We are going on a trip, dear readers, so come along with me and I’ll show you a country I’ve never set foot in. Tonight I’ll fly from Boston to Munich, then another short flight to Zagreb, Croatia. The reason I’m going is to attend a conference about tourism and […]
Up on my office wall, I have a copy of an old newspaper article from the Portland Evening Express that was written about me in 1982. Wow, that was so long ago, yet when I think back on the day that story came out, it doesn’t feel like it was […]
We drove up to Erving this morning, planning on a hike on the M&M trail, a long one that bisects the state en route to Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. We found a place for eight cars to park, and took a quick look at the trail map before heading […]
The scene was what you might see in Greenwich Village: a cool cat playing experimental music and using a bunch of different machines to create ambience and alternative sounds while he pounded on the grand piano….all while playing a hit song by Led Zeppelin. Last night Marco Benevento played the […]
Reality TV sure knows how to satisfy. Networks like A&E come up with compelling shows that are simple and hard not to watch, then they program an entire night worth of shows, one after another, to give the viewers exactly what they want. And last night, the producers threw in […]
Last week in the Gazette, I read a story about some local authors who have discovered self publishing, and are now proud to be offering their printed words without the familiar middle men of agent, publisher and bookstores. Yet the truth is, these authors, no matter how esteemed, will be […]
Every August, nearly a thousand bike riders make a bee line for Deerfield, where they take part in what is considered to be one of the best distance bike rides in the Northeast. It’s the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee, known by its shorter name D2R2. The course winds up through […]
There are some moments in life when you feel as if you’re seeing a sign, seeing the future, and yet the future hasn’t happened yet. I remember hearing a short news snippet on the just-born radio station WRSI when I lived in Greenfield. It was Sherie, the DJ, talking about […]
It’s called “Norway in a Nutshell,” and it’s a way to see a whole lot of this vast country in one very long day. We began our journey in the seaside city of Bergen, taking a train to the hiking center of Voss. Then we boarded a bus to drive […]
Yesterday we met a man named Eirik Hitland Johannessen, a 30-year-old graphic designer who is about to open a retail store in the center of Bergen. He’s made his living selling tee shirts with clever designs, playing on familiar words with ironic twists. Some of his designs: a play on […]
It was a sparkling August day in Oslo today as we got out into this vibrant and clean city to meet some of the local people who make it that way. But first, in the lobby, we discussed the events that devastated the country on July 22 when a Norwegian […]
We arrived in Oslo today at 8 am, and it was a quick and easy train ride right into the center of the city. At the Thon Hotel Panorama the view looks out over the fjord where cruise ships disembark. This morning the Queen Elizabeth was moored right in view, […]