Travel Blog
The Whale Has Passed the Houses of Parliament*
by Jim Benning | 01.20.06 | 12:54 PM ET
A possibly ill northern bottle-nosed whale has swum up the River Thames in London, and CNN footage this morning showed people lining the river to see the whale, which recently passed the Houses of Parliament. It’s apparently the first sighting of this kind of whale in the river since records began in 1913. According to the CNN report, rescue efforts are in the works. * Update, Monday, Jan. 23: Sadly, after a rescue attempt over the weekend, the whale died. CNN reports that tests are underway.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Beat Museum Opens in San Francisco
by Jim Benning | 01.20.06 | 1:00 AM ET
A one-room museum celebrating Beat Generation luminaries such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg has opened in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood with a slew of memorabilia, including photos, early book editions and an autographed copy of “Howl.” Jerry Cimino, a 51-year-old Beat fan and collector who worked at American Express and IBM, started the museum to “make more of a difference doing something no one else would try,” he told the Associated Press.
Bernard-Henri Lévy: a Rock-Star Philosophe in the Footsteps of Tocqueville
by Jim Benning | 01.19.06 | 11:28 PM ET
“Walking the Bible” on PBS
by Jim Benning | 01.19.06 | 7:25 PM ET
Last night on PBS I caught the third and final installment of Walking the Bible, a new travelogue documentary that takes viewers into the land of the Old Testament. Journalist Bruce Feiler, who wrote the book of the same name, visits key sites, meditates on the power of the desert and marvels at the journey of the Israelites. (Among more humorous moments, he finds a fire extinguisher next to what some believe is the original burning bush.) The landscapes are stunning, and I found Feiler to be a wide-eyed yet thoughtful and likable guide. The series airs on PBS stations throughout the month.
Rick Reilly on the Palms’ Hardwood Suite
by Michael Yessis | 01.19.06 | 6:07 AM ET
It’s only $50,000 a night, a bargain for what Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly calls the “hardworking NBA star, trying to feed [his] family on $9 million a year.” Reilly devoted his entire column last week to the outrageously expensive suite at the Palms in Las Vegas, which features, among other things, three “NBA sized” Murphy beds and a basketball court. His column is, as usual, quite funny. Unfortunately, it’s available online only to SI’s subscribers, but the magazine has made a slide show available. Beware of image two: Reilly wrapped around a stripper pole.
L.A.‘s Ambassador Hotel: It’s Gone
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.06 | 1:33 PM ET
The last bits of the famed hotel have been cleared away and The Ambassador is officially no more. The Ambassador’s Last Stand will be hosting a wake next Tuesday at the HMS Bounty, the bar across the street from the hotel’s former location.
On Writing About Africa
by Frank Bures | 01.17.06 | 9:42 AM ET
The flaws in Western writing on Africa are not hard to find, and are often bizarrely consistent. For example, Wendy Belcher wrote in Salon how nearly every travelogue on Africa begins on an airplane. Others have noticed how there are usually more animals than people, how Africans can never seem to help themselves, how they just can’t see things the right way. But now Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, editor of the literary magazine Kwani?, has offered a biting summary of shallow Western “impressions” that pass for insights.
In: Asking the Passenger Behind You Before Reclining Your Seat. Out: Massive Carry-On Bags.
by Jim Benning | 01.17.06 | 8:07 AM ET
That’s right. Thomas Swick imagines a better year in travel. “Flying is about to become enjoyable again,” he writes in Sunday’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Airlines will continue to struggle financially, but a new (actually, old) graciousness will slowly emerge. Flight attendants of all ages will be happy to see us, greeting everyone with the same warm smile whether they’re sitting in first-class or the last row of coach.” Swick’s dream also inlcudes more rail travel in America and a greater interest in visiting real places: “The Texas State Fair will outdraw Disney World.” Well, a guy can dream.
Books Editor: ‘Travel Writing Is Among the Trivial Genres’
by Jim Benning | 01.17.06 | 6:48 AM ET
Last week on World Hum, Thomas Swick blogged about the Key West Literary Seminar, which took place earlier this month and featured Pico Iyer, Tim Cahill, Barry Lopez, Kate Wheeler and other writers talking about travel writing. We thought that would be the last we heard of it. But on Sunday, his colleague at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Books Editor Chauncey Mabe, wrote a column about the event. Mabe was, to put it mildly, unimpressed. Iyer and Cahill “offered opposing examples of the way writers can make fools of themselves in talking extemporaneously.” Lopez spoke “in tones not heard since Moses descended the mount.”
Swedes Say “I Do” to Airport Weddings
by Michael Yessis | 01.17.06 | 5:40 AM ET
Last year 488 couples got married at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport, and any traveler would have to admit the reasoning for doing so is sound: It allows the bride and groom to get on with their honeymoon faster. The AP reports: “The weddings took place in the airport chapel or, more commonly, in a VIP room, where the bride and groom can check in their luggage, order champagne and catering, and when the ceremony is over, be driven straight up to the aircraft.”
Key Notes
by Michael Yessis | 01.17.06 | 1:14 AM ET
I just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco, where I stayed at the travel-themed Hotel Carlton. It’s got many great touches—globes throughout the lobby, travel photos hung on the walls, maps and postcards decorating the interior of the elevators—but I liked the hotel’s room key cards most.
Travel and the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Jim Benning | 01.16.06 | 2:01 AM ET
We thought we’d pay our respects to Martin Luther King Jr. today by spotlighting a few key sights important to his life and the civil rights movement. Ben Brazil’s guide to sights in Sunday’s Washington Post turned out to be a good resource. It mentions the two-story Victorian home in Atlanta’s “Sweet Auburn” section where King was born Jan. 15, 1929. That home, where King spent his first 12 years, is now the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service. Also mentioned is the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where King was assassinated April 4, 1968. In 1991, after years of decline, it opened as the National Civil Rights Museum, exploring the legacy of the civil rights movement.
“Hemingway’s Hurricane” on Book TV
by Jim Benning | 01.14.06 | 2:31 PM ET
C-SPAN2’s Book TV will feature 45 minutes this evening (Saturday) on Hemingway’s Hurricane: The Great Florida Keys Storm of 1935. Author Phil Scott chronicles the storm that hit the keys with 200 mph winds and killed more than 400 people. Hemingway weathered the storm in Key West and later concluded that more could have been done to prevent the deaths. His writing about that, some believe, led to his appearance on the FBI watch list. Scott’s Book TV appearance begins at 9 p.m. EST.
The Year in Geography
by Jim Benning | 01.13.06 | 9:02 PM ET
We’ve seen many year-end reviews in the last few weeks, but few focusing on geography. Ben Keene, who edits the “Oxford Atlas of the World” and writes Ben’s Place of the Week on World Hum, looked back at the year in geography on an Oxford University Press weblog. His mind has been reeling trying to keep up with all the changes in world geography. “Just to emphasize the pace of change in cartography in recent years,” he writes, “it’s worth pointing out that over 30 new nations have been created since 1990, making maps a mere decade old anachronistic curiosities.”
Back to the Newsroom
by Tom Swick | 01.13.06 | 8:52 AM ET
