Latest news with #Gallo
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘She saved my life': Plymouth woman searching for person who helped her after scary highway incident
A Plymouth woman is feeling grateful to be alive after a scary incident while driving last Wednesday. Now, she's hoping to be reunited with the person she said helped lead her to safety. 'There wasn't an advanced warning that it was happening or anything it wasn't lifting it just, 'Wack!'' Robin Gallo said. Gallo said she was driving all but two minutes on Route 3 in Plymouth when all of a sudden, she saw her life flash before her eyes. 'I was panicking,' Gallo said. The hood to her beloved 2004 Pontiac Vibe flew up, hit her windshield, and blocked her front view. Next, Gallo said she looked to her right. 'I saw a little break in the traffic, and I said, 'Well, here goes nothing.'' She took the brief opportunity to move to the breakdown lane and once stopped, Gallo said a woman approached her to see if she was alright. 'She said, 'I saw what happened, I was driving behind you, I heard the pop I saw the hood hit the windshield,'' Gallo explained. 'She said 'I slowed down so traffic would slow down enough so you could get over.'' That person's name was Marilyn; she was an older woman who shared with Gallo that she recently lost her husband. Gallo called Marilyn an angel. 'She saved my life, had she not taken the time to think quick and slow traffic down I could've rear ended someone,' Gallo said. 'She told me that what she did, pulling over or stalling traffic so I could get my car said that's something that her husband would've done.' Gallo is now hoping to find Marilyn to thank her for being there when no one else was. 'Thank you even more than I told her initially and I would like to see her again.' If you think you know Marilyn, who Gallo said was driving a silver car with bumper stickers on the back, send an email to desk@ Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
We taste-tested High Noon. Does America's most popular spirit live up to the hype?
In case you haven't noticed, High Noon is everywhere. Gallo's canned vodka seltzer is the top-selling spirit by volume in the U.S. — meaning more of this stuff is sold than Tito's or Jack Daniel's. When my colleague Jess Lander and I learned that extraordinary fact, we knew we had to write about it. What we discovered in our reporting was a whole subculture devoted to Nooners, as the drink is known to some of its dearest fans, spanning golf clubs, Barstool Sports and basically every bar in the Marina District. Nearly every source we interviewed for the story said that they believe High Noon is a superior product to competitors like White Claw and Truly. The vodka-based drink is also more expensive than its malt-based competitors, due to the fact that spirits are taxed more highly. I outed myself long ago, in the hard seltzer infancy period of 2019, as a White Claw detester. When Jess and I set out to write this story, I had never actually tasted High Noon, but I was eager to see if I could in good conscience jump on the bandwagon. So we conducted a tasting at the Chronicle newsroom. I bought a couple cases of High Noon and enlisted colleagues from various newsroom departments — including several representatives of Gen Z — to sample eight flavors with me. (According to its website, High Noon comes in 26 different flavors.) The good news is that the session was nowhere near as punishing as the blind hard seltzer tasting I organized back in 2019, when I subjected my colleagues Janelle Bitker, Soleil Ho and Paolo Lucchesi to 38 hard seltzers that were uniformly terrible. The bad news is that I found the High Noons mostly undrinkable, and my colleagues, even the Zoomers, largely agreed. 'This tastes like if you dropped two cherry Starbursts in a Perrier and left it overnight,' said Chronicle culture critic Peter Hartlaub of High Noon black cherry. Copy chief and native Minnesotan Linda Houser observed, 'This one will sell in the Midwest.' 'Bubblicious cotton candy flavor' is how investigative reporter Susie Neilson (a Pulitzer finalist!) characterized the raspberry iced tea. These drinks shouldn't taste that sweet, based on their nutrition facts (2.6 grams of sugar per can for the non-iced tea variations we tried), but they all smelled like candy, and several of them tasted like candy too. The pineapple variation reminded us of a gummy bear; the watermelon was like a Jolly Rancher that had melted in the sun. The High Noon iced teas tasted downright cloying, despite the fact that they have zero grams of sugar. We had to assume — though could not verify, since ingredient labeling is not required for alcohol — they had been jacked up with an artificial sweetener like Stevia. Some colleagues liked the lemon iced tea, which graphics reporter Harsha Devulapalli likened to a spiked Arizona, in a good way. By far the best of the flavors we tried, in my opinion, was grapefruit, which restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan accurately described as a ringer for pamplemousse La Croix. It had a not-too-artificial grapefruit smell, was pleasantly tart and wasn't too sweet. I'd drink it. But if given the choice, I'd rather mix vodka with soda water and squeeze a juicy slice of grapefruit into it.
