Destination: Israel
Holy Land Hooters
by Jim Benning | 03.19.07 | 3:13 PM ET
No kidding. The restaurant chain is bound for Israel. Declares the man behind the project: “I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for.”
Related on World Hum:
* Hooters Casino Hotel Opens Today in Las Vegas
* Lesson No. 1 of Hooters Air: It Is Awfully Difficult to Make Buffalo Wings at 30,000 Feet
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel During Wartime
by Frank Bures | 08.28.06 | 6:59 AM ET
War may not be so good for children and other living things, but it sure clears out the tourists. So writes Kevin Rushby in The Guardian. Rushby is the author of the fantastic travel book, Eating the Flowers of Paradise, about the khat road though Ethiopia and Yemen, which I read when I was reporting on the drug’s use in the U.S. “The unfortunate truth about fear, tension or fighting,” he wrote in last week’s Guardian, “is that there are benefits to be had in neighbouring areas. That may be as simple as having few fellow visitors at great sites like Iran’s old Persian capital of Persepolis, or Jordan’s rose-red Petra -both badly affected by current troubles.”
BHL Goes to Israel
by Terry Ward | 08.09.06 | 5:22 PM ET
Anthony Bourdain in Beirut*
by Michael Yessis | 07.19.06 | 7:27 AM ET
As we mentioned the other day, Anthony Bourdain and the crew of his Travel Channel show No Reservations were caught in Beirut when the violence between Hezbollah and Israel began. He told the New York Post, among other things, that he just wanted to have a drink at the bar. “The mojitos here are great,” he said. His comments rubbed some people the wrong way and inspired a lot of posts at the eGullet and No Reservations message boards. In response, Bourdain has apparently posted his further thoughts on the situation. He writes at eGullet: “I’m very aware of how flip my response to the Post was (made last Wednesday, very early in the crisis)as I sought to reassure family and friends that we were safe and okayand in good cheer. . It was—at the time—very representative of the (outward) attitude of Beirutis themselves, who pride themselves on their resilience and their determination to ‘keep the party going.’”
Israel and Lebanon: The Traveler’s Perspective
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.06 | 12:27 PM ET
We often say that we travel and read travel writing to discover more about the world. So this week, we turn our attention to Israel and Lebanon, where a violent conflict shows no sign of letting up. To get a different perspective, we thought we’d link to some of the best travel stories we’ve seen from Israel and Lebanon in recent years. Slate, for instance, had a great Talking Tour of Beirut Well-Traveled feature last year, a five-part series by Lee Smith. Slate also published a story by Negar Akhavi a few years ago about “Hezbollahland,” a place “where Islamic fundamentalism meets Dollywood.” Here at World Hum, we posted Lynn Cohen’s reflective story, Blooming in Jerusalem, and Jenni Kolsky’s excellent photo essay taken on a beach outside of Tel Aviv. She writes: “Here it felt safe, in the moments when life is about the pursuit of pleasure, in the moments when you can forget that you are in the midst of war.”
No. 4: “The Soccer War” by Ryszard Kapuściński
by Frank Bures | 05.28.06 | 8:34 PM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1978
Territory covered: Africa, Central America, Cyprus and Israel
No. 9: “The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.06 | 9:32 PM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1869
Territory covered: Europe and the Holy Land
Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad marks a turning point for both the author and American travel writing. In 1867, Twain boarded the ship the Quaker City for a five-month Journey through Europe and the Holy Land, and he convinced the Daily Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper, to pay him $1,250 to file letters from abroad for publication. He sent 51, and those, along with a few others written for newspapers in New York, comprise “Innocents Abroad.” The dispatches, followed by lectures he delivered based on his travels, helped establish Twain’s voice as an American original. During Twain’s lifetime, “Innocents” was his most popular book, and today it remains perhaps the most celebrated travel book by an American writer. Some critics credit its longevity to its fresh approach: It was written from a different angle than most travel books of its time. As Twain writes in the preface:
“Walking the Bible” on PBS
by Jim Benning | 01.19.06 | 7:25 PM ET
Last night on PBS I caught the third and final installment of Walking the Bible, a new travelogue documentary that takes viewers into the land of the Old Testament. Journalist Bruce Feiler, who wrote the book of the same name, visits key sites, meditates on the power of the desert and marvels at the journey of the Israelites. (Among more humorous moments, he finds a fire extinguisher next to what some believe is the original burning bush.) The landscapes are stunning, and I found Feiler to be a wide-eyed yet thoughtful and likable guide. The series airs on PBS stations throughout the month.
