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The Boston Celtics are in the midst of one of the weirdest seasons of any team in the league. Boston currently sits at 15-17, putting them in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and on the cusp of falling out of the play-in tournament altogether. For a team that entered this season with sky high expectations, it’s not hard to label the Celtics as one of the NBA’s biggest disappointments this season.

Of course, that lacks a ton of context. The team has been thrashed by injury absences, whether they’re related to COVID-19 or otherwise, and they were unable to find a way to replace Gordon Hayward in free agency. But according to team CEO Wyc Grousbeck, one under the radar problem has been that the team lost Kyrie Irving to the Brooklyn Nets two offseasons ago.

“We had hoped Kyrie would stay forever and lead us all the way,” Grousbeck recently told NBC Sports Boston. “He’s on maybe the best team on the league right now and so that’s that. That change touched off a lot of stuff because he left, we weren’t maybe able to recruit free agents in the same way, and a bit of a domino effect. But it is what it is. We went for it with Kyrie. We had a good year with him. He tried hard and then he moved on.”

It is easy to view this as “we lost Kyrie and now we are bad,” but what Grousbeck appears to be saying is far more nuanced than that. Losing a player of Irving’s caliber made it more difficult to build a team over the course of multiple years. Boston still has the luxury of having two young All-Stars under long-term deals, but both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are younger dudes going through growing pains. And of course, in addition to losing Irving, the Celtics didn’t retain Al Horford, leaving a hole in their frontcourt that has been an issue this season.

Again, the good news for Boston is that if it needs to do any sort of tearing down, it would more be on the edges than with its core, because having two guys of Brown and Tatum’s caliber would make that exponentially easier to pull of successfully. But it’s hard not to wonder how things would have played out with the team if Irving stuck around instead of leaving to join the Nets a few summers back.

Questlove is commonly regarded as one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to music and its history. Now, the drummer for The Roots (to grossly simplify everything he does in and beyond the group) is sharing some of his insight with a new MasterClass focused on music curation and DJing.

MasterClass has shared a trailer for the class today, and the description says students of the class can expect to “explore DJ techniques, expand your musical vocabulary, and learn how to glide from genre to genre — including hip-hop, neo-soul, jazz, R&B, and more — to curate your own perfect playlist.” Questlove says in the trailer, “To be honest with you, not drumming in the world’s funkiest group, not the book-writing, not being on late-night television… my first love is records. I’ve been listening [to] and analyzing records since the age of 5. I’ve never shared the method to my madness or my secrets or my creative process in DJing until right now.”

In a statement, Questlove also says, “It’s one thing to listen to music, but it’s another thing to embrace it and have it come to you. Nothing will take the place of the passion that I feel for music, and I hope my MasterClass will open up a portal in your heart so that you learn to love music, find it, and appreciate it.” MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier also notes, “Questlove’s storied career and unparalleled knowledge and passion for music has made him a music icon and one of the most influential individuals in the industry. In his MasterClass, members will gain a deeper understanding of how to listen to and absorb music so they can deconstruct songs and gain a deeper appreciation of everything they hear.”

Check out the trailer for Questlove’s MasterClass above. The class is available now, so learn more about it here.

Chance The Rapper and his brother Taylor Bennett talk about being unsigned and their plans to collaborate on Facebook Watch’s Forward: The Future of Black Music. In the exclusive preview clip below, the Chicago-born brothers sit on a bean bag couch and play video games while Taylor describes his new work with Motown Records-signed artist TheHxliday, while Chance thanks Taylor for some of the advice the younger Bennett has given over the years. You can watch the exclusive clip below and check out the full episode on Facebook Watch Friday, February 26 at 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET.

Previous episodes of Forward: The Future of Black Music have seen discussions with Chance and Taylor’s fellow indie rap stalwarts D Smoke and Tobe Nwigwe, who shared chats with John Legend and Erykah Badu, respectively. The idea was originally influenced by the TV series Iconoclasts, aiming to make viewers a “fly on the wall” for these intimate, insider discussions.

