Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Introduction to Travel Writing
by Jim Benning | 11.21.03 | 9:52 PM ET
I’ll be teaching a 10-week online course in travel writing through the University of California, Los Angeles’ Extension program beginning in January. Because the class will be conducted online, students can enroll from anywhere in the world. Details are available by clicking here and following the links to the journalism course listings. Feel free to send me an e-mail if you have any questions.
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Yahoo! BuzzSo Where Are the Travel Books?
by Jim Benning | 11.20.03 | 9:53 PM ET
The National Book Award winners were announced yesterday and, once again, no travel-related books were nominated or honored. Carlos Eire’s “Waiting for Snow in Havana,” which won in the non-fiction category, is a personal memoir that crosses cultural lines but certainly wouldn’t be shelved in a bookstore’s travel narrative section. In looking back at a list of National Book Award winners over the last 50 years, I came across two winning books occasionally found in the travel section: Peter Matthiessen’s “The Snow Leopard,” which won in the “contemporary thought” category in 1979 (the category no longer exists); and Barry Lopez’s “Arctic Dreams,” which won for non-fiction in 1986. I suspect both authors would cringe, however, if their books were referred to as “travel books.” If they had to choose, they’d probably describe them as books about nature or the environment. As others have pointed out, many of the most respected travel writers working today would prefer not to be called “travel writers,” afraid the label will doom them to a literary ghetto, or even worse, afraid their work will be lumped in with much of the travel writing that appears in newspapers and magazines. So when will travel books get their due? I’m not suggesting that a travel book necesssarily should have beat out “Waiting for Snow in Havana” or even made the list of finalists this year. But travel books are almost always overlooked for big literary prizes, year after year. I’m wondering when travel books as a whole will get more respect, or if they will ever get more respect. Any thoughts?
One Night at the Ritz-Carlton? $369. The Silent Treatment from a Front-Desk Clerk? Priceless.
by Jim Benning | 11.19.03 | 9:55 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times’ Craig Nakano went to Phoenix recently to write a standard feature story about several new hotels. Wondering why the region needed any new hotels, he decided, for comparison, to visit the 14-year-old Ritz-Carlton, which rents rooms rent for $369 a night. At the Ritz, he learned the answer. His story in Sunday’s Travel section included this exchange with the hotel’s clerk:
“Me: ‘Would it be possible to see one of the rooms?’
Clerk: ‘I can’t show you a room because I’m the only one here.’
Me (pointing to two bored bellmen in a deserted lobby): ‘Could one of those guys help?’
Clerk: ‘Why do you need to see a room? It’s just your standard hotel room. There’s a bed, a little living area and a restroom.’
Me: ‘I’m familiar with the concept. I just want to compare it to other places I’m considering.’
Clerk: [Blank stare. Silence.]”
Not surprisingly, the exchange helped Nakano to better understand the Phoenix hotel market. “There may not have been a room for me to see,” he wrote, “but there obviously was room for improvement.” [Registration required to access article.]
Are Your Frequent-Flier Miles Safe?
by Jim Benning | 11.17.03 | 8:31 PM ET
That’s the question posed by Adam Platt in an article in Sunday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune that will surely interest many travelers. “Could [your miles] be losing their value? Should you forget about saving for that African safari in 2006 and get the family to Orlando before Christmas instead?” Platt writes. “Those are the kind of questions being asked in frequent traveler circles since Joe Brancatelli issued an audacious report saying as much. Brancatelli, an airline industry analyst and business traveler advocate, contends that the inevitable outcome of the airline industry’s travails will be the diminished value of our miles.” More highlights from the Sunday travel sections Tuesday.
Update: Flight Attendant Who Spiked Toddler’s Apple Juice Sentenced
by Michael Yessis | 11.13.03 | 8:32 PM ET
Northwest Airlines flight attendant Daniel Cunningham, who spiked a toddler’s apple juice with an anti-anxiety drug to stop her crying on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight last August, was sentenced Wednesday to four months of home confinement.
Tim Cahill on the Downside of Enlightenment
by Jim Benning | 11.12.03 | 8:34 PM ET
Jennifer Leo offers a colorful account of Cahill’s San Francisco appearance on her weblog.
