GoneTrending

A city in Washington state has pulled off a successful gun buyback event just in time for residents to get some extra holiday cash. The event took place at the Everett Police Department and offered people who turned in their firearms up to $300 per gun, according to The Seattle Times.

The only catch was that the people who participated had to prove that they were in fact residents of the city of Everett. But outside of showing an ID or utility bill with a local address, there were no questions asked about the guns collected. That didn’t stop people from telling their stories on how they acquired their firearm.

Gun ownership in America is like a rite of passage in some families and several of the stories collected by The Seattle Times described inherited firearms. But with the holiday fast approaching and some people wanting to clear out space as well as afford to buy gifts for their loved ones, the “guns for gift cards” exchange couldn’t have come at a better time.

---

It’s not surprising to most people that Americans have a strong feelings about guns and take full advantage of their constitutional right to own them. The average gun owner in America owns five guns according to researchers. Most people report having guns for protection, while others say they have them for hunting or sport.

Everett Police Department’s “guns for gift cards” buyback, a program that was modeled on similar ones in other U.S. cities, was a great way to reduce the number of guns people have in their houses. Everett resident Guy Axelson told The Seattle Times, “They’re just locked up all of the time. I don’t want any more around than what I need.”

The line to exchange guns for gift cards at the Everett PD was so long that it took people nearly two hours to get to the front to hand over their firearm and collect their gift card. The success of the program contradicted the notion that people don’t want to part with their weapons, as well as showing that if an effective and organized way is presented to reduce the number of guns that people will literally line up to take advantage of it.

One of the best things about this event is that there was no need for political posturing. No one was arguing about guns or Second Amendment rights. There weren’t any protests about what the police department was doing. Everyone there was simply there for a transaction that would put money in people’s pockets right before Christmas.

The entire event took place without any issue. Some residents turned in guns that no longer worked properly and some decided it was better to have fewer guns in their home while they had small children living there. The Seattle Times reported that several folks turned in the firearms due to concerns of rising crime.

Each gun turned in had a monetary value attached to it depending on its type and functionality. For example, AR-15s and AK-47s were worth the most at $300, while rifles and shotguns equaled $200, handguns were $100, and owners of guns that didn’t work were offered $25.

Overall, the police department collected 241 guns, people walked out with a few extra dollars and an entire city felt a little safer.

Naming the best whiskey of the year is a fool’s errand. There’s just so much whisk(e)y released every year worldwide that it’s impossible to try it all. But I’m more than happy to play the fool in this year’s endeavor. I’ve tasted over 1,500 individual whiskeys this year. I’ve judged spirits competitions. I’ve traveled the world tasting whiskey from the source, often from barrels that most will never see. Hell, I’m already tasting whiskey for 2023. And through all of that, there were a handful of whiskeys that stood above the overfilled crowd of releases out there.

Those were the number one whiskeys from each of UPROXX’s “best of 2022” lists. They were as follows:

• Yamazaki Japanese Single Malt Whisky Mizunara Cask 2022 Edition (Best International Whiskey)
• Westward American Single Malt Cask Strength (Best American Single Malt Whiskey)
• Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 17-Year-Old Barrel Proof Bourbon, First Edition (Nate Gana’s Best Whiskey Pour of 2022)
• The Last Drop Signature Blend No. 28 A Blend Of Kentucky Straight Whiskeys (Best American Whiskey)
• Rare Character Single Barrel Series Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Amburana Casks (Best Rye Whiskey)
• Caol Ila 175th Anniversary Aged 24 Years (Best Scotch Whisky)
• Michter’s Limited Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 20 Years Old 2022 Release (Best Bourbon Whiskey)

Instead of throwing a proverbial dart at the board and just picking a single whisk(e)y as UPROXX’s Best Whiskey of 2022, I’m doing a blind taste test of each of these otherworldly pours and crowning a winner. I’ve even included Nate Gana’s favorite whiskey of 2022 to test my own mettle — did I miss something by ranking it fifth instead of first, as Gana did? I need to know! The people need to know! Plus, this is Uproxx’s Best Whiskey of 2022 after all and we see Gana joining our team more and more in the year to come.

