Travel Blog
Could Jack Kerouac Make it in 2005?
by Jim Benning | 10.26.05 | 12:06 PM ET
It’s an interesting question explored at least briefly in today’s Los Angeles Times. The article focuses on the publication this month of Beat Generation, a play Kerouac wrote in 1957 that spent years collecting dust in a New Jersey warehouse. On Monday, writers gathered in the New York Public Library to discuss the work, and what would become of Kerouac in today’s world. They weren’t terribly optimistic. “You can’t be a young writer or young artist and live in New York and starve, because it’s too expensive,” said author A.M. Homes.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe World Takes on Malaria
by Jim Benning | 10.26.05 | 8:51 AM ET
Unless you visit the tropics, it’s easy to forget that malaria kills more than a million people every year and sickens more than a few travelers. This week, the public radio show The World is broadcasting a five-part series on malaria. It’s wide-ranging and worth a listen.
Travelwriters.com Gets a Facelift
by Jim Benning | 10.25.05 | 8:22 PM ET
Every so often I visit the Travelwriters.com bulletin board to see what writers are talking about, complaining about or wondering about. (The site has other features, too, but I haven’t used them.) Today, I noticed that the site has been given a sharp new look.
National Geographic Traveler: World Hum is “Click-Worthy”
by Michael Yessis | 10.25.05 | 1:31 PM ET
The October issue of National Geographic Traveler features a complimentary blurb about World Hum’s “more user-friendly look for its growing number of travel-lit-loving fans.” Thanks, NGT. I’m happy to return the compliment and recommend the whole October issue.
NYPD Hearts Rachael Ray
by Michael Yessis | 10.25.05 | 9:24 AM ET
Everyone seems to have an opinion about travel-show host, celebrity chef and future magazine mogul Rachael Ray. I know this because ever since I posted a note a few weeks ago about the love-hate relationship viewers have with Ray, people have been sharing a lot of love and a lot of hate on World Hum. Now it looks like Ray’s fans have some burly new support: the NYPD. World Hum reader Cincy points out this gossip item (scroll to bottom) in Monday’s New York Daily News:
R.I.P. Rosa Parks
by Michael Yessis | 10.24.05 | 9:39 PM ET
The world’s most famous bus passenger passed away today. Parks, whose refusal in 1955 to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, was 92.
Portrait of the Chinese Tourist
by Michael Yessis | 10.24.05 | 9:37 AM ET
Last month the World Tourism Organization reported that the number of Chinese tourists is growing at a record pace. An estimated 100 million of them will be traveling abroad by 2020. Impressive numbers, to be sure. But what are their travel habits? Wayne Arnold of the New York Times writes that the unflattering stereotypes emerging about Chinese travelers are part of a soundtrack we’ve all heard before.
Into Thin Air (While Sitting at a Desk in New York City)
by Jim Benning | 10.23.05 | 8:40 PM ET
The latest issue of The New Yorker has an amusing article about the approach one New York City climber took to prepare for a trip. To begin adjusting to the high altitudes he would reach climbing a pair of Mexican volcanoes, Explorers Club President Richard Wiese installed a Hypoxico altitude chamber in his office on the Upper East Side. Then he stuck his desk inside, cranked up the machine and began working at the oxygen equivalent of 13,000 feet.
What’s So Impossible About Peace, Love and Understanding?
by Jim Benning | 10.21.05 | 2:50 PM ET
I was in Guadalajara the first time I heard it. I was chatting with a well-educated local, discussing music and politics and culture, when she said, “George Bush was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center.” I thought I misheard her. “What was that?” I said. She smiled and sipped an iced cappuccino and said, “The attack on the towers. George Bush planned it.” I was stunned. We had agreed on everything until this point. She hadn’t struck me as a conspiracy theorist.
“Empires of the Word” on Book TV
by Jim Benning | 10.21.05 | 1:18 PM ET
C-SPAN2’s Book TV will feature 90 minutes this weekend with Nicholas Ostler, author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. The book sounds like a great read. In a March review in The Guardian, Martin Jacques wrote: “There are many ways of recounting the history of the world…This book tells the story through the rise and decline of languages. It is a compelling read, one of the most interesting books I have read in a long while.”
‘I Survived Hurricane Wilma’ T-Shirts Selling For $10 in Cancun Shelter
by Michael Yessis | 10.21.05 | 12:43 AM ET
What’s it like to be a tourist in a resort city when a potentially catastrophic hurricane is bearing down on you? The latest AP dispatch from Cancun regarding Hurricane Wilma recently hit the wires, and it paints a surreal scene of the area where approximately 30,000 vacationers have been stranded.
Outpost Magazine on Volunteering Abroad
by Jim Benning | 10.20.05 | 6:02 PM ET
Canada’s Outpost magazine, one of our favorites, recently published a nice package on volunteering and working abroad. Among the stories, Travellers for Change profiled 10 people who have undertaken a variety of projects around the globe, from building schools in Nepal to assisting Angolan refugees in Zambia. Another piece offers tips on choosing organizations. There’s also a story about educational programs that prepare students to work abroad. For anyone looking for inspiration, it’s a good place to start.
World Tourism Organization Warns of Avian Flu “Scaremongering”
by Jim Benning | 10.20.05 | 5:32 PM ET
Watching CNN’s coverage of the spread of avian flu is enough to make you want to crawl under the sheets and hide. Now, the World Tourism Organization is warning media and government officials to “act responsibly” in reporting on the avian flu, noting that “unnecessary scaremongering can cause a sharp drop in tourism that squeezes the economies, especially those of developing nations and the incomes of millions of workers in this industry.”
More on the Traveler/Tourist Debate
by Michael Yessis | 10.20.05 | 11:58 AM ET
Rolf Potts weighs in again today in a Vagablogging post, following up on John Flinn’s Sunday column on the subject. Potts, who recently put the magazine ad for Anthony Bourdain’s television show Without Reservations under his critical microscope for using the phrase “Be a traveler not a tourist,” adds another layer to the debate.
British Tabloid Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Fatties to the Front, Says Airline’
by Michael Yessis | 10.20.05 | 4:31 AM ET
From the Daily Mail: “A holiday airline is investigating an incident in which passengers reported how cabin staff asked ‘fat people’ to move to the front of the aircraft to help with weight distribution. A stewardess said she needed ‘eight fat people’ to sit nearer the front because the captain of a half-full London-bound Thomsonfly flight was unhappy about the weight distribution, according to reports.”
