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The 2020 Republican National Convention was never going to be a slow build-up to its centerpiece: Thursday night’s climactic speech by incumbent nominee Donald J. Trump. There are a lot of people in the party who have their own eccentric beliefs, enough to fill four whole nights. (One longtime Trump ally not invited: Michael Cohen. But he’d be present in some fashion.) Indeed, Monday night’s session wasted no time, filling over two hours with one over-the-top speech after another. There were so many deranged addresses that they couldn’t help but put two of them back-to-back for maximum impact.

Those people were Mark and Patricia McCloskey, aka the wealthy couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis, Missouri, and attorney and Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle. Both were, shall we say, intense in their very own ways.

The McCloskeys first (and you can watch them above). Sitting in a very tony room in their massive McMansion, the two recounted the events that led to them becoming media fixtures, damned, mocked, and even charged with felonies for unlawful use of a weapon. Naturally, they became darlings of the right-wing, which is why they were invited to speak at the RNC, where they issued dire warnings about a proposed socialist hellscape, littered with a liberal dose of dog whistles.

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia said, making explicit that her testimony was directed at the wealthy.

“It seems the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens,” Mark added. “Not a single person in the out-of-control mob you saw outside our house was charged with a crime. But you know who was? We were. They actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home.”

Mark McCloskey smeared Cori Bush, the leader of the protest that found its way into their upscale St. Louis neighborhood, thrice calling her a variation on “Marxist activist,” then warning people that she’d won the Democrat nomination in the House of Representatives.

“These radicals are not content to march in the streets. They want to walk the halls of congress. They want to take over. They want power,” Mark said. “This is Joe Biden’s party. These are the people who are going to be in charge of your culture and the future of your children.”

Patricia McCloskey then made sure to scare white suburbanites. “They’re not satisfying with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether,” said Patricia, who lives in a gigantic mansion.

Patricia then singled out Trump’s controversial eradication of “single family home zoning,” which was widely seen as a racist dog whistle, scaring white suburbanites terrified of lower-income black families moving into their neighborhood. Patricia doubled down. “This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness, and low-quality apartments into now-thriving suburban neighborhoods,” she said “These are the policies that are coming to a neighborhood near you. make no mistake, no matter where you live your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.”

After the McCloskeys’ joint speech, it was almost hard to focus on Guilefoyle’s, which immediately followed. But had a way of making you pay attention: by screaming.

Guilfoyle started at 11 and then kept finding new heights of shoutiness, hollering about how she was a “PROUD American!” and a “PROUD supporter of Donald J. Trump,” a man who “always puts America first,” and who is “the law and order president!” She screamed about “socialists!” and “closed schools!” and “China!” and “Cuba!” and “Venezuela!” She bellowed about how rioters “must not be allowed to destroy our cities.” She took on “cancel culture!” and “cosmopolitan elites!”, often while doing jazz hands.

It wasn’t really building to a fever pitch — it was all a fever pitch, for six-and-a-half straight minutes — but she still found a new way to top herself by the end, even as she merely parroted an oft-told Trump promise, that “the best is yet to come!”

You can watch both videos above, if you must.

I May Destroy You proved to be a fiery and fearless exploration of sexual consent that cemented Michaela Coel as a creative force not to be ignored (following her previous success with hit Britcom Chewing Gum). As creator, writer, and star of the HBO series, Coel unfurled a catharsis-fueled finale that included a revenge fantasy for her character, Arabella (also a writer), who spent a full season unraveling the mystery of who had drugged and raped her during a night on the town. What emerges is a subversive and provocative commentary on consent in many contexts.

The finale turned out to be shocking and empowering and painstakingly perfect for the pitch-black humor of the show. In the episode, Arabella drafted several permutations of how to find closure with her rapist. Surreally, we saw her rally with girlfriends and kill him outside the scene of the original crime. In another version, she danced up to him at the bar to the tune of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” with controlled chaos and limbs flying everywhere. Finally, we saw her find peace with the situation as his corpse disappeared from underneath her bed. In the end, Arabella wrote her own peaceful ending while taking back her soul from the stranger who had stolen it from her.

Previously, we spoke with co-stars Weruche Opia and Paapa Essiedu about the so-called “grey areas” of sexual consent and the many masks worn by the show’s characters, respectively. Michaela was kind enough to talk with us about how she conceived and crafted the multiple “endings” explored in the finale.

