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4 Perfect Whiskeys For The Long Labor Day Weekend

Margarett Waterbury
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4 Perfect Whiskeys For The Long Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend is bittersweet. Traditionally, it marks the end of summer. And while it’s true that school bells and autumn showers are just around the corner, that unwelcome message is delivered by a particularly beguiling messenger: three whole days for enjoying the last of the summer sunshine, hanging out with friends and family, firing up the grill, and enjoying a few special whiskeys to send off summer and welcome in a new season.

In most places, it’s a safe bet that Labor Day weekend will be a warm one, so we’re steering away from super dense, chewy, high-proof whiskeys. Yet this isn’t Fourth of July—there may not be a chill in the air yet, but apples are ripening, the sun is going down a little earlier, and leaves might be starting to turn—so you’ll want something with at least a little bit of heft.

Think classic Kentucky bourbons, nuanced craft ryes, Japanese whiskies, or Speyside Scotches. Here’s what we’re drinking this Labor Day Weekend.

Woodinville Flagship 100% Rye Whiskey
Woodinville Flagship 100% Rye Whiskey. Photo by Margarett Waterbury. Image copyright The Whiskey Wash.

Glenlivet 15-Year-Old

One age and price bracket up from the introductory 12-year-old Glenlivet, this Speyside distillery’s 15-year-old expression is partially matured in French oak casks. Rich and resinous, it puts a spicy spin on Glenlivet’s classic acidity and tropical flavor, just the right combination for the last days of summer.

Woodinville Whiskey 100% Rye

For most of its existence, Woodinville Whiskey’s rye whiskey was aged in small casks, giving it a robust oakiness that didn’t always agree with us. But last year, Woodinville released a five-year-old 100% rye aged in full-sized casks, and it’s subtle and delicious. Enjoy this one on the rocks around a smoldering barbecue.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed

A perennial favorite among the (bourbon-scented?) bourbon-scenti, Wild Turkey Rare Breed is a blend of six- to 12-year-old whiskey and bottled at barrel proof. It’s affordable, spicy, and sweet, with a velvety mouth feel that makes it a joy to sip neat.

It also performs admirably in cocktails, like a luxe mint julep to take advantage of that patch of fresh mint while it’s still around.

Suntory Toki

While many Japanese whiskies are hard to find and even harder to muster up the courage to pay for, Suntory Toki is an exception. This blend of grain and malt whiskies uses stock from the Yamazaki, Chita, and Hakushu distilleries, and (for now) is widely distributed and affordable. It’s light and nuanced, with flavors of ripe tree fruit, flowers, and chocolate, and the perfect base for that refreshing afternoon highball.

This article originally appeared on The Whiskey Wash.

Continued Flooding In Texas Could Let 350 Gators Loose

Maria Loreto
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Continued Flooding In Texas Could Let 350 Gators Loose

Hurricane Harvey has flooded Gator Country, a rescue facility and amusement park located in Beaumont, Texas that houses more than 350 alligators.

Gator Country measures close to the size of 11 football fields and is located near interstate 1o, with their waters accumulated to a never seen before height, within 1 foot of the total height of the fences that surround the alligator’s outdoor enclosements. Thankfully (sort of?) some of the reptiles, like venomous snakes, crocodiles, and the largest alligators have been moved to other safe places to avoid the risk of them escaping from the park.

This large reptile preserve contains animals that have been rescued from different places and situations, providing care and shelter for them. These animals include those that were stranded and lost due to storms and natural disasters, and others that simply showed up in people’s pools and homes. Yikes.

Currently, Gary Saurage – the owner of the park – and his team have stopped rescuing animals and are now more concerned with keeping the gators and others in captivity safe within the bounds of the enclosure.

All of them seem to be right there.”

Said Saurage. You don’t sound so sure there. The people of Texas don’t need the added stressor of large groups of alligators roaming their streets right now.

GRiZ Releases The ‘Ultimate Weed-Smoking Song’ For Fans

Brendan Bures
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GRiZ Releases The ‘Ultimate Weed-Smoking Song’ For Fans

If you’re a fan of DJ/producer GRiZ, you likely his affection towards marijuana. That’s because the Michigan-based artist boasts his love of all things in cannabis in proud fashion.

Back in 2015 he released both an album and marijuana strain within the same month. His cannabis association isn’t a ruse either—Billboard reports GRiZ won second place in the Cannabis Cup’s “People’s Choice Flowers” category in Denver that year for his strain GRiZ Kush.

“Having your own strain of weed is every young stoner’s dream,” he told Billboard.

Now GRiZ is pairing his favorite pastimes once again with the release of his new single “Smoke That.” According the song’s description GRiZ wrote in Soundcloud, it’s “the the ultimate weed smoking song.” The track features ProbCause and Jaye Prime to deliver the laid-back mood GRiZ is going for.