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Family of imprisoned Argentine rescued out of Venezuela in another daring operation
In what is being described as a secret rescue operation, the partner and the son of an Argentine police officer, Nahuel Gallo, who is currently imprisoned by the Venezuelan regime, have managed to leave Venezuela with the help of Argentine authorities, local media reported on Wednesday. Details of the escape remain confidential. Those involved say discretion is essential to protect the safety of María Alexandra Gómez, Gallo's partner, and their son, Victor Benjamin, as well as others who facilitated the operation. According to local media, the Gomez and Benjamin are now in Colombia. Gallo is currently being held at a Venezuelan prison and faces espionage-related charges. Their departure marked the end of a harrowing chapter. Living in the eastern Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui with Gómez's mother, the family endured severe economic hardship and persistent fear of government reprisals. Although Gómez faced no formal travel restrictions, the risk of being detained at the border prompted her to seek help, triggering what sources described as a silent and carefully planned extraction effort. 'We won't be okay until he's free,' Gómez posted on social media in January—a stark reflection of the anxiety surrounding Gallo's situation. That uncertainty remains. Gallo was detained in December after crossing the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge into Venezuela to visit his family. Since then, his family's only contact with him has been a brief phone call, made from a cell phone borrowed from a taxi driver on the day of his arrest. The only evidence of his condition is a photograph showing him in prison uniform, reportedly in El Rodeo prison, though his exact location has not been confirmed. In Buenos Aires, Gallo's mother, Griselda Heredia, learned of Gómez and her grandson's escape through the media. 'I am shaken by this news. We had no idea,' she told DNews. 'I am in a state of desperation now because if they let her go, what will happen to my son?' Gallo's arrest came amid escalating repression by the Maduro government. In recent weeks, Venezuelan authorities have detained multiple foreign nationals—including two Argentines who were later released—accusing them of attempting to overthrow the regime following the contested presidential election of July 28, which has been marred by widespread allegations of electoral fraud. The Argentine government has responded with increasing fire. Last Friday, the Foreign Ministry condemned the Maduro regime's actions as 'state terrorism,' singling out Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's second-in-command—as the architect of a 'repressive machine' built on 'fear, kidnappings, forced disappearances, and systematic harassment of family members.' The statement demanded Gallo's immediate release, along with all individuals held without due process, and announced plans to intensify Argentina's complaint against Venezuela before the International Criminal Court, calling for an urgent ruling on alleged crimes against humanity. Diplomatic tensions between Buenos Aires and Caracas have intensified since President Javier Milei took office in Argentina in December 2023. The relationship further deteriorated in February following Argentina's seizure of a Venezuelan aircraft, prompting Caracas to close its airspace. The crisis reached a peak with the arrest of Gallo and later with the dramatic escape of five Venezuelan opposition leaders who had taken refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas. The group — Magallí Meda, Claudia Macero, Omar González, Pedro Urruchurtu, and Humberto Villalobos — are close allies of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and had been sheltered in the embassy since March 2024. The embassy, once a refuge for the opposition figures, ended up becoming a flashpoint in the broader geopolitical standoff. After more than a year confined within the diplomatic compound, which has operated under Brazilian protection since Argentine diplomats were expelled, the five managed to flee to the United States earlier this month.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
How a California wine company created the nation's bestselling spirit
