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Last night I joined my German travel writer brethren and met with the sales manager of the local Hyatt. She piled up plate after plate of choice items from their menu, and my six fellow writers were glad that her boss speaks German and chatted them up. German readers love […]

I can’t think of a better way to see a city than from the seat of a bike.  I was met at my hotel by Nick Leoni, an enthusiastic member of the tourism board team here who immediately began talking about where we shouldeat, hey, we gotta get fueled up […]

More than one person here told me this week that it was 1848, not the more well-known 1849 that a gold discovery brought hundreds of thousands of men to this part of the world.  It was 98% men and just two percent women. In Sacramento we toured Fort Sutter, where […]

Sacramento is one of the most leafy cities I’ve ever visited. I was told that only Paris has more trees than this Sycamore bedecked city.  Street after street had huge Elm or Sycamores running their length, providing a green cover from the sun.  It is on one of these shady […]

We dined last night at Arnold’s favorite Italian joint, in an airy former garden center a few blocks from Sacramento’s Capital Dome.  There is even a photo on the wall of the governor, proclaiming Luccas as his own personal place when he’s in town, doing his governing thing. A man […]

Want to know a word that will haunt us in the next twenty years? Pensions.  Many don’t realize that public sector workers, from teachers, to firefighters to cops, have been promised far more in pensions than the rest of us, and now it’s bankrupting us. Mort Zuckerman wrote a piece […]

I haven’t been this ready for a trip in a long time. Usually the dates just push up against me;  all of a sudden it’s the night before and I freeze thinking about all of the stuff I’m supposed to get done. But with a slimmer travel schedule so far […]

Most people will admit that they are shy. Up to 95% of people admit to being shy in some situations. “Shyness is people walking around as if they are in front of a mirror all of the time,” explained Shyness Researcher Bernardo Carducci, in an article in today’s WSJ. The story […]

At the supermarket today, I got to thinking about how different some stores are than others. It has to do with the age of the people who work there, and how many of them there are.  I was at family-owned Fosters Market in Greenfield.  When I went to ask the […]

“CHINA 1926 . . . Ravaged from within by corrupt warlords . . . oppressed from without by the great world powers who had beaten China to her knees a century before . . . China . . . a country of factions trying to unite to become a nation […]

I began the day with a recap of last night’s very successful firepit launch at Cindy’s. The primeval attraction to a fire at night is spreading; more and more of my friends are discovering the joy of sitting by a backyard fire.  We created an impromptu patio to rest the […]

Finally it’s a spring morning that feels like, well, spring!  It’s been the usual cruel spring in New England, barely getting warm and with real sunshine only briefly popping up.  But it’s always like this, I should remember.  Last night we met in Northampton; the city was so busy at […]