Wheated bourbon is a pretty broad category. To boil it all down, look at it like this: Generally, wheated bourbon refers to bourbon that’s made with the mash bill of primarily corn, with wheat and malted barley as supporting ingredients. The wheat replaces the usual rye content that most standard bourbons have in their mash bills. That all being said, there are plenty of “four grain” bourbons that have both wheat and rye alongside the usual corn and malted barley.
We’re going to focus on the wheated bourbons today and leave the “four grain” expressions for another day.
The ten bottles below represent a mix of classic and original wheated bourbons from big names like Weller and Heaven Hill, alongside some younger craft distilleries from across the nation who are making quality juice based on wheated bourbon’s traditions. Overall, these wheated bourbons should give you a good introduction to the nuances of the style while expanding your bourbon palate.
If you want to try any of these yourself, click on their prices!
Maker’s Mark is one of the most iconic and accessible wheated bourbons out there. The mash bill includes red winter wheat in place of the more standard measure of rye. This expression’s juice is then aged for up to seven years before blending, proofing, bottling, and getting that final dip in red wax.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is full of those heavily charred oak barrel notes next to classic hints of caramel and vanilla with a grassy underbelly. That grassiness becomes vaguely floral as slightly spiced caramel apples arrive, along with a chewy mouthfeel. The end holds onto the fruit and sweetness as the oak and dried grass stays in your senses.
Bottom Line:
You can find this stuff on pretty much every liquor store shelf. But it’s a damn fine bourbon that works as an easy sipper on the rocks or a solid cocktail base.
This brand was devised by Heaven Hill to be the accessible wheated bourbon of the world — Old Fitzgerald and Pappy having long left mass-accessibility behind. The juice is wheated, of course, and small batched with no age statement.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a note of freshly baked biscuits with butter and toffee dripping from the breadbasket. That butter really becomes creamy as the toffee leads towards rich vanilla, sweet oak, and very slight fruitiness. The real star of the show is the buttery toffee, biscuits, and hint of sweet wood that lingers the most through the short fade.
Bottom Line:
This is a great choice if you’re looking to practice those summer cocktail skills. The flavors run deep and create a great foundation.
Garrison Brothers is a true grain-to-glass experience from Hye, Texas. The juice is a wheated bourbon made with local grains. That spirit is then aged under the beating heat of a hot Texas sun before the barrels are small-batched, proofed with local water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a caramel apple note on the nose next to a bit of dry straw, worn leather, and … what feels like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That cereal nature continues through the palate with a sugary and buttery shortbread note mingling with hints of vanilla cake frosted with lemon cream leading to a touch of orange oils. The end is very long and warm with a bit of cinnamon that ultimately leads back to the caramel apples plus just a touch of dry campfire smoke at the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is probably the easiest and boldest sipper on the list, though we prefer it with a rock or two to cool it down. Still, this is a whiskey as wild as Texas and works any way you want to drink it from shots to cocktails.
This craft whiskey from Colorado takes the idea of wheated bourbon to the very edge of its limits. The mash bill carries a whopping 45 percent wheat, pushing this very close to being a wheated whiskey. The juice is then aged for an undisclosed amount of years before it’s batched and cut down to proof with that soft Rocky Mountain spring water Colorado is known for.
Tasting Notes:
You’re drawn in by a big bowl of vanilla ice cream drizzled with salted caramel sauce next to a very faint hint of dried florals. The palate builds on that ice cream, creating a sundae with crushed almonds, creamy toffee brittle, and a hint of eggnog spice. The end is medium-length with a touch of that buttery sweetness carrying the sip to a warm end.
Bottom Line:
This is a super easy sipper, even without water or ice. It also makes for a great cocktail base. In the end, it’s a good example of how far the distiller can push the creaminess of a wheat-forward whiskey.
This expression from Buffalo Trace’s distillery is the “original” wheated bourbon. The wheat helps the bourbon soften a bit. But you’re really paying for all the knowledge and expertise from Buffalo Trace’s distillers, blenders, and nosers, who join forces to help make this a very approachable bottle of whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Caramel creates a foundation on the nose with hints of honey and vanilla. Notes of butterscotch arrive alongside more honey, soft cedar, and a distant echo of florals. The wood and vanilla return and mingle with the honey as the long, warming finish (that classic “Kentucky hug”) takes its time coming and going.
Bottom Line:
This is where every wheated whiskey journey should probably begin (or end) since this is the “original.” Hell, this is where Pappy got his recipe for Van Winkle, giving this juice the nickname, “The Poor Man’s Pappy.”
This whiskey hails from the Barton 1792 Distillery and uses its bespoke yeast to distill a rumored “high-wheat” bourbon. The juice is aged for an undisclosed amount of time before it’s batched, proofed, and bottled in 1792 classy throwback art deco bottles.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a blend of fruit on the nose — orange zest and ripe red cherry — that mixes with holiday spices and a touch of soft cedar. The taste has a soft vanilla/caramel vibe next to more cedar, prunes, and roasted almonds all leading towards a silken mouthfeel. The end is creamy vanilla pudding with caramel sauce next to pops of cedar, spice, and an old leather tobacco pouch.
Bottom Line:
This is freakin’ smooth. There’s nary a rough edge and you’re left with a soft and embracing whiskey sipping experience. This also slays in a Manhattan.
This small-town craft distillery is making some of the finest grain-to-glass whiskey on the market. Their signature bourbon is a wheated bourbon that utilizes grains grown within 100 miles of the Wyoming distillery. The juice is aged for at least four years before it’s small-batched, proofed with local water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
The vanilla and caramel on the nose are creamy to the point of feeling like a stiff pudding with a hint of wildflowers. The palate holds onto those flowers and pudding while adding cinnamon sticks warming in browned butter with a note of cedar. That spice broadens out to a Christmas spice vibe as a buttery toffee sweetness and mouthfeel lead you toward a finish that’s just the right length.
Bottom Line:
This is a super easy sipper that has a little crafty funkiness with those floral notes. It’s interesting while still being 100 percent accessible, sippable, and mixable.
This release from Redemption is their take on MGP’s 45 percent winter wheat bourbon. Redemption’s team brings four-year-old barrels in-house and then masterfully blends them in small batches until they get just the right notes.
Tasting Notes:
That crafty wheat floral note greets you and then leans into brisket with hints of bitter coffee and a touch of nougat, cedar, and vanilla bean. The palate holds onto those notes while swerving towards a peppery spice blend with almost a lime leaf savoriness. The end is long and has a slightly warm biscuit edge that circles back towards the nougat and vanilla.
Bottom Line:
The high levels of wheat really make this a unique sip of whiskey. None of the notes overwhelm and all make a certain sort of sense in the glass, especially with a little water or ice.