This blind test is really about finding out which bottle actually is the best. I can remember the first place I tried each of these gems. The Yamakazi, Michter’s, and the Last Drop were all tried at my home in Kentucky. Whereas, I first tried the Caol Ila in Edinburgh, the Rare Character at a whiskey bar in Louisville, the Heaven Hill at my former home in Berlin, and the Westward at the distillery in Portland. I’m taking away all the variation of atmosphere and mood and leveling the playing field at home with blind pours (well, as blind as can be since these pours are all instantly recognizable on the nose when poured next to each other).

Okay, that’s enough preamble. It’s time to get down in the dirt and figure out which whiskey really is the true “Best Whiskey of 2022.” Let’s go!

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• The 50 Best Scotch Whiskies Of 2022, Ranked
• The 50 Best Rye Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• Whiskey Expert Nate Gana Reveals The ‘Best Whiskey Pours Of 2022’
• The 25 Best American Single Malt Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• The 30 Best American Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• The 30 Best International Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a clear sense of winter spices, especially cinnamon bark, whole cloves and allspice, star anise, cardamom pods, and nutmeg with a buttercream bespeckled with dried lavender. The palate carries on that floral vibe with a hint of agarwood, sweet cinnamon, and almost sour mulled wine with a hint of molasses. The end has a bark-heavy floral note that’s part potpourri and part pine cones wrapped in dried orange and cinnamon with a whisper of holly and dark tobacco stems with a woody vibe.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Chocolate cookies and honey-dipped Graham Crackers drive the nose towards toffee and almond with a creamy espresso depth. The palate digs into the dark chocolate with sesame seed and honey cracker vibe next to tart red berries and dry old cedar planks with a hint of cinnamon bark and allspice. The end is full of dark honey with a touch more of that sweet Sesame Snaps character with a sense of brown-sugar oatmeal spiked with winter spices.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

This is classic bourbon with a serious age to it thanks to old boot leather, musty cellar beams, tannic oak staves with a worn char, and this cherry-cinnamon syrup drizzled over buttercream-encrusted waffles. The palate has a toffee sweetness that leads to woody winter spices soaked in red mulled with cut with cherry cola and a whisper of old pipe tobacco. The end flourishes with notes of cherry cobbler, egg nog, roasted hazelnut, more toffee, and cherry bark tobacco packed into old cedar boxes with a hint of wild sage and worn leather lurking underneath.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of an old rickhouse — black mold, dirt floors, red stone — next to green grass, saddle leather, and very old oak barrels of whiskey with a deep woody spice that leans toward dried ancho chilis and sharp cinnamon bark with an underbelly of pine resin and used up vanilla pods. The taste is warm with a nice sense of burnt orange and marzipan next to salted caramel, cacao, Kiwi boot cream, cream soda, and pecan waffles. The end is full of wood old spice barks and dried orange peels wrapped up in old bailing twine and rolled with piney tobacco and fir needles.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

The nose is nutty and almost feels like a chai latte with a sense of macadamia and Brazil nuts next to woody old spices, dry ginger, and vanilla cut with marzipan and dark orange chocolate. The palate has a deep spiciness that’s more woody than hot next to tart red berries, more dark orange and chocolate, a waxy sense of incense-heavy candles, and old hand-woven carpets that have been in a shisha bar for too long. The end is full of spicy cinnamon bark and star anise with a hint of cream soda and old straw next to stewed stone fruit and berry syrup cut with chocolate and orange.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of a cold and dark beach with a campfire spitting through the rain with rum raisin, creamy nougat, sour and sweet mulled wine, clove-studded oranges, and dark and sharp spice barks. The palate leans into that mulled wine and sea-side campfire feel with a sense of stewed old dried fruit — prunes, dates, figs — next to salted toffee and a soft vanilla cake frosted with deep chocolate kissed with salt and old rank wood resin. The end lures you through the taste with red-wine-soaked cinnamon bark next to apple cider-soaked cloves with salted caramel tobacco rolled with seawater-soaked cedar bark and a thin line of briny campfire smoke.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a sense of dark cherry with deep rummy molasses, dried rose petals, old almond shells, and cedar bark with a fresh pipe tobacco leaf just kissed with apple and pear essence with a hint of vanilla oils and old wintry wine spices. The taste leans into smoldering vanilla pods with a sense of old oak staves from a dusty old cellar next to sweet cinnamon and cherry over dried sage and sharp spearmint with a clove syrup base and a dash of singed marshmallow sweetness. The end is full of dark cherry and woody spice with moist marzipan, burnt orange oils, and chewy fresh tobacco wrapped up in old leather and cedar bark with a hint more of that old cellar sneaking in.

