World Hum Rejects Me–with Class
I got a nice rejection letter from my friend Jim Benning who runs World Hum, an interesting travel website based in California. I have been interested in Jim because earlier this year the website was acquired by the Travel Channel. I remember talking with him about his business a few […]
The Idea of Free Wireless is Great–Just not for Real
Today’s WSJ had a story with the gloomy headline: Free Wi-Fi Still An Elusive Goal. The story told of how difficult it has been to roll out and ‘monetize’ the envisioned beltway of free wireless connections on every town square and across miles and miles of the US. At one […]
Pissing People Off Every Day on Readuponit
I am constantly amazed at how mad I make people with this blog. Who knew that words I peck here reach so far and wide…but they do. So you will just have to guess which blog got somebody so steamed up I had to remove it. No, don’t try to […]
Women Who Make Big Bucks Beef About Poor Boyfriends
I went out and bought the ridiculously expensive Sunday NY Times for the cafe. $5.00?! Come on! But inside, as usual, was a bunch of first-rate articles including a feature on why women who make big bucks have such a hard time finding dates. Subtitled “young women discover the pitfalls […]
A Soft Fall Evening in the City that Springfield Wants to Be
Saturday morning at the cafe. We went down to the city last night and the deck at the Depot was glorious. It had that soft easy early fall feeling, just the right temp and perfect time to meet my lovely lady for a glass of wine. We’re pleased to have […]
A Fine Man Speaks His "Last Lecture"
We both felt wobbly Cindy and I, after we read in the WSJ about Professor Randy Pausch,45, and his graceful grip on his exit from this world. Diagnosed with deadly pancreatic cancer, he strode up to the lectern at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver his final thoughts. The last words, […]
The Sober Buddy Doesn’t Come Cheap
Nikki Finke is a toughie and a funny writer. She writes about Hollywood with a scorched keyboard in LA Weekly. She pointed out a new trend in LA that’s bubbling up to the mainstream. “Hollywood is now indulging in a different kind of rehab substitute. It’s intense and round the […]
‘Don’t Tase Me Bro’ Guy Loves Controversy
Popping around the ‘net on Monday night, I met the tasered guy named Andrew Meyer. He was questioning the very boring Sen. John Kerry at a Florida speech and they asked him to leave. He refused and was famously tasered, and of course the videotape is on YouTUbe with the […]
One Girl for Every 1.23 Boys…China’s Time Bomb
Nicholas Eberstadt writes an op-ed piece in today’s WSJ that highlights a striking problem with man messing around with nature. He weighs in the China’s One Child Policy, that since 1979 has created a juggernaut of population make-up problems and caused something that has never happened before. Now there are […]
Diluting Concentrated Poverty Worked in Atlanta
Sitting in the cafe on a gorgeous fall day…wishing more people had come in today. Oh well. I read in a column in the Republican by Leonard Pitts…the story began with a horror show and ended with a lesson in how things can change for the better. He describes a […]
The Blackest Pasta You’ve Ever Loved
The ultimate seafood pasta is made with squid ink and infused with chunks of calimari. We ate this in Portoferraro, our last meal in a ‘housewive’s cafe’ on the enchanting island of Elba. Since I’ve returned I’ve been talking up the place and can’t wait to go on Arthur’s Around […]
Back in ’87, They Feared the Fax Machine
David Callaway, the editor in chief of Marketwatch, recalled his early days at the Boston Herald when in 1987, everyone thought that newspapers were endangered–because people would get their news over the fax machine. But as a survivor and a business reporter, he discusses the transition and what it has […]
Roast Chicken for a Day at the Beach in Elba
For a day at the beach, we needed sustenance and for this we turned to this man in a truck who offered rotisserie chickens and fried potatoes in Marciana Marina, on the island of Elba. We drove to the far south and enjoyed a classic beach day, sharing our delicious […]
To Cavoli, for an Italian Beach Day on Elba
Today was the classic Italian beach day. But first it was time to visit the market in Marciana Marina. A typical Italian weekly market, with the usual stuff–clothing, shoes, kitchen stuff and one highlight–rotisserie chicken. We had asked our guide Tatiana her favorite place for lunch and she steered us […]
Visiting the Site of Napoleon’s Trysts
We took a long walk this morning up to the top of Madonna del Monte, the tallest peak on Elba. There is a chairlift that brings people up, but we took the path that is marked by 14 little white stone domes–stations with pictures of Jesus that look like phone […]
Espresso, Tuscany Style
Here is a perfect cup of espresso. Note the thick ‘crema’ that’s what baristas the world over try to achieve. I drank one of these at about 7 pm one night last week and regretted it, as I tossed and turned ’til 4 am. Never again, at least at that […]
One of Elba’s Best Citizens Does God’s Work in Kenya
Some of the best moments on our trips are the times we arrange to meet ‘interesting local people’ and learn about fascinating work that is being done in the very place we are visiting. We had an eye-opening visit in Roberta Adami’s home this afternoon in the tiny village of […]