Sure, dealing with different time zones around the world is a headache. But can you imagine dealing with completely different years?
As mind-boggling as it sounds, this is the case in Ethiopia. While the rest of the world is currently living in 2022, in Ethiopia the year is currently 2014.
And suddenly we have all become Robin Williams’ character from “Jumanji.”
Where most of us are used to the Gregorian calendar, marked with 12 months of 28-31 days, the Ethiopian calendar consists of 13 months … sort of.
You see, each and every month has exactly 30 days, except for that bonus 13th month (called Pagumen), which has five days. Unless of course it’s a leap year. Then it has six.
That makes the Ethiopian calendar seven years and eight months behind the Western calendar, according to the BBC. Good luck buying the right airline ticket.
Not only is the Ethiopian calendar several days behind, but the entire concept of time is vastly different. Rather than 24 hours in a day, Ethiopian time uses a 12-hour day, from dawn to dusk, then dusk to dawn. Meaning 6 a.m. is noon, 6 p.m. is midnight. Up is down. And down is periwinkle. Is your head buzzing yet?
And now the real question: why?
Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, the oldest African country has never been colonized. And therefore, it calculates the birth of Christ differently. The BBC reports that when the Catholic Church amended its calculation in 500 AD, the Ethiopian Orthodox church didn’t.
As such, Ethiopians (similar to several other cultures) don’t celebrate New Year’s in December. Their holiday, called Enkutatash, takes place on September 11, or September 12 on leap years.
Whoa.
And while we’re on the subject, Enkutatash sounds like a pretty amazing shindig. Sure, there are gifts, children singing, all that. But the real point of attraction? The coffee ceremony. Which can last for hours. Heaven is a place on Earth. And it’s found in Ethiopia.
Of course, Ethiopia isn’t the only country that technically has a very different year. I mean, the Thailand calendar—based on Buddha, not Jesus—is all the way in 2565! After all, there are as many ways of measuring time as there cultures throughout history.
A recent video posted to TikTok brought the Ethiopian calendar to the forefront of people’s minds.
To say that the now viral clip brought up some fun comments would be an understatement. Time might be a construct, but it’s also apparently a big conversation starter.
TikTok exposed me to knowing Ethiopia is in a different year from us and it’s lowkey been creeping me out
I thought I should remind you that Ethiopia is approximately 7 years behind the rest of us. Today’s date in Ethiopia is Monday 27th July, 2014. So if there’s something u wish u did in 2014, u can go to Ethiopia, do it and go back to your country.(2022).
every time I tell people that Ethiopia follows a different calendar, it short circuits their brain and I get to witness the exact moment everything they thought they knew come into question lmaooooo https://t.co/tfeMNhkiQJ
While coordinating schedules might be daunting, it’s cool to see that even though we are living on the same planet, we can still be living in very different worlds.
Having breastfed three babies who didn’t take kindly to being given a bottle, I can attest to the fact that a hungry baby will not automatically eat what they’re given just because they’re hungry. My babies seemed genuinely offended whenever someone would try to feed them with a bottle, even if it was breastmilk inside it. Offended and angry. Spittin’ mad. It wasn’t pretty.
When you’re trying to get a breastfed baby to take a bottle, there are some tips and tricks people recommend. But one grandpa created his own method that seems to have worked smashingly for the kiddo, while also providing some entertainment and laughter for everyone else.
In a video shared by Wendy Rangel on TikTok, a man is shown putting a bottle through a hole in his t-shirt with a caption that reads, “My godson won’t take the bottle so my dad tried something.” The man checks to make sure milk comes out of the bottle’s nipple, then cradles the baby to his “breast” to eat—and it totally works!
The laughter from the woman filming is the best part, though. Watch:
To all the dads out there who struggle with their little ones not taking the bottle 😂💀 #fyp #foryou #parati #fypシ #4u #grandchild
The video was originally shared at the end of 2020 and got nearly 9 million views. People in the comments loved the dad’s ingenuity and willingness to do what it takes to make sure the little guy was fed and happy.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and sometimes that means cutting a hole in your shirt to “breastfeed” a baby from a bottle. The fact that this gentleman did it standing up is pretty impressive, and his little bounce once he got bebe latched on was so sweet.