Can we talk about the wonderful title of this show, and at what moment did you decide that was going to be it?

Funnily enough, I landed on that title three months into the shoot, when we were actually shooting the show.

That’s wild since it fits the show like a glove.

Yeah! So it came really late, and at that point it just occurred to me, so I emailed my team and floated it out as a possible title and then forgot about it. Then we were in post-production. This was March of this year, and it came back. The name I May Destroy You came back, so I said, “Guys, this is the title.” So yes, it came quite late.

Did it have a working title before that?

It did. January 22 because that’s the day that her draft was due and the day that she goes to the bar. That’s the day of Episode 1. Rubbish! It’s not good, is it?

It does not have nearly the same ring. In the finale, why did you decide to use The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” when Arabella toyed with her rapist? It’s such a great song for that scene.

There’s a part of this story that was writing itself and was simply using my fingers to put the words onto the keyboard into the script. It just happened, as I was typing!

What led you to inject those hyper-real, fantasy elements, which worked through alternate resolutions to Arabella confronting him?

That was probably decided during my time in Michigan on the farm. I was writing there near the lady who owned the cabin that I was staying at, in the middle of nowhere. I had told her why I was there because I don’t think that most people go to that cabin and stay by themselves for as long of a period as I did. They come in couples for the weekend. I was just there, and she was like, “What are you doing?” I said I was writing the show, and she said, “Oh, I’ve got something for you.” And it was this Margaret Atwood book, a a short story [“Stone Mattress”] within a whole book of short stories. This one was about a woman on a boat cruise who ended up bumping into a man who assaulted her many years ago when she was a teenager. I began to read this book in a way to be inspired, but as I was reading it, I began to notice that this was probably going in the direction of bloodshed. So, I said to her, “Is somebody gonna die?”

That’s dark stuff, but I can see how it could fuel your process here.

And I kind of wanted to do something a little bit different, but I also understand the need for this kind of ending. It lights something within us, doesn’t it? This revenge fantasy, so I thought about doing that, and what I realized, even early on while I read that Margaret Atwood book, is that this isn’t going to give me (or Arabella) any kind-of closure. She’s gonna kill him, but now, she’s a murderer, and now she’s gotta deal with being a murderer.

Well, that’d be a Season 2 story, but not the one that Arabella deserves, or that people would want to see happen to her.

She’s already Black, she’s already female, she’s already working class. She can’t also deal with a new label of murderer. How’s she gonna deal with that? I’m trying to get her to a place of well-being, peace, and empowerment, so now that she’s murdered him, what exactly happens now with her? It doesn’t seem like closure. So then I would try a different version with, “Like, let’s have the police come back and bring justice.” But once she had engaged with him a little bit, it didn’t really help, so I began to just go through these different versions, and also what I found is that just continuing to engage in this (and find different ways to deal with it) also wasn’t giving her closure. So, she needed to get to a point where she could let it go.

You mentioned “bloodshed,” and I wasn’t going to mention this yet, but now that there’s blood involved, why did you decide to include the period-sex scene earlier in the season?

Yessss! You know, I was writing, and a lot of this is inspired by my real life, so a journalist mentioned that I had told The Guardian about a lover taking a tampon out of my vagina [laughs], so I’ve already basically shared that this is my reality. But what I love about the scene, and the moment, is that it’s so consensual. So for me, this is a fond memory of beautiful, consensual sex, and it’s one of the rare moments that sex is ever consensual in the show, but I — just to have a lovely, cute scene of two people having sex, for me, I’m not interested in that — so what can I do to make this consensual sex a little bit… challenging for us? Using that moment of my life, the period, was (1) The blood clot came out of nowhere, it just happened.

They do that! You can’t stop it. Getting back to the serious stuff, multiple new shows are reframing the discussion around sexual trauma, like Unbelievable.

I’ve seen a few episodes, yes.

That show explored the challenges faced by an “imperfect victim.” When you crafted Arabella, she was “imperfect,” but proudly so.

Well, I wanted to make her human. That’s the base point. I got this commission in 2017 and had my first drafts in April 2018. It was always very clear to me that, in order to tell the story, I had to tell it in all of its fullness.

I appreciated that her trauma wasn’t the only facet of her personality.

Yeah.

I’m glad we already got through the period-sex part because, oh boy, that’d be a rough transition to make now.

[Cackles.]

