Wine Spectator magazine review; Vivino app. review; and Teetotalers

Today, G. Ripley wants to discuss wine with his fans and fellow readers. Wine Spectator has the highest circulation of any wine magazine in the USA. Wine Spectator can be categorized as a lifestyle magazine. Wine Spectator has over 400,000 expert wine ratings plus tasting notes, score, and where to find good wine to drink. Whether you want to indulge in a good Pinot Grigio or Rose, read some good reviews about both wines at Wine Spectator. If you want to get good reviews of white and red wines, download the Vivino app. On your Apple iOS or Samsung Android smartphone. The Vivino app. Is touted as the World’s largest wine marketplace with trusted reviews, and doorstep delivery of great wines from around the USA. The ratings for white and red wines are on a 1 to 5 scale. G. Ripley finds good Pinot Gris like Acrobat, and good LaMarca Prosecco gets close to 4 out of 5 stars on Vivino app. The Vivino app. Is #1 wine app. And do not take G. Ripley’s word unless you downloaded the app. Today. Next, you may want to download the wine.com app. On your smartphone. Wine.com is an American wine online retailer. The company sells over 2 million bottles per year of red and white wines. Like Vivino, the Wine.com app. Has a corporate office in San Francisco, CA. Like Vivino, the Wine.com app. Has ratings on a 1 to 5 scale. In contrast, white wine and red wine is not for everyone to consume. Some famous people that do not drink alcohol are Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle software; Eminem, rap superstar; Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr.; and Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson. For Larry Ellison, he prefers not to have any foul substance that clouds his octogenarian rich man mind. George W. Bush is a famous former president that quit drinking alcohol. Robert Downey Jr. quit alcohol and taking drugs in 2003. A teetotaler is someone who does not consume alcohol. In closing, there is many alcoholic beverages that people choose to drink. Yet, sobriety can be accomplished through willpower and making other smart life choices. To be a teetotaler does not happen overnight. Drink responsibly and choose a designated driver if your night becomes a horrible one. Good day and good luck!

Jannik Sinner could win the Career Grand Slam in French Open in June 2026

In June 2026, the men's final of French Open is played on the first Sunday of the month. In Paris, Jannik Sinner appears to be the favorite to win the French Open title on the men's side. If Sinner wins the French Open, he will win the Career Grand Slam as the French Open is the only major title that he does not have. Sinner has won the Australian Open twice, as he won in January 2024 and January 2025. Sinner won Wimbledon in July 2025, and he won the US Open in September 2024. At the 2025 French Open, Sinner lost in the men's final to Carlos Alcaraz. Speaking of last year's French Open men's champion, Carlos Alcaraz will not defend his title at this year's French Open. The #2 ranked player in the world, Alcaraz; is sidelined with a right wrist injury currently. Alcaraz withdrew from the Madrid Open; Italian Open; and the French Open. There is not a definitive timeline for Alcaraz's return to the ATP tour at this time. In 2026, Sinner has won five titles including the Italian Open in Rome yesterday. With his win in the Italian Open final yesterday, Sinner became just the second man to complete the Career Golden Masters along with Novak Djokovic. The Career Golden Masters means Sinner won all nine ATP Masters 1000 events in series history (since 1990). The #1 ranked Sinner has the #1 seed at the French Open, which starts play on May 24 at Roland Garros. The main draw for the men's 2026 French Open will be announced on May 21. On the women's side, the ladies French Open defending champion is Cori 'Coco' Gauff. She won the 2025 French Open in a thrilling three set match over #1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka. For the women's draw, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff appear to be the two favorites. Aryna Sabalenka did not win any of the tournaments in the 2026 clay court swing. Iga Swiatek has won the French Open in 2020; and she won the French Open in 2022-2024. In closing, Jannik Sinner could win his fifth major, if he wins his first French Open title on June 7, 2026. Recently, Jannik Sinner is finding romance with Laila Hasanovic. Laila is a beautiful Danish model and content creator. See the picture above of Laila and Jannik. Good luck to Sinner at Roland Garros. Au Revoir from G. Ripley.

