It’s going to be a tough week, with my bathroom being renovated, but happily, it was a great weekend. We were out all three nights, first to the Voo in Turners Falls, then to pal Shelley Rotner’s get together at her spacious studio in Florence’s Arts and Industry Building. The […]
These signs have been an objective of mine since November 2007. That’s when we had our first meeting and I pitched the pair of politicians Rosenberg and Kulik that we needed something to direct people to our little town center. I am happy to see them up and installed today, […]
Last night while we were waiting for Cindy to arrive to go up to the Voo in resurgent Turners Falls, a television program on the Travel Channel caught our attention. Francisco and I looked aghast as the show, called “Extreme Terror Rides,” described North America’s most fearsome ‘fun’ rides and […]
At the VEMEX meeting of European tourism boards, it was a pleasure to meet the tourism officials and also to get their gifts of USB drives.
A sad note this morning, in an eloquent email sent out by my pal Joe O’Rourke. My cousin Paul’s beloved black lab Bennie was struck and killed by a car last night, and later buried in Paul’s yard, with the help of Paul’s friends Bill and Joe. Bennie has been […]
Ahm-ma-dina-jad. Ahm-ma-dine-ijad. I used to say this over and over again, walking through Cindy’s house. Ahm-ma-dina-jad, I wanted to learn how to say it. I better get it right, because I just got invited to visit Iran later this month. I have always wanted to see Persia, see the famous […]
It’s an exhuberant day, one that will be remembered for many decades. Watching Obama’s speech last night, I have to admit to welling up with tears, his eloquence again and again amazes and inspires me. The best part was when he reached out to those ‘who didn’t vote for me […]
It feels excellent to be back in the cafe after a week away. With Donna’s strong leadership, no one is looking to me to find out what to do next, she has all of our cafe staff understanding what their jobs are, and in my absence, everything flowed smoothly. That’s […]
We’re up at 6:45 am this morning, after a night of hearing about how enthusiastic these Brits are to see Obama win the prize. In the Independent, a headline dramatically intoned “Is this troubled nation ready for change?” Troubled? huh? I thought I’d reserve this moniker for Congo or Mozambique. […]
We tried hard to see a musician I’ve enjoyed who is from Manchester, but we did not succeed. We saw a poster for Mr. Scruff, who plays underground house style music. We followed the advice on his website and made our way to his cafe, called “The Cup,” a few […]
I’m sitting in the dim light of the Lister Arms pub, in Malham, Yorkshire Dales, after a 6-mile hike over hills, dales, stone walls and muddy fields that left Sam and I exhausted but happy. Our guide, MarkReid, literally wrote the books about walking here, he specializes in pub–to pub […]
