Destination: United States
The Deceptive Magic of Travel Photography
by Spud Hilton | 04.06.10 | 1:17 PM ET
If you've seen it in a guidebook, that elusive, perfect view must really exist. Right?
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Yahoo! BuzzDiamonds Are Forever
by Chris Epting | 04.05.10 | 9:08 AM ET
Chris Epting Chris Epting takes a baseball-inspired road trip, celebrating America's national pastime
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New Air Travel Security Protocols on the Way
by Eva Holland | 04.02.10 | 1:05 PM ET
The Department of Homeland Security is set to announce a new intelligence-based threat assessment system to replace the mandatory secondary screenings that were brought in for certain nationalities after the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest flight over Detroit. From the New York Times:
The intelligence-based security system is devised to raise flags about travelers whose names do not appear on no-fly watch lists, but whose travel patterns or personal traits create suspicions. The system is intended to pick up fragments of information—family name, nationality, age or even partial passport number—and match them against intelligence reports to sound alarm bells before a passenger boards a plane.
President Obama signed off on the new protocols yesterday.
Among the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.
by Rick Steves | 03.30.10 | 2:56 PM ET
Celebrating the arrival of spring and powerful words on a visit to the FDR Memorial
‘If You Take Photos of His Food, Grant Achatz Hates You’
by Michael Yessis | 03.30.10 | 1:28 PM ET
So tweets Jason Wilson, regarding this blog post about Alinea chef Grant Achatz’s feelings toward people who photograph the famously photogenic food in his Chicago restaurant.
Schrute Farms: Fake Destination Still Garnering Fake TripAdvisor Reviews
by Michael Yessis | 03.30.10 | 12:19 PM ET
Faux Schrute Farms debuted on TripAdvisor in 2007, right around the time that Dwight Schrute, the ninja-loving paper salesman on the U.S. version of The Office, mentioned it on an episode of the series. Like many, we had a little fun with it at the time, then forgot about it.
Turns out the fake page still exists and it has more reviews than “many major Manhattan hotels.” From the New York Times:
Many reviewers add their own funny flourishes, enhancing the show’s mythology: Mandy Pyszka from Milwaukee, who stumbled upon the TripAdvisor site while searching Google for Dwight Schrute quotes, raved about the beet pudding.
Carla Harrington of Fredricksburg, Va., was surprised to find 82 percent of reviews recommended Schrute Farms. “I thought about what it would feel like not to know them as TV characters but to really go to this B & B,” she said in an interview. Her one-star slam called Dwight “an overbearing survivalist who appears to have escaped from the local mental asylum.”
The Casino Carpets of Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 03.29.10 | 11:07 AM ET
This slideshow will wake you up on a Monday morning. Chris Maluszynski’s photos are the subject of a New Yorker Talk of the Town piece, which probes why Las Vegas casino carpets are so gaudy.
Theories abound about why casino carpets look the way they do. The camouflaging argument makes sense—the more curlicues, the less noticeable the dirt and Coke and vomit. But Christine B. Whittemore, who runs a blog called Carpetology, believes that the carpets’ primary function is psychological. “A lot of the busyness of the patterns may be about keeping people active, as too much relaxing may not inspire gambling,” she said. “You also have to be careful not to use the same pattern on stairs as you do on flat surfaces, because of how the brain processes depth.” Recently, Whittemore took a tour of Steve Wynn’s new Encore hotel. She recalled, “There’s some carpet in this delightful little café-bar area, and what comes to mind is Marc Chagall—the idea was the butterfly, the metamorphosis, the dream.” The butterflies flutter over a scarlet grid. Whittemore went on, “The head designer explained that red is a good-luck color in many Asian cultures.”
David G. Schwartz has more on the subject, and more photos.
A Love Letter to the Window Seat
by Michael Yessis | 03.26.10 | 10:01 AM ET
Some evocative writing by Mark Vanhoenacker:
But for me, it’s all about the views, especially those entrancing last few minutes before touchdown.
It’s how the details of the world are summoned again, how gracefully scale and shadings resolve into trees and fields and subdivisions. It’s the steady, lyrical motion of a silvery wing over a new place—an entirely unique geography and history that appear simply and perfectly beneath you.
He nails the description of flying into Los Angeles at night: “The city looks like an ad for a computer chip, a kinetic vision of light and energy spilling over the continent’s edge.”
How to Drink for Free in New York City
by Eva Holland | 03.24.10 | 3:18 PM ET
Frugal Traveler Matt Gross tells all. Hint: Neighborhoods with a high wine shop density are key.
76-Second Travel Show: At the African Burial Ground
by Robert Reid | 03.23.10 | 4:17 PM ET
Robert Reid visits a new museum in New York City and asks, "What took so long?"
Sewage! Smokestacks! Corroded Shipping Containers! It’s the Urban Ocean Boat Cruise.
by Michael Yessis | 03.23.10 | 1:33 PM ET
This ain’t whale watching. From the Los Angeles Times:
The aim of the Urban Ocean Boat Cruise—run by the Aquarium of the Pacific and Harbor Breeze Cruises—is to ply Southern California’s most compromised waters to show the environmental effects of trade, fishing, industry and other human activities.
The tour balances lessons on tainted seawater and polluted air with an appreciation of the port as a bustling commercial hub that remains home to sometimes surprising amounts of marine life. Or as tour guide Dominique Richardson puts it: “The multiple and conflicting uses of our urban ocean.”
Aquarium president Jerry Schubel, who came up with the idea after taking an architecture cruise last year in Chicago, said he asked himself: “What is it about Long Beach and Los Angeles that’s distinctive? And I realized that Southern California is one of the most heavily used areas of coast in the nation.”
Good story. Great idea.
Slideshow: A Quest for Bukowski in Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 03.22.10 | 3:04 PM ET
Alec Soth got a trip to Vegas and $500 for his 40th birthday. He came home with something he’d like to sell you.
Thanks for the tip, Pam.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Landmarks
by Chris Epting | 03.19.10 | 1:07 PM ET
Chris Epting explores the sights, from the Hollywood bathroom where The Doors recorded "L.A. Woman" to the place the music died
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Are New York and Chicago the Tolstoy and Dostoevsky of American Fiction?
by Eva Holland | 03.17.10 | 3:13 PM ET
Andrew Seal makes his case over at Blographia Literaria:
Sorry, Boston. Sorry, L.A. Sorry, D.C. Sorry, San Fran. Sorry, the South. You have your claims, no doubt, but they are as the claims of Pushkin, Lermontov, Chekhov, or Gogol. To be sure, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky do not account for the entirety of Russian literature, certainly do not exhaust all options, but they are irreplaceable, irreducible forces upon the landscape of the national literature, and so it is with New York and Chicago, Chicago and New York.
There’s plenty to chew on in the comments, too. (Via The Book Bench)
Bars vs. Grocery Stores, Mapped
by Eva Holland | 03.16.10 | 1:11 PM ET
Flowing Data offers up a map showing that some parts of the U.S.—we’re looking at you, Wisconsin—have more bars than supermarkets. Equally interesting? Spotting the areas on the map that seem to have precious few of either. (Via @julia914)