West Virginia’s Smooth Ambler Big Level feels like a classic wheated bourbon. The mash bill utilizes 21 percent winter wheat. The juice is aged for five long years before the whiskey is batched, slightly proofed with soft water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
This is distinctly nutty with a real pecan pie vibe with Caro corn syrup holding the pie filling together and a lard pie crust supporting that filling. The taste holds onto that but it becomes more of a pecan waffle with pancake syrup, butter, and mild eggnog spices that’s damn close to a Waffle House pecan waffle. The sweetness and butter combine for a toffee finish that’s mildly warm and very soft.
Bottom Line:
This is sweet and nutty with a malty base. It’s really hard not to love if you’re looking for something a little like a warm hug on a cold day.
Heaven Hill’s Old Fitzgerald Prime is the entry point to the extremely high highpoints of the Old Fitz’s bottled-in-bond decanters. This is pretty standard stuff that’s made to be drunk. There’s a 20 percent wheated mash bill, standard aging and batching, and, as you can see, it’s cheap.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a distinct minty vibe on the nose that’s more like gum than fresh sprigs that leads towards a caramel corn whiff. The palate sort of reminds you of sugar cookies dotted with those hard silver candy ball things with a touch of candied corn and slight tobacco warmth. The end is pretty soft with hints back towards the mint and one last caramel corn flourish.
Bottom Line:
This is a workhorse whiskey. Yes, you can drink it on the rocks or in a highball if you’re in a hurry. But really, this is a mixer that’s cheap. Though, you might have to go to Kentucky to find it at exactly this price.
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Last Sunday, the United States Men’s National Team won the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League final, knocking off a battle-tested Mexico side in extra time, 3-2. It was a thrilling game, the latest in what has been an historic rivalry between the United States and Mexico on the pitch. And as someone who has experienced these matches in a number of different formats — as a player, as a spectator, and now as a broadcaster — Maurice Edu is keenly aware of how special the whole thing was.
“I think I’m finally recovered from what was a crazy final, but even more so, a pretty crazy week, a fun week, a reunion of sorts for me, personally,” Edu told Uproxx Sports over Zoom on Friday morning.
The final was a chance for Edu and the CBS Sports crew to show off its presentation for these sorts of CONCACAF matches, and the early returns couldn’t have been more promising. Edu sat in the booth with Andres Cordero, while a number of others — Kate Abdo, Marcelo Balboa, Nico Cantor, Jenny Chu, Charlie Davies, Clint Dempsey, Janelly Farias, Adrian Garcia-Marquez, Oguchi Onyewu — covered things from just about every possible angle.
“Getting the chance to be back with guys that were former teammates — Clint, Gooch, Charlie,” Edu says. “And then, I’ve worked with Kate before, Kate’s amazing. It was a really fun group to be around, a really diverse group, everyone really welcoming and excited for the opportunity. And it just seemed very, very natural from the from the onset, even before we got on camera, just off camera stuff, the interaction between everyone. That was me meeting Dre for the first time, I knew Adrian already from working with him before getting the chance to link up again with Nico and Jenny. As I said before, Kate and Marcelo, and having a current Mexican Women’s National Team player in Janelly involved added another amazing voice and perspective to our crew. She was fun and incredible to work with, and I loved her banter and analysis back-and-forth with Charlie and I.
“So it was a great group of people to bring along and to be a part of this,” Edu continues. “And we’re all excited about how things went and how it turned out, the feedback we got, and more importantly, what a final game to be a part of.”
With the benefit of a few days to look back on the whole thing — Edu says he’s re-watched the final and plans on doing his third viewing on Friday — we caught up with the former USMNT midfielder to discuss a match that he believes will go down as one of the best between the rival sides.
It’s been a little under a week since the final. Have you totally processed just how good that game was yet, both as someone who was there broadcasting it, and as a former national team player who has seen a lot of really good games between the US and Mexico?
I think now I have. In the moment, you’re lost in the game, you just get so caught up in the game. And you’re right, there were just so many variables, so many … you try to predict these kind of matches beforehand, talking about it in the pre-game and what to look for. But this game threw you a bunch of curveballs. And I think from our perspective, having played in those kind of games, but then even just taking a step back and just being a fan, it was just a beautiful game to watch.
I was thoroughly impressed by the character that I saw from the players, and to answer your question specifically, yeah, I think now that I’ve had a chance to just sit back, have conversations with people, look at the game again, it’s kind of a wow moment, right? To be a part of that game, to have our voices attached to that game. I think this is obviously going to be a classic game in the U.S.-Mexico rivalry, and so to have our voices be attached to that when this game is being replayed 5, 10 years from now, I think it’s one that you look back on, you could just smile and be proud of what we did. But also, what happened on the pitch, because without that, our part is almost null and void.
So it’s just, overall, it turned out to be an incredible event for all parties involved, and yes, I think now I can finally, truly appreciate what we did and what we witnessed.
How many times have you gone back and watched it?
I’m gonna watch it again today, that’ll be my third time. [laughs]
You’ve played against Mexico, you’ve seen plenty of games between the U.S. and Mexico. Was there anything that this game had that all of those best games — the Dos a Ceros, the Gold Cup finals, those really cagey matches at the Azteca — all share?
You know, we approach this game — I think everyone, fans, media — everyone approached this game as like, “this will be the real test for this U.S. team,” right? They’ve gone through a year of playing friendlies where they looked impressive, in just about every game, but the first game that they played against a better, a higher-level opponent was against Switzerland [in the lead-up to the Nations League], and there was mixed emotions coming out of that game, mixed feelings about … there were some positives, but then a lot of negatives as well.
And so this was gonna be the measuring stick in terms of how prepared are they, really, for qualifying and all the variables and all the craziness that goes on with CONCACAF qualifying, and I think we left this game feeling really pleased. There’s, of course, the predictable scuffles that happened between U.S. and Mexico. There’s the unpredictable — you go down a goal in the first minute of the game, and then you finally find the character within this squad, and you see them battle and fight back. We knew that this team was talented, we knew that they could score unbelievable goals, that they could create attacking-wise, they were really blessed in terms of this generation of players. I think the question mark that we all had was how are they in terms of dealing with adversity, and where’s their character, how is their mentality? And we left this game feeling good, I left this game feeling really good.
Are there still things that can be improved? Of course, but I think just from the back-and-forth, sway of the game, going down a goal, coming back, going down a goal, coming back, getting the go-ahead goal, the the passion the fans — as I said, there’s so many games that I played in on home soil where it’s just predominantly Mexican fans, and the American voices are just … they’re muted out, because it’s just such a dominating presence for the Mexican fans.
But that wasn’t the case in this game, it was a back-and-forth, a good little sway. And from my perspective, I think this is one of the things that I really enjoy about calling games and being on the media side of things, although I do miss playing. When you’re playing, you see the atmosphere, you feel the energy, but there are certain things that you miss that you can’t focus on, because you’re in the midst of the game, and things happen so quickly, so you have tunnel vision.
