(OPINION) Actor David Spade criticized organizers of a Christmas tree lighting ceremony for deliberately avoiding the word “Christmas,” calling it an example of anti-Christian sentiment. On the “Fly on the Wall” podcast with fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum Dana Carvey, released Monday, Spade said, “Christmas has taken a little bit of a beating recently. It […]

Amazon says its Kindle Direct DRM-free titles will be available as PDFs and EPUB files going forward.

Google is testing AI-powered article overviews on participating publications’ Google News pages as part of a new pilot program, the search giant announced on Wednesday. News publishers participating in the pilot program include Der Spiegel, El País, Folha, Infobae, Kompas, The Guardian, The Times of India, The Washington Examiner, and The Washington Post, among others. […]

Never planned on returning in 2026. It’s safe to say the first version of Morgan Wallen‘s Sand In My Boots Festival was a massive success. The festival, which took place in Gulf Shores, Alabama back in May as a one year takeover of Hangout Fest, sold out almost instantly when it went on sale with a lineup featuring Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and HARDY, as well as a wide range of artists from different genres including Riley Green, Wiz Khalifa, T-Pain, Chase Rice, 49 Winchester, and Three 6 Mafia. Afterwards, the event drew high praise from the city. Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft even made it clear that he expected future versions of Hangout Fest to match the standard set by Sand In My Boots Festival going foward: “My analogy has been, my own personal thoughts, in the past, we had young kids with their daddy’s credit card here and not a whole lot for them to worry about. They were on a free leash. So this year we had an older group that had their own credit card. And you could certainly see that they were more disciplined. There were less problems… Really it was a much better behaving crowd.” With the success of the festival and the praise from city officials, it seemed like all parties involved would want to run it back in 2026. And despite Morgan saying that they would try to do it again sometime, there was never any confirmation from the festival that they intended to return in 2026. And this week, it was essentially confirmed that Sand In My Boots Festival wouldn’t be returning to Gulf Shores in 2026, after the city announced on Monday that Hangout Festival is cancelled altogether next year. A couple months ago, the Gulf Shores city council had reviewed a proposal on whether or not to allow Hangout Festival to return in 2026, and the city’s director of economic development and public affairs made it clear that if it returned, they expected either Sand In My Boots festival to return, or a replacement that would draw the same type of crowd – or they may not grant them a permit to return in the future: “Festival agrees the 2025 SIMB festival will serve as a benchmark for the type of event they shall offer in order to attract a similar audience to provide a positive reputational and economic impact for the community.” The city ultimately approved a one year extension, which the mayor said would serve as a test for the future: “Those conditions are going to be along the lines of, create the same group that we had this year… So we’re going to have to get comfortable that they’re going to be able to recreate that group of people we had on the beach, because it was dramatically different… We have made it really clear. The only one we’re worried about right now is ’26. Can they do what they’re supposed to do, in ’26. The motivating factor there, if you can do it right, we can go forward. If you don’t, it’s over.” But in announcing the cancellation, the mayor placed the blame on festival organizers, saying they waited too long to book the caliber of acts they needed: “We are already approving the event in 2027. We delayed too long, or they did, in their application to be able to get the kind of acts that we required them to have to be successful in 2026. We will refuse to let them go back to the acts that we’ve had before and so they couldn’t do it… They canceled the 2026 event, but they’ve got time now to pursue the type of talent we want on our beaches to invite the right audience that we want on our beaches, that we proved last time, the last event, that could happen. We’re determined if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen that way again.” And after Hangout Fest 2026 was canceled, Sand In My Boots Festival made clear that there was never any plan for them to return next year – though they do plan on running it back at some point in the future. In a statement posted to their Instagram, the festival said the cancelation of Hangout Fest had “nothing to do” with them: So the good news for fans who were hoping that Sand In My Boots would be returning in the future is that it sounds like that’s the plan. It just won’t be in 2026.The post Morgan Wallen’s ‘Sand In My Boots Festival’ Says They Plan To Return In The Future – Just Not In 2026 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

One of Merle Haggard’s classics. In 1973, Merle released “If We Make It Through December” as the lead single for his Christmas album Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present, but it later became the the title track to a non-Christmas album four months later, as well. A solo write by Merle, the song became one of the signature songs of his career, and peaked at#1 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. But it wasn’t exactly inspired by Merle’s own personal life, and rather came from a conversation he had with his guitar player, Roy Nichols. Nichols had been through multiple divorces, and they had a habit of coming at the end of the year. When Merle asked him how he was doing with this latest relationship, Nichols responded: “If we just make it through December…” Merle being the songwriter that he is, that line immediately jumped out at him, and he used the phrase as the inspiration to what would become one of his most beloved songs, that many of us think of as a Christmas song, but technically really could apply to any time of the year. The actual inspiration was more about a man hoping his relationship could survive through the end of the year, and if it did, it might have a chance for more long term success. He tells the story of a man who got laid off at the factory and is struggling through what is supposed to be one of the happiest times of year, and he explains the sadness he feels knowing that his little girl won’t have the Christmas he wants to give her this year: “Got laid off down at the factoryAnd their timing’s not the greatest in the worldHeaven knows I’ve been working hardI wanted Christmas to be right for daddy’s girlI don’t mean to hate DecemberIt’s meant to be the happy time of yearBut my little girl don’t understandWhy daddy can’t afford no Christmas here…” Merle’s father died when he was only nine years old, and he grew up in poverty, watching his mom struggle, and of course, he was quite a troublemaker in his teenaged years, so I’m sure the song had a lot of personal meaning for him, as well. “If We Make It Through December” has been covered by countless artists over the years, including ” Alan Jackson, Marty Robbins, Faron Young, and more recently, Cody Johnson and even the Pistol Annies. But there’s just somethin’ about the way Merle delivers it that cannot be replicated or compared to… he has some of the most classically country vocals of all-time, and he delivers this song with such emotion and conviction that I believe you really only can as the person who wrote it. We all know he was a one-in-a-million voice. Maybe even lesser odds than that… I think part of the reason so many people still love this song is because of how real and relatable it is… there are so many great things about the holiday season, but it can be a real struggle financially and emotionally too, and I think many of us wind up hoping we can just “make it through December” a lot of the time, too. “If We Make It Through December” This live performance is so cool too: The post The True Story Behind Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December” Isn’t Exactly What You Might Think… first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

A federal judge has just blocked President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, and it’s the same Clinton judge who tried to pull the same crap earlier this year . . .

The grand jury records of Jeffrey Epstein can now be released by the DOJ after a federal judge in New York granted the release based on the bill Congress passed last month. . . .

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