As the world prepared to ring in 2022, tens of thousands of people near Boulder, Colorado were being evacuated from their homes due to an unprecedented winter blaze that tore through their community December 30. The Marshall Fire took out entire neighborhoods at incredible speed, burning more than 6,000 acres in less than 24 hours and destroying nearly 1,000 structures.
It was a terrifying disaster, with families having just minutes to flee their homes as the flames raged toward them at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Mary and Taylor Stanley were in their home in Superior, Colorado with their baby when they found out the fire was headed straight for their house. “We look outside and there’s thick smoke in the air,” Mary told Fox 31 News, “and we can see it crawling, the flames and the smoke, just crawling toward us.”
They only had five minutes to get out of the house.
“While I was gathering our belongings, my husband ran out and tried to start the car,” Mary Stanley wrote, telling the story on GoFundMe. “It was dead. He then ran to the neighbor’s house and began banging on the door to no avail. He ran back home and said ‘we have no way out of here we have to try to make it by foot’ while hundred mile an hour winds blew the fire through the shopping center right across the street from our house and smoke covered everything.”
Just as the Stanleys were gathering belongings to take with them, an Amazon driver named Luanne showed up to deliver a bike pump Taylor Stanley had bought since their car was out of commission. She asked the couple if they needed help, and they told her they had no way to get out of town except on foot.
“A violent gust of wind then slammed against our gate, causing the door to become lodged inwardly,” Mary wrote. “We tried to pry it open and we couldn’t, so my husband began throwing items over the 8-foot tall fence and then climbed over it himself. Thank God we had gotten the baby and most of the belongings out before that happened. She [Luanne] then gave us a ride to the community center where we were safe from the smoke, fire and winds until our best friend could come get us.”
Later, the Stanleys would find out that their house was a total loss, burned to the ground like hundreds of their neighbors. But they were grateful they got out in time with Luanne’s help.
“It was just one of those miracles that happened on both sides,” Luanne said when the Stanleys called to thank her.
“We could be dead if it wasn’t for Luanne,” Mary Stanley told Fox 12. “She was our saving grace. A little angel right at the moment that we needed her.”
There is truly no end to the bizarre and delightful pockets of TikTok. Whether you’re watching someone put literally anything under a microscope, discovering how to make oreo mug cake or enjoying the simple pleasures of witnessing amazing cleaning transformations, the possibilities for entertainment are endless.
This 20-year-old trainspotter and TikTok star, Luke Nicolson (better known as Francis Bourgeois), is certainly no exception to this.
Even if you could care less about trains, the unbridled, child-like enthusiasm that Francis has for them is so contagious that you might find yourself looking longingly at a railroad. Or at the very least, in better spirits after hearing his infectious laugh.
Often with a go-pro strapped onto his head, Francis waits in heightened anticipation, raves over tones and chats up the drivers, who seem equally happy to see him.
Most of the time, he simply can’t contain himself once the train arrives, as indicated by the bursts of pure glee that come from him as a new train approaches. And that’s just the way his millions of followers like it.
“It’s the sound of the engines, the honks, the wheels on the tracks, they’re therapeutic noises, “ he tells The Face. “As for the railways, there’s a satisfaction in the way they line up, the way something so huge is on a direct path. On a deeper level, there’s something [special] about how the direction of a train is predefined – you know where it’s come from and where it’s going to go.”
Luke spent his childhood in North West London immersed in his passion, even drawing pictures from memory of the trains he had seen passing by at the station (The Tab).
Often as we approach adulthood, that certain zest for our childhood hobbies begins to fade. Or rather, it gets suppressed. Luke too felt the pressure to conceal his interests in order to blend in once he got older.
However, once he began his engineering degree at Nottingham University, things changed.
“Coming to university, I’ve turned a new page and allowed my passions to [flourish] and not be held down. It’s made me a lot happier,” he told The Face.
Coming more into his own, along with a dose of lockdown boredom, helped Luke come up with the idea. And thus Francis Bourgeois (presumably named after a court painter for George III) was born.
