There are a great many things that Patrick Mahomes is extremely good at. The best quarterback of his generation and one of the greatest of all time, Mahomes’ ability to make magic happen on the football field is second to none, as evidenced by the fact that he won his third Super Bowl earlier this month.
Despite this, Mahomes is not especially fast. While he’s not Tom Brady or anything, Mahomes ran a 4.80 second 40-yard dash when he attended the NFL Draft Combine back in 2017, which pops up every year when NFL Network wants to compare guys to him for one reason or another. Heading into this year’s edition of the event, Mahomes had a simple request for the network: please stop.
As the combine starts this week! All i ask is that @nflnetwork doesn’t use my 40 overlay anymore
The 2024 Combine started with the defensive tackles, a position that is not known for being, uh, fast. Unfortunately for Mahomes, his request was immediately ignored, as NFL Network used his 40 as a point of comparison for Braden Fiske (who ran the fastest among his position) and T’Vondre Sweat (who ran the slowest). And to add insult to injury, they quote tweeted him as they did it.
Good on Mahomes for having a sense of humor about the entire thing, at least. Anyway, my hunch is that this is going to pop up on NFL Network a few more times in the coming days, and Mahomes will simply have to sit there with his three Lombardi Trophies and not let it ruin his weekend.
Heading to Phoenix? Take a travel writer’s word for it and skip Arizona’s heavily populated capital city for its nearby little sister — Mesa. Just 25 minutes outside of the Phoenix metro area is an oasis of nostalgic lodging, epic hikes amongst endless cacti, wild horses, and so much more.
The downtown Mesa strip is significantly less chaotic than Phoenix’s city center and is quickly becoming a leader in the craft beverage scene. Better still, Mesa is now home to a surf park — yup, you can catch waves in the middle of the desert — making it an awesome spring destination.
Here’s how to spend 36 hours in the desert town.
CHECK-IN TO AN OLD-SCHOOL RANCH
Saguaro Lake Ranch
While Mesa is lacking in trendy boutique hotels, you could choose to rack up some points at the (slightly lackluster, TBH) Courtyard by Marriott Mesa at Wrigleyville West (rooms start at $349 a night) or DoubleTree Hotel Phoenix-Mesa (rooms start at $257 a night). If rewards points aren’t your focus and you want a truly Southwest experience, stay at the storied Saguaro Lake Guest Ranch (rooms start at $353 a night).
In the 1920s the ranch housed the workers who built the nearby Stewart Mountain Dam before becoming a family-owned guest ranch in the ’40s. Much of the old-timey paraphernalia remains as adornments around the property, including the saloon with ancient bottles of whiskey. The 20 rustic cabins have panoramic views of the majestic Bulldog Cliffs and are decorated in typical Southwestern-Mexican flare.
You won’t find a TV in your cabin. Instead, you can enjoy the heated pool, and fire pit, and take a short stroll down to the Salt River along the saguaro cactus-studded trails.
If you’re arriving in the afternoon borrow a paddle board or kayak (guided trips start at $51) from the lobby and get out on the Salt River in the Tonto National Forest, the sixth largest National Forest in the States. You’ll float past saguaros, cottonwood trees, and rolling mountains. At dusk, keep an eye out for Mesa’s mystical-feeling wild horses. The incredible creatures tend to hang out along the Salt River’s edge. Over 500 mustangs reside in the area and are presumed to be descendants of Spanish Colonial or Iberian horses brought to the Southwest by colonizers in the 16th century. The wild horses are protected by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group. The ranch also has an on-site horse stable and can organize a horseback ride through the cactus-studded wilderness guided by local wranglers.
If water activities aren’t your thing, lace up your hiking boots and head out for a short stroll from the ranch. It’s kept a bit hush-hush to preserve a sacred site but there’s an easy trail that leads to ancient petroglyphs of spirals, birds, and lizards. En route, you’ll stroll through an old-growth area of the Sonoran Desert and catch a birds-eye view of the aforementioned Dam.
HEAD TO GILBERT FOR DINNER AND DRINKS
Vist Mesa
Nothing hits quite as good after a day of travel as a flavorful, spicy, Asian-inspired meal. Grab a table at the chic Belly Kitchen & Bar and order small plates to share of Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese dishes. Don’t skip the green papaya salad or seared mushroom bao bun (shared starters start at $5, main courses $14). Get the evening started with a few rounds of handcrafted cocktails ($13-$18 per cocktail). My favorite was the “Yuzu & Miso” — a gin cocktail that instantly transported me back to Japan. Or take things up a notch with a round of $8 “Belly Shots” for the group — after all, lemongrass is good for you. Other classic Asian drinks are also available, including Korean Soju ($16) and Lao Lager ($13).
After dinner head next door for a one-of-a-kind experience — a tiki bar in the desert! Brave the plank at Undertow and stick around for the wicked thunderstorm. The award-winning immersive cocktail bar transports patrons into the belly of a spice trader’s Clipper ship. Grab a seat by the portholes and watch as the sea gets more and more tormented as the storm approaches.
Hold on tight to your Scorpion Punch Bowl or Lei Lani Volcano cocktail as the ship braves the massive waves! Cocktails start at $16.
CATCH A MORNING WAVE
Visit Mesa
After enjoying breakfast at the lodge, start your day off with a surf sesh. That’s right — surfing in the desert.
This Spring Mesa is set to open a 3.3-acre surf lagoon — Cannon Beach Revel Surf Park. It’s the first surf park in the world with both a large traveling wave and a stationary rapid surf wave. Here you can ride a consistently perfect year-round wave.
Want to double up on thrills? At Cannon Beach, you can also go cliff jumping, skateboarding on a pump track, or just chill out at the beachside pool.