So you obviously have a lot in common with Arabella, including the nature of her trauma. And there’s also the suggestion that her following up on her first book mirrors you following up on your first TV success.

I would definitely say that it actually isn’t one of the things that we really have in common, and I think that’s because I was so into writing poetry first, so it began there, where I was like, “I wrote a poem, so how am I going to top that? Perhaps it’s there, so I’ve got to write another poem.” So I’ve always learned to manage that, and by the time that Chewing Gum came out, I’m sort-of just constantly living off the buzz, off of that show. And my problem is understanding that it’s time to do something new! Even now, it’s like, “What are you gonna do?” And I’m still buzzing, I’m on a looooong break, I’m not anxious about it at all. So we didn’t really have that sophomore thing in common. There are different permutations of what she was like with that. Is she confident about it, is she casual, or is she nervous? So at that end, I thought that most people would identify with the second-album anxiety, so that’s why I chose to make her that way. People might relate to that a bit more.

If you could put Arabella into any other show right now for a guest episode, where would you like her to visit?

Oooooooh, I love that question!

Yay!

Where would I put her? I’d probably put her in Atlanta.

Would she hang with the central trio or simply featured?

I think she’d be featured, definitely.

And how do you feel about Arabella (or you) being called the “voice of a generation”?

Yeah, that’s in the summary things that they do for the show, and that was my team, so I certainly did not know about it, and I’m reading it, thinking, “My my, are we going to write that in there?” But I let it happen, I didn’t mind. It’s guess it’s definitely, perhaps from one angle, meta, but I don’t know that I see myself as a voice of a generation. This generation is so varied and diverse, that it would seem impossible to be the voice of an entire generation.

HBO’s ‘I May Destroy You’ can be streamed on HBO Max.

Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat entered Monday evening’s tilt with the opportunity to close out the Indiana Pacers and begin preparing for a likely second round match-up against the Milwaukee Bucks. While the Pacers competed admirably in Game 4, Erik Spoelstra’s team managed to emerge victorious with a 99-87 victory, leading most of the way despite the fact that Butler missed a significant portion of the game with a left shoulder strain — and when he did play in the second half, he was not offering much in the way of scoring help.

With Indiana heading home from the NBA’s Bubble and Miami becoming the third Eastern Conference team to advance to the semis, both teams are looking to the future, albeit in different respects. To that end, here are three takeaways from Game 4 and the series overall.

1. Miami is in for a larger challenge defensively in the semis

With all due respect to the Orlando Magic, the Heat are likely going to meet the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, and that is a different beast entirely. Not only does Miami have to contend with the MVP front-runner in Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Bucks deploy a far more potent overall formula for shot creation than that of the Pacers.

On the bright side for Miami, Bam Adebayo is perhaps the best defensive archetype imaginable against Antetokounmpo. The Heat relied on Adebayo as the starting power forward for much of the season but, as the seeding games arrived, Miami shifted to a smaller look, allowing Adebayo to show off his combination of rim protection, athleticism and instincts. Against the Bucks, the Heat may need to go bigger with more of Kelly Olynyk (or even Meyers Leonard), simply to match Milwaukee’s bulk with Brook Lopez and Antetokounmpo. Overall, though, a steady diet of Adebayo vs. Antetokounmpo is in the offing, and that is must-see TV for everyone.

When the Heat are dialed in as they were at times against the Pacers, the defensive results are truly impressive. Spoelstra is a tremendous tactician, Adebayo and Butler are star-level players that also defend, and Miami has versatile, strong forwards in Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder. Lineup construction will be interesting with regard to Miami’s approach, whether that is to try to out-pace Milwaukee with an offensive barrage or slow the game down with a defense-first look. Regardless, the Heat are going to be dealing with a much more explosive opponent in the next round, and their response will be telling.

2. This isn’t a failure for the Pacers

Being swept isn’t an ideal outcome for any playoff team, much less a Pacers squad that finished the regular season on a 50-win pace. However, Indiana navigated its entire postseason run without Domantas Sabonis and, in the regular season, he was the team’s most valuable player. From there, Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. Warren were very good in Orlando, but the Pacers didn’t get much from Victor Oladipo before a resurgence in Game 4 and, on the whole, the Heat were simply the better team in this series.