Many thought Francis’ larger-than-life person was too good to be true, and accused him of being a fake, particularly after photos of his younger self emerged. Francis posted a response video. And it is not only a masterclass in authenticity, it also sheds light on just how powerful the urge to fit in can be, and how we are so routinely compelled to silence that inner child.
And sadly, many of us can struggle to bring that light back, once it’s squelched. However, seeing people like Francis rekindle that innocent spirit makes things seem so much more hopeful, and I think that’s a major aspect of his appeal.
His fame might have taken off as a result of a few fake Insta lives with celebrities like Billie Eilish, but the true lasting power of Francis’ account is thanks to the endearing charm, wholesome devotion and genuinely loveable demeanor of his personality.
It’s a certain lust for life that makes Francis’ videos so profound. It’s hard to not find yourself wanting to discover your own passion after witnessing his.
Francis might be a mostly local celebrity now, but as is the magic of TikTok, his local celebrity status has transcended after being discovered by a talent agency. So who knows, maybe we’ll spot this trainspotter on his very own television show. I’d certainly watch it.
In the meantime, his TikToks continue to be amusing, uplifting and inspiring.
Julien Baker was already a force in indie rock all on her, starting with her spare debut in 2015, Sprained Ankle, and building into 2017’s epic Turn Out The Lights, and finally, last year’s Little Oblivions. In between her second and third albums, though, Baker took a break from solo work to collaborate with fellow rising rock stars, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers. The supergroup trio recorded a whole EP together as Boygenius, and calling it a hit would be to undersell it — fans went crazy for the collaboration.
So, it’s not surprising that Baker heeded what her listeners were saying, and decided to launch a whole new supergroup collab to kick off 2022. Baker along with Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten — who have collaborated before themselves as a duo — all shared the same image to Twitter today, tacitly letting fans know that their collaboration would drop Monday. If that isn’t something to look forward to, then I don’t know what is! No word yet on whether this will be a single track together, a couple songs, or a whole collaborative project, but given the artists involved, it’s definitely going to be great. Check out the image below and keep your ears out on Monday for more info.
A bonkers story hit the internet on Friday by way of former NFL quarterback and current media personality Boomer Esiason. According to Esiason, a rumor is making the rounds that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has come under fire for basically everything he’s said and done regarding COVID-19, would skip the Super Bowl because he wants to protest the NFL’s COVID protocols.
Boomer Esiason received a text from a trusted source which indicates that Aaron Rodgers will threaten to boycott the Super Bowl, should the Packers make it that far.#GoPackGopic.twitter.com/8ycIyJzqKN
“Boom, the Rodgers saga continues to get crazier and crazier,” Esiason’s cohost Gregg Giannotti says as he reads a tweet that Esiason received. “I’ve been told by multiple people in Aaron’s direct circle that if the Packers make the Super Bowl, he will use the week leading up to the Super Bowl to prove a major point. He will threaten the NFL by saying he won’t play in the big game or next season if they don’t eliminate some of the COVID-related rules. One big one that upsets him the most is the testing of non-symptomatic players. He’s told Jordan Love to be ready. Like you said, he’s got to make it first, but Super Bowl week will be set on fire and send Goodell in a frenzy navigating the situation.”
Now, it is worth mentioning that both Esiason and Giannotti believe that this was a prank, but things still spread far enough that it got onto Rodgers’ radar. Unsurprisingly, the Packers star shot the whole thing down, and did so by using a ton of hashtags.
Of course, there is no guarantee that Green Bay makes the Super Bowl, even though they have the 1-seed and a very good football team. But if they do, it seems pretty safe to assume No. 12 will be their starting quarterback.
Amy Schneider only had $23,000 to go before reaching the $1,000,000 million mark in winnings, and with Friday night’s Jeopardy! episode, she nailed it with over $42,000 in additional winnings on Friday. Granted, Amy could have lost a chunk of winnings during Final Jeopardy, but instead, she pulled it off. She’s now the fourthJeopardy! millionaire ever, and Amy’s not done yet.
