Things You Can Find in Texas that We Don’t Have in Mass.
Texas is bigger and badder than my creaky little old state of Massachusetts. Here are just some of the things that I found down here in Plano that I’ve never seen in the Bay State. Well, at least not in the Happy Valley. * Mega churches: We passed a gigantic […]
Balloons in Plano Are Grounded by Winds, Yet the Glow Goes On
“One, Two, Three, Four, Five…BURN!” shouted the radio DJ, and all of sudden the skyline was illuminated with the fiery glow of a dozen hot air balloons aglow in the Texas sky. The crowd up on the hill crackled with camera flashes, cheers went up, and as each balloon randomly […]
Seasons 52 in Plano: Counting Calories Deliciously
I’m up at the crack of madness this morning, since the goal is to catch the sunrise from aloft in a hot air balloon. Yesterday I flew here to Plano, Texas, and saw that the ground was mostly brown from the window of the packed plane. After just a few […]
Croatia Shows the World How to Bring in Tourists
After a relaxing night of sleep in my own comfy bed, Croatia keeps bobbing back up in my mind. What it like there? One thing that again and again you think of is how old and how new the country is. There was no country of Croatia until 1991, when […]
John Bell: Managing Crises Around the Globe
At the end of the conference on tourism and the media, British travel writer and BBC TV host John Bell gave the closing speech. He ended it with good advice, paraphrasing JFK, when he said, ‘tourism boards, ask not what the media can do for you, ask what you can […]
Sitting with a Bevy of Beauties Hearing About Tourism’s Promise
Last night was the official opening dinner of the World Tourism Organization conference in Zagreb, and I found myself seated with a bevy of beauties representing the world. Next to me was Zivile Vaskyte, who is the one person who handles the media for the Republic of Lithuania’s state department […]
Zagreb: You Learn a Lot at a Tableful of Journalists
Today I met a group of journalists who are all here to attend the World Tourism Organization conference. As usual, there was pomp and circumstance, such as when Croatia’s Minister of Tourism glad handed his way through the crowd. The men in suits were all glad to see one another, […]
In New Zagreb, We Slid Out of the Museum and Enjoyed Golden Bear Beer
Our destination on this sunny Sunday morning was New Zagreb, a part of the city developed after the war. We pedaled by a statue of a former mayor of the socialist times, walking through a doorway, symbolizing leaving the old to the new area of the city, which as all […]
Zagreb: A City of Cafes and the Highest of Heels
We landed at the Zagreb airport and just as I got outside, we walked through a grove of oak trees, a shady oasis right next to the small terminal. This city of about 800,000 is full of shady trees, and smells better than any metropolis I can remember visiting. It’s […]
Tonight I’ll Fly to Zagreb, Croatia and Share It With You!
We are going on a trip, dear readers, so come along with me and I’ll show you a country I’ve never set foot in. Tonight I’ll fly from Boston to Munich, then another short flight to Zagreb, Croatia. The reason I’m going is to attend a conference about tourism and […]
Whatever Happened to the Golden Boy?
Up on my office wall, I have a copy of an old newspaper article from the Portland Evening Express that was written about me in 1982. Wow, that was so long ago, yet when I think back on the day that story came out, it doesn’t feel like it was […]
Lost in the Wilds of Northfield and Rescued by a Farmer
We drove up to Erving this morning, planning on a hike on the M&M trail, a long one that bisects the state en route to Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. We found a place for eight cars to park, and took a quick look at the trail map before heading […]
Marco Benevento Bends the Sounds…Is that a Led Zeppelin Song?
The scene was what you might see in Greenwich Village: a cool cat playing experimental music and using a bunch of different machines to create ambience and alternative sounds while he pounded on the grand piano….all while playing a hit song by Led Zeppelin. Last night Marco Benevento played the […]
Storage Wars Unlocked Brings the Players Together in Vegas
Reality TV sure knows how to satisfy. Networks like A&E come up with compelling shows that are simple and hard not to watch, then they program an entire night worth of shows, one after another, to give the viewers exactly what they want. And last night, the producers threw in […]
The Art of Fielding: How to Publish a Great Novel and Still Lose Money
Last week in the Gazette, I read a story about some local authors who have discovered self publishing, and are now proud to be offering their printed words without the familiar middle men of agent, publisher and bookstores. Yet the truth is, these authors, no matter how esteemed, will be […]
The D2R2 Brings Nearly 1000 to Deerfield for a Long Ride and More
Every August, nearly a thousand bike riders make a bee line for Deerfield, where they take part in what is considered to be one of the best distance bike rides in the Northeast. It’s the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee, known by its shorter name D2R2. The course winds up through […]
Remember Today, the Calm Before the Storm
There are some moments in life when you feel as if you’re seeing a sign, seeing the future, and yet the future hasn’t happened yet. I remember hearing a short news snippet on the just-born radio station WRSI when I lived in Greenfield. It was Sherie, the DJ, talking about […]
Norway in a Nutshell: Across the Country by Train Bus and Ferry
It’s called “Norway in a Nutshell,” and it’s a way to see a whole lot of this vast country in one very long day. We began our journey in the seaside city of Bergen, taking a train to the hiking center of Voss. Then we boarded a bus to drive […]