God I Wish I Didn’t Resemble a Terrorist Sympathizer
“The first time it happened was in 2002. A friend saw a picture of former University of South Florida professor and alleged terrorism supporter Sami Al-Arian and did a double take because he thought it was me. He thought the resemblance was funny. I didn’t.” Bob Andelman, left, writes in […]
Emily and Sarah Pass the Torch to Kristi
Interns are one of the best parts about GoNOMAD. We meet so many great young women from UMass who end up working with us as interns. We have had Sarah and Emily this spring they will be done in May. Emily is traveling to Mexico to do a story about […]
Newsmagazines: The Un-Blogs of Our Time
Karen Breslau, San Francisco Bureau Chief, Newsweek, spoke with Journalism Jobs about blogs and newsweeklies today. JournalismJobs.com: How does a weekly news magazine stay relevant in this up-to-the-minute news world? Karen Breslau: Just because people are pelted with information from morning until night, they haven’t lost the basic human hunger […]
Chatting Up Bernie: Atkins is Coming to S. Deerfield!
Bernie is the Town Manager of Deerfield, and I popped into his office today when I was at Town Hall to pay my tax bill. He had some blockbuster news, among the many things he told me: ATKINS is coming to South Deerfield! This is major, major, we have always […]
Shun Piking our Way Down From Vermont
During our long drive back from northern Vermont, we chose to ‘shun pike,’ or take the small roads that wind along the rivers, farm fields, and little towns. We stopped at Royalston, where there was a large town square, and a row of little shops and cafes. What a picture […]
Moe and Kitty–Class Act for 50 Years
Last night we drove up to Barre Vermont for a very special night–it was the 50th anniversary dinner, long planned, of Maurice and Kitty Bigras. I thought I was going to speak, be called upon to read one of my famous speeches…but that moment never came. I wrote some notes, […]
A Regal Launch Party in Amherst
We went to the Advocate’s Preview Massachusetts party, me all dolled up in a tie and Cindy in a very cute black dress. Her hair was curled and I had on a khaki suit I hadn’t worn in years. Remarkably, it fit me well, and the color was right for […]
Net Neutrality is Worth Preserving!
Telecoms, like AT&T and Verizon, want to create a two-tiered Internet where customers and content providers can be charged for premium content delivery at higher speeds and quality than other content. The harshest critics believe that ability will give ISPs the ability to block, slow, or degrade content unfavorable to […]
Metalica Decreed: Let’s Get Jobs!
Next month a new movie by Bruce Geisler about Michael Metalica premiers. I remember attending a rock concert in 1975 at their Gill commune, at the time I was a student at Northfield Mount Hermon. It was a true commune, at their peak 350 residents called it their home. In […]
Fun Facts from Wired
When I was young, I was a serious lad. I used walk up to my dad and tell him fun facts. That’s what he used to call them, ‘fun to know and tell,’ we’d say. I just got this month’s Wired. Full of such treats. There is a new Finnish […]
Fox News Gets Ratings but Not the Big Bucks
It’s Fox News Channel’s 10th anniversary this October. But the cable network doesn’t want a diamond bauble to commemorate the occasion. It wants cold, hard cash — and plenty of it. Today’s Wall Street Journal had the story. Fox News executives well remember their early days, when the channel got […]
Airline Sardine Can Planes Adding Seats
Today’s NY Times included this story about how airlines are figuring out ways to fit more bodies into their planes. “One of the first to use the thinner seats in coach was American Airlines, which refitted its economy-class section seven years ago. “Those seats were indeed thinner than the ones […]
Frank Deford, Stand Up Sports Guy
As it happened, the year Frank Deford joined Sports Illustrated was the year it finally became profitable. Sports, too, took off as never before: TV networks began vying for games, the National Football League and National Basketball Association blossomed. “I was suddenly valuable!” Deford says in that booming, gruff voice […]
The Lure of the Alaska Pipeline
Oil companies ordered 3 million tons of pipe in 1969. This was before they had even completed the drawings for the Alaska pipeline. The route from Prudhoe Bay at the top of the state, down the entire width of Alaska to the port of Valdez, where the water wasn’t frozen. […]
Traveling the Sahel with Jeffrey Tayler
Jeffrey Tayler wrote a compelling book I am now reading called Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel. I have waited months to read this, I devoured his other book about a trip down the Congo river, and I finally found this at my son’s […]
Meeting Olga, Ben and Mark at a Pelham Party
At a party on Saturday night in Pelham Manor, NY, I met several interesting people. They had gathered to celebrate our friend Tom’s 50th. First was Mark, a 53-year-old Englishman who looked no older than 35, who said he was a retired musician. I later found out that he had […]
Turning Fifty, Hawaiian Style
We are off to New York tonight for a Fiftieth Birthday celebration. That seems to be the year that people decide is a big party year, rarely do we celebrate 60, and 30 isn’t that big a deal either. Tom Bricker turned 50, so it’s time to go to a […]
Spotting a Moose….or Did We?
Today we drove up to Greenfield to scout out a location for my daughter Kate’s wedding in July. The White Eagle Society’s Polish Picnic Grounds looked like the perfect spot. A big pavillion, acres of grass, tables, a huge barbecue pit and a nearby river. It will be great in […]