“We wrote it on 420 so u know it’s official,” GRiZ claims. Listen to the track above.

And speaking of music, here are 5 classic songs you might want to consider.

Got to Get you in My Life from 1966. This sunny, soulful track from 1966’s Revolver LP is generally thought of as one of the Fab Four’s many upbeat love songs – but according to Paul McCartney, the love object in this particular instance is a weed, not a woman.

Rainey Day Women from 1966. “I never have and never will write a drug song,” Bob Dylan famously announced, but fans co-opted this song into the marijuana world.

Legalize It from 1976. Over 30 years later it would happen. But when Peter Tosh asked Rolling Stone “What am I without herb, and what is herb without me? in 1981 it was still a pipe dream.

All Time High from 2018. Jon Pradi has made it very clear he is a fan of the weed.

Ready to Roll from 2020. Blake Shelton embraces the marijuana world and opens more doors to fans.

Have fun and let the good times roll.

Burning Man Festival Nixes Marijuana During Event

Maria Loreto
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Burning Man Festival Nixes Marijuana During Event

Burning Man is a festival – some say a life-altering experience –  that happens once a year in Nevada. Weird shit goes down here. Rumored orgies, dancing parties, and drugs of all kinds are kind of a package deal here, but apparently, smoking marijuana is too much.

Even though the festival takes place in a desert in Nevada, a state where marijuana is legal, consuming the plant will be banned because of complicated state laws. Turns out, you’re not able to smoke cannabis on public spaces, and the Black Rock Desert Wilderness, the place where Burning Man takes place, is part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Bummer. It really sucks that you can’t smoke a little weed for a festival that costs around 425 dollars to go to.

While some people may claim that they’ll still smoke marijuana because they’ve done it at other festivals that are located in states where the plant is illegal, this year’s security may prove to be a little more tight than usual. Burning Man representatives have remarked that they’ll be on the lookout for cannabis and other drugs that people may try to sneak in. Local authorities will also be monitoring the area, having arrested more than three dozen people at last year’s Burning Man for drug related offenses, the most common ones being the consumption of marijuana, cocaine, and LSD. 

Welp, now you know. If you’ve already paid for that crazy expensive Burning Man ticket, be sure to consume only what’s allowed in there. It’s a wild and artsy temporary city with a lighter approach towards the rules of society, but it’s still a place that’s carefully monitored by the police and you know, other responsible people.

Medical Marijuana Can Help With Cancer-Related Weight Loss

Richard Faulk
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Medical Marijuana Can Help With Cancer-Related Weight Loss

We have reliable documentary evidence for medical cannabis that goes back almost 2,000 years. (And not-so-reliable evidence that points even hundreds of years farther back.) Among the various other medical properties first recognized in the plant, physicians of ancient India and the later medieval Islamic empire numbered cannabis’s power to stir the appetite and battle weight loss. But in an era of chronic food scarcity, there wasn’t great demand for a drug that made users even hungrier.

A decline in appetite and subsequent weight loss, however, is a hallmark of AIDS wasting syndrome, a nasty condition that frequently marks the progression from HIV to full-blown AIDS. The syndrome is defined as a ten percent or greater drop in body weight, and it is accompanied by weakness, fever, and diarrhea. And so marijuana’s effect as an appetite stimulant has been a godsend for thousands of people living with AIDS.

Unlike some effects of cannabis that habitual users adjust to, such as intoxication and (for at least some) cardiovascular alterations, marijuana’s appetite stimulation seems constant. Therefore, cannabis has the potential to be a long-term treatment. As far as clinical efficacy goes, a 2015 JAMA meta-analysis of cannabis studies found “low-quality” evidence associating cannabis with weight gain. (Given the low numbers and limited nature of the studies analyzed, JAMA’s “low-quality” rating is not as damning as it appears, but is closer to a guarded endorsement.) The synthetic THC pharmaceuticals Marinol and Cesamet have both been granted FDA approval as appetite stimulants for the treatment of AIDS wasting syndrome. About 17 years ago, an estimated eighty percent of Marinol prescriptions were for HIV/AIDS patients.

In terms of sheer weight gain, megestrol acetate, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, has had greater clinical success than cannabinoids. However, the additional ability to quell nausea and induce relaxation and feelings of euphoria has made cannabis a very attractive solution for both AIDS and cancer care.

Vermont Is Reconsidering The ‘Sniff Test’ When It Comes To Cannabis

Maria Loreto
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Vermont Is Reconsidering The ‘Sniff Test’ When It Comes To Cannabis

The Supreme Court of Vermont is considering reviewing a case where the law protected a policeman who searched and seized the car of driver because it smelled like cannabis. This case took place in 2014 and Greg Zullo, the driver, was left stranded on the road in the middle of winter.