What Do Jordan’s Ain Ghazal Statues and the Islands of Tuvalu Have in Common?
by Jim Benning | 11.12.03 | 7:36 PM ET
Michael Shapiro answers the question in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, offering an interesting list of threatened attractions around the world—places that, if you’re so inclined, should be seen sooner rather than later. “From the historically and biologically irreplaceable to the poignantly frivolous, we’re living at a time when the planet’s heritage is under ever greater threat from war, neglect, climate change, overpopulation and unmanaged tourism,” he writes. Among the places making Shapiro’s list: the islands of Tuvalu, threatened by rising waters, and eroding Quetzalcoatl Temple in Mexico City. Shapiro also points readers to the World Monuments Fund’s new 2004 list of 100 threatened sites.
2003 Lowell Thomas Awards Announced
by Michael Yessis | 11.10.03 | 8:45 PM ET
For the second year in a row, the Society of American Travel Writers has recognized World Hum with a Lowell Thomas Award. This year, the site picked up a bronze award in the Internet publication/Web site category. National Geographic Traveler took the gold award, and Lonely Planet the silver. Other winners include Daisann McLane, whose Cheap Hotels captured gold in the book category, and Rolf Potts, whose National Geographic Traveler piece “Room with a Skew” won bronze for personal comment. A complete list of winners can be found on the SATW Web site.
On the Road With…Cliff Clavin?
by Michael Yessis | 11.10.03 | 8:39 PM ET
The Travel Channel has announced that John Ratzenberger, aka postal carrier Cliff Clavin from the sitcom Cheers, will host a new travel show beginning in January 2004. The “funnyman,” as TV Week calls him, will travel across the U.S. visiting manufacturers of American-made products. What? He’s not going in search of vegetables that grow to look like disgraced former U.S. Presidents? How disappointing.
Winged Victory
by Michael Yessis | 10.30.03 | 8:51 PM ET
Note: Peanut Butter, Batteries and Air Travel Do Not Mix Well
by Michael Yessis | 10.30.03 | 8:48 PM ET
That’s the word from David Menzies, who, after sending a two-kilogram jar of Kraft Extra Creamy Peanut Butter and a six-pack of Duracell C-size batteries through the X-ray machine in Anchorage, Alaska, was called out by security. Why? Read his amusing tale in the National Post.
“Anyone With a Genuine Desire to Travel Should Not Regret the End of Concorde for a Moment”
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.03 | 8:54 PM ET
Amid the hoopla and tears surrounding the mothballing of the Concorde, I’ve noticed a handful of “good riddance!” stories. Among them, one from Guardian Unlimited Travel editor Gwyn Topham, who takes issue with the effects of Concorde’s speed, noted by many as one of the supersonic plane’s great virtues. He writes: “[T]he fact is that the effect of fast connections is to homogenise the planet into a mass of similarities.”
Farewell Concorde
by Jim Benning | 10.24.03 | 8:57 PM ET
After 28 years of service, the history-making British jets completed their final commercial flights today. CNN has a story. I never had the pleasure of flying on a Concorde, but I’ll never forget looking up at a blue sky over a London suburb 10 years ago and seeing the Concorde’s sleek profile pass overhead. Its shape is unmistakable. For a young traveler on a rare visit to London, it was a rush. I wouldn’t have been any happier seeing the Queen.
Honoring “The Best American Travel Writing,” and Reading it in NYC
by Jim Benning | 10.17.03 | 9:03 PM ET
The 2003 edition of Houghton Mifflin’s The Best American Travel Writing anthology series is out now, featuring stories from a wide range of publications, including National Geographic Adventure, Outside and World Hum. Writers whose stories were selected by guest editor Ian Frazier include Geoff Dyer, Christopher Hitchens and William T. Vollmann. Emily Maloney’s World Hum story Power Trip, about her tour of a Japanese nuclear power plant, is featured. Two other stories featured on World Hum, Tom Bissell’s War Zones for Idiots, and Drew Forsyth’s Innocence Abroad, are among the “notable stories” honored in the back of the book. (Bissell’s excellent Harper’s story about the Aral Sea, “Eternal Winter,” is featured in full.) Series editor Jason Wilson wisely included two Onion stories in the list of notable articles, among them FAA Considering Passenger Ban. It’s great to see Wilson and Frazier taking such a broad view of travel writing, extending their field of vision well beyond specialty publications, highlighting stories from magazines such as Gourmet and The American Scholar. For travel-lit fans in New York City, Frazier will host a reading Thursday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Explorers Club, 46 East 70th St. Writers Andrew Solomon and Peter Canby will read their contributions. Admission is $15; students $5.
Talk About a Long Flight
by Jim Benning | 10.17.03 | 9:02 PM ET
Singapore Airlines announced this week it will soon begin operating the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, an 18-hour haul connecting Los Angeles and Singapore. CNN.com has the details.