Part 2: The Ranking (#’s 7-2)

7. Westward American Single Malt Cask Strength — Taste 2

ABV: 62.5%

Average Price: $92

The Whiskey:

Westward Whiskey — out in Portland, Oregon — is really starting to come into its own, especially as its whiskey gets older. This expression is a prime example of Westward’s prowess that’s made in-house from top to bottom and mellowed in new American oak until it’s just right for cask-strength bottling as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is delicious whiskey that has transcended “craft” taste and vibes on the profile. It’s deeply hewn with a truly complex and inviting flavor profile that just keeps going in all the best ways. Still, this felt like the best craft whiskey on the list, not the best overall whiskey in the world.

6. Rare Character Single Barrel Series Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Amburana Casks — Taste 5

ABV: 52.5%

Average Price: $129

The Whiskey:

This is a niche whiskey company started by whiskey legend Andrew Shapira (if you know, you know) with partners Peter Nevenglosky and Pablo Moix. The whiskey is a single barrel of whiskey that was hidden away as an “experimental” cask until Shapira’s team rescued it and gave it to the world. The experiment in this case was aging classic rye in Brazilian Amburana casks to see how a non-oak wood finish would work with rye whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This is funky and fresh with a deep age to it that just works. In the end, it felt like a whiskey I can’t wait to pour for people in 2023 more than a whiskey for the ages in 2022.

5. Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 17-Year-Old Barrel Proof Bourbon, First Edition — Taste 3

ABV: 59.1%

Average Price: $3,200

The Whiskey:

The base of the spirit is Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon mash of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and a mere 10% rye. This particular whiskey is built from several barrels from four warehouse campuses in the Bardstown area. In this case, three different ages were pulled with 17 years being the youngest. The whiskey is made from 28% 20-year-old barrels, 44% 19-year-old barrels, and 28% 17-year-old barrels. Once those barrels are vatted, the bourbon goes into the bottle as-is, without any cutting or fussing.

Bottom Line:

This is a big whiskey and bourbon that has deep age and flavor. It’s just not quite as nuanced and convivial as the next bourbon on this list. It feels more like something you drink from a balloon glass next to a fire with a cigar and copy of the 1850 London Times in your lap.

4. Yamazaki Japanese Single Malt Whisky Mizunara Cask 2022 Edition — Taste 1

ABV: 48%

Average Price: $6,999

The Whisky:

This is one of the most sought-after whiskies from Yamazaki. The juice spends over 12 years maturing in Mizunara casks only — this isn’t some whisky that’s “finished” in old Mizurana casks for a few months. After over a decade of mellowing, the casks are hand-picked for their excellence, vatted, and just proofed before bottling.

Bottom Line:

This is the whiskey I’d pour for someone who wanted to know what exactly is so special about a Mizunara cask. It’s the height of why that cask is so revered and sought-after.

3. The Last Drop Signature Blend No. 28 A Blend Of Kentucky Straight Whiskeys — Taste 4

ABV: 60.7%

Average Price: $3,999

The Whiskey:

This blend is from Buffalo Trace’s Master Blender Drew Mayville, who’s been at the distillery since 2004. Mayville created this blend by sampling bourbons and ryes from the rarest and sometimes oldest barrels of whiskey in Buffalo Trace’s vast and numerous warehouses. While the exact details of the final blend are unknown, we do that the whiskeys in this blend are some of the rarest that the distillery had on its ricks. And since it is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey, this is technically a “blended straight whiskey.”

Bottom Line:

This didn’t stand up quite as high as I thought it would when tasted blind against some absolute killer whiskeys. That said, it’s unquestionably delicious.

2. Michter’s Limited Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 20 Years Old 2022 Release — Taste 7

ABV: 57.1%

Average Price: $4,989

The Whiskey:

Master Distiller Dan McKee personally selects these (at least) 20-year-old barrels from the Michter’s rickhouses based on… I guess just “pure excellence” would be the right phrase. The bourbon is bottled as-is — no cutting with water.