Updates in the NBA Playoffs 2025-2026

Last weekend, the NBA playoffs started with exciting games on April 18 and 19. For the third year in a row, OK City Thunder is the #1 seed. The Thunder are winning in their series against Phoenix Suns, as Thunder won the first two games. Victor Wembanyama and his Spurs teammates are #2 seed. The LA Lakers are winning their series with Houston Rockets, as the Lakers won the first two games in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are hanging on the bench due to their recent injuries at the end of regular season. In the Eastern conference, the Detroit Pistons are tied 1-1 in their series with Orlando Magic. The Magic are the eighth seed and Orlando won game one in Detroit. The Boston Celtics are tied 1-1 with the Philadelphia 76ers in their first round series. The Knicks are tied 1-1 in their series with Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta won game 2. The Cavaliers are the #4 seed, and they won the first two games of their series against the Toronto Raptors. In terms of NBA awards, Shai Gilgeous Alexander won NBA Clutch Player of the Year award. Keldon Johnson won the sixth man award. Victor Wembanyama won the Defensive Player of the Year award. The three major finalists for NBA MVP are Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama. Jaylen Brown and Luka Doncic did not make the cut for the top three finalists for MVP award. Doncic won his second scoring title, as he had the highest scoring average in 2025-2026. If Shai Gilgeous Alexander wins the MP award, the Thunder could be the odds-on favorite to make the NBA Finals for second consecutive year. Yesterday, Jalen Williams from OK City Thunder injured his left hamstring. The number of games that Williams could miss is not an exact number at this time. The Denver Nuggets won game 1 of their series against Minnesota Timberwolves. In game two, the Timberwolves came back to win the game by five points. This series should last six or seven games. For the LA Lakers, they must win two more games and their opponent in second round could be OK City Thunder. If the Detroit Pistons beat the Magic in three more games, their second-round opponent could be the Cleveland Cavaliers. Many NBA analysts are saying the Cavaliers are under the most pressure in the playoffs. Donovan Mitchell and James Harden would have to lead the Cavaliers to an upset over Detroit, to make their first conference finals since the Lebron James era. Detroit vs. Boston would be an exciting Eastern Conference Finals matchup. The San Antonio Spurs have limited playoffs experience in the past seven years, so this team is not a lock to make the Western Conference Finals. In closing, there are only a few teams that have a good chance of making the conference finals in Eastern and Western conference finals. If the Lakers win their series vs. Houston and OK City Thunder beat the Suns in the first round, both teams will play each other in the second round (or conference semifinals). My pick is for the Nuggets to lose in six games to the Timberwolves in the first round. Minnesota could play the Spurs if San Antonio wins three more games in their series, with Portland Trailblazers. Last year’s eastern conference champion was Indiana Pacers. This team did not make the playoffs this season. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are in the picture above. Good luck to your favorite NBA team in the NBA playoffs.

'Sinners' wins four awards and 'One Battle After Another' wins six awards at Oscars 2026

Yesterday, Conan O’Brien hosted the Oscars for the second year in a row. His opening monologue was hilarious. His first skit in which he dressed up as Amy Madigan’s ‘Weapons’ character was an eccentric way to start the show. After the skit ended, Conan did some hilarious jokes as he roasted Timothee Chalamet about the ‘Marty Supreme’ movie. Then, the first major award of the night was presented by 2025 Academy Award winner Zoe Saldana. Zoe Saldana presented the award for Best Supporting Actress to Amy Madigan from the ‘Weapons’ movie. In total, the big movie winner of the night was ‘One Battle After Another.’ The movie won six Oscars including Best Director for Paul T. Anderson. The movie won Best Picture and another award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Paul T. Anderson collected those two monumental awards, and he collected a total of three major awards last night. Sean Penn won his third acting Oscar last night even though he was not present in the audience. He won the Best Supporting Actor award for his stellar performance in ‘One Battle After Another.’ Next, ‘Sinners’ won four Oscars out of a record sixteen nominations. Ryan Coogler won his only Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for ‘Sinners.’ Michael B. Jordan won his first Oscar for Best Actor for ‘Sinners.’ Other favorites in Best Actor category including Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothee Chalamet lost again. Chalamet has received three Academy Award nominations, yet he has not won an Oscar. DiCaprio has won one Oscar even though he has received eight nominations throughout his illustrious acting career. In Best Actress category, Jessie Buckley won her first Oscar for ‘Hamnet.’ In 2022, Buckley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for ‘The Lost Daughter.’ Yet, she lost to Ariana DeBose in the Best Supporting Actress category in 2022. This year, Buckley is the only person who was a sure bet to win in her category. Some of the big surprises to win awards at this year’s Oscars were Amy Madigan winning her first Oscar, and Michael B. Jordan winning his first Oscar. Sean Penn winning his third Oscar drew him into a tie with Jack Nicholson, for the most acting Oscars won by a male performer. In closing, the 2026 Oscars lasted almost 220 minutes as it is one of the longest awards shows to date. ‘Marty Supreme’ movie went home without any awards last night. ‘Frankenstein’ movie won three Academy Awards last night. ‘Song Sung Blue’ and ‘The Secret Agent’ did not win any awards last night. The International Film category winner was ‘Sentimental Value’ which is the first Norwegian firm to win an Oscar. Hope the readers enjoyed the Oscars recap from G. Ripley, who was not sighted at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA last night.

