Destination: United States
The Joys of Vacationing in America: Disneyworld, BBQ and Rhinoplasty
by Elyse Franko | 07.11.08 | 1:46 PM ET
The weak dollar is quickly making the United States a popular destination for Europeans in search of tighter tummies, wrinkle-free foreheads and pert derrieres. Though Europeans have admired American plastic surgery for decades, many have viewed it as a sign of extravagance. But now they’re taking advantage of the dollar’s diminished value and heading across the Atlantic for face-lifts and tummy tucks, often adding a few days or weeks of sightseeing to round out their trips.
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Yahoo! BuzzQ&A with David Farley: The Restless Legs Reading Series
by Jim Benning | 07.09.08 | 12:10 PM ET
World Hum contributing editor David Farley recently announced the creation of the Restless Legs reading series in New York City, which will be devoted to travel writing. Farley knows just about every travel writer who passes through town, so he would seem the right person for the task. The first reading, which will feature travel writers Tony Perrottet and Cullen Thomas, is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23 at Lolita bar on the Lower East Side. I asked Farley a few questions about the series.
World Hum: How’d this come about?
Spam Conquers the World (Sort of)
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.08.08 | 11:48 AM ET
Spamburgers, Spam tacos and Spambalaya—the canned pork loaf everyone loves to hate is leaving its indelible taste on dishes around the globe. In Spam-loving Hawaii, Japanese-American chef Muriel Miura has a new cookbook, “Hawaii Cooks With Spam,” which offers recipes for Spam sushi, Spam pancit and Korean rice with Spam. Um, yum? If yes, then try Spam in ratatouille pie, curried rice, lasagna and even Heidelberg casserole.
U.S. Airports are Hotbeds for Laptop Loss
by Elyse Franko | 07.07.08 | 3:29 PM ET
Flustered flyers leave behind an astounding 12,000 laptops in U.S. airports each week, according to a recent study (pdf) sponsored by Dell. But here’s the really scary part: The Economist’s Gulliver blog reports that less than 35 percent of those lost laptops are returned to their owners.
Moose and Midnight Sunsets: A Father-Son Drive up the Alaska-Canadian Highway
by Eva Holland | 07.07.08 | 12:00 PM ET
Fifty years ago, Roger Norum’s father and grandfather drove the Alaska-Canadian Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska. In this Guardian essay, Norum and his father re-create the trip—and drive each other just a little crazy in the process. It’s a fun read.
Photo by stevelyon via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Jack White’s Poem for Detroit
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.08 | 10:33 AM ET
The singer and songwriter for The White Stripes penned Courageous Dream’s Concern in an effort to make clear that he bears no malice toward his hometown and to express the “Detroit that is in my heart. The home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries.” The Detroit Free Press has the exclusive. Lyrically, it’s no “My Doorbell” (listen below), and that’s a good thing.
Happy Fourth of July
by World Hum | 07.03.08 | 3:37 PM ET
We’ll be enjoying a long weekend—and perhaps even a patriotic breakfast burrito or two—and will return next week. If you’re in the mood for some World Hummy Fourth of July reading, please allow us to recommend Exits and Entrances. We published it back in June 2001, but we think it’s as relevant as ever.
Photo by goldberg via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
The LAX Theme Building, Then and Now
by Jim Benning | 07.03.08 | 12:05 PM ET
Among the travel-related art hanging on my walls is a poster of this shot taken by Garry Winogrand in 1964. The subject, of course, is LAX’s Theme Building, which opened in 1961 and is among Los Angeles’ most intriguing landmarks. To me, few buildings say more about Los Angeles, a city ever focused on the future, often at the expense of the past, than this Tomorrowland-esque structure. The two women in the photo, I like to imagine, have donned their finest dresses and highest heels for a transatlantic flight, perhaps to Paris or London. The L.A. sun is beaming down on them. The future couldn’t be brighter.
R.I.P. Florent
by Eva Holland | 07.03.08 | 10:41 AM ET
The longstanding New York City diner shut its doors last weekend. Its owner, Florent Morellet, watched the Meatpacking District undergo an extreme gentrification makeover during his 23 years in business, before finally closing due to rent increases. The Times has a good story about what Florent meant to its patrons. Elsewhere, New York Magazine has the details on the restaurant’s final night of service, and on its private friends-and-family farewell.
Photo by Jeff Tidwell via Flickr (Creative Commons)
McCain, Obama to Take Campaigns Abroad
by Julia Ross | 07.02.08 | 9:03 AM ET
ABC News’ The Note reports that both John McCain and Barack Obama plan to travel abroad this month, ostensibly to highlight their foreign policy credentials. McCain is off to Mexico and Colombia; Obama will hit seven countries in the Middle East and Europe. Our U.S. Presidential Candidate Travel Scorecard had the two running neck and neck back in January, but it looks like Obama’s surging in the home stretch.
‘Into the Wild’ McCandless Pilgrims Descending on Remote Bus
by Jim Benning | 07.01.08 | 5:13 PM ET
Last October we noted that locals in Healy, Alaska, were considering removing the old bus where Christopher McCandless died. They feared that people moved by John Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild” and Sean Penn’s movie adaptation would tramp 22 miles into the wilderness to see the bus, only to wind up in the same kind of trouble McCandless did. Well, the bus is still there—it has long served as a refuge for hunters—and the AP reports that, with temperatures rising, plenty of people are indeed making the trek or inquiring about it.
‘Great Orlando Wheel’ Announced With Hypnotic, Over-the-Top Promotional Video
by Michael Yessis | 07.01.08 | 12:03 PM ET
Oh, the hyperbole! I’ll bet the first minute and a half of this clip offers more entertainment than the 400-foot-tall Great Orlando Wheel ever will when it opens in central Florida in 2010. See for yourself.
An Epic Account of the Naming of ‘Just About Everything in America’
by Michael Yessis | 07.01.08 | 11:23 AM ET
It’s all in Names on the Land, George Rippey Stewart’s soon-to-be-reissued 1945 book about how America’s “creeks and valleys, rivers and mountains, streets and schools, towns and cities, counties and states, the country and continent itself” were named. In Slate, Matt Weiland calls the tome “a masterpiece of American writing and American history.” Among the tidbits he highlights: “The original name proposed for the state that became New Jersey was Albania.”
Related on World Hum:
* What’s in a Place Name?
* Esquire Complains About Hotel Bar Names
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Busker Stunt Had Already Been Done
by Michael Yessis | 06.30.08 | 3:51 PM ET
In Chicago. In 1930. Gene Weingarten’s story, which chronicled what happened when “internationally acclaimed virtuoso” Joshua Bell busked for 43 minutes at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington D.C., unknowingly covered ground already trod in the Windy City.
‘66 Drives’ in Southern California
by Michael Yessis | 06.25.08 | 1:33 PM ET
I didn’t think I’d ever truly get nostalgic for Southern California traffic, but Andrew Bush’s 66 Drives has made it happen. Bush attached a camera to his car and snapped images of fellow drivers while he was traveling around the area from 1989 to 1997. All 66 images from his book are online, and, as a whole, they capture the feeling of driving Southern California roads. Here’s my favorite. (via Boing Boing)
Related on World Hum:
* New Travel Book: ‘Are We There Yet?’
* Shrinking Planet Statistic of the Day: Cars