Destination: United States
Morning Links: Science Pubs, Staged Plane Crash and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.13.09 | 8:13 AM ET
- Money guy Marcus Schrenker apparently staged a plane crash to fake his death. Wow. Gawker calls him “one of the most memorable villains to emerge in the financial crisis.”
- Bill Donahue in Panama: It has “the dark allure of a Graham Greene novel.”
- Tourism officials in Australia have put out a call for the best job in the world.
- Foreign Policy hosted a virtual roundtable on Samuel Huntington’s legacy.
- Tokyo’s Tsukiji market has reopened to tourists.
- Maclean’s examines “changes that have taken place in the travel landscape as a result of 2008’s tumultuous economy.”
- Sake consumption may be falling in Japan, but it’s on the rise in the U.S.
- In these Portland, Oregon “science pubs,” drink in a little physics or volcanology lecture with your brew. Even better: “There are no tests.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzFalling in Love with America
by Sophia Dembling | 01.12.09 | 1:58 PM ET
Growing up in New York City, I was deeply indoctrinated with the view of the world that Saul Steinberg summed up in his famous 1976 New Yorker magazine cover. As far as I was concerned, if you headed west, there was 10th Ave. and there was New Jersey (which you avoided as much as possible) and then there was a whole bunch of nothing worth mentioning until you hit the Pacific Ocean.
When I was 19 years old, I tagged along with a friend on a cross-country drive to deliver a baby-blue Plymouth Duster to her brother in Los Angeles. On that trip, I saw my first cornfields. My first hay rolls. I saw Chicago. The Great Salt Lake. (Yuck.) Cows. The Rockies. For real? I thought this stuff was just rumor and legend. We drove from New York to San Francisco and then down the jagged coastline to Los Angeles, where I dipped my toes in the Pacific Ocean and fell madly in love with America.
Are Travel Writers the Next Great Competitive Eaters?
by David Farley | 01.12.09 | 10:54 AM ET
Matt Gross. Photo by Jean Liu. I once wrote a story about taking a competitive eater out to three buffet lunches in as many days to see how much he could eat. At the Indian buffet, 400-pound Eric “Badlands” Booker (then the third-ranked competitive eater in the world) proved he was born to indulge. By the 12th trip up to the buffet (I’m not kidding), the restaurant manager pointed out the dessert options, a subtle suggestion that it was time to retire his fork for the day. “Just for that,” Badlands said to me, “I’m going up for more after I finish this plate!”
At the all-you-can-eat sushi the next day, he consumed so much food we had a crowd around our table watching as he put the plate to his mouth and scooped the fish with his chopsticks right down his throat. At the Brazilian steakhouse the final day, Badlands received handshakes form the waiters for his eating prowess.
But I didn’t really know gluttony until a recent outing with writer Matt Gross.
English Everywhere
by Eric Lucas | 01.12.09 | 8:55 AM ET
REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom It's the universal, global, one-size-fits-all language. Eric Lucas says it's not enough.
Morning Links: Museum of Broken Relationships, GlobalPost and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.09 | 8:27 AM ET
- GlobalPost begins its “bold journey to redefine international news for the digital age.”
- Two Japanese restaurants split the $100,000 bill on a bluefin tuna. Yumiko Ono says it tasted “smooth, succulent and a little on the light side.”
- Turns out cities impair our brains.
- More than 200 people are feared dead after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
- During the last two years an estimated 1.5 billion passengers flew on U.S. airlines. Not one of them died as a result of a crash.
- The Los Angeles Times tried out Row44, “a soon-to-debut satellite Wi-Fi system” for airlines.
- Daisann McLaine tells why she always visits supermarkets when she travels.
- Kristen Wiig and Neil Patrick Harris played long-nailed air traffic controllers on Saturday Night Live.
- Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister, says “art is to arouse emotions.” A map of European cliches and stereotypes commissioned by the Czech Republic is succeeding on that count.
- The Las Vegas Mob museum is stirring up controversy in Washington, D.C.
- The Museum of Broken Relationships—“an exhibition of the relics of failed love”—opened in Singapore last week. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to see “an axe used by a woman to break up her ex-girlfriend’s furniture, along with the broken furniture.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
The Remedy for America’s Woes: Eat More Hamburgers!
by David Farley | 01.09.09 | 2:20 PM ET
“Nightline” recently took a break from covering important stories like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama’s cabinet appointees and the Bush Administration’s quiet attempt to roll back a legion of environmental laws. Instead, they gave some quality airtime to the hamburger. Yes, the hamburger. More specifically, “Nightline”—one of America’s most august news shows—did a “news” segment based on this hypothesis: in correspondent John Berman’s words, “everything seems to be failing in America right now ... except for the burger.” The hamburger, apparently, is the recession’s filet mignon. Everyone’s eating hamburgers now. And to get to the bottom of this mystery, they turned to Josh “the feedbag” Ozersky, citysearch.com restaurant editor, professional hamburger eater and future candidate for coronary bypass surgery.