Carlos Alcaraz beats Novak D. in Australian Open 2026 men's final to complete his Career Grand Slam. Vamos Carlos!

Happy February 2026 to Carlos Alcaraz and his coaching team. Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in four sets to win his first Australian Open title today. Carlos Alcaraz won his seventh major Grand Slam title today. With this impressive victory in Melbourne, Alcaraz completed the career grand slam. He is the youngest person at 22 years, 272 days to complete the career Grand Slam on the ATP tour. In contrast, Novak Djokovic was trying to win his 11th grand slam title in Melbourne as he beat Jannik Sinner in a great five set semifinal a few days ago. Djokovic has won ten titles in Melbourne. He is no longer undefeated in finals in Melbourne. Yet, Novak is the greatest tennis player of all time. Rafael Nadal was in attendance to watch the incredible battle between Carlos and Novak. In close to four months, Jannik Sinner can complete his career grand slam in Men's Tennis. He has to win his first French Open final to complete the career grand slam. Alexander Zverev has not ever won a grand slam title. He lost in five sets to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open 2026 semifinals. The Alcaraz vs. Zverev semifinal match lasted 327 minutes. During the match, Alcaraz had vomited from exhaustion. Zverev served for the match in the fifth set, but Carlos Alcaraz won the final three games of the match. He broke Zverev's serve twice to secure his spot in the 2026 Australian Open men's final. On the women's side, Elena Rybakina won her first title in Melbourne as she defeated Aryna Sabalenka in three grueling sets. Sabalenka was leading in the third set by three games to love, yet she wasted away the next five games. Sabalenka has a winning percentage of less than .600 in women's finals in all her tournament final appearances on the WTA Tour. Sabalenka and Rybakina split the opening sets in the 2026 Australian Open women's final, yet Rybakina persevered in the end. Elena won her second career grand slam title, in addition to her 2022 Wimbledon trophy. In closing, the ATP and WTA tours will leave Australia and New Zealand now. Enjoy the picture above of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. Melbourne is 18 hours ahead of mountain standard time in the USA. Will Novak Djokovic get his 25th career grand slam title in Paris (or Wimbledon or US Open) this year? Novak showed his determination to keep playing, and he could play through 2026 and 2027. Good day and Good night from sunny Arizona!

MSNBC changes its name to MS NOW, while Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign on January 5, 2026