“It feels amazing, it feels strange,” Amy told Variety of her milestone “It’s not a sum of money I ever anticipated would be associated with my name.”
It’s been quite a run so far for her, given that (over a week ago) Schneider became the Winningest Woman in the show’s history. Although she’s taken a social media break over the past few days, there’s reason for celebration tonight. This episode counts as Amy’s 28th win, and she’s now officially a Jeopardy! millionaire, who will also participate in the Tournament of Champions, no matter how much further she goes.
So, in retrospect, Amy never needed to answer that Machine Gun Kelly question to get here. I joke, but dang, she’s had a rough week. Over the weekend, she was robbed at gunpoint in Oakland, California. She also revealed that she was feeling ill earlier this week, so here’s to hoping that she’s feeling much better now and in a great mood, given her super-reinforced champ status.
Congrats to Amy, and may the winning streak continue. People are so excited on social media and offering up cheers (along with a little bit of Austin Powers).
Julius Randle came under fire on Thursday and Friday for giving New York Knicks fans a thumb down and telling the press that was his way to say “shut the f*ck up.” Randle, during the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 25-point comeback against the Boston Celtics on Thursday that was capped off with a game-winner by RJ Barrett, made a basket and did the gesture to the crowd at Madison Square Garden.
In the aftermath of the game, Randle was asked about the gesture, which he said was a way to express his frustrations over the fact that the hometown fans will boo the Knicks’ players. He came under fire from the Inside the NBA crew for his comments, as they more or less said this sort of thing happens in New York and that Randle shouldn’t be surprised that fans were upset at the time that they booed because the Knicks were losing.
One day later and Randle has issued up a statement on his Instagram account about the whole thing — while he did not explicitly say he was sorry, the All-Star forward told fans that “I should have handled things last night differently and expressed myself with more professionalism and more appropriate language in the heat of the moment.”
Randle’s next game in front of Knicks fans will be on Monday night when the team hosts the Spurs.
There are few pairings that go together better than stout and whiskey. That’s especially true when you’re talking about finishing whiskey in stout barrels. There’s a special alchemy that happens when wood soaked in the heavily roasted ale hits well-aged whiskey. Those deep bitter flavor notes from the stout — think coffee beans, dark chocolate, burnt vanilla, subtle spice, dried fruit, and dark sugar — can massage a whiskey towards bolder and deeper flavors that the palate adores.
With the whole whiskey world (and the entire spirits industry) booming, it’s no surprise to find that stout finished whisk(e)y is becoming more and more common around the world. Below, I’m ranking ten stout finished whiskeys that I dig. They each have a different vibe since we’re covering bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, Irish whiskey, scotch, and American single malt, but that’s what makes this so fun — surely there’ll be something for you in this mix.
This is classic blended Irish whiskey of 75 percent grain whiskey and 25 percent malt whiskey. That blend is then transferred into stout barrels that held Blacks of Kinsale Stout. It’s then batched, proofed all the way down, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
The whiskey opens with an oatmeal cookie vibe with plenty of walnuts and raisins in the mix with mild spice, buttery (almost creamy) oats, and a nice dose of brown sugar. The palate adds vanilla into the mix as the taste darkens toward cooking-grade dark chocolate, a touch of espresso bitterness, and a slight sense of rum-raisin. The finish is pretty short, leans into the nuttiness and dried fruit, and leaves you with a mildly sweet note.
Bottom Line:
This is a very easy-drinking Irish whiskey. It’s straightforward, approachable, and affordable. But it’s also really more of a mixing whiskey than anything else, and you’ll feel the water from all that proofing.
Dubliner teamed up with Rascals Brewery in Dublin to create this “smoked” stout Irish whiskey. In this case, the stout is the smoked component. The whiskey is unpeated. Those barrels were sent back to Dubliner where they refilled them with their signature blended whiskey (grain and malt).