Chance recently reunited with his fellow Windy City rapper Vic Mensa on their new song “Shelter,” the first collaboration between the two since the early days of their parallel rises to stardom. Meanwhile, Taylor is about 18 months removed from his last EP, American Reject.

Watch Forward: The Future of Black Music with Chance and Taylor 2/26.

Amatriciana sauce is one of the easiest pasta sauces in the world. It’s also one of the most often butchered — typically by someone adding too much to it. It really is simple, centered around three ingredients: bright red San Marzano tomatoes, funky pecorino cheese, and fatty cured pork cheek, known as guanciale. If you’re staying traditional, that needs to be pretty much it.

The beauty of a great salsa or sugo like this is that it allows each ingredient to do its thing and shine. The tomato is super bright and almost tart. The pecorino adds a creamy edge and a slight cheese funk. And then there’s the guanciale. It has a cellared funk, is super fatty, and offers the flavor of unsmoked bacon turned up to eleven. Those three elements combined and tossed with some hefty pasta are the epitome of a chef’s kiss.

The best part is that you really don’t need a lot of experience to create this dish. It’s easy for dates or after work. The most difficult part will be sourcing some guanciale. In a pinch, you can use pancetta, but you’ll be losing some of the deeper tastes a guanciale holds. The fat won’t be quite the same, but it will work.

Other than that, if you can fry bacon, you can make this dish. Let’s get to it!

Bucatini all’amatriciana

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound bucatini
• 8 oz. guanciale
• 2 oz. pecorino
• 2 cans San Marzano tomatoes
• Salt
• White pepper
• Black pepper
• Basil

You’re going to be tempted to add onions or garlic to this sauce. You truly don’t need it. Trust in the ingredients and the power of good food working together. As with a lot of great Italian cookery, simplicity is often where you find the highest highs.

As for the pasta, it’s pretty common to get this with bucatini around Rome. I’ve seen it with rigatoni or even hand-torn pasta. The point is to use a large format that can hold a lot of sauce.

What You’ll Need:

• Large pot
• Large saucepan
• Tongs
• Kitchen knife
• Bowl
• Box grater

Method:

• Fill a large pot with water and add in a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Add in pasta.
• Cube the guanciale and add to the cold saucepan. Put the pan on medium-high heat.
• Fry the guanciale until it’s browned.
• Drain off most of the excess fat (there will be a lot) leaving a thin layer of fat in the pan.
• In the meantime, empty the cans of tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with your hands.
• Add the tomatoes to the saucepan with guanciale. Hit the sauce with two big pinches of salt and white pepper. Stir.
• Simmer the sauce until the tomato just starts to reduce (less than ten minutes).
• Once the pasta hits al dente, use the tongs to transfer the pasta to the sauce.
• Add about 1/4 of pasta water to the sauce along with the grated cheese.
• Toss the pasta well with tongs until it’s fully coated. Kill the heat and let the pasta rest for two minutes or so.
• Plate up in a pasta bowl and grate some more pecorino over the top and hit with a few cranks of the black pepper mill and garnish with a basil leaf.
• Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is so bright and light while holding some serious depth, thanks to that fatty and funky guanciale. It was really hard not to eat two bowls the second I served it up. Also, it takes under 20 minutes to make — seriously. All you’re really doing is boiling some pasta, frying some pork cheek, and simmering a sauce for maybe ten minutes.

That means a lot of big flavors for very little effort. The tomato is just lovely and the cubes of crunchy, fried pork cheek are like little morsels of pure bliss. Looking for something easy, new, and delicious as spring gets kicking? This is a perfect pasta to expand your repitoire with.

It was one year ago today that former-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declared that the coronavirus isn’t something American citizens should be concerned about.

“This president will always put America first, he will always protect American citizens,” she told Fox Business host Trish Regan on February 25, 2020. “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism, and isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of Barack Obama?” To celebrate the, um, anniversary of McEnany’s bold (and knowingly incorrect and wildly dangerous) claim, The Daily Show put her lies to music.