Welcome to the final story of 2025, which is created by G. Ripley. In this story, the American cable news channel known as MSNBC gets a new facelift. As of 11-15-2025, the American cable news channel of MSNBC is called MS NOW. MS NOW is owned by Versant, a subsidiary of Comcast pending its spin-off to their shareholders in 2026. MS NOW has a current domain name of https://www.ms.now. MSNBC.com was retired in 2012 when Microsoft ended its partnership with NBC, redirecting users to NBCNews.com. Furthermore, MS NOW stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World. The owner of this channel stays as NBCUniversal. The network has a thirty year history, dating back to the joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News. This joint venture started in 1995. MS NOW plans to launch a membership-based, direct-to-consumer product next summer. Versant will be a publicly traded company, with its ticker symbol as VSNT. The company will begin regular trading on the Nasdaq on January 5, 2026. Next, this story shifts to the recent announcements of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Miss Greene announced her resignation from Congress on November 21, 2025. She made the bold decision in a ten minute video, and her last day in Congress is January 5, 2026. Her resignation is a date chosen strategically to secure her congressional pension eligibility after serving just over five years. It appears that Marjorie Taylor Greene (alias of MTG) began her congressional service on January 3, 2021. Her eccentric and inconsistent service spans the 117th, 118th, and part of the 119th Congresses. In this penultimate paragraph, the inquisitive reader may ask the question of what did Marjorie Taylor Greene do, before she was elected to Congress. The divorced 51 year old helped her family to manage its construction business. Taylor Commercial Inc. may have been the business that she helped her former husband to manage. In 2012, Greene started working as a part-time coach at Alpharetta CrossFit gym. In 2013, Greene opened CrossFit Passion as her own CrossFit gym. Recently, Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to exercise her life and political options by turning against President Donald Trump in the past five months. In closing, Greene sided with Democrats during the 2025 fall government shutdown on the specific issue of extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance subsidies. Greene stated that the failure to do so would harm Americans, including her own constituents and children. Greene was a vocal critic of her own Republican leadership's handling of the shutdown, particularly Speaker Mike Johnson. She criticized Johnson and fellow Republicans for not having a plan to address the expiring ACA tax credits, and for keeping the House out of session. Lastly, Greene did a candid interview with Lesley Stahl on 60 minutes in the past few hours. Greene mentioned that there were death threats that she received, and her son received them also. What will be the next career move by Marjorie Taylor Greene? Let's hope she does not advocate for more baseless conspiracy theories. Miss Greene had advocated for QAnon and other wacky conspiracy theories throughout her career both before and during her time in Congress. Miss Greene was one of the few Republicans in signing a critical petition to discharge all of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Department of Justice should do the right thing to release all unclassified Jeffrey Epstein files as the deadline is around December 19, 2025. Does anyone have any high hopes for 2026? Let's pray that an economic recession, and Tariffs are skirted once again in the new year.

The penny shortage happening during the government shutdown in November 2025

Today is day 32 of the US government shutdown. The government shutdown started on October 1, 2025. Donald Trump is in the tenth month of his second term as US president. Trump has made another horrible decision by stopping production of the one cent coin. The US Mint officially stopped making pennies in May 2025. The Treasury Dept. of the USA is no longer producing the one cent coin. Furthermore, Abraham Lincoln's face is on the penny. Mr. Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the USA, and he held the office from 1861 to 1865. Abraham Lincoln's face is on the penny since 1909. 1909 is the year, that Lincoln would have turned 100 years old. Besides the one cent coin, Abraham Lincoln's face graces the $5 bill in USA. Next, G. Ripley paid $5 for groceries today and the receipt stated the total was $4.43. Fry's store in Tempe, AZ decided to give me $.60 back as change instead of $.57. Due to the penny shortage, Fry's grocery store is rounding up. G. Ripley confirmed with a store employee that the blue sign informs consumers that the store policy is to round up, due to the US National penny shortage. Back to the government shutdown, November 5 would mark the thirty sixth day of the shutdown. November 5 would make the current US government shutdown as the longest US government shutdown ever. From January 2017 to January 2021, Donald Trump served as the 45th president of the USA. The US government shutdown lasted 35 days during 2018-2019, and that timeframe lasts as the longest shutdown currently in US history. The Democrats want the ACA (affordable care act) tax credits to pass. The ACA tax credits have expanded subsidies that will expire on December 31, 2025. In closing, the US Mint was established in 1792 during George Washington's first term as the first US president. The penny was one of the first coins that was produced by the US Mint. Michael Johnson is a Republican senator representing Congress, from the state of Louisiana. He is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives. Michael Johson is declining to swear in Adelita Grijalva, and she is a Democratic U.S. representative-elect for Arizona's seventh congressional district. Michael Johnson has made the costly decision of giving Republicans, in the House of representatives a recess that has lasted more than 32 days. If Adelita Grijalva were sworn as another senator in the House of Representatives, her vote would give the US government a huge chance of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. Grijalva's vote is the deciding vote, which would release the Epstein files. Enjoy the picture above of the Capitol building, and Social Security with an airline depiction of the US government shutdown taken from the Fast Company magazine.