HIT THE CIDERY FOR LUNCH
Lola Méndez
After riding waves to your heart’s content, head to Downtown Mesa for pizza and cider to refuel. Named the third-best cidery in the States, Cider Corps is a veteran-owned cidery proving that cider is for everyone to enjoy. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill alcoholic apple ciders. The selection on the grenade-looking taps rotates through seasonal flavors including a prickly pear sangria and POG (pomegranate, orange, and guava), and start at $8 a pour.
Have handmade pizzas from Myke’s Pizza, which shares the space with the cidery, for lunch. My rec is to order the pineapple pizza made with pork roll and aged gouda ($21). Get the side of Brussels sprouts ($8.50) that are made with Cider Corps’ Semper Vera cider.
CHEERS TO CRAFT BEVERAGES
Stay Downtown Mesa for a self-guided late afternoon pub crawl. The quaint Historic Downtown Mesa strip on Main Street may seem like a wholesome small-town hangout but it’s leading the Arizona craft beverage scene with the most craft beverage locales in one square mile. No driving is necessary making Main Street the perfect destination for a DIY bar crawl.
Stop into the “2022 Brewery of the Year” — Oro Brewing Company. This locally-owned and operated small-batch brewery and taproom has an array of award-winning handcrafted ales and lagers on tap. Hit up Phantom Fox Beer Co. for a hazy IPA made with stone fruit or the neighboring drinking hole Chupacabra Taproom which serves hard seltzer ($6.75).
For dinner, stay local and go to Worth Takeaway for classic American sandwiches and fries that are anything but boring. Sandwiches range from $12-$17 and are made with local Arizona seasonal ingredients, including cheeses from nearby Danzeisen Dairy, produce from Crooked Sky Farms, and Mesa’s own Proof Bread. After a day of tasting the best of Mesa’s craft beverage scene, you can’t go wrong with a buffalo chicken sandwich or a hot ham and cheese on sourdough.
Keep the craft beverage crawl going by heading over to the Mesa Riverview. The taproom at Papago Brewing Co. has a rotating selection of 60 freshly-crafted draft beers including the famous Papago Orange Blossom and top local beers from Arizona that are $7 for 16 ounces. Order rustic soft pretzels with beer cheese ($10.90) and a sausage board ($17.90) to enjoy while you try Papago’s beers.
From there, let the night carry you onward or head back to your cozy bed at the ranch.
GO FOR A MORNING WALK AMONGST THE CACTI
Lola Méndez
You simply can’t visit the Southwest without enjoying the great outdoors. In the morning before you leave Mesa go out for a hike in the magnificent Usery Mountain Regional Park. The lower Sonoran Desert park is home to elusive flora and fauna. You’ll see several types of cacti, including the saguaro cactus which is indigenous to the area, and if you’re lucky you may spot cardinals, owls, and hummingbirds.
There are various trails to choose from and all offer incredible views of the desert surroundings. Park entry fees start at $3 per person.
Sunday’s game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Ohio State Buckeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena will hold a little extra significance for the home team, as it will mark the last time that the greatest player in program history plays a regular season game on her home floor. In a statement posted to her Twitter account on Thursday afternoon, Iowa star Caitlin Clark announced that she will forgo her final year of eligibility and enter the 2024 WNBA Draft.
It’s not an especially big surprise that Clark, a two-time unanimous first-team All-American and the reigning National Player of the Year, is headed to the WNBA after this season. She’s presumed to be the overwhelming favorite to go with the No. 1 overall pick, which would mean she joins the Indiana Fever. This marks the second year in a row that the Fever have the top pick in the WNBA Draft, and last year, the team used the selection to acquire Aliyah Boston out of South Carolina — Boston would go on to make the All-Star Game and get named the WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Despite having one more year of eligibility that she can use, Clark has already broken Kelsey Plum’s career Division I women’s scoring record. The all-time Division I record, which is currently held by Pete Maravich, is only 18 points away, and it is presumed that she will eclipse it during the game against the Buckeyes.
There’s no shame in romance for Dende. The Texas singer has a knack for letting his heart bleed on records nor letting a teardrop or two fall if the moment pushes him to that level of emotion. Whether love is at his doorstep or on the other side of the world, Dende years for it in a way that few in today’s R&B landscape do. His music recalls when singers begged and pleaded in the rain – something Dende has done through his music (see “Better Than Him”).
Dende’s impressive run, which dates back to last year’s ’95 Civic and Before We Crash projects, continues with his latest EP, Wish You Were Here. Through three songs, Dende recalls the moments of longing during a trip to the UK that separated him from a lover. His irrefutable feelings about his partner on “Your Intro,” the sultry invitation for romance to fulfill a burning passion on “Slide” with J Warner, and the celebration of flawless chemistry on “Jigsaw” all make for a soul-stirring display of love at its peak.
Along with the release of Wish You Were Here, Uproxx also caught up with Dende to discuss his start in music, his love for Usher, and his commitment to defending Arby’s at all costs.
What is your earliest memory of music?
My earliest memory of music is sitting at the lunch table in elementary school. This girl, Danielle, and I had a sing-off. People around the table were judging it. I don’t remember what song she sang, but she could not sing for real, and I sang “You Don’t Have to Call” by Usher. They voted for her, and I went and cried in the hall.
Who inspired you to take music seriously?
Funny enough, the person who inspired me to take music seriously was Chance The Rapper. Senior year of high school I begged my parents to let me go to his concert. They were kind of strict, and Acid Rap had just come out. I was obsessed, and at the time, he was just preaching independence and working really hard at making music.
Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?
I actually know how to play a couple of instruments. I know how to play piano, guitar, & drums. I was in drumline all through high school and some of college. The instrument that I wanna learn how to play is the saxophone.
What was your first job?
My first job was at Kroger, a grocery store in Texas. I was a — I don’t know my official title, I think it was a cart getter? I’d go get the carts. Eventually, I became a bagger, and then I became a cashier.
What is your most prized possession?
My most prized possession is my grandpa‘s rocking chair. It’s really not comfortable at all, but I love it. My dad gave it to me after his dad passed.
