Top Gun: Maverick could be on a highway to an Oscar nom. The critically-acclaimed sequel to the 1980s classic has been crushing it at the box office, where it’s already circled back for another flyby, and now, the Tom Cruise film is cleaning up on the awards circuit. Top Gun: Maverick just barrel rolled into a Best Film win from the National Board of Review, who also awarded the Joseph Kominski film with Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.
Could Top Gun: Maverick be on its way to Oscar gold? Quite possibly. If the film continues to lock down accolades heading into awards season that’s usually a good sign that an Oscar nom is on the way. Not always, but the odds are in Cruise’s favor. The sequel has been an overwhelming success with both critics and audiences who not only flocked to see it in the theater several times, but also rocketed Maverick to success on the digital video charts. The film is also set for a Paramount+ release just in time for the holidays where it will almost definitely shatter streaming records.
Of course, the film’s biggest success is getting co-star Glen Powell onto the coveted Tom Cruise Christmas Cake list. Sure, being in one of the year’s top pictures that’s got a clean shot at an Oscar is neat, but joining the elite ranks of cake recipients is the real action. Is an Oscar made with white chocolate, coconut, and an ornate box wrapped by Tom Cruise’s assistant? No. No, it is not.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
If you’re missing Key & Peele, we have some good news for you. Multiple seasons of the Comedy Central series will arrive on Netflix in November, so you can get your Hingle McCringleberry on, right from the comfort of your living room. In the meantime, you can enjoy Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s voices (along with that of Angela Bassett) as they play plotting demons who tangle with a teen who digs punk rock. Watch it on Netflix.
Sorry to Mariah Carey but Lindsay Lohan is taking her place as the rightful queen of the holiday season this year. Her throne sits atop the bones of all the Hallmark movies she had to slaughter to get here and every Netflix Christmas flick that follows in her wake will shudder when those first few bars of “Jingle Bell Rock” begin to play. This is the future every millennial raised on The Parent Trap — and the Disney Channel Original movie Life-Size starring Tyra Banks — has manifested. In all seriousness though, this thing looks cute. Lohan plays a hotel heiress who, after a skiing accident, loses her memory and must live amongst the peasants of a snowy mountain town. While there she bonds with a sheriff/single-dad played by Glee’s Chord Overstreet and, presumably, realizes her former life wasn’t as picture perfect as she thought. Watch it on Netflix.
Thank goodness Henry Cavill didn’t sign on to play Superman again before filming this sequel, or there’d be another The Witcher-esque switcheroo in the works. Cavill is back, but more importantly, Millie Bobbie Brown returns as the sassy younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. One of the bigger plot finds roots in the real-life Bryant & May match factory atrocities, but somehow, the overall mood stays light. Enola sets up her own detective shingle and goes undercover, so you can only imagine what hijinks will ensue. Watch it on Netflix.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird Al” Yankovic, obviously. The fake biopic depicts the world’s premier polka-loving pop song parodist as a hard-drinking sex maniac, obviously. It also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, obviously. Should you watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story this weekend on the Roku Channel? Obviously.
Well, guess what: Scrooge is back. In animated form. In a trippy new animated story that features the voices of people like Luke Evans and Olivia Colman. Which is… fine. It’s fine! There’s a reason this story has been told 800 times. People love it! Now, you could just watch The Muppet Christmas Carol instead, if you want. That’s an option. But this is here now, too. So there’s that. Watch it on Netflix.
Netflix dives into another extremely British tale of class-crossing love affairs, this one based on a novel from the 1920s that was banned in many countries for obscenity but is now just a movie you can watch by clicking the button next to, like, The Crown. It’s kind of wild if you think about it, so… let’s not! Watch it on Netflix.
Amy Adams returns in her breakout role, but she’s a princess who actually isn’t having as much fun as she imagined would be the case. Giselle is still married to Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and they’re still searching for their fairy tale. Maya Rudolph climbs onboard for a semi-evil role as a villain of suburbia, and this is all very G-rated material again because c’mon, Disney. The story will be as charming as always, but the real attraction is James Marsden’s returning Idiot Prince. Basically, I just want the Idiot Prince to get plowed down at every opportunity again. Watch it on Disney Plus.