“One year ago today, Kayleigh McEnany made a really bad COVID prediction, but what’s really special is how she also made a bad terrorism prediction in the same sentence,” the tweet reads, along with a montage of McEnany’s claims versus what actually happened. How it started: “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here” and “we will not see terrorism.” How it ended: “500,000 Americans have now been killed by COVID” and “major breaking news of a coup attempt as a pro-Trump mob of rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol.” McEnany calling Obama’s presidency “awful” was followed by Lou Dobbs complaining about the infamous tan suit, and how Democrats are “so desperate because of these low poll numbers, they’re willing to do anything.” Speaking of desperate, here’s McEnany desperately trying to pull a “nothing to see here,” folks.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is out there, day after day on the Senate floor, for his fellow Democrats who are working their $15 minimum wage proposal into ongoing stimulus talks. The much maligned Sen. Josh Hawley has introduced his alternative (tax credits), which is actually kind-of surprising since he’s not keeping with the Republicans’ full-on opposition to the hike. That particular perspective is a widespread one within the party and was articulated in a very awkward (and frankly silly) way by Republican Senate Majority Whip John Thune, who posed his (rather tone-deaf) argument on Twitter.

“I started working by bussing tables at the Star Family Restaurant for $1/hour & slowly moved up to cook – the big leagues for a kid like me- to earn $6/hour,” Thune wrote while posting a video speech to claim that $15 per hour would destroy businesses. “Businesses in small towns survive on narrow margins. Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business.”

Thune is 60 years old now, meaning that he’d have been earning $6 per hour (still somehow twice the minimum wage) as a cook in the late 1970s. If one accounted for inflation, that’d work out to over $20 per hour in 2021 dollars.

Bragging about making twice the minimum wage in the late 1970s and arguing about raising the minimum wage now, well, is not a great look.

While our bourbon-by-price project is deeeeeep into the good stuff at this same price point, Scotch whisky is notably different. Because of importing, tariffs, and increased costs across the supply chain, the bottles we’re looking at today put us right in the middle of really high-end blends, special finishes, and the classic (but still fairly young) single malt whiskies. It’s a good place to be if you like the juice from Scotland, but not near the heights that we’re headed.

For this list, we’re only looking at price point and taste. These are bottles that generally fall between $70 and $80. Of course, those prices will vary (sometimes drastically) depending on both where you are in the country and what establishment you buy your booze from (if you’re not in the US, all bets are off).

While they aren’t all straight sippers yet, we vouch for all of these expressions for anyone who wants to spend less than a C-note but still wants something a little more exciting and complicated than a typical blend. Let’s get to it!

Compass Box The Spice Tree

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $70

The Whisky:

London’s Compass Box is one of the most interesting (and lauded) blenders in the game. Their Spice Tree is a masterful marrying of six whiskies mostly from the Highlands with a focus on French wine cask finishings. There’s also some Highland Clynelish aged in ex-bourbon in there too, which adds a unique dimension to this particular mix.

Tasting Notes:

This honestly edges more towards a rye-heavy bourbon than your classic Scotch blend on the nose, with Christmas spices, light orchard fruit, and vanilla popping off. The taste is a velvet mouthful of slightly malty whisky that leans towards those holiday spices with clear notes of caramel apple candies and a touch more vanilla. The end sharpens the spice to cloves and cinnamon as the roundness of the vanilla and malts fade pretty quickly.

Bottom Line:

If you’re into bourbon and curious about blended scotch, this is the perfect bottle to take that leap. It’s truly an accessible whisky all-around and kind of feels like going home again. You don’t even really need a rock or water to mellow it out but a little water will help it bloom.

Glenfiddich 15 Old Solera Reserve

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $74

The Whisky:

This Speyside whisky is a special bottle. The juice is aged in three barrels — ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and new virgin American oak — for 15 long years. Those whiskies are then vatted into a massive tun (tank) made of Oregon pine. The other ripple is that the tun is never more than 50 percent empty, creating a sort of lineage going back to 1998 to the new juice going in with each new batch.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a real sense of sunny wildflowers next to smooth and rich honey with hints at nougat and dried red berries on the nose. The taste holds onto some of that, with hints of marzipan, rose water, plummy sherry, and a light dusting of cinnamon. The finish is mild and silken and really touches on honey-soaked berries and an almost jammy chewiness.