What is your biggest fear?
My biggest fear is probably not reaching the potential that I know that I have. I’d hate to not live up to the standards I hold myself to.
Who is on your R&B/rap/afrobeats Mt. Rushmore?
My R&B, Mount Rushmore, is as follows: BOOM! We got Usher, we got Luther Vandross, we got Brandy… I don’t know how many heads are on Mount Rushmore.
You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!
Aight, I have 24 hours and unlimited resources let’s get it. First, I wake up, I look over to my left, and all I see is this nightstand and a lamp, and one of those old-school alarm clocks. The ones you still got a hit, but they were brown and they looked weird, but everybody’s grandma had them in their house, but that’s what I have. Then I look to the right, and all I see are those trays that people have bed-and-breakfast breakfast on. I have one of those and on that tray is just a mimosa and a cigar, it’s already lit, but it was just lit, and there’s nobody there.
So I sit there, I’m drinking this mimosa, I’m smoking a cigar in bed, and then the alarm goes off, and I smack the alarm, and I get out of bed. I get in my car, and in this timeline, I have a McLaren, and I drive that McLaren up to Six Flags, and I have a fast pass. I get on every ride five times. I return to my McLaren and drive to the movie theater. I love watching movies in the movie theater. I feel like it’s a dying art, and we need to appreciate it more. I watch every single one of the Harry Potter movies on the big screen in order, then I go home. When I get home I walk in, and there’s another mimosa and another cigar ready for me to go to bed. That’s what I’m doing for my 24 hours.
What are your three most used emojis?
.
What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?
Usher. I could die a happy man.
If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?
It would be That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime! I love anime, and it’s basically all I watch. I’d love to see myself animated.
Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?
The celebrity who I admire for their personality is probably gonna be Tyler, The Creator. I feel like he’s always just wanted to be himself authentically, and I pride myself on doing the exact same thing.
Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.
To be honest with you, I will never let the internet or anyone else convince me that Arby’s isn’t good because I feel like we’ve all been conditioned by Twitter to make this running joke that Arby’s is terrible. But every time I ask someone if they’ve ever eaten Arby’s or when the last time they ate it they either have never eaten it or they ate it when they were like eight years old. So I challenge everyone to go to your nearest Arby’s, go get a buffalo chicken slider and the curly fries and then shut the hell up.
What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?
The best song I’ve ever heard is “Almost Doesn’t Count” by Brandy. That song is amazing. My favorite thing about it is that the first verse feels like a hook. It’s crazy, but it’s amazing. It’s such a well-written song, I love it.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?
My favorite city to perform in so far is Atlanta because I love seeing all the black faces in the crowd, that makes me super happy. A city that I’m really excited to perform, and I have to do two of them, is gonna be DC and Toronto.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location where it would be held.
So BOOM, my dream lineup, including myself, is going to be Lucky Daye, Usher, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, and Avril Lavigne. This sounds like it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s because it doesn’t, and that’s OK and we’re gonna do this in Malibu on the beach.
What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?
To be honest with you, I’d probably still be doing AC work. I got my HVAC license and it pays pretty well.
If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?
I would see five years into the future simply because I don’t think living in the past leads to anything productive.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
I would tell my 18-year-old self to accept help quicker.
It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I’d like my music to be remembered as an impactful period in people’s lives. I remember what I was going through or where I was when I heard specific albums. I just wanna be able to be that for other people.
Wish You Were Here is out now via CXR. Find out more information here.
As we all do, I find myself comfort-watching, reading, or listening to the work of a dead celebrity near immediately after hearing of their passing. Last night, I chased the news of Richard Lewis’ death by watching his Magical Misery Tour comedy special from 1997. In the special, Lewis is younger but still middle-aged, clad in black, darting across the stage with his magnificent hair flowing (though with less va-va-voom energy than it had in the ’70s and ‘80s when it was an absolute lion’s mane). His hands are gesturing wildly. On the surface, he is a man in turmoil with himself about, well, himself.
It has been 20+ years since I last saw this special. I had forgotten how much energy Lewis brought to stand up. It was like crossing Uncut Gems with a therapy session played for laughs. The special is on Amazon and Tubi. You should give it a watch. It really holds up, but more importantly, it really speaks to something about comedy and culture now.
For whatever reason, Magical Misery Tour was Lewis’ last traditional special. There was an album in 2001 (Live From Hell), stand-up gigs, a couple of books, and pop-ins on TV shows (including as a late night guest, which he always excelled at). But for the last quarter century, Lewis’ comedy was largely defined by his fantastic work on Curb Your Enthusiasm playing an exaggerated version of himself. To be sure, that version of Lewis still mined his angst for laughs, but it’s Larry David’s show, and so the comedy in the scenes they shared has always been more about a dance of annoyance between two old friends and less a pure solo showcase for the “Prince Of Pain” persona that made Lewis a stand-up legend. That’s why watching the special and seeing him in his stand-up element is as recommended as it is revelatory and informative of his on-stage talents. Also his guts.
This is going to take a weird turn but hang in. I’ve been watching a lot of Chef Reactions TikToks where people get dragged for putting 19 cheeseburgers, a tub of cream cheese, and some craisins into a casserole dish to slow-kill their families. Part of the magic comes from seeing how weirdly overconfident these people are in their culinary skills. “This is so good, y’all,” they fib. “My kids can’t get enough,” they outright lie.
In Taylor Tomlinson’s tremendous new comedy special, Have It All (Netflix) she jokes about abundantly confident teens wanting millions of people to see their dance videos and how alien that feels to millennials who would have wanted to die if anyone saw us lip-synching in front of the mirror when we were younger. We’re also watching a court-affirmed con man on the run of a lifetime talking his way into another shot at the White House.
In case you couldn’t tell, I find the power of confidence to be bewildering, dangerous, and fascinating. When someone says they are the GOAT or wears a shirt with their own face on it, I have that thing like people have when they see something that’s supposed to seem human but isn’t: the unconfident valley.
