In a few days I’m heading off to Norway. I will be joined by my photographer pal Paul Shoul and we will fly into Oslo then meet some interesting local people, so far we are still setting up visits to meet them. Whenever I travel I ask my hosts to […]
For ten years every Tuesday night, Harpo Power, the friendly patronne of the Harp in North Amherst, has stood up on a chair at 9 pm and begun asking trivia questions to a packed house. Teams of four and five people usually include “a science geek, someone young for the […]
I read a passage in a book that I’m reading that made me laugh out loud on the treadmill. It’s a book called The Big Rich, which chronicles the great fortunes made and lost by four famous Texas oil men. The first of the big rich to buy a serious […]
For sixty years on Saturday nights, a sound has roared out of the north side of Route 104 in Oswego, a city on Lake Ontario in Western New York. It’s the unmistakable growl of cars going fast around a track, the sound of a culture of racing, of generation […]
We are staying in a house where giant Lake Ontario forms the edge of our infinity pool. Out beyond the grassy yard, there is a sitting area built out of rocks, and steps have been created with the flat stones that line the bottom of the lake, leading down to […]
I remember in 2000 when I spent a summer living in the youth hostel on Martha’s Vineyard I met a young Brazilian woman there. “Where do you want to travel in the US?” I asked her. “The Great Lakes, I want to see those lakes,” she answered. At the time I […]
How do we create more jobs in the US? One way is to offer US citizenship to entrepreneurs from other countries to get them to start their companies here instead of in their home countries. Think about Sergey Brin, Jerry Wang, and the many other immigrants who started some of […]
Eric Suher had that same happy look on his face when he greeted me last night at Mountain Park, same as that first night two years ago when he opened this lovely outdoor venue with his first show. I think this venue is one that makes him smile since it’s […]
Arthur Przybyszewski is a blocked man. Ever since he split for Toronto in 1970, and heard his father’s last word to him…”Coward!” he’s been blocked, and no one, not his ex-wife, not his energetic young employee, not even a woman who wants him can draw him out. His father started […]
Friday night arrives 52 times a year and I am growing used to a familiar unpleasant sensation. Maybe this happens to you, too. As the clock ticks toward the end of the workday, I glance up, and think about whether I’ve made any plans. Something makes me feel as if […]
I’m reading a fun book called The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough, in which the fortunes of the men who created the Texas oil industry are chronicled. It’s a story of rise, then fall, fantastic tales of men who clawed their way into the business and again and again, lose […]