Bottom Line:

This is just delicious while offering that little bit more of the flavor profile that draws your further and further into the beauty of the sip. But alas, there was one other that just went that little bit deeper this year…

Part 3: UPROXX’s “Double Gold” Whiskey For 2022

1. Caol Ila 175th Anniversary Aged 24 Years — Taste 6

ABV: 52.1%

Average Price: $799

The Whisky:

This whisky was bottled to celebrate the 175 years Caol Ila has been operating on Islay. 3,000 bottles were rendered from barrels of at least 24-year-old whisky, each of which highlighted the sophisticated brand’s nuanced peatiness and fruitiness, and released in early 2022 in anticipation of the distillery re-opening for tourism in the summer of 2022.

Tasting Notes (Reprise):

There’s a sense of a cold and dark beach with a campfire spitting through the rain with rum raisin, creamy nougat, sour and sweet mulled wine, clove-studded oranges, and dark and sharp spice barks. The palate leans into that mulled wine and sea-side campfire feel with a sense of stewed old dried fruit — prunes, dates, figs — next to salted toffee and a soft vanilla cake frosted with deep chocolate kissed with salt and old rank wood resin. The end lures you through the taste with red-wine-soaked cinnamon bark next to apple cider-soaked cloves with salted caramel tobacco rolled with seawater-soaked cedar bark and a thin line of briny campfire smoke.

Bottom Line:

This truly takes you on a journey that reaches deep into your soul and calms and excites you with a sense of wonderment and comfort.

This whiskey truly is perfect and I feel 100% confident picking it as Uproxx’s Whiskey of the Year. Time to pop some champagne to celebrate!

Remember “Thot Box?” You know, Hitmaka’s 2019 posse cut featuring 2 Chainz, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Meek Mill, Tyga, and YBN Nahmir? No? Well, you almost certainly remember that the remix — which did ridiculously better than the original — featured a who’s-who of up-and-coming female rappers including Chinese Kitty, DreamDoll, Dreezy, Latto (pre-name change), and Young MA. There it is up top.

Well, the guy responsible for it, Hitmaka (formerly known as Young Berg, the walking lick), had some thoughts about female rappers and their X-rated subject matter, and unfortunately for him, he decided to share those thoughts on Twitter. Apparently, he missed how it went for the last handful of guys to offer their two cents on this topic, including Jermaine Dupri.

“Can’t wait to work with a pretty female rapper that’s strictly about bars to even the playing field,” he wrote. “Pussy rap was cool when it had shock value & was rare. Now it’s like every girl taking it there. It’s sum who aren’t but they need a hit producer 4 impact.”

It didn’t take long for him to come under fire from fans who pointed out the sexism inherent in this sentiment. Also, it’s like… Wrong. Plainly. Clearly. Obviously. Women have addressed this repeatedly in the last few years. Cardi B called it out. Megan Thee Stallion called it out. City Girls called it out. Latto called it out THIS WEEK. Plus, as Noname rightfully pointed out last year, women are better at rapping about sex than men, anyway. Case in point: “Thot Box” and its much more successful remix.

Women also rightfully brought up Berg’s past controversial colorist comments and accusations against him for sexual assault.

Moral of the story: Stay out of women’s business, gentlemen. It will not go well for you.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There are a lot of hidden jokes and references in children’s shows that are intended to go over the heads of the audience, mostly because the audience consists of children, presumably. It happens with popular shows all the time, like when The Fairly Odd Parents did a Seinfeld spoof or that time that Scooby-Doo got stuck in the Black Lodge. Sure, kids don’t understand those types of references, but it still gives their babysitters and/or parents a good chuckle.

Now that it’s easy to go back and watch all of your favorite childhood shows thanks to streaming, maybe you got the bright idea to curl up with some hot cocoa and watch the classic Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly, and now that you’re an adult, you realized that a lot of the bits you thought were weird as a kid were actually just references to other famous shows and movies. And you’re not alone in that!

Recently, a clip of iCarly went viral as a shot-for-shot remake of an iconic (and heartbreaking) scene from The Wire. The show spoofs the scene where Michael kills Snoop in season five of the HBO drama. Of course, as it is a children’s show, the teens are playing assassins with mini paintball guns, which is how the “killing” happens.

This specific episode of iCarly aired in January of 2010, a little over a year after that particular moment from The Wire, which is definitely not for children. But it’s likely that the writers of iCarly wanted to pay homage to their favorite show because The Wire is everybody’s favorite show at one point in their lifetime. The episode also makes various references to other scenes, like the “here’s Johnny” moment from The Shining that has been replicated oh so many times.