But from my perspective, now, having a chance to hone in on different things that are happening in the crowd and seeing the fans and actually fully appreciating them, it adds a different layer of beauty to the game from my standpoint, and this is a rivalry that sometimes, we hype it up so much, and then it’s hard to measure up to, but this one lived up to it and even beyond that. Again, I won’t stop echoing the sentiments of pride that I felt being a part of it, but then also, the pride that I felt being an American on that day and watching these players compete and do what they did.
And then in terms of what we saw in the match, I mean, you keep mentioning they went down 1-0 and and came back. Well, they were down 2-0 for a stretch of 90 seconds there. But the goal gets disallowed, Gio comes back, scores in the next passage of play. And I thought that kind of changed the dynamic of the match. Would you agree with that, and were there other moments that you thought really defined what the U.S. was able to do in this match?
I definitely think that was a defining moment. If you go 2-0 down at that point, it’s really deflating. Being in front of home fans, that may be quite a storm, and then Mexican fans’ presence starts to be a little bit more dominating, and then your back’s against the wall, you have to start taking a little bit more risk, and that opens the game up, and then a potential third goal could come. VAR played a role in this game on a few different occasions, and on that one, they got it right. And so I think you’re right, that gave them a little bit of life. Gio young kid, 18 years old, he makes his presence known and gets a tying goal, and I think that was just that little boost of confidence in this group, that kind of spark for them to get going again. And by and large, I think they gave as good as they got in this game, and ultimately, they found a way to be the better side, to quiet all the doubters, to show that although Mexico was the more experienced side — they’d won the Gold Cup in 2019 — that this team was hungry and that this tournament meant something.
I think there was a little underlying theme where people were trying to discredit how important this tournament actually was. And these players, both sides, both teams competed with heart and showed that this tournament meant something, that regardless of what’s at stake, when it’s U.S.-Mexico, you don’t need that added little incentive to go out there and compete. But having a trophy and having an opportunity to walk across the stage, and have your opponent watch you walk across that stage, there’s nothing better than that feeling.
So Dre Cordero said that you mentioned, right as extra time started, that we’re learning a lot about this young team. What were — both at that time and now that we’ve had a few days to process it, that you’ve had the chance go back to watch it — the biggest thing or things that you think that we learned about this version of the United States men’s national team?
They’re hard. They’re a team that’s resilient, they’re a team that has heart, they have character, and these kind of games, a lot of it is a test of mentality. You can get caught up in the antics that that go into these games, and that can throw you off your game, but I think that they … when it came time to scrap, they’re ready to scrap, when it came time to show a little bit of flair, a little bit of taking risk in the final third, take chances to create, they did that. When it came time to be resolute defensively, they did that as well. So there were so many boxes that they ticked that impressed me.
And then even looking at Gregg Berhalter, he was, I think, one of the figures in this match who was probably, a lot of eyes were focused on him. Like, what was he going to do with this game? Was this game gonna be a defining moment for him? If they didn’t win this game, I think a lot of fingers would have been pointed at him, and you know what? I think tactically he made some good decisions. He played with a formation that was flexible, that allowed them to get the best out of this group of players. And ultimately, it was a match against Mexico, with a trophy on the line, and he won. And by the way, he was wearing Travis Scott 6s, so he gets a he gets a big thumbs up in my book for that.
Okay, so that was gonna be my last question, but I’ll bump this up now — what made you happier, literally anything on the pitch or that moment when you realized Gregg was in the Travis Scott 6s?
I’m a sneakerhead, so. [laughs] We’ve been seeing this trend in MLS and a little bit in Europe as well, where coaches are taking a little bit more pride, they’re showing a little bit of swag in how they present themselves on the sideline. And so, when I saw that, I couldn’t wait to get it in. I was trying to tap Dre and trying to figure out a way to get that on air, for sure. And then the moment presented itself because Gregg was just active on the sideline, trying to get the ball back in play as quickly as possible, chasing down balls and throwing them to the players. And as soon as I saw that, I said, “yup, I gotta highlight this, I have to shout it out.” Because I’m sure there are viewers watching who were like, “there’s no way he’s wearing those, it can’t be.” Like, I haven’t even worn mine yet, and this guy’s wearing them on air in the Nations League final. So for sure, I had to shout that out, and I’m glad that he wore them, and I’m glad that they won, because then, it just makes for an even more memorable moment.
Yeah, when I went back and rewatched, you said that and I immediately like went on to Twitter to search. I was like, “Oh, damn, go Gregg.”
When it comes to the players, was there anyone that confirmed your priors on them for better or worse over the course of these matches?
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Ethan Horvath stood out, right? I don’t think people really, truly understand how hard it is to do what he just did. To come into a game cold, you can get a couple of shots taken at you on the sideline real quick, throw a couple balls back and forth with the trainer, but there’s no replicating coming into a match as a keeper. And for a keeper, especially that level of intensity of a match, you don’t always get a chance to feel your way into the game, and you’re tested early, and he stood up to the challenge, he made some big saves throughout the course of extra time and regulation. And then that moment, the penalty kick, and it’s Andres Guardado who steps to take it, an experienced player, captain of the Mexican national team, been involved with the Mexican national team for I don’t even know how many years at this point.
So I think at that point, every Mexican fan in the crowd was probably feeling really confident, going against a keeper who had just been subbed in, wasn’t the starting keeper, hasn’t been playing regularly with his club team, as well. So what a massive moment for him, a kid who’s from Denver, as well. I just thought that he took his moment. I think within the national team, and sports in general, it’s about just being ready when your name is called upon, maybe cliche to say it, but it’s reality — being ready when your name is called upon and, and taking advantage of your opportunity.
Now, does that leapfrog him into the number one spot? No, but I think what it does do is it maybe asks a few more questions of Gregg in terms of, look, there’s a little bit more competition for this spot. In my mind, I still think Zack Steffen is a clear number one, but I think even Ethan Horvath did himself a world of good with that performance.
I look at other guys, I was happy to see Tyler Adams finally getting back. He’s a guy that I think has been missed through these last few games and his presence in the team, it just brings a whole different dynamic to what that team is capable of. I think without him, it maybe forces Weston McKennie to be a little bit more honest defensively and maybe take a deeper … in my mind, I would prefer him to take a deeper starting position. But with Tyler on the pitch, I think it gives him a green light, it gives Weston a green light to go and express himself, to go and cover all the ground that we know he can cover, to make those runs out of midfield that he does so well. And that’s because Tyler has the ability to cover so much ground, to put out fires, to really protect that back four, to be that linchpin between the backline and the attack and starting transition moments.
