Travel Blog: News and Briefs
A ‘Creative Persons Utopia’ in the Dominican Republic?
by Jim Benning | 03.20.06 | 12:08 AM ET
Last December, we pointed out a New York Observer profile of Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria, noting that he and several other celebrities, including musician Moby and interviewer Charlie Rose, were involved in a land purchase in the Dominican Republic to build some sort of utopian community for artists and writers. It was all rather vague, and we wondered whether the project was still alive. Now comes confirmation in the March 20 issue of the New Yorker, in a feature story not available online, that just such a project is in the works.
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Yahoo! BuzzDo We Really Need to Worry About Toothbrush Germs When We Travel?
by Jim Benning | 03.17.06 | 4:35 PM ET
Every so often, you see people hyping products designed to fight germs or bacteria while traveling, such as portable toothbrush sanitizers. I suspect I dislike germs as much as the next guy, but I’m skeptical of the need for such products. In all my travels, I don’t think my toothbrush has ever made me sick. So I was happy to see USA Today’s Jayne Clark ask the experts about a range of products, from a portable toothbrush sanitizer to an airline seat cover, aimed at fretful travelers.
The Bloody Good Saga of Tourism Australia’s Latest Advertising Campaign
by Michael Yessis | 03.17.06 | 10:20 AM ET
Tourism Australia recently debuted a new advertising campaign that turns on the slogan, “Where the bloody hell are you?” Very cheeky. Very Australian. And quite offensive to the ears of the members of Britain’s Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center. (With an uptight, bureaucratic name like that, it probably doesn’t take much to offend.) Last week, the group banned the campaign from the country’s televisions because it uses the word “bloody,” which, according to The Age, is the 27th most offensive word to the BACC. That’s behind bollocks (No. 6), bugger (No. 21) and sodding (No. 24).
Church Leaders to Bush Administration: Stop Restricting Religious Travel to Cuba
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.06 | 1:14 PM ET
Representatives from churches around the United States and members of congress met with executive branch officials yesterday to protest new travel restrictions to Cuba. “The meeting,” writes Pablo Bachelet in today’s Miami Herald, “was in response to a March 3 bipartisan letter signed by 105 lawmakers, asking the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to explain why travel licenses for some U.S. church groups were not being renewed.”
Thomas Swick Takes the Train to Orlando
by Jim Benning | 03.13.06 | 2:28 PM ET
How was it? “I looked like a contented man,” he writes in Sunday’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “but inside I was raging.”
Bullfighting School: ¿Quién es Más Macho?
by Jim Benning | 03.13.06 | 12:50 PM ET
I don’t talk about this much because, frankly, it just intimidates people, as it should. But back in 1998, when I was but a young magazine freelancer with a dog-eared copy of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” on my bookshelf, I enrolled in bullfighting school. The California Academy of Tauromaquia in San Diego, to be specific. That’s me in the photos. It was for a story for Men’s Fitness magazine.
I studied the art of bullfighting for several weeks, learning the ins and outs of cape-handling, among other essentials. For homework, I studied episodes of the TV show “When Animals Attack.” And then, wearing the traditional white shirt and cap of a bullfighting student, I stepped into a stone bullring in Mexico under a hot desert sun (actually, it was rather cool, but “hot” sounds more unforgiving; stick with me here), and went mano a mano with a snarling, charging 400-pound heifer. I graduated with honors.
Before any of you send angry e-mails: Not only did I not harm the animal, but at the time, I was a vegetarian who wouldn’t go within 10 feet of a Big Mac, so send your notes elsewhere. But I digress. I bring this up now because Gadling just pointed out a recent New York Times story in which the writer attended the same bullfighting school and faced a 300-pound heifer.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Three hundred pounds? That’s it?
Exactly. That’s the first thought that ran through my mind.
Back in the day, if you wanted to prove yourself in the ring and deliver a meaty story to your editors, you made sure you faced at least 350 pounds of lumbering beef. Know what I’m saying? And honestly, if you were an editor worth your salt, you wouldn’t print a bullfighting story by a writer who faced anything close to 300 pounds. At the New York Times, you’re just giving more ammunition to those in Red America who claim the liberal media elite are out of touch. Don’t you editors know your heifers? Get back in touch. We need you. No bull. Okay, a little bull.
As for the California Academy of Tauromaquia, it offers an excellent bullfighting education, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in learning the basics. And really, shouldn’t we all know at least the basics? No? Okay.
“The Amazing Race” Host Phil Keoghan: We Show Another Side of the World
by Jim Benning | 03.13.06 | 11:15 AM ET
Interesting little piece on Phil Keoghan, host of TV’s “The Amazing Race,” in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. In a brief interview with the New Zealand native, he was asked about the perspective American viewers get of foreign countries from watching the show. The interviewer noted that “The Amazing Race” offers “an up-close look at the people and their customs.”