It's America's unofficial beverage of beach days, tailgates, frat parties and music festivals. Its tagline is simple: 'real vodka + real juice.' But this slender can of High Noon, with its cheery yellow sun set against a blue sky, is the surprising growth vehicle for the largest wine company in the country, a product that's rewritten the rules of the alcohol industry. Launched by wine giant Gallo in 2019, High Noon had by 2022 become the top-selling U.S. spirit by volume, dethroning vodka powerhouse Tito's. High Noon — 'Nooners' to its most avid followers — has expanded to 14 flavors, plus a line of tequila seltzers and hard iced teas. Last year, its production grew 13.5% to just under 25 million cases a year, according to alcohol industry publication Shanken News Daily. High Noon's meteoric rise may seem remarkable for a wine company, but it speaks to a calculated strategy developed over decades. The winery that the Gallo brothers started in Modesto in 1933 has diversified in recent years and quietly grown into a spirits behemoth. Fueled by the success of High Noon and New Amsterdam vodka, which Gallo founded in 2008, it's now the second-largest spirits producer in the U.S. That shift has proven useful, since spirits, driven largely by canned drinks, is the only type of alcohol whose consumption is growing. As the wine industry continues to flounder — per capita wine drinking in California hit a 30-year low during the last fiscal year, according to state data — High Noon could be Gallo's ticket to riding out a global downturn. Make it vodka High Noon did not start as a hard seltzer. But in 2018, as Gallo executives watched the exploding popularity of seltzers White Claw and Truly, they wanted to get their own product to market quickly. It was October, and Gallo chief commercial officer Britt West set an ambitious goal of launching something by Memorial Day. But creating a new brand and trademark would take longer than that, and West didn't want to simply lob the product onto an existing brand, as had been done by breweries like Corona, with its Corona Hard Seltzer. Luckily, Gallo already had a brand at the ready. The company was market testing a traditional vodka called High Noon. 'We said, 'That's the perfect name,' said West, 'so let's stop doing that test.'' What set High Noon apart from the rapidly growing competition was that it was made with vodka. White Claw and other hard seltzers get their alcohol from malt, making them more similar to beer than to a cocktail. 'Consumers didn't really understand what the alcohol type was, what the base was,' said West of hard seltzers. When he was out at bars, he'd ask seltzer drinkers what they thought the alcohol was. Most of the time, they'd say, 'Vodka, right?' There seemed to be a notable lack of transparency. 'The insight (was) really very simple,' West said. 'If people think it's vodka, why don't we make one that actually is vodka?' That decision looked like 'a risky move' to Ron Alvarado, founder of the San Francisco hard seltzer brand Ficks. Being spirits-based meant that High Noon couldn't be sold in certain retail environments, like any grocery store or gas station in Texas. And because a vodka-based drink would be taxed higher than a malt-based one, High Noon would be meaningfully more expensive than its competitors: A 12-pack costs $25.99, as opposed to $20.99 for a 12-pack of Truly and $17.49 for White Claw. 'But the way the category has changed, it's been a smart bet for them,' Alvarado said. Vodka sounds more 'premium' than malt liquor. 'They've clearly carved out this niche as a higher-quality product.' That first summer, High Noon took off in popular destinations like the Jersey Shore and the Michigan lakes. West had been wise to rush: Within a year, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the hard seltzer category boomed. Retail sales jumped 160% between 2019 and 2020, according to NielsenIQ data. By 2021, roughly two to three new hard seltzer products were launched each day in the U.S., said Marten Lodewijks, president of alcohol beverage data analyst IWRS Americas. The pandemic presented problems, too: West recalled having to air-freight cans from Malaysia during the because of an aluminum shortage in the U.S. But High Noon was 'the right beverage for the right time in that scenario,' he said, perfect as people spent time outdoors hiking, golfing and picnicking. In the summer of 2021, High Noon's sales were up over 300% from the previous year. In 2022, they surpassed $1 billion. Targeting the tailgate In June 2023, an old-timey sailboat pulled into the Boston Harbor flying a High Noon flag. Onboard were 342 cases of the company's newest product — vodka iced tea — an homage to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, in which protesters tossed 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. Cheeky marketing stunts like this one — a stark departure from the wine industry's often stodgy approach — have been a cornerstone of High Noon's success, especially among younger generations. Last year, a 'Baywatch' spoof featured a buff, shirtless and heavily oiled High Noon 'Lifestyle Guard,' whose job is to rescue not lives, but parties. Arguably the brand's most powerful marketing engine is a strategic partnership forged in its early days. In 2020, High Noon initiated a sponsorship with Barstool Sports, one of America's largest sports media companies. 