That isn’t damning for the Pacers long-term, however, with the team’s entire core under contract for next season and, provided health for Sabonis and Oladipo, seemingly poised for additional improvement. Indiana does have a massive decision to make with regard to Oladipo, who is up for a potential extension but struggling to find his old, star-level form. Warren’s ascent certainly helps matters and, before the injury, Sabonis was playing at an obscenely high level on the way to an All-Star selection.

Indiana isn’t likely to enter the 2020-21 season as a favorite in the East, but they return a strong roster with the ability to add by using the mid-level exception. The Pacers could look to (finally) break up the Sabonis-Myles Turner duo in the frontcourt, but Oladipo might hold the keys to Indiana’s true ceiling and, if he can find it again, Nate McMillan’s team could be even better next year.

3. The Heat have the shooting to threaten the Bucks

To put it bluntly, the Bucks were the best defensive team in the NBA during the regular season and Mike Budenholzer’s defensive style works when accounting for the larger sample size of a marathon campaign. In the postseason, though, Budenholzer’s teams in both Atlanta and Milwaukee have been vulnerable to three-point shooting, and that is the widely accepted (potential) kryptonite for the Bucks this time around.

While Milwaukee will rightly enter a second-round battle against the Heat as a substantial betting favorite to advance, the Heat have the kind of operation that could threaten the Bucks’ potent defense. Butler is a potent No. 1 option, both in creating for himself and others, and Adebayo is a versatile, multi-level player that can help to maintain Miami’s spacing as a high-end passer and play finisher.

From there, the Heat have a bevy of shooters, headlined by Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro, and Miami finished the regular season with a league-leading 58.7 percent true shooting. That overall shooting efficiency was buoyed by top-level three-point shooting that also persisted in the Pacers series, and the Heat will put pressure on Milwaukee’s defense with spacing.

It is fair to point out that, while Butler is a great player, he isn’t the off-dribble shooter that other top-end options are and, by proxy, the Bucks could have more success against him as a scorer. That is accurate, but Robinson is on another planet as a shooter right now and, if Miami can get top-shelf play from Dragic and a bit of hot shooting, they can pose the Bucks a real threat in round two.

David Byrne’s 2018 record American Utopia happened by accident. The Talking Heads vocalist had been passing ideas back-and-forth with freuqent collaborator and longtime friend Brian Eno before he realized he had enough material to form his first solo album in 14 years. The record debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s album charts and the musician even turned it into a musical of the same name. Now a film version of the show is coming exclusively to HBO Max.

The film was directed by Spike Lee and recorded during the musical’s 2019-2020 run at Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Throughout the show, Byrne is accompanied by an ensemble of eleven musicians, singers, and dancers from around the globe. The musical features Byrne speaking directly to the audience about the state of America, as well as performances of songs spanning his career up to American Utopia.

In an interview with Uproxx after American Utopia‘s release, Byrne described his collaboration process with Eno:

“It’s still pretty good. As you said, We’ll send things back and forth. He’ll send me something. I’ll add something to it or reshape it, send it back to him. A little bit of back and forth. In this case, after a certain amount of back and forth I had gotten very enthusiastic about the songs and had kind of added more musicians to change it, shape the stuff in various ways. At some point Brian said, ‘I think these are yours now. It’s not a joint collaboration anymore.’ Not that he didn’t influence them to an incredible degree, but he was saying, ‘You have taken charge of these now.’”

David Byrne’s American Utopia premieres 10/17 on HBO Max. Watch the trailer above.

American Utopia is out now via Todomundo/Nonesuch Records. Get it here.

Michael Cohen is a disgraced man, and you know why? Because he worked for Donald J. Trump. As the current president’s former personal counsel, Cohen performed illegal acts, including eight counts of campaign finance violations and tax fraud, that led to a three year jail sentence, which he’s currently serving. But the disbarred lawyer has been trying to atone for his acts. Among those has been routinely speaking out against his old boss, warning everyone, especially his fans, that he will turn on them, too. His latest gambit? Recording a series of ads that will air during the Republican National Convention.

“For more than a decade, I was President Trump’s right-hand man, fixer and confidant. I was complicit in helping conceal the real Donald Trump. In essence, I was part of creating an illusion,” Cohen says in the full ad, which runs 90 seconds and will be cut into three parts for airtime.

Cohen, who in the ads bills himself as “Trump’s Former Fixer,” goes on:

” Later this week, he’s going to stand up at the White House and blatantly lie to you. I’m here to tell you he can’t be trusted — and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters. So, when you watch the President this week, remember this: If he says something is huge, it’s probably small. If he says something will work, it probably won’t. And if he says he cares about you and your family, he certainly does not.

