I made Larry Parnass‘ day today when I called him with a plum assignment: travel to Switzerland and write a story for GoNOMAD. I think he’s going to enjoy the trip, and the tourism board was pleased to hear we could send a writer and publish a story on GoNOMAD. […]

This cool weather has brought in so many new customers at the cafe. Our business has never been so great since we opened in March. We still see many folks who set foot in the cafe for the first time. One senior citizen came by with a local theater program […]

Mike Wallace, 88, has retired but just scored an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Here’s some of what he noticed about this villianized leader. “He’s actually, in a strange way, he’s a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way,” Wallace said. “He’s very, […]

Cindy came and alerted me while I was in the shower this morning, urgent news about another travel bummer….but this time fortunately, not a tragedy. It seems that we all must now remove all liquid items from our carry-ons, because some wackos in the UK tried to blow up 21 […]

I was at a meeting of travel writers last November in Niagara Falls, and there was a man at lunch who was talking about being at Burning Man. This festival of weirdness, drugs, sex and nudity takes place a week before Labor day in Nevada’s Black Rock desert. I wanted […]

Little People were on TV tonight, on PBS. One dwarf recalls being taken to the hospital when he was 18, and told by the doctors, ‘sorry there’s nothing we can do…you’ll always be a dwarf.’ He said he decided then and there ‘to be the best dwarf I could be.” […]

Today’s Springfield Republican included a story about a family that’s urban homesteading in the heart of Springfield, MA. Many people like me have thought about how nice it would be to simplify right down to growing one’s own food, and spending no money on cars, clothes or gadgets. That’s what […]

Last night was cooler so it was easier to sleep. Still, I stayed up way too late and part of the night was spent watching “Hell’s Kitchen”on Fox where the mean chef tortures his wannabe chefs while diners wait for entrees in the fancy dining room. This guy is so […]

Wired news reports today that passports are changing–big time–in the US. “After much ado, the United States has begun or will begin issuing passports with RFID chips in them. The passports now have some anti-skimming features, including Basic Access Control and some sort of internal tin-foil hat. But the chips […]

Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel, Winter’s Tale was voted the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years by readers of the NY Times Book Review. He sat down with Doublethink’s Kelly Jane Torrance, here is an excerpt about why he doesn’t like parties. At all. “What […]

ETurbo News usually sends puffy press releases about Dubai and some meeting in another Arab land. Today they send this little ditty about a chance encounter in a ski gondola above France. “Andy Sinclair reached his peak while dangling high above the Alps. The gondola podule things took four people […]

Last night we got dressed up and walked down the venerable, wood paneled Navigator, on the Edgartown Harbor. The hostess was from Russia, blond and very thin. She laughed since we had barged all the way in without a table. “I put you on the list,” she told us. Later […]