.
Clase Azul Reposado
Clase Azul
Stephen Lasaten, food and beverage manager at The Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
I have to go with Clase Azul Reposado. The luxurious-looking vessel is truly backed by its richness on the palate with vanilla, caramel, and butterscotch notes coming through. I can enjoy this by sipping it neat or on the rocks. It can also be mixed with club soda and served on the rocks with a squeeze of lime and the flavors will still come through.
Also, the silver bell top on the bottle can be rung every time you pour yourself a glass, making every occasion with it absolutely special.
My “desert island” tequila would have to be Cincoro Reposado. It’s a bit pricier at around $90 per bottle, but it has all of the weight and complexities of more expensive tequilas. The bottle is a beautiful and tall statement piece on the back bar with the spirit itself showing off a rich, golden, reposado color that stands out. It is velvety on the palate with a slight smokiness that is complemented by its sweet, tropical fruit and quietly vegetal core.
I wouldn’t even bother mixing it with anything — just strand me on an island with an endless supply and life will work itself out nicely on its own.
Cascahuin Extra Añejo
Cascahuin
Steven Minor, corporate beverage director at 1 Hotels in Los Angeles
Cascahuin Extra Anejo is a masterpiece by Salvador Rosales. Cascahuin doesn’t cut any corners from Tahona extraction to brick oven cooking (vs autoclave and diffusers, you know who you are), fourth-generation family distillers, etc. I had the pleasure of being introduced to this while taking a course in Tequila Sensory Evaluation in Guadalajara. I was part of a group of high-level distillers, scientists, and tequila industry folk from Guadalajara that really knew their stuff. I decided to ask them all what their favorite tequila was to drink. The universal response: Tequila Cascahuin.
Naturally, the first thing I did that night was to try some and I wasn’t disappointed. I do tend to have a sweet tooth and err towards juice that has been adulterated (once again, you know who you are). But this is a balanced harmony of cooked agave, orange peel, dried fruits, caramel, vanilla, cherry, and butter. I like to sip my aged tequila over a large-format ice cube. Give it a shot (no pun intended).
Casamigos Blanco
Casamigos
Emily Lawson, bartender and founder of Pink House Alchemy in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Casamigos Blanco is the perfect addition to any tequila-based cocktail or drink, and that’s what makes it my pick. It’s smooth and light with the perfect smoky finish, in addition to the pronounced taste of agave, banana, and vanilla. As a shot, it’s smooth with minimal brashness or burn. In a margarita, it provides the perfect amount of sweetness. It’s our favorite addition to our signature pineapple rosemary shrub margarita.
El Tequileno Reposado Rare
El Tequileno
Pascal Pinalt, director of restaurants and bars at The Confidante in Miami
My pick would be El Tequileno Reposado Rare, which is the world’s first reposado rare. Aged for six years in an American oak barrel, it is made with 100 percent Blue Agave from Jalisco. The smell reminds me of a pie baked in the oven. I get vanilla, sweet agave, and some spice. There’s a very nice balance of agave, sweet citrus, a little oak, and a slowly increasing and fading heat through the finish. This is a nice sipper.
Casa Noble Reposado is the one tequila I could drink for the rest of my life. It’s a wonderful slow sipper. It’s mellow at first but has a great finish. You get notes of citrus, vanilla, and spices that linger for quite a while.
Don Julio 1942
Don Juliio
Christopher Devern, lead bartender of Red Owl Tavern in Philadelphia
Don Julio 1942 is more than just the bottle. When I first joined the bar scene, there weren’t many premium spirits I had gotten around to trying. I was a novice, and when invited to a Don Julio tasting it changed my perception of tequila. We tasted the blanco, reposado, anejo, 70 anejo, and 1942. From that point to now, there have been so many premium tequilas hitting the market. Brands like Cincoro, Clase Azul, Teremana, and of course Casamigos. I find many qualities I like in all of these tequilas, and they all have a place and time. But, 1942 is a celebration bottle that I pour during special times with close friends and family.
If I’m going to drink one tequila for the rest of my life, it better taste celebration-worthy, and this tequila absolutely does.
Avion Silver
Avion
Dan Tholen, lead bartender at Mas Amor Cantina in Hickory, North Carolina
Hands down, I would pick Avion Silver Tequila. It’s sharp and smooth at the same time, and its peppery notes compliment the flavors of blue agave that I love. It’s versatile and perfect to use in margaritas of any flavor.
Tequila Ocho Plata
Tequila Ocho
Nick Baitzel, beverage director of restaurant group Sojourn Philly in Philadelphia
For me, it’s Tequila Ocho. I love the fact that they produce their tequila in vintages. As someone whose background is mostly in the wine industry, this speaks to me. I enjoy both the plata and reposado but having to choose one I would pick the reposado. The smoky, slightly oaky notes really pair well with the herbal flavors in the tequila, making it a perfect sipping tequila.
