Whiskey (whisky) primer

An article asks, "What's the difference between bourbon and whiskey?"  This is sort of like asking what's the difference between ice cream and vanilla ice cream.  Beer is a beverage made from malted cereal grain, and a distilled beer is a whiskey; spelled with an E in USA, probably the result of all those Irish immigrants.  So  bourbon is a type of whiskey made in the USA.  Bourbon is technically a maize (corn is any common grain - ask for "corn" in Scotland and see what you get) whiskey, but the USA let's them get away with as little as 51% maize.  Tennessee makes the same type of whiskey but it's not called bourbon even though it is.  It's a wonder Kentucky and Tennessee were on the same side of the Civil War.  Speaking of that Rebel Yell bourbon wasn't "exported" (north of the Mason-Dixon line) back in TPP's graduate student days.  Canadian whiskey is also a sort of bourbon, but it can't be called that and be imported to the USA, so Canadian whiskey it is. Scotch is a different sort of whisky (spelled that way where it's made), and some of the barrel aged whisky is blended, cut or diluted with neutral grain spirits (don't bother) or straight malt whisky (read your labels folks).  All bourbon is straight malt whisky.  Yea!  The best bourbon cocktail in the humble opinion of this author is the Old Fashioned, and the two best ones TPP has ever been served were at The Girl and The Goat (Chicago) and Sobu (New Orleans).  Hint: use orange bitters!  Hope that was edifying.