And the other one that I think I would probably mention would be Gio Reyna. I think he showed a level of confidence, of fearlessness. Are there things he can improve on? For sure, he’s only 18 years old, and I think when we assess him, we forget about that, which is probably the biggest compliment that you could pay him, is that you don’t really take into account his age when you’re talking about him, until you have a second where you’re like, “wait a minute, he’s only 18, there’s still a lot more to come.” I tell you what, at 18, I was nowhere near making the national team, nowhere near starting in a match for the national team, scoring a goal and in any kind of final. So, I give him a tremendous amount of credit, the progression that we’ve seen, the level of confidence that we’ve seen, again, to shine in moments, to take risks, to be that confident player at such a young age, I’m really excited for what the future holds for him.
Yeah, and I think the thing that surprised me the most, kind of broadly, was that you saw a bunch of guys who’ve never been in this situation. Like, Mexico had Memo Ochoa, they had Hector Herrera, they had Andres Guardado, all these guys who have been in these matches before. And there’s some bumps, but Gio looked up for the moment, Weston McKennie looked up for the moment, Tyler Adams, Tim Weah comes on and looked up for the moment, all these guys. I think the biggest compliment you probably pay is that all of them seemed like it wasn’t their first huge match against Mexico.
What I would say to that is they needed this game, right? They needed this game collectively, they needed it individually, because you’re right, this was the first game for quite a few of them and against Mexico. But more importantly, this is the first trophy that they’ve won collectively as a national team. And I think that’s important. I think we sometimes neglect the importance of developing and fostering a winning mentality. We think that just because players are maybe individual winners, that they won with their club teams, that that mentality just naturally transitions over. Well, no, it takes moments like this, it takes moments where you’re forced to deal with adversity, you galvanize as a group, you look each other in the eye, and you figure out a way that, hey, we’re gonna figure out a way to get this done, and they had that moment. They had that moment.
And so that’s why now, going into into qualifying, I’m really bullish. I was already bullish about this group, anyway, but I’m excited now for qualifying to get started. I think they needed that match, it was a chance to mature, to grow, to progress, to take another step in the right direction. And from a confidence standpoint, now, you’re right, they could look at each other and say, “we’ve been in the trenches, we played against an experienced side, a side that was probably pegged to beat us, and we figured out, we got it done in the biggest moment on home soil.” And when you talk about the confidence for a group of young players, moments like this are massive.
We’re getting into a really big summer for them, there is the Gold Cup, World Cup qualifying is about to start up, all these guys are going to be going back to their clubs, those sorts of things. Are there any big outstanding questions of the national team, or do you have the belief that there’s a sense of stability in the players and the coaches and the program as a whole?
I think that there’s always going to be variables that come into play. Guys are going to go back to the club teams and you’re worried about them staying healthy and all those kinds of things as well. I think the Gold Cup is interesting, because we’re gonna see a different roster, it’s an opportunity now for some guys, more so MLS players I would imagine, who are now going to get an opportunity to start knocking on that door a little bit louder, announcing themselves to Gregg Berhalter and saying that we want to be more than depth pieces, we want to be involved in that 23-man roster, we want to be involved and playing in qualifying. And so, I look at it from a holistic approach of there were a lot of questions answered by this first group of players who we have kind of deemed as the A-group, per se.
But within that, the squad, the group of this whole generation, I think, is a pretty deep one. And now there’s an opportunity with the Gold Cup, a chance to win another trophy this summer, first of all, which speaks highly for the whole program and what they’re trying to accomplish and the direction they’re trying to go. And then again, I just talked about opportunity — opportunity for Gregg to see more players, for Gregg to test out more players, for more players to impress and show themselves well in front of Gregg. Because in the back of everyone’s mind, although they want to win a trophy, they want to win the Gold Cup, these players are competing because they want to be involved in World Cup qualifiers and ultimately, knock on wood, the World Cup.
So every opportunity that you get to represent your country, whether it’s a competitive match or a friendly match, you can’t take it lightly. And with the Gold Cup being that last chance before qualifiers, these players are going to be out there trying to show that they want to be a part of those qualifiers.
Yeah, and then ultimately, if Matt Turner gets his name in the goalkeeper pool, Miles Robinson at centerback, all these dudes, iron sharpens iron. The best possible thing that could happen is another eight guys throw their names in the hat this summer.
Oh, for sure. The best-case scenario for Gregg is that he has more competition, he has more questions to answer, right? I think there’s probably, and I can’t speak for him, but there is a handful of names that are probably inked in that first XI. And then from there, there’s spots up for grabs, whether it’s the number nine position, whether it’s, I don’t know, centerback or whatever that looks like, there are spots up for grabs, and these guys have to approach it with that mentality, that this is my chance to force Gregg’s hand in some way, to make him make a difficult decision. And from Gregg standpoint, it’s a great position to be in, where you have a deep group of players — young players, because of course, you’re thinking about the here and now, but ultimately, we’re also trying to forecast things into the future.
But more importantly, the initial focus for everyone in the group, the fans because of what happened last time, is to qualify for this next World Cup.
It seems that every so often, the “Mount Rushmore” conversation resurfaces on Twitter, bringing with it another round of debate. Over the past few weeks, Mount Rushmore memes have returned in a big way thanks to a Rap Caviar post about the Mount Rushmore of the 2010s. While that debate mainly revolved around the absence of Nicki Minaj, the latest iteration has inspired even more spirited debate thanks to a generational disconnect and the controversial inclusion of one much newer rapper, Lil Baby.
The new meme posits the “GOATs of Atlanta” — i.e. the “greatest of all time” rap acts from The Big Peach — as Jeezy, Future, Rich Homie Quan, and Lil Baby. Leaving aside the fact that no rapper who debuted before 2000 appears, fans opposed Lil Baby’s inclusion, as the younger rapper has only had two studio album releases since breaking out in 2018 with Harder Than Ever. While Lil Baby has expanded his catalog with joint albums like Voice Of The Heroes with Lil Durk and Drip Harder with Gunna.
Hip-hop fans were also put off by the omission of higher-profile faces like Gucci Mane, Ludacris, Outkast, and T.I. Some fans also questioned the inclusion of Rich Homie Quan, whose contributions, while notable, were also decidedly limited thanks to Quan’s relatively short run of impactful hits.
That’s a question you’ll never have to ask while watching any of the shows on this list because each series toes the line between the two genres, almost effortlessly. That means that animated shows about celebrity horses double as deeply poignant meditations on grief and depression while stories about a hired hitman and women in prison lighten things up with the kind of absurdist humor you’d typically find on a late-night sketch series. These are dramedies, the shows that exist in the in-between, delivering the best comedy and drama has to offer and they’re all good.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a household name now – one synonymous with a certain Barack Obama-inspired masturbation scene – and it’s because of this irreverent British comedy series that was born on the stage. Waller-Bridge plays the titular Fleabag, a young woman navigating life in London who often turns to sex to cope with her grief and nihilistic depression. The first season is excellent, the second is some of the best television we’ve seen in years complete with a Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) and Sian Clifford who gives a breakout performance and manages to pull off a truly tragic haircut while doing it.