Bullet Train is chaos. Bloody, funny, frivolous, superficial chaos. Nothing and everything happens in this film about a group of assassins all vying for a briefcase that may just offer the biggest payload of their respective careers thus far. It’s jam-packed with action — the fast-paced, tightly-choreographed kind that gives you whiplash if you stare too long – and with a cast of A-listers, the best of which being Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, who play a pair of Brit brothers constantly bickering on the job. It’s got enough twists and surprises to keep you entertained plus Brad Pitt unironically sporting a bucket hat for its two hour runtime. It’s just plain fun. We wish there were more movies like it out there. Watch it on Netflix.
Apple TV+ is getting into the Christmas movie game with this musically inclined re-telling of that classic Dickens tales. Ryan Reynolds plays the modern-day Scrooge here, a guy named Clint Briggs who doesn’t take his holiday haunting lying down. Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present who’s determined to inject a bit of cheer into the proceedings no matter how many musical numbers and tap-dancing solos it takes. As far as Charles Dickens adaptations go, you could do a lot worse. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
In the mood for some space-related superhero business this holiday season? Great! Why not?! Here we have the Guardians of the Galaxy — Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Kevin Bacon a little bit — doing a bunch of Christmas things, for you, all month long. Is it kind of cute and sweet? Sure. Would we pay decent money to have our own lil Groot decorated like a Christmas tree? Of course. Would it be fun if they made a movie next year where Hulk had to take over for Santa due to an emergency? It’s worth considering. But for now, there’s this. Watch it on Disney Plus.
The Reno 911! gang is back, ringing in the holidays with a nod to It’s A Wonderful Life, decaying shopping malls, and American weirdness. Not to oversell, but this laugh-until-your-face-hurts special once again proves that Tom Lennon, Niecy Nash, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Cedric Yarbrough, and company are operating at the top of their game as a collective. Watch it on Comedy Central.
Guillermo del Toro made a stop-action version of the classic “liar puppet becomes a real boy” story and guess what: it’s great! Smart people are saying it’s the best Pinocchio since the first one, which is both high praise and a decently sick burn on the other version that just came out a few months ago. Either way! Feels like a fun one to watch with the family over the holidays. It’s definitely better than, like, talking. No one wants to do that. Let the adorable wooden puppet fill the air with his sweet journey toward being a human. Watch it on Netflix.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Imagine if Lost took place on a transatlantic steamboat and you’ve got the gist of this mystery-drama. Made by the same twisted geniuses that gave us Netflix’s Dark series, this show follows a group of passengers hailing from all over Europe who find themselves stuck on a cursed ship bound for America. After the recent disappearance of another company ship months earlier, everyone on board is a bit on-edge and the tension only escalates when passengers start dying, weird time loops start popping up, and a boy who should be dead arrives with an ominous-looking pyramid that makes everything go haywire. Watch it on Netflix.
Sylvester Stallone portrays a mafia capo who’s not swimming with the fishes. However, he might as well be on Mars in this Taylor Sheridan-created series that takes him to Route 66 and the land of the Golden Driller. Tulsa’s experiencing a hotspot-like effect these days in the midst of Reservation Dogs and following Watchmen, but it’s going to be quite pleasurable to see him as the O.G. who’s dropping a “nice little place you got here” in a weed dispensary. This show looks to be full of 1980s-style one-liners that could put the Sly and Arnold movies of yesteryear to shame. Watch it on Paramount Plus.
Yes, Rob Zombie and Tim Burton are all up in the goth-nostalgia resurrection this fall, but while Zombie veers into wild kitsch, Burton decided to reinvent his character’s mission a bit while creating a “eight-hour Tim Burton movie.” Call it a passion project, of course, while Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán step in as Morticia and Gomez, respectively, and Jenna Ortega slides into view as the title character. Don’t expect a typical reboot feel. Rather, Wednesday is on some missions here, and the show justifies its existence as a separate entity. Watch it on Netflix.
How do you end a show the “right” way? Do you try to say something profound, pay off longtime viewers with fan service, or end with a shocking twist? For Dead To Me‘s just-released final season, the answer is an emphatic yes to all of the above as creator Liz Feldman delivers a triumphant close, leaning on the otherworldly onscreen chemistry of stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as they lead us through the twisty chaos of the show’s central story while dealing with heavy matters of life, family. love, and death before ending on high with a tear and a tease. Watch it on Netflix.