Keeping babies content and well-nourished seems like it shouldn’t be terribly complicated, but it can be, especially when routines get disrupted. As adorable as they are, babies can be frustrating when they’re not on board with what you’re trying to get them to do. Kudos to this grandpa for keeping calm and getting creative in the face of an unwilling wee one. Maybe there’s a T-shirt business idea in the works here…
Boy, Megyn Kelly’s had quite an adventurous last handful of years. She went from dodging Ted Nugent flirtations (such as they were) to standing up to Donald Trump to leaving Fox News, only to have to leave TODAY after some very unsavory remarks. Nowadays, she’s hosting The Megyn Kelly Show on Sirius XM, where things got fairly awkward (with Dave Rubin on hand as guest) when the subject of swinging came up.
This happened (in the above video) at around the 1:50 mark, where Megyn switched the subject to swinging and (via Mediaite) expressed how“[h]ere in Connecticut we did actually find out that there’s a healthy swinging population.” She elaborated upon how this is happening “everywhere,” yet no one has invited herself and her husband, Doug Brunt, to join in the parties. And Megyn also clarified that she wouldn’t be into it, at least partially because “my only belief is that only unattractive people are swingers” and “[i]f you’re very good looking, and you marry another very good looking person, why would you want to swing?”
There would be one sort-of exception for Megyn, and that’s if the Clintons came calling. This was, of course, a joke, but Megyn admitted that she’d be curious enough to at least investigate circumstances if it happened. “If Bill and Hillary ask us to swing, we’re doing it!” Megyn declared. “We’re not going to see it through till the end but we’ll definitely see how far are they going to take it! At what point is this going to get shut down?”
To be fair, Megyn only indulged the Clinton detail because Rubin brought up how the former First Couple is up in New England, too, but Rubin clarified that he wasn’t interested. “You know Bill is definitely maxing out those things right now,” he quipped. “Nobody wants a part of that.” My, what a turn that took.
Most Saturday Night Live hosts like to make a big deal about how hosting is like a ‘dream come true!’ or mention that they had been a fan of the show since they were little. Not Kim Kardashian, who recently admitted she has never actually seen the long-running sketch series (featuring her boyfriend Pete Davidson) before hosting it earlier this season.
While chatting on the Not Skinny But Not Fatpodcast with Amanda Hirsch, Kardashian said that while she had been asked to host before, she had never actually seen a full show until she was slated to host. “I didn’t want to go and embarrass myself and get up there and not be funny,” the businesswoman said. “But I had never seen an episode, really, of SNL. I had gone and watched parts obviously because you know, Kanye performed so many times. ” West has performed seven times over the last two decades.
“So I’d been there in the audience, and then I’d seen a full show in person once. But as far as watching the show, I didn’t really know what the monologue entailed.” Kardashian then said she had watched several monologues to prepare for her own.
Kardashian did a pretty solid monologue, so she definitely did some research before hosting. “I wasn’t worried about the monologue, I was worried about all the skit,” she added, perhaps hinting at her on-screen kiss with Pete Davidson. She also had help from her family, who appeared in a courtroom sketch with Judge Kim. At least she eventually put in the work!!
The world has changed a lot since 1987, when President Ronald Reagan famously told Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall and The Cosby Show ruled the airwaves (eek!). But Donald Trump was as much of a nincompoop then as he is now, as Ari Melber thoughtfully reminded us.
On Tuesday night, as Mediaite shared, the MSNBC host shared a clip of the future president appearing on an episode of Crossfire with Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden. Perhaps Trump should have consulted with “John Barron,” his imaginary publicist alter ego, before appearing on the show, because he was ill-prepared for even the simplest of questions: Who are your favorite authors?
While Trump was able to spout off Tom Wolfe’s name rather quickly, it soon became clear that he probably had no idea who Wolfe actually was. When Buchanan asked Trump whether he had read The Bonfire of the Vanities yet, which was then brand-new and every New Yorker’s favorite book, Trump lamented that he had not.
