Travel Blog
An Apology To the World
by Jim Benning | 11.15.04 | 9:13 PM ET
University of Southern California neuroscience student James Zetlen wasn’t happy with the outcome of the U.S. election. So the 20-year-old snapped a photo of himself holding up a handwritten sign on a piece of notebook paper. It featured a crude drawing of the globe and a simple message: “Sorry world. We tried.” He signed it, “Half of America.” Then he posted the photo on a basic Web site he created: sorryeverybody.com. What happened since has been amazing, the BBC reports. The site has received more than 27 million hits—so many that the university asked him to move it to another server because it was using more than 80 percent of its server’s bandwidth. Zetlen’s site is now loaded with photos from other citizens offering their own snapshot apologies. And it has inspired a number of other sites, including several insisting the U.S. has nothing to apologize for. Whatever your politics, you have to appreciate the power of the Internet here: One student posted his thoughts and millions around the world took notice. As Zetlen says in the BBC story: “The internet was supposed to make communication between cultures, countries and peoples painless and easy. It was supposed to build bridges. But it doesn’t do this automatically; somebody has to reach out. Also, come on, it’s kind of amusing.”
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Yahoo! BuzzGot a Layover? Pack Your Putter.
by Jim Benning | 11.15.04 | 9:11 PM ET
Frequent travelers are finding that layovers have grown longer in recent years, according to USA Today. But the newspaper offers help: a list of the top 10 U.S. airports to find yourself stuck for a few hours. Among them is Charlotte/Douglas International, which offers the use of a grand piano to anyone wishing to bang out a tune, and Palm Beach International, which features a putting green right in the terminal. If you don’t have your own putter, you can borrow one. The fee to work on your short game? Just $4.
Conde Nasty Traveler?
by Michael Yessis | 11.11.04 | 9:17 PM ET
William Georgiades’ Adventures in Journalism: World Traveler, a story on MediaBistro.com about his struggles to write for Conde Nast Traveler magazine, has been the talk of journalism circles in the past day or so. What’s noteworthy about the piece isn’t that Georgiades’ editor had him jump through hoops. Every writer has horror stories about editors, just as every editor has horror stories about writers. It’s the fact that he went public with his travails that makes it juicy.
On the Air: Shapiro
by Michael Yessis | 11.11.04 | 8:15 PM ET
“A Sense of Place” writer Michael Shapiro, who World Hum interviewed in September, will talk about his book Thursday morning at 8:35 a.m. Pacific Time on KPFA radio. The station streams its broadcast online. Shapiro also recently sat for an interview with Kent E St. John at GoNomad.
She’s So Heavy
by Michael Yessis | 11.09.04 | 9:29 PM ET
A recent U.S. government report concludes that America’s obesity epidemic has consequences for the travel industry. “[G]rowing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline companies as the extra pounds on passengers are causing a drag on planes,” according to an Associated Press story released late last week. “Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel costs.” There have been environmental costs, too: the extra fuel burned also released an estimated 3.8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Airlines have responded by cutting their planes’ weight in a number of ways. They have eliminated magazines, replaced silverware with plastic and begun using lighter materials in their seats. Could this also be a reason why airlines no longer serve meals to passengers? Just a thought.
Distraught Americans: We Want Out!
by Jim Benning | 11.04.04 | 9:31 PM ET
Could the election results be a boon for the travel industry? Americans frustrated with the outcome of the election—and I mean really frustrated—aren’t just sitting around and grumbling. They’re dialing up embassies and consulates—New Zealand, Canadian, Australian—to find out how they can emigrate. According to a story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, a number of embassies are fielding calls. As far as Canadian officials are concerned, “disgust with the U.S. president would neither help nor hurt an applicant’s chances of being accepted by Canada.” Also, Slate today offers an explainer on how to move to Canada: “Applications take an average of 25 months to process.” Don’t they realize that’s half-way through Bush’s next term? (Thanks to InsideOut and About for the Chronicle story tip.)