Tasting Notes:
This is the closest to a classic oatmeal cookie on the nose I think I’ve ever smelled with clear cinnamon powder, oats, butter, and brown sugar. That sweetness turns into pure honey on the nose with a floral nod that leads towards more cinnamon, a light note of heavily roasted walnut. A touch of singed coffee beans arrives late which denotes the “smoked stout” aspect, while a hint of vanilla leads back towards the cinnamon spice and honey on the back end.
Bottom Line:
This is just interesting all around. It’s one of those drams that grow on you the more you drink it.
This whisky is a trans-Atlantic concoction. Barrels from New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk Stout are shipped to the Highlands of Scotland for the finishing maturation of this unpeated malt whisky.
Tasting Notes:
This is very fruity from top to bottom with a nose full of grapefruit pith, cinnamon, oats, and maybe some apricot jam with a hint of wet straw. The taste builds on that straw towards a spicy graham cracker with drip coffee just inching in on the mid-palate. The finish arrives pretty quickly with that coffee leading towards a coffee creamer vibe with distant hints of vanilla, raisin, and maybe some ginger near the end.
Bottom Line:
This is interesting for a single malt. The fruitiness and maltiness of the Highland malt invite you in but then it’s the stout cask that keeps your attention. I kind of want this to be bolder or sharper with the stout notes but it was still perfectly fine, especially if you’re cutting it with a fizzy soda.
7. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Tasters’ Selection Barrel Reunion #2
This is classic Jack that’s finished off in barrels that held oatmeal stout from Tennessee breweries. That whiskey is then vatted, proofed with that iconic Jack Daniel’s cave water, and then bottled in the very limited run from 2020.
Tasting Notes:
The nose has a dryness to it that leans toward stringy cedar bark, dried espresso beans, and vanilla husks with a little note of dark chocolate-covered brandy cherries lurking in there somewhere. The palate really delivers on those boozy and chocolate-y cherries while layering in more dry wood bark that’s counterpointed by a sense of vanilla pudding that turns into a mint chocolate ice cream from the grocery store. The finish takes that dry wood and mint and cream and sort of turns it into a very faint menthol with a savory banana vibe and a final note of that cherry.
Bottom Line:
This was a bit all over the place for me back when I tasted it. Still, it has that familiar Jack vibe — thanks to the cherry — but then veers towards places you really wouldn’t expect. I can see some people really digging that or really not. For me, it’s interesting but not enthralling.
This Oregon whiskey is all about in-house production. The beer/base of the whiskey comes from Rogue’s own brewery. The juice is distilled on-site. And, finally, the barrels are hand-crafted — from barrels that held Rogue’s stout — at Rogue’s own barrel works. The American single malt spends one year mellowing in new Oregon oak casks before the juice is re-barreled in those stout casks for an additional two years of maturation.
Tasting Notes:
The nose invites you with a dark roast coffee cut with a few pumps of orange syrup and topped with a dark chocolate foam with a dusting of nutmeg. The palate largely delivers on that but lets the coffee bitter towards an espresso bean while the dark chocolate dries out into a powder and the spice warms towards candy cinnamon with a touch more of that orange lurking in the background. The mid-palate veers away from the dryness towards a creamy vanilla finish with a touch of powdered sugar and dark chocolate powder.
Bottom Line:
It’s easy to see how this took Double Gold at San Francisco last year. It’s super easy to drink and feels like a great introduction to stout finished whiskey. It does lean a little sweet for me, hence this ranking. Still, this is a fine bottle to grab if you come across it.
The triple distilled tipple is finished in stout casks from Galway Bay Brewery, making for a special bottle with plenty of depth that transports you straight to Ireland.
Tasting Notes:
Rye spice lurks behind notes of dark chocolate on the nose with a hint of dark citrus oils adding depth. Rich caramel and vanilla show up on the palate with a note of fatty and sweet plums next to sharp orange zest and eggnog spices. Finally, that caramel and chocolate marry with a slightly herbal/minty note that leads towards and spicy and warming end.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those bottles that I wish there was more off, especially for winter sipping. This feels like winter vibes in a bottle and makes for an excellent highball this time of year, especially with an orange twist.
