Destination: United States
Washington Lawmakers Propose Ban on Sex Tours
by Michael Yessis | 01.27.06 | 11:59 AM ET
Under the provisions of legislation proposed by Sen. Karen Fraser, travel agents in Washington State who book or sell “sex tours” would be committing a Class C felony. The penalty: up to five years in prison and fines up to $10,000. According to the AP, Hawaii already has a similar law on the books, and New York and New Jersey are considering legislation.
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Yahoo! BuzzExpedition Everest: Disney Brings Nepal and Tibet to Orlando, Florida
by Michael Yessis | 01.27.06 | 1:06 AM ET
Whether you love Disney or curse it for devouring the world, you’ve got to admit that the mega-corporation sure understands the power of travel and the journey. Since Uncle Walt opened Disneyland in 1955, the company has drawn people to its theme parks by tapping into the mythology of many of the world’s iconic destinations and travel experiences. New Orleans. The Matterhorn. Pirates plundering the Caribbean. Huck and Tom on the Mississippi River. Then there’s California Adventure, an entire theme park that revolves around some of the state’s best known attractions. Even Disney’s $7.5 billion deal for Pixar supports the point. After all, aren’t “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo,” at heart, about epic journeys?
Exploring “The United States of Appalachia”
by Jim Benning | 01.26.06 | 1:34 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jeff Biggers (Family Traveling, Italy’s Dark Heart and Europe from the Passenger Side) has written a new book that challenges stereotypes about America’s Southern mountains. It’s called The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America. Biggers’ national book tour begins Friday at Tucson’s Rialto Theatre with a reading and live mountain music. Anticipating the event, the Tucson Weekly profiled Biggers. The story’s lead is terrific and gets right to the heart of the matter by invoking the “H” word.
Nome, Alaska
by Ben Keene | 01.20.06 | 1:16 PM ET
Population: 3,592 (2004 est.)
Coordinates: 64 30 N 165 25 W
Everybody makes mistakes—including cartographers. Take a closer look at the state of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. In the mid-19th century, a British mapmaker transcribing a naval chart apparently misread “? Name” as “C. Nome,” thus giving this small Alaskan city its appellation. And although a group of miners attempted to rename the settlement Anvil City in 1899, the United States Postal Service insisted on Nome, after the cape on the Norton Sound. Which begs the question: Did North Dakota and Texas arrive at Nomes of their own due to similar errors?
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
The Beat Museum Opens in San Francisco
by Jim Benning | 01.20.06 | 1:00 AM ET
A one-room museum celebrating Beat Generation luminaries such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg has opened in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood with a slew of memorabilia, including photos, early book editions and an autographed copy of “Howl.” Jerry Cimino, a 51-year-old Beat fan and collector who worked at American Express and IBM, started the museum to “make more of a difference doing something no one else would try,” he told the Associated Press.
Rick Reilly on the Palms’ Hardwood Suite
by Michael Yessis | 01.19.06 | 6:07 AM ET
It’s only $50,000 a night, a bargain for what Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly calls the “hardworking NBA star, trying to feed [his] family on $9 million a year.” Reilly devoted his entire column last week to the outrageously expensive suite at the Palms in Las Vegas, which features, among other things, three “NBA sized” Murphy beds and a basketball court. His column is, as usual, quite funny. Unfortunately, it’s available online only to SI’s subscribers, but the magazine has made a slide show available. Beware of image two: Reilly wrapped around a stripper pole.
L.A.‘s Ambassador Hotel: It’s Gone
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.06 | 1:33 PM ET
The last bits of the famed hotel have been cleared away and The Ambassador is officially no more. The Ambassador’s Last Stand will be hosting a wake next Tuesday at the HMS Bounty, the bar across the street from the hotel’s former location.
Key Notes
by Michael Yessis | 01.17.06 | 1:14 AM ET
I just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco, where I stayed at the travel-themed Hotel Carlton. It’s got many great touches—globes throughout the lobby, travel photos hung on the walls, maps and postcards decorating the interior of the elevators—but I liked the hotel’s room key cards most.
Travel and the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Jim Benning | 01.16.06 | 2:01 AM ET
We thought we’d pay our respects to Martin Luther King Jr. today by spotlighting a few key sights important to his life and the civil rights movement. Ben Brazil’s guide to sights in Sunday’s Washington Post turned out to be a good resource. It mentions the two-story Victorian home in Atlanta’s “Sweet Auburn” section where King was born Jan. 15, 1929. That home, where King spent his first 12 years, is now the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service. Also mentioned is the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where King was assassinated April 4, 1968. In 1991, after years of decline, it opened as the National Civil Rights Museum, exploring the legacy of the civil rights movement.
“Hemingway’s Hurricane” on Book TV
by Jim Benning | 01.14.06 | 2:31 PM ET
C-SPAN2’s Book TV will feature 45 minutes this evening (Saturday) on Hemingway’s Hurricane: The Great Florida Keys Storm of 1935. Author Phil Scott chronicles the storm that hit the keys with 200 mph winds and killed more than 400 people. Hemingway weathered the storm in Key West and later concluded that more could have been done to prevent the deaths. His writing about that, some believe, led to his appearance on the FBI watch list. Scott’s Book TV appearance begins at 9 p.m. EST.
Back to the Newsroom
by Tom Swick | 01.13.06 | 8:52 AM ET
Las Vegas: ‘What Happens Here, Ends Up On Your Mastercard Bill’
by Michael Yessis | 01.13.06 | 12:02 AM ET
I love Las Vegas, but I still found Chris Ayres’s takedown of the city hilarious. Ayres spent several days in Vegas covering the recent Consumer Electronics show, and he proclaims in the Times of London this week that he “hated almost every second of it.”
No Place Exists That’s Not Worth Writing About
by Tom Swick | 01.12.06 | 6:02 AM ET
I visited Key West for the first time in 1991. I had been in Florida, working as a travel editor, less than two years, and driving with the window down in January to a literary seminar on travel writing seemed a dual blessing. John Malcolm Brinnin—another unjustly forgotten writer—gave a keynote address that I still quote from in travel writing workshops (the hair on my neck never failing to rise). I interviewed Calvin Trillin, who invited me to lunch at the Pier House with Alice. And I interviewed Jan Morris, who impressed me as the most considerate famous person I had ever met. (A role Pico Iyer seems to be filling admirably.) One morning near St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, I ran into Jan power walking down Duval Street. No matter; she stopped to chat. I told her that in my travels I often attended service at the local Anglican church. “You can sometimes meet interesting people there,” I said. She looked doubtful, saying she preferred the company of pagans. And with that she regained her loping stride.
Farewell to The Stardust, Castaways
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.06 | 1:58 AM ET
Las Vegas said goodbye to another of its old-time hotels today. Castaways, formerly known as The Showboat, endured for almost 50 years before succumbing to crippling debts after 9/11. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has the story—and the video of the implosion. Next up on the list of old Vegas hotels set for closure: The Stardust.
Debating ‘What’s Left to Discover and What Should Be Left Undiscovered’
by Tom Swick | 01.11.06 | 6:58 AM ET
Saturday morning I stepped out of my Key West B&B and felt a chilly breeze. I had often thought that I personally brought unseasonable weather to a place (almost never unseasonably good weather) but now I wondered if it was maybe travel writers in general.