Past Articles

I can’t think of anything I’d rather do right now than join my five pals and play some poker.  To people who don’t play, it’s hard to convey, but to those of us in my poker group, it’s a golden time for all. To a man, we all love the […]

Last night I joined a crowd of about 700 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke where four luminaries and a few institutions were recognized in the 2016 NEPR Arts and Humanities Awards. The sun came out on the terrace as the many guests mingled, and as usual, I found plenty […]

Every May, WFCR has held a gala event that honors members of the community in the Pioneer Valley who stand out for how they’ve helped foster the arts. The list of the 2016 recipients is impressive–Tracy Kidder, Maria Luisa Arroyo, Community Access to the Arts, and my all-time favorite movie theater, […]

It’s always a bit hard adjusting to the regular life after a week away.  One thing that’s always consistent about frequent travel is that it feels like I’ve been gone longer than I really have. In just one week, what really is new at home? Not that much. I always […]

Apoxyomenos is waiting for you at the top of a new four-story museum in Mali Losinj Croatia.  The former Kvarner Palace, once home to one of the town’s rich sea captains, is now a beautiful new museum showcasing one of the greatest treasures ever recovered from the sea. The town […]

Croatia is famous for sailing. With more than 2000 islands off its coast, this is a place that is full of yachts and sailboats with a thousand years of nautical heritage. Today we climbed aboard a 42′ sailboat owned by the Jadranka Corp, owners of the Hotel Bellevue, and explored […]

Croatia where you been all my life? For a moment there, I almost didn’t take this weeklong trip to Croatia to visit these six hotels who invited me so generously. Yes I have work to do. Yes both money and time away can be tight. But when it really comes […]

I’m up early at the Hotel Bellevue, my home for the week, in Mali Losinj, in Croatia’s Kvarner region, made up of five islands in the sparkling Adriatic sea.  Yesterday was blustery and cold, as a result of bora, the north wind that’s famous in the winter for injecting a […]

I am heading out today for a trip that starts in Boston, then NYC, then Venice. And then I will be joining several other US travel writers when we board a King Air private plane to fly from Venice over the Adriatic to the small island of Losinj, Croatia. We […]

I’m just back from a trip to Silicon Valley. When my friend Iliana picked me up in Mountain View, she was driving her Telsa Model S. I quickly learned that this is truly a car like no other.  Sleek, feature rich, thoughtfully designed, it’s like Apple made this car. And […]

After a long day that just ended at 8:45 pm, my head is full to bursting with so many interesting conversations after meetings with 35 tourism board representatives and dozens of fellow travel writers here at Canada Media Market in San Francisco. Of all the places I learned about today, […]

Tomorrow I’m flying west, to San Francisco, where I’ll meet with my good friends who together run the publicity and press relations for all of the Canadian provinces. It’s all hands on deck at Canada Media Market, where each year it alternates between New York or San Francisco.  Anyway, it’s […]

There’s a new book out about singer George Jones, and the story in the WSJ had an audacious headline: ‘George Jones Was as Good as Sinatra.’  WOW!  But in Ryan Cole’s review of the new Jones biography, “The Grand Tour” by Rich Kienzle, he makes a claim, and I’d have […]

I about to jump into a Google Plus hangout with a friend, Deb Thompson, a fellow website publisher who lives in Cadillac Michigan.  Working at home makes me enjoy setting up these ‘visits’ where we can both see each other on screen, and we can share ideas and complaints about […]

Helen Gould is a ‘Greenfield girl.” She told us that when we visited Gould’s Sugar House, 570 Mohawk Trail, Shelburne Falls….an institution if there ever was one, in New England tradition and pride.  They have had this farm since 1775, and have increased their acreage to the current 464 acres, […]

In a review of the new book about singer and soul man James Brown, “Kill ‘Em and Leave” by James McBride, the Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Carroll recalled many memories of the man many considered to be the true father of soul.  The book clarifies a misconception perpetrated by the […]