Travel Blog: News and Briefs
For the Record
by Jim Benning | 08.22.05 | 10:38 AM ET
We recently took issue with the way The New York Times described World Hum in a story earlier this month. We’re pleased that the newspaper set the record straight on Sunday: “An article on Aug. 7 about Web sites that include reader reports on travel referred incorrectly to contributors to Worldhum.com. While the site indeed welcomes opinions from readers, many of its contributors have been previously published; they are not beginners.”
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Yahoo! BuzzSanta Cruz vs. Huntington Beach: A Pox on Both of Their ‘Surf City’ Houses
by Jim Benning | 08.19.05 | 4:13 PM ET
Oh, the battles that people and places will wage in the quest for the almighty tourist buck. The California cities of Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach are squabbling once again over the use of the moniker “Surf City USA.” The latest flare-up is the result of a state senator introducing a resolution to make Santa Cruz in his district “Surf City USA.” Not so fast, says Huntington Beach, which has filed trademark applications for “Surf City USA” and uses the name in its logo. A story in today’s Los Angeles Times details the history of the fight, which goes back 13 years. It’s ugly.
That Rough Landing Wasn’t the Captain’s Fault. It Was the Asphalt!
by Michael Yessis | 08.19.05 | 10:35 AM ET
Comedy, as we’ve said before, has become as much a part of modern air travel as jet lag. A story by Jayne Clark in this weekend’s USA Today confirms that funny flying is spreading across the U.S. It’s not all about the yuk yuk cabin announcements, wannabe stand-up comedian pilots and airlines listing fun as a core value. Clark’s piece profiles Dave George, Independence Air’s “FLYi Guy,” the nation’s only airport comedian.
Of Pilgrimages and “Billgrimages”
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.05 | 9:16 AM ET
What’s a “Billgrimage”? That’s what fans of former U.S. President Bill Clinton are calling their trips to Hope, Arkansas to see his birthplace and presidential library. CNN has the story via AP. Across the Atlantic, a more traditional pilgrim has been making news.
Sister Mary Michael, a 61-year-old Roman Catholic nun, is leading a protest against the filming of “The Da Vinci Code” at Lincoln Cathedral this week by subjecting herself to the three-day Lough Derg pilgrimage. The Times religion writer Ruth Gledhill calls it “ascetically demanding”—pilgrims eat one small meal a day and travel barefoot.
Q-and-A With Bill Bryson
by Michael Yessis | 08.15.05 | 11:05 PM ET
Yesterday’s Washington Post featured an interview with “Walk in the Woods” author Bill Bryson. What’s he up to? “I’m doing a book which is a kind of travel book,” he tells K.C. Summers, “except that it’s a memoir about growing up in the ‘50s in Iowa.” Go with it, Bill. We’re with you.
Airplane Books: Weighty Tomes Are the New Fluff
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.05 | 12:59 PM ET
The airport bookstore has become the new marketplace of intellectual ideas. So says Henry Fountain in Sunday’s New York Times. Why?
Wanted: “Shoe Weapon Inspection System”
by Jim Benning | 08.11.05 | 1:12 PM ET
Few post-9/11, post-moron-shoe-bomber-guy airport requirements are more dispiriting than the one to remove your shoes before walking through the x-ray machine. It’s a relatively minor inconvenience, but it’s a sorry reminder of how much air travel has changed. Fortunately, there may be good news on the naked foot front. Ben Mutzabaugh writes in USA Today about a Transportation Security Administration effort to find companies to develop a “Shoe Weapon Inspection System” to screen shoes for bombs without passengers having to de-shoe. The administration has even placed an ad for it. If you happen to be in the Shoe Weapon Inspection System business, I beg you, on behalf of all travelers, to deliver us from this indignity.