For fans who only know Bill Hader from his Saturday Night Live days, his HBO dramedy Barry might be a bit of a shock. We’re a long way from Stefon and the Weekend Update desk, but the change in venue has opened up Hader’s comedy in an exciting, disturbingly twisted way. He plays a Midwestern hitman who travels to Los Angeles for work and ends up immersing himself in a local acting class that challenges his own weird status quo. Henry Winkler plays his no-nonsense acting coach and the two have some brilliant chemistry on screen, but the real treat is watching how Hader manages to make us care about his moral black-hole of an antihero.
Breaking Bad is regarded as one of the most influential dramas of the past decade but its successor, Better Call Saul, is something different. A hybrid of laugh-out-loud comedic antics and jarringly emotional drama, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have proven they’re capable of once again creating complex characters driven by a dichotomy of motivators by making Bob Odenkirk’s titular character a sympathetic, problem-causing antihero. Reveling in Saul’s self-destruction is equally as fun as rooting for him to win.
This fantasy mystery about a pie maker with the ability to bring the dead back to life was way ahead of its time – and not just because it manages to perfectly blend the genres of comedy and drama while also delivering entertaining musical numbers and trippy visuals. It’s the kind of niche fare you’d expect to find as a web series, or a Netflix special, not a show on ABC. And still, for the two seasons, it was on, it worked. Not only did it work, but it also gave us Lee Pace as a well-meaning baker who becomes the hero of this forensic fantasy by bringing murder victims back from the dead to solve how they died. It’s the kind of quirky, romantic show we’ll probably never see again.
Jean Smart is dominating the content over on HBO and HBO Max but her best work is undoubtedly this dramedy adventure. Smart plays Deborah Vance, a legendary stand-up comedian on her last leg whose Vegas show needs some help. Enter Ava (Hannah Einbinder), a young, up-and-coming comic in need of an image makeover. Their odd-couple dynamic is the draw here as their personalities and generational divides clash backstage. Einbinder more than holds her own, which is high praise because Smart’s never been better.
This Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini-starring dramedy might be the show responsible for ushering in a new genre: the grief-com. Applegate plays a woman whose husband is killed in a terrible hit-and-run accident. She’s mad as hell – that he’s dead and that their picture-perfect life turned out to be a lie. Cardellini plays her sunnily optimistic new friend, a woman she meets in her grief group who helps her get over her grief before revealing she’s the cause of it. The two go on a wild adventure filled with criminal coverups, more murder, and lots of wine but there’s some surprisingly thoughtful story beats hidden below all that bleak humor that helps this show pack a punch.
We like to define this criminally underrated FX series as “a show that will kick you in the balls and then pass you a mimosa.” If you’ve seen it, you’ll understand. If you haven’t … well, do you need more incentive than that tagline? Really? Aya Cash and Chris Geere play a laughably toxic couple who you kind of root for over the course of five seasons. We say “kind of” because both of them are the human equivalent of “trash juice” and they consistently make terrible life choices that end up hurting their friends and each other. Still, there are few comedies that so aptly mock modern habits of adulthood while still treating their characters with compassion which makes this show really stand out from the heap of other millennial-driven comedy series.
To understand the genius of Donald Glover’s sometimes-comedy series, you simply have to watch it. The show follows Glover’s Earn, a young black man living in the titular city who starts off as basically homeless, struggling to manage the rap career of his cousin, Paper Boi (and excellent Brian Tyree Henry). Over the course of the first and second season, Earn wrestles with issues of race, classism, and his own sense of self-worth. It sounds heavy, it often is, but there’s just enough humor here to help things digest smoothly.
BoJack Horseman is not what you think it is. An animated comedy about a talking horse trying to recapture his early days of fame in L.A. is what you think it is, but that’s just the veneer – the hook to grab you and reel you in before the show drops its very funny, often devastatingly sad meditation on depression, anxiety, regret, loss, and the consequences of childhood trauma. It’s an animated sitcom about a washed-up horse, and somehow, it’s also an incredibly profound look at the grittier parts of life. It’s like nothing you’ll find on TV right now.
Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult star in this period dramedy that riffs heavily off the vibe of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated flick, The Favourite. Hoult has a hell of a lot of fun playing a sadistic sociopath who just so happens to be the Emperor of Russia. Fanning is his hopeful bride-to-be who comes to the palace looking for love and ends up launching a coup and a plot to murder her new husband. It’s a deliciously fun show filled with absurd characters and too many memeable quotes to count.
Amy Sherman-Palladino is a pro when it comes to crafting heartfelt dramedies with edge and she proves that with this Amazon Prime series starring Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein. Both women are at the top of their game with Brosnahan playing Midge Maisel, the perfect upper Westside housewife who decides to pursue her dream of stand up after her husband leaves her. Borstein plays Susie, her tough and scrappy booker who helps her navigate the male-dominated, heavily sexist scene. There’s a lot of fast-talking, quick-witted comedy that disguises the heavier dramatic moments and makes them land even harder.
On its surface, Patriot is a spy dramedy, a show about a man named John Tavner (Michael Dorman), who works undercover for the CIA. His cover is as an engineer for a pipe company. His real mission is to transport materials and money for the agency. He’s good at one, not so great at the other, and plenty of mishaps derail his driving goal along the way – think murder investigations, unruly co-workers, and, oh yeah, his dad. It’s a fairly dark comedy and it might not be for everyone, but it definitely deserves a place on this list.
Ramy Youssef has a gift for taking the most singular of experiences – growing up Muslim in the post 9/11 age while straddling the line between his millennial generation and his immigrant roots – and somehow making it universally relatable. His semi-autobiographically dramedy that follows his character, Ramy, living in New Jersey, searching for his purpose and a deeper connection to his faith, only gets better with more seasons, and more focus on his family members. There are some really outrageous comedic bits sprinkled throughout, but there are also some seriously heavy storylines that should probably come with a warning before viewing.
This long-running Showtime series is one of the few incidences where an American adaptation of a cult-favorite British TV series actually does its material justice – and then expands on it, giving us an unreservedly honest look at how hard it is to live in poverty. That’s where the Gallaghers are when we meet them, a screwed-up brood of abandoned kids trying to make ends meet while facing everything from drug addictions to mental illness and an absentee father who can’t help but make their whole situation worse. It doesn’t sound funny, but it is … sometimes.
Yes, this is a mockumentary about a group of thousand-year-old vampires rooming together in a Staten Island mansion. Yes, it’s from the comedic geniuses known as Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. And yes, at one point the characters mistake a Super Bowl party for a Superb Owl party. But despite the rib-tickling antics of its main cast — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Laszlo (Matt Berry) rep for the undead while Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) serves as their familiar and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) sucks the life out of every room he’s in, quite literally – there’s still the heart and high stakes here to qualify it as a dramedy in our eyes.
