A Swimmer’s Journey Ends in Happiness
Yesterday’s New York Times included a story that looked back on the great athletes from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Among the people profiled was a swimmer who said that she always wanted to be in the Olympics ever since she first felt the water in a pool at […]
Tim Russert Was a Mensch Who Will Be Missed
It’s Sunday morning and Cindy and I sit facing each other on our laptops. We both have thought a lot about the passing of Tim Russert, a man who I met once on Nantucket and found to be charming and fun. We were in the Westender in Madaket, and it […]
Bikeways and Railroads Get Well-Deserved Funds
I read two pieces of good news yesterday and today that brighten my spirits. First was a story in the Wall St. Journal that said Amtrak will be given double the funding from previous years, and that Congress has just voted in a lopsided YEA to support spending much more […]
Radio is Much More Fun in Person
It was a nice to get back on the radio today, I got up early to join Advocate editor Tom Vannah on his morning show on WHMP-AM. Usually I do these shows over the phone, but there is something fun about donning the headphones, listening to his cue, following the […]
Instinct, Written in 1973 by Max Hartshorne
I was clearing out old piles of stuff and found a story that I wrote when I was in ninth grade. I liked it then and I like it now. I’d love to know what you think about it. InstinctThe tires of his Franklin spun along the hot, shimmering road […]
As A Storm Brews Up Men Bellow at the TV
Last night I beheld a spectacular show in the midst of watching the NBA finals. I was in a room with seven men, cheering raucously, in that wonderful let-it-all-hang-out way that only men in a room with no women can be, every point a raft of raised fists, cheers and […]
The Blackout Tells The Story of the Other Side
Last night in the swelter of the heat wave, it was refreshing to watch another heatwave unfold on the TV. Francisco and I watched “Blackout,” a movie about the 2003 power outage and how it unfolded in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. One telltale scene was when the radio broadcast how […]
Tsunami Wrecks Islands, Then Lower Class Tourists Do The Same
Today’s WSJ has a story datelined Fort Blair, Andaman and Nicobar islands. These islands rang a bell because after the Asian tsunami of 2004, we had to go in and make a lot of changes to the feature story we had up about this destination on GoNOMAD. They were wrecked, […]
Cousin Chris Makes Electricity from the Sun
We’re just back from a family party where the star attraction was a sleek set of photovoltaic cells perched atop a makeshift llama barn. My cousin Chris celebrated his birthday with a gathering of sisters, cousins, uncles and friends, and in the New Jersey June swelter, we ambled amidst the […]
When You Lose Your Latin Workers, the Burmese Step In
Despite the downturn in the economy, there are still many jobs that go begging. That’s why meat packer JBS Swift last year set up a war room with maps showing concentric circles of where people might possibly live who would consider working at the big meat plant. The idea at […]
The Rat Pack Opened the Doors for Blacks in Vegas
I watch the television news each morning that I wake up in South Deerfield, since I’ve installed one of those racks that holds the TV way up on the wall like in a hospital room. My ritual is to flip it on and catch some scenes of news or turn […]
Big Newspaper, Big Internet Flop
I remember a boss once when I sold newsaper ads whose claim to fame was his long association with the Washington Post. His name was Don, and he used to come into work very early, and always wore beautifully pressed dress shirts and shiny leather shoes. He came from that […]
Why Can’t We?
I am back, running on all cylinders, having some fun doing what I do when I am working in my South Deerfield office. The trip to Tours in France energized my writing, making it easier to write and let it flow. That always makes for a better story, that flow. […]
France’s Secret Garden Isn’t Just for Cheaters
While we were finishing dinner during one of the stops this week, a French guide told me that her kid’s German teacher was sitting over on the other side of the restaurant with his mistress. She knew him because her husband is a doctor, and he’s treating the man’s parents […]
Another Market, Where You Find Les bons Vivants
I’m back from a different market, this one located just east of the train station, a quick walk from Madame Barnard’s apartment. She had a family joining us last night, and at breakfast they sat in the sunny porch and had their coffee while their two young sons chattered in […]
The Makings of Dinner for One
At Les Halles, the indoor and outdoor market in Tours, I asked this friendly produce vendor why her strawberries were so much redder and juicier than the ones across the aisle, which barely looked red, let alone ripe. “It’s because they are, vendres, and we are the growers,” she explained. […]
In 2008 France, The Flat Rules
I’ve discovered that French shoe fashion doesn’t follow what most women in America prefer. I first noticed this when I saw a women wearing ballet slippers. These women at my cooking school all agreed–the flat rules. No chunky heels here, no big high clogs or high heeled sneakers. I had […]
Ahh, the Delicate and Fussy Macaron
I’d never given much thought to how one of France’s most famous cookies was made. Macarons, they’re called. Today I got an up-close look at how these delicious little sandwich cookies are made, when I joined ten French women for a baking class at tours a Table, owned by a […]