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Inside Spirit’s December Issue

JayHeinrichs
Adventurer B
Spirit_December-coverWe at Southwest’s inflight magazine, Spirit, take our name very seriously.  Almost every issue contains a “big read” intended to lift every reader’s spirit.  Last month, for instance, we ran Gabbi Chee’s great profile of Alex Sheen, a great spirit who has taught thousands of people how to keep their promises.  Check out becauseisaidiwould.com and read the story in our digital flipbook. Alex says the story has brought him an avalanche of letters and donations. Once a year, though, we dedicate our cover story to spirits of the drinkable variety. Our Spirit Guide to Spirits has become the talk of the mixology blogs, if we do say so ourselves.  This month, we focus on the place where the cocktail was invented: New Orleans. Writer-historian Rien Fertel, a Louisiana native, shows us the city from what you might call the liquid point of view.  His piece is more than a tour, it’s an exploration of the city’s…well, spirit. We’re equally spirited in our coverage of the revival of a Las Vegas neighborhood far from the Strip. It shows what happens when a few zealous residents take their community into their own hands. Inspiring. And Amanda Gleason offers up a set of adventures in Albuquerque—including a biking tour of the “Breaking Bad” set. And now for the Numbers: It takes eight months to get to Mars.  The first text message was sent 21 years ago (it said “Merry Christmas”).  There have been 3,313 sightings of Bigfoot since 1921. And 46 percent of us still keep paper maps in our cars. Presumably, fewer than two percent know how to fold them.