Zullo was 21 at the time of that stop and was pulled over because his license plate was partly covered with snow. He also had to pay a 150 dollar towing fee to retrieve his car. When the vehicle was searched, authorities reported that they found a grinder and a pipe that contained cannabis residue, but Zullo was never ticketed or charged for the crime which made the ACLU and others think that Zullo was arrested simply because he was black.

The officer in question lost his job 5 months after this event, with the public commissioner highlighting the officer’s history of unwarranted searches and abuse of power.

On 2014, the judges ruled in favor of the policemen, claiming that the sniff test was enough of a reason for him to search and seize possession of the car. On 2017, more states have begun to reconsider the sniff test and things are not as simple as they used to be. The reevaluation of this case could set a sweeping precedent for the future of cannabis in Vermont, where policemen would require more evidence than smell to search the vehicles of drivers.

Swearing Helps Ease Physical Pain, According To Science

Brendan Bures
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Swearing Helps Ease Physical Pain, According To Science

Good news for all you foul-mouthed mother—well you know the rest. According to a recent study, it turns out intelligent people are more likely to swear.

Researchers at the University of Rochester conducted a study testing 1,000 people on 400 average behavior traits. The main objective was to identify if there were recognizable behaviors for basic personality types. Some key characteristics might surprise you.

According to The Independent, people who possessed a higher intellect were more likely to curse, walk around the house naked, and eat spicy food in the morning. Extraverts, meanwhile, were characterized by traits like driving faster than 75mph, gambling, telling dirty jokes, and heavy drinking.

These findings were published in the Personality and Individual Difference journal. They also coincide with another recent study that links swearing and intelligence. Marist College in New York researchers found a link between curse words and higher rhetorical skills. In addition, those that can name the most swear words within a minute often have a grander vocabulary.

“A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities rather than a cover for their deficiencies,” the researchers wrote. “Speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately. The ability to make nuanced distinctions indicates the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge, as implied by the POV [Poverty of Vocabulary] view.”

This battles against the long-held stereotype that people who swear have nothing nice to say. But that’s not cursing’s only benefit. University of Keele psychologists found that swearing can functions as a natural pain relief. Participants were asked to curse either before or during intensive workouts meant to cause physical discomfort. Among both trials, researchers found that cursing dramatically improved the participants’ performances.

Next time your mother tells you not to curse, just tell her to blame freaking science.

This Company Is Transforming Lip Balm Into A Luxury Cannabis Brand

Brendan Bures
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This Company Is Transforming Lip Balm Into A Luxury Cannabis Brand

Lip balm is an everyday tool, many use without thinking twice. Chapped lips, dry lips, damaged lips. Put on some lip balm. But one company has elevated lip balm into all-natural, luxury cannabis brand infused with hemp extracts. That would be Vertly, founded by former fashion editor Claudia Mata. It offers interested parties various levels of infused lip balms, including one with cannabis that acts as a topical (though that one’s only available in California).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYVBtTGB5Gj/?taken-by=vertlybalm

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX86NCShgwx/?taken-by=vertlybalm

Ingredients for the lips balms can combine cannabis sativa seed oil, hemp-derived CBD extract, shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, cinnamon, Vitamin E, and more. The Vertly Green balm, which is infused with cannabis, provide the soothing, natural effects that the other lip balms do, but also contain “analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-anxiety properties,” according to the company’s website.

“When you apply cannabis topically, you’re never going to get that stoned high,” Mata told Vogue. “It doesn’t enter your system that way, but you have more of the subtle benefits.”

Of the hemp-derived CBD lip balms, Mata said, “[They] promote a subtle state of tranquility and generally helps to relieve anxiety. And it can help with headaches, cramps, and pain.”

Mata says she plans on releasing Chapstick-like tubes in the future that customers can carry with them anytime and anywhere. She views using Vertly lip balm as a form of nano-dosing, that will allow users to feel the calming health benefits without the possible disruption some experience while being high. As she told Vogue, “You can enjoy these throughout the day and never feel like you’re not in the right headspace.”

Gossip: Duchess Kate & Pippa Middleton Want To Be Pregnant At The Same Time; Has Taylor Swift’s Squad Abandoned Her?

Naughty Gossip
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Gossip: Duchess Kate & Pippa Middleton Want To Be Pregnant At The Same Time; Has Taylor Swift’s Squad Abandoned Her?

The fever struck Duchess Kate straight away. Soon after having her second child, Princess Charlotte, in 2015, the 35-year-old and husband Prince William began planning for baby No. 3. “She wanted another almost since giving birth,” a source reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. But as the reality of juggling the newborn and big brother Prince George, 4, set in, the couple decided to take a pregnant pause. “They promised each other they wouldn’t even think about having another child until they were mentally ready and it felt right,” explains the source. “Now is definitely that time. They would love to be pregnant soon.”