M.A.S.H. is one of the first TV shows to toe the previously well-defined line between comedy and drama and even decades later, the dichotomy of its premise still holds up. Following a group of doctors and support staff stationed in South Korea during the Korean war, the series tackled everything from patriotism and a sense of duty to criticism of America’s role in various world wars. It’s one of the most beloved, most-watched TV series of our time for a reason.
There are a lot of medical dramas on TV but, oddly enough, none of them hit the deeply emotional notes as well as this NBC series. We know you probably thought it was a strict comedy because the episodes that get quoted and the memes that are generated now often focus on its absurd humor. There’s plenty of that, but there are also some of TV’s most likable characters forming friendships, navigating work-life balance, and teaching us life lessons along the way.
One of the worst decisions some nameless TV executive over at NBC ever made was to cancel this coming-of-age dramedy from Judd Apatow after just one season. It’s been 20 years since the show first aired and somehow, it still holds up. That’s because of its cast and creators – names like Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Paul Feig, Busy Phillips, and more who now rule the comedy game but back then, convincingly played a group of high school outcasts surviving painfully relatable rites of passage. It’s also because the stories, while inherently funny, are also authentic and timeless, a fairly complicated formula this show somehow nails on its first try.
This Jenji Kohan-created prison dramedy was one of the first stellar offerings from Netflix when the streaming service first broke ground. It’s also still one of the best original shows the platform’s given fans. Progressively smart, bitingly funny, heartbreakingly sad – OITNB storylines run the emotional gamut, but they all work to humanize people we too often throw away.
When you’re adapting one of cinema’s most beloved crime thrillers, one crafted by the Coen Brothers no less, you’ve got to take some risks. Noah Hawley does that. His version of Fargo calls back to the film’s premise in the small details but it’s chock full of surprising storylines, shocking violence, prestige talent, and some wildly original character names. It’s eccentricity married with bloody melodrama – the best of both worlds for dramedy fans.
If the team from Black Mirror tried to do a rom-com, it’d look something like this. Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs), plays Hazel, a thirty-something woman on the run after 10 years in a suffocating marriage to Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), a controlling tech billionaire. But escaping her bad relationship is kind of hard with your Silicon Valley lover has implanted a chip in your brain. The show tackles some serious themes – emotional abuse, grief, how tech isolates us, etc – but it always does it with a healthy dose of ridiculousness.
There’s a reason Senator Elizabeth Warren stans this sports dramedy series starring Dwayne Johnson. Not only is the action star at his comedic best playing Spencer Strasmore, a former NFL player who embarks on a new career as a financial manager to pro athletes in the show’s premiere, but the whole vibe of this show is Entourage on steroids. In other words, get ready to laugh your a** off at some raunchy, physical humor and witty one-liners while ogling expensive suits, fast cars, million-dollar mansions, and a yacht or two.
Michaela Watkins does not get the credit she deserves which is one reason why we were adamant about praising this Hulu dramedy. She’s terrific in it, after all, playing a forty-something mom whose husband just left her so she and her daughter move in with her womanizing brother – the co-creator of a dating website. There’s an organic, improvised feel to the series, which alternates between funny and heartbreaking as it seeks to find the humor in the devastation of loss and the awkward challenges of finding someone new.
The premise of this HBO gem – which began as a popular web series – isn’t especially inventive. It’s just the story of an unsure, twenty-something Black woman trying to have it all. And yet, Issa Rae manages to infuse just the right amount of authentic melodrama and absurd situational comedy to make it feel refreshingly different. Come for Rae, stay for the witty insight into female friendship.
Fox News making up a controversy to kill time is as American as apple pie, especially if the controversy is about apple pie.
Recently, academic and author Raj Patel wrote an article for the Guardian about “today’s food justice fights” using apple pie as an example. “Resting on gingham cloth, a sugar-crusted apple pie cools on the window sill of a midwestern farmhouse. Nothing could be more American,” Patel wrote. “Not that apples are particularly American. Apples were first domesticated in central Asia, making the journey along the Silk Road to the Mediterranean four thousand years ago.” He also traced back the “bloody and international origins” of sugar and the recipe itself, writing, “The apple pie is as American as stolen land, wealth, and labour. We live its consequences today.”
Patel is not trying to “cancel” apple pie. He’s making a point about how many things we think of as being quintessentially American have a complicated past. You can agree or disagree with the article, but please don’t do what Tomi Lahren did and make it about cancel culture. “Cartoon characters, patriotic and historic symbols, statues, names, food brands, and now apple pie,” the conservative commentator said during her “Final Thoughts” segment on Fox Nation. “In 2021, it’d be easier to name off the things the Left doesn’t find racist.” Then came the bumper sticker-worthy kicker: “Keep your cancel culture paws off our apple pie!” As far as manufactured outrages go, it’s no Potato Head.
First they came for apple pie, and I did not speak out—because I was more of a lemon meringue guy pic.twitter.com/pCVhdZfWsX
Well, they are hoping their constituents won’t learn of it. Fox News is airing some nonsense about their new favorite boogeyman, Critical Race Theory, and some nonsense about apple pie.
Fox News: “The Woke” say eating apple pie is racist, Daily Mail/NY Post screaming similar headlines. So I read the article, it’s a considered piece on the hidden costs of food production. “Woke” examples are invented by the intellectually dishonest right. https://t.co/KDtsA4RucU
If we use a materialist metaphysics, we are quickly approaching the point in which there are no more things to cancel. Everything will be cancelled and what then will Fox News do? https://t.co/axVov2UJo1
I’m still fighting on the battlefields of the War on Thanksgiving (you know, the one they conjured up when they wrung everything they could from the War on Christmas). https://t.co/2an1EH2ujE
Bridgerton (which John Oliver labeled as the “jizzing in blankets” show) will bravely press on for a second season without The Duke, Regé-Jean Page, and all of his endless charisma. His publicly issued stance (that he’d only signed on for a one-and-done season) did stand firm despite creator Shonda Rhimes putting it out there that he was invited for some follow-up cameos, but Page is a busy guy. He previously described his time on the show as “he ride of a life time,” and “it’s all been beyond anything I could have imagined.” Ahead of his upcoming roles in The Gray Man and Dungeons & Dragons, Page sat down with Variety for their Actors on Actors series with The Crown‘s Emma Corrin.
As members of Netflix royalty, the pair had plenty to say about the enormous ratings for both of their shows, but when it came to discussing masculinity on Bridgerton, Page compared it to a hamburger. First, he admits that he wanted the show to contribute something beyond being Jane Austin-esque, since “we’ve got like five or six waves of feminism since,” so he wanted to make sure that Simon’s not simply an “archetype that already exists,” like Mr. Darcy or Heathcliff, but a new twist on this expression (and, hopefully, an evolution) of masculinity. When Corrin declared that The Duke is an “unpacking” of masculinity, here’s what Page offered:
“… the idea of romantic heroes. When you say the word ‘hero,’ it implies it’s someone you look up to. We talk a lot with ‘Bridgerton’ about it being female-centric, but also, what are men looking up to? What am I doing with this icon of masculinity? What’s making this meal actually worth eating? I think of ‘Bridgerton’ as a Happy Meal but with secret vitamins put in there. It’s like a secretly healthy, organic burger.”
