Last night we got a chance to see Pittsburgh from the Allegheny River aboard the Gateway Clipper. This huge party boat has four levels and is plenty big for hundreds of PR pros and tourism board people to mix with a handful of journalists while chugging up the river. I […]
I met a man tonight who’s been everywhere. He’s Charles Veley, the “most traveled person in America.” This moniker is quite a feat, since so many of the people I hang around with have serious stamps in their passports. But Veley is the real deal, and his travels put him […]
I am at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, which is attached to an art museum. Here there are four computers and they invite museum goers to blog about the museum and an exhibition called Life On Mars. Like many modern art exhibits, this […]
I have some advice for solo travelers. Visit a restaurant with a long bar and sit near a corner. Last night I took this advice and walked many blocks of the center city to find The Sonoma Grille, a large, airy place on Penn Avenue. As is my custom, I […]
I knew I’d like this city, from the moment I stepped into the Town car that whisked me the 22 minutes from the airport to the Marriot downtown. “I wouldn’t live anywhere else!” said my driver Patrick McArdle. He runs his own art salon in the city, and used to […]
Last night I had trouble sleeping, since I kept thinking about the plane. What time it was actually departing I hadn’t noted down, so I wasn’t sure when I had to leave for the airport. I fly to Pittsburgh this morning on 11 am flight and at 3:30 pm I […]
Yesterday’s New York Times included a story that looked back on the great athletes from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Among the people profiled was a swimmer who said that she always wanted to be in the Olympics ever since she first felt the water in a pool at […]
It’s Sunday morning and Cindy and I sit facing each other on our laptops. We both have thought a lot about the passing of Tim Russert, a man who I met once on Nantucket and found to be charming and fun. We were in the Westender in Madaket, and it […]
I read two pieces of good news yesterday and today that brighten my spirits. First was a story in the Wall St. Journal that said Amtrak will be given double the funding from previous years, and that Congress has just voted in a lopsided YEA to support spending much more […]
It was a nice to get back on the radio today, I got up early to join Advocate editor Tom Vannah on his morning show on WHMP-AM. Usually I do these shows over the phone, but there is something fun about donning the headphones, listening to his cue, following the […]
I was clearing out old piles of stuff and found a story that I wrote when I was in ninth grade. I liked it then and I like it now. I’d love to know what you think about it. InstinctThe tires of his Franklin spun along the hot, shimmering road […]
Last night I beheld a spectacular show in the midst of watching the NBA finals. I was in a room with seven men, cheering raucously, in that wonderful let-it-all-hang-out way that only men in a room with no women can be, every point a raft of raised fists, cheers and […]