Lew French Knows Just Where the Stones Fit
This morning I learned about a man on Martha’s Vineyard named Lew French. He is a perfectionist, a tough taskmaster, and a wealthy artist…but he doesn’t do it for the money. He was profiled by the TV show Sunday Morning’s Steve Hartman. French fits stones together in an otherworldly way. […]
Tony Wheeler Goes to Iran and Loves It
It’s been a whirlwind of a few days, it’s nice to be back for just a brief spell at home base. Manhattan was the usual mix of exciting nightlife, people from the past, and potential trips that we’ll be writing about all next year. We were taken to a wonderful […]
Time to Taste Hungarian Wines in the Big Apple
Kent and I are ensconced at the Holiday Inn in Manhattan, just about to go meet some fellow travel writers and sample Hungarian wines. Tim Leffel, the owner of Perceptive Travel, extended this invite, and put it succinctly–“Kent, why don’t you join us and sip free wine instead of having […]
We Passed The Test–Now It’s Time to Bake!
We all passed the test. It was an important one, required by state law, and after studying all about food borne illnesses, temperatures for cooking chicken, and the different droppings that pests leave around the kitchen, my staff and I took and passed the Serv-Safe test last night. We celebrated […]
Grand Inga: Blessing or Curse for Congo?
I read with interest on the BBC News a sentence at the very end of an article about Zimbabwe, which was in the news today because they printed $200,000 bills, that buy, well, a sack of sugar. The intriguing part was a note about Grand Inga, where the world’s longest […]
The Holocaust Didn’t Exist–Because It Wasn’t In the Textbooks
A grey, windy day—a good day to sit in the window of the GoNOMAD Cafe and read the WSJ. Here I found a piece by Roya Hakakian about Iran and the Holocaust. The author has a visit from two young female medical students, and at dinner they tell her that […]
Promoting Deerfield Is a Snap–On the Web
Today I met with my state legislators. Actually, it was a comfortable working lunch at Chandler’s Tavern with Sen. Stan Rosenberg, Rep. Steve Kulik, and six other business people who shared a common interest–promoting tourism in Deerfield. Frankin County’s chamber of commerce was represented by Anne Hamilton, Yankee Candle, Historic […]
Puns that I Have Loved
The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.You feel stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.He often broke into song because he couldn’t find the key.Every calendar’s days are numbered.A lot of money is tainted – It […]
It’s Halloween–So It’s Time for the Hayride!
I love following traditions that are always the same, year after year. Last night we joined our neighbors in a Deerfield Halloween tradition that’s always fun–a hayride around the town in the back of farm wagons with kids in costume. Nathan was reluctantly dressed as an elephant. But he didn’t […]
‘All Rise for the Judge–In an Executioner’s Mask
Today was a day for public service. So I drove 48 minutes to ‘nearby Orange’ to appear on a district court jury. The day began after assembling in a room where a television played ‘Ellen’, and then a documentary about a visit to Egypt. And Luxor. Some of us brought […]
Google Phone Will Make Calls Free
Watch Out! Now even telcos have to fear Google. They’re getting into the phone business. A Google phone may just not cost anything–since the company’s method involves monetizing the screen on the handset with advertising, just like they do with search results. Free phones! They’ve been talking to LG and […]
Thanks to Wu, Something’s Being Done to Clean the Lake
China has recently astonished me with the levels of pollution found in the air, water and earth. As a regular international traveler, I haven’t ever tried that hard to go to China, because of the bad air and other hazards. Of course, I am sure there are places of great […]
Great Barrington’s a Great Place to Wake Up
It’s about time Fall arrived. This morning had the brisk air we’re used to in these parts. Cindy and I woke up at the Great Barrington Travel Lodge, after a wonderful dinner with old friends Kent and Lisa at the Castle St. Cafe. When I was making the reservation for […]
If You Have to Smoke a Last Cigarette, Make it a Chunghwa
Hugo Restall has taken up smoking. Those words are incredulous to me, in 2007, but true…he wrote a piece in today’s WSJ that was a deep appreciation for the finer things in life. Like Chinese-made Chunghwa cigarettes. “If smoking does put you on the road to early death, as some […]
Shoul’s Laughter Echoed off the Fjord’s Cliffs
Paul Shoul’s writing is a delight. That’s because he approaches it with the same zeal and enthusiasm that he uses to create wonderful photographs. I am going to be traveling with Shoul again in January, when we take a trip to Melbourne Australia. Here is a snip from his latest […]
Kim Jong Il’s Personal Railway Station and other Perks
Tonight I got another chance to enjoy the wonderful Boston Red Sox, who in their first game of the 2007 World Series crushed the vaunted, 21-game-streaking Colorado Rockies. Cindy surprised me by inviting two friends over to enjoy dinner and the game. Then I spent time with my laptop, since […]
Solar Is the Solution–We’ve Just Got to Get Inspired
On PBS tonight, the Nova episode about solar energy was both inspiring and frustrating. The inspiration is in the ideas, like Germany’s .50 price guarantee per kilowatt of electricity paid to anyone who puts up solar panels. That’s inspired an entire country of solar fanatics and even farmers who farm […]
He Rides That Bad Boy Like a Cart in the Target Parking Lot
Johnny Jet is the most intrepid and continual traveler I think I know. Well maybe he can’t beat GoNOMAD stalwart David Rich, who continously wanders the globe. But Johnny is always off somewhere. Here is a passage from his most recent missive about Cologne Germany, when he is walking through […]