Nick Cotto speaks gang. His story was featured on Masslive on Sunday, this former military man who can read the writing on the wall. The writing scrawled by gang members, that he says warns of bad things to come and battles to be waged. He took a reporter on a […]
The New York Times ran a story today that showed that love in Saudi Arabia is as arid and barren as the desert that surrounds the people there. Two cousins talk about romance in the safety of a remote desert outpost. Let’s listen in. “I am a romantic person,” he […]
On our final day of this trip to Sardinia, we took advantage of a long layover to take a train into Rome, where we had pizzas at the Campo dei Fiori. It was lovely sitting under umbrellas eating margherita pizzas and not having any wine, since last week had been […]
I remember trying to rent Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Colombine” at a video store here in Holyoke, and the clerk told us that they wouldn’t carry the movie. It was censorship, and too bad for them, since they’ve gone out of business, like many other video stores. Tonight through the […]
While Kent enjoys dining beneath Frank Gehry-designed buildings in Dusseldorf, I am enjoying time at our comfy home in Holyoke. Here I got a chance to stay up a bit late reading a story in the WSJ about how the real estate drop is helping out conservation causes. It’s the […]
Last night I had a lot of fun writing my article about Huntington Beach–Surf City USA. That surprised me, because as any of the many writers who read this blog know, writing is not usually fun. It’s a chore, it’s a pain, and it’s something we keep saying we’ll get […]
A few months ago I read a fascinating article in Wired about the Cougar Ace, a freighter that was disabled and sank two years ago with nearly 5000 new Mazda automobiles inside. The story focused on the team of rugged salvagers who managed to refloat the vessel and save it. […]
We were excited the other day when we got an email from a producer of the Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods”. He asked us about Ethiopian cuisine, since they were doing research for an upcoming show. Since we had just published a wonderful article by Matthew Keady about a bike trip […]
I read today some fantastic news for those of us who enjoy riding our bikes on bike paths. Someone is finally doing something about the ridiculously bumpy Northampton to Amherst Norwottuck Rail Trail. Today’s Gazette had the story by Nick Grabbe. Originally, the path was built using recycled glass….sounds like […]
Today we got a chance to see the breadth of this huge island, the sweeping interior that is barely covered with civilization even though man has walked these hills and valleys for more than 6,000 years. Actually it was probably longer, since that only takes into account as far back […]
This is the Hotel Arathena, a jewel in the Costa Smerelda town of San Pantaleo. While many of the fancy hotels that line the beaches go for $500 or $700 per night, this gorgeous place is just $70-140 euros per night including breakfast and dinner. It’s light and airy, and […]
Ugh…you know that sinking feeling when you wake up later than you meant to? We are staying in a four star hotel on the fancy schmancy Costa Smerelda…where Roman Abramovich’s yacht (one of them anyway, a mere 300 feet) bobs in the harbor. Yet we don’t get a wake-up call […]