The first season of this spy drama was a trip. There were twists and turns and Emma Corrin from House of the Dragon and at one point Gary Oldman’s character farted himself awake. It was a pretty good time, even if it got dark at times. If you worked your way through season one, it’s time to dive in again. If not, it’s a great time for a binge. You have lots of options, is the point. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
Surprisingly enough, reboot fatigue didn’t happen here. This series sparked enough interest to generate another season of a show that doesn’t have Penn Badgley, Blake Lively, Chace Crawford, or Sebastian Stan, but it’s still got scandal. Gossip Girl’s pulling plenty of strings, of course, while soaring through Manhattan’s most elite circles. As well, the show manages to stand apart from the original with plenty of rightful drama revolving around the new gang. Even if this series doesn’t seem like your type of show, you might not be able to resist getting caught up in the glossy-trash vibe. Watch it on HBO Max.
The Royal family can’t be thrilled about this docuseries that follows not too long after The Crown (fictionally) made Prince Charles look like the pettiest of future kings. This Netflix project follows up on Meghan Markle’s allegations of not-so-great treatment from the Windsors and Prince Harry’s decision to essentially put half a world between all of them. So get ready for all of the controversy to spill forth and for Piers Morgan to probably blow a few fuses in the aftermath. Watch it on Netflix.
It’s easy to think of Mythic Quest, now in its third season, as Rob McElhenney’s “other” show, but that would be a mistake. Yes, sure, he’s best known for the incredibly long-running Always Sunny, which is fair because that show rules. But this one is great, too. It’s sweet and mean and funny and everything a workplace comedy — this time in a video game studio — should be. No television show did a better job of grasping the pandemic while it was still new and really scary, too. Do not miss this because you relegate it to second-tier Mac status. This is the good stuff, too. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
The downside of ambition is explored as sleights move from fuel to an acid rotting the man behind Chippendales to his core even as his creation — clubs featuring all-male strip shows — approaches the apex of its popularity. Starring Kumail Nanjiani in arguably his best work, this 8-episode event series leans into the debauchery of the ’80s as it tells a (true) story about an awkward, hard-working immigrant who dreamt of becoming the next Hugh Hefner before self-destructing. Watch it on Hulu.
Brendan Fraser’s back as the eternally frustrated disembodied brain inside of a robotic body. It is his finest performance (yes yes, we know there’s Oscar chatter elsewhere), and he’s backed up by Diane Guerrero as many iterations of Crazy Jane, along with Matt Bomer as Negative Man, April Bowlby as Elasi-Girl, and Jovian Wade as Cyborg. DC’s misfit superheroes are facing what might be certain doom, but at least some of them other than Fraser’s Cliff got to have a collective orgasm already. Watch it on HBO Max.
I hear what you’re thinking here. The title of this show doesn’t sound particularly fascinating. Maybe it even sounds a little bit pretentious. Yet this show’s actually a satiric little jaunt that turns marriage-divorce drama on its head. Jesse Eisenberg plays the dude whose wife, played by Claire Danes, leaves him and then quite literally leaves the building. He’s suddenly in the midst of parenting and awful dating experiences, and all of this wouldn’t be as fascinating if Eisenberg wasn’t so good at being awkward. He’s flanked by Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody (there are worse companions out there) while trying to find his way. Watch it on Hulu.
The first season of Abbott Elementary was a feel-good network sitcom that caught a massive wave of popularity and won a bunch of Emmys in a time when feel-good network sitcoms are kind of not supposed to do that. Credit for this goes to creator and star Quinta Brunson, who realized that an underfunded inner-city public school was exactly the right place to show us people with good hearts working inside a system that can be cold. Kind of like Parks and Recreation but in Philadelphia. The second season is underway and does not appear to be missing a beat. This is basically a miracle, all around. Watch it on Hulu.
The first season of The White Lotus took the world and the internet by storm with its combination of misery and drama and beautiful Hawaiian scenery. Season two takes the action to a new resort in the White Lotus chain, this one in Italy, and replaces almost the entire cast. “Almost” being the key word here because Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya. Which is good. More shows should be about Jennifer Coolidge going to fancy hotels around the world. This is a nice start. Watch it on HBO Max.
We believe that while certain beer styles fit better during specific times of the year, there are also beers that can easily be enjoyed any day and any old time. Winter, spring, summer, or fall. And there might be no better, do-it-all, any-time beer than the classic, crisp pilsner.
Just think about it…
If you had to commit to one beer style to drink in the middle of a long stretch of humid summer heat AND the frigid, winter chill, which style would you want? We think the pilsner is the only correct answer. This straw-colored, crisp, easy-drinking beer goes down easy whatever the weather.
Since pilsners are great any time of year, they’re also a perfect respite from the robust, rich stouts and porters of the season. But instead of simply grabbing just any pilsner, we suggest trying something a little underappreciated and undervalued. Keep scrolling to see eight great underrated pilsners, ranked by overall flavor.