I don’t want to theorize how we got to this place of abundant, exhausting, and reckless overconfidence. Really, I don’t. I just want to note the phenomena and pay my respects to its counter: self-deprecating comedy, an art form that just lost one of its most skilled practitioners, Richard Lewis.
There are, I am sure, all sorts of psychological theories on self-deprecating humor, what inspires it, and what mental health issues it masks. I’m going to ignore all of that and focus on the universal truth of the thing: it’s funny when people fall down and make themselves the point of the bit. Always has been. When I was a kid I used to make kids clap by slamming my head into a table during lunch. This is a base example of the theory that may also explain the scattered nature of this article. There are better, more refined ways to build on this idea and endear yourself to an audience, is what I’m saying.
In the hands of someone like Richard Lewis, “falling down” often looked more like a sprint through his own fears and pain. This brilliantly doubled as a device used to comment on things like addiction, self-image, self-worth, dating, sex, family, religion, and anxiety as an ever-present boot on the neck. Lewis made it personal for us by making it personal for himself, doing it with gusto, creativity, and an allergy to bullshit. It’s why he’s one of the greats, but that kind of comedy and candor scares the hell out of some people. Which makes sense, since our relationship to those kinds of emotions and that kind of comedy is tied to our bent relationship with masculinity and vulnerability and the backward notion that to be open is to be weak and to be strong is to never shut the fuck up about it.
Richard Lewis wasn’t the first comic to get highly personal or channel his insecurities on stage, but he perfected it. There’s a whole wing of comedy dedicated to that kind of thing now, influenced directly or indirectly by Lewis. And thank goodness for it. The term comedic courage is usually defined as telling truth to power, but it’s also having the power to tell your truth and be really seen.
From all accounts, Lewis was loved, lovely, and someone who was grateful for his life and the embrace of his community. I’m sure his memory will be a blessing, as will the lesson he taught us all about not taking ourselves or our problems so seriously that we can’t try to find the funny. Because if you’re not laughing at yourself and your shortcomings, you’re crying. Or you’re a tremendous asshole.
Daniel Suarez won Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the third-closest finish in NASCAR history. Suarez edged out Ryan Blaney by .003 seconds and Kyle Busch by .007 seconds in a wild three-wide drag race to the checkered flag.
The catalyst for the crazy finish was Busch, as he was the one who pushed it three-wide down the back stretch. Though he’s shifting his attention to his home race in Las Vegas this coming Sunday, he walked us through that final lap in Atlanta from his perspective in the No. 8 car.
“I thought, obviously, it was an exciting last lap. It was great for the fans. They really got a treat towards the end of that one,” Busch said over the phone on Thursday. “For us though, with our Cheddar’s Camaro, I felt like we had a fast car all day. We kept ourselves in the right positions, we stayed out of trouble, and we had that opportunity there at the end. So, I had a big push down the front stretch from Bubba Wallace and was able to get back up alongside the 99 car getting into one and two, and coming off of two, I knew I needed another push down the back stretch in order to kind of accelerate me through one more row, which would put me up alongside the 12. So, the 23 got to my back bumper off of two, gave me that push down the back stretch, and the 12 was in my lane, so I was like, ‘Well, hell, where am I gonna go?’ And fortunately, there was a pathway between he and the 99. So I was able to stick it three-wide on the entry to turn three, get alongside.”
However, the run Busch got down the back stretch and through turns three and four was too good, as he explained. As they exited four, Busch was in the lead position he was trying to avoid.
“And I kept telling myself during the caution before that last restart, I was like the only thing you can’t do is you can’t be ahead going into turn three. It will never work. You’ll never win if you’re ahead going into turn three,” Busch explained. “So, I get to turn three and I got a run and I’m not ahead of the 12, but I’m ahead of the 99. And then we get towards the exit of turn four and I am the one ahead, I’m too far ahead. And so both of those guys, the 12 on my inside and the 99 on my outside, were side drafting off of me, because I was furthest ahead.
“So, any time you were able to be side by side with somebody, the car ahead get some backwards from the draft, and so that was me [laughs] off of turn four and just didn’t come to the line with enough speed and enough nose length to be able to take the checkered flag,” he continued. “But great finish nonetheless, a lot happening and 185-90 miles an hour, and glad we we finished straight. No crash, no nothing. We just were able to put on a whale of a photo finish.”
I asked Busch whether there’s anything he would do differently in that spot if he had a chance to do it all over again, or if you just have to go with the run you’ve got. Overall, Busch wouldn’t change the move he made to jump to the middle of the track when Blaney blocked him, noting when you have a run like that, you can’t expect to get it again. However, once there, he would probably look to take a bit of a gamble to hold back and try to get the side draft to his advantage coming down the front stretch.
“One thing to try would have been just dragging a little bit of brake when I was alongside the two of them to pull me further behind through the middle of turns three and four, and get myself to where I was a nose behind coming out of turn four,” Busch said. “So, when we got straight on the front stretch, then I was able to power through the middle of them and use my car as the side draft on the each of them to pull myself through the middle, so that would have been the only other thing to try. I’m not sure if it would work, but that would have been the thought that I should have done.”
The finish in Atlanta was the type of racing NASCAR was hoping for when they re-profiled Atlanta Motor Speedway three years ago, resurfacing the old asphalt that chewed up tires and raising the banking to 28 degrees — the highest of any track on the circuit — to facilitate more pack racing similar to what we see at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega. That decision was a bit controversial in the garage, as drivers preferred the old surface even though it was hard on tires because it required a bit more tact and skill to navigate your way around the track for 400 miles.
Busch falls into that group that preferred the old track, but with the way Sunday’s race panned out, he knows it delivered on what NASCAR was hoping for — and was glad it wasn’t just a crash-fest.