When Braden chimed in to ask “What book are you reading now?,” Trump seemed perplexed by the very idea of reading. But claimed that he was reading The Art of the Deal, his own (ghostwritten) book “again, because I think it’s so fantastic.”
Perhaps sensing there was a bullshitter in their midst, Buchanan decided to press the matter:
Buchanan: What’s the best book you’ve read besides Art of the Deal?
Trump: Ummm… I really liked Tom Wolfe’s last book.
Buchanan: Which book?
Trump: He’s, uh, his current book. His, his, just his current book; it’s just out.
Buchanan: Bonfire of the Vanities.
Trump: Yes.
“That was the book he just said he hadn’t read,” Melber summarized for those who got lost in the stupidity of the whole back and forth.
Bushmills is an icon of the whiskey world. The tipple from Northern Ireland has been around for hundreds of years and has a devoted fan base. But as with all whiskey brands, there’s more than just one bottle of Bushmills out there. The line has a pretty deep bench of core expressions, eight to be exact, that each offers a little something different.
When it comes to what Bushmills is, it’s Irish to its core. That means we’re looking at triple distilled whiskey. Generally, Bushmills (like most Irish whiskey) is a blend of malted barley and grain (a mix of corn, wheat, and barley) whiskeys. Those whiskeys are generally aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before blending or final maturation processes. Bushmills also has a core line of single malt whiskeys that go through the same process as the blends but with very different results, which I’ll get into.
Below, I’m going to break down each of the core Bushmills bottles by taste and then rank them. But a word of warning first: Ranking a whole line like this isn’t about saying “don’t buy this, buy that.” This is more about ranking these whiskeys by how to use them. The bottom rung bottles are simple whiskeys that are made to be mixed in highballs with fizzy mineral water, Coke, or ginger ale. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, it just means they’re not going to blow any minds. That said, the top three or so whiskeys on this list are pretty damn fine sippers. In between, you’ll find whiskeys that industry folks call “workhorse” whiskeys. Those are the ones that work in a highball, can stand out in a cocktail, and also manage as a sipper if need be.
This whiskey is primarily made for the U.S. market. The juice is a classic triple-distilled malt and grain whiskey blend that’s aged in first-fill bourbon casks (that means this whiskey was the first thing to go in the barrel after bourbon).
Tasting Notes:
That bourbon vanilla really shines through on the nose with a touch of wood and a slight nuttiness. The taste holds onto the vanilla as it gets slightly creamy, with thin hints of honey, caramel, and a touch of dark spice mingling with warm malts. The end is short and sweet and leaves you with a twinge of malty alcohol burn.
Bottom Line:
Mix this with Coke and ginger ale. You can maybe take it as a shot with a beer back, but it’s a bit harsh for that.
This is Bushmill’s classic and “original” recipe. The triple-distilled grain and malt juices are rested in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before they’re married, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a balance of honey and nuts on the nose with a hint of dark berries. The palate delivers on that — in true Irish whiskey fashion — and adds in a slight caramel and vanilla vibe in the background. The malts and grains carry the taste to a short end, with a slight oatiness next to the honey, fruit, and nuts.
Bottom Line:
Okay, this is the Bushmills I’d order if I was ordering a shot and a beer. It’s also pretty damn good with some ginger ale and a twist of lime.
The first expression in Bushmill’s single malt range is a winner. The juice is made from Irish barley and matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The best barrels are married, proofed with soft Northern Irish spring water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a very clear sense of apples (a lot of them), vanilla, pie crust, and chocolate malts on the nose. The palate really delivers on those flavors with spicy stewed apple pie with a buttery yet almost savory crust, plenty of fresh honey, and an underbelly of those almost creamy choco-malts. The finish is medium length, full of apples, dry wicker, and plenty of spicy malts.
Bottom Line:
I’d like to say this is a sipper, but that’d be a tad too generous. This really shines best as a highball base with some nice fizzy water and a lime or lemon wedge or in a simple cocktail. Beyond that, it’s a bit of an apple bomb on the nose and palate and not a whole lot else to grab your attention.