Jameson Caskmates is the most accessible option on this list — you can get this stuff nationwide very easily. The whiskey barrels are seasoned with local Dubliner craft stout before the old-school Jameson juice goes in for a long mellowing period. The result is a blend that marries Irish whiskey with its most famous style of beer.
Tasting Notes:
Bales of hay stacked under apple and pear trees weighed down with fruit mingle with milk chocolate, hazelnuts, spice, and green tea, all accented by a hint of lemon zest. On the palate, florals and apples with spice give way to a clear sense of bitter coffee beans and cocoa nibs, with a distant echo of resin-forward hops. The chocolate comes back into play with a note of butterscotch as the long finish lingers and warms.
Bottom Line:
This really feels like the quintessential stout finished whiskey. It’s very clearly an Irish whiskey that embraces the finishing as it builds towards a finish on your palate. It’s not mind-blowing but it’s just really, really easy drinking and tasty.
This whiskey is a match made in Colorado. The whiskey is aged in imperial oatmeal stout from Breckenridge Brewing. The brewery and distillery are only two miles apart. So, there’s very little time in between the beer getting emptied from the barrels and the whiskey getting filled in, adding extra layers of flavor to the final product. Moreover, you can actually get the beer that was aged in the bourbon barrels for this project from Breckenridge Brewing in case you’re looking for a good pairing this winter.
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this one is surprisingly fruity with a mix of dark berries that are almost ntart with hints of ripe banana and chocolate-covered strawberries with a hint of burnt vanilla husks. The palate dries out that strawberry while the chocolate darkens as salted caramel kicks with an eggnog spice base and a touch of dry and mild chili pepper flakes. The finish lingers for a while as the burnt vanilla, caramel, and dark berries coalesce under the dark and bitter chocolate.
Bottom Line:
This dropped late last year and really shines as something both unique and bold. It feels like it takes the genre in a slightly new direction while still giving off those stout vibes. It’s a nice pour over a rock.
This whiskey is a collaboration between Blackstone Brewery and Nelson’s Green Brier Distilling, both in Nashville. The juice is a nine-year-old bourbon (from MGP) that spends an additional one year and eleven months in an imperial stout barrel from Blackstone in the Green Brier warehouse. That whiskey is then bottled as-is to highlight the beauty of that process.
Tasting Notes:
This opens up your sense with big notes of peppery rye spice next to orange oils, fresh and oily vanilla husks, and big woody sticks of cinnamon. The palate marries that cinnamon to a dark chocolate note that’s more like ground cacao nibs than a bar of chocolate while hints of brittle toffee, nutmeg, whole black peppercorns, and dried orange rind lurk just under the surface. The finish darkens that cacao towards oily and damn near sour espresso beans as the sip slowly fades back through the spice, sweetness, and citrus towards a warming and comforting finish.
Bottom Line:
This might as well be a tie for first place. Though these yearly releases are very rare, they’re worth lining up at the distillery to get. This is damn near perfection with a balance between real, deep bourbon notes and a stout essence that shines through but doesn’t overwhelm. Add a rock or a few drops of water and spend some time really diving deeply into this one.
Portland’s Westward knows how to make a killer American single malt and how to finish that juice in a quality barrel. This whiskey was finished in barrels that held several different breweries’ stouts from all over Oregon. Those barrels were sent back to Westward where this whiskey spent another year maturing before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
The nose draws you in with an apricot jam vibe that’s accented by a dense scone with a hint of whipped butter and leather. The taste lets you know the malts are there but leans them into an almost pecan danish vibe as the mid-palate embraces a slight powdered sugar icing with hints of apple core and dark chocolate shavings. The finish builds on that chocolate as it dries out towards a mildly warm and soft finish.
