Past Articles

“Preach to the choir,” my wonderful girlfriend Cindy always says. “Don’t bother with those who don’t support you, or criticize or suspect you…talk and focus on the ones who understand you, want to help you succeed, and believe that you can help them.” I love her succinct approach and her […]

Reading Poynter.org today a story linked to this ad for a new website in LA, looking for writers, who want the experience of writing, with a blog-like attitude. “You’re a journalist. You write about Los Angeles – the live, crackling energy of its politics and people and media and neighborhoods. […]

A drizzly, rainy day in South Deerfield, and not many folks are coming in for coffee today. Funny you would think they would need the caffeine more on a day like this, but even the women at the bank said that nobody was coming in and they felt like taking […]

Today’s NY Times included this passage about how the food tasters at Trader Joe’s decide on what to buy for the store. “The pasta buyer had boiled up six different Italian brands of whole-grain pasta and tossed them in plain olive oil. The group fell silent and began chewing intently. […]

Dr. Wafa Sultan said the world’s Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence. Her story was told in today’s NY Times. She has been threatened by clericswho don’t like what she says about Islam. “Dr. Sultan said the world was […]

CBS is putting the first three rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament on the web for free. They used to charge $19.95, but they figured they could put ads on the site to pay for it. Today’s Boston Herald had the story. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas projects the […]

Saturday morning, I awoke from a somewhat fitful sleep. I had to be at the cafe to open at 6:30 am. I thought about the coffee that awaited…the strong stuff, the kind that really wakes you up. GoNOMAD blend to the rescue! It is my new employee Dianne Suller’s first […]

Jason Lee Miller writes in today’s Web Pro News about big, big news, in science. “M.I.T. just announced a battery breakthrough. Successfully scaling down technology in development over the past 40 years, the crew at M.I.T has put together what they call “the first technologically significant and economically viable alternative […]

Ralph Ranalli writes in today’s Boston Globe about a chilling story to be told on 60 Minutes this Sunday. “A former top lieutenant to South Boston crime boss James ”Whitey” Bulger said he had Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr in the sights of a high-powered rifle but didn’t shoot because […]

In the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, the local paper has a dilemma: if they publish the story about the drug cartel’s murders, they will be killed. So they buried the story deep into the paper, hoping to get away with a lower profile and perhaps be spared the […]

Sitting in the cafe today, I met a man who lives across the street. “Right over there, he said, in that yellow building, up on the second floor.” He just bought a new laptop, our head tech at Computer Cleaners Joe Obeng helped him pick it out. “You know he […]

Wow. That is what it is like to own a cafe. Wow, I can’t believe all of the details that go into this. Wow, people really like the place, they come in with smiles on their faces and say “this is a really nice cafe.” I have never worked this […]

The cafe business is much harder than it looks. As I sit here on our first official day, I was pleased to see some of the same people who came by when we were giving away the coffee free. Good sign, they will pay for this. We also saw a […]

Today is the big day, and because of this, I cannot sleep. I spent all afternoon and most of the evening working at the new cafe, it feels like there is so much more to do that it will never be done. Buying things, making signs, creating flyers, figuring out […]

The plane ride was long, so there were more movies on Virgin last night. The second feature was made from a Steve Martin novella, The Shop Girl. Once again it was a case of characters developing, changing, and moving forward in their lives that made this movie poignant and delightful. […]

My flight from London was a cinematic delight. My first choice was The Weatherman, a film I had just read about on the previous flight. The film is about a Chicago weatherman who is pitiful in spite of his big salary…because he gets no respect. Passersby throw milkshakes and fast […]

On our last night in Cyprus, we went to the center of Limossos to a tavern on a sidesteet, during tonight’s carnival. That is the time when people dress up in costumes and party later than usual, in honor of the festival preceeding Easter. We squeezed into a corner table […]

Blogging every day is what I shoot for on my journeys, but it isn’t as easy as it sounds. We stayed at a five-star hotel with the swankiest ocean view rooms and marble everything, but the only link to my beloved ‘Net was one slow dial up computer with a […]