In the days after this month’s Astroworld Festival tragedy, Travis Scott put out a statement in which he offered to pay for the funeral expenses for the ten people who died during the event. This came before lawsuits began to mount against Scott and Astroworld organizers, with one of the latest ones amounting to $750 million from over 125 Astroworld attendees. On Monday, it was reported that the family of nine-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest victim in the tragedy, declined Scott’s offer to pay for funeral expenses. Turns out Blount’s family was not the only one to do so.
According to Rolling Stone, three additional families also denied Scott’s offer through their lawyers. Philip Corboy, who represents the families of 21-year-old friends Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino; Tony Buzbee, the lawyer for the family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta; and Richard Mithoff, who represents the family of 14-year-old John Hilgert, each expressed distaste for Scott’s offer in separate statements.
Corboy said he held discussions with the Jurinek and Patino families about Scott’s offer and they “realized quickly that all he was trying to do was trying to lessen the public outcry on his case.” He added, “It took them each about three seconds to say ‘No, no no.’” Corboy continued, “If he’s trying to impress upon the families that he’s sincere and has concern for them and realize that funerals can be expensive, what Scott’s team did is not the way to do it.” He concluded, “You don’t get a piece of paper in the mail from a lawyer in Beverly Hills who says he represents Travis Scott. These families are raw right now; that lacks any personal touch.”
Mithoff also spoke on behalf of the Hilgerts. “It was not an offer they were going to seriously consider,” he said. “Of all the things this case is about, that’s the least of any concern. This family is set on making change and ensuring this never happens at a concert again. I find offering to pay for funerals frankly demeaning and really inappropriate to the magnitude of the tragedy that unfolded.”
Buzbee says he received a call from a local attorney but went against returning the call. “It’s bullsh*t,” he said. “If you gave a sh*t about these families, you wouldn’t have to put out a press release for everyone to see saying he’s willing to pay for a funeral.” He continued, “Let the families grieve and shut up, that’s it. When something like this happens, there’s not a whole lot someone like Travis Scott could do to assuage their pain. He says he feels sorry for them but he’s quick to say it wasn’t his fault. He’s no different than any defendant pointing fingers to someone else. They don’t want funeral expenses from him. Whatever we get from him we’re going to get through the court system.”
Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been shy about communicating during visits with The Pat McAfee Show during the 2021 NFL season. Between those appearances, his COVID misleading, and his well-publicized beef with the front office of the Green Bay Packers during the offseason, it’s been a wild ride in 2021, though the Packers are enjoying success on the field. On Tuesday, Rodgers was at it again. He seemed to suggest, at approximately the 2:10 mark of the video below, that members of Green Bay’s coaching staff could be leaking his medical information.
McAfee teed Rodgers up by asking about a report that Rodgers may need surgery on his toe and then another report that he might not need to go under the knife. From there, Rodgers leaned in to the bit, also addressing former Packers linebacker AJ Hawk, who was present.
“With these reports, I don’t know where they’re coming from,” Rodgers said. “I don’t know who’s talking. It seems like there are certain coaches that may have friends in the media that they don’t realize are actually just trying to report things.”
Shortly after, Rodgers said “there were guys for a while who had their people who they would leak stuff to.” That insinuation seemed to reflect that that active leaking was taking place, though there wasn’t much more detail within this particular exchange.
All of the back and forth about Rodgers’ toe is secondary to the suggestion, on a broadcast such as this, that things would be leaked about him from the inside. Some of this could be played up for whatever reason but, at the very least, it doesn’t seem like Rodgers is thrilled with the higher-ups in Green Bay, and that would be nothing new.
Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams became New York City’s mayor-elect earlier this month when he defeated Curtis Silwa by more than 450,000 votes. Adams will become the second Democrat in a row to hold the office following Bill de Blasio’s tenure in the role. And now, to the basketball stuff: BING BONG.
Saying bing bong is now the most popular thing in the world (well, at least among Knicks fans), so much so that two people decided their votes were best used in the election to write in the phrase.
The rallying cry for the New York Knicks, Bing Bong, received multiple write-in votes for mayor of New York City.
Bing Bong didn’t quite beat out Eric Adams but it was a valiant effort in the name of democracy. pic.twitter.com/Lz84i9JNZd
Adams was gonna win the whole time, so these folks decided to have some fun with it, instead, and went in a very silly direction. In scores of other games, bing bong got more write-in votes than Derek Jeter (who got one), Barack Obama (also one), Carmelo Anthony (one), and Kyrie Irving (one). It did not, however, beat Julius Randle (he got six) or Tom Thibodeau (two, unless you wanna count the single write-in that “Tom Thibodau” got). Bing bong.