“I would definitely say I liked the old Atlanta better, just more racy for the driver, more opportunity for the driver to control his own outcome, if you will,” Busch said. “But this package here with the restrictor plate package, with the drafting package at Atlanta with the higher banking and the speeds and stuff that we carry, it puts on a good show. Overall, I felt like the race was a good race. The fans should have enjoyed it. There was a little bit of crashing, there was one huge big pile up. Some of the cars came out of that and still raced on for the day. Some of them were done for the day, which is tough for the guys that were involved in that. A couple single car crashes later in the day, some issues of guys getting into pit road, so you kind of saw a little bit of everything. And then obviously at the end there, you saw great finish, too. So, pretty exciting stuff from my standpoint, I don’t know how it could get better.”
As he shifts his attention to Las Vegas, Busch admits he’s put a little too much pressure on himself at his home track before, pushing for wins and putting himself in some bad spots. Recently, he’s tried to be a bit more patient and let the race come to him, noting that’s how he won it in 2009, and that’s allowed him to pick up back-to-back third place finishes in Vegas. As they head out to the desert, he notes those are “good, solid days,” but he’s hoping for a bit more this time around.
It’ll be his second time around at his home track driving for Richard Childress Racing, as he made the move from his longtime home in the No. 18 with Joe Gibbs Racing to the No. 8 Chevy in 2023. He’s enjoyed the opportunity of getting to work with another team and learning a new operation after 14 years with JGR, as they once again are off to a hot start, holding a one-point edge over William Byron in the early Cup Series points standings.
“I’ve had fun being able to learn the system and get to work with Richard and Austin [Dillon] and my team guys, Randall [Burnett] and everybody,” Busch said. “So, we obviously had a really good start to the season last year. We came out of the gate ready to go and then we kind of fell off and tapered off as the year went, so we want to change that, fix that, and make sure that we’re ready to go the whole year and we can be just as strong at the end as we are in the beginning, and here we are doing the same things. You know, we finished second at the Clash. We had a shot to win Daytona, I felt like I put myself in the wrong row on a restart and instead of going forwards I went backwards and that hurt us for the finish there. But then, at Atlanta, was able to obviously come out close on top there, .007 behind with our Cheddar’s Camaro. Just ready to go to Vegas and if we can run like we did the last time we were in Vegas, which was a top three finish, that’ll be a great day and it’ll help our points lead that we have and we can carry on some more good momentum.”
As Busch noted, a year ago he won three times in the first half of the year, but struggled to find the same results in the back half of the year, falling back to finish 14th in the final standings. This year, the message for the No. 8 team is to be more consistent over the full season to compete for a championship, which is a responsibility that gets shared from top to bottom on the team.
“It’s not just one thing,” Busch said. “I think there’s a bunch of little things that kind of have to add up in order to get you to where you need to be for that. So yeah, I mean, we’ve been talking about that. We’ve been working on that. I think some of it has to do with the car prep at the shop. I think some of it has to do with NASCAR kind of changing their procedures throughout the year and us just not keeping up with that. And also the competition. The competition is always looking at you and what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and how they can do it and how they can be better and making themselves out-do you. So, you just got to be ready for all of that.”
For a supposed billionaire, Donald Trump sure is having a hard time paying all the civil judgments against him. On the heels of reports that Trump can’t cover the cash bond from his New York City fraud cause, E. Jean Carroll‘s lawyers are slamming the former president for attempting to delay payment of the $83.3 million Trump owes her after repeatedly defaming her and being found liable for sexual assault.
According to Carroll’s lawyers, Trump has “no basis” for delaying the payment, particularly while offering no timeframe or explaining how he’ll cover the judgment. More damningly, Carroll’s lawyers note that the delay raises serious questions about Trump’s liquidity and how much money the supposed real estate tycoon actually has, if any at all.
“The reasoning Trump offers in seeking this extraordinary relief boils down to nothing more than ‘trust me’. He doesn’t offer any information about his finances or the nature and location of his assets. He doesn’t specify what percentage of his assets are liquid or explain how Carroll might go about collecting,” reads the 36-page opposition document.
“He simply asks the Court to ‘trust me’ and offers, in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him, the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin; signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers,” the document continues.
The rebuke from Carroll’s lawyers arrives shortly after Trump’s legal team revealed that the former president will need to sell assets to cover the bond in his Manhattan fraud case because the alleged billionaire doesn’t have $450 million on hand.
Gold toilets? Oh, sure. But actual cash? He’ll have to get back to you. Let him crunch a few numbers, we’ll talk soon.
Historically, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Jr are treated as opposing forces in the fight for social justice and liberation – with one being a Baptist pastor who famously advocated for non-violence and the other being one of the most vocal supporters of the Nation of Islam who popularized the phrase “by any means necessary” as a rallying cry for the oppressed. But how does that idea stand up in the new season of Nat Geo’s Genius, which is focused on MLK and Malcolm X?
“It is the impetus for the entire series, in that we are challenging the narrative that these two men were rivals and we’re challenging the narrative that you had to pick between being either Team Martin or Team Malcolm,” executive producer and co-showrunner Damione Macedon tells UPROXX of Genius: MLK/X series. “We’ve pitted these two men against each other and pitted their ideologies against one another, and what we examined in the research and what we’ve come to really understand with hindsight is we need both of them. We need both of those perspectives to not only move all of us in the right direction but also overcome the hurdles that they so accurately articulated.”
To examine the story, the series expands beyond Martin and Malcolm into their lives, focussing on the story of Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, as well. “Part of what we hope to accomplish is putting a spotlight on who they were as human beings and allowing our audience to find something within what they see within each one of our four leads, and hopefully, become inspired and engaged and then become active out there in our society,” executive producer and co-showrunner, Raphael Jackson Jr. says.
To get their take on the project and the experience of playing these iconic women and figures in American history, Uproxx spoke with Weruche Opia and Jayme Lawson, who played Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, touching on the impact of the experience of it all.
To start us off, I’m curious as to what kind of preparation either of you did to get into your roles.