Cohen also made time to dunk on Trump’s Nixonian attempts to paint himself as a “law and order” president. “That’s laughable,” Cohen says. “Virtually everyone who worked for his campaign has been convicted of a crime or is under indictment. Myself included.”

The full-length ad ends with him reminding us that Trumps “thinks we’re all gullible, a bunch of fools,” saying that, like the president’s fanbase, he “fell for it.” His final words are blunt: “You don’t have to like me. But please, listen to me.”

As per CNN, the ads will run online and start airing on television starting Wednesday, the day before the RNC’s final night. You can watch the full add above.

(Via CNN)

Almost every show on the planet has had to shuffle things amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but some shows have experienced non-coronavirus controversies since Hollywood largely shut down. One of those involved The Flash actor Hartley Sawyer, who saw some racist, misogynistic and homophobic tweets resurface and draw wide outrage.

The incident led to his firing, and as things started to return to (somewhat) normal in Hollywood, we now know what the show will do with the role Sawyer played. According to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Eric Wallace said they won’t replace Sawyer’s role as Ralph Dibny, AKA the Elongated Man. Instead they’ll put the character to “rest” for a while:

“The beauty of comic book stories and superhero stories are the conventions that heroes come and go, but they never fade away and they never disappear entirely. So we’re going to treat it like we would if we were writing a comic book graphic novel. We’re giving the Elongated Man a bit of a rest for while. But we will leave the door open,” said Wallace. “Who knows what the future could bring. It is unknown. But I’m not saying by any means that it’s the end of the character, in fact, quite the opposite. We just don’t know when he will return, or in what form he will return. And that’s the beauty of comic book stories. It keeps it fresh.”

Wallace did say that the abbreviated Season 6 will still have Dibny play an important role in the show’s storylines. After that they won’t so much replace him as concentrate on other characters. EW has a more spoiler-filled explanation of what could go down, but Wallace made it clear the show hasn’t done away with the Elongated Man just yet.

“In order to wrap that up, which we’re going to do at the top of season 7, Ralph has to be part of that. Now thank goodness, Ralph is a guy who can change faces and his appearance in many ways. Without giving any spoilers away, there are a couple of ways that we can have Elongated Man still appear in at least one episode this season to wrap that storyline up, that gets us what we need and still allows fans to say goodbye to the character, at least for the indefinite future,” said Wallace.

What is clear is that Sawyer won’t return in the role. And that his departure has made some pretty considerable changes necessary to the show’s story moving forward.

[via Entertainment Weekly]

As if the 2020 election season weren’t quite wonky enough, infamous white supremacist troll Richard Spencer has decided to trade in his alt-rightness to go all-in on Joe Biden and the Democratic party. Unexpected—and yet not, considering the fact that Neo-Nazi attention whores aren’t exactly known for making good sense.

“I plan to vote for Biden and a straight democratic ticket. It’s not based on ‘accelerationism’ or anything like that; the liberals are clearly more competent people,” he wrote on Twitter. I had to look up what “accelerationism” meant, so I started to read an article about it, but then I realized I was putting too much time into something Richard Spencer said and stopped. It doesn’t matter. What matters is how the Biden campaign reacted to this “endorsement.”

When white supremacist and former KKK grand dragon David Duke endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, Trump acted like he didn’t really know who he was. How a candidate for the U.S. presidency would know nothing about one of the country’s most famous white supremacists was a bit baffling, as was his wishy washy disavowal of his endorsement (which he blamed on a bad earpiece during an interview).

The Biden campaign probably wishes it could just ignore Spencer’s clear cry for attention, but when a neo-Nazi says, “Hey, I’m on your team now!” it’s necessary to say, “NOPE.”

Director of Rapid Response for the Joe Biden campaign, Andrew Bates, tweeted a response to Spencer’s announcement:

“When Joe Biden says we are in a battle for the soul of our nation against vile forces of hate who have come crawling out from under rocks, you are the epitome of what he means. What you stand for is absolutely repugnant. Your support is 10,000% percent unwelcome here.”

Spencer had made headlines during the 2016 election for opening his alt-right conference speech with the phrase “Hail Trump,” which was repeated by audience member who raised their hands in a Nazi salute.