Bottom Line:

This bottle is crazy crushable. If you wanted to give someone an example of what “smooth” means in whisky, this is the bottle. It also makes for a great gift bottle, given the unique nature of the finishing.

The Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

The Balvenie is renowned for doing everything in-house from grain-to-glass and for being the distillery that spearheaded the whole “finishing whisky in a different cask” movement. In this case, the juice spends 14 years maturing in ex-bourbon barrels. The whisky is then batched and transferred to barrels that The Balvenie aged their own blend of West Indies rum in.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a welcoming rush of buttery toffee up top with hints at brown spices, bright red berries, and a touch of sweet malts. The palate brings around creamy vanilla dotted with those sweet and slightly tart red berries next to a very soft and sweet oakiness. The finish is medium-length, full of soft wood and vanilla cream, and a touch of that spice.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those drams that may have you saying, “Oh, shit! That’s good!” We like to drink this one neat because it’s so easy, then try it with a little water to find more depth and nuance.

Dewar’s 18

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $76

The Whisky:

The heart of Dewar’s is Aberfeldy whisky. This blend is a testament to Master Blender Stephanie MacLeod’s prowess in bringing good whisky together to make great whisky. The juices are aged for 18 long years in American oak before they’re vatted into a large oak tun and allowed to rest before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s that signature Aberfeldy honey on the nose with hints of almonds, stone fruits, and red berries. The palate dials all of this in with a marzipan vibe next to more honey, bruised apricot skins, and dark chocolate-covered red berries. The end is soft, silky, and brings a final bite of sweet oak with a slight tobacco chew.

Bottom Line:

While this rules as a sipper on the rocks, it really shines as a killer cocktail base. And if we learned anything from our highball experiments, it will also make for a hell of a highball.

The Glenrothes Whisky Maker’s Cut

ABV: 48.8%

Average Price: $77

The Whisky:

The bulbous offering from The Glenrothes is all about the sherry. The expression spends an undisclosed amount of years in first-fill sherry casks (first-fill as in this whisky was the first thing to go into the barrels after the sherry came out of them). The whisky is then batched and vatted before being proofed down only slightly.

Tasting Notes:

You’re met with candied orange peel spiked with hints of eggnog spices and a touch of gooey pine resin. The taste holds on tightly to that candied orange, while adding in a velvety vanilla cream generously dusted with those eggnog spices and a softer touch of almost sweet wood. The finish zeroes in on the orange and nutmeg as the vanilla and oak fade away on the slow end.

Bottom Line:

This is a great brunch whisky, especially if you’re pairing it with French toast. It’s also just a super easy-sipping dram to have around. And we’d argue that the cool bottle makes it a solid gift too.

Caol Ila 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $77

The Whisky:

This dram from Islay is a stonecold classic and at the heart of many a great blend from Johnnie Walker to Compass Box. The juice harnesses Islay’s signature peated malts and ocean-adjacent barrel warehouses to create a 12-year-old single malt whisky that stands as one of the greats while remaining accessible to the peat curious.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a matrix of dried roses soaked in water touched by orange oils, almonds, and a trace of classic Listerine buzziness. The sip has a savoriness that feels like olive oil speckled with coarse sea salt next to a distant billow of briny smoke, all counterpointed by sweet malts and fruits. The finish sweetens the smokiness with a fruity-yet-spicy tobacco edge while the end fades towards an almost sour hint of citrus.

Bottom Line:

This is a definite, “Holy Shit!” whisky. It’s peated and smoky, sure. But that smoke is so subtle and refined in the build of this dram that it’ll draw you in more than push you away. Add some water or a rock to really let this one bloom in the ol’ Glencairn.

