Back to the Blog, Starting with the New Yorker and Poppa Neutrino

After a couple of nearly blog-free months working on the new site, we can finally take a deep breath—whew!—and get back to what we like to do best: writing about travel and travel lit. The New Yorker is always a good place to start. After making a big splash with its travel issue earlier this year, particular the profile of Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the magazine has included several solid travel-related stories in its recent issues.

The combined June 13 and 20 issue features a terrific piece by funnyman David Sedaris about the spat he got into with a fellow passenger on a recent flight, all because he refused to swap with someone in a bulkhead seat. “I hate the bulkhead,” he writes. “When I’m on a plane or at a movie theatre, I like to slouch down as low as I can, and rest my knees on the seat back in front of me. In the bulkhead, there is no seat in front of you, just a wall a good three feet away, and I never know what to do with my legs…All in all, I’d rather hang from one of the wheels than have to sit up front.” The June 27 issue, meanwhile, includes a fascinating story about a man named Poppa Neutrino who, inspired by Thor Heyerdahl and his book “Kon-Tiki,” set out on a raft recently to sail around the world. Neither story is available online, but author Alec Wilkinson recently answered questions about Neutrino at the New Yorker Online.

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