Destination: Europe
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Skimpy Skirts and Thunderbolts
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.06 | 11:30 AM ET
There’s a hint of fear in the air, but, as always, we’re still hitting the road. This week the Zeitgeist leads to Paris, Dubai, Iowa, Mexico City and the most scenic toilet in the world. Let’s go.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japanese Tourists Succumb to “Paris Syndrome”
* I’ve seen a bit of coverage of this story this week, and the New York Post gets the best headline award: Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.
World’s Least Favorite Airline
TripAdvisor (survey)
Ryanair
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beyond Skimpy Skirts, a Rare Debate on Identity
* Hassan M. Fattah’s story explores the limits of multiculturalism in Dubai.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
* Two weeks in a row at the top for Bryson’s memoir of growing up in 1950s Iowa.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hotels Ditch Imposing Desks for Friendly ‘Pods’
* Three reasons why: To lure younger customers, to improve employee productivity and, of course, to increase revenue.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Farecast
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
Apple’s Gift to Travelers: Magsafe Airline Power Adapter
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzMaasbommel, Netherlands
by Ben Keene | 10.27.06 | 9:03 AM ET
Coordinates: 51 49 N 5 32 E
Approximate elevation: 13 feet (4 meters)
A certain preoccupation with water can be expected in a country located at the mouth of three major rivers and where roughly half of the total land area is at or below sea level. And when climate scientists talk of the very real possibility of oceans rising as a result of global warming, a concerned populace tends to start looking to the future with a pragmatic eye. Having overcome its low-lying geography for centuries, the Netherlands is preparing for another spate of damp difficulties by innovating an already sophisticated system of water management. Southeast of Amsterdam, for example, a Dutch construction firm has built several dozen amphibious homes in Maasbommel on the banks of the Maas River. In the event of flooding, these lightweight structures could rise up to 18 feet above their mooring posts to avoid damage.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
“The World According to Sesame Street”
by Michael Yessis | 10.25.06 | 9:15 AM ET
Nobody brings the world together like muppets. The new season of the PBS series Independent Lens debuts this week with the documentary The World According to Sesame Street, a look at how the TV show for kids has become a global phenomenon. Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd writes in a stellar review: “It runs in more than 120 countries, mostly in dubbed versions of the original, but in more and more places—beginning as far back as 1972, after an inquiry from Germany—it is being produced locally, retooled for the native audience, with new characters and settings reflecting native culture and concerns.” The documentary focuses on productions of “Sesame Street” in three countries places: Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Africa.
Japanese Tourists Succumb to ‘Paris Syndrome’
by Michael Yessis | 10.24.06 | 8:09 AM ET
Or, as the New York Post headline goes, “Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.” Funny headline for an amusing story—amusing, at least, for everyone but the Japanese travelers who get “Paris Syndrome.” The Post and Reuters, among others, are relaying a story from the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, which claims that “a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations.” Paris Syndrome was first reported in 2004 in a psychiatric journal. According to AA Gill, there is a cure. He writes in the Times: “The cure is called Rome, though there are side effects: it’s very addictive.”
A Tribute to London’s Speakers’ Corner
by Michael Yessis | 10.16.06 | 7:35 AM ET
In Sunday’s Washington Post, Mary Jordon has a terrific feature on Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner—one of the inspirations for World Hum’s feature of the same name. “Once a place where the condemned were hanged—and perhaps, some say, because they were given one last chance to say a few words—the northeast corner of Hyde Park has since the late 19th century been sacred ground for free speech,” she writes. “There are other noteworthy patches in the 350-acre park—the Nanny’s Lawn, the Lovers’ Walk—but it is only here near Marble Arch where the unsung, along with legends from Winston Churchill to Karl Marx, have come to have their say.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Triumph and Tragedy
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.06 | 8:02 AM ET
This week we’re paying tribute to literary feats, vintage air travel and the victims of tragedies in Moscow and New York. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
* Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday, and it sent his travel book to the top. No similar bump for Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones. After its nomination for a National Book Award, its Amazon ranking among travel books stands at No. 26.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Rick Steves’ Europe: Packing for Women
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
Fueling Desire
* The best story ever about jet fuel as travel aphrodisiac.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum
R.I.P. Anna Politkovskaya
Most Dugg World News Story
Digg (this week)
Aircraft Crashes into NYC Building
Most E-mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Cabbies, culture clash at Minn. airport
Traveler Buzz Video
Yahoo! Current Traveler (today)
Vintage Airline Commercials
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Pulled Pork, Pulled Corks in North Carolina
World’s Most Expensive Restaurant
Forbes (2006)
Aragawa, a steak house in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district
* The cost for one person to dine? $368. Yikes. Now, for the not-so-rich among us…
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
Best budget restaurant in Tokyo
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Kiel Canal, Germany
by Ben Keene | 10.13.06 | 6:38 AM ET
R.I.P. Anna Politkovskaya
by Frank Bures | 10.11.06 | 7:18 AM ET
A few years ago, I showed up at a small used book store in Portland, Oregon to hear a Russian journalist whose book A Dirty War had just come out. Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered last week, was a thin woman with short hair and a fearlessness that few writers in the West could conjure. It was not long after Sept. 11, 2001, and we didn’t really know what the world was going to be like, or if we’d be able to travel around the world as we had before.