'We started thinking, where do spirits have a hard time going?' West said. The answer: 'Tailgating. You need ice, you need a cup, you need glass, which isn't convenient and it's heavy, and you need mixers.' He wanted to target venues where 'beer really, really wins,' he said, converting dedicated sports-fan beer drinkers to High Noon drinkers. Barstool has a core audience of 21 to 30 year olds, said West, and does an annual college tour centered on tailgating. 'As a young brand, we felt we didn't have quite the money and the budget to immediately be highly relevant,' he said. 'Beer advertising dollars are big dollars. We didn't have the money to go head-to-head with those Super Bowl sponsorships, so we had to be clever about it.' The partnership exploded in visibility, fueled by personal endorsements from Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who has regularly claimed to be 'the face of High Noon.' The company has its own 'El Pres' High Noon variety pack, a reference to Portnoy, plus a Nooners merchandise collection of T-shirts, hats, swim trunks and can coolers. Last month, High Noon launched a spin-off product, Lucky One Vodka Lemonade, a reference to Portnoy's dog. More recently, High Noon has found a surprising new market: golfers. In 2024, it became the official spirits-based hard seltzer of the PGA of America and the PGA Championship, one of the sport's four majors. The partnership, which includes a High Noon clubhouse on the tournament course, came just as golf is experiencing a major revival, largely due to the popular Netflix docuseries 'Full Swing.' High Noon also launched a giveaway with NBA player-turned-golf podcaster J.R. Smith and a collaboration with trendy golf apparel company TravisMathew. 'Golf is traditionally associated with an older audience, but it's continued to get more diverse in people who play and watch,' said Luke Reissman, PGA of America's senior director of global partnerships. 'It's gotten younger, it's become cooler and there are more content creators and influencers than ever. High Noon has a younger following and an energetic marketing vibe, so when they reached out to us, it was a pretty easy thing for us to get excited about.' At Bay Area golf courses, High Noon has largely replaced the light beers that golfers would previously have toted through the course. It's the most popular drink order at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, said clubhouse manager Bob Mazer, outselling the most popular beer almost two to one. He attributes its success to the fact that High Noon seems to have transcended other seltzer brands' associations with specific demographics. 'Hard seltzer used to be a woman's beverage, a college kid's drink,' Mazer said. But with High Noon, people — even middle-aged male golfers — 'aren't embarrassed to drink it.' Just another fad? Despite High Noon's success so far, history is not on its side. While the hard seltzer category is relatively new, the concept of 'ready to drink' (RTD), industry lingo for pre-packaged mixed drinks, 'has been around for decades,' said IWSR's Lodewijks, pointing to past fads like Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice and Gallo's Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler. 'They would spike for a short period and then come back down,' he said. 'There's a general concern that RTDs may do the same thing.' Zima, a malt-based drink whose meteoric rise in the 1990s mirrors that of High Noon, provides one of the most sobering history lessons. MillerCoors grew the clear beverage to 1.3 million barrels at its peak, only to fall two years later to around 400,000, undone apparently by its women-centric marketing approach. It was the highest-profile casualty of what came to be known as the decade's 'clear craze,' a trend that bears several similarities to hard seltzer. West is acutely aware that the wave High Noon has been riding may not last forever. With new product types 'it's like a gold rush, everybody jumps in,' he said, 'and then at the end of the day, the top one, two, maybe three brands survive.' The shakeout has already begun. Ficks, for one, discontinued its hard seltzer brand last year due to increased competition, now focusing solely on its cocktail mixers. But if any hard seltzer brand is likely to survive, High Noon is surely one of them, and Gallo is going all in. Although it has produced spirits since 1975, when it introduced E&J Brandy, it's High Noon that has transformed the nation's largest winery into its second-largest spirits producer. Since creating High Noon, Gallo has made other spirits investments, like acquiring the RumChata brand in 2021, and while Gallo is certainly not divesting from wine — the company produces an estimated 25 million cases of High Noon and 94 million cases of wine — the spirits focus has put it in a much stronger position as wine consumption declines. Gallo's strategy looks somewhat similar to that of wine conglomerate Constellation, which