R.I.P. Bill Cardoso, the Writer Who Gave Us “Gonzo”
by Jim Benning | 03.12.06 | 1:43 PM ET
I’d never heard of journalist Bill Cardoso until I saw his obituary in today’s Los Angeles Times. In 1970, Cardoso congratulated his friend Hunter S. Thompson on an article Thompson had written about the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan’s Monthly magazine. The article was, Cardoso wrote in a note to Thompson, “pure gonzo.” Thompson grabbed the word “like a hungry dog and ran with it,” remarked his friend, artist Ralph Steadman.
Conan O’Brien: “Hasselhoff is Big in Germany, But I’m the King of Finland”
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.06 | 9:25 PM ET
Five days in Finland turned out to be fruitful for Conan O’Brien—and Finland. I just watched last night’s “very special episode” of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which was devoted exclusively to his brief journey through the country. It turned out to be a sweet love letter and, as expected, one of the more hilarious television travelogues I’ve seen. O’Brien, whose show is extremely popular in Finland, received a Beatlesque-greeting at the airport in Helsinki, inquired about Finnish stereotypes, scared some Chinese tourists, took a pack of sled dogs for a spin in Lapland and visited some of his fans in their homes, even going so far as attempting to repair an on-the-rocks friendship.
So Long, Hotel Minibars. Good Riddance.
by Jim Benning | 03.10.06 | 1:43 PM ET
I’ve never taken an item from a hotel room minibar. Five dollar sodas? Ridiculous. Four dollar candy bars? No way. As far as I’m concerned, the things are just a waste of space. And don’t get me started on the hotel staff that knock on your door, waking you from a perfectly good afternoon nap, to ask whether your minibar needs refilling. Let me nap in peace! So I was delighted to read in USA Today that an increasing number of hotels are giving up on minibar price gouging and emptying the little fridges so guests can actually use them for their own drinks or other items. It turns out, ironically, that some hotels are finding the minibars to be big money losers. The pricey drinks and snacks often don’t generate enough revenue to justify staff time refilling them.
$20 Million for Bedbug Bites?
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 7:48 PM ET
A couple is suing the Nevele Hotel in New York’s Catskills for $20 million, claiming they suffered more than 500 bedbug bites during a July stay. Yikes. That’s a lot of bites—and a lot of money. We’re not entirely surprised to hear about the bugs, though. As we noted here, the New York Times reported last year that bedbugs were “spreading through New York like a swarm of locusts on a lush field of wheat.”
A Cultural Shift in Macho Chile?
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 1:48 PM ET
Just how macho and socially conservative is Chile? According to the Los Angeles Times, “It was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to legalize divorce, little more than a year ago. Abortion remains illegal.” And according some, rates of domestic violence are high. But Chile’s culture appears to be changing. On Saturday, Michelle Bachelet officially takes office as Chile’s first female head of state. Some citizens, including hopeful women, see Bachelet’s election as a sign that the nation is slowly becoming more democratic, post-Pinochet, and more open to women taking a prominent role in all walks of life, from business to government. The Los Angeles Times’ Reed Johnson, who has been filing terrific culture-related stories from throughout Latin America, reported on the phenomenon in yesterday’s paper.
“It’s Like Writing a Travel Guide To a Place That Doesn’t Exist”
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.06 | 1:54 PM ET
Those are the words of David Hodgson, author of 55 video game strategy books. Matt Richtel wrote about him this weekend in the New York Times, and I got a kick out of how Hodgson describes his job. “Whereas Frommer’s guides tell you what hotel to stay in,” he says, “I tell you which hotel not to stay in because you’re going to get dragged down by a gangster.”
Want to Send a Message to the People Who Search Your Bags? Try Some Fourth Amendment Luggage Tape.
by Michael Yessis | 03.07.06 | 11:36 AM ET
The words of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, are on every inch of the new product from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “You can put it on packages, or over the zipper of your luggage,” EFF Chairman Brad Templeton told Boing Boing. “Now, if they want to search your stuff, they have to literally slice the Fourth Amendment in half in order to do it.” It costs just $8 a roll to make your statement to TSA screeners and fellow travelers.
Philippines Doctor Wins $238,000 From KLM Over Lost Luggage
by Michael Yessis | 03.07.06 | 11:35 AM ET
The airline lost Dr. Jose Tiongco’s bag eight years ago on a KLM flight from Manila, Philippines to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tiongco was on his way to give a lecture at a World Health Organization conference, and he claimed his reputation took a nose dive when he had to address his audience in a “sweatshirt, denims and running shoes”. (No clothing stores were open between the time his delayed flight arrived and his scheduled speaking time). KLM, of course, has appealed the ruling of the Philippines court. Yikes. Can you imagine the precedent this will set if the judgment stands? The Minda News has the full story from Davao City.