We know that Miller High Life is referred to as the “Champagne of Beers,” but it doesn’t have the word in its name and it definitely doesn’t mention velvet anywhere. This crisp, easy-drinking pilsner’s name conjures up images of velvet paintings, good times, and no-frills beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all cereal grains, sweet malts, citrus, and light pine. It’s not overly exciting by any means. The flavor follows suit with light citrus, caramel malts, and gently bitter pine. It’s not a very flavorful beer. It’s light, fairly watery, and… serves its purpose.
Bottom Line:
Upland didn’t make this beer to blow the beer community away. They made it to bring back a crisp, easy-drinking, no-frills beer. That’s all it is.
This German-style pilsner is named for the city where Destihl is brewed (Normal, Illinois). It’s known for its light pale color, floral hops, and bready malts, it’s a crisp, refreshing beer for any time of year.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find light citrus zest, bread-like malts, sweet cereal grains, and lightly floral hops. The palate follows suit completely with caramel malts, citrus, and herbal hops. It’s crisp, sweet, and fairly simple.
Bottom Line:
Destihl Normal Pils might be the most aptly named beer. It tastes just like a “normal” pilsner. It’s not going to blow your mind, but it’s pleasant enough to come back to again and again.
This crisp, simple German-style pilsner has been brewed by Breakside since 2012. It gets its classic flavor from the addition of Pilsner and Carapils malts as well as Hallertau, Liberty, and Mittelfruh hops.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’ll find aromas of cereal grains, sweet honey, bready malts, and floral hops. Drinking it reveals a more bready malt backbone followed by light citrus, honey, and herbal, earthy hops at the finish. It’s well-balanced but fairly light in the flavor department overall.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for an easy-drinking, classic German-style pilsner with little to no frills, this is a great beer choice for you. If you’re looking for more flavor, look elsewhere.
This straw-colored, 5.5% ABV German-style beer is authentic as American-made pilsners can get. Brewed with both German hops as well as German malts, it’s known for its clean, crisp, slightly sweet, floral flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Bready malts, honey, cereal grains, lemon zest, and freshly cut grass greet your nose before your first sip. The palate is highlighted by notes of cracker-like malts, fresh hay, cereal grains, citrus zest, and herbal, floral, slightly bitter hops. It’s light, refreshing, and balanced.
Bottom Line:
Highland Pilsner is a great beer for authentically made American pilsners. Its German malts and hops give it a traditional flavor profile that’s sure to impress pilsner fans.
This 4.9% ABV Kellerpils-style beer is made with a mix of Colorado malts and Czech hops and yeast. It’s a crisp, balanced beer that bridges the gap between old-world techniques and American craft beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a symphony of sweet grains, yeast, citrus peels, fruit esters, and floral, herbal hops. The palate continues this trend with more yeast, bready malts, freshly cut grass, lemon zest, and herbal, earthy hops trying everything together. The finish is dry, crisp, and refreshing.
Bottom Line:
TRVE Cold is a little different from some of the other pilsners on this list — it’s a kellerpils, sublimely dry and highly drinkable.
Another kellerpils, Crooked Stave Von Pilsner is brewed using floor-malted barley and German hops. It’s unfiltered, clean, and loaded with sweet malts and floral, herbal, and slightly bitter hops. It was crafted to taste like a traditional pilsner like those made for centuries.
Tasting Notes:
Cereal grains, pilsner malts, lemongrass, and earthy, herbal piney hops are prevalent on the nose. On the palate, you’ll be treated to more lemon flavor, cereal grains, bready malts, yeast, and mineral, earthy, floral, slightly bitter hops. The finish is a gentle mix of sweetness and bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This beer ticks all the pilsner boxes. It has a nice malty backbone, light citrus, and a nice hoppy bite. It’s very well-balanced and highly refreshing.
You might have some difficulty pronouncing this beer’s name, but you shouldn’t have any problem drinking it. According to Urban Chestnut, “Stammtisch” is a German word used to refer to a table of regulars at a bar or restaurant. It’s brewed with Hallertau and Strisselspalt hops and is supposed to be enjoyed with your group of “regulars.”
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of bready malts, cereal grains, clover honey, pale malts, and grassy, herbal hops start everything off well on the nose. Drinking it brings forth flavors of yeast, fruit easter, bready malts, honey, citrus zest, and herbal hops. The finish is sweet, malty, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
While this pilsner is fairly well-balanced and loaded with flavors, it’s maltier and sweeter than some of the other beers on this list and it’s definitely not a bad thing.
