Be Very Glad Your House Isn’t Built with Chinese Drywall
How would you like to be Alfonso Sanchez? He’s the unlucky owner of a $1.7 million home in Davie Florida that he can neither rent nor sell. And the last thing he wants to do is live there. Why? Chinese drywall. Sanchez is just one of the more than 1500 […]
A Towncar Whisked Me Back Home
Last night a towncar whisked me away from the Ritz Carlton at Battery Park, one of New York’s finest hotels, right on the tip of Manhattan. Before the car came I went out on the terrace and drank in the million dollar view, a sweep that including a dark Statue […]
Manhattan in the Rain Yields a Story About Google
I went down to lower Manhattan in the rain. I joined fellow members of the internet travel advertising world at a meeting….one of the speakers was a shy Indian named Gokul Rajaram, the CEO of Chai Labs. They are developing a new platform from which readers can shop for hotels […]
It’s Family TV Time, Watching All Together
When I was a young lad, one of my fondest memories was watching television with my whole family on Sunday nights. We had an old family friend, a bachelor named Fairfield Day, who used to visit us sometimes and join us on those cozy Sundays when we watched “Gentle Ben” […]
The King of Parking in China Offers Us Cake
Lui Ju is a parking magnate from Beijing. He is known to his American friends as ‘Tom,” and speaks through an interpreter. He addressed the lunchtime audience at the National Parking Association yesterday in Mandarin with an invitation: ‘reap the bounty of China’s ‘money machine.’ “Someone who had been to […]
Pickens Talks About Converting Trucks to Natural Gas
“The best time to plant a tree is 2o years ago,” said T. Boone Pickens today, as he sat on stage and talked about his ambitious plans to radically change the energy policy of the US as soon as he can. “You’ve gotta have a plan…and so far we don’t […]
A Classic Fall Day…And a Busy Travel Week Ahead
What a lovely Fall day in New England. Outside, the air is crisp, about 59 degrees, and leaves are blowing around the yard, beautiful patches of orange, red and yellow. I’m cozy wearing a new ‘shirt jacket’ that my parents gave me for my birthday, and Cindy is by my […]
Joseph F. Shea, Come On Down!
WOW! Life throws you some amazing curveballs! Just a few minutes ago, a grey haired man wearing a bowtie knocked on my office door. “Come in, come in,” I said, not sure who exactly it was there. He greeted me that familiar conspiratorial smile, and came up to me, he […]
Why Make the Player When You Can Be It?
I found a story from Wired magazine in my FB feed that impressed me. Reed Hastings is the CEO of Netflix, and back in 2007, the company was excited about launching a new consumer product. The company isn’t in the hardware business, they were going to bring out a paperback-book-sized […]
The Internet Biz, Explained
The rough and tumble of internet business marketing 2.0 is that it’s fluid….it varies…and in most cases, you have to live on dimes and nickels instead of $10s and $20s. Today, for example, I have to decide on a few new options for our affiliate links, review proposals for creating […]
Sharks Fight Over College Course Notes Company
Tonight’s Shark Tank show didn’t disappoint. The interesting thing tonight was how many ideas they just fought over like, well, the sharks that they are. We got to see a lot of fighting over who will invest in the first idea. That would be a website where college kids and […]
It’s Great to be Gone, It’s Better To Be Home!
I’m happy to be back to the business I love. I haven’t felt this happy to be home in a long time. I think travel makes you forget how comforting it is to be sleeping in a familiar bed, next to a familiar cat, or a familiar partner. Hotel rooms, […]
Sally Hartshorne Is Tributed Beautifully
I joined a group of friends and relatives and spent 90 minutes this afternoon learning many things about my aunt Sarah Hartshorne, who passed away last month. I was moved, I cried, I laughed, and like everyone in the room, I was deeply affected by the thoughts shared and the […]
SATW: Good Riddance!
For years I’ve been on trips with travel writers who include “Active SATW” in their email signatures. This stands for the Society of American Travel Writers, a very old association of travel writers that likes to think of itself as the be all and end all in travel writing. Being […]
Paragliding over Iquique, September 2009
We took off with a run, my pilot behind me and me with a seat strapped to my arse, ran, ran ran until the cliff gave way to nothing…and then we floated, twirled and gently sunk down to land on the beach just below. Altazor de Volar takes you there.
Talking the Afternoon Away, With Google Translate
We’re sitting in an airport cafe in Santiago with a long layover in front of us. Sony went to the bathroom and ran into Catalina, a journalist from Bogota Colombia who spoke not a word of English. Sony is the same about Spanish, and so it was a bit awkward. […]
Iquique Faces the Roaring Sea, with a Giant Dune Behind
Waking up underneath a thick comforter was heaven….at last a long and luxurious night’s sleep, one of the things that you take for granted but crave after a succession of tough nights. I’m feeling great up here on the 15th floor of the Terrado Hotel, anticipating a morning of tandem […]