You might want to pick up a copy of The Wall Street Journal this Friday, November 21st. No, I don’t want you to read about how your years of hard work and savings have been cut in half by investing in the stock market. Rather, it’s something much more pleasant: a feature on whisky.

I wrote a 3,000 word article for The WSJ on “Understanding Whiskey,” and it will be published this Friday in a “Special Advertising Section.” Basically, what this means is that they hire someone like me who supposedly is an expert and highly regarded in a given field to write about that subject. (Yes, I fooled them. It’ll be our little secret.) They then use this “angle” to go and try to get ads. The section isn’t written until there are advertising commitments. No ads, no special advertising section.

Special advertising sections are nothing new to print media. However, it is pretty cool that The Wall Street Journal has chosen whisky as a theme for one of their special sections. They were able to get a few companies to advertise (not an easy task, given the current economic environment), and the whole thing will be in this Friday’s edition.

I think this is great–and not just because I am the author. Any time we can get accurate, basic whisky information to the main stream population, everyone wins. And that’s exactly what this section is all about. I cover the fundamentals: The definition of whisky, how it’s made, the difference between the major categories of whisky (Scotch, Irish, Canadian, Bourbon, etc.), appreciating whisky (nosing, tasting, etc.), conducting a whisky tasting, and reading a whisky label.

I certainly can’t help anyone out with their 401(k) plan, because my stock mutual funds have tanked just like everyone else’s, but I can hopefully turn some new people on to whisky and explain to them, once and for all, that Jack Daniel’s really isn’t bourbon.