Half Acre is the type of brewery that makes only great beer. Its Pony pilsner might not have the accolades of some of its other beers, but it deserves your attention. This year-round pilsner is known for its mix of bread-like sweet malts and herbal, floral Noble hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is fairly light with cracker-like malts, honey, lemon zest, wet grass, and herbal, piney hops. The palate picks it up a bit with notes of lemon peel, orange zest, honey, cereal grains, bready malts, and floral, herbal, Noble hops. It’s crisp, clean, and highly drinkable.
Bottom Line:
It’s tough to pick between a handful of well-made pilsners and choose only one winner since they’re all fairly similar. But Half Acre’s Pony Pilsner is totally crushable while also being filled with flavor. A truly memorable beer.
There was a celebratory atmosphere across the world of sports, as Griner’s detention for the minor offense of having hashish oil cartridges in her luggage has been a dark cloud over basketball and only exacerbated tensions between the United States and Russia. However, some chose to express frustration rather than celebrate the swap the Biden administration agreed to, as it meant U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who has been in Russian custody for four years, was staying there. Cowboys star linebacker Micah Parsons was among those, as his tweets following the Griner news breaking became quite the talking point online.
TwitterTwitter
Many were quick to point out to Parsons that he needed to study up a bit more on the situation, with his mentions being flooded with replies linking to the Whelan family’s statement, which noted their disappointment that Paul remained in Russia but commended the administration for getting a deal done rather than waiting for one that would never be available.
NEW from the Whelan family: “There is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed & for them to go home. The Biden Admin made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, & to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to..”
That’s never what you want, and unsurprisingly Parsons tweeted out an apology later noting that he had spoken with people he trusted and further educated himself on the situation, noting his initially tweet was “out of emotion.”
Twitter
It’s honestly a good lesson to us all in these situations where we are encouraged to have a take immediately about a lot of things that are incredibly complex that it’s often best just to not tweet. Parsons quickly learned that lesson as someone with a massive platform, and as he noted in his apology, this was the best that could be done in the situation based on all the reporting available to us publicly. Matters of foreign diplomacy, particularly those involving a regime like in Russia that’s not friendly with the U.S., are quite delicate and complicated, and even if you’re one of the best players in the NFL, it’s just an area well outside most of our expertise.
That said, Pass Rush Limbaugh is some inspired work from the internet and that’s something we can all enjoy.
There’s a lot you can tell about a person by their search history (unless they’re a murder-mystery writer, in which case no one should jump to conclusions). And our search habits on the whole can tell us a lot about ourselves as a collective as well.
For better or for worse, what we look up on the internet is an indicator of what we care about, and Google’s Year in Search report gives us some insight into what we cared about this past year.
There are reports for different countries as well as a global report. Let’s start with what my fellow Americans looked up, shall we?
To be clear, these search terms were not the “top searches” or “most searched terms” on Google, but rather the top trending searches—the search terms that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period of time as compared to the year before.
The top 10 trending searches for 2022 overall:
Wordle
Election results
Betty White
Queen Elizabeth
Bob Saget
Ukraine
Mega Millions
Powerball numbers
Anne Heche
Jeffrey Dahmer
Wow, right? Some of these things don’t seem right. I know pandemic time is weird, but Wordle was a 2022 phenomenon? (Am I the only one who would have sworn that happened way earlier in the pandemic? I guess when you play a game every day it makes it seem like a lot more time has passed.) And Betty White? (To be fair, she passed away on the very last day of 2021, so all of the tributes and whatnot happened in 2022.)
Queen Elizabeth, of course. Ukraine, ugh, yes. The fact that Jeffrey Dahmer is on here is both a testament to the power of Netflix and a disturbing insight into people’s morbid curiosity.
Anne Heche, tragic. Bob Saget, sad. Election results totally depends on your perspective, but glad to see people caring about the democratic process.
The Year in Search categories are telling as well.
For people, we had:
Johnny Depp
Will Smith
Amber Heard
Antonio Brown
Kari Lake
Anna Sorokin (Delvey)
Chris Rock
Andrew Tate
Adam Levine
Serena Williams
I just don’t think there’s even a need to comment about most of these. Yikes.
And oof, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” What a beautifully done film.