Bottom Line:
This is damn near magic in a glass. It’s complex and really opens up with a little water or a rock.
Alex Jones recently lost a lawsuit concerning his misinformation about Sandy Hook parents and mass shootings. He’s also acted like a jilted lover over Trump’s support of vaccines and claimed that he was “in fear for his life” after his wife attacked him over alleged infidelity.
All of that adds up to one giant bowl of messiness, and that doesn’t even touch how he decided to plead the 5th Amendment because he wanted to avoid “spend[ing] the rest of my life in prison” for telling lies under oath. And lately, he’s been asking for donations on his Infowars show, which isn’t exactly new, but the calls seem more dire. As Huffington Post reports, however, Jones is raking in a lot of cash by selling supplements and other, uh, equipment. To the tune of $165 million in sales over three years.
“As much begging as I do, we can barely pay the bills,” Jones told a caller on Thursday during a segment on his radio show promoting the Infowars store. “I’m not going to stop growth and let them push us backwards. I need your help, Frank. I need your help!”
Despite his pleas for money, Infowars’ store — where Jones sells an amalgamation of dietary supplements and survival gear — made $165 million in sales from September 2015 to the end of 2018, according to court filings related to a lawsuit Jones recently lost over his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.
That would buy a whole lot of chili, which Jones has admitted that he enjoys. Sure, he’s almost certainly full of legal bills over the Sandy Hook lawsuit, but on-air, he’s framing it as “[t]he enemy wants to cut off our funding to destroy us.” That’s what he declared in 2018, and he added, “If you don’t fund us, we’ll be shut down.” But if it’s working for him to raise money in such a manner, then, well, it’s working for Infowars.
With the third season premiere of FX’s hit show Atlantaset for next March, fans face an agonizingly long wait to find out what happens to our guys Earn, Alfred, and Darius. Until then, though, they’re filling the days with a vast array of fascinating projects. Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Al — aka Paper Boi — just made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Eternals‘ Phastos and is currently on post-production for the Fox animated comedy Housebroken, while Donald Glover, the show’s creator and star as Earn, is finishing up his TV series remake of spy rom-com Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Meanwhile, Lakeith Stanfield, the mysterious and off-beat Darius, is coming off a thrilling turn as cowboy Cherokee Bill in the Western fantasy The Harder They Fall. He’s also fond of doing surprise side projects like popping up in the visualizer for SZA’s new hit single, “I Hate U,” which dropped today, three weeks after the song broke an Apple Music streaming record. In the clip, Lakeith is the poor fella on the receiving end of SZA’s wrath, arguing with her over the phone while standing alone on a windswept bluff overlooking a stormy beach. When he receives the final, relationship-ending text, he’s overcome with the loss and chucks his iPhone in the ocean — which is something I don’t think Apple Care covers. The video closes with the cryptic message “Not the end,” which SZA fans are sure to interpret as a signal that the long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed debut album CTRL is on the way.
Casting has begun for Wes Anderson’s latest project, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s whimsical short story collection, The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar And Six More, which is slated for a Netflix release.
In typical Anderson fashion, it will feature a star-studded ensemble cast, including acting legends Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. This will mark Fiennes’ second Anderson film, as he also starred in 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Other cast members include Dr. Strange himself Benedict Cumberbatch, who will play the titular role of Henry Sugar, a man who steals a book that grants him mysterious powers. Anderson will both write and direct the adaptation.
Fresh from his role as a Sir Gawain in The Green Knight, Dev Patel has also signed on to the Netflix project, which is slated to begin filming this month. It is unclear if the project will be every short story in one or an anthology of short films.
This isn’t the first time Anderson has made a Dahl story into a feature project. Fantastic Mr. Foxwas released to critical praise in 2009, starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and more.
Netflix made headlines last fall for acquiring Roald Dahl’s story company and is expected to produce more adaptations of classic Dahl tales. This also marks the first collaboration between Wes Anderson and Netflix. No release date has been announced at this time.
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