Tamdhu 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $78

The Whisky:

Speyside’s Tamdhu upped their game a few years back by replacing their 10-year expression with this masterful whisky. The juice is aged for 12 years in a combination of American and European oak that held sherry first. They use both first-fill and re-filled barrels in the aging process before vatting the results, proofing with Speyside’s rich water, and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a bit of a Christmas cake vibe with candied orange, plenty of dark spice (especially cinnamon sticks), a maltiness that feels bread-y, a touch of sweet oak, and maybe a hint of peppermint candy. The taste veers more into the ripe and red berries with that cinnamon still in play but the breadiness is more like a buttery sugar cake with sherry/plummy depth. The end offers an interesting fade — with everything dialed in, creating shortbread and raspberry jam that’s just touched by the faintest wisp of fruity smoke.

Bottom Line:

This is really f*cking tasty for a 12-year-old. It’s silken enough to drink neat, but if you really want to dive deep into those flavors, you’ll need to nose and water this dram and take your time exploring its depths.

Oban Little Bay

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $78

The Whisky:

This expression from the tiny-yet-legendary Oban distillery is a highwater mark in whisky-making. The single malt is a blend of whisky matured in American and European oak barrels touched by sherry. The juice is then batched and instead of being of vatted in a big tun, it’s re-barreled in small-format barrels for a final maturation before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a spicy, fruity, and nutty Christmas cake next to bright pops of red berries, pear, and apricot. The candied orange from the Christmas cake rises to the surface on the taste, next to ripe pears and the feel and taste of salted dark chocolate just touched by mint. The finish is slow and so mild — with that salted chocolate vibe carrying on towards a final touch of that Christmas cake in all its glory.

Bottom Line:

We’re pretty big fans of Oban around these parts and this dram is a great example of why. It’s smooth with a capital “S” and only gets better and more unique as you take your time nosing and tasting over and over again (just don’t forget the drops of water).

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $79.99

The Whisky:

This no-age-statement blend leans into that signature Walker marriage of Highland and Speyside whiskies with a small dose of Western Scottish juice for good measure. The lion’s share of the whisky involved in this bottle is Clynelish, a Highland whisky that adds a dash of peat to the mix.

Tasting Notes:

Honey and oak greet you with a distant fruity nature and a little warmth. The fruit kicks up on the palate and becomes slightly tropical as a counterpoint of rich vanilla creaminess arrives. The end is subtle and long with the fruit and honey standing tall against a very distant echo of earthy peat.

Bottom Line:

This is a masterfully blended scotch. There’s an openness to Johnnie Walker when you get into its higher echelons and this bottle really does go down easy. While it shines on the rocks for sure, it really can be sipped neat — maybe after a big meal, next to a roaring fire.

Highland Park Valknut

ABV: 46.8%

Average Price: $79.99

The Whisky:

High up on the Orkney Islands, Highland Park is making whisky for the Vikings. Valknut (a knot of three triangles honoring those who fell in battle) uses locally grown “Tartan barley” that’s malted with a bit of peat. That whisky spends an undisclosed amount of time aging in American oak that held sherry. The juice is vatted, proofed with Orkney’s soft water, and bottled in a bespoke Viking-inspired bottle.

Tasting Notes:

Imagine vanilla pods warming up in a pan and just starting to release their oils and smoke next to a hint of black pepper and cedar. The palate holds onto that vanilla while adding a touch of black licorice and clove next to more cedar and maybe … fennel crusted rye bread. The finish holds onto the spice with a chewy tobacco vibe next to an almost fatty smoke from a backyard salmon smoker and a touch of orange oils.

Bottom Line:

This is a truly interesting dram that bridges malted smokiness with what could be a ten-year-or-older Texas bourbon vibe. It’s really unique while also being very tasty and subtle. You’ll definitely want to add a little water or a rock to really dig into the depths on this one, though — rather than sipping neat.