Attention Everyone in Groups A, B and C, and Rows 42 Through 1: Get on the Plane! Now!
by Michael Yessis | 12.14.05 | 12:38 PM ET
A mad boarding scramble by passengers may be a more efficient way to seat an airplane than having them load into the back rows first, according to a team of scientists and mathmeticians at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University. Eitan Bachmat and his colleagues arrived at their conclusion using concepts more commonly applied to the theory of relativity and prime number theory, writes Philip Ball in Nature.
Get Your End of the World T-Shirts!
by Frank Bures | 11.22.05 | 10:48 PM ET
We already knew about the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, a kind of Disneyland dedicated to providing a glimpse of what life was like during the time of Jesus Christ. And this month Esquire reports on the new Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky, where visitors can see dinosaurs like those Adam and Eve rode around on. Now, in December’s Vanity Fair (the story is unavailable online), Craig Unger reports on a huge trend in travel: Evangelical tourism.
Chasing the Book
by Jim Benning | 08.02.05 | 11:08 AM ET
Derelicts in the Sinai
by Porter Shreve | 07.25.05 | 1:14 PM ET
Photo courtesy freestockphotos Israeli fighter planes flew over his kibbutz and suicide bombers blew up buses on the lines he traveled, but Porter Shreve still felt untouchable. Then he found himself aboard an ill-fated tour bus rolling through the Egyptian desert.
Cat Stevens, Madonna
by Jim Benning | 09.24.04 | 11:13 PM ET
Celebrities continue to make big travel news. Fortunately, our favorite fake news program, The Daily Show, has been covering the issue, helping us put this very important travel information into context and perspective. When the folk singer formerly known as Cat Stevens was sent back to Britain for ridiculous security concerns, Daily Show host Jon Stewart noted that Stevens’ commercial airliner was not only tailed by U.S. fighter planes for security, but also was being followed by a moonshadow, a fact overlooked by most news organizations. Stewart also reported on singer Madonna’s recent visit to Israel, home to three religions and ongoing conflict. “The good news,” Stewart reported, “came this week in the form of the world’s fourth major religion, celebrity, as pop star Madonna stopped by to speak at a conference on Jewish mysticism, and maybe while she’s there, work in a light desecration of holy sites.” Video of the fake news report is available at DailyShow.com.
Powell: ‘I Was Like, ‘Free Trip to the Disputed Zone? No Way I’m Gonna Turn That Down!’’
by Michael Yessis | 05.06.04 | 10:22 PM ET
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and several other diplomats are looking forward to their upcoming travels to Israel’s West Bank “to just kick around and enjoy the area,” according to a report in this week’s Onion. “A lot of people in the EU are angry with Washington policy-makers, claiming that Bush’s endorsement of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon’s proposed unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip rejects the right of Palestinian refugees to return to disputed land now in Israeli control—but I don’t care to take sides while on this trip,” High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy for the EU Javier Solana said. “I heard Colin’s going, and I figure, if Col’s there, it’ll be a good time. I’d like to sneak away with him some evening and find out how the remaining members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra sound.”
Moments of Normal
by Jenni Kolsky | 03.28.04 | 9:42 PM ET
Photo by Jenni Kolsky. Jenni Kolsky struggles to make sense of the photographs she took at a peaceful beach in war-torn Israel