December Sunday, Time to Prepare
I think a good alarm system would send you a text message if anything bad was going on at your house. Cindy is shopping for such a system, and it occurs to me that this would be a very quick way of reaching almost anybody. I have read about systems […]
The Hapless Leafs Decide to Get Tough
I never realized that the Toronto Maple Leafs were Canada’s most storied and richest sports team. I learned this while I read the WSJ at Cindy’s last night, after a night at Spoleto with the lovely pair of Cindy and Stephanie Jones. It’s funny because despite having the most fans, […]
The Young Paste-up Artist and His New Daughter: 1981
One of the fun things about owning a cafe is the people who come in, popping back into your life after long absences. One such fellow is photographer Robert Tobey, with whom I worked in my callow youth as a paste up artist at the Valley Advocate in Amherst. Tobey […]
Violated in the Middle of the Day in Holyoke
y Last night I got a call from a distressed Cindy. Her house was broken into and thieves stole jewelry, her laptop, her camera and the new HDTV that I brought there just about a month ago. The worst part was seeing that hole…they punched their way in through a […]
Now It’s Time for a Cheese Maker’s Bailout in Italy
On this icy, slippery day, I think about a story I read last night in the WSJ. It was about another bailout, but this time, it’s for Italy’s makers of fine aged Parmesan cheese. Yes, that’s right. Another story of a product that costs more than it sells for, and […]
Talking on the Radio, Tomorrow at 7:30
Tomorrow I’ll be on WHYN-AM 560 radio at 7:35 am to talk with Brad and Bo about Iran. I can just hear them groaning as we begin, amazed that anyone would want to go there, and how scary it must have been. I expect them to ask me sincerely…”why would […]
A Visit from GoNOMAD’s Founder at the Cafe
Yesterday we had a visit from the f0under of GoNOMAD, Lauryn Axelrod. She just got back from a trip to Argentina’s Patagonia, where she rode horses and wrote an excellent story for GoNOMAD. I had been chiding her that she needed to see the cafe, the website’s namesake community gathering […]
"You Mean You Can Smoke There? Let’s Go!"
According to the NY Post, smoking is back in a big way in the city’s hippest restaurants and nightclubs. The story described Smoking Speakeasies, where if you’re rich or famous enough, you can puff away with impunity. Shannen Dougherty, for example, was seen puffing away, (“ashing” is the new verb […]
The First Snow Puts a Nice White Cover on the World
We woke up in Holyoke with a lovely white covering to all that we saw out the window. Two giant woodpeckers were gnawing at the suet feeder, and I had to go downstairs to the basement to catch up on email and blog, due to wireless problems. I got a […]
More People Want to Work for the Gov’t…for Now
June Kronholz wrote in Thursday’s WSJ about how the country’s big problems have created a new cool place to work….the US Government. Could it be true that today’s brightest stars will be flocking to work for the Obama-led federal government? Well, so far more than 300,000 of the people on […]
Listening to Me Is Just As Fun As Reading…Isn’t It?
Here is a link to a radio show I did yesterday talking about Iran.
For God’s Sake Man, That’s Not a Post, It’s a Book!
Up early today, my favorite time of the day. It’s still dark and I sat downstairs, and got a chance to read Jim Neill’s “Under the Noho Dome,” blog where he said he was losing his blog mojo. Well, no wonder! He writes pages and pages for each update, and […]
Put This On Son
This guy was dressing up his son for some sort of parade. Or maybe they just work as a team as a way of collecting pesos. Medellin, Colombia
A Section of a new article on GoNOMAD
I like these two paragraphs from a new article I wrote. After a break for tea and cakes, we made our way back to the town square of Aran, where in the shadow of a giant mosque, lit up in bright lime green, we switched back to the comfortable modern […]
They Give Out Free Soccer Balls, Spread Joy in Africa
I love this idea. A man named Mike Mitchell has come up with a perfect way to make thousands of people’s lives better. He’s bringing 2000 soccer balls to give out to kids in Togo. Here’s how he explained it in a story in the SF Bay Area San Mateo […]
Hold Your Horn Up, Hold It Like a Man!
When I was in the Amsterdam airport yesterday, I bought a copy of the WSJ and read a review of a new book about learning to play one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra. The book is called “A Devil to Play,” by British journalist Jasper Rees. Writer […]
Iranians on the Plane Talk About Life in the US
I had a lot of fun sharing my trip to Iran with you, my devoted and beloved blog readers. I can’t think of anything that’s more fun than having good stories to share with friends and readers who will become friends some day. Hi Peter! On the plane I sat […]
The Sounds of Tehran and Sites Unseen
On my last day in Iran, I listened to the sounds emanating up from the street. The wail over loudspeakers of the call to prayer, a man singing in Farsi about Mohammed and about Allah.Even though the mosque where the speakers are is far way and I’m way up […]