Past Articles

On Twitter, a post alarmed me enough to chase down the source, it was from my traveling bud Johnny Jet. He was Tweeting from ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel show. Some day, in my post-cafe career, I’ll go to this fantastic huge show and meet thousands of other travel […]

Japan is bracing itself for bad times after scores of the usually rare, giant Oarfish have washed ashore and been caught in coastal fisherman’s nets. Tonight I read this on a news website called Motherboard. “The sightings started after the ‘quake in Chile and the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan. […]

Dan Buettner is quietly confident on the screen in a video of a speech he gave at TED, the gathering of genius that’s held each year in California.  He spoke about three areas of the globe where people have been found to live the very longest and where there are the […]

The criminal record of the killer whale named Tilikum, star of SeaWorld, and recently accused of yet another murder of a trainer is long and checkered.  Mike Esterl wrote about the park’s dilemma in today’s WSJ. This is one mean killer whale, now with two murders and one suspicious death […]

One way to solve the jobs problem would be to let people come to the US who can create them. A loosening up of rules to allow more entrepreneur/immigrants to come and settle in the US has been talked about in the Senate and today in the WSJ. Senators John Kerry and […]

It’s almost a spring day in South Deerfield, where the sun is making people smile more than they usually do this time of year.  A woman emerged from the pizza place wearing tiny shorts and a tee shirt. Inspiring! Where I’m going tonight will inevitably be chronicled more than it needs […]

An unexplained angst captured me mid-morning, I tried hard but was not clearly able to identify its source.  Funny how sometimes dread can creep up and you don’t even know why. I do have a trip coming up in a week, and the regular routine is to worry about what […]

I read a thoughtful piece  by Jeffrey Zaslow in yesterday’s WSJ headlined “When Good Deeds Turn Bad,” which chronicled some examples of people who tried to do good but didn’t actually help anyone. In a Peruvian village, an aid group brought in Americans and Europeans who wanted to spend time […]

Last month I got into a dust-up with Tom Vannah, the editor of the Valley Advocate, after I wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the inserts that fall out of their paper each week. He replied to my letter angrily, suggesting that I, as a web publisher, didn’t […]

A film about bomb defusers in Iraq would at first glance appear  to be an action film; indeed, a trailer for another Iraq movie called Brothers at War was just that…exploding Humvees and violent action. But last night’s cinematic triumph, The Hurt Locker, was more about how people relate to […]

Here’s a news blast from T. Boone Pickens, who I met and interviewed a few months ago. He agitates for a total change in how we use energy, and I agree it’s a cause worth fighting for. “The Washington Post ­- one of the most influential newspapers in the United […]

The show is over for another year, and it’s time to get back to the business of publishing great travel stories and developing ways to further monetize each and every page. Our new partnership with Trip Advisor is going to be big…big because TA is so big and at the […]

Is a hotel just a place to sleep, or is it a delightful experience you’ll always remember?  It’s clear that most hotel owners hope you’ll believe the latter.  I have to say that for the past few nights, my experience at one of the world’s most prestigious hotel brands has […]

Today was a glorious day, with the snow covering the statue of Lafayette outside our hotel window on Central Park South.  I’m full of vigor and psyched to spend the day here at the Javits Center.  I’ve got the Macbook all warmed up, I’ve got great people like Cindy and […]

I am in the Holiday Inn in midtown Manhattan. Outside it is a howling blizzard with umbrellas breaking all over the street and hard driving snow pelting down sideways. We went to the Ritz Carleton and Kent sipped a drink that cost $20. I appreciated his largesse by not ordering […]

I’ve been thinking about the economic problems in Greece, ever since I brought the topic up with my Greek-American friends Rick and Georgio. They laughed about their home country’s government ineptitude and free spending.  A column in today’s WSJ by Bret Stephens provided me with a little more clarity. In […]

February snow is falling on Mountain Rd. and it’s time to begin another day.  Last night I found a guy on the Comedy Channel who I think will become a huge TV star some day. He is Daniel Tosh, and he hosts a modern-day version of the old Candid Camera, […]

All of a sudden my gadgets and I are the most fascinating thing in the world to Sofie, age 1. So I am now fighting to keep my pristine white new Macbook away from her grubby paws.  Handing her the iPhone I try to molify her. But her attention goes […]