The Pope on Travel
by Jim Benning | 09.27.06 | 1:51 PM ET
It’s World Tourism Day, and to celebrate, Pope Benedict XVI told those gathered at St. Peter’s Square, including tourists, “I hope that tourism will increasingly promote dialogue and respect between cultures, thereby becoming an open door to peace and harmonious cohabitation.” Now that’s one papal statement we can get behind.
“Fawlty Towers” Hotel Gets Makeover
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.06 | 6:36 AM ET
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Pool Crashing, Soda Pop and “Pizza Jason”
by Michael Yessis | 09.15.06 | 8:04 AM ET
After last week’s end-of-summer blues and 9/11 remembrances, seems like travelers and armchair travelers are in a happier mood, ready to eat and drink and crash some pools. Where? Looks like the world’s classic destinations are still in style. Here comes your zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
* Jason Wilson: One Traveler, Three Dishes Named “Jason”
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
* Los Angeles: Galco’s Soda Pop Store
Destination of the Year
PlanetOut Travel Awards (2006)
* Spain
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
* Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
* The Art of Pool Crashing in Las Vegas
Cover Story From a Glossy Travel Magazine
Conde Nast Traveler (September issue)
* Insider’s Guide to New York City
Favorite Country for Holidays
Conde Nast Traveller UK Reader’s Poll
* Italy
Most Viewed “Travel & Places” Video
YouTube (this week)
* “Welcome to Aggieland”
Most Popular Site Tagged “Travel”
del.icio.us (current)
* TravelPost’s Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
* A happier place than the happiest place on earth
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Let Us Now Praise the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act
by Ben Keene | 09.14.06 | 5:00 PM ET
“Most Americans probably think Denmark is the capital of Sweden.” Sure, the remark was made somewhat in jest, but Tobias, the Dane I had just met while sitting outside of a pub in Aarhus on a crisp evening last weekend, had a point. As 2006 enters the home stretch, most of us Americans still don’t have a passport. The encouraging news, however, is that a bill currently under consideration by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and sponsored by Roger Wicker of Mississippi could reduce the frequency of such geography-related jokes in the future. If passed, the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act would “improve and expand geographic literacy among kindergarten through grade 12 students in the United States” by establishing a geography education grant program. House bill 5519 still has a long way to go before it’s signed into law, but I’m cautiously hopeful. At the very least, we owe it to the Swedes—er, I mean the Danes.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist
by Michael Yessis | 09.08.06 | 7:02 AM ET
Looks like we’re a little grumpy this week. Our snapshot of what’s on the minds of travelers and armchair travelers reveals we’re concerned about “Ugly Americans,” bad-mannered Chinese and our poor service on American Airlines. What will get us out of this funk? Perhaps 36 hours in Grand Rapids, Michigan? Here’s your zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
* Rethinking the Ugly American
No. 1 World Music Album
iTunes (current)
* The Life Aquatic by Seu George
Most Complained About U.S. Airline
Air Travel Consumer Report (June 2006)
* American Airlines
Most Popular Site Tagged “Travel”
del.icio.us (recent)
* Kayak
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
* Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
* Chinese travelers’ bad manners earn a chilly reception
Most Viewed Dispatch
World Hum (this week)
* Tony Perottet’s The Joy of Steam
Most Viewed “Travel & Places” Video
YouTube (this week)
* U-StampIt Productions: “This is a sample video for three co-hosts and their upcoming show on Italy”
Most Viewed Weblog Country Category
World Hum Weblog (this week)
* China
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
* 36 Hours: Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
* “What I did on my summer vacation”
And, finally, a tribute to the Crocodile Hunter
* In honor of Steve Irwin and International Khaki Day, we’ll be flying the khaki today. R.I.P. Crocodile Hunter.
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
How Corrupt is Your Country? Try Counting Your Diplomats’ Parking Tickets.
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.06 | 2:41 PM ET
That’s what economists Ray Fisman and Edward Miguel did. In what The Undercover Economist author Tim Harford called “a flash of inspiration,” Fisman and Miguel decided to see which countries’ diplomats at the United Nations in New York racked up the most parking tickets. They reasoned that, because diplomatic immunity put the diplomats in a consequence-free environment, it would be a great experiment to measure personal morality on a country-by-country basis.
Inside David Sedaris’s Paris: An Audio Tour
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.06 | 2:46 PM ET
On this weekend’s broadcast of This American Life, host Ira Glass visits writer and radio commentator David Sedaris in Paris. I caught part of the show in my car yesterday and Sedaris, who has been living in the City of Light for several years, gives Glass a tour of his favorite Paris spots which include, among other places, his local hardware store. The 10 minutes I heard were typical Sedaris—insightful, neurotic and funny. This American Life doesn’t stream audio from its Web site during the weekend the show is being broadcast around the country, but you can still catch it later tonight on individual stations. Find a station here or try KPCC at 7 p.m. PT Sunday night. Update: It can now be heard at This American Life’s Web site.