Bush Won the General Vote, But Who Won the Traveler Vote?
by Jim Benning | 11.03.04 | 9:33 PM ET
You won’t hear any inside-the-beltway pundits talking about the “traveler vote” the way they talk about the “youth vote.” But it’s too bad exit poll workers don’t ask voters whether they had spent time abroad. Travel can change one’s perspective on a range of issues, and particularly America’s role in the world. I suspect the American-who-has-traveled-internationally vote went easily to Kerry. The majority of passport holders live on the coasts, and coastal states like New York and California were solid Kerry states. But the majority of American voters—as many as 80 percent—don’t hold passports. They’ve never had the visceral experience of seeing the U.S. through another’s eyes. So, regrettably, the traveler vote isn’t big enough to make a difference.
Reviewing “Road Reads” in the Washington Post
by Jim Benning | 11.02.04 | 9:36 PM ET
Into the Islamic Sahara
by Jim Benning | 11.02.04 | 9:34 PM ET
Tom Haines’ ambitious “Crossing Divides” travel series for the Boston Globe, which we first wrote about last month, continued Sunday with an account of his journey into Sudan and Egypt. “Centuries after Muslims arrived in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt, those settled along riverbanks and in oases sustain the old rhythms of farming and faith,” he writes. “Yet even within this desolate preserve, they feel the push of the outside world, of politics, war, and modern ways.” The series includes a terrific narrated slideshow featuring dramatic photos by Essdra M. Suarez.
Frommer’s Budget Shopping?
by Jim Benning | 10.27.04 | 9:38 PM ET
Budget travel guru Arthur Frommer is planning to launch a new shopping magazine. The New York Daily News has the details.
Pico Iyer on “The Best American Travel Writing” Anthology
by Jim Benning | 10.22.04 | 6:38 PM ET
Pico Iyer discussed the new edition of Houghton Mifflin’s “Best American Travel Writing” at length on Wisconsin Public Radio earlier this week. He was as eloquent as ever, and the entire interview, which covered a range of topics, can be heard here, under the show dated 10/19. Among the highlights (for us, at least), the show’s host read a portion of Heather Eliot’s Sandbags in the Archipelago, which first appeared on World Hum and was selected by Iyer for the anthology. “You brilliantly singled out my favorite piece in the book,” Iyer responded.
If Thoreau Were Alive Today, Would He Tivo?
by Jim Benning | 10.22.04 | 6:35 PM ET
Probably not, but fans of his classic memoir, “Walden,” might consider taping a discussion of the book. It airs on C-SPAN2 at 2:15 a.m. Eastern time Monday and features Jeffrey Cramer, the curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods and the editor of an annotated edition of “Walden.” The memoir celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
There’s Something About Airplanes
by Michael Yessis | 10.19.04 | 6:43 PM ET
Julia Reed believes the time she spends on airplanes is a kind of sanctuary. She celebrates “that suspended state,” as well as four books that address different facets of flying, in a thoughtful essay in Sunday’s New York Times.
Rick Steves: Girly Man (But in a Good Way)
by Michael Yessis | 10.19.04 | 6:40 PM ET
What Are the Odds of Bumping into Someone You Know Thousands of Miles from Home?
by Jim Benning | 10.15.04 | 6:44 PM ET
“Well, it’s more likely than you think,” writes John Flinn in a thoughtful column in last Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle. Flinn recounted running into an old algebra teacher on a trail in the Himalayas, of all places. “My former math teacher was the third acquaintance I’d met in Asia in the span of three weeks,” he writes. “And two of those encounters were, once I thought about them, perfectly explainable…Those of us who love to travel are linked by an invisible web of connections that often sends us to the same remote places at the same time. The late photographer Galen Rowell, who experienced many of these encounters, wrote that like-minded people travel down hidden corridors that often converge unexpectedly.”