Musicians and bands is an interesting mix:
Adam Levine
Mary J. Blige
Lil Tjay
Kendrick Lamar
Migos
Tommy Lee
Kate Bush
Ricky Martin
Young Thug
Foo Fighters
Eclectic, no? Some of these I can connect to specific things that happened this year, like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” going viral from its appearance in “Stranger Things” and Foo Fighters from drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death, but some are a mystery to me. Maybe I don’t want to know.
Let’s move away from entertainment and head to food.
Here are the top recipe trends in the U.S. for 2022:
Sugo
Cincinnati chili
Marry me chicken
Quick pancake
Mango pie
Green goddess salad
Jennifer Aniston salad
Grinder sandwich
Bella Hadid sandwich
The Bear spaghetti
Marry me chicken? I might have to Google that myself. (Don’t tell anyone, but I’m also going to Google “sugo” because I’m embarrassed to admit I have no idea what that is.)
Speaking of Googling things you don’t know—want to see what definition searches trended in 2022?
Rupee
Oligarch
Cacao
Homer
Recession
Canny
Foray
Trove
Saute
Tacit
So curious about what prompted most of these trends.
All of the above can be found on the published Year in Search lists, but Google also sent us some trends that didn’t make it into the list, such as:
Is it true that …
Is it true that TikTok is posting drafts?
Is it true that the pinky is the middle finger in China?
Is it true that Putin has cancer?
Is it true that coffee stunts your growth?
Is it true that cats have nine lives?
Is it true that Fortnite is ending?
Is it true that Queen Elizabeth died?
Is it true that Chuck Norris died?
Is it true that if you dream about someone they went to sleep thinking about you?
Is it true that Yahoo is shutting down?
What is …
What is NATO?
What is monkeypox?
What is rsv?
What is Wordle?
What is aphasia?
What is a NFT?
What is a recession?
What is vabbing?
What is Roe v. Wade?
What is the Wordle today?
How to be …
How to be a good mother?
How to be a better lover?
How to be perfect?
How to be an adult in relationships?
How to be a verified fan on Ticketmaster?
How to be a nun in BitLife?
How to be emo?
How to be that girl?
How to be enough for someone?
How to be a fashion designer in BitLife?
OK, wait. I am perpetually online and I have three teen/young adult kids. How have I never heard of BitLife when it’s in two of these “How to be” trending searches?
I kind of love “How to be an adult in relationships?” Kudos to those trying.
Interestingly, many of the global trends were similar to the U.S. searches, showing how interconnected we all are. However, the global recipes trends are very different:
It’s been quite a year and it’s good to take a moment to remember and reflect on all that’s happened in 2022. There were a lot of big things—the war in Ukraine, the passing of Queen Elizabeth and Betty White, our collective obsession with Wordle, and more. It’s also telling what’s not in these trends—notably, most references to the COVID-19 pandemic (which we are still in, despite most people being over it at this point).
Kind of makes you wonder what trending searches 2023 will bring, doesn’t it? Let’s make “street tacos” and “world peace” happen, please.
Love stories can take many twists and turns. But for one couple, one such detour lasted more than 40 years. In 1972, Jeanne Gustavson met Steve Watts at the German club at Loyola University and was instantly attracted. Their love story should’ve continued from this day forward, but sadly it was cut short when Gustavason abruptly broke up with the man she loved.
Gustavason explained to CBS News that her mother did not approve of her interracial relationship and wasn’t shy about expressing her disdain for the couple. This disapproval of the courtship is what led to the breakup. Eventually, Gustavason and Watts married and divorced other people, but they never forgot about the love that ended too soon.
You’d think after four decades apart and all the life lived in between that the pair would have fully moved on. But it seems that true love really doesn’t die because Gustavason went looking for Watts in 2021, and she found him.
However, Watts had experienced several major setbacks in life, including two strokes that had left him bedridden. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the couple’s love and determination to be together. The soon-to-be-bride arranged for her long lost love to be moved from the nursing home into her home in Portland, Oregon, where she took on caregiving duties.
Though things may look different, these two love birds are getting their happily ever after. The pair recently got married surrounded by friends and family, and now they can live out the rest of their days making up for the time spent apart.
Celine Dion has shared the devastating news that she has been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome.
In an emotional video to her fans, the 54-year-old French-Canadian singer apologized for taking so long to reach out and explained that her health struggles have been difficult to talk about.
“As you know, I have always been an open book, and I wasn’t ready to say anything before. But I’m ready now.”
While she has been dealing with health problems for a long time, doctors have only recently figured out why, and the diagnosis means she has to cancel her upcoming shows and reschedule her European tour.
