At 8, I Wanted to Be Maxwell Smart
When I was eight, I decided that I wanted to change my name to Max. The reason was simple: I wanted to be like Agent Maxwell Smart, of the Get Smart TV Series in the late ’60s. My namesake passed away today, here are some memories of Don Adams, by […]
Are We There Yet? Taking My Parents to Italy
\ We just put up a new story about our trip to Le Marche on GoNOMAD.com. It was a wonderful time, we learned a lot and enjoyed the most beautiful surroundings and savory food we could imagine.
Bush’s Favorite TV Show Won’t Be On
A Hollywood producer has been charged after allegedly taking $5.5m (£3.3m) from investors for a TV drama he said was backed by US President George Bush. The US attorney’s office alleges Joseph Medawar, 43, collected money from investors for two years but spent the majority of it on himself. It […]
DeLorean Believed His Own Myth
Charles McGrath writes in the NY Times today about an automotive icon. “With the possible exception of Lee Iacocca, John DeLorean was the most colorful car man ever to emerge from corporate Detroit, and though no one knew it then, he was also the beginning of the end of carmaking […]
Saying Goodbye to Cocktails
I visited my doctor recently and he told me the results of tests that I had done about a year ago. Inexplicably, I had not gotten the message to come in for a follow-up, so this year-old news was news to me. He said that my liver was stressed out […]
The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Bellyflop
National Journal’s William Powers skewers Dow Jones’ newest edition…their much touted Weekend Journal. “Deep breath, and here goes: I love The Wall Street Journal. Love the archaic text-heavy look; the little hand-done portraits of story subjects (“hedcuts,” to the trade); the What’s News column; the formulaic yet delightful front-page features […]
What Makes Ariana Run
Adam Penenberg of Wired News provided details about Ariana Huffington’s blog, one of the fastest successes ever that was panned by many at its inception. “In its first month, The Huffington Post started out with more than 700,000 visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. By inking deals with AOL, Tribune Media Services […]
Google is Thinking Big. Really Big.
The latest buzz is about a big, big idea that will be coming out of Google in the coming months. They are planning a new internet. Here is what Om Malik wrote in Business2.com today. “What if Google wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if […]
Meg Sanders’ Ride Is Sadly Over
Meg Sanders loved to ride, and died on her bike this week in Northampton, MA. The sad story was featured in the Daily Hampshire Gazette today. Reading details of her 23-year long life, you sense that this young women truly cared about the world and worked hard to make it […]
Doing Talk Radio in Portland on Saturday
This Saturday at 8 am Pacific time, we’ll be on the Azumano Travel radio show, on NewsTalk 860 KPAM-AM in Portland. We talked with the host Pat Boyle about GoNOMAD’s brand of adventurous, participatory alternative travel. We told Pat about the latest stories we’ve posted, such as Keswick, in England’s […]
Musharraf Denies What’s On Tape about Rape
Last Monday I enjoyed sitting in a cafe on Pleasant St. in Northampton MA and reading the Boston Globe. Too often coffee comes in takeaway cups, it was so much more civilized to read the paper and look at folks coming into the cafe. I read about Pakistan’s General Pervez […]
The Blogging Biz: It’s Not a Zero Sum Game
Uber Blogger Nick Denton threw a party at his SOHO loft. Denton, the man behind Gawker Media, a chain of large blogs that get a lot of mainstream press, impressed the west coasters and the buttoned down media with the copious cocktails and the swish hors d’oeuvres. Arianna Huffington reported […]
Filming My Entrance on a Scooter
This morning I drove to work on my yellow motorscooter while being filmed for WGBY, Springfield’s public TV station. It was for a segment of their home grown television series, “Making It Here,” that will air in January on Channel 57. It was a sunny morning, and Marla Zippay was […]
"I’ll Be Makin’ More than Dad Next Year!"
This is from a November 2004 profile in Fortune Magazine by Fred Vogelstein. You can bet all of the numbers are far higher now than ten months ago. Amazing! Jon Gales loves Google, but not for the reason you might think. It’s a terrific search engine, sure, but what Gales […]
You Can’t Always Get (the Change) You Want
Read a blog today about a traveling pair who went to Turkey. Below is their entry about Turkish money. “Two sets of money – Turkey is undergoing a change in currency. The old Lira was in millions. So if I buy a juice using the old money it comes to […]
You Can’t Ask Jeeves
Barry Diller has decided to let the butler go. He’s retiring this symbol of ‘Net Past, the Ask Jeeves cartoon character. The Street reports… “Jeeves is a reminder of the “playful, early days of the Internet,” said Rob Frankel, a Los Angles-based branding consultant. “A brand is not doing its […]
Jesse We Hardly Knew Ye
September’s Esquire included a profile of Jessie Jackson by John H. Richardson. “In the end, Jackson’s dilemma is like a curse in a fairy tale: Since he chose to base his power on fame, he’s perpetually compelled to chase fame. Yesterday he was in Florida, tomorrow he’ll be in Atlanta, […]