Now that all of the original viewers of iCarly are mostly grown up and watching The Wire for the first time, they are in for a real treat! Of course, iCarly is also in the second season of its revival on Paramount Plus, so at this point, they should be doing some Better Call Saul jokes.

Given that it’s the end of the year — traditionally, a time for looking back on the year in review and looking forward to the possibilities of the blank calendar ahead — it’s kind of fitting that Top Dawg Entertainment released Ab-Soul’s reflective Herbert now rather than somewhere in the furor of attention swirling around Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s comeback albums. This is because of the content of Herbert, yes, but it’s also because of Soul’s seeming place in the unofficial hierarchy of TDE’s fluctuating roster of artists.

With Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers concluding K. Dot’s commitment to the label and SOS potentially constituting SZA’s swan song (although the jury remains out in that regard; she seems to change her mind every other week and could be announcing five more EPs by the time you read this), TDE finds itself in an interesting place. For all purposes, it looks very much like the most commercially successful acts on the label are pretty much done. Schoolboy Q, who’s always kind of hovered in their periphery, last released an album, Crash Talk, in 2019, which could potentially have also completed his own obligation to Top Dawg, if Kendrick’s five-album deal structure is any guideline.

Jay Rock, who may as well be the label’s vanguard artist, hasn’t been heard from since 2018, although he typically takes long breaks between albums too. That means that for the first time, TDE is probably facing a new year with the prospect of no releases from its first and second-wave rappers and singers. It also means that 2023 might be totally clear for Top Dawg to truly move into its next wave of artists, many of whom seem poised to bridge the gap between the backpack rap-influenced releases of the label’s past and the more sonically malleable styles of contemporary hip-hop — which makes Herbert the perfect project to close that chapter of Top Dawg’s history.

Of all the first-wave TDE artists, Soul has probably been the hardest sell to the mainstream hip-hop fan. Influenced as much by underground mainstays like Canibus and Ras Kass as he was by Tupac, his bars have always been the densest, the most metaphorical, and the most abstract of the Black Hippy collective. While Jay Rock and Q reeled off morbid street stories and Kendrick offered intellectual observations on LA gang culture from the perspective of the hood-adjacent everyman, Ab-Soul was that stoner roommate everyone remembers from university who was really into metaphysical philosophy.

He was also — and I say this lovingly, as a fellow former denizen of the rap battle forums he frequented in the early days of the internet — a rap nerd beyond the like of his Black Hippy brethren. He was the one who deeply cared about the mechanical intricacies of rhyme work, the sort of blog commenter who probably threw the term “multi” into at least a few of his online missives. It showed in not just the music he made, but in the reception to it, as well. On his first two projects, Longterm Mentality and Control System, these tendencies made him seem quirky and idiosyncratic on These Days… and Do What Thou Wilt., though, he sounded out-of-touch and borderline delusional.

So it’s a relief to hear him shake loose some of the muck that bogged down those projects, endeavoring to discuss more earthbound subjects on Herbert — even when those topics get dark. On the title track, he addresses addiction, depression, losing his father, and even his ongoing ordeal with Steven-Johnson Syndrome, which affects his vision. On the motivational “Do Better,” he wrestles with survivor’s remorse while detailing his own efforts to follow the title’s advice. And in the lead-up to the album’s release, he was forthcoming about his recent suicide attempt, in which he jumped from a freeway overpass seeking a permanent solution to dark thoughts tormenting him through the recent pandemic.

Likewise, it’s satisfying, if not always delightful, to see that those rap nerd tendencies haven’t left him. Depending on your tolerance for rap dad jokes, some of the bars on the album can read like the most tortured puns to propagate their poet’s punchline prowess, or they can wow you with their wordplay wizardry. Here’s a test to find out which side you’ll land on. If that last alliteration-laden sentence made you groan a little (okay, I’ll stop now), approach with caution, and be ready to skip “The Wild Side” and “Art Of Seduction.” But even so, don’t miss the DJ Premier-produced album closer “Gotta Rap,” a defiant, triumphant celebration of Soul’s survivorship and pride in his pen.

