Listening to the Jazz, I Could Feel Gfld Eclipsing Noho
Everyone showed up; the whole gang of Friday regulars were on the scene in ‘Hamp last night, gathered at the very hip Mama Iguana’s to share end of the workday tales and catch up on news. But Joe told us he had to leave at 6:20. Why? Because he was […]
Everyone on the Subway Stared in Shock at the Sneeze
When I was traveling down to New York on Sunday, a man on the subway suddenly sneezed–he yelled in a high-pitched wail as he did so–so loud that the entire car looked over at him with shock. It was funny, such a loud noise popping out of someone all of […]
Southwest’s Green Plane Saves Fuel and More
The Green Plane is Southwest’s newest initiative in a company-wide effort to save money and fuel. OUr friend Johnny Jet flies about 150,000 miles a year and takes fastidious notes of every mile in the air. He recently wrote about Southwest Airlines media day where they unveiled a new plane […]
We’re Not Worthy….Ok, I Guess We Are
When I stepped into our two-connected-rooms-with-a-living-room-in-between here at the Kimberly Hotel, I thought, why, we’re mere travel editors…are we worthy of these luxe New York City digs? Of course we are, I said again, quickly coming to my senses. It’s tough being a travel writer, especially having to spend the […]
Random Thoughts on a Soggy Saturday
A soggy day; a day that I wished I didn’t have to deal with all of my wet leaves. Then I go out and put together my cleverly designed, yet maddeningly frail outdoor tent. It had flown over in a fierce September gust of wind, now the thing is broken […]
Mama Cat Appreciation Day
I read a book about hobos that said they liked to keep puppies because they warm up their sleeping bags so well. Though my cat doesn’t warm up the bottom of my bed, she does provide a valuable snuggle. Having her soft fur at hand level is a treat. Having […]
Strange Maps: A Free-form Cartographic Journey
I love maps. I spend a lot of time looking at them, and always enjoy taking a spin around the globe we keep at the cafe, seeing where places are and checking out their relative size. I was sent a book the other day that is a map-lover’s fantasy. Frank […]
The Waitress Stiffened When the Tourist Spat Out the Meat
Sarah Wang recently spent four days in North Korea. Her account, published on Slate, is depressing, thinking that people have to live with little food, no internet, no cellphones, and a government that spends millions on propaganda and enforcing the cult of personality. “While the guards ate their meals or […]
Yahoo to GeoCities: Drop Dead!
The web continues to mystify and amaze me. Just today I read that Yahoo is shutting down Geocities, even though the network of websites attracts more than ten million visitors a month. And the company paid billions in stock to buy the site in early 1999. On today’s WebProNews, the […]
Venice Adventures Are Fine Without Me
As I often do, last night in the dark I reached for my iPhone and flicked the screen to bring up my Facebook newsfeed. With friends in all time zones, I always find some news popping up and as I lay in bed I read Richard Frisbie’s reports from Venice. […]
When Yóu’re a Web Publisher, You’ve Gotta Bonk
In our business, we call it bonking. We repetitively copy and paste pieces of text, photos and links from one page to template pages to fix our code and update the GoNOMAD website. Cultivating this vast field of travel articles takes a lot of work, a lot of bonking, over […]
In Sad Atlantic City, Hope Is a Losing Bet
I remember when my parents took my little sister and me to Atlantic City in 1970. That was eight years before the city’s first casino, Resorts, opened and singer Steve Lawrence lost the first $10 to the house. Back then the hotel of choice was the oceanfront Chalfont-Hadden Hall, and […]
If Your Kid Needs Medicine, You Find the Dough
I just finished a movie that makes me scratch my head and say…what the heck? I do love digging into the deep, deep long tail that Netflix has to offer, but sometimes I pull up a dud..as Cindy often loves to remind me. This film is called “Explicit Ills,” and […]
A Rainy Saturday: A Perfect Day for the Dump
Don’t rainy Saturdays make you feel productive? That’s what they do to me. I’m up and full of ideas on what good things I can accomplish that I’ve been meaning to get done for months. For the first time in recent memory, both my daughter and my son-in-law are home […]
Hidden Tech Party Brings the Geeks to the Cafe
It’s not a major birthday year but hey, it does only come around once. Today I’m fifty-one. Wow, it was just last year that we had the major party that every red-blooded American man deserves….but this year no big plans, just a bunch of computer geeks who are coming to […]
Writing’s Done, for Today Anyway
Random notes on the life of an editor, blogger and cafe owner.Phew! I got my homework assignment done. That’s a little what it felt like as I finished off my report from the National Parking Association meeting I attended in Washington last week. I provide lots of quotes, lots of […]
In Nigeria, Companies Are Thinking Before they Flare
You might know the term to flare off from when you drove the New Jersey Turnpike as a kid and asked a grown-up what those fires on top of the tall smokestacks were. You were told it was natural gas burning off from an oil well. In Nigeria, flares have […]