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Inside the December Issue of Southwest: The Magazine

JayHeinrichs
Adventurer B
Cover1 Bourbon, apple brandy, and vanilla ice cream topped with bacon dust. It’s called the Kentucky Head Hunter, only you can’t find it in Kentucky. Order it at Oshi Burger Bar in Memphis. Or, consider a shake with homemade vanilla ice cream mixed with cherry liqueur and a splash of absinthe at Péché in Austin. If neither of those sound appealing, perhaps you would like a habanero pumpkin porter with a scoop of snickerdoodle, at the Bluebird Microcreamery & Brewery (heaven!) in Seattle. You’ll find all these drinks under “B” in our A to Z guide to spirits. Why “B”? Because they’re Boozy milkshakes. And because “M” was taken by Melrose Umbrella Co. in Los Angeles, an old-fashioned bar that serves six kinds of Old Fashioneds. We do a spirits guide in the magazine every year to toast the season, and our bartender connections have grown so deep that we decided to cover a wide gamut. Cheers! This month’s narrative is by one of my favorite writers, Heidi Stevens, who has written several stories for us about parenting and children. This time Heidi writes about the Thirty Million Words Initiative, an effort to close the achievement gap by getting kids to hear more words by age four. Kids born into poverty hear an average of 30 million fewer words in their first three years than those born into financially stable families. The research shows that this leads to poorer performance in school—proof that IQ isn’t everything. Of course, we’re also a travel magazine. The spirits guide shows you bars and drinks worth making a trip. And don’t forget about this month’s Adventure in Houston. If you haven’t been to the Space Center—and you have kids—then consider it a high-priority mission. You copy? Happy reading!