After all, their niece or nephew will need a playmate. Three months removed from her countryside vows, Kate’s little sis Pippa Middleton, 33, is fancying a family of her own. The writer and her hedge fund manager husband James Matthews, 42, “are currently trying for a baby,” shares a Pippa insider. The timing means the tight-knit sister could deliver on an oft-fantasized goal. “It’s long been a dream for Kate and Pippa to be pregnant at the same time,” notes a Middleton family friend. “To share that would be amazing.”

Well before Pippa walked down the aisle, she and Matthews were envisioning the next step. “Starting a family is something they’ve spoken about since long before they got married,” says the Pippa insider. It’s a chat she also had with Kate. Says the family friend, “Pippa’s always said how great it would be if they were to be expecting together.”

The idea became even more enticing when Kate and William announced they’d be making their Kensington Palace spread their home base. Once they make the move to 22-room Apartment 1A in September, “they’ll be living right around the corner” from Pippa’s West London pad, says the insider, “So you can imagine how fun that will be: shopping for baby clothes, pregnancy yoga classes.” And sharing real talk about the struggles of parenting. The Middleton family source predicts Pippa will lean on her older sis: “Kate has so much knowledge to share. She’s a walking baby encyclopedia at this point!”

Though Pippa is no slouch. “She’s a brilliant auntie to George and Charlotte — they always look forward to playing with Pips,” says the Pippa insider. As does she. Says the insider, “They bring out a soft, playful side of her. She will make a fantastic mother.”
[From Us Weekly]

Has Taylor Swift’s Squad Abandoned Her?

As the Daily Beast points out, Taylor Swift’s squad has not really jumped to her defense this week:

But while Taylor is still talking about her squad—or at least, talking about how other people talk about her squad—they don’t seem to be returning the favor. Almost a week after Swift dropped her comeback video, a surprisingly small number of her well-documented BFFs have spoken out to congratulate their friend or hype the track. It’s almost as though Swift has purposefully disbanded her squad, fearing even more internet derision—either that, or her A-list pals are afraid of catching Taylor’s brand toxicity.
[From The Daily Beast]

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

9 Tips To Leave Work Early Before A Long Weekend

Taylor Berman
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9 Tips To Leave Work Early Before A Long Weekend

Everyone wants to squeeze as much out of a long weekend – here are some tips!

Lying to your boss so you can leave work early the Friday before a long weekend is as American as apple pie. (A friend once told us.) With Labor Day weekend just hours away, you better get your excuses and office exit-strategies ready. Here are nine proven methods that we, for legal reasons, can’t fully endorse. But they’ll probably work. 

Fake sick: This is a classic. If you’re hoping to miss the entire day, go with food poisoning. It may be overused, but it’s also difficult, if not impossible, to disprove. Just don’t overplay it–keep the phone call short and sweet, and don’t go into details about what exactly happened. Remember, the less you say, the less there is to forget or get caught in a lie with later. And if you’re just looking to leave a few hours earlier, say you have a migraine. Like food poisoning, a migraine is easy to fake and hard to refute.

RELATED: Science Explains How Marijuana Inspires Awe 

Doctor’s appointment: Another classic excuse for regular workdays. For privacy reasons, your boss can’t really pry into it too your medical history that much, so you can probably get away with one of these a month. That said, what kind of doctor schedules an appointment at 2 p.m. the Friday before a long weekend? A fake doctor invented by a lying employee, that’s who. Save this one for an extreme situation.

Sick dog or cat: If your boss is a pet lover, it should work once or twice.

Family emergency: Use sparingly, unless you have a large and sickly family. You should also be careful about cursing yourself by saying someone died who is still alive: In high school, a girl I knew lied and said she couldn’t go to a dance with some nerd because her grandfather had just died. Not two days later, her grandfather really did die. Spooky.

Say you’re locked inside your own apartment: This might be problem exclusive to New Yorkers and other big city dwellers, but I’ve locked myself inside my apartment several times, as have a few of my friends. If you’re trapped inside your apartment you definitely can’t go to work. Of course, you also can’t go on vacation, so be careful with those boastful Instagram posts.

Make up a fake holiday: Last year, The Awl’s Alex Balk created Happy National Duck Out For A Drink Day, which takes place the last week of August every year. No reason you can’t do something similar—National Drive to the Airport in the Middle of the Afternoon Day, for example—to give yourself a head start on your holiday.

RELATED: Great Fall Whiskeys

Just disappear: Find the nearest Emergency Exit in your office and make a run for it. Bring any personal items with you in case you get fired.

Blackmail: Technically illegal but if you have any dirt on your boss, now is a great time to use it.

Set a small fire in your office: Also technically illegal but only if you get caught. Use the smoke as a screen and sneak out the back.

Be honest: Just kidding. Don’t do this.

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