Weruche Opia: A lot of prayer, but a lot of research, a lot of reading, a lot of searching inside and asking myself questions, ‘Yeah, am I up to this?’ I will say that one of the books that I really read was one of [Coretta’s] autobiographies called My Love, My Life, My Legacy. And I feel like that gave me an insight into who Coretta was. Lucky for me, and very much of a privilege, is that there are some similarities between myself and her. She’s a woman of faith, so am I. In the book, it states that she makes a lot of her decisions through prayer, and I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s what I do.’
So just finding the similarities between us, I think, propelled me and encouraged me to be like, ‘Okay, this is something I can do.’ But I also had to remind myself and give myself the grace that I am not the Coretta Scott King, and all I can do is lend myself to her legacy and show the world my understanding of who she was. Again, treated with the most respect, the most reverence taken, the huge responsibility. But I think all I can do is my best, and I’m hopeful that my best was good.
Jayme Lawson: It all starts with the research. It starts with, for me, finding credible sources on Dr. Betty Shabazz. Just growing up with an awareness that there was a lot of misinformation out there on Malcolm X. And so then, how much more difficult is it to then find the right tellings on Dr. Betty Shabazz? So sourcing out those papers or the books, listening to her interviews, and all of her speaking publicly, was after Malcolm was taken from her.
So starting there and figuring out, ‘Well, how do I backtrack and craft the woman before Malcolm, and track her throughout?’ I would listen to different recordings at different points of her life to also craft her voice. What does her voice sound like pre-Malcolm? After she’s given birth to six children? And then, after he’s taken, what does grief do to the body and the voice? So it was all-encompassing research. Even getting to set and talking with the costume designers about, ‘Okay, let’s add padding in the evolution of her, right?’ Because this is a woman who gave birth to six children, so I need to look like I’ve got some hips. You know what I mean? If we’re going to go for the truth, let’s go for the truth. It was subtle, it’s not noticeable, but it was something to just help me sit in her differently, at different points of her life.
Was there a particular moment where you felt that you really locked in and had what you needed, to really get this role accomplished and really get into it?
Opia: I honestly felt like that the first day on set, I would say. I remember the first day clearly, and I think we were the first camera up, I think, me and Kelvin [Harrison]. And we were both terrified.
But once it’s all together, and I look at myself in the mirror, and I don’t see myself, it is like, ‘Okay, it’s go time.’ And I would say the very first scene, which is actually the very first scene that we have in the show. It was the first scene that we shot. And so, even watching it back, I’m like, my accent hadn’t settled yet, but I remember being in the costume, being in the head, being at that hotel that felt like it was back then. That was a moment. It was like, ‘Yo, this is happening for real. Let’s get it, Coretta.’
Lawson: I’d say similar, honestly, when we all come together, that’s the beautiful thing about what we do. It’s really a collaboration of all artists.
Putting on the hair and the makeup and the costuming, and all the work that I did with the dialect coach, everything. Even what the grips are doing, and the lighting, and everything comes together, and you start to see the world that’s been built from the designers, and you step into it, and it’s like, ‘Okay, now I can begin to start taking some ownership.’ Because I’m not just on an island by myself kind of crafting it. Now, I can take on everybody’s involvement and investment in these figures.
Opia: It’s a beautiful song. I was just sitting here, as you were speaking about this, I just saw this imagery of different instruments coming in at different points, and it all comes together, and it’s one beautiful sound, a beautiful song. And that is honestly how I feel this project has turned out. It’s a beautiful song.
When we see a story about Malcolm or Martin, it primarily focuses on one of them. And then, if anything, we get a cameo for the other one or something along those lines. What do you think is the benefit of telling their stories simultaneously, like in this series?
Lawson: It’s huge, honestly. Because I think what the show will do, what it did for us reading it, is dispel the narrative that they were against each other.
Opia: Diametrically opposed.
Lawson: Yeah. And that, for some reason, we have to feel as though we have to choose one or the other, right? We’re cutting that out. It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and, right? We don’t have the movement at the height of what it was and is, we don’t get to where we are, any of us if we had one and not the other. And so the benefit of this show is showing them side-by-side, and how they were both fighting for the same exact things. They just had different means, and they reached different audiences. Malcolm couldn’t reach Martin’s audience, and Martin couldn’t reach Malcolm’s. In doing so, it brought the entire community together.
There was a fight, a communal fight, for dignity and respectability, and a restoration of self and community. They weren’t against each other. And that’s what I am hopeful that a lot of people will see. And also, that they were young men. These were young men who started these movements in their twenties. They didn’t have it figured out, they didn’t fully know themselves.
While the series definitely does focus primarily on Malcolm and Martin, it also gives us a very intimate look into their inner circles, including the characters that you both played, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz. What was it like to be able to depict those more private, intimate moments in this case, that we don’t typically get to see?
Opia: It was beautiful, and it was lovely to enjoy. Like Jayme said, seeing these men as young men, and as young men who achieved great things, and they weren’t waiting for a perfect moment. I loved the fact that we got to explore them, because a lot of the times, what we see of them in portrayals of them is mostly just the big moments. But I think in showing the little moments; having dinner, dancing with your wife, eating ice cream, it shows and highlights the humanity of these larger-than-life people. It shows their complexities. Even though they have managed to achieve all these great things, they also had issues that they dealt with, they might have had mental health struggles. They were struggling with fear. They definitely had imposter syndrome, you know what I mean?
And so, being a part of it, to show the humanity of them, to show the everyday parts of them, showing them as wives, as lovers, as friends, and showing the men as sons, as brothers, because they were human. It was just beautiful to have been able to portray that and show that. And hopefully, that will affect people. Like Jayme said, to realize that you don’t have to wait. There’s this thing about waiting for a hero to come and rescue us, but we are actually heroes ourselves. It just takes a matter of commitment, unwavering decision, and unwavering desire to do something great, or fight for a great cause, and great things happen.
