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I took a trip back in time last night–it was the 1930s and the huge cast of Arthur Miller’s “The American Clock” sang and spoke in the manner of this faraway decade when the country faced the Great Depression. The show continues Saturday night June 2 at the Ashfield Town […]

While the world may be going to hell, last night inside the warm confines of the packed Calvin Theater, all was well–not just well, but jumping up and down fantastic. Michael Franti brought a love for his audience right down front, up into the balcony, and dragged dozens of his […]

“What is a closing like?” my daughter asked me. Today she and Francisco have their momentous occasion, when they sign the papers to take over a new house from the bank. It’s a seminal moment in every young couple’s life; but it doesn’t seem as common as it once was. […]

If I were a sporting goods store that sold kayaks, I’d try to get as many people to borrow them and take them out for an afternoon as I could. I guarantee most people would return them and then want to own one for themselves.  Today we borrowed a friend’s […]

Like many of us, your mother probably told you when you were young that you should go outside and get some fresh air. This wisdom was proven true recently with a study by psychologist Ruth Ann Atchley at the University of Kansas, as reported in Saturday’s WSJ. They studied the […]

A big benefit of being able to return to the gym after my foot got better was once again spending time reading while working out. One book I’ve been enjoying is Ian Frazier’s Travels in Siberia. In a chapter where he visits Siberia via a quick flight from Nome, Alaska, […]

In Italy it’s no longer much fun to drive a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. That’s because the police are now regularly stopping these sleek cars and forcing their drivers to show if they’ve paid income taxes. Surprise, surprise, many of these cool cat drivers have been opting to sell the […]

Our lives are made up of transitions and eras. The other day as I contemplated my new life here at my house without my housemate family of seven years, Mary and I discussed an idea of taking down a wall and opening up this 1920s house into a more modern […]

Change can be scary, and then again, sometimes it can feel like surfing down a big glorious wave. A few things that happened over the past few weeks convinced me of this. GoNOMAD publishes a line of travel ebooks called Plane Readers. We started the project last April, and now […]

James Irwin answered a question to a post on Reddit.com a few years ago. It would change his life. The question, explained in a story in Wired Magazine asked how a group of US Marines would do if they were taken back to ancient Rome and had to do battle […]

There is no substitute for visiting someone and talking to them face to face. I often think about this after a satisfying lunch meeting, or a few drinks with a friend, or a romantic rendezvous with my partner. That despite all of our interconnectedness, despite now much we get to […]

After a bruising fight during the past year against Amazon, officials from Macy’s realized they needed more warehouses to ship their on-line purchases from. Then it hit them. They’ve got 800 buildings, far more than Amazon will ever have, so why not use them? Now a new move to build […]