Now, Top Dawg Entertainment must look to the future. Although 2018 signee Reason and 2020 recruit Ray Vaughn are both equally adept at twisting a double entendre to suit their purposes, they’re both grounded in the same sort of murky narratives as Jay Rock and Schoolboy Q. Meanwhile, Doechii has distinguished herself as the possible breakout star for phase two of the TDE experiment, garnering rave reviews for her viral singles “Crazy” and “Persuasive.” But whereas the first-generation TDE stars relied on their gritty stance and muddy, boom-bap-inspired production, it’s fitting that Herbert closes with a beat by the preeminent pioneer of backpack rap’s musical backbones.

Top Dawg, like hip-hop as a whole, has to evolve. The past year or so has shown us that the genre moves too fast and has become too omnivorous to cling to its origins, however important it is to acknowledge and remember them. So it’s good that we’ve learned as much as we possibly could about TDE’s flagship artists through their revelatory return projects (even going back to Isaiah Rashad’s 2021 album, The House Is Burning). The time has come to get to know the next generation, with their glittering dance beats, triumphant trap anthems, and a slew of new stories to tell.

Herbert is out now via Top Dawg Entertainment. Listen to it here.

Prior to the start of the season, the NBA released its findings of a year-long investigation into Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver over allegations of fostering a hostile workplace, including examples of racism and sexism in the workplace, and handed down a $10 million fine and a year-long suspension of Sarver.

That punishment did not satisfy many, including Suns star Chris Paul, LeBron James, and even one of the Suns’ minority owners, as public pressure mounted for the league to do more. Ultimately, Sarver announced he would look to sell the Suns and Mercury, and it seems three months into the sale process that a new owner has been found. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, billionaire Mat Ishbia will purchase the teams from Sarver, with a deal expected to be completed “in the near future” for around $4 billion.

Ishbia is the chairman and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, and was a member of Michigan State’s basketball team from 1998-2002 before joining and eventually taking over his father’s mortgage company. His shares are reportedly worth $11 billion, so it’s not hard to see how he comes up with the money to purchase the Suns and Mercury. One has to wonder whether his basketball background will be a positive or negative for the Suns, as it could be a good thing that he’ll be so invested in a sport he loves, while also bringing the possibility of him being a bit too meddling in basketball operations by thinking he is an expert in building a basketball team.

That is all to be determined, but after years under Sarver, a change at the top will be a welcome sight for Suns fans and, hopefully, a better situation for team employees.

Lil Wayne is serving the holiday spirit, as the rapper brought his “A Very Weezy Christmas” to some lucky New Orleans children. In a partnership with Young Money Entertainment president Mack Maine and sporting goods company Wilson, Wayne invited 150 kids to the local Dave & Busters to meet Santa.

He posted a series of photos from the event on Instagram. As expected, they went all out on the decorations, transforming the D&B’s into a Christmas wonderland. Or, as the giant sign read, Weezy’s Christmas. Parents smiled in front of the backdrop with their children. “Santa” even posed with a custom Lil Wayne football.

“This Christmas @mackmaine4president & I wanted to give some future hall of famers the gift of game w/ the help of @Wilson,” Wayne wrote. “Making sure they received the necessary resources so they could enjoy all the benefits of being a top tier athlete was very important to us! #HappyHolidays #WeezyChristmas.”

“Whether it’s learning about sportsmanship, teamwork, or just using the field as a way to escape everyday stresses, we wanted to make sure these kids get to experience impactful moments,” he added in a press release, via Billboard.

Lil Wayne has been a documented fan of the holiday, too. Ten years ago, he wished a “Merry Christmas to all” to his Twitter fans.

A Republican having a problem with the truth is nothing new, really. (See: Donald Trump, Donald Trump, and Donald Trump.) But even by GOP standards, congressman elect George Santos’ alleged fabrications about his past and qualifications to represent New York’s 3rd District could be considered a real whopper.

On Monday, The New York Times ran a story titled “Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Resume May Be Largely Fiction.” Which basically tells you everything you need to know about the 34-year old, who broke some new ground by becoming the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, as well as the first Brazilian-American to hold a seat in the House. But it turns out that much of the information Santos has released about himself and his background may not be true.

Specifically, as CNN reports, Santos has claimed that he received degrees from both Baruch College and New York University, though neither school has any record of him attending—let alone graduating. Santos’ bio on the National Republican Congressional Committee website states that “He has worked for companies such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Linkbridge Investors, and Met Global,” though both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs told CNN they had no record of his employment.