This whiskey is a more refined version of the white label. The juice is a blend of grain and malt whiskeys aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The final blend, however, leans more into the single malt juice than the grain whiskey with a balance set towards the sherry profile rather than the bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
A sherry jamminess and plumminess come through with a hint of vanilla, apricot, winter spices, and nuts on the nose. The palate carries on along that path and adds in a serious Christmas spice matrix with amped-up nuttiness, sultanas, and a touch more vanilla. The end is fairly quick and sherry-fueled with spice and dried fruits leading the way to a slightly malty finish.
Bottom Line:
This feels like it could either be a simple shooter or a decent on the rocks sipper depending on your mood. It’s not reinventing anything or life-changing whiskey but it isn’t meant to be either. This is just good, simple, and tasty whiskey.
This whiskey is the first step up in the single malt line from the 10. The juice is triple-distilled malt whisky that spends nine years resting in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before it’s transferred into Marsala wine casks for final maturation. That whiskey is then batched, proofed, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of apple blossoms on the nose that’s supported by walnut and almond shells with a hint of spicy malts by way of an apple fritter. The palate leans dry as the apple turns into apple chips with a dry cider vibe next to dark chocolate malts, more of those nutshells, and a hint of leathery apple tobacco leaf. The finish is slightly muted by the proofing water but still shines with applewood, dark chocolate powder, and a mild nuttiness.
Bottom Line:
This is a good bridge between mixing and sipping Bushmills bottles. I tend to use this for mixing cocktails. It makes a hell of an old fashioned. That said, this works as an end-of-the-day on the rocks sipper too.
The juice on this one is made with Irish malts and then aged for 19 long years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Those barrels are batched and that whiskey then spends an additional two years maturing in a Portuguese Madeira cask.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a deep, dark chocolate malt vibe on the nose with flourishes of marzipan, prunes, mulled wine spices, old saddle leather, and a hint of shortbread. The taste kicks in with a rich and buttery dark toffee covered in roasted almonds with a hint of dried fruit and dried choco-malts with a light twinge of dried tobacco leaf. The end is fairly long and holds onto those dried fruits and bitter chocolate malts while leaving you with flavors of sweet and silky toffee and a very distant echo of applewood tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This is very clearly a stellar sipper. Still, it’s not quite the sweet spot of the single malt lineup. It’s nuanced but could use a little more oomph.
This single malt whiskey starts off by getting triple distilled. It’s then aged for 15 years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The batched juice is then transferred to port pipes for a final nine-month rest before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
This starts out with a spicy red berry jam next to a whiff of marzipan laced with bourbon vanilla, a hint of old leather, apple cores, and a light Christmas cake spice on the nose. That almond creates a smooth foundation with more of that spicy red jam alongside an apple/honeyed sweetness and velvet mouthfeel while those wintry spices meld with the malts to create a berry-cinnamon tobacco profile. The end of this one is long-ish as the spice, jammy fruit, and almond paste slowly fade out, leaving you warmed with a sense of malts and dark fruit.
Bottom Line:
This really is the sweet spot of the whole lineup. It’s accessible and deeply hewn. Add a single rock to this and you’ll be set. That said, we haven’t quite reached the mountaintop yet.
1. Bushmills Single Malt Aged 28 Years Cognac Cask
This whiskey — created by Master Blender Helen Mulholland — was the first release in Bushmills’ new “Rare Cask” limited edition line. The whiskey is classic Bushmills single malt, which is triple distilled, that’s aged for eleven years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. Then the whiskey is transferred into Cognac casks for a final maturation of 17 more years. That whiskey is lightly proofed down and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
You’re greeted with a nose full of apple tobacco with plenty of woody cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and allspice next to a hint of marzipan laced with orange oils and covered in dark chocolate next to a big minced meat pie. The sip takes you home for the holidays with a silky mouthfeel next to more marzipan, more spicy minced meat, a hint of sticky toffee pudding with black-tea-soaked dates, salted toffee syrup, and rich vanilla ice cream on top. The sweetness of that fruity mid-palate leads towards a woody end that mingles woody dark spices with old cedar cigar humidors and a porch full of damp wicker with a hint of black mold in between the reeds.