The Pokémon franchise is commemorating its 25th anniversary this year; While Pokémon Red and Blue, the first games released in the US, came out stateside in 1998, the original Japanese games, Red and Green, were released in 1996. Anyway, part of the celebration has included collaborating with Post Malone on a couple things. Malone is performing a virtual concert for Pokémon Day this weekend, but ahead of that, he has released a new cover tied to the partnership: a rendition of the Hootie And The Blowfish classic “Only Wanna Be With You.”

Malone keeps the cover mostly stylistically faithful to the original version, and even though the song doesn’t have any clear preexisting connection to Pokémon, Malone has turned in a fun recording nonetheless. He slightly tweaked the lyrics, shifting the focus of one line from the Miami Dolphins to his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, as he sings, “I’m such a baby ’cause the Cowboys make me cry.” Longtime Pokémon fans may have also noticed that the song has a sample from the second-generation Game Boy/Game Boy Color games Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, specifically the music that plays in Ecruteak City.

Darius Rucker, who of course sang and co-wrote the ’90s classic, is over the moon about Malone’s rendition, tweeting of it this morning, “The smile in my face will not leave for a long time. This is awesome. My bro @PostMalone bringing it. Hell yes man!!!!!!!!!”

Listen to Malone’s rendition of “Only Wanna Be With You” above.

There were 500 days in between seasons four and five of Better Call Saul, so fans of the series are used to waiting a while between seasons. That’s good because they will almost certainly have to wait even longer between the fifth and the final season.

The last episode aired in April 2020, and if AMC were to maintain the 500-day break, Saul would return on September 21st, 2021. That’s unlikely, although early 2022 is looking like a definite possibility. Production on the final season is set to begin in March, according to the Albuquerque Journal, while a local casting company is currently looking for background players, who will need to be available in the second week of March when filming begins.

One cast member has also tipped off that they’re heading to the set to begin production. Last week, Michael Mando — who plays Nacho — noted on Twitter that he was leaving Canada for New Mexico to resume production.

After quarantining for two weeks, Mando should be ready to go, which aligns with the March date that Bob Odenkirk recently suggested would signal the beginning of production.

There are 13 episodes, and it will reportedly take 8 months to film the final season, which production is likely to continue into November. By that point, everyone on set should be vaccinated. For those who are most worried about the actor in the highest risk category, 74-year-old Jonathan Banks, take comfort in the fact that 70 year olds have been eligible for vaccinations in every state. He has almost certainly been vaccinated by now, so he should be able to shoot the final season with much less concern.

We’ll bring more. updates on the final season, which Bob Odenkirk calls “supremely intense,” as we hear them, including whether Bryan Cranston or Aaron Paul will return to the franchise.

Brian Williams was in rare form on Wednesday night as The 11th Hour host dropped zinger after zinger on Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson for his nonsensical attempt to blame “leftist provocateurs” posing as Trump supporters for the January 6 attack on the Capitol building. Williams even found time to dunk on Chuck Todd. While opening up a panel discussion by referring to the senator as “RonAnon Johnson,” Williams roasted his MSNBC colleague by noting that Johnson is “the rare conspiracy theorist who is a regular on Meet the Press.” And the hits just kept on coming.

After showing clips of Johnson using a blog post from The Federalist to accuse outside agitators/”fake Trump supporters” of wearing disguises to infiltrate Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, Williams quipped, “We paid extra to have those translated from the original Russian.” The MSNBC host also dropped this scathing bon mot after discussing Johnson’s wild claims: “A number of Republicans, despite our electronic age, still prefer to work by gaslight.”

People enjoyed Williams’ brutal barrage of zingers that the veteran anchor was still trending on social media going into Thursday morning. You can see some of the reactions below:

As for Johnson, the Wisconsin senator has been experiencing intense backlash for peddling bonkers conspiracy theories during the Capitol hearing. Along with Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, Johnson being allowed time for questioning has been roundly criticized as people note that he was one of the vocal supporters of the insurrectionist rally and the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen for Trump. In a nutshell, it doesn’t look good that active participants in the violent Trump rally are now part of that rally’s investigation.

(Via Mediaite)