The Songlines of Key West: The Conch Republic, Unscripted
by Bill Belleville | 01.09.09 | 9:35 AM ET
Photo by Michelle Thatcher. In a three-part series, Bill Belleville burrows deep into the spirit of the mythic island. Part three: Into the mystery of the twilight.
Morning Links: Mexico City’s War on Gum, South Pole Trek and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.09.09 | 9:15 AM ET
- Deep-fried bacon and butter powered three Canadians in the fastest-ever trek to the South Pole.
- Mexico City has had it with all the gum.
- Another amusing story about how it is no longer 1967 in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury—except the parts of Haight-Ashbury that recall 1967.
- Interesting piece on 2008’s “cartography boom” and the way maps are changing the way we organize and look at the world.
- Can you get better travel deals by deleting your cookies? A case study.
- This Just In asks what the economic downturn means for coverage in high-end travel magazines.
- Travel book publishers are having problems in this financial climate, too. (Via Eoin Purcell)
- Fewer people live in Montpelier, Vermont (7,495) than any other U.S. capital, yet it supports four independent bookstores. Go Montpelier.
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Welcome to Flyover America
by Sophia Dembling, Jenna Schnuer | 01.08.09 | 4:41 PM ET
Hi. We are Sophia Dembling and Jenna Schnuer. Sophia lives in Dallas, Texas (but was Manhattan born and reared), and Jenna in Queens, NY (aka “not Manhattan”), and we are both writers who are in love with America. Every diner and prairie and highway of it. The places that many people consider flyover territory—Lincoln, Nebraska; Lubbock Texas; Bayonne, New Jersey, and the like—grab hold of us. Flyover America is as much a state of mind as a place. We like to think of it as anywhere in America that isn’t Manhattan or L.A. Flyover America is packed with stories, discoveries and soul. And it’s got some great malls, too.
For Inauguration Travelers, Saner Options
by Julia Ross | 01.08.09 | 4:22 PM ET
As a Washington, DC, native, I’ve attended my share of inauguration ceremonies, usually braving a bitter cold to catch a fleeting view of the proceedings. My earliest inaugural memory dates to Jimmy Carter’s swearing-in in 1977. Despite my parents’ determination that I witness history, all I remember are the reams of red-white-and-blue bunting draped across the Capitol and a very distant Rosalynn Carter standing next to her husband in a blue coat.
This time around, I’m opting out. Today’s Washington Post warns of up to 3 million visitors on January 20, and I’d prefer to avoid the chaos. For inauguration travelers who are of like mind, the Washington Post’s Inauguration Watch blog plans to post a listing of venues that will screen the event live. I’ve already stumbled across one that might tempt me off the couch: the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland, will show a big-screen broadcast beginning at 10 a.m., free of charge. Access to popcorn and no metal detectors: hard to beat.
The Songlines of Key West: The Other World
by Bill Belleville | 01.08.09 | 9:40 AM ET
Photo by Michelle Thatcher. In a three-part series, Bill Belleville burrows deep into the spirit of the mythic island. Part two: Into ancient reefs and mangrove islands.
Morning Links: Walking Across the U.S., Rebranding France and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.09 | 9:29 AM ET
- Video: Slate interviews “an Algerian man who just walked alone across the United States with nothing but $217 and a backpack.”
- Some “serious soul-searching in French tourism circles” helped inspire the country’s new rebranding campaign.
- Mapped: 50 United States and their Mottos. Intelligent Travel talks to the map’s creator, Emily Wick.
- Rick Steves in Iran: The preview.
- Cheap flights abound for the New Year, but, by historical standards, they’re not as cheap as you might think.
- Peter Hessler takes a road trip to the Tibetan Plateau. (It’s only an abstract, unless you’re a New Yorker subscriber.)
- USA Today looks at Twitter and travel.
- Want more Twitter in your life? Maybe attend a Twestival.
- Cunard reveals its 2009 Queen Mary 2 voyages with “literary luminaries” on board. Among the writers on the transatlantic crossings: Kathryn Harrison and Oscar Hijuelos. It is my duty to tell you that if you’re interested in going, you should first read this (pdf).
Where We’re Eating: New York, Czech Republic
by David Farley | 01.07.09 | 4:46 PM ET
Dinner With Tibor
by Tom Swick | 01.07.09 | 1:37 PM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Nation Branding for your iPod? Canada Votes for a National Playlist.
by Eva Holland | 01.07.09 | 11:52 AM ET
Call it change you can listen to: CBC Radio is hoping to get some made-in-Canada music onto incoming President Obama’s iPod.
The Canadian broadcaster is accepting nominations for a “definitive Canadian playlist”—dubbed “49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel”—to be unveiled on Obama’s inauguration day. “One of the best ways to know Canada is through the depth and breadth of our artistic expression,” said a CBC representative. “We’re excited about the new president, and we want him to be excited about us.”
So how do you go about compiling a definitive national playlist? CBC producers will whittle the suggestions from the public down to a manageable 100 most-nominated songs, and then online voting will cut the shortlist down to the final 49.
Sure, the project seems a tad goofy—realistically, Obama will have bigger things to worry about on Jan. 20 than whether he prefers Stompin’ Tom Connors or Gordon Lightfoot—but it got me thinking about music and national identity.