Bottom Line:
This is a “holy shit, that’s good” pour of whiskey. I’d recommend adding a single rock or a few drops of water to let it open up, but it’s very fine neat as well. Either way, this is a superior whiskey that’s worth the money and time to track down.
Playboy Carti revealed a lot during his interview in XXL. Ahead of his upcoming album Music, the “Magnolia” rapper touched on his friendships with other rappers like Lil Uzi Vert, his elusive nature, and being a father.
“I’m a father,” he said.”You know what I’m saying? You know how it is having kids. I just got responsibilities. I pay a lot of bills. I take care of a lot of people. I take care of my mom. I take care of my family. I take care of my baby mom [and] I take care of my son. There’s a lot of people I take care of. So, it’s like, I gotta keep doing it.”
Since the interview’s publication, the aforementioned baby mom, rapper Iggy Azalea has taken to Twitter, seemingly dismissing his claims that he takes care of her.
“Take care of me? Lmaooooo let’s not get carried away now,” said the “Fancy” rapper in a now-deleted tweet.
via Twitter
This isn’t the first time Azalea has called Carti’s presence as a father into question. In 2020, she took to social media to say Carti had missed the birth of their son, Onyx, to play video games.
“I had onyx alone completely cause he was my only visitor approved with Covid,” she said in a now-deleted tweet. “We lived together at that time.”
In case we haven’t mentioned this before, Abbott Elementary is a very good show, and it now has the numbers to prove it. The hit ABC sitcom from creator Quinta Brunson officially wrapped its first season this week, and in the process, landed itself on Rotten Tomatoes‘ list of The Best TV Series by pulling in an impressive 100 percent rating. That’s a full-on A+ thanks to the show bowling over critics who have fallen in love with the inner-city school sitcom.
“Certified Fresh at 100%, #AbbottElementary’s first season is among the best TV seasons of all time,” the review aggregating site tweeted the morning after the season finale.
Certified Fresh at 100%, #AbbottElementary‘s first season is among the best TV seasons of all time.
Abbott Elementary‘s first season now joins an elite group of television seasons including the third and fourth seasons of Breaking Bad as well as strong showings from Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and other heavy-hitters. Via Rotten Tomatoes:
Some shows appear multiple times on the list: two Big Mouth and Counterpart seasons are on the list; Amazon Prime Video’s Catastrophe and FX’s Justified scored three spots each; and Broad City has the most with four of its five seasons on our shortlist. Other recent series with multiple seasons in the 100% club: The Good Place, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, One Day at a Time, Veep, Fleabag, Jane the Virgin, and Feel Good.
On top of earning rave reviews, Abbott Elementary has also been giving back to inner-city schools like the one Brunson attended in Philadelphia that inspired the show. The series teamed up with Scholastic to provide free books to students, and this week, it’s currently helping Feeding America raise awareness for food insecurity.
We keep saying it because it’s true. Abbott Elementary is just a darn good show that’s out here out doing darn good things.
Many words, sensical or otherwise, have been spilled over the 2021-22 MVP race. Three candidates are under the spotlight: Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid. Nobody else approximates their performances. They’ve all ridden delightful campaigns to further stamp themselves into the league’s superstar pantheon and embolden their legacies.
Whoever your preference is among the three is entirely valid. None of them is a runaway favorite. I am not here to convince you of one over the other. I find such an endeavor frivolous and unnecessary. What I am here to do is celebrate these dudes. Each of them has ascended to MVP status in distinct signatures, which should reorient the conception of winning formulas.
Whenever a certain approach shepherds a prosperous run, whether it be individually or collectively, talking points about a dominant play-style best conducive to winning emerge. But the best play-style is always the one that tailors to your personnel and optimizes them; aiming to copy the blueprint of a different team with different circumstances often ends in disappointment.
As it pertains to these superstars, they’re all stressing the notion that one style is not preferable to another for winning. Playing your game sits chiefly among the recipe of success. They’re stalwarts in the MVP conversation, both this season and in the past, for wide-ranging reasons. Above all, you just need great players. Putting all your eggs into the basket of a specific archetype is a dangerous and generally fruitless endeavor.