Later this week, Three 6 Mafia will go up against Bone Thugs-N-Harmony for another battle of Verzuz. Before that happens, Juicy J, who is one of two remaining members in the group, along with DJ Paul, spoke with Nas and radio personality Minya “Miss Info” about the rise and fall of the group. On the Spotify podcast The Bridge: 50 Years of Hip Hop, Juicy J admitted that “drugs really broke Three 6 Mafia up.” When asked about was specific drugs caused the group’s end, Juicy J replied, “the wildest drugs.”
“From heroin to meth to cocaine, all kinds of pills,” he continued. “A lot of drugs were consumed during the times we were together. When everybody was sober and sh*t, everybody’s on the same page But when cocaine’s involved, things change. But I’m not pointing a figure at nobody.” Juicy J added that he “can’t think of nothing else” that would’ve caused the group to break up and said it was why “people wasn’t showing up in the studio… business was crazy, everything’s folding… it was the drugs.”
Juicy J recalled a story involving Lord Infamous, DJ Paul’s late brother, who was a part of the group until 2005. “I had to bust up in Lord Infamous room before and I was almost in tears,” he said. “I thought the n**** was dead at first. So I had to go get the keys, because he wouldn’t answer the phone. I was banging on his door. So I had to bust up in his room and had to pretty much beat him [with a pillow] to wake him up.”
You can listen to the full episode of Spotify’s The Bridge: 50 Years of Hip Hop podcast here.
Nicolas Cage is certainly no stranger to over-the-top acting gigs. This year alone, the Oscar-winning thespian has received some of the best reviews of his career for Pig, a movie that sounds, on its face, as wackadoodle as the one in which he plays a janitor battling murderous amusement park attractions. But perhaps his craziest role was in 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss. Effectively a film-length supercut of Nicolas Cage going nutso, it finds him playing a greedy NYC yuppie convinced he’s a real vampire, even though he probably isn’t. At one point Cage eats a cockroach. It was real.
Jump some three decades, and Cage will finally play an actual vampire: As per The Hollywood Reporter, he’s been cast as the archetypal bloodsucker himself, Count Dracula. He won’t, alas, be the star. The movie is called Renfield, and it’s centered around the Transylvanian’s most devoted acolyte, to be played by Nicholas Hoult. (Tom Waits played him, quite memorably, in the Francis Ford Coppola version from 1992.)
It’s the latest in Universal’s so-far-successful attempt to rehab their instantly aborted Dark Universe, which was supposed to be an MCU/DCEU take on the studio’s classic monsters, and which was killed right out of the gate by the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy. After the success of last year’s The Invisible Man, a stripped-down, outside-the-box take on the horror classic, Universal has adopted a new, cheaper, more adventurous strategy, as evidenced by Renfield.
So good for Nicolas Cage, lover of outrageous accents, who will finally, finally get to whip up his own creative stab at sounding Transylvanian.
Jared and Ivanka wanted to have it both ways. They wanted to live it up as royalty, traipsing about high society events. They also wanted to profit off the fruits of her father’s destructive labor. They wanted powerful positions in a much-despised administration, from which they could reap extra benefits, and they wanted to be big time New Yorkers who sold popular fashion wares. And they got away with it for a lot longer than they should have, only finally becoming persona non grata after her dad helped foment a deadly riot.
Since the disastrous end of Donald Trump’s presidency, Jared and Ivanka have been laying low, spending most of their time in Miami, making very few public appearances. But apparently they figured just shy of 11 months was long enough: As per The Hollywood Reporter, they finally dared show their faces in public again.
Where’d the porcelain doll pair go? To a fashion show, of course. On Tuesday, Jared and Ivanka were spotted in the front row of a Louis Vuitton show in Miami, which also featured such names as Ye, Kim Kardashian West, Pharrell Williams, Bella Hadid, and more. It wasn’t just any Louis Vuitton show; it was presented in “loving memory” to Virgil Abloh, the designer and Ye collaborator who suddenly died on Sunday at the age of 41.
It’s not the first time the one of them, at least, has been seen in public. In March, shortly after the Capitol siege, Ivanka volunteered at a Farmers to Families Food Box distribution site in Florida. She helped distribute more than 1,300 food boxes and she posted about it on Instagram — one of her rare social media posts since her father tried to overturn an election he lost by over seven million votes.
For months people have speculated when, or if, the pair would resurface in public, having long enjoyed the limelight. Perhaps they see this as baby steps. But perhaps if they try for something bigger — such as daring to return to New York City, whose denizens despise them almost as much as they despise former president Donald Trump — it will only end in tears.
