The cafe expansion is expanding people’s minds as our physical space has grown. It feels like now you can come inside and stretch your hands out by your sides and not still not feel crowded. Space, it seems, is good. I visited with my friends, brothers Darren and Sean Pierce, […]
The Nigerian Times had a story about the value of speaking more than one language tonight. “A fast-thinking pilot, with the help of passengers, fooled a gunman who had hijacked a jetliner flying from Africa to the Canary Islands, braking hard upon landing then quickly accelerating to knock the man […]
Joe O’Rourke and I used to enjoy reading Bob Garfield’s ad reviews in Advertising Age when we both worked in ad sales at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Here is Garfield’s review of a new ad campaign. “Millions of Americans are intimidated or overwhelmed by this annual [tax prep] chore, and […]
Johannes Brongers wants to help. So he’s going to Afghanistan to do his job in a far less tranquil environment. In June, he leaves with his wife Janet to live in Kabul and help run the American University in Afghanistan. There are only 58 students now, they hope to expand […]
I was pleased to read a draft of new GoNOMAD blogger Paul Shoul’s story about his trip to Boise. I was even more pleased when I saw his collection of photos, which, as usual, are stunning and fit right in with his text. Shoul understands the tone and tenor of […]
Tonight as I sit here in my big chair my feet ache. I’ve been working very hard at the cafe all day, and we’ve got encouraging results to show for our labors. This morning, as the wind whipped the snow around, I hired a young man from the neighborhood named […]
I have enjoyed blogging immensely since I first began more than 1414 posts ago in November 2004. Kent quickly followed suit, after reading mine and seeing how much fun I was having, in January 2005, Be Our Guest joined the GoNOMAD blog team. Then about six months later, my associate […]
It is nice waking up in the cold winter morning and reading some good news about Africa in the NY Times. “Recent studies of vegetation patterns, based on detailed satellite images and on-the-ground inventories of trees, have found that Niger, a place of persistent hunger and deprivation, has recently added […]
Snow fell in tiny flakes when I woke up this morning, gearing up for an early shift at the cafe. We’ve been busy planning the next phase of the cafe…making the whole place bigger and opening up so we can add more tables. Georgi from the restaurant next door came […]
The Christian Science Monitor ran a story recently about how Google’s hidden payroll called Adsense helps out both middle class Americans and especially, the poor around the world. “But it is Web entrepreneurs in the developing world who are reaping the greatest benefit from the program. Because Adsense earnings can […]
This morning I decided to open the cafe to just Cindy and me. Despite a regular customer who popped by wanting a coffee, “Sorry, we’re closed,” we have the cozy cafe all to ourselves, and we made omelettes, read the NY Times and enjoyed lattes and good music from the […]
Today’s Wall St. Journal included more evidence that yes, Wal-Mart is going green. This might be window dressing for the behemoth corporation that faces bad press over wages, but I think this is the beginning of a paradigm shift in how people view the environment. In a speech in London, […]