In 1919, after World War I, the army wanted to test out its fleet of vehicles to see what they needed to improve. They created a three-mile long caravan of trucks, jeeps and soldiers, plus a marching band, and set off across the US. The roads were ridiculously bed, and […]
The alarm on my phone began chirping after I was already out of bed, it was set for 5:20 am, but I always get up earlier when duty forces me to rise with the birds. Today I have a mission, to complete a process started nine months ago. I am […]
Serendipity brought me something on Facebook that turned into something by email that lead me last night to a group of musicians who play jazz in a Northampton apartment every Monday night. It was a Meet Up ,and I now realize that I have former Vermont Governor Howard Dean to […]
I picked up a book at Horizon Books in Traverse City. I was amazed to see that this bookstore cafe is open from 7 am til 11 pm Seven Days a Week. Wow! The book is about a city four and a half hours south, Detroit. And it’s clear from […]
We were touring up the Leelanau peninsula and looking for a place for lunch. Mike Norton, my local guide, said he had heard about a place with good food and a good reputation. When we got to Lake Leelanau, we swung into The Redheads, a cafe and food emporium run […]
I love discovering new places and today’s excursion onto the Leelanau peninsula outside of Traverse City, Michigan was a fascinating series of discoveries. I never knew about the vast fishery of the Great Lakes and that only native Americans are allowed to fish for chub, whitefish, lake trout and salmon […]
As a polar vortex comes barreling out of Canada toward the Midwest, that’s exactly where I am flying tomorrow morning, when I visit Traverse City Michigan for a four-day press visit. Why am I going to this northern Michigan city on the cusp of winter? Because Mike Norton invited me. […]
What a weekend! It was a nonstop fun fest from Friday until Sunday, when our three fantastic house guests my sisters Jenny Brown and Moo came for their annual visit. I have a hard time describing just what exactly it is–is it energy? Is it enthusiasm? Is it just this […]
I read a lot of news about business leaders and was quite surprised by these quotes that I read in the WSJ last week, from Rupert Murdoch and Hans Vestberg of Ericsson. Murdoch, the owner of the WSJ, was asked about mistakes the company has made, and they brought up […]
November first, now we’re really in the thick of the getting colder season. I have been spending as much time as I can sitting next to our woodstove, using the laptop instead of going downstairs to the cold basement office to the big computer. I’ve learned a bit about the […]
I love picking up local newspapers when I travel. Today I found a remarkable story in the Georgia Journal about meeting the father of the world’s most notorious terrorist, Omar al-Shishani, who was born Tarkhan Batirashvili in a small town of Birkiani in Pankisi, Georgia. Temur Batirashvili lamented in what […]