It’s also a bit hard to take Spencer seriously as supporting Democrats, considering he retweeted this message from Rose McGowan just four days ago:

“What have the Democrats done to solve ANYTHING? Help the poor? No. Help black & brown people? No. Stop police brutality? No. Help single mothers? No. Help children? No. You have achieved nothing. NOTHING. Why did people vote Trump? Because of you motherfuckers.”

He may have simply jumped the Trump ship because he can see it sinking. “The MAGA/Alt-Right moment is over. I made mistakes; Trump is an obvious disaster; but mainly the paradigm contained flaws that we now are able to perceive. And it needs to end,” he tweeted, according to Newsweek. “Walking into certain defeat, even death, is not heroic. It’s foolhardy. I have no sympathy for martyrs. I admire winners.”

He may admire winners, but he’s getting no admiration from anyone at this point. The Biden campaign made it crystal clear that whatever game he’s playing isn’t going to fly. Denouncing neo-Nazis swiftly and definitively is what leaders should do, no matter what side of the political spectrum they’re on.

Chris Scarlette is an amateur filmmaker who, according to his YouTube page, blows up his “neighborhood with special effects.” But he may find real work in movies soon, because he has a viral hit with an action film he made during the pandemic starring his dog, Winnie.

“Winnie!” a five-minute “Rambo”-style shoot ’em up is about three guys who find themselves in a fight for their lives after one of them steals the wrong dog’s carrots.

Warning: This video contains cartoonish violence and tons of fake blood.

Winnie!

www.youtube.com

Scarlette shared the video on Reddit where it’s become a sensation.

“I did not expect this many people to enjoy this. I’m beyond happy!” Scarlette wrote on Reddit.

He also shared that he didn’t make the movie to generate ad revenue, but for the pure joy of the craft.

“Making movies is fun, and it allows quality time with friends, especially when you get to blow shit up,” he wrote. “And also Winnie is a girl! She is my princess. And she deserves all the carrots.”

Now, the question remains: Will Scarlette and Winnie make multiple sequels in true “Rambo” style? Or will they quit while they’re ahead? If they do move forward, all we ask is that they name the sequel: “The Carrot and the Stick.”

Whiskey purists scoff at the idea of flavoring whiskey. But, we’re not in the business of telling people what they are and aren’t allowed to enjoy. This is a no-judgment zone. So, when summer turns to fall, we have no qualms about sipping a fall-flavored whiskey.

And no, we’re not talking about Fireball and its over-the-top cinnamon flavor. We’re talking about whiskeys with (mostly) subtle fall flavors that are perfectly suited for sipping on a chilly autumn evening or mixed into a seasonal cocktail.

Since we’re pretty new to the flavored whiskey game, we decided to go to the professionals for help. That’s why we asked some of our favorite bartenders to tell us their go-to flavored whiskeys for fall mixing and sipping.

Benchmark Brown Sugar

Kyle Strategier, bartender at Soul at the Joseph in Columbus, Ohio

Benchmark Brown Sugar goes great in your iced tea or lemonade. This flavored whiskey is so versatile that I’ve even poured it on pancakes.

Jameson Cold Brew

Rachel Malm, bartender at Camper in Menlo Park, California

When the days grow longer, I usually need to sneak in an additional iced coffee before the main event of the evening. The Cold Brew expression from Jameson is the perfect companion for enjoying the last light of summer.

Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey

Bradley Stephens, bartender at Retro Game Bar PDX in Portland, Oregon

I wanted to hate Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey like that song you hear an entire season at every club, party, and backyard hang. But damn it, it’s actually quite tasty. This should be your dessert shot.

Old Forester Mint Julep

Colby Pitt, bartender at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas

I usually like to be in charge of flavoring my own whiskey through cocktails (and job protection) but if I have to choose, it would be Old Forester Mint Julep flavored whiskey. It’s an outdoor whiskey that is perfect for sipping on while doing yard work.

Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye

John Langan, bartender at Otis Bar La at Grande Orange in Pasadena, California

It’s not a “flavored” whiskey but it’s basically an old fashioned in a bottle. Hochstadter’s Slow and Low is packed with Angostura bitters, orange, and a very (but not cloying) sweet rock candy. Pour over some rocks and try to drink it slowly.