Indeed, last November, after Ivanka’s father lost re-election — but before he made lying about voter fraud a potential grift — The New York Times spoke with fashion designer Batsheva Hay, who surmised that it would be tough for Ivanka to re-enter the scene. “The fashion world is pretty ready to shun her,” Hay said. “No one is going to lend Ivanka clothing — she’ll have to buy it covertly at retail.”
Now Ivanka at least has a foot back in the door. But perhaps it will still shut on her again and she’ll get the privilege of living out the ending of Dangerous Liaisons.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is the subject of an embarrassing viral video where she downplays the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine on Fox News and then, an hour later, touts their importance on CNN.
On Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Mace made some misleading and dangerous statements about why “natural immunity” is better than immunity provided by vaccines.
“One thing the CDC and no policy maker at the federal level has done so far is take into account what natural immunity has done,” Mace said. “That may be what we’re seeing in Florida today. In some studies that I have read, natural immunity gives you 27 times more protection against future COVID infection than vaccination. We need to take all of the science into account and not selectively choosing what science to follow when we are making policy decisions.”
This may sound scientific, but Mace leaves out the part where to get “natural immunity,” you have to survive the virus first. The goal, for most people during a pandemic, is not to get sick in the first place.
When youu2019re on Fox vs when youu2019re on CNNpic.twitter.com/miHJTbEMzY
The FOX clip also shows how the anti-science side simply redefines science to include minority/discarded views (natural immunity=vaccination) so that they can claim to be pro-science.
I’m guessing Fox told her not to suggest that viewers actually get vaccinated…
Footnote regarding the study she mentions on Fox: it does exist but hasn’t been peer-reviewed. And it doesn’t matter either way because obtaining natural immunity requires risking serious illness.
“COVID is associated with high disease burden, risk of death and long-lasting health issues (long COVID), in contrast with the excellent safety profile of vaccination,” he tweeted. “The question is ‘should I get vaccinated even if I previously had covid?’ People that were infected and then vaccinated develop a powerful immune response, called ‘hybrid immunity’, which exceeds what is seen with either natural infection or vaccination.”
It’s believed that in the Fox interview, Mace is referencing an Israeli study that found that natural immunity provides 27 times more protection from the delta variant than a vaccine. However, according to FactCheck.org, that study has not been peer reviewed or “accepted or endorsed in any way by the scientific or medical community.”
The study’s authors also say that the natural immunity that comes from being infected by the virus may wane over a short period of time.
An hour after her Fox interview, Mace was singing about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines on CNN.
“I’ve been a proponent of vaccinations and wearing masks when you need to,” she said. “When we had the delta variant raging in South Carolina, I wrote an op-ed to my community, and I worked with our state Department of Health.”
So what is it, Representative Mace? Should we risk death by achieving “natural immunity” or through a safe and effective vaccine?
Obviously, the answer is, don’t risk death or the symptoms of long COVID and get the vaccine. If you’ve already been sick, get the vaccine anyway and enjoy even stronger immunity.
However, Representative Mace thinks that the correct answer is whatever her conservative constituents who watch Fox News or her small, but important group of liberals and moderates supporters, who watch CNN, think.
Why is she flip-flopping on a life-or-death issue? It could be because Mace is at real risk of losing her seat in 2022. In 2020, she beat Democrat Joe Cunningham by less than 6,000 votes. Further, she’s already provoked the ire of Republican kingmaker Donald Trump who put her on a list of Republicans he wants to be booted from office.
It’s understandable that Mace has to try to appeal to as many people as possible to keep her political career alive. But the fact that she’s fine with risking the lives of countless Americans to do so, makes her unfit for office.
In a decent world, this one short video would result in the complete decimation of her political career.
Less than a year after Shawn Mendes released his fourth album Wonder, he’s already gearing for more. The singer took to his social media accounts to announce that his upcoming single, “It’ll Be Okay,” will arrive on Wednesday, December 2. He shared the news with a brief preview of the song. “Are we gonna make it?/ Is this gonna hurt?” he sings in the teaser as organ-like synths roar in the background. It’s unknown if the track could signal a possible deluxe reissue for Wonder or if it’s just a one-off.
This comes nearly two weeks after Mendes and Camila Cabello announced in a joint statement that they’d called it quits after two years. “Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship but our love for one another as humans is stronger than ever,” the statement read. “We started our relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends. We so appreciate your support from the beginning and moving forward.” The duo first started dating in mid-2019 after collaborating on their No. 1 single “Señorita.” Prior to that, in 2015, they connected for their first song together with “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
You can listen to the preview of “It’ll Be Okay” in the post above.
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