Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Hanging Ten at Sea
by Jim Benning | 09.09.05 | 1:24 PM ET
The cruise industry’s efforts to appeal to younger, hipper crowds have taken a new turn. Royal Caribbean announced recently that it is opening “surf parks” on the decks of future ships. According to USA Today, the parks will feature a 32-foot-wide FlowRider pool with an artificial wave. Future riders should start practicing now. I rode a FlowRider in San Diego earlier this summer for the L.A. Times. It’s not easy.
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Yahoo! Buzz“The Amazing Race”: Handicapping Season 8
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.05 | 4:55 AM ET
I was so busy handicapping the race to see who would be selected to compete in the ninth season of the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” that I didn’t notice that the network has announced the teams for the upcoming eighth season, which premieres September 27 at 9 p.m. The hit show, which usually features teams of two in a frantic race around the world, will feature four-person families this time around. I’m not going to handicap the competition for this season, but teletart at blogcritics.org did.
British Tabloid Travel Headline of the Day: “Fattie Ordered Off Ship”
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 11:55 PM ET
That would be 24-stone Mark Wyatt of Folkestone, Kent, who was recently ordered to leave the Arctic-bound cruise ship Voyages of Discovery, according to a Sun report.
Out: Dingle. In: An Daingean.
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 5:19 AM ET
Earlier this year, the Irish government changed the name of the heavily-touristed city of Dingle to the Gaelic An Daingean on all of the country’s road signs and paperwork. It’s part of an effort to reclaim the nation’s native language in the wake of the British imposition of English, and it’s creating controversy among some Dingle/An Daingean residents, partially because they’re concerned that the name change will befuddle visitors.
Rex Pickett on Road Movies
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 4:07 AM ET
Sideways novelist Rex Pickett, whose book was adapted into the acclaimed film of the same name last year by Alexander Payne, has revealed his all-time top-10 road movies on Fandango.com. His picks include The Motorcycle Diaries, The Last Detail, Kings of the Road and…Sideways.
Q&As with Peter Moore, Elliott Hester
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 1:15 AM ET
The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn has an interview with “Continental Drifter” author Elliott Hester in Sunday’s paper, and Rolf Potts recently posted a back-and-forth with Peter Moore, author of “The Wrong Way Home” and other books.
Casting ‘On the Road’: Billy Crudup as Dean Moriarty?
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.05 | 10:58 AM ET
Regarding Katrina
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.05 | 1:02 AM ET
Like everyone, we’ve been shocked and horrified by the Hurricane Katrina disaster unfolding in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast. If you’re looking for a place to donate or just want more information about anything related to the hurricane and the support efforts, check out the Katrina Help Wiki.
The Vital Stats of Travel Books
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.05 | 12:59 AM ET
Did you know that each sentence in Bruce Chatwin’s travel classic “In Patagonia” contains an average of 15.1 words? Did you know that you need almost 10 years of formal education to truly understand a passage from Francis Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”? Did you know that 12 percent of the words in Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” are complex? I didn’t know—didn’t even care to know—until I read Linton Weeks’s story in Tuesday’s Washington Post about Amazon.com’s text stats feature. Weeks uses the stats to compare some literary classics—“‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce (9 on the Fog Index) is more complicated than William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury’ (5.7 on the Fog Index),” and so on.
Bad News in Graz
by Jim Benning | 09.01.05 | 1:58 PM ET
It’s a sad time in Graz, Austria. According to USA Today, officials have announced that a museum there devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger is closing because of financial troubles. We’re shocked—not that the museum is having money problems, but that anyone would think of opening a museum dedicated to the star of “Kindergarten Cop.”
Ewan McGregor Tops Travel Book Chart (Yes, that Ewan McGregor)
by Michael Yessis | 08.26.05 | 1:32 AM ET
Long Way Round, the companion book to Charley Boorman and actor Ewan McGregor’s television series chronicling a 20,000-mile motorcycle adventure, is currently at the top of Nielsen BookScan travel chart. “McGregor’s high profile and the popularity of motorcycling books in general has helped sales stay steady and high,” writes The Book Standard’s Giles Elliott. The rest of the top five and Elliott’s brief analysis of the state of travel book publishing can be found here.
A Bizarro View of American Travelers
by Michael Yessis | 08.25.05 | 9:01 PM ET
Dan Piraro takes a swing at American travelers and America’s image in the world in his Bizarro comic today. King Features Syndicate, which distributes the comic, doesn’t allow Bizarro to be viewed online for free during the first days of release, so you can check it out in a local U.S newspaper that carries the strip. Or, just picture this:
In Defense of Rachael Ray
by Michael Yessis | 08.25.05 | 10:09 AM ET
Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels debuts on the Food Network Friday at 9:30 p.m. Unlike many in the blogosphere, I’m looking forward to checking it out. I’ve seen and heard the complaints about Ray. She’s perky. Extra perky. Excruciatingly perky. The Rachael Ray Sucks page—“created for people that hate the untalented twit known as Rachael Ray”—features a litany of insults. Where does the hate come from?
Two World Hum Stories Honored in 2005 Best American Travel Writing
by Michael Yessis | 08.22.05 | 7:26 PM ET
Wendy Knight’s The Burden of War and Rolf Potts’s Signs of Confusion were selected as notable travel writing in the latest edition of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Travel Writing anthology. Jamaica Kincaid edited this year’s volume, and she selected stories by Pam Houston, John McPhee, Simon Winchester, World Hum contributor Tom Bissell and 21 others as featured selections. The book hits shelves October 5. More about it in the coming weeks.
Northwest Airlines Employee Takes Practice Swing With a Passenger’s Big Bertha! Film at 11!
by Michael Yessis | 08.22.05 | 6:39 PM ET
Do you know what baggage handlers are doing with your $1,000 set of Callaways? KSTP Eyewitness News in Minneapolis/St. Paul does. It has broken the story—pardon me, the “exclusive” story—about a Northwest Airlines employee swinging what appears to be a passenger’s golf club during a flight delay. It’s huge news at KSTP, on par with the footage of baggage handlers shooting baskets with Christmas presents back in winter of 2000. The video, which was taken pre-strike by a passenger, can be seen here.
