I’m in my hotel room in Rouen France and the sunlight is streaming in the window. Outside the sun feels like it’s about 5:30 pm, but shockingly, it’s just after 8. Here we are so far north and it’s just one day past the longest day of the year. I […]
Last night we joined a throng of more than 100 men, women and children at the Camp Keewanee in the sticks north of Greenfield to celebrate a milestone in the Valley. Joe O’Rourke turned 50, with a full stage of musicians, dozens of family members in special green tee shirts, […]
On the eve of my departure for France, I decided that I can’t resist the lure of the iPhone. So I popped into this AT&T Store and plunked down $200 on the new 3GS phone, in white. I am so enamored with my itouch that I know I am going […]
I was excited when I asked Shoul where he was going tonight, Friday, my usual going out night. He said he was going to the ‘soft opening’ of a new wine bar and upscale restaurant in Easthampton, called Venus & the Cellar Bar. I hopped into the truck and made […]
I asked Parin if I could publish her photo, that I took in the desert. She replied today, as I expected, and said no. This is a photo on the bus as we drove back dancing in the aisles. This is not Parin! hinowadays we have a real bad condition […]
I got a press release from Brian Mullis, he runs Sustainable Travel International, and he had a good point that somehow got by me. There’s a new Bicycle Commuter Act. Buried in the fine print of the massive bail out bill is a provision to reward employers who make lives […]
Parin from Tehran again sends me an email from the thick of the Iran protests… hi again 🙂first of all thank you very much.(rahpeymayi) i mean we walk in silence in the street during a long distance with our want in our hands..as you certainly see in news in VOA […]
I sent out a letter to some of the Iranians I met on my trip there in November. I asked them to tell me about the situation there as they see it, and wished them the best from me and from all Americans. I told them that we supported them […]
I am big reader of trends….trying to ascertain from newspaper articles which way the winds of change are blowing. A story a few days ago in the WSJ pointed to a new industry that’s having trouble…the Strip Club business. The two largest publicly-traded strip club operators are Rick’s and VCG, […]
Yesterday I dove back into Jeffrey Tayler’s marvelous new book about his trek across the wildlands of the former USSR, called “Murderers in Mausoleums.” At this point in his long journey he has reached Urumqi, China, a large city where many races mix. There are the usual Han Chinese, who […]
In Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been declared the Presidential election’s winner. The city took down the internet and blocked text messages, according to an AP story and protesters have been throwing rocks and making fires in the streets, tangling with black-clad police. When I visited Iran in November, I asked […]
I remember a story that a cook told me when I used to work out on Nantucket. “One time Roger Penske was here on the island with the chairman of Toyota,” he said. “He couldn’t speak any English but he liked the lobster I made for them.” My friend said […]