Although an MVP is not a championship, I feel quite confident Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Embiid could all be the best players on a title team. Antetokounmpo, of course, has already accomplished that feat and owns a Finals MVP trophy to confirm it. In the event the other two joined him on that mantle, they’d achieve it by carving their own lane to the honor.
This season’s MVP crop illuminates the versatility of the league’s contemporary superstars and makes clear the multifaceted paths to greatness. Extend the parameters to other superstars like Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James, and the theme of uniqueness persists. Perhaps, there are similar plans to build around them, but the foundation of a championship begins with these dudes and that foundation is discernibly varied for each.
Consider Jokic, the reigning MVP and the betting favorite to repeat. He’s arguably the league’s foremost playmaker, a wizard of a passer who anticipates openings before they exist or whirls dimes without even checking to see if the angle is available. As easily as he breathes, he darts no-look skip passes from the high post, tosses over-the-head feeds to cutters, and sails sky-high outlets to streaking teammates. He’s conditioned us to shrug at some of his awe-inspiring passes because another is imminent anyway.
He also wields the most dexterous hands in the Association, stripping ball-handlers in pick-and-rolls, deflecting aimless passes, and pinballing rebounds into his orbit. His rim protection and mobility may be limited, but those paws of his render him quite the defender and he’d look even better defensively if Denver’s point-of-attack options weren’t so unreliable.
None of this even mentions his scoring. A season after the dude averaged 26.4 points on 64.7 percent true shooting, he topped that by virtue of 27.1 points on 66.1 percent true shooting. He finished sixth in scoring and fourth in true shooting. There are exceptions, but the players directly above and below him in the latter category are primarily lob threats. All of this happened while Jokic spent the majority of the year without his co-stars, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., available to lighten his workload and had to commandeer most of the Nuggets’ efforts.
Every night, his unorthodox shot-making resume mystified opponents. Whether it was one-legged faders at a mile-high release point, swirling finishes through a sea of limbs, or buckets through from wonky, bewildering angles, Jokic continually cemented himself as a premier scorer. His scoring season is truly magnificent and its brilliance cannot be understated.
The topic of magnificent scoring seasons brings us to Embiid, who became the first center since Shaquille O’Neal to earn the scoring title as he averaged 30.6 points on 61.6 percent true shooting. Much like Jokic, Embiid waded through compromised personnel for a sizable segment of the year to anchor his team to playoff relevancy.
In 2020-21, he diversified his scoring juices and dove into pull-up shooting en route to a runner-up MVP finish. This season, he expanded upon that and took 311 off-the-dribble jumpers, ranking in the 72nd percentile at 0.949 points per possession, according to Synergy. Only 31 players attempted more. None of them were the obvious backbone of a top-10 defense like him.
He’s a 7-footer who pilots fast breaks, splashes off the bounce like a star guard and can radicalize games defensively, both as a rim protector and malleable ball-screen disruptor. Embiid is no Jokic as a playmaker, but he absolutely grew in that department this year. From shoveling passes on the move in pick-and-rolls, pinging dishes to dudes in the dunker spot, or lasering skips to shooters, Embiid has become one of the NBA’s top facilitating bigs.
As the domain of his scoring gravity has broadened, his court vision has followed. He’s cognizant of the stress he inflicts on defenses and parlays that into comfortable looks for others. Sometimes, it’s a simple kickout sparking a swing-swing-swing sequence into an open triple. Maybe, he’ll load up into a jumper, see a defender shade help and fling a quick no-look read.
His development as a transition scorer typically manifests in breathtaking coast-to-coast buckets. Yet he’s also learned to generate cross-matches by pushing the pace, quickly gathering into his shot, only to audible and set up someone else for success.
Some of Embiid’s transition prowess is reminiscent of Antetokounmpo, albeit to lesser magnitudes. Antetokounmpo has seemingly reached a point where some of his regular-season greatness is now implied rather than audibly praised. That is not a criticism. It speaks to his caliber of superstardom that analysis drifts toward the playoffs with him now because the expectation is he’ll level up as the title hunt kicks off.
