From my previous trip here to Sweden last December I knew that the holiday of Christmas is celebrated with more vigor and enthusiasm here than in any other country. This darkened nation revels in their candlelit doorways and every window in the city has a triangle of lights or a […]
After a train, monorail, two planes, a train and a cab, I’m in my room at the Hotel Hellsten in downtown Stockholm. The temperatures are cold, but there is no snow on the streets here, but it has that feeling in the air that it’s about to snow. At 3:30 […]
I joined my mom and dad out on their enclosed porch to read a New York Times article about the malaise that is modern Italy. The sleet rained down and it’s quite cozy in here. It seems that everything is going wrong in Cindy’s adopted country…from Europe’s lowest birthrate, to […]
I’m spending part of today with my family in Blawenburg NJ, the town and the house where I grew up. Last night it was nice to see two of my sisters and other relatives gathered around a huge table. I’ve got that familiar pre-trip feeling, trying to make sure I […]
A nervous end of the day because I’m on the road tomorrow for a week. What did I forget? Tomorrow I begin with an early morning bus ride, Springfield to Port Authority then a visit with an ad agency we work with. Then I meet Val, my mother, at her […]
Karma is a funny thing. Today I am experiencing this from my decades-long career in sales. The boomerang is coming around and I can feel it wacking me on the side of the head. It has to do with credit terms and vendor relationships. I used to sell shirts and […]
Yum, yum, UMAMI yum. That’s the new taste sensation, according to a story in yesterday’s WSJ by Katy McLaughlin. It’s a Japanese term coined in the early 20th century by Kikunae Ikeda, a scientist who made the word up based on the word for ‘deliciousness.’ Simply put, it’s the fifth […]
Last night was a triumph of seven-letter words: Our first Scrabble Tournament at the cafe. I have been talking about this event for months, and it finally happened. In cafe tradition, it was full of energy and life–the kind of spirit I like to think our cafe brings out in […]
Naira Costa is a house cleaner from Brazil who is a prime example of why the mortgage melt down happened. In yesterday’s WSJ, her story was told and it is a doozy. Through a pastor turned mortgage broker, with her taxi driver husband the pair bought a house in the […]
When I was about six, we went to the New York World’s fair, in Astoria, Queens. There we saw the Futurama, and one of the coolest exhibits showed cars that drove themselves as you sat back and just rode. The NY Times today has a story about this elusive, yet […]
I write a blog for my friends at Airport Parking Reservations. Here is a post I feel strongly about, that I posted tonight. It’s time we took back the thousands of miles of highways in the sky that the Pentagon has claimed for its training flights and missile tests. Over […]
When half of a media outlet’s editorial staff decides to jump ship, chances are it will be reported first on the media gossip blog Gawker — even, it turns out, when those departures are from Gawker itself. The New York Times reported today that Emily Gould, a Gawker editor, dropped […]