in April sold off many of its lower-priced wine brands as it shifts its focus to beer, the one category in which the company is experiencing growth. Lodewijks believes hard seltzer is more likely to have staying power than the fads that came before it. RTDs now represent 8% of all alcoholic beverage servings, he said, and spirits-based RTDs like High Noon are the fastest-growing segment within it, up 16% from 2023 to 2024. (Malt-based RTDs were down 3%.) If part of Zima's downfall was the fact that nobody knew exactly what the product was made of — its motto, 'zomething different,' seemed only to exacerbate this confusion — High Noon has the advantage of a clear message. It's vodka and soda. When choosing an RTD, Lodewijks said the flavor, not the brand, is what matters most to consumers, and the general consensus seems to be that High Noon tastes better than the alternatives. Most of the hard seltzers out there 'are overly sweet and kinda miss the mark,' said Brett Frost, owner of the San Francisco bars the Summer Place, Wizards & Wands and Moez Tavern. 'High Noon in my opinion has the best balance.' Some Bay Area bars have stopped carrying any hard seltzer other than High Noon. Lake Merced Golf Club discontinued White Claw; Marina Lounge in San Francisco did away with Truly. Now, Marina Lounge owner Kevin 'Sully' Sullivan said he goes through six to seven High Noon cases a week. 'The younger crowd, they're definitely enjoying it,' said Sullivan, who is in his 60s. 'But the older folks are catching on too.' As he spoke on the phone to the Chronicle for this story, he admitted he had cracked open a High Noon vodka iced tea. 'Do I think it will last forever? Probably not,' said Frost. 'However, people seem to love it at the moment, so we have to adapt with the times.'
Time of India
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Oklahoma City's towel tornado tradition explained - How the Thunder soak their reporter in the NBA's weirdest celebration
Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder (Image via Imagn). The Oklahoma City Thunder have become one of the NBA's most exciting teams, not just for their dominant play but for their quirky postgame celebrations. Their latest tradition—drowning sideline reporter Nick Gallo in a cascade of towels—has taken social media by storm, showcasing the team's youthful energy and camaraderie. How the OKC Thunder towel celebration works After a win, Thunder players gather around during postgame interviews with FanDuel Sports Network's Nick Gallo. As the interview wraps up, players bombard Gallo with towels, piling them on until he's nearly buried under the fabric. The chaotic yet lighthearted moment has become a signature celebration for the team. The tradition's exact origins are unclear, but Gallo has been a good sport, often playing along with the team's antics. Last season, he was part of their barking ritual, and now, the towel shower has become the new viral trend. The players behind the OKC Thunder's towel celebration The entire team gets involved, but key contributors include Aaron Wiggins, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams, and Luguentz Dort. Even MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has joined in, though he once jokingly scolded his teammates for going too far. After one particularly aggressive towel dump, Gilgeous-Alexander stepped in, saying, 'Y'all, you got to chill. I'm sorry Nick. The children, I'm so sorry' (H/t: Sporting News). Gallo, for his part, takes it in stride. He told ESPN's Malika Andrews that he stays focused on the interview, acknowledging how rare it is to win an NBA game. Why the OKC Thunder's towel celebration resonates with fans The Thunder's success has made the tradition even more fun to watch. With 68 regular-season wins—tying them for the fifth-most in NBA history—and a deep playoff run, the team has given fans plenty of reasons to celebrate. Their chemistry and playful nature make them one of the league's most likable squads. As long as the Thunder keep winning, expect more towel showers for Gallo—and more viral moments for fans to enjoy. Also read: Minnesota Timberwolves vs OKC Thunder final injury report for Western Conference Finals Game 4 - Is Julius Randle playing tonight? (May 26, 2025) The Thunder's towel celebration is more than just a silly postgame ritual—it's a reflection of a team that's winning, having fun, and embracing the moment. Whether they're burying Nick Gallo in towels or cracking jokes mid-interview, Oklahoma City's chemistry is undeniable. And with a roster this talented and this entertaining, the NBA world can't look away. So keep an eye on those postgame interviews—because as long as the Thunder keep piling up wins, the towel showers (and the laughs) aren't stopping anytime soon. Who knows? Maybe Gallo should start bringing a raincoat. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