But to discount his incredible regular season would be to miss the previews of what may unfold in greater depth over the ensuing weeks and months. After a playoff run that bore witness to him extinguishing some half-court scoring foibles, Antetokounmpo looks even further removed from his early struggles against the Brooklyn Nets in last year’s second round. Although Jokic was the lone player to finish top 10 in scoring and true shooting percentage, Antetokounmpo was third and 12th, averaging a career-high 29.9 points on 63.3 percent true shooting.
Milwaukee deployed him in a number of facets, ranging from the mid-post to ball-screens to cutting and the traditional top-of-the-key face-ups. He’s prepared better than ever to flourish in half-court contexts. His footwork, craft, and patience as a driver are refined. If one angle is stonewalled, he’ll burrow his head, veer elsewhere, pivot into an opening and convert.
His intermediate game is notably more functional, thanks to a midrange pull-up and turnaround hook shot. By and large, he’s a much more diverse scorer. Plan A of a steamroll to the rim remains, but the backup options are much more trustworthy and tangible than prior years. He’s an exceptional scorer who sprays tantalizing passes to teammates and holds the title of league’s best weak-side rim protector.
In one form or another, these superstars sharpened components of their game from a season ago. Jokic better weaponized his hands defensively, both on the glass and in pick-and-rolls, and reached novel heights as a scorer. Embiid grew as a transition creator, pick-and-roll scorer and interior passer. Antetokounmpo evolved as a half-court hooper, torching opponents in newfound areas.
They’re all dominant in starkly multifaceted manners. For each, another step forward necessitated addressing different areas. Only one of them will win MVP, but their eclectic prestige should be applauded, not scrutinized in the hopes of uplifting someone else.
That eclectic prestige is a reminder of the versatility of superstardom and the importance of winning on your terms. A one-size-fits-all style for this league does not exist. The seasons of Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Giannis Antetokounmpo embody that.
Kendrick Lamar has long been in contention for the GOAT label. He’s the first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize (for his 2017 album DAMN.) and his last three albums (Good Kid, MAAD City, To Pimp A Butterfly, and DAMN.) have all been critically praised. However, even after all those heaps of achievement have been lavished onto him, it turns out Kung-Fu Kenny is still capable of blowing fans’ minds — even with his older work.
A new video from Dissect podcast breaking down one of Kendrick’s old verses is making its way around Twitter, and fans are expressing their awe at the complexity in Kendrick’s writing that it reveals. The verse is from Pusha T’s 2013 single, “Nosestalgia,” which appeared on the Virginia rapper’s album My Name Is My Name. Released in the wake of Kendrick’s incendiary “Control” verse, which dropped just a few months before, it’s easy to see how some rap fans might have overlooked its quieter impact.
Rather than naming names, Kendrick employs a mind-bending numerological approach to the wordplay in the verse, which sees him comparing himself to a brick of cocaine and reminiscing on his loose connections to the drug game through his father. As Dissect points out, Kendrick cleverly uses the numbers nine and ten to accomplish this, with Dissect carefully explaining the underlying genius behind the technique.
The tweet, which reposts a video from TikTok, has accumulated thousands of interactions (over 16,000 retweets and 68,000 likes as of this writing), with fans gushing about the Compton rapper’s prowess. In addition, more accounts have reposted the original TikTok uncredited, meaning those numbers are just a fraction of the attention the video has received. Fans are calling Kendrick a national treasure, suggesting his lyrics should be studied in school, and generally expressing amazement over the nearly decade-old verse.
Kendrick Lamar always relied on using entendres that are structured in the simplest way. You have to check majority of his verses more than once to even catch what it was. A true wordsmith, but y’all knew that already. https://t.co/Ew3cu2AUKw
I just watched a indepth fact about kendrick Lamar’s verse on Pusha T’s “Nosetalgia” and i must say… This man right here is a National Treasure!!! @kendricklamarpic.twitter.com/uHLmq0jPwK
— Quasimodo at heart/ Chocolate Zeus (@illie_kNOwAH) April 13, 2022
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