How would each of you define success for this project? Is it something that you’re particularly looking for, as far as impact? Or is there something that can even be measured, in that sense?
Opia: Look, just as we said, people looking within themselves and realizing they don’t have to wait for a hero. If you have a burning desire, if you have a burning purpose, no, you can’t wait to have it all figured out.
Lawson: Because then your time will pass.
Opia: Do you know what I’m saying? And these men, I don’t think they knew they were going to… They were just so convinced, and they were so busy minding their business and focusing on their business, and this is what happens when you mind your business.
Lawson: Mind your business, stand on business.
Opia: Stand on business. And it’s that conviction of knowing that something is a greater purpose, and you’re so convinced about it, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes. And I hope that people encompass that in their lives, and just give themselves the grace to chase whatever it is that they feel they’re here on this earth to do, and let everything else fall into place.
Lawson: Yeah, I think I’m actually getting to witness the success of this show already. Because for me, a big win is the fact that it’s reaching different generations, that I’m already getting calls from family members and friends, where the grandmother and the grandson are sitting on the couch watching the show together, and both are able to enjoy it.
Opia: I love that.
Lawson: And that is a big win for me, especially because, honestly, I was nervous about the older generation wanting to even watch this show, or have any acceptance of it. Because rightfully so, they have a different level of protection over Malcolm and Martin, and Betty and Coretta, because they grew up with them, and knew them in a different way than the rest of us do.
And so to know that they are actually looking forward to the new episodes each week, and wanting to watch, and feel like they’re actually learning some things that they didn’t know, that is a major win, and I’m very happy about that.
Opia: Unification.
All episodes of ‘Genius:MLK/X’ are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ now.
There are so many fantastic (and mediocre) tequilas on the market right now that it can create some mild anxiety while you’re scanning the store shelves. As always, there are two key elements when shopping: flavor and price.
While it isn’t necessarily true that you have to spend more money for better tequila it certainly helps. Having said that, there are plenty of bottles out there that aren’t quite worth their hefty price tags. Plus some cheaper bottles that punch way above their weight.
To help ease your shopping experience, we decided to see how well bottles $50 and under would perform against bottles $100 and over in the only fair way we know how. That’s right, we’re talking about a blind taste test!
Methodology
Dane Rivera
I’ll admit this isn’t a perfect test. There are plenty of bottles that are above $50 but don’t reach that triple-digit price point which would’ve been good candidates to go against the more expensive bottles, but I think this will be an interesting way to see how well more budget-minded bottles perform against the luxurious stuff.
For this blind taste test, I sectioned off my collection of tequila into two groups: below $50 and above $100. I didn’t separate the bottles by expression and instead had my girlfriend choose four bottles from each group at random. This ended up giving me a selection of blanco, reposado, and añejo tequilas.
It was a wild ride for my palate, but I love a challenge. Here is our tasting class, along with the prices from low to high.
Espolòn Reposado — $24.99
Teremana Blanco — $23.99
Hijole! Silver — $36.99
Tres Agaves Añejo — $37.99
Cierto Private Collection Reposado — $119.99
El Tesoro Knob Creek Añejo Mundial 2023 — $169.99
Casa Noble Marques De Case Noble Añejo — $164.99
Patron El Alto Reposado — $154.99
Once the bottles were shuffled, I had my girlfriend pass me one pour at a time (again, at random). Here are my tasting notes and first impressions.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Tequila Posts Of The Last Six Months
Nose: Heavy on the vanilla, almost overwhelmingly so with a warm and inviting kiss of oak to balance it out.
Palate: There is a corner store chocolate bar quality to this. Makes me think of Hershey with a bit of vanilla. I’m not tasting any agave here, unfortunately.
Finish: Incredibly smooth. Almost no burn here.
Taste 2:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Very mellow and warm and completely dominated by caramelized agave.
Palate: More roasted agave on the palate with a mix of rich caramel and zesty citrus.
Finish: A nice buttery finish with a bit of a burn and a lingering oak flavor.
Taste 3:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Raw agave on the nose, a bit of cracked black pepper, and a wet grassy earthiness. There is a juiciness to the nose that I’m loving.
Palate: All of that interest on the nose is missing from the palate. I get some gentle agave flavor, but what I’m tasting here is mostly neutral with a bit of an alcohol burn.
Finish: That grassiness returns on the finish, but I’m not tasting a whole lot here. So far this is our bottom.
Taste 4:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Warm and lush roasted agave on the nose, rich oak, and a tiny bit of smoke. The aroma is truly delightful, it has a level of complexity none of the bottles have given us so far.
Palate: Despite its oak and smoke aroma, there is a surprising fruity juiciness to this tequila. In addition to some pear, I’m tasting citrus peel, black pepper, and cinnamon with a kiss of floral honey.
Finish: Slight minerality with a soft oak finish and some spicy cinnamon.
Taste 5:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Completely dominated by chocolate and vanilla. I know this is an añejo but I’m not getting any oak here.
Palate: Warm and spicy with more vanilla and chocolate.
Finish: Smooth and neutral. There is an unfocused quality about this tequila. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it’s not doing much for me.
Taste 6:
Dane Rivera
Nose: A nice balance of caramel and agave. I’m getting a sense of cinnamon. Overall there is a soft inviting quality to this one.
Palate: Rich roasted agave, a touch of vanilla, some chili and black pepper, and bright and juicy mango.
Finish: Spicy cinnamon and bitter coffee with a light oakiness.
Taste 7:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Roasted agave and sweet delicate floral honey offset by some spicy cinnamon sticks.
Palate: A gentle black pepper flavor balanced with juicy tangerines. There is a nice sense of balance here.
Finish: More citrus on the finish, but the zest rather than the juice with a strong wet oak flavor.
Taste 8:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Finally something that is nice and vegetal. There is a sharp brightness here. It’s warm and sings the nostrils in the best way.