“I have been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome, which affects something like one in a million people,” Dion said. “While we’re still learning about this rare condition, we now know this is what’s been causing all of the spasms that I’ve been having. Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”
Dion expresses hope, but stiff person syndrome is a tough diagnosis, especially for a professional singer. The condition is marked by stiffening muscles in the trunk and abdomen, progressively moving to the legs and other extremities. Other symptoms include painful muscle spasms that can occur randomly or be triggered by noise, emotional stress or physical touch. These spasms can last minutes or hours and can be severe enough to dislocate limbs or break bones.
The severity of symptoms and speed of decline vary from person to person. Treatments and therapies can help manage symptoms, but much about the disorder remains a mystery. There is no known cause and no cure at this time.
The pain of processing this news is apparent in Dion’s video message to her fans. “All I know is singing,” she said. “It’s what I’ve done all my life. And it’s what I love to do the most.”
“I miss you so much,” she added. “I miss seeing all of you. Being on the stage, performing for you. I always give 100% when I do my shows, but my condition is not allowing me to give you that right now. For me to reach you again, I have no choice but to concentrate on my health at this moment. And I have hope that I am on the road to recovery.”
Celine Dion is consistently ranked as one of the top female vocalists of all time and has performed live in front of millions in countless sold-out shows. She is known not only for her unique vocal quality and wide range, but for her passion and dedication to her craft, as well as to her fans.
No one wants to get a diagnosis like this, but for someone who loves performing above all else, it’s particularly heartbreaking. Thankfully, Dion is surrounded by love and support from family, friends and fans who will lift her up and help her through whatever the future brings. Wishing her all the best as she faces this daunting challenge.
You might be surprised to hear this, but cask strength doesn’t mean higher proof (than your average whiskey). Sure, you’ll find many bourbons, single malt Scotch whiskies, and other whisk(e)ys in the 60% range and beyond that are also labeled as cask strength or barrel proof, but the designation is not a guarantee of ABVs. The term cask strength is specifically used by whiskey (and to a lesser degree rum) distillers and blenders to designate an expression that wasn’t diluted after its maturation (though a lot of whiskeys are cut with water before they go into the cask/barrel).
Regardless of the alcohol content, the term is fairly eye-catching and has grown extremely popular with whiskey fans. This means that there are a ton of cask-strength and barrel-strength whiskeys on the market today. To find the best, we went to the source, asking a handful of well-known whisky distillers and experts to tell us the best cask-strength American-made whiskeys to drink right now. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks!
The best cask-strength bourbon (that I don’t make) has to be Booker’s. The first time I tried it, the bottle was in the 130 proof-wise, maybe even 140. You can’t tell me something made that well at that high a proof isn’t exciting. But the crazy thing is, it’s also delicious.
Tasting Notes:
At first, the aroma comes across like walking into a leather shop. It’s a very specific sense memory, but that’s my experience. Then the palate shows these deep, rich flavors of brown sugar, tobacco, and cherry and it hardly gets more comforting when it comes to whiskey.
If I am drinking a whiskey at cask strength, more often than not it is something very old or exclusive where I know the maker wanted me to taste it completely unadulterated, and those will be the more delicate refined side rather than a bang-your-head with alcohol kind of thing.
I tried Still Austin’s new Cask Strength recently and was super impressed. I’d sip that one again for sure.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of dried cherries and oak greets you before you’re immersed in candied pecans, brown sugar, and toasted vanilla beans.
Four Roses Private Selection Barrel Strength Bourbon
Four Roses
Jeremy Kasler, CEO of CaskX, a bourbon cask investment firm in Los Angeles
You can’t go wrong with a Four Roses Private Selection Barrel Strength if you can find one. While the proof and the recipes can vary, I’ve never had one I didn’t like. If you’re a Four Roses fan, just imagine the bourbon served straight from the barrel (minus the flecks of char).
Tasting Notes:
The flavors here are bold and extreme, but also quite delightful with a bouquet of baked fruit and citrus, followed by layers of caramel, dark chocolate, toasted almonds, and black pepper. If you find one, grab it. You won’t be disappointed.
Balcones Brujeria Single Malt Whiskey
Balcones
Colin Keegan, founder of Santa Fe Spirits in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Balcones Brujeria, a Single Malt – 125.8 proof – As with all Balcones whiskies this is a really bold, tasty whiskey. This is the best Sherry cask-finished whiskey I have had.
