Nicolas Berggruen doesn’t have a home anymore. But don’t pity him–he still owns a Gulfstream IV jet. He’s a reclusive billionaire who has decided that he doesn’t want to own a house any more. Or a car. So he lives in hotel rooms and does most of his work running […]
I knew I was mad about this farm bill that was just passed over President Bush’s veto. I knew it because it is a perfect example of waste…huge, bloated government waste, and subsidies for rich farmers who are now making more money than they ever have. Both parties love farm […]
Yesterday I read a story about scooters in the WSJ. More on that later. I also rode my own scooter for the first time in many months. My two-stroke Taiwanese ride had been marooned up at ‘Moped Jim’s’ as we call Jim the owner of Mohawk Motors, and I finally […]
Once in a while someone writes an article for GoNOMAD that really hits a chord. That happened today when we posted Paul Shoul’s piece about Zaragoza Spain. The reason it resonated was a simple Spanish word that means lingering for a long time over dinner. That’s one of my favorite […]
Distracted by your loud radio, jangling cellphone or that lovely scone you’re munching on? The Boston Police Department has a new way to rouse you out of your drivers seat stupor–it’s called The Rumbler. Today’s Boston Globe showed a police officer with the initials RJS on his sleeve holding what […]
We are settling into life under the new managers of the cafe. I slaved away for half of Sunday, and even though I was so tired I had to nap after my shift, it was good to be there and welcome the customers and to know once again how hard […]
Marina Goldman is just back from Sierra Leone, with stories to share and photos to show. We got a chance to see and hear about her trip, and about an organization she supports tonight at a party she had at her house in Montague. She made ground nut soup, and […]
A few weeks ago I read a column by Thomas Friedman in the NY Times about the absolute lack of any energy policy in the US. The most galling fact was that at the end of this year, federal tax credits for installing solar and wind power systems will expire. […]
Here’s my lovely daughter Kate at Elms College’s pinning ceremony, where she joined 35 other hardworking nurses who got their bachelor’s degrees last Monday. It was a wonderfully personal ceremony, with the speaker announcing each nurse’s background and ambitions for the future. While they said that Kate wanted to be […]
I first met this guy in 1978, when both of our daughters were in the womb and we took a birthing class together with our wives. At that time, and for the following three decades, he sported a big logger’s beard. Many times we’ve joked about whether he’d ever cut […]
What kind of country are we to be? This question was posed to me last night in a profound column by Thomas Frank, titled “Our Great Economic U-Turn,” in the WSJ. Thomas began the story by stating some of the stark economic facts that begin to define our society in […]
This morning we said good bye to a wonderful member of our cafe staff. Liz Bagley is moving to British Colombia, and is today picking up a puppy to join her on her long drive west. I wrote her a note of appreciation and inside I slipped two VIP passes […]