Secret vitamins are the best vitamins, right? Also, the Netflix audience found the burger to be tasty one, served up to around 82 million households within one month (which makes it the show’s most popular series ever), so it’ll be interesting to see whether The Duke will be missed enough next season to impact that number. Season 2 will focus on the love life of Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), which goes along with the plan of Julia Quinn’s second series book, The Viscount Who Loved Me.
In late May, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen released their debut collaboration, “Like I Used To.” The song has gotten a lot of exposure since then: The duo performed it on The Tonight Show earlier this week, and now it has gotten its first high-profile cover, courtesy of Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy.
Tweedy performed the track at the start of the latest edition of The Tweedy Show, his ongoing series of Instagram Live performances. Backed by his son Spencer on drums, Tweedy turned in an intimate take on the anthemic song, which was nicely suited for his distinct and gentle vocals.
Van Etten was thrilled about the cover, as she tweeted, “I cannot believe this is happening ! I am floored beyond belief seeing @JeffTweedy and his son Spencer cover Angel’s and my song ‘Like I Used To’… Huge hugs to the Tweedy family. Cannot wait to see you live again. X.”
I cannot believe this is happening ! I am floored beyond belief seeing @JeffTweedy and his son Spencer cover Angel’s and my song “Like I Used To”… Huge hugs to the Tweedy family. Cannot wait to see you live again. X pic.twitter.com/XtMa4hhdVB
Van Etten previously said of the song, “I have loved [Olsen’s] music for a long time. I have been to her shows and cried in the audience. I have cheers’d her post show on the road. She has sent me inspirations and support in my high and lows along the way. I never thought I would get the courage to send her an unfinished song and ask her to do a duet with me and here we are. Thank you, Angel, for calling my bluff and lifting me up, and making this song better than it ever could have been. I hope you all enjoy this collaboration that has spanned a year in the making. I am so happy to share it with you.”
Over the past year, I’ve been on a quest. Exploring the deep reaches of the fast food universe to rank everything from the best chicken sandwiches to the best double cheeseburgers. French fries, shakes, and even napkins have fallen under my gaze.
It’s been a wild journey, and in my travels, I’ve noticed a few trends. Foremost among these being that Burger King, home of the world’s creepiest fast food mascot (which is saying something when you have Ronald McDonald, who is not only a clown but frighteningly tall ), consistently ranks near the bottom. Every time.
Does that mean I have something against Burger King? No, not at all.
In fact, I actively root for BK, hoping to be surprised to find that they’ve actually done something right. I long to have my preconceived notions upended. But it hasn’t happened yet. Burger King is bad at almost everything. Even shakes, which… how?! So when my editor called me on the first day back from a brief vacation to alert me that Burger King had just unveiled a brand new chicken sandwich and I’d need to return from my self-imposed fried chicken sandwich eating retirement to tackle one last job (last, who am I kidding), something broke inside of me.
Once I hit the internet, I found out that it’s actually not one sandwich but two (four, technically). The Ch’King sandwich, which is topped with pickles and sauce, and the Spicy Ch’King, which has pickles, sauce, and a hot glaze, and two deluxe versions of those sandwiches featuring lettuce and tomatoes. This news reignited a passion in me for fried chicken sandwiches that I thought was lost forever, like Laika the dog (it’s a grim reference, don’t click the link).
Why did it get me hyped? You mean to tell me that Burger King felt so confident in this new sandwich, that they doubled down? Count me in!
Then I watched the commercial, titled “Nightmare” featuring narration from Paul Giamatti. And, cool as a Giamatti cameo is, I was right back to thinking Burger King doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing. Sometimes I feel like these fast food companies forget that they’re supposed to be selling us food, not making weird internet content. Why are you advertising a chicken sandwich with this f*cking image?
Burger King
Fever-dream-and-vaguely-Get Out-inspired commercial aside, at least the internet got this sick Chick-fil-A burn from Burger King’s Twitter account out of it.
Got ’em Burger King! Donating the money first and not tying it to the sale of a chicken sandwich would’ve been better, but hey, as far as shallow gestures from big corporations during Pride month go, this one was at least suitably petty.
Without further ado, let’s get into these sandwiches and see if Burger King has finally done the thing and introduced a new food item that we can actually proudly recommend you spend your money on. Though again, judging from that commercial I didn’t go into the ranking optimistic.
In fact, I was downright frightened.
Burger King
Crispy Ch’King Sandwich
Dane Rivera
Calories: 800
Price: $4.99
The Sandwich:
The Crispy Ch’King consists of a hand-breaded chicken breast filet, thick crinkle-cut pickle chips, and a smattering of savory sauce on the top and bottom halves of a potato bun. So far so good, at least on paper, and while the actual sandwich doesn’t look quite as grand as the way Burger King pretends it looks in advertisements, it’s pretty damn close. Visually, I’m happy with this sandwich, it doesn’t look quite as presentable as a Chick-fil-A sandwich and doesn’t have that mouth-watering eye-candy quality of Popeyes, but it looks good, if not a bit overcooked.
Biting into this thing I’m welcomed by a pleasingly audible crunch, thanks to the thick batter the chicken is encrusted in. It’s noticeably crunchier and more flavorful than Burger King’s old Crispy Chicken Sandwich. I wouldn’t say you could tell that it’s “hand-breaded” but it does feel like some definite attention was put into it — it’s the highlight of the sandwich. The chicken, on the other hand, was a bit on the dry side. The meat flaked apart like dry breast meat tends to do. I don’t know if this was a result of my sandwich being left in the fryer a bit too long, but after you get that initial flavor of black pepper there was little else to hold onto.
I’m assuming BK is aware of this, which is why they double sauced their buns, spreading a mayo-based “savory” sauce on both ends to create the illusion of juiciness. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t taste too different than your standard mayo, it has a slightly sweetened vibe to it but if I didn’t know it was “savory sauce” then I would’ve just assumed it was mayo. Get wild Burger King, put a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and garlic in there and you’d have a sauce worthy of putting on both buns. This sauce just seems uninspired.
I have to commend Burger King on their pickles though, it’s really easy to half-ass a pickle and while I think the sandwich could do with more, the three pickles I received all added a tart bite that paired well with the crunchiness of the sandwich.
The Bottom Line
This sandwich is halfway to being a great chicken sandwich, it has a good crunchy batter with a nice pepper-forward flavor, but it’s a bit one-note. It’s begging for some complexity.