Santos also claimed that he founded an animal rescue organization, Friends of Pets United, and gave a very specific number of animals he helped to save — yet no such organization seems to exist either with the IRS or in a database of registered charities in either New York or Florida, where Santos has also done business. But the weirdest part of the story is that that’s not even the weirdest part: While Santos himself has been dodging questions about what seems to be a largely fictionalized backstory, his lawyer attempted to defend him by offering up a quote from Winston Churchill… that was ALSO fake.

As Politico reports, “An attorney for Republican Rep.-elect George Santos (R) responded to allegations in The New York Times that the politician made up core portions of his resume with a quote from Winston Churchill that PolitiFact says the British politician never uttered.”

That’s right, an elected official who is being accused of lying about his educational and professional background responded to the story via a prepared statement from his lawyer, which he shared on Twitter, and that, too, came with a side of horsesh*t.

The statement, which was attributed to alleged attorney Joseph Murray, ended with these words: “As Winston Churchill famously said, ‘You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” But PolitiFact claims that the legendary British Prime Minister never said those words — famously or otherwise.

Perhaps more tellingly, according to Politico: “The statement did not refute any of the allegations that Santos made up or exaggerated key portions of his resume.”

As Winston Churchill famously said, “You’re f***ed, Santos.”

(Via Politico)

R&B crooner Trey Songz’s legal issues are far from over. After avoiding charges stemming from a physical altercation with law enforcement at a Kansas City Chiefs game in January 2021, allegations of hitting a woman with his car, and a series of sexual assault allegations (one he was cleared of in April while another was dismissed due to the statute of limitation expiring), the “Bottoms Up” singer has been entangled in the court system for a few years now.

Spilling over from last month, the singer’s alleged assault on two people (a woman and a man) in a New York City bowling alley has landed Songz in jail. According to TMZ, despite proclaiming his innocence, the musician has voluntarily turned himself into authorities.

This isn’t the first time Songz has been accused of physically assaulting someone. Back in May of 2021, the “Slow Motion” singer made headlines for allegedly punching a bartender.

However, Songz’s attorney, Mitch Schuster, ensures these charges will not stick, telling TMZ, “We have been proactively communicating with New York law enforcement, the District Attorney, and all those involved. While we will respectfully and proactively work through all the appropriate channels, we are confident that Trey will be fully cleared of any wrongdoing,” later adding, “This is another instance where those involved try to blame the celebrity with hopes of getting fame or riches.”

The alleged woman victim did seek medical attention. However, the man victim did not seek medical treatment for allegedly being punched in the eye.

Edie Falco is one of those actresses who can basically do whatever she wants simply because she has starred in your favorite show, The Sopranos, your mom’s favorite show, Nurse Jackie, and your dad’s favorite show, Oz. So she gets to sprinkle in a James Cameron movie every once in a while!

But because she stays busy, Falco might not be the best at keeping track of all of her high-profile projects. And who can blame her? She is currently preparing to star as Pete Davidson’s mom in Bupkis, so she clearly has other things on her brain besides a silly little movie.

Falco was chatting with the ladies of The View this week when she admitted that she had been so busy, she kind of thought the movie already came and went (she probably doesn’t use Twitter) and he had never heard about it. “The second Avatar, the one that’s coming out, I think I shot four years ago,” Flaco explained. “And then I’ve been busy, and doing stuff, and somebody mentioned Avatar, and I thought, ‘Oh, I guess it came out and didn’t do very well,’ because I didn’t hear anything.” To be fair, it took a very long time for this movie to come out.

Falco added that somebody mentioned the film to her recently, to which she responded, “Oh, it hasn’t come out yet?” Hopefully that somebody she was speaking to wasn’t James Cameron.

Despite the memory lapse (hey, it’s been a stressful few years) Falco is ecstatic to be in the movie, mostly because she wanted to be blue. She didn’t get to be blue. “Well, I wanted to be blue. I was excited — I was going to be blue and very tall…I didn’t get either of those things,” Falco admitted. She portrays General Frances Ardmore, a major antagonist in the sequel. “But I did get that exoskeleton, and that was pretty darn cool. All of this is so out of the realm of anything I’ve ever done!”

Now that the movie finally came out, Falco will be delighted to know that it did not flop. But she still hasn’t seen it! Though she’ll be happy to know that James Cameron thinks it’s just like The Sopranos.

(Via indieWire)