Palate: Some agave and a bit of funk. The nose kind of misled me here. I was expecting something that would bloom on the palate, but this is kind of one note.
Finish: There just isn’t a lot here. It may work as a neutral base for a cocktail but there isn’t much of a flavor to latch onto.
I always feel bad for whatever bottle snags the last-place spot, but it is what it is. The reason this bottle fell short was because it lacked character. Compared to the other bottles we tasted, this just didn’t have anything that memorable.
Hijole! Silver is produced at NOM 1614, Tequilera Tap, using agave harvested at six years maturity and cooked in an autoclave for 24 hours before being roller mill extracted, and fermented in a stainless steel pot.
The Bottom Line:
It does not have a strong enough character to really compete with the other bottles in this tasting.
This was the biggest surprise of the tasting. Patron El Alto is not cheap, it’s a luxurious blend of extra añejo, añejo, and reposado tequilas, but the flavor is so stamped out that it couldn’t cut it in a blind taste test. It’s smooth to the point of being characterless.
The tequila is produced at Patrón’s distillery, NOM 1462, using agave cooked in stone brick ovens that is then tahona extracted and rested in American white oak barrels.
Teremana, aka The Rock’s tequila, is made from agave sourced from the highlands of Jalisco. The pinas are roasted in brick ovens and distilled in copper pot stills. I’m not that familiar with this expression and I was delighted by the bright juiciness of its aroma. Unfortunately what I got on the nose didn’t translate to the flavor, which tasted a bit too neutral to me.
The Bottom Line:
For the price it’s impressive, it has a delicate and natural quality to it but it’s missing a big flavor to have it stand out against the competition.
Another big surprise here, Casa Noble’s top-of-the-line expression didn’t quite stand out the way I would’ve expected. This bottle delivered a lot of luxurious smoothness but had an unfocused flavor that didn’t resonate with me.
The tequila features a blend of añejo and extra añejo tequilas that were aged between one and five years in French oak barrels.
The Bottom Line:
Very smooth and a delightful sipper, but compared to the other bottles the flavors just aren’t strong enough here.
By far, this was the biggest surprise of the tasting. For the price, there is a lot of interesting nuance to the flavor. It’s mellow, rich, and smooth, but not so smooth that the bright agave flavors have been rubbed out.
Espolón is produced at NOM 1440, Campari, using agave that is aged for three months in American White oak barrels.
The Bottom Line:
For the money, you’re not going to find another tequila this nuanced and interesting. I’ll take Espolón over several expensive bottles any day.
Tres Agaves Añejo is pretty solid. This bottle performed incredibly well. Like the Espolón, I think you’re getting a lot of value out of this bottle, which offers the complexity of aged tequila without the high price that comes with spending more time in the barrel.
Produced at NOM 1614, Tequilera Tap, Tres Agaves is made using agave cooked in a high-pressure autoclave that is roller mill extracted and rested for 18 months in repurposed Kentucky Bourbon and Tennesse Whiskey barrels.
The Bottom Line:
A fantastic aged tequila that gives you a lot of deep flavor and character without the high price tag.
Cierto has had a strong presence at the International Spirits Competition NYC, Craft Distillers Spirits Competition, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Sip Awards. It’s a competition darling and one taste is all it takes to see why. In our little blind taste test, this bottle performed incredibly well, it doesn’t have the depth and complexity of our number one pick, but it came damn close and was clearly ahead of everything ranked before it.
The tequila is produced at NOM 1146, Tequileña, and is aged for 11 months in French Limousin oak barrels.
Bottom Line:
A premium tequila that lives up to its hype and price tag.
1. El Tesoro — Mundial Knob Creek Edition Añejo (Taste 4)
This was one of our favorite tequilas of 2023 and being that it is made by El Tesoro, one of the best tequila brands right now, we’re not surprised this took the top spot. What makes this aged limited edition tequila special is that it is aged for 12 months in charred oak barrels that once housed Knob Creek bourbon, giving it a sort of savory whiskey quality. It’s a real pleasure to sip.
It has all the smooth and luxurious qualities you’d expect from an aged tequila but doesn’t come across as artificial, giving the agave room to translate through. This was far and above the best tequila we tasted today.
I wanted to come away from this tasting with a sub $100 bottle taking the top spot, but it’s just too hard for those cheaper bottles to compete with the complexity here.
The Bottom Line:
A wonderful depth of flavor and character. A true joy to sip and easily the best bottle in this blind taste test. Price isn’t always everything, but with this bottle, it truly feels worth every penny. It’s the type of bottle you bring out for specific moments.
If you’ve ever taken a sewing class then you’ve probably had the pleasure of some older woman telling you to stick the loose end of the thread in your mouth as an easy way to thread it through the eye of a needle. Even with the soggy thread mending together the fibers at the end, you hands still shake and your eyes go crossed while you try to get it through the tiny hole.
But it turns out that there’s a much easier way to thread a needle and it doesn’t involve licking it. In fact there’s more than one way to thread a needle that will save you a headache from trying to see where the thread is going. There’s one particular technique that has people thinking there may be witchcraft involved, but it’s just science.
In the method blowing everyone’s minds, you simply lay the thread across your palm and rub the eye of the needle back and forth until a loop pops through the eye of the needle.
Then there’s there’s the toothbrush method. Yeah, that sounds weird and it probably wouldn’t be advisable to use your daily toothbrush for this. This method appears to be super easy and you can visibly see how this works. To get this to work, get a clean toothbrush and lay it flat on its back with the bristles up, lay the strand of thread on top and then push the eye of the needle down over the thread. The tiny bristles simply push the thread through the eye.
The easiest way to thread a needle! 💯 #thread #needle #hack #fyp #learnontiktok
Apparently, you can also use a paper airplane to get the thread into the needle. It seems a little more time consuming than the other methods but also gets the job done. But there’s also the tried and true method of simply using a needle threader which can be found near the thread and needles in craft and fabric stores.
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