Spicy Ch’King Sandwich Deluxe
Dane Rivera
Calories: 1,052
Price: $5.69
Spice Level: 2/5
The Sandwich
For the spicy version of this sandwich, I went with the Deluxe over the standard, which meant no pickles but you get lettuce and tomato. Let me say this right off the bat — don’t get the Deluxe. It’s a waste of time, Burger King’s lettuce is sad and wilted and their tomatoes have to be the palest shade of red I’ve ever seen from something that grows on a vine. I think had I gotten pickles, this sandwich would’ve provided an even better experience because I like this one, a lot.
It’s not going to make Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, or Wendy’s flinch and have to innovate to keep their top-tier sandwich status, but it blows my mind that something this flavorful came from Burger King.
It’s easy to say a spicy sandwich beats a non-spicy sandwich, this sandwich has an extra flavor component to hang on to thanks to the spicy glaze that is brushed on the chicken, but I wouldn’t exactly classify this sandwich as “spicy.” The pepper glaze just compliments the batter’s already black pepper dominant flavor, adding a bit of sweetness to the earthy peppercorn aftertaste that lingers nicely on the lips and tongue. It isn’t spicy so much as it suggests spice, which is kind of interesting and offers a unique opportunity for people who can’t handle spice to pretend that they’re fun. I only wish there was more of it, Burger King’s promotional material would lead you to believe this chicken is bathed in this spicy sauce — it’s not, it’s merely brushed on. Haphazardly, I might add!
The “savory” sauce makes a return here and overall the flavors just compliment each other better, you get that nice crunch leading to that pepper-forward flavor and subtle sweet chili heat, which is reigned in by the double serving of sauce — the more you chew the more the flavors get married together. An easy improvement on this sandwich would’ve been the inclusion of cheese, or you know, probably pickles. But I made the mistake of getting the Deluxe.
Had Burger King provided us with something a little more exciting than a potato bun (it’s an okay choice for this sandwich, but again — not so special) and put just a bit more effort into the sauce, they could’ve had a real winner here. Three chains released new chicken sandwiches this year — McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr, and Burger King — and of the three this sandwich is by far the best. Burger King did it, they made a good chicken sandwich, but if they want to compete with the GOAT, they’re going to have to head back to the lab and make a few improvements.
The Bottom Line
This is easily Burger King’s best menu item. Order the Spicy Ch’King sandwich (regular not deluxe) over the regular crispy version, even if you think you don’t like spice.
The Burger King Ch’King sandwiches are available nationwide. Find your nearest Burger King here.
One of the most touching moments in Disney’s “Toy Story” series is in the third film when 17-year-old Andy goes off to college, leaving his beloved toys behind to a young girl named Bonnie. It’s the moment when he’s forced to put the things of childhood behind and make his way in the world as an adult.
Before driving off in his car, he gives Bonnie his favorite toy, Woody, and the two play together with his toys for one last time. While he’s excited to move on to go to school, his heart is clearly heavy with the knowledge of everything he’s leaving behind.
“Thanks, guys,” Andy says as he starts the ignition on his car and drives away.
A mother and son in Somerset, Texas recreated the heartfelt moment in a Twitter photo that has gone viral. A family friend captured a photo of Josiah Robles walking away from his home with his toys, including Buzz Lightyear and Woody, wishing him a fond farewell.
Robles is heading off to Baylor University to study mechanical engineering, where he will go “to infinity and beyond.”
“We thought it would be a good idea to do it with ‘Toy Story’ toys considering that I will be going off to college, like kind of what Andy did when he left the toys in the movie,” Robles explained.
The photo is reminiscent of a shot that went viral in September when a father in Leicestershire, England commemorated his four-year-old’s return to school after a sixth-month lockdown due to COVID-19.
In the photo, the young boy heads off to school while Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Slink, Jessie, and Woody wave goodbye to him in an homage to “Toy Story 3.”
An English boy’s first day of school has gone viral after he recreated the iconic goodbye scene from the Pixar movi… https://t.co/4Qw5iYFKda
“We decided to recreate the moment in ‘Toy Story 3’ where Andy leaves his toys behind when we did the traditional back to school photo,” the father, Sean Donnelly, told The Daily Mail.
“I think that story connected with the picture is one people can identify with too. If you have got kids you kind of know that feeling,” he added.
“Lots of people found it emotional and that it made them cry. I tried to make it look dark inside where the toys were and light outside where he was,” he said.
Both photos are a great way of marking a very specific moment in a child’s life when they go through a major transition. However, their greatest importance may be as a reminder to parents.
One of the most powerful realizations of being a parent is just how quickly our children grow. One day they’re playing with a pacifier, the next they’re playing with dolls. A few years later they’re knocking around a volleyball or basketball, and then, they’re leaving home.
You can’t put time in a bottle but you can do your best to be there, be in the moment, and appreciate the wonder of their childhoods, because it’ll be over before you know it.
Laura Wilkinson was first woman to have won three major diving world titles, including the Olympic gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games. She was 22 then. Now she’s 43, a mother of four, and 13 years post-retirement—and she just qualified for this weekend’s women’s platform finals in the U.S. Olympic trials.
“I never thought I would get to come back and dive again after I retired 13 years ago,” she told NBC Sports. “So this is really a gift, every dive is a gift. I love doing it and this is really special.”
When Wilkinson took home the gold from the Sydney Olympics, she was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in platform diving in 36 years. No U.S. woman has medaled in the Olympic sport since then. Against all odds, Wilkinson is looking for another medal shot in what will be her fourth Olympic games, if she makes the team.
Wilkinson explained on TODAY, “When you feel called to do something and you’re passionate about it, you just want to be all in. It’s the drive, it’s the love, and I love that my kids get to watch me do this, not just by telling them how to live their lives. But they’re seeing me, the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to actually get there.”
Wilkinson underwent surgery on her spine in 2018, a procedure that has enabled her to return to the sport that she loves.
“I’m kind of just surprised I’m doing it, honestly,” Wilkinson told TODAY. “When I retired at 30 I was old back then, so this whole journey has just been a crazy, fun road.”
At 43, Wilkinson is not ancient by any means, but competitive physical sports are a young person’s game. Even athletes in their 30s are considered past their prime, so even qualifying for Olympic trial finals is an impressive feat.
“It’s never going to be an easy road,” Wilkinson said, “but that’s what makes the journey worth it. When you get to the other side, whether you achieve all your goals and your dreams or you don’t, going through all of that, it refines you as a person, it’s walking through that fire, and you become better in that process.”
Dara Torres made Olympic history in 2008, winning three silver medals in swimming at age 41. The oldest Olympic gold medalist ever was Sweden’s Oscar Swahn, who took home the gold medal in shooting at age 64, and still competed in the Olympics at age 72.
While aging inarguably makes physical competition harder, athletes like Wilkinson prove that you don’t have to stop competing just because you reach a certain date on a calendar. Congrats and kudos to her for chasing her Olympic dreams for the fourth time, and for showing the world what’s possible with dedication, perseverance, and support.
Watch her interview with Houston’s KCRP 2 the day before she qualified for the finals, which take place on Sunday evening.
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