Sapling Maple Rye

Christina Mercado, founder of ShakeStirPour in Newport, Rhode Island

Sapling Maple Rye has been my favorite ever since I stopped by their distillery during a road trip. It keeps the spice and the bite of a great rye whiskey and balances it with the sweetness of fresh maple syrup without being cloyingly sweet or artificial.

Knob Creek Smoked Maple

Nicholas Wyatt, bartender-at-large in Prattville, Alabama

Knob Creek Smoked Maple: At 90 proof, it doesn’t quite let the maple sweetness overpower the damn fine bourbon underneath.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey

Trevor Wheeler, bartender at The Meeting House in Troy, Michigan

Jack Daniels Honey is perfect for making a wonderfully smooth whiskey sour. Add cinnamon bitters and you have the perfect fall cocktail.

Old Elk PB & W

Samantha Seltzer, beverage manager at Village Whiskey in Philadelphia

Old Elk PB & W (Fort Collins, Colorado). As an alcohol purist, I was incredulous when offered a sip of Old Elk’s P B & W. This whiskey is jovial, reminiscent of eating peanut butter and banana sandwich sitting on the front stoop of your parent’s house. The flavors are really derived from three different peanut flavors.

Hudson Maple Cask Rye

Drew Reid, bartender at W Aspen in Aspen, Colorado

I am not a huge fan of flavored whiskeys. I am a purist in that regard. But a cool product I have had and thoroughly enjoyed is Hudson Whiskey’s Maple Cask Rye. There is a Vermont maple syrup company that ages their syrup in Hudson’s used barrels, then Hudson ages Rye in them afterward. This adds a really cool sweetness and smoothness to the whiskey.

Two James Johnny’s Smoking Gun

Rebecah Hunter, bartender at The Monarch Club in Detroit

Two James Johnny’s Smoking Gun from Detroit, Michigan, is a story of East-Meets-West. This is a whiskey crafted specifically to compliment the “umami” of the rich pork and fish broths of Japanese cuisine. I always think late summer, bonfires, or cool nights warmed up with soup from my heritage.

Ballotin Caramel Turtle Whiskey

Eva Al-Gharaballi, bartender at Datz in St. Petersburg, Florida

When summer begins to fade into fall, I am always eager to start sipping on traditional fall treats. My choice whiskey to kick off the fall season would be Ballotin Caramel Turtle Whiskey. This amber whiskey has flavors of caramel and pecan, with a dark chocolate finish. I would serve this indulgent treat on the rocks alongside a torched cinnamon stick — a dessert made easy.

Jack Danie’s Tennessee Apple

Jeremy Allen, bartender at MiniBar in Los Angeles

I like to troll on Jack Daniel’s a little bit, but I will say the apple whiskey is a good secret ingredient to spin classics for the “make me something” crowd, and it’s always fun to mess with them with the reveal when they say “That’s awesome, what’s in that?”

Chris Paul and the Oklahoma City Thunder picked up a badly needed victory in Game 4 against the Houston Rockets on Monday, knotting the best-of-seven series at 2-2. While Oklahoma City’s ability to claw back into the series with back-to-back wins rightly drew the national headlines, an unsightly gambling outcome arrived in the final minute, at least for those who wagered on the second half Under.

In the first half, the Thunder and Rockets combined to score 120 points and, during the halftime break, oddsmakers installed a second half total of 110.5 points. With less than a minute remaining in regulation, only 97 points had been scored and, well, handicappers were seemingly in the clear if they could avoid overtime.

Then, disaster struck for those rooting against offense, with 14 (!) points in the final 36 seconds, including a memorable (and excruciating) 50-foot heave by Danuel House at the buzzer.

House’s shot was meaningless with regard to the win-loss outcome but, for anyone sweating the second half total, it was a highly notable moment. Prior to House’s heave, the Rockets were called for a foul on Paul with only 1.3 seconds left in a game that Houston was trailing by four points. On cue, Paul knocked down both attempts at the charity stripe, setting the stage for House’s final blow to Under bettors.

In addition to the second half weirdness, it is at least plausible that some handicappers were impacted on the full game total. Though the closing total was around 231.5 at most shops, a number between 230.5 and 231 was hanging around at some outlets during the day and, in short, House’s last-second launch made quite an impact on more traditional over/under bettors in that case.

With four games a day for two weeks, the NBA is providing all kinds of interesting content for sports handicappers. In this moment, some bettors emerged victorious in (very) lucky fashion, with others lamenting the actions of the Rockets and, in particular, Danuel House.