News & Features | High and mighty

How much do you want to know about High Times?

Choice Cuts:

1) This is not a casual culture, a smoking circle content with stem-filled dime bags and resin-scraped bowls. Rather, this is the territory of two-foot bongs and herbal vaporizers. "High Times is for the pot smoker," agrees editor Steve Bloom, who’s worked at the publication for 15 years. "They spend money on marijuana; they spend money on paraphernalia. When they travel, they go to destinations that are pot-friendly. They’re stoners. And stoners stick together because stoners are persecuted."

Preach on brother!

2)Then there are the Bonghitters, High Times’ legendary softball team that battles, and usually crushes, teams from other media outlets, such as the Onion, the New Yorker, and The Daily Show. The Bonghitters have been around since 1991, when they had a mascot named Dreddy Duck. Back then, the players rallied on Central Park’s Great Lawn with war paint, chants, drums, and post-game bong circles. "We were a little bit more of a freak show," Bloom says. These days, they’re more understated, limiting themselves largely to their theme song, "Take Me Out to the Bong Game." Last year, the team went 15-3-1; in the previous two years, they were undefeated. "We tend not to smoke too much before games," says Bloom, also the team’s coach. "I think that’s the secret to our success. I always say, ‘Feel free to have THC floating through your system, but don’t smoke when you’re running out there to play third base.’ "

Do you think they need a utility infielder? I can't wait for the congressional hearings on this.

News & Features | High and mighty