Bloggers’ Race to Get on “Amazing Race” Heats Up
by Michael Yessis | 08.09.05 | 10:35 PM ET
Who needs to watch The Amazing Race when the jockeying to get on the show is just as entertaining? Two sets of bloggers are hoping to be the first ones to appear on the hit CBS reality travel show—Swirlspice and Lasadh (Erica and Sherri) and the Bloggertwins (Cameron and Damien). On Monday, Erica and Sherri learned of the Bloggertwins’ existence, and the smackdown commenced. “Erica and I,” Sherri wrote, “are SO going to be the bloggers selected for the Amazing Race, not these two.” Erica followed with, “Pffffft. We are so gonna get picked over you.” Cameron and Damien have not responded, but that won’t stop us from handicapping the competition. Here’s the tale of the tape:
Sandra Tsing Loh: “I really do not enjoy turbulence”
by Michael Yessis | 08.09.05 | 12:09 AM ET
If Valium and Bloody Marys aren’t enough to get you through an airplane flight, don’t miss Sandra Tsing Loh’s most recent Loh Life commentary, Plane Geometry. It’s hilarious.
World Hum: “A Virtual Library of Beginner Travel Writing”?
by Jim Benning | 08.06.05 | 1:52 AM ET
Welcome to the site The New York Times just heralded as “a virtual library of beginner travel writing.” We appreciate the mention, but beginner? Among the “beginner” travel writers now featured on World Hum’s front page are novelist Porter Shreve, author of the New York Times Notable Book “The Obituary Writer” and a contributor to the New York Times Sophisticated Traveler; Rolf Potts, whose stories have appeared in Salon, National Geographic Traveler and Houghton Mifflin’s “The Best American Travel Writing”; and Terry Ward, whose travel writing has been published in the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times Magazine. For beginners, they’re not doing half bad. Regardless, enjoy the tales.
“From the Movies and the Music Videos, I Thought All Girls in America Were Like Britney Spears”
by Jim Benning | 08.05.05 | 10:49 PM ET
So says Kaoutar, a 17-year-old girl from Morocco. But that was before she came to the United States as part of the U.S. State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study Program, launched in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to a story in the International Herald Tribune, while some U.S. efforts to improve the country’s image abroad have been criticized, the youth exchange program is “a notable exception.” The program appears to be changing minds.
“Terrorists are giving backpacks a bad name”
by Jim Benning | 08.04.05 | 5:11 PM ET
The backpack—the ultra-utilitarian bag of choice for hip travelers and students everywhere—is under attack. According to a report in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, since the recent London bombings, transporation and stadium officials in the United States are more likely to view backpacks as potential carrying cases for weapons of terror. “Transit officials in New York are randomly inspecting backpacks on subway platforms,” the article states. “A frightened Manhattan tour bus operator recently called police with a report of five swarthy men with overstuffed backpacks.”
Portzline Debuts “Bookstore Tourism” Podcast
by Michael Yessis | 08.03.05 | 9:49 PM ET
It’s newsy, but it’s the kind of news we like. Larry Portzline, who created Bookstore Tourism and wrote a book about it, discusses how to kickstart your own local bookstore tour and spreads the word about an upcoming trip planned by the Southern California Booksellers Association. Portzline also has a Bookstore Tourism blog.
Steven Vincent RIP
by Jim Benning | 08.03.05 | 8:22 PM ET
It’s hard to imagine just how many writers—journalists, travel writers, poets—have been inspired by Jack Kerouac. It turns out that Steven Vincent, the 49-year-old American freelance journalist shot to death in Iraq on Tuesday, was one of them. The Boston Globe has published a touching AP story about the writer, who was apparently at work on a book about the port city of Basra when he was kidnapped and killed. According to the Globe, Vincent graduated from Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in English. Afterward, in 1980, he hitchhiked to New York, “heeding the siren call of the big city—and my dream to become the next Jack Kerouac,” he once wrote in a bio.
“Fear Is Not Going to Stop Me”
by Jim Benning | 08.02.05 | 11:35 AM ET
Terrorist attacks don’t always deter travelers these days the way they once did, according to an interesting story in USA Today. “It was once widely held that terrorism devastated tourism,” the paper reports. “But as travelers grow accustomed to a new era in which suicide bombers can strike anywhere, tourists are proving increasingly resilient. Tourist-driven economies, once leveled for months or even years after tragedies, are bouncing back much more quickly than in the past.”