Tasting Notes:
Spiced nuts, figs, melons, and honey. Holiday pie baking notes, black tea, and mushrooms on the taste. A long rich finish, with seemingly no end.
Lost Lantern Boulder Spirits Peated Colorado Single Malt
I enjoy Stagg Jr. and Weller Full Proof just as much as the next guy or gal, but there are plenty of quality cask-strength bottles that are readily available. I’m a big fan of anything from Lost Lantern. They visit distilleries from all over the country and buy single barrels to release under their own label at cask strength. Everything they release is of quality, so it’s always a safe bet.
One of their best is Lost Lantern Boulder Spirits Peated Colorado Single Malt. It’s a heavily peated single malt that was matured for five years.
Tasting Notes:
This single malt starts with dried fruits, chocolate, candied orange peels, and vanilla. It’s all enveloped with smoky, robust peat.
Frey Ranch Single Barrel Bourbon. This whiskey’s grain is grown by the distiller’s farm making it a real field to bottle straight bourbon barrel-strength whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Many notable flavors make this an iconic whiskey. The most prevalent are oak, corn, bitter cocoa, and a pine spice finish.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon
Elijah Craig
LC May, grandson of Clyde May and brand ambassador at Clyde May’s Whiskey in Troy, Alabama
While there are a ton of excellent cask strength offerings out there, I have always been a fan of the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof offering. It’s big, bold, high-proof, complex, and surprisingly well-priced.
Tasting Notes:
The profile is full of a pepper spice that doesn’t overwhelm despite the proof, while surprisingly managing to have a nose of dried orchard fruits.
Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel Bourbon
Blanton’s
Rebecca Running, CEO of Darco Spirits in Philadelphia
Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel is one of my favorites. It has a huge taste profile with amazing flavors. This is the treat at the end of a long day or to finish off a great dinner. It’s the perfect nightcap.
Tasting Notes:
Honey, butterscotch, raisins, vanilla beans, and rich oak are the main flavors. Adding water only heightens these flavors.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is one of the best cask-strength bourbons on the market. It has a vanilla and burnt caramel flavor that makes it great. I also enjoy Maker’s Mark Cask Strength. If I had to pick one of the two, it would be Maker’s Mark Cask Strength. It’s complex and well-balanced.
Tasting Notes:
Candied almonds, dried fruits, oak, vanilla, and buttery caramel round out the key flavors that make it such a memorable bourbon.
My favorite cask-strength bourbon is the same as my favorite beginner bourbon. George T. Stagg is hard to beat when it comes to higher-proof bourbons. It’s so good, it changed my perception of what a bourbon could be.
Tasting Notes:
The main flavors that make this whiskey so great are notes of vanilla beans, pipe tobacco, dried cherries, dark chocolate, and buttery toffee.
When Microsoft announced its intentions to purchase software development company, Activision Blizzard, it made massive waves across the video game industry. It made sense why, because how can the potential purchase of the producer of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush not be seen as a big deal? Especially for a number that was close to $70 billion. If this deal goes through, it would not only be the largest purchase in the history of video games but one of the largest company mergers we have ever seen.
Unsurprisingly, with a purchase this big it was going to get a pretty deep look from the Federal Trade Commission to make sure it wasn’t considered a monopoly or require an antitrust suit. Microsoft has been adamant since the announced purchase that not only should this not be considered a monopoly, but that it would make efforts to ensure that it was being fair to competitors. They’ve already made moves to try and prove that by saying Activision franchises like Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation. For the FTC those assurances have not been enough, because on Thursday the FTC sued Microsoft in an attempt to block the purchase, via The Washington Post.
In a sourced report from the Washington Post, it was explained that the reasons behind the FTC’s lawsuit are not only because of the fairness for current console competitors to Microsoft such as Sony and Nintendo but also in regards to the future of gaming. With Microsoft spending the last few years investing so heavily into non-traditional areas such as the cloud and subscription services, the FTC reportedly sees the purchase of Activision Blizzard as a way to give Microsoft an advantage in those two areas in particular. Both Microsoft and the FTC released statements in response to the lawsuit.
Microsoft President Brad Smith signaled that the company would fight the lawsuit, saying in a statement that the company has “been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns.” “While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court,” Smith said.
…
“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, the FTC’s Bureau of Competition director, said in a news release. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
What’s important to note here is this lawsuit does not ensure the deal is off. All it means is that Microsoft is going to have to come up with a pretty good defense for why their purchase should go through. How well they do that will determine if Activision remains independent or is eventually purchased.
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